INHERITING THE NATIONS
1. SPIRITUAL MEMORIALS
I once read in the newspapers about an event where a pagan priest blessed the Prime Minister of a neighboring country. It looks like a small insignificant event. For him it may have been just a social, political and cultural thing. But those of us who know the word know that there is warfare going on. There is a kingdom of light wrestling against the kingdom of darkness. When I read it I was troubled in my spirit. I knew that even though it seems to be socially and politically correct and culturally acceptable, as the head of that country, he was indirectly, unknowingly and ignorantly yielding the authority of that country to the influence of paganism and to demons.
Recently another neighboring country is opening an entire city just for gays. They want to develop the entire city for gays. I tell you, the gays in the bible brought fire and brimstones from God. Some of us are so dull in our spirits. We have grown so tolerant that news of this nature doesn’t shock or revolt us. I am not saying you react and become physically abusive or naturally revolutionary. Our warfare is not in the natural realm. We do not advocate civil disobedience at all. We are law-abiding people who believe in peace. But what is sad is that among Christians we are losing our sensitivity where the things that God hate we don’t hate, let alone the things that God love we don’t love. There is something that God hates. Homosexuality is one of them. It's only a matter of time before judgment starts happening. Now there is coming as last day's judgment of this earth. But before that depending on the amount of sin that is what I call permissible judgment based on the sowing and reaping principle of man. But there are things happening that are not pleasing to Almighty God.
That country whose prime minister was blessed by a pagan priest is also bringing in one of the tallest idols in Asia. If we don’t feel something in our spirit to do something, we are backsliding. Let me tell you there is something happening that you cannot continue your life the way it is. Try to live your life under Saddam Hussein in the natural. Try to imagine that in the spiritual when we Christians take these things lightly there is a spirit that is casting its shadow over you. It will affect your prayers more. It will affect your zeal for God more. It will affect your Christian life more. If the spiritual principality and prince of darkness cast its shadow over the area where you live in, it's going to take more prayer to remain a normal Christian. It's going to take more not to get sleepy as a Christian. Which is why Christians had to wake up to do something. I hope the Christians in that country do something.
Do you know what the Christians in Penang, Malaysia did when the pagans tried to build a very large idol? They went there to pray. And that is something, which we are going to talk about today in our spiritual warfare. We need to set up spiritual altars that have a physical manifestation. We know that there are some natural things that are set up that have an invisible influence over an entire place. For example when you go to Tulsa, Oklahoma in the United States, the moment you go into the place where Oral Roberts and a lot of ministries have their headquarters and beautiful buildings and monuments for God, you will sense a different atmosphere. Something good seems to hang over the place. Of all the cities I traveled in New Zealand one of the most open in the spirit was a city called Tauranga. The reason the area was open is because there is a bible school there. And they have been praying and doing faithful work to the Lord and there is something different in the atmosphere.
Now there is an extreme as we look at this theologically. There is an extreme that Christianity move into at one point where all Christians were interested in physical buildings. A lot of money was wasted on buildings. So Christianity went one sided by emphasizing on the physical but hardly on the spiritual. They even lost the word of God. Martin Luther had to come in the reformation to restore the word of God again. Nobody was reading the bible but there were still churches there physically. There is a revival in our modern times where we realize that the church is not just the building but also the people. We the people are the church. But there is a tendency to move to the other extreme where we think that buildings and monuments for God are not important. That will be swinging a pendulum from that extreme to this extreme. If you travel around Malaysia, in many places you see a mosque. The mosques have an effect on the spiritual atmosphere through the broadcasting of their prayers in the air. Of course we know that the building itself alone will not achieve much. But I want to point to the balance. On one extreme is wastage on physical buildings. On the other extreme is where we don’t recognize that when we do it right in God when we build something in God and it is an expression of our faith in God that it stands as a spiritual heritage and a spiritual point of reference for generations to come. It is an invisible influence for generations to come. We need to balance it and let the pendulum come to the center to realize that either extreme is wrong.
The other extreme is when we don’t believe in building physical buildings; we don't believe that God could place His name in a place. We are missing something. It is just like many other areas of church life where the church has moved to the extreme. Like the Lord's Supper; for hundred of years ago Christians thought that Lord’s Supper can save them. If they don’t eat the Lord’s Supper they feel that they are not going to heaven. Then the Protestants swung it to the other extreme where the Lord’s Supper is not important anymore; it has become so unimportant that they eat it once a month or once in 3 months. It's just a ceremony. It's just a symbolic act. Then we loose the power of the act of the Lord’s Supper. There is some blessing in partaking in the Lord’s Supper more often and we have missed that blessing. As we swing the pendulum back to center point we will recognize that the Lord’s Supper will have nothing to do with our salvation. But it has a lot to do with our covenant relationship with God that we live by faith. And there is a blessing in the Lord’s Supper that the more often you do it the greater the blessing you receive.
It is the same like baptism in water. The pendulum swings to the extreme. On one side people think that it can save them. On the other side people think I am going to heaven whether I have it or not makes no difference to my Christian life; it's only a symbol. There is a blessing when you follow the Lord's commandment in water baptism. Lets swing it to the balance point of view.
Let us see the life of Abraham that God's instruction to him to build an altar was explicit. Gen. 12:7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. You may say to Abraham, “Abraham, you are a man of faith. Why do you need to build an altar?” Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. If you believe it, you confess it, you visualize it, and you don’t need something outside. Spiritual monuments that are physically expressed have a powerful impact and carry what I call an anointing that continues to affect the surrounding area and everyone who comes into contact with it. You may ask in the past why do a lot of Christian buildings and big cathedrals don’t seem to have much impact. The reason is the motive for building it: whether it was done out of man's glory or it was done as an expression of faith. When something is an expression of faith it carries an anointing.
Faith sees, faith receives, faith speaks but faith also acts. And when faith acts there are physical expressions. Why do you think Abraham built the altar? The moment God said, “I give you this land” Abraham put his mark on it. He could walk up and down the place and put his footprint in the sand of the desert. That footprint will last for a certain time. But when you build an altar it lasts longer. He could travel where he wants and come back 10 years later and find that it is still there. The altar is a mark, an expression and a monument to the faith that he believes in God when He said, “I give you this land.” He immediately built an altar to the Lord. Now the Canaanites were still in the land in Genesis 12: 6. He couldn’t claim them as his when somebody else was still in the land. But he put his mark there by building an altar.
In Gen.12: 8 Thence he removed to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he build an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. He builds an altar to the Lord something that last longer than his footprint there, a spiritual monument with as physical expression. He was not going to be there forever. What's the point of building an altar that you are not going to worship for sometime? It was an expression of his faith in God.
In chapter 13 Abraham had some difficult times. This is where it's important. You read later in chapter 12 there were some difficult times. Famine came, some backsliding in Egypt. God preserved his life, God preserved his wife, and God even blessed him and prospered him. When he came out in Gen. 13:3 do you know where he was heading for? Gen. 13:3 And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place where he had made an altar at the first. Let me try to make a physical illustration to show the impact. Some of you may own a business. You started with rented property. God prospered you and for the first time you bought a piece of property. Then you prospered even more and you sold that property to buy your own land and put up your own building. You moved into that building and expanded your business. God prospered you. Three years down the road you hit a rough patch. But even though you hit a rough patch, yet every time you walked into that building that God helped you to build, your faith rises up. And every time you are down God reminded you to take a look around and see His goodness to you. That can happen in the physical realm.
What about the spiritual realm? Abraham has not walked 100% with God correctly. Finally he got out of the place where God didn't want him to be. And the first place he went to was the altar. Now as he approaches the altar I could sense all those feelings he had for God coming back. Something like what you have when you go back to your places of prayer. When I am in Penang I seek to go back to the place where I used to pray at the beach. When I looked at the spot where I used to cry out to God for a ministry, I could cry because I remember that He has been faithful. It reminds you of spiritual exploits and it stirs the fire of your faith afresh. Abraham had a rough time. He prospered physically but he had a rough time just like some people who prospered physically but they really had it rough emotionally and spiritually, which is what Abraham had. And as he approaches the altar between Bethel and Ai I wonder whether there were tears in his eyes when he recalls the covenant that God had with him. He remembers a spiritual monument just by looking at a physical altar. Gen.13: 17-18 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you. So Abram moved his tent, and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron; and there he built an altar to the Lord. Look at what he did. He built an altar there to the Lord. It's powerful when you read about all these altars that Abraham built all over the land of Canaan. 400 hundred over years passed by before Abraham descendants came and took possession of the land. Maybe after 400 years the altars may not be what it was when Abraham put it together. But that was a spiritual landmark that had a physical expression that was important to the lands of Canaan being claimed by Abraham. You go to any place that succeeds in building a great church building, you will find that the atmosphere of the city is different.
One of the saddest times in Singapore church history is when one of the largest churches had a difficult time in getting their own building. In the end they lost the building that they were leasing. They tried to buy it over. They could not. If Calvary church had succeeded in building the largest church in Singapore today there would be a different atmosphere. That is why when any church begins a building program, Satan attacks very hard because he doesn't want a physical expression of the spiritual faith. Once it is built it last. The act of faith lasts. Two generations down the line you can come up and look and say thank God that 2 generations ago men of faith had done it. Oral Roberts can go home to be with the Lord and maybe in 2010 A.D. a young man or a young woman who is new as an evangelist or prophet who has never heard of him would walk among these faith-inspired buildings in Tulsa, Oklahoma and would know that a man of faith had built all these buildings. Don’t you think it inspire more faith. Faith inspires faith. That is why we must not under estimate the importance of getting a new building or moving into a new building or building something for God. Don’t fall to one extreme where there is sheer wastage and extravagance with no proper planning. Don't go to the other extreme where you say well just a wooden shack hut over us will do. The next freak storm that comes could easily tear off the roof and perhaps leave your faith shattered too.
But understand that when something is in line with God, when the motives are right, when God ordains it and it succeeds in being birthed into its physical manifestation, there is something spiritual that affects the atmosphere of that very city. Do you know the enemy does it the same way? He just copy from the bible. Let me give some illustration. Some families are under oppression because they go out may be to Indonesia or to Thailand and bring home a demonic object. Their scientific mind is not renewed by God's word. They think all these are just arts and cultural things. Let me tell you arts can be immoral. And they take those objects and bring it into their homes and place it on a special shelf. That very day a demon has taken authority in their house. A foothold has taken place in their house. And the very next day the demon power will began to cause them not to like to read the bible. They will feel sleepy when they try to read the bible. And suddenly they don't feel so much zeal for God. And they wonder why. For those who are weaker a crisis happens and the demons there start oppressing one of the little ones. How did those demons come in? They came in through an object or a physical monument. Think about it in the national level.
I tell that day when the huge Kwan Yin statue lands in Singapore, the house of Singapore will feel different. It's just like a house taking in an idol. God said in His words don't you ever take any of those things into your house. Now these things were happening on the negative side. How come we don't see the fact that the positive can happen also? How is it that we don’t realize if any Christians succeeded in building something as a monument to God is going to have a positive effect? And we have Christians who swing to this realm of the pendulum who say they have no need for buildings. The positive and the negative work either way. One of the things that Christians need to do when they see altars that belong to the enemy is to challenge those altars spiritually. Don’t go there with your jackhammer. Use spiritual methods. The statue of Kwan Yin will crack and one day a lightning comes from heaven and strikes the statue. And the insurance company will say that it was an act of God. Those spiritual authorities that come from the demonic realm need to be challenged.
And the way we challenge them is the same like the way we would challenge a demonic influence in a house. Suppose you live in a house that doesn't belong to you, and you are renting a room. The idol belongs to somebody in the house. You cannot just take it away. It's not yours. Once in a while you go near it with anointed oil and say, “In Jesus’ Name I take authority over you.” It is important that we challenge these invisible influences over the people you are trying to preach the gospel to. It would have been a different thing if the Christians have risen up in that neighboring country where the Prime Minister was blessed by a pagan priest and have a prayer breakfast and pray for him. It would straight away have an influence. Do you know what is happening in Australia and New Zealand? In Australia one of our own elders is now involved with the parliamentary prayer meeting. In the Australian parliament there is a place that is reserved for prayer. Let me tell you if he starts doing that, this godly influence will filter down to all of Australia.
When we are experiencing economic revival and prosperity, we may forget God. Some Asian Christians even turn to Confucianism and become proud of cultural things that sometime are demonic. As usual people fall sometimes when they fail. But many fall after they succeed. You better pray that your nation in Asia do not become proud like Nebuchadnezzar and fail to acknowledge the hand of God in blessings. It’s a dangerous position to be in. When those huge idols began to come into that neighboring country something would begin to affect some people who don’t know the Lord. The economy will be affected. When they are rich and powerful they forget the true Jesus. That is the same thing that happened to the Israelites in the bible. It can happen to any nation that forgets God. Spiritual monuments are important.
Turn to the book of Ex. 24:4 And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. And he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. Now this was before he built the tabernacle. Every time you have a spiritual experience, a physical memento helps to remind you. Now of course to people who are very traditional, some times the memento can become an object of worship then it becomes wrong. Even the bronze serpent in Moses’ time became an object of worship in Hezekiah’s time so that it has to be destroyed. A person who has no spiritual life depends only on physical manifestation. But people who have spiritual life understand their place. And so Moses built a memento and he put twelve pillars. These are all symbolic so that every time they looked at it they remember that the Lord had met with them on that mountain. And at the foot of that same mountain Moses built an altar and put twelve pillars. And on that day they cut a covenant with God. A physical memento is like a seal. It is just like you believe that God will give you something. But unless you act it out you haven't really believe. Your belief is still developing. If you believe that God will give you something, there will be actions that correspond to your faith. It is faith with corresponding action. If the actions are not there then your faith has not developed yet. Some times people believe one way but their action goes the opposite way. And the action that is going the opposite way in fear will be what they receive because that is the true condition of their heart.
Turn to Josh. 4:5-7 And Joshua said to them, "Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you, when your children ask in time to come, ' What do those stones mean to you?' Notice a physical memento or monument becomes a sign to people of something greater. Verse 7 Then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord when it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever. Notice the word a memorial which is a memento, and a sign. Those stones were special. They were not ordinary stones. When they crossed the Jordan they took the stones right from the bottom of the Jordan. Stones that have been eroded smooth. They took it up and they formed a pillar of 12 stones. It’s a spiritual landmark, a sign to others, and a memorial for the generations to come. It is something when you look at it physically it inspires faith. Supposing that when Moses crossed the Red Sea and he took out something from the Red Sea. Supposing it is preserved up to the twentieth century and brought in front of you. What effect does it have? You might exclaim, “He has done it, He can do it again.” Why are hundreds of Christians looking for the ark that is lost? Supposing that the ark of Noah has been found and opened for tourism. And you go there and touch the ark of Noah. Do you know it is going to be special? Because out of that boat came all of mankind and you touched the original ark where mankind came from. It is going to be quite an experience. And those who don’t believe in God when they look at it and touch it, it is going to do something. That is why the devil also doesn't want people to find the ark. Supposing that they found the ark and it is there, it does something to your inside.
Long ago when Malaysia was just getting independence and air planes were not that many, the moment one airplane comes by every one rush out to see. Can you imagine if an airplane were to be transported in time to the 18th or 19th century. Everybody will want to touch that airplane. It's something that inspires you. If today you want to do something in God. If you are in the ministry and you want to plant a great big church, go and visit another big one. When you do that it will inspire you. You see faith builds faith. If you are a businessman and you want to build a huge big enterprise to bring the wealth of the world into the kingdom of God, go and visit some of those huge big enterprises and let that inspire your faith.
There is a difference between spiritual monuments and physical monuments. The physical monuments that are spiritual not only inspire faith, not only are they signs and memorials of faith; they carry an anointing and an atmosphere that prevents the enemy from coming in. I am sure some of those great cathedrals that were built centuries ago were built out of faith in God. And the devil knows how much it can affect people. And sometimes when you go to a clean church or a great cathedral, you feel the presence of God. It inspires the presence of God. Why after 400 years it still carries that. You know how the devil defiles it. He puts his idols inside one by one slowly until the anointing and presence of God is desecrated by the presence of abominable objects. Today you go to some of those beautiful cathedrals which are full of idols you don’t feel the presence of God any more. You feel oppressed because the devil knows the same tactic. Why is it that the enemy understands this and at every important physical avenue, the enemy puts an idol. Sometimes you go all the way to the highest place in the city, you will find there is an idol waiting.
In Singapore you go to the river mouth. They have changed the lion to something fiercer. It's the physical expression of the bondage that is coming upon the people. We need to challenge these things in the spiritual realm. I used to go for a walk just two blocks to the field. On the way there I saw this mango tree growing and I see this little altar there. As I walk by I saw a few joss sticks there. As the days went by more and more joss sticks and bigger ones were placed there. One day I took a good look at it and said, “In Jesus’ Name” while kicking it into the drain. I didn’t want the area where I am living to have an oppressive atmosphere. It's important for us to understand how we must take authority. In the area where we live now you will find a very spiritual atmosphere. But when we first moved in there was a big idol house that needed 4 people to carry. The construction workers put it there. And they neglected to remove it away after completing the construction. The people who moved into the area carried on worshipping the idol. I know that there is no point trying to get people to remove the idol house in a legal way. The setting up of that idol house was illegal any way. When we come to this kind of thing every one is touchy. On the day of moving that idol house we hired 4 strong men. And I told them to look as official as they could. They took the idol house to the rubbish dump. The whole atmosphere over that housing area is now different. We wanted a clean atmosphere. Now if it is something that has been there legally you can't do all that. But if somebody tries to do something illegal I as a citizen has a right to challenge the illegality. The land across the road facing my house is public land. My neighbor can put any idol they want in their house. But if they put one right in front opposite my house on a public road, I am going to challenge that. It's important for us to take and stake our claim and our authority just like Joshua took the memorial stones and setting them up there in that very place.
I remember long ago we were called to a house of one of our members. Opposite his house was a huge mango tree. And somebody had put some idols in that place. We knew it was illegal. We just went and took them off and we painted a nice cross there. You can put an idol there I can also put a cross there. So that was the end of it.
When I was in the seminary in my second year, a seminarian’s father passed away. He accepted Christ before he passed away. The family still had a Buddhist funeral since many of them had not accepted Christ yet. When we were there they called in a Buddhist monk to chant the Buddhist mantras. While he was chanting the seminarians started a prayer meeting somewhere else. Something strange took place. When there was a direct conflict in the spiritual realm, something happened to the monk. Then something happened to the members of the family. Two of the sisters accepted Christ that night. They felt the spiritual warfare. So some people who were present said there were two forces fighting that night. They had to send the Buddhist monk away quickly because they said the two forces, Christian and Buddhist, cannot be together. Spiritual warfare was taking place that night.
It's important for us to stake our authority. Which is why we need to go to those places where the enemy has staked his monument. For the enemy looks at a country like a house and tries to put idols here and there to create an atmosphere around. You go to any house that has an idol and you will feel different. If you are a strong Christian it doesn't affect you. Now if you go to the modern supermarkets and big shopping complexes which do not have any idols, they are clean in the spiritual atmosphere. But the moment they start putting idols there you will find that it is different. I have entered a shop that sells these idols. The moments you walk into that section the atmosphere is different. Look at a nation like a house. Just like God says the house of Israel, we can also say the house of Singapore, the house of Malaysia. Look at all these countries as a house. And the enemy is putting his monuments to create an atmosphere to make people fall easier, to make people less loving to God. But if within a country churches begin to rise up and put their spiritual monuments and landmark and begin to challenge the things of the enemy and surround the nations like altars that Abraham built, it's going to have a positive influence over the people.
In the book of Kings when a new king is installed, do you know what the king has to do? He has to destroy all the idols that were allowed by the previous king. If the previous king has been a compromiser who allowed idols in the high places, the new king has to remove all the idols in the high places. So Satan knows how important a monument is. And one of the greatest monument that every existed on the planet earth was the tabernacle of Moses and temple of Solomon. Before your physical body can be afflicted your spiritual and soul must be first afflicted. If the devil cannot get your soul he cannot get your body. Before the devil can destroy that physical monument he had to destroy that spiritual presence.
In the book of Ezekiel you notice by the time of Ezekiel the idols has crept right into the temple. Right within the temple areas the idols has crept in and it was causing a national backsliding. Ezek. 8:5-11 Then he said to me, "Son of man, lift up your eyes now in the direction of the north." So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and behold, north of the altar gate, in the entrance, was this image of jealousy. And he said to me, "Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see still greater abominations." And he brought me to the door of the court, and when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall. Then said he to me, "Son of man, dig in the wall". And when I dug in the wall, lo there was a door. Then he said to me, "Go in, and see the vile abominations that they are committing here." So I went in and saw; and there, portrayed upon the wall round about, were all kinds of creeping things, and loathsome beasts, and all idols of the house of Israel. And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up. Here is a question that I pose to you. Was it the idols coming in first that caused the whole nation of Israel to backslide? Or was it Israel who backslides first and then they put the idols in? The answer to that question is important. Now most of us think when someone had backslide then they put an idol there. Of course when you have backslidden you will add more idols. Let me give you an important message that you may never have heard before. The idols came first followed by the backsliding. After they backslidden they added more.
Remember the greatest point was in Solomon’s time. All Israel was still walking with God. But one man began to back slide, the king. And king Solomon built idols for his foreign wives. He didn’t really worship the idols. He did it as a social thing. I Kg. 11:1 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women; the daughter of Pharaoh, and Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian and Hittite women. Verse 4-8 For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. Now let me see the time chronically the way it happened. First when Solomon married all these foreign wives they were not converted. They remain idolaters. Solomon may have even permitted them to continue. He didn’t stop them. Now Israel was still following after God. The people still don’t know what was going on. At first those things were there for social reasons and Solomon didn’t fall yet. But slowly when he was old he himself started worshipping and the whole nation was slowly going down hill without knowing it. The idols came first. The idols came through social and cultural reason and then the fall began. People began to worship them. And after they started worshipping he added more and more. And people began to turn away from the Lord by the thousands. By the time Rehoboam inherited the kingdom it was already half backslidden.
Be careful what you take into your home. It could be a book. It could be a tape. I was surprised one day as I look through the videotapes to see a videotape on Buddhism. First thing I did was to ask what was it doing in my office. The people who brought it didn’t know they were creating a spiritual atmosphere. They said that it was just for study. When did the bible say you have to study Buddhism to evangelize the world? It is because we don’t know hear God. It is because we don’t know how to hear the Holy Spirit. It is because we don’t know the word of God that we think that we have to reach the world through contemporary reasoning. All you have to do is become lazy. After being lazy you become sinful. The enemy creeps in through many forms. You must be on your guard. We are not fearful of these things. But we need to know where the line is drawn.
The moment Israel is divided into two Jeroboam took the other half. We are told in verse 28. So the king took counsel, and make two calves of gold. And he said to the people, "You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who bought you out of the land of Egypt. Do you know that he did that for a political reason? Because he is now over 10 tribes the Northern kingdom, he is afraid that if the people kept going to Jerusalem which all Jews must go there to worship, the people politically will turn away from him. Jeroboam received his kingdom from the Lord. He should have trusted that the Lord who gave would not take it from him as long as he follows after God. If God gave you something don’t try to keep by your own method. The way you keep something should be based on the same principles you received it from God.
Some people pray so hard to get something from God. Then when God blessed them, they protect their blessings in a very natural way and they loose it. Or maybe God blessed you with grace and favor with people. And slowly you are promoted higher and higher until you are promoted very high. Whether it is a secular job or a political position or a church position. Then you forgot one thing: it was God who gave you the position. You don’t have to protect your position. You never got it by yourself. What you get by yourself, you have to protect yourself. But what you get from God, God protects you. But what happens is sometimes people reached those position and they try to do things to protect themselves. They are trying to keep in natural ways what God gave them by spiritual means. And they become a mere natural human being. If God gave it, if anybody wants to take and God sees it fit, let it be so. But if God wants you to have it nobody else can take it. Whoever tries is in danger of facing God’s dealings. You don’t even have to protect that position. I find many Christian leaders trying to protect their position. Instead of remaining with an open heart for God and just doing what God wants you to do, sometimes to protect their position they loose their zeal for God. They loose the ability to count it all lost and pressed on. They lost their bravery to do the greater things for God. It's important that we don’t loose these things. We need to follow hard after God.
And so we find here that it is the idols that came in first. And then the 10 tribes started backsliding. And of course when they backslide they added more idols. Later on when they were already having too many idols and reached their worst point in their life, came king Ahab. What was the first thing king Ahab did with his wife Jezebel? Built an altar for Baal. See the altars came first before the massive backsliding come. Remember it can be for social reason, cultural reason, whatever reason that you are compromising on. If idolatry comes in or things that give ground to the enemy comes into life, it will begin to destroy and create an atmosphere for more destruction.
Spiritual monuments are important to us. What is your spiritual monument? What are the things in your life? The Israelites at one time forgot to keep the Sabbath. You know what Moses did. He started introducing the wearing of scriptures. He said make tassels on your robes so that you will remember to keep the Sabbath. God introduces more and more physical monuments for them to remember Him. If for some of you your spiritual high point is the Friday overnight prayers or the Saturday afternoon intercession and if these are your only source strength, all you have to do is miss church once on Sunday. And that begins your downward slide. The first thing the devil gets you to do wrong is to compromise for social, cultural or work reason. Coming to church to worship and being together is a part of holding you up. You don’t realize how much you have been helping up until it is not there. Then you began to realize one physical monument has been blocked out. Slowly you begin to backslide. You begin to loose your love and zeal for God. Before long you will be somewhere in the world and if you go too far it is very hard to get back to the same position. Sometimes some people go so far and done things that they could never undo again.
I was talking one minister some time back. He was without a church for a long time. I said look whether you are in the ministry or not is a different question. But you must still go to a fellowship and a church. If you don’t get into the right track, if you forsake the assembling of believers, the rest of your life will be affected. There is something there that is happening in your life. It could be the reading of the bible.
Today as we go through prayer, we would like you to seek out spiritual experiences that you already have had. And as we pray, if you have an authority in your office, I ask you this question. What have you put in your office that reminds you of God? Sometimes people forget God. Do you have any objects that remind you of God or something symbolic, something memorable of your spiritual victory? Maybe you have fasted 40 days and 40 nights on Cameron Highlands and it was a spiritual breakthrough for you. Well take a big junk of rock from Cameron Highlands. Paint it right there 40 days fasting. Put the dates down. Put that rock in your office. I can assure that every time you look at it you can never step backwards from there. You will always step forward. Or if you are in the ministry, what are the landmarks that you have built? I still have one stone, which I had in the 1980s. It's important that you have some of these reminders; maybe it is a scriptural verse. For me I have a meditation file dated 1981. And my writing was different compared to now. But it is there in my old handwriting. It's like my memento. What is your spiritual landmark? Like Jacob you have a ladder experience to the throne room. Perhaps God has asked you to do or take a step out physically in some way. Don’t under estimate the physical expression. When the expressions of your faith and your walk with God are very powerful, they will affect other lives.
2. AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS
Turn to Ps.2: 8-9 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Cross reference to Rev.2: 26-27. He who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, I will give him power over the nations. Now He is not talking about something in the millennium. Neither is He talking about something that will happen in the rapture. But the promise is conditioned upon he who overcomes. God says I will give power over the nations. Then verse 27 looks similar to Ps.2 and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received power from my Father." Looks similar except that in Revelations there are additional things that are mentioned and the promise is specific to the church. In Ps. 2 it is for those who ask, whereas in Rev. 2 it is to those whoovercome.
We are talking about inheriting the nations. We want to seek to balance two truths. On one side is the understanding about demonology and the work of demon powers, Satan and his fallen angels. We know that to a certain extent every wrong in this world, every evil and all the bad things that are happening in this world, although man is responsible in yielding their free choice to the devil, ultimately it was the devil's influence or direct interference in the affairs of man's life that destroyed, stole and killed. When we understand this truth, we will not fall to the extreme of blaming every problem on demons. Some people who are extremists try to bind the demons whenever they see that problems.
Let me tell you that is not just what we say that is important but who we are. What we say depends on who we are. Who we potentially are we all know. Yes we all will be like Jesus. But the manifestation of the church of Jesus Christ obviously in these days has not lived to her expectations. If the whole church of Jesus Christ in the world and every member of the body of Christ in the world is like Jesus, this world would right now be turned up side down or right side up. Obviously in her present manifested sense the Church has not yet come to her full glory. So I would say that potentially who we are, we are everything Christ wants us to be. In a sense this is like some people who have knowledge but have no life. The spiritual world is not just built on knowledge. It is built upon life. If you don’t have life, then you don’t have it. If you know about it but don’t have it you still don’t have it. To know doesn't mean to have. We can know something and know about a truth but that doesn't give us the power to demonstrate the truth. Jesus didn't just say I know the truth. He says I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.
There is a certain aspect of understanding about demon power. A spiritually discerning Christian can sense others at what spiritual level they are and how much authority they really have in their life. They don’t even have to say, "I bind you Satan." By the way they talk, by the way they move, by the way they act , by the way they overcome temptations, you know how much spiritual authority is coming out from their life. It's not just the words we say but it’s the life we live. That somehow affects the amount of authority that we have. I have given you the scripture just now Rev.2. The proportion of your overcoming is proportionate to the power over the nations. To him that over come. Now do you overcome first and then have the power of the nations? Or do you have the power of the nations first before you overcome? Obviously in Revelations 2 you overcome first. To him who overcomes. Not to him who shall overcome. In the Greek it is a tense that has already taken place. You have done your over coming.
Now the question comes back to us. If we have overcome what is this power to overcome? And if before we overcome, we don’t have the power to over come, how do we over come? And if we overcome who do we over come? What do we over come? It's just like learning how to drive. Before you can drive a car you must learn how to drive. If you don't give me a chance to drive now how would I drive properly? Isn't that confusing? I want to point to the connection between our power over the devil and the other extreme of denying demonic interference - where sometimes whenever people have a problem, they will blame it on the flesh or some human weakness. But they never acknowledge that there are demon powers behind it. There are two truths that are opposite of each other. But they are two sides of the same coin. I am trying to show you its all one coin. And a coin has two sides. And that truth is actually the same truth viewed from different angles. Those who try to overcome demon power without proportionally overcoming the flesh are ineffective. There is no point coming to an intercessory meeting and taking authority over the nations of the world when you haven't overcome sin and the flesh in your life. It is just blabbing words. It does nothing to the devil. It doesn't shake the devil's throne. It is more likely that it just shakes the ceiling.
On the other extreme are those who don’t realize that there is demons' power behind every obstacle. Even though the flesh is there, but behind every temptation, behind every work of the flesh is a demon power. Those who refuse to acknowledge it will never overcome the enemy.
Lets look at the book of I Thes. 2:1-18 But since we were bereft of you, brethren, for a short time, in person not in heart, Isn't that a lovely truth there. You can be away in the presence physically but yet spiritually you could be somehow connected with the person in the spirit. We endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you fact to face; because we wanted to come to you - I Paul again and again, Now Paul is saying I wanted to come to you. I tried to minister the gospel to you. I wanted to preach the word and minister to you. But he says here: - but Satan hindered us. Paul is talking about the devil himself hindering Paul. How did the devil hinder Paul? The devil uses people. It's very seldom that the devil comes and put a stop sign there. Do you remember the devil use Peter in the book of Matt.16? Jesus said get thee behind Me, Satan. He is speaking about the devil. Get thee behind Me Satan. But in my translation it should not be get thee behind Me. In the translation is get under my authority Satan. He was rebuking and taking authority over the enemy.
When Judas betrayed Jesus, it is obvious in the gospel of John that the devil was behind it. Some people are not aware that the devil uses them. Peter doesn't know it. Judas doesn't know it. Let me tell you the devil can use even believers like he used a disciple of Jesus Christ in fact two disciples of Jesus Christ. The devil can use anyone who will yield to his lies. He is the father of lies. If you as a believer believe a lie you come under the devil's authority. Which is why we need to be sharp in the word. Whenever I hear something I ask, 'Is this the truth or is this a lie?"The moment I start believing a lie I become a subject and instrument of the devil, unwillingly, unknowingly or even innocently. But I want to point out to the fact is that the devil uses the flesh, and humans. Sometimes we are not even aware of it. Sometimes it is a direct temptation and the person doesn't know it. I don’t think David knew it was the devil that tempted him to number the Israelites. The bible tells us that it was the devil that tempted David to number the Israelites. The devil doesn't have to come to you and say he is the devil. All the devil has to do is to make David feel proud. Out of his pride he wanted to number Israel so he can glory in the greatness of the people, the numbers of the people and the size of his army and the size of his nation - pride. I want to point that a lot of the battles are clothed in human flesh.
How did the devil hinder Paul? In the book of Acts 17:1 - 7 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there as a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and for three weeks he argued with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ." And some of them were persuaded, and joined Paul and Silas; as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked fellows of the rabble, they gathered a crowd, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the people. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brethren before the city authorities, crying, "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them; and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that here is another king, Jesus." Doesn't that sound like the same thing that accuses Jesus? Remember when Jesus was before Pontius Pilate. And remember Pontius Pilate wanted to free Jesus. Do you know what make Pontius Pilate stop? He had the authority to free Jesus. But even when he was thinking of freeing Jesus, the crowds started saying, "If you do that you are not a friend of Caesar." That’s stopped Pontius Pilate because his position may be threatened.
What I am trying to bring forth to you is Satan uses the mind. What did Satan do to Eve? He reasoned with her. If only Christians will understand that the devil doesn't have to come in a frightening form. The devil comes as a smart person who will win your confidence, who will win your reasoning. And reason your way into the wrong thing. He will help you reason your way to the wrong thing. That is why we need to know the word. He tried to reason with Jesus but Jesus stopped him with the word. Remember one of the temptations, had not God said if you throw yourself down the angels would pick you up quoting Ps. 91. He is using reasoning. These people were used by the devil without them realizing it. Paul recognized it was Satan behind it.
I am sometimes amused at the bluntness of Jesus. How would you feel if somebody calls you a devil? Before that Peter was like a hero. Who do man say that I am? Peter was the first one to answer, "You are the Christ the Son of the Living God. And Jesus answered him, "Blessed art you, Simon Bar- Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. (Matt. 16:17-18) Peter's head grew big. The others are now small fries. He is special the others are non-special. He is higher grade they are lower grade. And Jesus began to reveal some more revelations about the suffering Messiah. I want to use the strong words the bible used so you know that he is really big headed. Matt.16: 22 And Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying, "God forbid, Lord, this shall never happen to you." Let me tell you. If you are a disciple and you learned everything from your master, don’t you ever raise your voice. If you do that, you will loose respect. One of the things that I found, the moment someone loses respect for you that’s when they stop learning from you. Do you know that before love is respect? If you have to give something to the poor you give something without robbing them of their dignity of being a human being. You still must respect them. Sometimes people are pushy. And you could tell by the way it is done that there is pride. You have given but you have robbed them of their dignity. We must respect all people even the poorest soul. If they have no education you still got to respect them because they are God's creation. They are human beings who are worth more than the whole world.
Now why do you think Peter rebuked Him? First of all he must have thought that he is of equal level. Do you know that the bible tells you that you don’t talk to an older person the way you talk to a younger? What did Paul tell Timothy? He said to those older than you, the older man you treat them as fathers, older women you treat them as mothers. The younger ones treat them as your own brothers and sisters. How do you talk to your father? Do you shout at your father? Even if you are right and he is wrong your shouting makes you wrong. See there is something about the respect. Some of us realize this that some of us may have education and may have even gone beyond your forefathers and your parents. But that in no way means that you stop respecting them. If that is the case, how much more this should be in the spiritual realm.
Peter didn’t respect and value the Lord. This incident looked very natural, as if Peter was impulsive. But it was actually Satan behind it. It was Satan pushing him to do things that was beyond even Peter. He would never have done that on his own. When people began to do things that are unnatural for them very likely demon powers are influencing them. I did not say they are possessed. That is a different thing. Something which is very unnatural, very unlikely of them is probably influenced by demons. Look at Acts 17:5 these group of people were envious for Satan had filled them with the spirit of envy. And Paul had to run away to Berea. While he was preaching the gospel in Berea Acts 17:13, But when the Jews of Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, stirring up and inciting the crowds. Look at it here Paul was not even disturbing them any more. You know such actions indicate devilish influence. Why should people go and cause trouble? If people disturb you, it might be natural human nature to react in self-defense. But when you go beyond self-defense and you began to attack wickedly, then Satanic forces are at work. Why should someone go out of the way to run another person down? It’s the devil's work. It is no more self-defense. Paul had even left that territory. I doubt that any of these people who were doing this against Paul knew that they were motivated by the devil. Paul was prevented from going back to Thessalonica. Although it was not mentioned in the book of Acts here but Paul tried again and again to go back. But there was these people being used by the devil. We need to keep ourselves in check all the time. Because behind all your problems on one side of the truth we need to understand the flesh may be involved, the human vessel may be involved but on the other side of the truth, behind the problem is the devil’s involvement too.
Eph. 6:12 comes in For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Our wrestling is with the spiritual forces above. It's important for us to recognize where the battle is. If you are facing certain situations recognize that a lot of your problems could point to an enemy behind. Remember Paul talked about a messenger of Satan being sent to harass him in the book of II Cor. 12. Satan sends demons on assignment against key people of God. If you are called by God to change the world, let me tell you, you must challenge demon forces and be challenged by them. If your life were not affecting and changing this world Satan wouldn't bother attacking you. The enemy targets every man of God called to the five-fold ministry. You got to fight your way out of this thing. Remember Hagin himself whose ministry today has reached millions of people. When Jesus appeared to him and told him his story that Satan wanted to kill him even while He was in his mother's womb. Remember how Satan tried to kill Jesus through Herod. Remember how Satan tried to kill Moses through Pharaoh. If your life is destined to change the world its obvious you are a target.
Sometimes I recognize it working in people. But you can't come to them and say look you don't realize it but the devil is using you. But on the other side we cannot neglect the fact that the enemy always works through the avenue of the flesh. Lets look at Gal. 5:19-20 Now the works of the flesh are plain; immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry. Let me ask a question. Most people will not classify idolatry as works of the flesh. They will classify it under demon worship. Idolatry is the worship of false gods and demons through the dumb idols and demonic images created by man. I read every demonology book that I could lay my hands on and sorcery is always classified as demonology and not works of the flesh. What is sorcery and black magic? In the book of I Jn. 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And later he relates it to the anti Christ. Satan is called the prince of the world. So it's important for us to have a clear understanding here that the flesh and demon powers are related. Demon powers cannot work without the flesh. And the flesh itself doesn't have that much power unless demon powers are encouraging it. The two are related. And unless you overcome the flesh you cannot overcome the devil. The opposite is true. Unless you overcome the devil you cannot overcome the flesh. There are some of the problems that are in the spirit realm that cannot just concur in the flesh alone. Remember this your success in life isn't just in the natural. You can work all you want. You can study all you want. You will not succeed until you break through with God. It’s the grace of God that helps people to come up in life.
Now if both are true: if you cannot overcome the devil unless you overcome the flesh and you cannot overcome the flesh unless you overcome the devil, surely something must come first. So how do we harmonize the two truths? In Jesus' life before He overcame the devil He overcame the temptation of the flesh. For 40 days and 40 nights every temptation that is known to man was thrown against Him. Why did God allow Him to be tempted? Because He needs the opportunity to overcome the flesh. When He has overcome the flesh what happened to the devil? Something has to come first. Now in our own life we need to overcome the flesh before we can overcome the devil. Now when you are ministering to demon-oppressed people, you will find that in some cases before the devil controlled them the flesh has controlled them first. The devil doesn't simply jump on people. They have to have an opening. They have to have something in that person's life, some yielding before they can cling to that person. The flesh is there first before the devil. Yielding to the flesh causes yielding to the devil.
How did the story change? Let's say everybody is under the dominion of the devil, which is also under the dominion of the flesh. Jesus came and overcame the flesh. Then He overcame the devil. And what does He do? As He ministered to other people He overcame the devil's power over their life first before helping them to overcome the flesh. Applied on an individual basis the flesh must be overcome before the devil is overcome. But some people had yielded so much of the devil’s temptations that before they can deal with the flesh they must deal with the devil. There is an overcoming from inside out and there is an overcoming from outside in. The overcoming from outside in is where a person has reached a certain point where they need the demon powers to be dealt with before they could overcome the flesh. And that is why I say demon powers don't just operate as demon powers by themselves but that they operate through people to influence and oppress others. Sometimes to help a person you have to pull them out of their environment and put them in a different physical fellowship. There is a harmony of these truths that we can see. But first the person must overcome the flesh before he overcomes the devil. Then having overcome the devil he has the authority to shake off influences of the devil and minister to people who are still in the flesh.
There are pockets and groups of people all over the world who are in darkness. Another person who has been freed from the enemy comes and frees that group. But if nobody comes to that group, then somebody in that group by the grace of God might receive the word of God, overcomes the flesh, takes authority and then could help the other people. If you are in chains and in bondage, how can you help another person? You can't. You got to overcome that bondage before you can free another person. You have to have a free hand to free another person. And so the one that is free helps the others by taking authority over the demon powers. So we put it this way again by overcoming the power of demon powers it makes it easier to overcome the flesh.
The other side of the truth is that, that as you overcome the devil the flesh is overcome. So lets define it more accurately. The ultimate victory is when you overcome the flesh and you overcome the devil. Step one, the flesh; step two, the devil. The other side of the truth is where after overcoming the devil and then helping people to overcome the flesh is different. When you overcome the devil to help people to overcome the flesh. You are creating a spiritual environment. The most you can help is to isolate that person until that person faces himself or herself. That is why you must not only cast out the devil but you must teach that person how to walk in his authority in Jesus Christ. Otherwise that person will end up depending on you for constant deliverance. Remember the devil wanted to come against Peter and remember what Jesus said, Satan has asked for you. You must see that there is protection when you come under another person who has authority. We all work under spiritual authority. In the spiritual world there are different authorities. When you come under spiritual authority a spiritual covering comes over your life. All the disciples of Jesus were under the authority of Jesus. Jesus was always praying for them and covering them spiritually. The devil couldn't touch them. That is why before touching them the devil has to come to Jesus and make demands. The word ask could be translated as demanded. Satan has demanded for you. Satan was trying to get Peter but could only get him by demanding Jesus to release Peter to him.
So the point to these two truths is this. On one side the overcoming of the devil only creates an environment where the person is free from demonic oppression. His will is now free from demonic oppressions to make choices for God. To help him further, you still need to teach the word. Every time deliverance takes place you need the teaching to come in to help him overcome his flesh. Ultimately, overcoming happens only when you overcome the flesh. Remember to him that overcomes is given power over the nations. And that is the real overcoming. So when you put the two together which is greater? By overcoming the flesh I overcome the devil. By overcoming the devil I create an environment in which I can overcome the flesh. The most important thing in your life is to overcome the flesh. Your greatest enemy is not the devil. Your greatest enemy is the person you wake up in the morning and see in the mirror.
Now let me show how it brings the spiritual authority. When you gather here tonight to pray, how much power you can produce in prayer is dependant on every little thing that you overcome in your daily life. What you do tonight depends on what you do through out your life. Perhaps a good illustration is to take an extract from Nelson Mandela’s biography. He spent many years in prison because he fought apartheid. He fought it in the streets. He fought it in the legal system. In the end he was taken and put in prison. It looks like that’s the end. No more contact with society. In prison he treats the prison as a smaller version of the country. So every little thing he can overcome to him is one victory towards overcoming apartheid. And it makes him a stronger man. Because out there in the streets he was fighting for the right to vote. That is a big issue. And in prison he demonstrated his right to wear the same trousers as worn by the white prisoners. So he fought in prison for the right to wear trousers, which is a long way from fighting to vote. And when he got that right to wear the same trousers he saw it as a little victory that pave the way to a big victory. You see in every life that reached greatness there is some seed that you can learn. He learned to see the big things in the little things. Some people see the little things but they don't see the big things. Some people see the big things but they never see the little things that are important. Every step of the way, everything that you do, even that small little victory you have, you know how much it is a battle to fight with God for those of you working to have that extra 15 minutes to pray. Some of you may wake up early to pray, but suddenly for the next 3 days you have no devotion or prayer time. I know what its like. It’s a battle. Some of you fight for your lunchtime to spend time with God. Demands are made on your time; your friends tempt you. The battle is not here tonight. The battle is where you are fighting in your daily life. And some of us don't see that as a battle. We don't see the small little thing. Maybe the effort you make to get up early to spend the extra time with God. Or the extra 15 minutes when your eyes are going to close. You really have to work very hard and you feel sleepiness coming on you and all you feel like doing is just to drop in bed and just enjoy the rest. But you said no I must always spend some time with God. And you drag yourself to spend those 15 minutes with God. And you won the fight in your home. Tonight when you pray you will more authority. If over the past 7 days some of you have fought and succeeded to read the word of God and do those thing that God told you to do, when you pray in tonight’s intercessory meeting you will have great power over the nation. But if for the past 7days, you have been working very late and didn't spend time with God, your spiritual authority goes down. And tonight when you come and you pray your spiritual authority is diminished. Isn't it a surprise that your authority doesn't begin here? Your authority began at home. That’s the reality that I like to bring forth tonight.
Let me give you one life before I close. The life of Jesus is obvious. Do you think many people were aware of His 40-day fast? I don't think so. Was anybody there with Jesus for His 40 days fast? You see your battles are in the secret places where nobody sees. The times when you struggle to spend extra time with God. The times when you were tempted for certain things. I ask you tonight have you said no to the devil throughout the past one week? If your answer is the devil has not disturbed me for the whole week, then either you must be very spiritual that the devil didn't dare to approach you. Or he has actually been with you all the time and you didn't know it.
Now Daniel is a man who has authority over nations. To him who overcomes the flesh I will give authority over the nations. That is speaking of demon powers. Let me qualify now and add the whole truth together in one statement. This is my paraphrase: to him that overcomes, to him that overcomes the flesh, Jesus said I would give power over demon power and over Satan himself. Your battle starts at home. Now Daniel had authority over nations. Remember the natural is only a picture of what is in the spiritual. At the peak of his life in the natural he was an advisor and he ruled and reigned in his position although he may not have been a king. But his influence was so great that whoever sat on the throne was almost like a puppet. He was the main guy making the decisions. He had authority over kingdom. Over 4 kingdoms he was the main guy. Kings come and go but Daniel remained. Even in his prayer life, when he prayed the demonic prince of Persia was shaken. This is a man who had authority over the nations. How did he get that authority? It started very strangely with food. Something has to change; some discipline has to come into your life to make your prayer go further and more powerful tonight.
In Daniel chapter 1 look at how he started. He says I will not compromise with food that makes me break my Jewish law or the law of Moses that I have learned. Every other young Jewish boy forgot the law and went for the food. Was it worth it to give up all the delicious food? Nobody would dream that out of that would come authority over nations. I want to show you that all of Daniel’s authority came from the gift of God he received because of that uncompromising stand he took not to defile himself with the king’s food. God made him 10 times smarter. God gave him wisdom. How did Daniel first have authority? Wasn't it through the gift of interpretation of dream? Wasn't it because of that one interpretation of dream that Nebuchadnezzar recognize in him and put him as the key man? Now where did he get that gift of interpretation of dream? Because of the food that he restrained himself from. Now when it says God give you power over the nations, it doesn't mean that He takes you out on high and makes you chase demons for the rest of your life. We are not chasing demons. We want to stop their influence and power over areas where we want God's word and gospel to go. Chasing is not what we do. Chasing is a part of what we do.
Dan.1: 11-12 Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, "Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. I think for some people it is very difficult to resist good food. Some people can never say no to chocolates. Some people can never say no to a good meal. I find as I grow in God, certain inclinations in me, including my appetite, change. You become more disciplined and this discipline in the end shows itself in other ways in the spiritual world. And it's because of that in verse 17 As for these four youths, (the sad story is this happened only to these four young Jewish boys. There were hundreds of other young Jewish boys) God gave them learning and skill in all letters and wisdom; and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Out of that came authority and power over the nations. It was a simple question of food. It was a simple question of getting up in the morning. It was a simple question of spending more time with God in the night. It was a simple question of saying no to the devil; simple question of saying no to distraction; simple question of choosing the right area to go. Simple things make the big things. Small little things make the things that change the world. It is still not too late tonight. Small little things like the small little efforts that you began to do to stay awake, to pray through, to have a goal to press through, not to yield to the comforts. Sometimes when you off the lights during this overnight prayer vigil, some people are arranging their chairs for their bed. What we want is everyone to do his or her best to pray. The small little thing goes a long way. And the discipline that you develop here tonight will get back into your daily life to reverse your bad habits now. Things don’t end here; our life continues and the little efforts that you make now will slowly creep back into your daily life. It’s a never-ending story. Every victory you have builds up to stronger authority and stronger success. At the same time every failure does pull you down. If you ever fail gets over it fast don’t think too much of it. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord though he falls, though he falls, he shall not be cast down. If you ever fail, if you ever fall, don’t get too condemned Just make sure there is more going. And the only way you can make sure that there is no more going is the more you fall get up quickly and go. Because in a life span, you fall, you stop, and if there is too much stopping, too much falling, on the general equation in the end you actually reverse and backslide. Just keep going and you will reach the shore in heaven strong in God, strong spiritually, achieving and receiving the rewards of God.
3. DOMINION OVER THE NATIONS
Tonight we want to touch on the topic on dominion. There is no doubt when we speak about authority we speak about dominion. Dominion is conditional; it's not something that will be automatically in our life although potentially we were created to have dominion. It's in God's perfect plan for man to exercise dominion for in Gen.1: 26 God originally gave man dominion. When Adam had dominion and Eve also was there and she received dominion too from God. God made them male and female and He gave them dominion over all the birds of the air, the beasts in the field and over every creeping thing and over that entire God created. He gave them; He didn’t just give him, He gave them dominion.
We see by Genesis chapter 3 that the dominion is not working. It doesn't mean that when God has given us something it will work automatically. In case we do not realize it God has again gave the dominion to the church and the redeemed race of mankind who are washed by the Blood of Jesus Christ. God through Jesus has once again given dominion. The sad story is that dominion is once again not seemingly working in many Christians' lives. I believe it is an insult to God and the work and redemption of Jesus Christ. We can understand it if a non-believer doesn't have dominion. But if the Blood-washed believer, the Spirit-filled saint cannot exercise dominion over sin, death, Satan and all the works of the world system, it is an insult on all that God has bought for us with the precious Blood of Jesus. The problem is we do not understand how this dominion flows.
I want to touch on one key weapon in which this dominion will work. And it is just one sentence that is so simple that we miss the whole point. It is just the simple phrase: faith in the word of God. Dominion can only come when we exercise faith in the word of God. And by word of God we include the logos, the written word, the living word and the rhema, the spoken word. Dominion comes when we believe what God says. That’s how simple it is. If Adam had believed what God said he was, he would have exercised dominion. If Adam had remembered what God said that he had, he would have exercised dominion over every creeping thing and over the serpent that tempted Eve. If he had remembered what God said and acted on God's word and believed what God said that He had made them in his image, there would be no more meaning to the temptation to be like God. For God said He has made them in His image. There can only be dominion when we have faith in the word of God. The key behind it is faith.
A lot of people think they are exercising faith. And think they are operating in faith. They are not. They don’t understand the quality of faith. They understand the symptom of faith, the byproduct of faith. They can see the result of faith. They understand the operation of faith. But they don’t understand the essence and the quality of what faith is. Let me tell you there are a lot of believers who are living like unbelievers. There are a lot of believers who have unbelief in their hearts. Therefore God cannot work through their life, God cannot heal them, God cannot prosper them, and God cannot help them to take dominion over this earth. Once in a while when a believer catches a glimpse of what God's word is saying they launch their authority. But the moment they hit some difficulty they don’t have dominion any more. Their dominion is a childish dominion. Their dominion is almost like the sower going out to sow and the seed fell on stony ground. And immediately it sprang forth but when difficulty arose they stop exercising their faith. What they have is not faith. They only have zeal. We can have zeal on the principles of God without having faith in God.
I want to define the quality of faith. First of all I would define it in a negative way, what it does not have. We all have our land of Canaan. We all have our inheritance in God. Every tribe has an inheritance. Every tribe of Jesus Christ and all the gifting of the Holy Spirit have an inheritance in God. Heb. 4:2 For the good news came to us just as to them; but the message which they heard did not benefit them, because it did not meet with faith in the hearers. Why didn’t they possess the land of Canaan? Somebody said because the giants were there. That’s not the real reason. Why didn't they possess the land of Canaan? Because they were so discouraged. That’s not the real reason. The New Testament summarizes the real reason why they did not enter in. They don’t have faith. Let me tell you there are a lot of believers who don’t have faith. They seem to have faith but they don’t have faith. They have knowledge but the don’t have faith.
I know in my life that all fear and unbelief has to grip is one toenail and you had it. That’s all it takes for the one seed to destroy what God has planted in your life. When the disciples could not cast out the demon, Jesus said this kind come out by fasting and prayer. Those were His second sentence. His first main sentence is because of your unbelief. A lot of believers don’t like this kind of statement spoken to their life. Let me define what real faith is. We know how faith works. We know faith sees, faith speaks, faith acts etc. But I am talking about the quality when you know real genuine faith is there. It is not some mental knowledge that is being exercised out of zeal and partial understanding.
No.1 real faith is a complete absence of doubt and fear. Now the positive side of this is that faith has a conviction that is so unwavering that nothing can stand against that rock of faith. Time and tide can come, persecution and misunderstanding can come but nothing can stand against that rock or faith because when everything is passed away faith still stands. Just by the first point a lot of believers don’t qualify. Many believers when they talk about believing God for something within one hour you can find doubt in their life. There are very few believers when God said something they never ever doubt. I am not just talking about a few doubts. I am talking about the complete absence of doubt and fear. Now there are many areas that we exercise dominion. But that particular area that God is speaking about there is a complete absence of doubt and fear. And these are the words that Lord told me, "Son, my people are not receiving what they should be receiving from Me not because they don’t believe in Me but because they don’t believe in Me without a doubt." Most believers would at first believe, then doubt, then later believe again and then fear. In this way they will never ever see the manifestation of their faith. There is a certain quality that comes upon a spirit of a man when faith comes.
In the book of Mk.11: 23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, "Be taken up and cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart." Now I didn’t say the doubts are in your mouth. There are a lot of people who are already having negative confession. When they pray for something they privately nullify their prayers by speaking wrongly. Or they let out wrong things out of their mouth. That is already bad. But God is not even talking about having something wrong in your mouth. He is speaking about having something wrong in your heart. And sometimes you come across someone new to the things of God. And they get a hold of the faith teaching. And you could see them confessing with their mouth and they are very careful with their confession. But you can see doubt in their eyes. And you could feel the doubt in their hearts. God didn’t say if you didn’t speak negatively you would get it. God said you must even remove it out of your heart. If it is in your heart and you didn’t say it out it still won't work. Didn’t you read Mk.11: 23. He didn’t say that if doubt were in your mouth it wouldn't work. He said if doubt is in your heart it won't work even if you don’t say it out. That gets rid of almost 99% of people.
Now you know why the church of Jesus Christ is not where it should be. They learn meditation on the word. They start confessing. All I have to do is to look straight into their eyes and you could see the doubts in their mind. Then your spirit reaches out to them and you could feel the doubts beating in their hearts. We must come to the position where we learn how to completely reject doubt. We learn how to sweep the house clean and sweep all the dust of doubt and fear out of our hearts. Shut the door and when doubt tries to come in you say sorry no entry. There is a way to learn how to completely reject every doubt and fear that ever comes: don’t ever entertain it. When God tells me something I don’t even entertain doubt. To me entertaining it would be canceling everything God said. I don’t know how to doubt something that God tells me to do. I don’t care if someone is in the way. I will bulldoze it through. The only time I get fear is when I encounter unbelief and fear.
Now what are the symptoms of doubt in people's heart? You cannot hide the symptoms of doubt and fear inside. One of the symptoms is the lack of steadiness. I have sat in committees; I have been with many people. When it comes to some project of God or doing things for God, many times fear and doubt try to come in. I have sat with many people when they talk about different things in their life that required believing God for. You notice that doubt has crept in. One of the main symptoms is wavering. Didn't God say that the moment you doubt is almost like you never started the journey? Its almost like you have back tracked.
How much doubt does it take to cancel what we prayed for. Most people think that it takes a whole lot of doubts to cancel what they believe in God for. Let me answer by looking at the other reverse. How much faith does it take to move a mountain? One mustard seed. That’s very little to move a mountain. And you bring that principle into doubt. How much doubt does it take to cancel everything. Just a little bit. You say but the mercy of God, the grace of God. These are the principles of God. Many believers think it takes a huge big doubt or they must doubt for 7 days a week before they could cancel their faith. That’s not the way. I have walked in the realm of faith. Let me tell you all it takes are just a few seconds of doubt and you are back where you started. Spiritual warfare is like that. And so many people are actually going back and forth. They hardly move and they don’t know what's the problem. Because they think it takes a big junk of fear to grip their life. Just one mustard seed is enough to cancel what you believe God for. And you sort of accept it for those microseconds. What makes it different is whether you accept them or reject them. All it takes is just a few microseconds and that’s it.
We will only receive dominion or the answer to what we are praying when we reach a point that James speaks about in James 1: 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. I have in my lifetime not met a single man of God or Christian who has never waver. I wish there were more who have learned not to waver. And these are the reasons why they are limited. Cannot achieve much in life. Cannot have dominion over the nations. Cannot reach into the millions of dollars you can believe God for. Cannot reach into healing and mighty signs and wonders that you can reach out to God for. Cannot reach out into the realm of dominion over principalities, over demon powers, over nations. Cannot reach out into the realm that affects the life of nations of this world. Jas. 1:5-6 if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, He didn’t even say with little doubting. He says with zero doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
The vast majority of Christians when they pray for anything have some percentage of doubt. In my life time talking about I come to know I have not come across a single Christian or man of God or woman of God who has reached that stage where they ask God for something there is zero doubting. Now you know why the body of Christ is not receiving what it should. You could be receiving more than what you are receiving today in prosperity if you have never doubted. You could have been receiving a greater measure of health and healing more than what you are having now. Some of us say I learn in all things to be contented. I don’t doubt that principle. But let me tell you sometimes we have settled for less than God's best. I am not talking about waste. I am not talking about economizing. But I am talking about if you know God's heart and what He wants in your life, what He wants to do in the church, what He wants to do in your ministry, you would shake off all those doubts and rise up to take dominion in the realm that God wants. It is God's will for all the churches in every country of the world to be right now today filled with tremendous victory and overcoming power taking dominion over the cities that they are located. Its God's perfect will for your life to receive God's best for you and not be satisfied with Satan second best. When it comes to some of the things of God there is too much doubt, too much unbelief and too much fear.
When you ask have you reached that point where there is zero doubt. Now it takes time to reach that point. For example if I am believing God for a new blessing. Before I ever start praying, before I venture into that, I will get in my spirit and get a full revelation and understanding and count the cost. That is why some people don’t understand why I take time before I do something. I don’t believe that when you exercise faith there is no difficulty. Look at Genesis to Revelation was there no difficulty when people exercise faith? Were they not challenged when they exercised faith? Of course; throughout the bible people were challenged when they exercised faith. Not only are they challenged, but many people also fail at their first challenge. I have sat on committees and the first time you strike a crisis or difficulty people start questioning whether this is the will of God. If God has spoken and we have settled that question and we have crossed the Jordan River, anyone who doubt now would be drowned. Let me tell you 95% of Christian doubt the moment they hit a difficulty. And I am not even talking about reaching the point of zero doubt.
The first point you got to settle is did God say it? If you have a ministry right now and you are working with a group of people, ask them from the heart of hearts do they really believe that this is what God is asking us to do. Let me tell you some of them cannot give an answer. Those fellows should be kicked out. Not out of the church but out of your committee. We are not talking about playing church. We are talking about taking authority over Satan, over demon power, over principality. If anyone in the committee is a doubter, you will be held back from success. You will have partial success. If you don’t believe me one day we will all stand before Jesus Christ's judgment seat. Then you will understand what I am talking about. I am talking from heaven's perspective. I am not talking about being nice with human beings. I am not talking for human society. I am not talking for human diplomacy. I am talking from heaven's perspective. If you have anyone on your team who is a doubter its finished. I am teaching about taking authority over nations. I am talking about taking dominion over Satan and demon power. And I cannot come against Satan when I have someone at the back doubting that this is what God wants to do, because if he fails me he can cost me my life. When I am going out to the front line, I don’t want my back line to say I don’t think this is a good idea and leave me behind there. Can you see how dangerous it is?
We are talking about dominion. We are talking about exercising authority over the nations. And that is why if you have anything that God wants you to do, the people that you look for are people who have faith. You can't do it without faith. Some times in the church you have to give room for people who are at different levels of spiritual maturity. If I were to do something that God told me to do under the banner of my ministry and if I could pick and choose only those that I want, we would get the job done very fast. But the process in the church sometimes does not allow the job to get done fast. We have to get the people to be trained and given opportunities to serve. But let me tell you there are some things in the ministry that only the strong can enter. There are some areas where I will not permit anyone but the very strong because we cannot afford one tiny little doubt. That one doubt can cause casualty.
See there must be knowledge of what God wants to do. And of course many time people say I hear God. Fine do what you want if you hear God. Three years down the road they are canceling everything they say God told them to do. I may take time to find out whether it's really God's will. But if its God's will once I do it, don’t ever try to stop me. I never believe in going against what God says. If God said something and we have started doing it, don’t ever, ever doubt. If you want to do all the doubting, do it before you start. It says here in the book of James chapter one. Most of the time in people's life, it is doubt that has eaten up all their blessings. Jas.1: 5-8 if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that person suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. A lot of people will deny that they are double-minded. But when they come to the things of God, they behave like double-minded. Only the single-minded person can achieve what God wants them to achieve in this life. Most people only have some knowledge. That’s all they have. They don’t have real genuine faith. When the first difficulty strike, you will have five stooges who will stand up and say pastor I think this is not of God's will. They don’t understand that when you exercise faith you do confront difficulty. That’s where the challenge is.
Lets read Heb.11: 32-34 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets - who through faith conquered kingdoms, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Did he say faith doesn't have difficulty? No. Lets look at the Hebrews 4 examples. Here were the Israelites and they stood before the Jordan River. Nearly one year has passed. They had all the revelations they needed. They had the pillar cloud. They had everything. They had Moses; they had the rod of Moses. They have seen the miracles of God. They have seen the signs and wonders of God. What about us believers? We have the Holy Spirit of God. We have the redemption of Christ. We have the written word of God and all the preaching that we have. We have the experiences of answered prayer. Then when we come to a fresh new situation the problem is not a matter of how difficult it is. The problem came when they looked across the land of Jordan and sent 12 spies there, they saw the giants and they doubted. God did say He give us this land but what about the giants. Let me tell you the problem is not the giants. The problem is not the difficulty. Your giant may be the difficulty in getting a loan from the bank. Your giant may be the difficulty in getting a house. Your giant may be the difficulty in succeeding your business. Your giant can be any area. Let me tell you the problem is not that problem. The problem is do you really believe the word. That’s where the real problem is. You can name from A to Z but that is not the real problem. The real problem is do you believe that God asked you to do this. If your answer is no, get out. If your answer is yes, stay and see yourself through. And stop ever doubting.
If you are in the ministry God called you into and suddenly your supply seems to stop and there are difficulties. Your ministry is not being accepted. And you are wondering whether God really called you. The problem is not the difficulty. The problem is not the rejection you are confronting. The problem is not the closed door you are confronting. The problem is not those fortresses that are built against you. The problem is do you really believe that God said for you to do those things. The problem is do you believe that God asked you to do that business. The problem is do you believe that God asked you to enter the five-fold ministry. That’s the real problem. Are you sure that you are hearing from God. And if you haven't settled that in your heart, you better settle that before you move further. Don't rationalize it. O yes God said this but, but, no buts. Maybe we got what God said rightly. But maybe we got our methods wrong. So what just keep going on? Did God ever stop because His people use spears instead of bows and arrows. God killed more people through the hailstones than through their own weapons. Do you think God is limited by your methods? God is more limited by your heart. If your heart is right and sincerely you did your best, even though your best may not be God's best for your life, no matter how difficult it is God will see you through. The grace of God will cover you for the rest.
Now the end never justifies the means. But when you see the end, you use the best means you know how at your time and God will take care of the rest. He only asks that you believe His words and you stand by His words through thick and thin. The good news is if you really stay with God's word, God's word will really do the fighting for you. In the midst of the battle you can have sound sleep. In the midst of the hardest time you will be resting because you have faith. Now sometimes when people pray hard they don’t pray hard with faith. When I pray, I pray because my faith is working. In other words I will not loose sleep because of doubt. A lot of praying and a lot of worship sometimes have no faith. Sometimes when we are fellowshipping I said look when you sing songs make sure there is faith. I don’t mind singing some of those songs to stir up certain emotions in my life to worship God. But if I sing too much of that song Holy Spirit come, come, come, I might begin to believe He is not there. Then comes the second song Quickly come Holy Spirit. Then third song will follow Where are you Holy Spirit. Then send your fire now. And for these songs we keep begging Him. All the time from the beginning of the service till end of the service we are like the woman at the well who never met Jesus. At least the woman at the well met Jesus. Like the woman at the well I was thirsting. At the end of the worship you are still like the woman at the well still thirsting.
We have to understand the difference between doubt and faith and success and failure is a very thin line. When you play chess the difference between winning and losing can be one move. Lets say all the time I am checking you to checkmate you. But if I stop checking once I myself might get checkmated. The difference is just one move. When you play good chess the difference between winning and losing is just that one move. If you had that one extra move, you would have won. It is the same in this life. I have known top business people who made just one wrong move and suddenly the debts pile up in a row. Some of you who stretch your faith might take just the right sequence of faith and you got everything rolling. But if during your stretching something has failed it would have been gone.
Its important for us to understand that success and failure is not a big fat line. It’s a thin little line that you exercise faith in and you walk through what God tells you to do without doubt. You have to pass the stage where you don’t waver. From that point of not wavering you reach a point of not doubting. Then you have a tremendous quality in your life where you never ever doubt when you do something for God. Of course you would have passed elementary areas of human rejection and isolation that comes because you were the only one who heard God and nobody else hears what God is saying. And you would have probably passed the stage of normal persecution. All these are little ant bites, which are little normal things. The difference is in the size of your faith. If your faith grows you would have passed the stage of those normal things. Then you pass the stage where you don't waver.
Abraham reached a point in his life where he learned never to waver. If you want to walk with God to reach that closest with God that Abraham reached, you must reach a point where you never ever waver. All the great men of God you read about their biography John G. Lake, Smith Wigglesworth, Hagin and all these people who affect the world have reached a point where when God said something, they go for it and there is no doubting. You need to reach that quality of faith where there is an absence of doubt and an absence of fear. When you pray my question is where is the faith. Now it's all right to pour out our hearts to God but that must not be the ending of your prayer. David may begin his prayer like that but he never ends his prayer like that. When he begins his prayer like that is because he is looking for a shoulder to cry on. It is not your tears that move God alone. Judas cried but it didn't work. Esau cried but it didn't work. It's not your loud cry or long prayer that makes the difference. It is loud cries and long prayers with faith.
Sometimes some people say they exercise faith. What do you want to pray for? You want to pray for Russia. You want to believe God for 20 millions souls. Father God by faith we claim 20 million souls in Jesus name amen, thank you. That’s all. You know that there is no oomph to that prayer. That is not faith. That is just mental assent. When real genuine faith is there, you can feel it vibrating through every bone of your being. And faith people don’t simply claim this or claim that. You might as well get the whole map and claim all the nations in the world. Faith is just not based on the written word. It's based on the spoken word. Which means that if you ask me to pray for 20 million souls in Russia. The word of God may say ask for the nations of the world. But I don’t feel that’s for you, I can never pray. The most I can pray is O God his desire is for this. Grant that your perfect will be done. I haven't really prayed for him yet. All I prayed is God's perfect will. As a pastor you learn to pray prayers like that because many people come to you for things that are not God's perfect will. I mean if you don’t pray for them they get offended. So you learn to pray like that. Father God you know the desires of their hearts. O God we pray for your perfect will to be done.
Let me tell you if we really praying for one for 10 nations of world we would be praying differently. That’s No. 1 when you have dominion Satan is not afraid of your screaming, your shouting. The only thing that demon respond to and obey is your faith in God's word. Remember Jesus said this kind needs fasting and prayer. It is not just fasting and prayer. It's fasting and prayer based on the word. Demons can only be removed or taken dominion over through faith. When you begin to lack faith, that’s when they begin to go off track. You begin to depend on the flesh. You begin to depend on other things except faith. If God tells you to do something do it with all your heart. And you believe that God will bring the people to help to fulfill that vision.
My second point on this quality of faith, which exercises dominion, is loving not our own life. We overcome Satan by the Blood of the Lamb, by the word of our testimony, and by loving not our own life. If your faith is such that you are not prepared to die for your faith then your faith is not a faith that you could live by. Real faith is faith that you are willing to die and place your entire life on. Let me show the reason. In the book of Heb.2: 14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death He might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil. There is one force that Satan uses to hold people in bondage: the fear of death. Fear of death sounds very strong. We say we are not fear death. We know that when we die we are going to be with Jesus. Then we put it in this other way. Loving not your lives means also the risk of losing your entire life, which includes your property, your position and everything else. A lot of people say yes I know when I die I go to heaven. But right now they are not willing to risk all for Jesus. People who are not willing to risk all for Jesus are too attached to the things of this world. It may be your position, your possession or other things. Many people are walking around like the little peanut cartoon; the little fellow who goes around with his security blanket. They will follow God as long as the security blanket is not taken away from them.
True faith, genuine faith is not that simple normal faith you exercise for food on the table or other simple things. I am talking about taking dominion over the world. When you confront Satan the one thing that Satan throws against you is that fear for your own life. And unless we become a people who are not afraid for our own life, but we are only concerned for the word of God and for the vision of Jesus we can never take dominion over the nations of the world. Most people when you talk about doing something for God they begin to count the cost. And if the cost is too heavy they are not willing to pay the price. Or they may not know the price and halfway along they realize the price is quite costly and they start back tracking. That’s not the way to take dominion. Satan is afraid of only one type of believer. He is not afraid of all the other believers although potentially he should be afraid of them. It is because the believers are not taking dominion. Satan is only afraid of believers who take God at His word and fear not death. That’s the only type of believers that Satan runs from. All the others the moment Satan threatens them they are afraid. Threaten them with a bit of persecution they get frightened. Threaten them with the loss of possession they get frightened. Threaten them with a little bit of the loss of their prestige they get frightened. Don’t even talk about threatening them with their lives. You can't hide it; these are things that are real.
Let me ell you there are a lot of believers who outwardly say they are willing to die for Jesus. When it comes to actually doing it, very few are really willing. That’s why we don’t have a strong body of Jesus Christ on this planet earth. There are but there are not enough of people like that. And Satan will have control over your life. That is how he rules the world. Look at Heb. 2:14 that’s how he rule the world and put the whole world under his bondage by putting the fear of death, the fear of losing their own property. We should reach a point of complete surrender to God where our lives, our properties, our positions and everything are in the hand of God. Like the 3 Hebrew children Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego they said we would not compromise. If we die we die. People who chose nations are people who are willing to lay down their life. Unless a grain of wheat falls on to the ground and die it will not bear much fruit. Look at what the Hebrew children say in the book of Daniel and they said before the king in chapter 3:16-18 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up." That is uncompromising faith. Faith is this kind of thing. If you die, you die. People who are afraid for their life, their possession, their property, their prestige, cannot be used by God to take dominion over the nations of the world. Because the price is very great to win the nations of the world; it is not just a small price. Sometimes I laugh at people who say they claiming 10 million souls for Jesus. They don’t know the price they talk about. The first step God gives them is the ant bite step, which comes in the form of misunderstanding and persecution from brethren. They can't even pass the ant bite test don’t talk about other thing.
Turn to the book of Esther 4:16 "Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish." You know what she says if I die, I die. She is a queen who had everything to gain. I mean if everyone gets affected she is still a queen. Look at what she had to loose. Sometimes when you think about people like that who had walked with God. And you think about people who hold so tightly to their little bicycle or little motorbike, it is nothing in comparison to what Queen Esther had to give up. We don’t realize what God wants to use our life for. Be willing to die for Jesus.
Now I bring you what Peter said. When the Lord Jesus said every one of you would desert me only one will betray me. Then Peter said Lord I will be with you. I will be prepared to die for you. Positive confession. But let me tell you positive confession is not enough. You need positive faith. Real genuine faith of what God wants you to do. When Jesus started revealing all these thing to them. Look at Lk. 22:33 And he said to him, "Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death," What did Peter said I am ready to go with you to prison and to death. Big mouth. Tonight when we pray I pray to God that there will be something deeper than just confession. It will be what I call a commitment. You know how many times young people when they fall in love they say I love you. Then the next problem comes they don’t love any more. Some people call that puppy love. Young people confess their love. They pledge their allegiance to one another. The first problem comes and they run off.
Let something happen to our hearts tonight that there is really a true quality of commitment to Jesus. Maybe you met Jesus many years ago. You fell in love with Jesus for all that you have done for your life and you committed your life to Him and you accepted Him as your personal Lord and Savior. But tonight as you pray let something happen to your life. Let there be a commitment to Him on to death. I am not saying that will happen but I am saying that kind of commitment must be there. I have my commitment to Jesus. You can have your cross. You can bear your cross but after every cross there is a resurrection story. There will always be a beautiful ending. I know that as long as I lay down my life for Him and as long as I follow His word and follow Him that this physical life will change 4 to 5 billion lives on this planet earth. Would you exchange that for your life? History needs to see just one man or one woman committed to Jesus who can change the world. All we need is just one. Let me tell you I intend to be that one. If you want to join me come along. I intend to live my life on this earth such that eve if I have to risk everything I want to follow Jesus to the very end. We don’t need many. It took 120 disciples to change the world. We can have just one person on this earth who will live in the power of the Holy Spirit. It begins from the commitment from our heart and understanding this kind of faith that God wants us to have. Once you have it stay with it. Join the band of disciples that will mean business with God. In the midst of the church where there may be one thousand strong we need a band of committed people who would mean business with God. That would be the unseen invisible backbone to the revival that God is bringing to this planet earth. There will always be followers but we need leaders. If you are willing to join the team I will back you with all that we have. That’s the only way to take dominion.
In the bible, who are the people who exercise dominion over nations? Queen Esther exercised dominion. If she didn’t make the decision to save her nation, today we would never hear of her at all. God would have raised up help from somewhere else. Look at Daniel who affected the nation under 4 kings. What were his commitments? No. 1 he was someone who have faith in God. He believes that God is in the midst of people who did not see the reality of God. Tell me how many people still want to keep Jewish laws when the Jewish nation was completely eradicated and all of them have become captives. Jerusalem was destroyed. The temple and every stone had been destroyed. There is no semblance of even the Jewish religion. How many people would keep their faith under such circumstances? But Daniel had faith in God. In the midst when the system of religion has completely broken down he still had faith in God. I know that Jesus is real. I know that the bible is real. I know that the revival God intends to give is real. And we need to make a commitment to follow that. We need to believe what God says in His word. We must have an absence of doubt and unbelief and fear. And we must have a commitment onto death for this dominion over nations. Daniel for the sake of following the word that he had was willing to pay the price with his own life. Do you know that when he knew that he would die, he continued praying 3 times a day? He still went on. For him his faith means so much. How many Christians would still go to church on Sunday if told that they would be shot. If you were ever caught worshiping you will be shot. How many Christians would spiritualize it and stop worshiping God? But the Christians who would continue keeping their commitment to God will see the hand of God protecting them.
We need that commitment to God. I pray tonight that we will rise up in our commitment to God to the word that God has given to us. As we pray tonight firstly examine everything that God has spoken in your life. Have you been true to them without doubting? If you have not once and for all tonight make a commitment to God that you will never doubt any more what He told you to do. Because one little doubt will stop you right where you are in your track. Physically you are still moving and doing things. But spiritually you have been stopped in your track. Firstly examine every thing that God has spoken. I am not talking about the written word. I have on my own personally listed the things God told me to do. Let no man or demon ever stop those things God told me to do. I just bulldoze through them because I have a mandate from heaven. And I want to finish my mandate from heaven. What is your destiny and mandate from God? Have you heard from God the mandate for your life? Are you prepared to live and die by that mandate?
Secondly let the quality come into your life as you pray tonight. The quality is almost like the time when you first accepted Christ but in a different way. Now you are embracing the cross of Jesus to your very bosom. It is one thing to accept Christ. It is another thing to accept the cross that He gives to your life. And you are willing to embrace it because behind the cross is the demonstration of the resurrection power. Tonight embrace the cross in your life. Jesus says that unless you take up the cross and follow Him you cannot be His disciple. A lot of people accept Jesus as Lord and Savior because of what they can receive not because of what they can give up. But tonight as you pray and if you want dominion over the nations, you need to lay down your all and take up the cross of Jesus. And have a commitment to Him that you are willing to go all the way with Jesus. You won't just say it with your lips. There is something that comes out from your inside. Sometimes we struggle to reach that stage. Let me tell you it is a struggle to embrace the cross of Jesus to your bosom. It's the struggle of self-preservation. It's a struggle to yield our all and our lives to Him. But once you yield you find that beyond the cross is the resurrection life that He promises you. When you reached that stage there will be a dominion that comes into your life that you never received before. It is that kind of dominion that whatever you do, say and believe that will affect the life of every other human being on this planet earth.
4. THE SECRET PLACE OF THE MOST HIGH
Lets look at the book of Ps. 91 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, who abides in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, "My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust." For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence; he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrows that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand; but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your habitation, no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent. For he shall give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot. Because he cleaves to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, and show him my salvation.
This is a very powerful Psalm. If we take it that it was a continuation from Ps. 90 then it would have been Moses who wrote it. If we take it that it was a separate Psalm by itself, it could have been David who wrote it. It was definitely written by one who has a tremendous experience with God. Tonight I want to talk about the secret place of the Most High. There is a place in God that we could reach that very few have come into. Sometimes some people have a glimpse of that place. Other people have a temporary experience of that place. But it is in God and the call of God that we would come and live and constantly be in that place - the secret place of the Most High. It’s a powerful place to be in.
Being in the secret place of the Most High gives you power with God that is not possible for the normal people. Being in the secret place of the Most High puts you in a position where you could reason with God. There have been people in the old covenant who have done that. People like Abraham who has in a sense interceded and come to God and say God if there be 50 righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah will you spare it. And God said yes. And he started coming down 40, and then he goes down finally to 10. And God listened to Abraham. God hearkened to his request. It was as if Abraham was invited to a board meeting with God. It is as if that here is a program of action and the board can still make a decision and change it.
Imagine a big factory. You could either be a factory worker who has to see that the parts under your section are properly placed the way they should be. Or you may be the supervisor who has more authority and is overseeing all the factory workers. Or you may be the manager who makes decision about how much to produce and stock. Or you could go further and be a director or one of the board members. And you make bigger decisions. The greater the degree of position and authority, the greater the decision-making affects the people down the line. When a factory worker makes a decision, he may affect just the product he is handling. When a supervisor makes a decision it may affect several people and how they are going make their shift work. When a manager makes a decision everybody under him get affected. When a board member makes a decision the whole factory gets affected. There are different degrees of natural authority.
And there are different degrees of spiritual authority. We have always understood that all Christians are kings and priests. But one of the things we begin to learn in Christian life is that there are different callings. And based on different callings God gives different assignments and different authority to carry out that calling. There is also different zeal. Some have a greater zeal to seek God but some are half hearted. And that different amount of zeal produces a different amount of closeness with God. It takes zeal to come to know God intimately. There is a place in God call the secret place of the Most High where it's like entering the boardroom of God. Obviously by the time you enter the boardroom a lot of things would have happened to your life. A lot of the sharp edges have been polished so that we cannot see any more sharp edges. A lot of the character flaws that make you carnal would have been chopped off. Such that when you are in that position and God gives you an offer like He offered Moses, saying, "Moses I will destroy all the Israelites and make of you a great nation." What an offer. Moses says, "No, Lord. What about the honor of Your name? What will people say of You?" And God relented. What authority he had with God.
Now there are a lot of people who would like to have that kind of authority. And every time somebody displeases them, they would say, "O God zap that fellow, zap this fellow." If God were to give them an offer like He gave Moses, asking, "Would you like me to zap them?" they would have said yes. For that very reason they are not God's board members. It is strange those who want that power with God they can't get it. Those who don’t want it they have it. They don’t misuse their authority. Many people would wish that they had the same power of Jesus. When Satan came and said to Jesus to turn the stones into bread, Jesus had the power to do so. But when you reached that point that He reached, you don’t want to use that power to fulfill your own needs. But when Satan comes to many people and tell them to turn the stones into bread, they would instead turn the stones into gold.
It is important for us to know that there must be something in that authority that people can reach with God. But in the process of reaching it you become like God your nature has to be transformed. Obviously it has something very closely linked to a nature transformation in our being in order to reach that level of authority. None of the qualification of leadership specifies gifting of power. They specify areas that have to do with our life style, with our attitude, with our heart, with our character. And Paul was talking about bishops and deacons and elders and these are places of spiritual authority. Obviously character development has a lot to do with spiritual authority.
Spiritual authority is not necessarily the same with spiritual power. Spiritual power comes through an endowment by the Holy Spirit upon. It comes through the gifting of the Holy Spirit and the call of God. Spiritual authority comes as a result of your inner character development. Spiritual power comes from the outside and spiritual authority comes from the inside although the two are related and they function very closely together. When authority works power flows. When power flows it seems that the person has authority. But there is a difference. One is a life the other is a gift.
When somebody gets an anointing upon and they begin to exercise dominion, they begin to take authority over the nations. It's through an anointing upon that they are doing it. It's through a gift that is not based on works that are doing it. And the moment the anointing leaves there is no more authority. They are functioning based on power and not based on authority. Under the anointing as they function in that power it produces authority. And they really move the hand of God. So when spiritual power works it produce spiritual authority. When spiritual authority works it produces spiritual power. There is one difference: spiritual authority is permanent. It’s part of our development and life. Spiritual power is temporal based on an anointing upon. That is why sometimes you can have a young Christian whose life is not very developed and who can be very carnal and yet who can flow in the anointing. Lets say a minister who is young in the Lord and who has a tremendous gifts of God. Then under the anointing he began to take authority and power and do many signs and wonders. When the devil flees, he is responding to the gift of God. But the moment that anointing leaves the minister sometimes you are shocked at his character. And yet that person has so much authority. It is the gift of God.
The secret place of the Most High has to do with authority. Notice in the book of Matt. 28:18 And Jesus came and said to them. "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.Some of us have read that scripture so many times that you could read it again and don’t get anything. Let me put it in a different way. All authority has been given to me in heaven and in the United States of America, in Malaysia, in Asia, in Africa, can you see what I am talking about now. It says on the earth. The bible is very descriptive. Sometimes the bible speaks about under the earth where there are demonic powers. But here He is saying all authority, whether natural and spiritual, is in Jesus' hand. Let that sink in a bit. It’s a very powerful word. All the authority that controls all the nations of the world, all the government is on His shoulder. How did He get it? Did He get elected? How did Jesus get authority? Understand it in this way: all kings, all presidents and all world leaders received permission from God to rule and reign. In a sense I am saying nobody is actually democratically elected. If it is not God's will for anyone to rise up, it's impossible to get elected. God holds the reigns of influence of the heart and mind of people in His hands.
I must trace certain things so that you can see further. Our 20th century in terms of man's history in comparison to every other century is like a century of democracy. We forget that on this planet earth all authority is given to Jesus. Even in the Old Testament it was in the hand of God. No one could rise whether it is a monarchy, a democracy, a socialism or whatever, no one could have authority unless the highest court of the universe where the real board meeting takes place and where heaven decides and said so. God has planned every human government from the ages. But He doesn't reveal everything. But He brings forth another part of His planning and says Gabriel it is now time for Persia to have authority. It's my plan so go forth. And Gabriel comes to this planet earth. And there was one of the mightiest kingdoms that was ever established, the Babylonian Empire. And Gabriel comes and sees the might and the power that was there. He comes and says authority is taken away from you. And then he goes to the middle Persian Empire and comes to Darius the Mede and says Darius authority is now yours. And he strengthens his hand. And Darius may or may not know it. Darius may or may not have met Gabriel. Understand this Gabriel may not have manifested himself to Darius. Darius may not even know what was going on. He doesn't know that Gabriel is helping him. If Gabriel is not helping him he can tell ten thousand people to join him, the ten thousand people will say no way. But with Gabriel helping him its different. When authority came on Darius the Mede suddenly he became prominent. Suddenly their fame went forth.
Now it looks like it is by the might of the human army. We rule God out of the picture. When somebody wins we look for natural reasons. We never look for whether God is there. All these things I am talking about are in the bible. In the book of Dan.11: 1 the angel Gabriel said, And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him. Notice the two things angel brought to Darius: I confirm him and strengthen him. How did he confirm him? He brought that authority and put it on him. Something happened to Darius' life, and as a result he rises up as a king. The angel also strengthens him. But there is something Gabriel said in Dan.10: 20 Then he said, "Do you know why I have come to you? But now I will return to fight against the prince of Persia; and when I am through with him, lo, the prince of Greece will come. Notice something here, when Gabriel goes the prince of Greece will come. How do we see the whole picture? It was God who gave power and authority to Darius the Mede and the middle Persian Empire. At the same time God also allowed Cyrus to rise up as king. It was a twin kingdom that came forth. The Middle Persian Empire we call it in history rose up through God's help.
After they have rose up in power, as usual the people forgot God. And they began to depend on their own strength and on their own might. And after receiving the position they began to use that position to do the wrong thing. You know people can start in the spirit and end up in the flesh. And they began to yield to the wrong thing. And the devil that is all the time deceiving, stealing, killing, destroying, when he saw the power the Persian had, he crept in and slowly influenced the Persians. When he succeeded in doing that, he places his princes over Persia. And slowly Persia came to the point where it was no more doing what God wanted it to do. But who gave that authority - God. And who stole that authority - Satan. Now isn't this a familiar story.
And if you think that this is only one story I could account many others in the bible. Who gave the Israelites the land of Canaan - God? Now in the end after they became mighty, after they are rich and they are prosperous they forgot the Lord. They yielded to Baal worship. They yielded to idolatry. And God has to take away the authority and give it to somebody else. Can you see that same pattern? God gave and the devil stole. This has been the same story in the history of the nations of the world. When Gabriel was coming in by that time the Persian Empire had already reached a point where demonic powers were now influencing it. And Satan has set one of his key guys called the prince of Persia to rule and reign over something that was God. This is true in the book of Daniel, in the history of nation and is also true in our own life. Who gave Adam the authority? Who stole it from him, same story?
In Dan.11: 1 Gabriel gave Darius the Mede he confirm and strengthen him. And it also happened to Cyrus. Remember whatever God gives has the power to reproduce. All you need to do is to learn to yield to that gift. But there is always a human choice to use it wrongly. Don’t forget that somebody is longing for that authority. Who is that guy - the devil? He steals that authority by dominating and influencing the Persians until Persia became evil. God then removes the Persians' power and God commanded power to be given to the Greeks. Gabriel goes and sends the authority now to the Greeks. And Gabriel goes and began to strengthen the Greeks. Notice here when he came to Daniel at that time he was seeking to remove the prince of Persia. Michael the Archangel helped Gabriel because the latter was being opposed. Now notice in verse 20 again. Do you know why I have come to you? And now I must return to fight the prince of Persia. He must return to fight the prince of Persia to take back what God has given. When God take it from you no one can help you.
God took his glory out of Israel and that was the end of Israel. As long as the glory was on Israel they were never defeated. But every time they sinned the glory was affected and Israel became subjugated. Then you find a man who knows God and he brings Israel to greatness. Then you find a man who doesn't know God and he brings Israel back into sin. And the story of kings went that way, back and forth. Finally God says there is too much sin and idolatry I am taking my glory back.
In the book of Ezekiel it records how God called His glory back. And the day the glory left judgment began to fall. So Gabriel came to take off all the authority and gave it to the prince of Greece. We know from history how Greece became a mighty empire. If you look at it, it is quite amazing. In a short time up it comes. What was behind the Greeks' military, economy and government was a gift of God. The incidences that I mentioned are only samples. Every prince, power, emperor, king, prime minister, can only come and rise up because God declares it.
Daniel says in his little prayer here. Dan.2: 20-21 "Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; he removes kings, can you see that, and he sets up kings. And that has been all the way through even in places where it is not mentioned. Pontius Pilate must have got the shock of his life when he basked in the glory of his authority and he said with pride to Jesus, "Don’t you know that I have power to crucify you or to set you free?" And Jesus said to him, "You have no power over me except what have been given to you by God." It shook his very being. Jesus made a statement of what we are teaching today that God determined all authority whether you know it or not. I read the history of Pontius Pilate and how he came up to be the governor. And history records how he manipulated, bribed, twisted, pulled strings, influenced and did every dirty trick he could to be the governor. Let me remind you. It was not because of anything he did. When we look at the story of Jacob, we ask this question. Could Jacob have got his blessings in a different manner with having to resort to trickery? Yes. When his father Isaac was about to bless Esau, did Jacob have to dress in Esau's garment so that when his father touched him, he would mistake Jacob for Esau? His father Isaac was blind. By the way I studied why he went blind. It was because of sorrow. And the father smelt him and said the smell is the smell of Esau but the voice is the voice of Jacob. And the father started blessing him. Jacob need not have done it that way. He could have come to his father and said the blessing belongs to me.
Saul and Jonathan need not have died. Saul could have recognized that God is now anointing David. The authority now goes to David. And who would have been a natural heir? Jonathan. But Jonathan was willing to abdicate his throne for David following God's plan. You have Saul who recognizes that his successor would be David. Jonathan said to David that when David is king he will be next to him. And you would have a happy story. But no, Saul was insecure and he tried to protect his position. He scolded his son Jonathan and said don’t you know that if David live you cannot be king. He was trying to protect. You cannot keep what doesn't belong to you. You cannot keep a position that doesn't belong to you. You cannot keep anything that doesn’t belong to you. When we try to get something by compromise, first of all you will be never happy. Secondly you can never keep what you get by compromise.
All these bible examples show how authority flows from God. And He determines all our boundaries. The authority of Adam has been so divided. When Jesus came one of His mission was to take back all authority and power. Remember what Gabriel did when he came. Gabriel in the Old Testament in Daniel's time went to fight the prince of Persia to defeat him. He said after he has defeated him the prince of Greece will come. Authority has been taken from Persia and released to the Greeks. When Jesus came He took the devil and He put him under His feet. He took all his authority and He walked away with that authority. Jesus rose up and took captivity captive. In Matt. 28 and He told His disciples "All authority have been given in heaven and on earth to me." That’s not the end of the story. Then He goes on "go into the world" You see the picture now. The authority He had He now gives to the church. And the church of His is to go into the world and declare that Jesus is Lord. The essence of the message is that we are going out with the flag of Jesus that is victory and Jesus is Lord.
Do you know what happened in heaven when Jesus went up there? The Father declare now let very creature in heaven bow to the name of Jesus, let every knee bow and says let all in heaven declare that Jesus is Lord. And Jesus came down and tells His disciples all authority in heaven and on earth is given to me. Go and tell the world about that. And we are supposed to go and tell people that Jesus is Lord and any one who believes in the heart and confess with their mouth that Jesus has risen from the dead and that Jesus is Lord will be saved. And any place that you go to and declare that Jesus is Lord all the demons will run.
Now you know what our job is. Has He asked anything difficult of you? No, but He is asking us to take that authority and go out and declare that Jesus is Lord. Remember this: who gave us the authority? Jesus. Who is trying to steal it? Satan. And for some time in church history he has stolen it. Let me tell you he is going to steal it from your life. We need to rise up to the authority God has given us to partake of. We need to know that secret place of the Most High. Please understand if you catch a hold of this truth you won't be the same type of Christian. The devil can steal and he has stolen a lot of the rights that belong to the believers.
Ps. 91:1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, who abides in the shadow of the Almighty. The proper rendering is actually he who dwells in the secret place of Elyon shall abide under the shadow of the El Shaddai. There is a progression here. The same progression was the progression that Abraham took. When he began to walk with God he came to a place in his life. That is why you need teaching before you go into prayer. Sometimes you don’t have enough of the word of God and you try to move into the realm of the Spirit you get a funny view. Sometimes I hear people talk about such-and-such a thing is going to happen to the church. I ask where did you hear that. If you hear something from the devil and you repeat what the devil said you will get what the devil said. That’s how the devil steals. I have heard people prophesy wrong things. When we first started this church they said that it would never go past 200 people. Church growth has different phases with its different crises and difficulties. Remember all difficulties are just a new wisdom tooth. The only difference is the joy gets bigger.
I remember when the church was 3 years old, it had different things that were interesting to me. Some of them say we are loosing people to other churches. We knew we were in the perfect will of God and we just kept growing. There was this particular intercessor that prophesied this and that thing that would happen to the church. I asked him who is the Red Indian chief here. You forgot principle No. 1. You are telling me how to run the church. You are warning me. I said thanks for the warning but I can hear God too. I said everything you heard is from the devil. The Lord told me that 1995 would be a tremendous year. And we have this intercessor that came and prophesied all the bad news. My God didn't tell me that. Do you know where the problem lies? The intercessor didn't know the word of God. He was not established in the secret place of the Most High.
Why did Israel as a nation stop as they left God? If a particular nation in the world were to continue to walk with God and to be faithful to the authority that God has given them, that nation would be around when Jesus comes back. God doesn't give in order to take away. God gives for us to keep it. But when we surrender it to the devil He has to take it back from the enemy because it was in the wrong hand. If Israel had continued faithful to God, God would never have destroyed them. Or permitted them to be destroyed. He didn’t directly destroy them; He just took away the glory and the other nations destroyed them. They don’t know the secret place of the Most High. In the secret place of the Most High you have passed the stage of success or failure. You are just in the glory. There is no such thing as failure any more.
Many people haven't even come to know all the seven names of God. You know one of the names of God means victory - Jehovah Nissi the Lord is my banner. That means in Hebrew that God is your victory. Let me tell you that there are Christians who don’t even know that there is no such thing as failure. And I am surprised when one of the intercessors who are supposed to know God and even worse ministers who were supposed to know God didn't even know one of the 7 names of God. By the way they talk I ask where is your Jehovah Nissi? They don’t even have the basic revelation of God. Those are kindergarten 7 names of God. Those are the A, B, and C of God. What's the problem here? Christians who do not dwell in the secret place of the Most High. They have moved out of that position. And when you move out of that position you cannot see God for whom He is. There is only one place you can really see God for who He is.
When you take a photograph, you will try to get the best shot of the person or scenery. Would you just take the picture of, say, the person's ear? No, you would always try for the best shot, the best angle. There is always one best angle of God and it's in the secret place of the Most High. Look at Gen. 14:19 And he blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High. What did Abraham taste? Abraham tasted victory. He experienced a place of authority. Remember Abraham was fighting against kings. He was without a country; he was a pilgrim in a sense. But when his nephew Lot was taken captive he armed his 318 servants who had never fought before. 318 framers, herdsmen and they went off with Abraham to fight against kings. This is a battle for kings not a battle for farmers. He won any way because he knew Jehovah Nissi. Let me quote some verses that relate to Jehovah Nissi. Every thing that you do shall prosper. Isn't that the absence of failure? That’s in the bible Ps. Chapter 1, Joshua chapter 1, every thing that you do shall prosper. He didn’t say just one thing; he said two things. Even though you mind your own business and somebody touches your nephew, nine kings fell. It's important to understand Jehovah Nissi. Abraham had that revelation. For him there is no second thought of defeat.
When you have a revelation there is no such thing as defeat. When I do something for God failure is not in my mind at all. A lot of Christians haven't even met Jehovah Nissi. I am talking about the authority over nations. You must come to the revelation of Jehovah Nissi. We always teach about Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Shalom. Why is there so little teaching about Jehovah Nissi? You know why. Very few have come to understand that. The revelation of Jehovah Nissi is not there in God's people. They got the 7 names of God but they don’t develop it equally. When you understand Jehovah Nissi imagine a people who knows no failure. Don't you think it’s a powerful group of people? That is the secret of the Most High we are talking about. When you enter into that realm El Elyon he that dwells in the secret place of El Elyon. Now notice the first part of verse one is initiated by us. We must seek to dwell there. Then he says in Ps. 91 part 2 of first verse, Who abide in the shadow of the Almighty (El Shaddai).
Abraham met El Shaddai only in Gen. 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty (El Shaddai)." Now the word El Shaddai is a very intimate revelation of God because the word Shaddai is a Hebrew word for a woman's breast. Abraham was coming to be nursed in God's bosom. First he had a complete revelation to understand and seek God to a certain extend. Now he didn’t have all the 7 names. The 7 names were revealed throughout the bible right through the prophets. But he had a glimpse of some names. We have the advantage of all the 7 revelations names. And El Shaddai was something Abraham had come into. This is the secret place of the Most High. God has drawn him into His bosom.
The best view from God among the four gospel writers Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is John. How different the gospel of John is from all the other gospels. John's gospel was from a different perspective. Matthew's gospel was from the Jewish perspective. Luke's gospel was from the gentile's perspective. Mark's gospel was from a Son of Man perspective. And John's gospel was from the bosom. There is an intimate place in God that you move into. And in that position you see God in ways you never seen before. You enter into the boardroom with God. And there are some things here Ps.91: 2-9 My refuge and my fortress. Verse 3 he delivers me from the snare of the fowler. Verse 4 he will cover you with its pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand; but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your habitation, no scourge comes near your tent.
Do you notice the El Elyon is mentioned 2 times in Ps. 9? This is to emphasize again that the secret place of the Most High is a revelation of El Elyon through which you reach to Jehovah Nissi. You understand that there is a place in God which you have such authority that no demon dares even to confront you. And no evil dares to come near you. No weapon of the enemy can come near you. There is no such thing as fear. It doesn't exist. There is a reverence for God but there is no ungodly, demonic, terrorizing, fearful, anxious. It’s a glorious place to be in. I love the secret place of the Most High. I would love to always abide there. And you could walk in that shadow of the Most High.
Some times when you fellowship with people they begin to put fear in your life. They are not in the secret place of the Most High. In the secret place of the Most High there is no fear. That means that every one who has fears is not in the secret place of the Most High. That excludes a whole lot of Christians. There are many Christians who are dominated by fear. They don’t know the secret place of the Most High. In the secret place of the Most High there is no consciousness of failure. Success and failure has passed that stage; it is immaterial. You are doing God's will. You will be surprised if it is not a success. You know that it will be successful. Your consciousness of victory is so permanent. And I know Christians who are not conscious of victory. In the secret place of the Most High there is no consciousness of failure. Therefore anyone who has consciousness of failure is not in the secret place of the Most High. And that excludes many people.
I encourage you to dwell, to enter, and to abide in that secret place of the Most High. It’s a place where when you walk out the world is literally at your feet. There is no higher place in the universe, no more powerful place in the universe, no greater authority than in the secret place of the Most High. When you walk in that realm it’s a different realm. Literally the world shakes when you walk. Lets look at Ps. 91:13 You will tread on the lion and the adder, this young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot. I want you to know that the word lion in the bible does not only symbolize the Lion of Judah. Lions in the bible are symbols of nations. When Judah was to lead and bring Israel to be a great nation, he was symbolized as Judah the Lion. Ezekiel talks about the young lion. He is talking about rising powerful authority. Young lion and serpent you shall trample under foot. Ps. 91 is a very authoritative Psalm. The secret place of the Most High is the most powerful place. If you understand this truth in your secular call, in your spiritual call the world is at your feet literally.
5. OVERCOMING THE DEVIL
Lets turn to Revelation 12:11 And they overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and that they did not love their lives to the death. Of all the many principles that are mentioned in the word of God from Genesis to Revelation only the above three principles are highlighted in the book of Revelation. These three principles will help us to gain immunity from the enemy. In the context of this verse, the word they refers to the saints during the tribulation under the antiChrist. But we can apply the principles that they used in our present times when we want to overcome the enemy.
It surprises me sometimes that people who have been hearing the faith message teaching for many years still believe that if they do anything for God, the devil will counter attack. And they can quote experiences. They can quote incidences. But they cannot quote the bible. A string of incidences take place then they change their theology and conclude that because of the experiences this must be true. It surprises me that people still believe that way. If it is not scriptural, then it is not for me. We have to draw a line. As long as you can't find a scripture for it you have to stand on a scripture that you know. If God were to reveal to you a new truth, or God wants to change your theology to make it more perfect, He will give you scripture and verse for it. He won't give you an experience to change it. Why was the apostle Paul able to develop a new theology of the church and salvation which Peter and the other apostles did not? We call it a Pauline theology. You know why? He was strong in the word. Peter had more experience with Jesus than Paul. The difference was that Paul had more word than Peter. Paul was brought up under the feet of Gamaliel. But we have to get back to the word of God. Experiences will pass away. Experiences do not last. If you want them to last let the word of God come in. And the word will tell you the purpose of that experience, the key behind the experience and protect you from the wrong experience and lead you to continue that experience for a long time.
Look at other people. Why was Apollos so mightily used the moment he was born again? It was because he was mighty in the word of God. But all he knew was John's baptism. When he came to know the greater truth of the Holy Spirit as taught to him by Aquila and Priscilla, he preached it better than any body else with the same experience. The difference is his knowledge of the word of God.
As we look at confronting demon forces I believe in immunity. There are a lot of ministers who may not believe it but I believe it. I won't try to prove it from experience but I prove it from the word of God. You can't find anytime in the word of God where the devil followed Jesus and disturbed Him after He cast him out. You can't find a place in the bible where the apostles dealt with a demon and the demon followed them and disturbed them. The only time when you find demon following is when you don't deal with them. That is in Acts 16 Paul didn’t deal with it because he just minded his own business. He was not there to show off by casting of demons and exercising his authority. He was there to just preach the word. But when the demon reached a certain point where Paul said this is going too far; he cast the demon out and it never followed him again. Its important for us to understand that there is immunity in God.
Now these 3 things are very important when we confront the devil. No. 1, the power of the Blood. No. 2, the word of our testimony and No. 3 that they love not their own life. And we want to focus on these 3 things.
The Blood
First the Blood. We know that the Blood is essential because we are not perfect. But the Blood of Jesus Christ is not applied so much against Satan as it is working in our lives. There is wonderful power in the Blood. Whenever we fail, whenever we sin, whenever we fall, not only do the circumstances result but something in our soul changes. Falling into sin is just like breaking an egg and you can't put the egg together. It's just something external that happened. It can be something in our soul. And as a result the accumulation of failures and sins become a part of our life. A person may be born into this earth as a cheerful loving little baby. Through a life of sin he becomes a hardened cruel criminal. The accumulation of small little failures and sins remain in the soul even though the sins are committed a long time ago. Every time we fail something on our inside is affected and there is no cure for that except through the Blood of Jesus.
Turn to Heb. 9:11-15 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation he entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sacrifices for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Have you notice that the dead works is inside the conscience, not outside in the hands? When you speak about works we think about actions that had been done. Do you notice that these dead works are internal condition? These are inside the conscience not in your circumstances. It says that he will cleanse you; he will purge your conscience from dead works. He didn’t just say that he would forgive your dead works. Why purge? The word purge is a very strong word. It’s the same word that is used when the body eliminates all the wastes. What's happening here is that every time we fail, every time we fall, there is something that remains on your inside. The sin is not on your outside. It's on your inside. Imagine if your have an accumulation of those things that remain. What kind of personality will you have? What kind of person will you be? How will you be so changed?
Let me explain up to today some of us still have the records of those things that are still there. For some of us the record is still playing. Your sin is 20 years away but its still playing. Its almost like you have inside you a CD ROM. ROM stands for read only memory. And you record it once and you couldn't erase it. Imagine on your inside the moment you are born into this earth physically there is a recorder that starts ticking and you cannot erase it. What happened if you have a hard disk that you cannot rewrite? What happens if you can never ever erase your hard disk? And all the wrong things keep piling up. A day will come when you can't even run your normal program. And that’s what happened in people's life. The record is going on. Some of us have never learned how to erase the hard disk.
Remember when Jesus confronted Satan in the gospel of John He says the enemy is coming and he have nothing in me. He didn’t say he has nothing on me. He says he has nothing in me. He has completely nothing on his inside that he can lay claim to. That’s a good position to be in. You are not ready for international warfare with Satan if you have something of him in you. And if not for the Blood of Jesus Christ he would have something in all of us. Thank God for the Blood. And the power of the Blood is not just to cleanse or forgive you. But remember what the Blood does. And if we learn what it does we can yield to it. To allow the Blood to come over on your inside and allow it to saturate your being in the same way that you allow the Holy Spirit. We need that same Blood. The Old Testament examples are the blood of bulls and goats, which only cover; they don’t remove, they don’t purge. But the Blood of Jesus removes the few radicals in your body. Radicals are things in your body that cause toxic to build up and cause cancer to grow. Anti-oxidants are food that removes all those things at its root.
The same way the Blood of Jesus Christ comes over on our inside. It does something on our inside and removes the little things that have been built up. A lot of people have not allowed the Blood of Jesus to come that far. They allow the Blood of Jesus to cleanse their past, which in their mind is external. Remember the past is not external; it is internal; it is in you. Each one of you exists physically because in the past your parents conceived you. You who are sitting in this room are the result and the statement from the past. Some of us may have things in our body, things in our life that resulted from the past. You are the past manifested in the present. The past does not exist as a history book. The past exists as an internal mechanism on our inside that continues its existence in the present into the future. And some of the things that occur in our life are recorded on our inside and it continues the past much that we don’t want. All our weaknesses, all our strengths, all the habitual sin that we fight constantly is the past. If you ever had a habitual sin, the past is continuing in your life until and unless you find the secret way to allow the Blood of Jesus to purge that root out of your life. And remove it once and for all.
What's the solution in that No. 1 repentance, No. 2 prayer. Remember in Acts 8 when Simon the magician came to Peter, he was already born again and baptized in water and he wanted the power to lay hands on people but his attitudes and his motives were wrong. And Peter says I perceived that you are in a root of bitterness. And Peter told Simon to repent and then Simon asked Peter to pray to God for him. So first thing to do is to repent and to say sorry to God. The second thing is to spend time praying over it. If you ever fall not only do you repent but you also have to spend time praying over it. Pray over the situation and allow God to deal with that immediately.
What about things that are too far away? Whenever those things stir up on your inside and are exposed immediately begin to turn them to God. Have that season of prayer saturation as you yield yourself to God and allow the Blood to work. I know that the Blood can work instantly. Many of us don’t realize how the power of the Blood works. The Blood can also work over a period of time. I know that the Holy Spirit can work instantly. But there is also a work of the Holy Spirit that is gradual. How come we believe that about the power of the Holy Spirit? We know that Holy Spirit can work instantly by the anointing upon. We know the Holy Spirit can work gradually and work out the character of Christ in our life. The Holy Spirit can also give what I call a gradual miracle because He heals from the soul without. And He has His purpose because some sicknesses are psychosomatic. He heals the psyche first before He heals the body. So He works within slowly.
And we believe the same way about the power of the word. The word of God can work instantly and yet at the same time there is a gradual working of the word, which is a deeper work. We believe the same way about the power in the name of Jesus. There are times that you have to stand on the name of Jesus. There are other times when you just call on the name and you are saved. But other times standing on the name of Jesus you put your faith out and time passes and you are still standing on the name of Jesus. You are still calling on the name of Jesus. There is a gradual work; there is an instant work that takes place in our life. The gradual work and the instant work are different. Of course when you are dealing with demons the use of the name of Jesus will brings result instantly. Now if there is any delay it is because of our own faith.
There are other times when you are praying, you believe in God for something. And when you are praying you are praying in Jesus' name. Tell me why does it take time? Because some times the name of Jesus has to be used over a period of time to remove the mountain. When you are standing on the word that you speak basically it is because of the name of Jesus. Some of us have prayed for 10 years before some prayers take place. But we were standing firm. Some things take time depending on what we are asking in the name of Jesus. But what do we do in the meantime before the answer comes? We are standing believing God. When it comes to prayer there are some areas where the name of Jesus works in our life through time. There are some areas where it works instantly; it is totally different area.
We believe that way about every area of power in the spirit realm. How come we don’t believe that about the Blood of Jesus? In the book of Heb. 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Lets look at chapter 10 where he describes this further. Let me show that in chapter 9 he is talking about an instant work and in chapter 10 he talks about a gradual work. Heb. 10:14-19 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying. This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord; I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds, then he adds, I will remember their sins and their misdeeds no more. Where there is forgiveness of these there is no longer any offering for sin. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus. Therefore brethren - he is talking to believers. He is talking to people who know the Lord and who have been born again. Who know what it is to instantly receive cleansing through the Blood of Jesus. We have always used the Blood when we fail. Let me tell you, you don’t use the Blood only when you fail. That’s the instant work. The gradual work is where you use the Blood even when you succeed.
There are 2 different works. One is the gradual work, where the Blood of Jesus is transforming you into His very being, having boldness to enter the Holiest. Many have entered into the Outer Court. Many have entered into the Holy Place. But to enter the Holiest, he is not talking about the holiest on this earth because the Blood of Jesus does not apply to any tabernacle on this earth; it is applied to the heavenly tabernacle. To enter the holiest place of all is through the Blood of Jesus. A new and living way and he is no talking about something old. He is talking about something new, which He consecrated for us through the veil that is His flesh.
In verse 20 if the veil of Jesus is His flesh and you enter into Jesus flesh and pass His flesh what do you see. The soul and the spirit of Jesus Himself. Sometimes the flesh hides our spirit and our soul. A lot of people see us in the flesh and they don’t see us in the spirit. If we enter into the flesh of Jesus we see something of Jesus, which many people don’t really know. The vast majority of films of Jesus are based on just looking on the flesh of Jesus. We see His physical suffering, His physical man, His physical perfection, His physical works, but we don’t see what went on beyond the veil of the flesh.
There is something available for us through the Blood of Jesus, that we begin to experience the heart beat, the emotion, the affection. Lets continue reading Heb. 10:20-22 By the new and living way which he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Pure water represents the word of God. Now it didn’t say what we are sprinkled with. If we trace it back to Hebrews chapter 8 it’s the Blood of Jesus Christ. Apparently there is a removal. The moment you sin there is forgiveness. But then there is a deeper process that takes place by the Blood of Jesus if you continue to yield to Him. And even if you don’t sin you allow that Blood to come upon that area of your being. You learn how to yield to the greater power of the Blood of Jesus working in your life. Letting it purge you, change you, and replace all the things that are taking place that are still being dealt with.
There is also a part of cleansing that is immediate; there is another part of cleansing that slowly takes time through several processes. It just like when you clean something. Lets say you vacuum the floor. The moment you vacuum you generally remove a lot of the dust. But you don’t remove the stains. The stains are actually clinging to the carpet. You may have to put some chemicals and then you vacuum. Think about cleaning in every area. You wash your clothes. Generally your clothes are clean but sometimes your clothes are stained. Today they sell a sort of cleaning agent that you spray on those stains. That doesn’t clean the stain as you still need to throw it back to the washing machine. You still need the normal cleansing but you need the extra cleansing.
Look at it this way that whenever we sin there are two things that take place. One you set about a consequent reaction. To every action there is a reaction. So you set something that starts turning. At the same time you set some thing on your inside. The moment you pray you ask God to forgive you. He stopped the circumstances. He removes and cancels the force. Why do we use the extra cleansing? It is because those things cling harder. Those things become a part of your clothes. It is the same way with the Blood of Jesus. There is a process where it needs to soak into our life. We talked about two substances, one the spray to remove the stain and the other the cleansing process. Now the constant one is the constantly yield to the power of the Blood and letting it soak into us, to cleanse us and remove those things out of our life.
How do you know that it is gone? Sometimes you cry and there is clean feeling on your inside. Sometimes you laugh. Some people ask for scripture. Read Psalm chapter one. God sits on the throne and laughs. You can't find a scripture for hand shaking. You can only say that some react that way. There is no such thing as swimming in the Spirit. Why is laughing permitted because it's in the bible Psalm chapter one. There are other cross-references where it mentions joy unspeakable and full of glory. So whatever experience you can find in the bible that’s O.K. Whatever experience you cannot find in the bible, be gracious and allow it as an individual experience. It is fine, as long as it is not idol worship. Don’t run down people like that because part of the experience releases emotional healing.
So we have the Blood of Jesus working in our hearts and our minds doing a work on our inside. Sometimes the healing comes from laughing; sometimes it comes from crying. Let me summarize what it will be like when the Blood of Jesus works on your inside. You will be touched with the feeling and the affection of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is like to experience the emotion of Jesus. You say that Jesus have emotions. Read the book of Hebrews chapter one. He loves righteousness and He hates lawlessness. Don’t tell me hatred is not an emotion. If we could have the same emotion of Jesus we would have the same righteousness of Jesus. Emotion is as powerful as intellectual progress. Intellectual people do things out of emotion as much as they do things on intellectual progress. Emotions affect and influence people a lot. So they are not something to belittle.
Lets look at Phil. 1:8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. This is not the only time. There are other cross-references that implied that. Isn't it true that when you began to feel what Jesus feel you may not sin again. Why is it that people sin and sin again? It is because they don’t feel the hurt that Jesus felt. They don’t feel the grief that Jesus felt. Isn't it amazing that the day you weep over your self, you weep over your failures is when you have really broken through? When you could not weep and cry you never broke through. Or when you found that release and you laugh with joy you have broken through. You know why this wave of God that people is moved into laughter? There is just so much hurt in the body of Christ. I think over 90% of Christians' problems are in their soul. Not just in their spirit, it's in their soul. God comes to heal our soul; God comes to touch our lives, our emotions. The affections of Jesus when you feel what Jesus feel you could do what Jesus did.
The Word of Their Testimony
Second point by the word of their testimony. It's not just by the word. But by the word of their testimony. Testimony is something that we have experienced in God. Look at Heb. 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was attested as having pleased God. So he had a testimony. Today we talk about testimony as God dealing in our life on the positive side where we have a victory. Now I know that the best time to share a testimony publicly is when you have completed the story. When it's half written you may not feel like sharing it. Here it says by the word of their testimony. The bible doesn't really require that you must keep mum until the story is finished. Now in the church and sharing in public and as a group, no doubt its better to have the story complete and then come out and share. But as an individual in our daily walk, in our daily life, you have to keep talking about what God is doing even if it is one quarter of the story. Because the more you talk about your testimony as the story continues, the more you find your place. And that’s a strange thing. I agree about sharing a testimony when it's completed. But we are talking about sharing in public when we are taking the time of thousands of people. But in your daily life you are not supposed to be silent about God's feeling. Even if He gives you a dream, your testimony will help you and encourage you. Even if He did some little work in your life and brought certain conviction and feeling in your life share it, talk about it.
This fellowship and sharing of your testimony does to your inside and brings forth more revelations. Sometimes you don’t see it clearly until you share it. And maybe you don’t understand it yet. For example some of you have a dream. And you don’t understand the dream. You could go to some one and ask for the interpretation. You should talk about it. But talk about it of course to the right people. Don't talk to the wrong persons like Joseph telling his brothers who hated him. As you talk about this dream something happens. Lets say for example you have a dream and you say, "I had this dream that I don’t fully understand and I won't confess I don’t fully understand I just had this dream. And in this dream this thing happened. I find the dream interesting and encouraging." You may encourage the other person too. You don't understand it yet. As you talk, you speak a seal upon it that you have received it. Sometimes as you share there is a release. You see the process is not complete until it's spoken.
Let me us a bible story for illustration. Jesus spent 3 years with His disciples. They knew He was the Son of God. They believed He was the Son of God. They acted like He was the Son of God. They obeyed Him like He was the Son of God. They did everything He told them to because they were really convinced that He was the Son of God. There were many times they could choose not to follow Him. When others left Him Jesus asked, "Do you want to go too?" And Peter said, "Master you have the word of life." They recognized He has something from God. But finally the process is complete when He asks them, "Who do you say that I am?" He put them in a crossroad. That was the day when they finally declared that He is Christ the Son of the living God. From that moment forward the confession of their mouth released their faith. Their faith was sealed and Jesus could do something for them when they were tempted and fell. They were going to doubt again. Some of them were going to be scattered. But something had been sealed. Peter denied Jesus but his seal of confession did not allow him to completely fall away. He regretted his denial because he believed and sealed his belief by his confession.
When two people are in love, they could get engaged. But even engagement can be broken sometimes. They could be going steady and announce their engagement to everybody. But until they walk down the aisles and make a commitment and confess their consent publicly, they are not sealed. But once it is sealed, come what may, troubles may come, hardship may come, they would stand by each other. Trials may come they will stand by each other. Temptations may come they will stand by each other. Because their mutual love was sealed by their public confession.
Take the testimony of the confession or the word of our testimony as a sealing of something of a process. All things have process and at the end of it you seal it. When you write a letter, at the end of it you sign it. You could write halfway and if you don’t sign it, it is not acknowledged as yours. Somebody could put his or her signature there. I am not just talking about confessing the word. I am talking about the dealings of God in your life. You see God loves to hear it. Just like Jesus likes to see His disciples seal the fact that He was the Son of God. He knew of course He knew that they believe. But they still needed to confess it in order to seal it. God loves to hear us speak about His dealing in our lives. The more we speak about it the more solid it becomes on your inside. Find people you can share with to talk about the things of God. The more you talk about the things of God the more solid it becomes. That’s where when people fellowship with the wrong people and they talk nonsense, you don’t get to share your testimony. You don’t get to share about God and talk about God's dealing. God is dealing with our life all the time.
For example some of you may have a call. But as you talk about God's call and how God deals with you it gets stronger. Then as you fellowship with people who have a calling and who are doing God's work, and you talk about God's dealing with you, it strengthens you further. It seals the process of God working in your life. Why do you have to seal? Because once it is sealed the devil may come after you and you won't loose it. The moment Peter confesses that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God he has come under the umbrella of Jesus. So that Jesus said,"Simon, Simon, Satan desire to shelve you as wheat. For before the cock crow twice you shall deny me thrice times. But I prayed for you." Why was Jesus so confident? It is because He knew it was already sealed. He knew victory was already assured. Because what we speak releases a force like a wind. We are a result of our confession today. What you confess out of the dealings of God would be the result that you would have in 5 years' time. Speak about that don’t keep silent.
Lets say God is dealing with your life. But your mouth won’t tell anybody. He is getting you to talk about it. But you are not talking about it so it is not sealed. So the devil puts pressure on you and you are not talking about it. He keeps putting more pressure on you until you say the wrong thing. He has taken off something from you. You have just aborted a little baby. God being merciful will deal with your life again. So He will start the process all over again. And He builds the process. Remember the word of testimony is the end of the process. What happened to the first one? The devil stole it. Then you reached steps 40 of this process. He has to build it on your inside. It is time for you to share the word of testimony. But you are shy, you hold back. You are tongue tight. The devil will try to get you to say the wrong thing. But the moment the process is finished, and you say it in writing he lost one round. And the battle is a different battle now. There will still be battles. But it’s a different battle. Because the moment you say it you have put on a different armor. And the warfare is different. It is guerilla warfare for him. Nobody likes guerilla warfare because you go without food. You fight in the jungle without all the necessities of life. Remember this guerilla warfare cannot succeed when it is very, very long. When it is short it is O.K. because the person who lead the guerilla warfare may have the mental motivation to last long enough. Some never last long beyond one generation.
The moment you confess by the word of your testimony something is sealed that can never be lost. The enemy will only be fighting to make life difficult for you. But he can never really get it off. It's yours forever. But its better than it not being yours you may loose the whole thing. It's important to understand why the word of testimony is important. Share about the dealings of God in your life.
Love Not Our Lives Unto Death
Point three and they love not their own lives onto death. Jesus said something about Satan in the gospel of Matt. 16 when he was rebuking Peter for allowing Satan to use him. Jesus said, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men." (Matthew 16: 23). I believe the key work of the enemy so that he can gain a foothold is in selfishness. He can creep in even when you are a Christian, born again, baptized in water, baptized in the Holy Spirit, tongue speaking, holy laughter, tears crying, groaning in the Spirit, dancing in the Spirit, hand lifting and all those things that make you a Christian. Isn't it interesting to be a Christian today you got so many qualification. If you got anything less they consider you half a Christian. Interesting how the world has changed. Imagine long ago in Martin Luther's time when you come to know Jesus just by faith, you join the Reformation. By John Wesley's time, it was not a matter of being justified by faith, but a matter of not enough sanctification. When it came to Azusa Street, you are born again, fine but that doesn't make you a real Christian. Baptized, yes; there are thousands of Christians baptized, so what? Speaking in tongues, no; and then you are only a two third Christian. Nowadays we add so many things we wonder what else we are going to add.
Selfishness can come in many ways. Among ministers it can come to them by being selfish about their church. Insecurity is the reverse form of selfishness. Insecurity is the reverse form of self-centeredness. Because you want to have self-preservation therefore you react by being insecure. Selfishness is the form of seeking your own open doors in the ministry and not helping another one. Selfishness can creep into any area. Selfishness is where when you are blessed and you don’t share your blessings with others. Selfishness in the business world is that you succeed and you see people who are still needy, yet you afford yourself all the luxuries and give only a small portion to help others enjoy some luxuries. You buy all the best cars. You buy four, five cars when you only need two. And what are the others for? For display. Selfishness is when you buy more than one home. You use the other home for holidays while others go without even having their own home. And you do nothing to help. It can come in many ways and we are still Christians while being selfish because we have a ticket to heaven. Selfishness can come even as a normal Christian when we are only thinking about ourselves, our food, clothing and shelter, because that is all we can have. And we are so absorbed in our own life that we are not interested in anybody else's life. Selfishness is what builds Satan's kingdom.
Selfishness is something that we have to deal with all our life. As long as we are in God we have free will. As long as you have free will you always have a choice. Lets turn to Phil. 2:5 Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus. I have studied the mind of Jesus so much in my daily life. Because I really want to have the mind that Jesus have. But the more I study it the more I realize that there is something more in it. It looks like there is a never ending thing you could draw but the mind of Jesus. As we look at the mind of Jesus have you ever conceived what kind of mind that Jesus had. I am not just talking about intellectual progress or His ability or skill. I am talking about what's on His mind all the time when He was on this earth. The more I meditate on that I realize one thing. I don't think that Jesus had a single selfish thought in His life. He may have been offered some situations, tempted like us, but Jesus never had a selfish thought. He never thinks about Himself, His life, His finances, His food, His clothing, His shelter, and I could find many situations. When He was very hungry and when He was very tired and when He was sitting on the well, tired, thirsty, hungry and His disciples had gone to buy lunch. When He saw the woman His heart reached out to that woman. And the disciples came back and wondered why He was talking to the woman. He said He had enough food to eat. And His disciples asked Him who went to buy food for Him. Jesus was not talking about physical food. Jesus was talking about His food in doing the will of God. And do you realize that in that story He never really go to eat His lunch nor to drink the water. Remember how the conversation started. He asked the woman to give Him a drink. And this woman started talking all kinds of things and didn’t give him a drink. And Jesus had to minister to her. And when she was blessed He still didn’t get a drink. In the whole story there was no record that He ever got a drink. His tongue hung out with thirst witnessing to the woman, prophesying to her, or operating the word of knowledge and blessing her. She was so blessed but He was never fed nor quenched in His physical hunger or thirst. And she ran off to witness to the whole town and forgot to give Him a drink. Jesus never thought about Himself. If it were any other pastor they would be fuming mad. "Come and give me a drink first. Don’t you know I am a servant of God? It says in the Bible, "He that labor among you is worthy of double honor" Therefore give me two cups." Jesus never did that.
In the ministry we learn to die to self. Have compassion on those new in the ministry. They come in with great zeal but with a lot of self as well. They have plenty to die. Let me share some examples. I was in the Baptist church as a Baptist pastor. Most of the time I am really very nice. But just one day I had a late night, tired, having worked very hard through the week. And there is a girl who used to go for the early Morning Prayer and she locked the door. Of all the days it was the one day she didn't bring the key. She woke me up early in the morning. I think it was about 4 or 5 a.m. "Pastor, are you awake?" I know that sometimes God wakes you up at 4 in the morning. I got up and I was irritated and I practically told her off. Please arrange it with somebody else and I went back to sleep. When I got up later I felt sorry that I was irritated with her. What kind of pastor is this that when a church member comes at 4 am to pray, she was told off. If it would be any other time that she woke me up, it would be encouraging. And I learned that in whatever circumstances you must learn to put your own feeling down. If there is anything that is for God even at your own sacrifice, your own pain, even if there is a nail piercing on your right toe and it's painful, someone in the ministry needs ministering you still got to minister to them first, pray for them, and see that they get a taxi to go home. Then you can go and pull out that nail. It is so true in the ministry. And we all got so much to die to in our own self. You could go to God and plead to God and say God you know this situation. Jesus will just look down and say, "Let it be so." You know why He could say that. Because He has done it. There were many times I am sure when He was woken up in the morning, woken up in the night and asked, "Have you got a word for me." "Yes, thus says the Lord, read the bible." Some of you who are new in the ministry haven't got your share yet. God doesn't just want the ministers to experience dying to self; He wants every Christians to deal in that area.
After so many years in the ministry my prayer is different. My greatest desire is when I look at people I could feel the experience the love for Jesus has for people. Many times when after a prayer meeting, you go out and look at the people in the bus stop, you really feel that compassion for them. You really feel that they were souls dying without Jesus. I found that the more unselfish you are the more your life touches people, whether you are called to the ministry or not. You could be just a little housewife. But you are known for your Christ likeness in your little way. In the way you bake a little cake and send it to a home and touch the lives there. And in the way you do things for the poor and needy, you would touch people's life like Dorcas' life touched people. The more unselfish your life whether you are a minister or a mere Christian you would touch people. That’s why I know that, that’s the goal that we need to have. We become more compassionate until we always consider people; we always consider others. And some people are afraid of that. You know why they are afraid. They are afraid that they will sacrifice everything and loose everything. There is no such thing in the bible. Peter came to Jesus in Mk. 10 and said Lord we have left all and followed you. Jesus says He will add to you in this life a hundred fold of houses and land and family, brothers and sisters in this life and in the life to come. But many people still cannot get rid of the idea that if they don’t fend for themselves they cannot survive. Yet Jesus said seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added onto you. It didn’t say it would work instantly. Otherwise Paul wouldn't write Gal. 6: 9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
I found this sometimes it takes time for that to work. There have been times when sacrifice has been made and we are really in a situation where we are desperate not because we could have kept ourselves from that situation. But because we have sacrificed so others could have. And sometimes it is so painful until the tears come to your eyes and the need is so great that you got to really pray and get the wisdom of God to negotiate the situation. And when you are negotiating the situation, you know what it is to negotiate a tight financial situation. And all along the way the devil says look what you get for helping others. If you have not done this you would still have all this and that. And there many people who give up. But one thing if you don’t give up you will find the pot of gold beyond the muddy road. That pot of gold is not at the end of the rainbow. That pot of gold is along that long and narrow road. I am talking about the blessings of God. It surely will be there if you will hold on.
To me life is only meaningful when you make someone happy and bring joy to others. At first you do it because its God's command and you feel the pain. Some people say give until it hurts. But you give until the hurts becomes a pleasure. You really feel the pleasure. I remember when we were in a needy situation. And we found that one of the technicians who was doing the renovation lost his drill. Now we were in a situation where we were counting the dollars. And yet in that situation I heard God said he is in need, help. That night I went to get him a brand new drill and bought it for him. Then when I called him I felt something on my inside. I felt like heaven is pleased. You don’t experience that kind of joy until you give when you are in need. You don’t experience II Cor. 8:1-2 until you give when you are in need. Remember the Macedonian Christians and their joy. It's something that you only experience when you give while you are in need. And it costs you something. It costs you because now physically it looks worse. But you know spiritually it is so much better. And that joy is something money cannot buy. The pleasure that comes with the joy when you give until it hurts is something money cannot buy. You end up living your life for others. You find joy. Some people are very unselfish and they don’t find joy doing that. Some people are really selfless and sacrificial but they have no joy. And that’s something that comes in your later stage when you are giving. And that’s when you feel the pleasure, the heart beat of God in that mind frame that comes into you.
And the word mind of Christ is used twice in the New Testament using two different Greek words. One is found in I Cor. 2: 16 For "who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. Here the word mind of Christ refers to the nous, Greek word, of Christ. The other is found in Phil. 2: 5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. And what kind of mind was it? It was phroneo, which in Rom. 8: 6 it comes out again: For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. But in Phil. 2 it says let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus. Now I Cor. 2 tells you what that mind can do. It can understand a lot of things, hear a lot of things that human ear haven't heard. Understand a lot of things that haven't entered human hearts. See there is a lot of things the human eyes have not seen. That is what the mind of Christ can do on the nous side. But now there is a phroneo of the mind of Christ found in Phil. 2, which talks about how to have it. What it does is found in I Cor. 2. How to have it is found in Phil. 2. And that is to let your mind be unselfish. Banish all selfish thoughts from your life. All the thoughts of this world are selfish.
Sometimes when you look at the things of this world you ask why did someone do all this things? Because it is like king Nebuchadnezzar - they do it to have their glory. But when we began to seek the glory of God in our hearts. Something you cannot lie in God. We can lie to people. But God knows your heart. And really from the depth of your heart you are thinking only of Jesus unselfishly. When you build God a house, God will build you a house. If you are someone who is only constantly thinking of your food, clothing, shelter, you are selfish. Although it is right to be responsible, yet it is wrong to be selfish. And you find life is a struggle. But when you give up the selfish thoughts even though they are realistic thoughts and your entire mind is thinking about O God how can I be a blessing to people, that’s the state of mind that has no unselfish thought. Anytime when a thought comes about your own need you banish it. Let me take care of others first and that will take care of itself. And as you practice this higher principle of Christian life, you can in the end become the most unselfish person in the world. When you become like that you become like Jesus. God will take of everything for you.
We have some good examples in society in the life of Mother Teresa in India. She doesn't think of herself at all. Imagine because of what she has done, the whole world today recognize her for her simple work. She was not even known as a great preacher, but is know for the simple work of giving her life to orphans and the unwanted and unloved. In the end her unselfishness becomes to the world a heroic effort and a symbol of what charity can truly be. You are only touched by unselfishness. You are only touched by people's life where they show unselfishness. Think about any natural story, any non-Christian story or any Christian example. The only thing that touches your life is selflessness in other people. Isn't it interesting? Think about every person who have touched your life, every story that have touched your life, in the natural and in the spiritual, in the kingdom of God and in the society of the world. The true life-stories you read in the Readers Digest touches you. Why? It is the selflessness of the people. The trials they go through to sacrificially give their life to others. If they are selfish their lives would never touch others.
And then of course there are many heroes in the kingdom of God, in the bible and in church history. So make a decision tonight. As long as your life is selfish, that is the part of your life that will never touch any one. If you are 90% selfish only 10% really have meaning and really affects the world. The 90% of your life is gone. Only the unselfish part of your life touches other people. The selfish part of your life manipulates people, accuses people, condemns people, judges people, and it never touch people. You know what it does. It hurts people. And that means if you are selfless 10% and 90% selfish, 90% of your life is hurting people. Now you know why you become an instrument of the devil. And why when your life becomes 100% selfless they overcame him by the power of the Blood of the Lamb, by the word of the testimony and that they don’t love their own lives onto death. It is because Satan cannot use a selfless life. He has no ground at all. And that gives you great authority over the devil. When a selfless person prays in Jesus' name the demons tremble. When a selfish person prays in Jesus' name demons are not affected that much. Sometimes some of us have our moment of selflessness. When God touches you or when you are in a prayer meeting, you feel 100% selflessness; you could die for the whole world. Your prayers were very powerful at that time. When you lost that selflessness you lost your power. The goal is to make selflessness a daily pattern in your life. Then your life will always be touching people. If you want to touch this world for Jesus give up selfishness. Even the gift of God can be used in a selfish way. And the gift can function but it doesn't touch anyone. Even a talent could be used selfishly. And it all has to do with a change of heart. Your motivation makes a lot of difference. Let us die to self, forget about ourselves and let our lives mean something for God. There are three things that overcome the devil: the power of the Blood which releases the emotions of Jesus into your life; the word of your testimony sealing the work of God in your life; and loving not your own lives onto death by having the mind of Jesus, the selfless mind.
6. OUR POSITION IN CHRIST
We are going to read Psalms two. Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and his anointed, saying, "Let us burst their bonds asunder, and cast their cords from us." He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, "I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill." I will tell of the decree of the Lord; He said to me, "You are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, with trembling kiss his feet, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way; for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
In the book of Psalms two is the prophecy regarding our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 7 I will tell of the decree of the Lord; He said to me, "You are my son, today I have begotten you. That verse is not referring to Jesus' coming in the manger, born of a virgin, visited by shepherds, when He first came to the planet earth. Verse 7 is referring to the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Like many scriptures if you read it without the Holy Spirit we would conclude that it was referring to His birth in the manger, but its not. It's referring to the resurrection of Jesus. The apostle Paul used that scripture in the book of Acts 13:33 This he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm, "Thou are my Son, today I have begotten thee." And that is where some theologians like E.W. Kenyon got the understanding of the second birth of Jesus based on that verse. Now I know that among evangelicals and other groups of Christians they will say there is no such thing as the second birth of Jesus. How could Jesus be born again? Understand it in this way. Jesus died in His spirit, soul and body for us on the cross. So Jesus was raised in His spirit, soul and body for us; it is just that simple. Man has to be redeemed spirit, soul and body. If Jesus' body died for you, only your physical body is saved. If Jesus' soul died for you only your soul is saved and not your body. If Jesus' spirit didn’t die for you then your spirit is not saved. Jesus has to come as a perfect man. And it's only reasonable to consider that Jesus died on the cross for us as full-blooded man, pure and without sin. His spirit, His soul and His body were given in redemption for us. Therefore when Jesus was raised from the dead, God raised His spirit, soul and body, which are meant by the verse "Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee."
To substantiate that, Colossians and Ephesians and Revelation call Jesus the first born from the dead. Now Jesus was not the first one raised from the dead physically. In the Old Testament Elijah and Elisha has raised people from the dead. Jesus was not the first one raised from the dead. In the New Testament before Jesus died He himself raised some people from the dead. So what is the meaning of the word first born? The word firstborn comes from the Greek word prototokos. Protos means first or first for something. We know definitely it cannot be first for resurrection for physical death since Jesus was not the first one to be raised from the dead. Every person who was raised form physical death died again. But Jesus was raised up from spiritual death. Physical death is only a shadow of spiritual death. To prove that He actually tasted spiritual death turn to II Cor. 5:21 which I can quote to you Jesus became sin. And the key context is contrasting sin with the righteousness of God. He became the complete redemption for us. And there was a struggle where He struggled in Gethsemane where He took spiritual death. Jesus was not afraid of dying physically. Don’t make Jesus look like a coward. But even among the human race there are people who are daring to face death physically. But it is spiritual death and separation from God that was a great thing.
When Acts 13:33 quoted Psalms 2:7 that this day I have begotten you, it was referring to the day Jesus rose from the dead spirit soul and body and He was anointed and God said sit down at my right hand. Heb.1 says that again. Let me make this statement here. Where we are in our life and Christian experience and ministries in success or failure is based on what we know and what we don’t know. So if we don’t know we don’t have it if we know we have it. If we don’t see it then it is not ours. There has to be a revelation in our hearts. Heb. 1:5 is another quotation again. For to what angel did God ever say, 'Thou are my Son, today I have begotten thee." Or again, "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son." And again, when he brings the first-born into the world, he says, "Let all God's angels worship him." Now here he is talking about the resurrection of Jesus. Hebrews 1: 5 and Acts 13:33 is based on Psalms 2: 7. This is a case of scripture interpreting scripture.
This message is an important conclusion to the series on Inheriting the Nations and the authority that we have. If you understand that realm you would understand that it is a different world you are living in. Watchman Nee wrote the book the Normal Christian Life. Many normal Christians who read it found that they were not normal because a lot of people fall short of the normal Christian life. Now something happened to the human race when Jesus was raised up from the dead. Today only a small percentage of the church have a comprehension of what took place at the resurrection and walk in that resurrection power that God has brought for us. A lot of things happened that Jesus received on our behalf. Sometimes the church is like a beggar walking about begging a few coins here and there, but in whose pocket is given an inheritance of a million dollars. And we haven't realized it until we go over to the shore beyond and find out how much power God has given to the representatives of Jesus, and to every born again believer and every church on this earth. And we have only used that much. Wouldn’t it be a sad day? You can't undo what has been done. You can't relive your life. It has become history. One day all these things will be history. Which is why I believe in living my life to the fullest. We don’t have the privilege of being lazy. We live our life every moment thinking about the Lord and wanting to do the best in God. Imagine finding out something when it is too late to use it.
God will not give sickness, disease or sent demons against you. But let me tell you Jesus did talk about the narrow road. Rephrasing what Jesus said, there is a broad and easy way which is carpet laid. But Jesus said there is another way the hard one and very few go through that. The conclusion Jesus said please go through that one. A lot of people are avoiding and not learning the lesson that they should learn in life. If they are to choose between the carpet paved way and that thorny narrow way, they wouldn't choose the narrow way. But learn this when you began to choose things that are hard there is something that you gain in your inner man. When you keep choosing the things that are easy, the easy way out, you are the loser. The better man was the man who came up the hard way. God is not interested in just giving you a million dollars or giving you success. God is interested in making you a man. He is not just interested in feeding you and giving you all the pleasures of life. That is why when some people claim for healing or they believe God for something, they wonder why some people receive the answer in this way and other people receive it the other way. We need to learn how to walk the way of the cross.
Sometimes in the body of Christ and in the things of God we don’t realize the amount of power that has been released to us. And we have been struggling. This message I minister to you part of it came in a dream that God gave me. In the dream I was taken into a big huge church and I know that church was symbolic. And there were hundreds and hundreds of people in the church. There were no pews. It was just empty. But it was a very strange sight that I saw. The strange thing I saw was that every single person was wrapping themselves up like a mummy. And there were special materials all available for everybody. And they were binding themselves up to be like a mummy. Then after they were bound up they broke the whole thing again. And in that dream I remember that everybody was celebrating Easter day. I look at the thing and said this is not for me. And I started to walk out. And as we walk out I got up from my dream and I remembered 2 things. Before I slept I was thinking very much about the doctrine of binding and loosing. And when I woke up I got an understanding of what God was trying to tell me about binding and loosing. We will continue that part of the story five minutes from now.
Now let me get back to resurrection. Something happened in the resurrection of Jesus that we need to appreciate or which I think that not many Christians are experiencing. Eph. 1:17-19 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe. Now he didn’t say that he had given them anything. The only thing that he prayed for them was a greater measure of the Holy Spirit. He never asks God to give them more riches, a greater hope of his calling. But he was asking God to show them what was their calling, the hope of their calling, to show them by the Spirit opening their eyes. To show them the riches of the inheritance in the saints which is already there but not seen. There are three things the hope of his calling, the riches of His inheritance in the saints and the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe according to the working of His mighty power which He work in Christ and He raise Him from the dead.
I make this statement and then we proceed. Everything has been done in Christ. Everything has been given in Christ. Not future tense, not present tense but past tense. In fact it's a past perfect tense. Paul had this revelation the only difference between your life now and where you are walking in your victory in Christian life and what you were 5 years ago when you came to know the Lord is your knowledge. I accepted Christ in 1974 the only difference between me last time and now is what I come to know of God. God hasn't changed. The Holy Spirit hasn't changed. The word of God hasn't changed. But my understanding of what I have in Him is different. It is what you know now that makes you different from where you were. And sometimes we think that what we know now was what He has given since. But what we know now was what we discovered was ours and we claimed it or gain access to it. And think about what we don’t know now that we have yet to discover that is ours. That’s the part I am talking about. There is a whole realm there that is yet to be discovered of what that have been given to us in Christ.
Tonight I can only talk about one aspect the authority that He has given in this earth over the nations. Let me read and complete this chapter in Eph. 1:20-21 Which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. Now whom do you think these principalities, power and might and dominion are? Are they good, are they bad. I am sure some of you have read Ephesians 6:12 every well. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, powers, wicked rulers of darkness of this age, and wicked spirit in high places. And I am sure you read Ephesians 3 where it talk about how God is revealing the wisdom of God in the church to all the demons powers that are there. We can approach the subject differently. All the time you are looking at Ephesians and you are wonder whether the principalities, powers and dominions, are good angelic beings or wicked demonic beings. The context of the book of Ephesians and if Paul is consistent he is talking about the powers and thrones and dominion set up by Satan himself. Above everything Jesus was raised up and He was put at the right hand of God.
Let me emphasize a little part of the Greek here in verse 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us. There is a cut off point there after the word us. The Greek actually sayswhat is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us, those believing according or concerning the working of his mighty power which he work in Christ when he raise him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all principalities, power, might and dominion and every name that is not only this age but in that which is to come and he put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things in the church which is his body the fullness of him who fills all in all. And in the Greek there is no chapter or verse as Paul writes it. And he continues and in you he made alive who were dead in trespasses in sins in which you once walk according to this world. But he tells us in verse 4 but God who is rich in mercy because of his great love in which he love us even when we were dead in trespasses. He made us alive not future, not when you were born again, but when Jesus was raised from the dead. He made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come, which is our time in the industrial revolution, in the atomic age, in the information age, in every generation, he might show the exceeding greatness, the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.
Let me tell you again the position that you have in Christ that the world has yet to see is based on your understanding of where you are in Christ. If you don’t see it you can live and die without tasting it. It is based on the resurrection of Jesus. Chapter 1 and 2 are so closely knitted. In fact Ephesians is a book, which look like Paul writing in one whole long sentence. If you look at chapter 1 alone it is just basically many verses but basically almost just a few sentences that are all connected together. The whole book of Ephesians still resolves and revolves around us understanding our position in Christ and all that it entails. Sometimes the church of Jesus Christ is little mule that doesn't know what it has. And we run around like little hairs blown about by the devil and every foul breath. He comes and he knocks on your house and he says little pig, little pig, open the door and your house is made of straw. You are not a pig but you believe what he says. Then he says I puff and blow your straw down. And every little move of the enemy frightens us.
Paul hasn't finished all those things in chapter 2. He continue talking about this thing even in chapter 3 and he says in verse 9 and 10 And to make all men see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. All that God has for us, He wants to show all that is available in Christ Jesus. Ephesians is a book that brings a magnitude of what Paul is talking in the revelation he has.
Romans show us a little bit of that in Rom. 5:20-21 Law came in, to increase the trespass; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness. Verse 17 If, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. He gives only a glimpse that he described in details in Ephesians. There is a lot of power that has been released to the church. The church is seated at the right hand of God in our gifting, in our anointing. But many people and Christians are walking like they are not seated with Christ. Like they don’t have that authority. They are not heirs and join heirs with Christ.
My big question is why. Why do Christians cry over the rental payment for their houses when they are heirs in Christ. Why do Christians complain about not having enough money, not have enough food to eat when they are heirs in Christ? Heirs without knowledge are like non-heirs. And from that first statement I made where all that we are from the time you are born gain till now. Your success is based on how much you have come to know Him. Let me make the opposite statement. Every thing that has held you back in your life is because there is an error somewhere. What's the error? Wrong knowledge somewhere is holding you back. There was a lying principle, a lying fact that we have adhered to. And until and unless we give up that error and believe the truth we will not be free. If you believe that sometimes God heals, sometimes He doesn't, so be it. Some people think that they believe that God heals all the time. But the truth in their heart is that they don’t quite believe. You hear the way some people pray, it looks like God never hears them. When the Son of Man comes again will He find faith? Doubt has been robbing many people. Doubt is the lie of the enemy. The only thing that keeps you from being a solid heir in God is to remove the error, replace it with truth and then you will be. It’s the errors that keep from that. That applies on many areas tonight I just talk on one area.
Now I will interpret the dream the Lord gave me. Binding and loosing can be very subjective to many people. This is the interpretation of the dream that I had shared earlier. Many people who taste some measure of success in binding and loosing treat it like a small little game. When you get involved in any games, when you lose, you smile because you are culturally trained to be a gentleman loser. It’s a nice game but your emotion still hurts. I wish I could have won. And wasn't the victory delicious. You feel the pleasure. By getting involved in that game you created for yourself the displeasure if you lose or a pleasure if you win. If you have never played it at first you would not have tasted the displeasure or pleasure.
Let me bring to the picture of binding and loosing. A lot of Christians have no comprehension of how much authority they have over the enemy. In their small little ways because of their wrong thinking and because of their wrong belief, they have bound themselves. It was their own errors that set them back but it will be the truth that sets them free. And then when we exercise one small little arrow of truth, we break those bonds that we have bound ourselves. When we break them we feel the pleasure. In the dream I saw the people feeling pleasure as they broke out from there. But when I look even more closely I marveled. In the first place they created those things themselves. They create the mummies and they broke themselves out of the mummies. They were in a cycle of self-creation and self-destruction.
Then the Lord talked about binding and loosing. The Lord allowed let me to see the details of what takes place. There is a lot of Christian warfare today in binding and taking authority over territorial spirits. There is an element of truth involved. But in getting involved in those things we must not forget one most important truth. There is a realm where you learn territorial warfare. You are fighting with what we call territorial spirits but you must not miss out this one main truth: Satan was defeated at the cross of Calvary. If in all your spiritual praying, in all your groaning, in all your tears and crying, if you don’t base them on this truth but you base it on a lie, your effectiveness is gone. If you connect your spiritual wiring according to a 100% truth you 100% result. If you connect it with 50% truth, 50% error you get 50% result. And truth never exists on one tiny portion. Truth is always interlinked with other truth.
If you forgot that the devil has been defeated at the cross, you may have certain pleasures in a limited form and experience limited victory. But there is a greater realm to walk in where Satan has been defeated. I want to establish this fact: Satan is not going to be defeated and he is not being defeated. He has been defeated. If you don’t establish that truth in your life as a foundation, how you walk, what you pray is different from someone who does. The bible declares he is a defeated foe, not will be a defeated foe. He has been defeated. He will be arrested but he has been defeated. He is now playing a game of guerilla warfare. Christ Jesus has conquered Satan's country. Satan is now just a guerilla fighter, trying to frighten those who are more than conquerors in Christ. If you don’t understand this fact your whole battleground is different. It will be like using bows and arrows against atomic bomb. What Jesus did was like a big atomic bomb thrown onto the devil's kingdom. But the people of God continue to walk with bows and arrows.
In the book of Heb. 2:14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil. He didn’t do it for himself. He did it for us so that we could taste all those benefits.
Col. 2:14 Having cancelled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers. You see that worddisarmed. Heb. 2:14 he destroyed the devil. Col. 2: 14 he disarmed all his cohorts. So what you have is an enemy whose head has been destroyed. The enemy has been removed and purged of all authority. In fact the Greek word for destroys in Heb. 2:14 is make zero. The enemy completely has no authority and his cohorts have all been disarmed. So where is the battle? That is the question I am asking tonight. It says he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them. Some of you say then why am I still struggling? Why do I still have trials and tribulations? Didn’t you hear what Jesus says, be of good cheer I have overcome the world. You know what He is trying to tell us? When you have tribulations and all those things I want you to rest in my victory. A lot of people are not fighting the fight of faith. They are fighting their own fight. They created the fight by themselves; they are protected by themselves, and they finally get exhausted in themselves.
Some ministers think that the devil comes after them after they have done some deliverances. I have been in the ministry since 1976. Let me assure you the devil has never come after me. He can't because Ps. 91 works. I am talking from 20 years experience in the ministry. When I started in my first year of ministry Christians who were in the ministry of deliverance warned me to be careful when I go out to minister. They told me that when you cast out demons sometimes they follow you all the way home. I took in one evangelist today whose ministry is in the twilight and fading away. He has been ahead of me, being in the ministry for nearly 30 years. Where you will be in your ministry and in your life lies in what you believe in today. And what you believe in may be an error. But if what you believe is the truth, the truth will not pass away. I ask him one question, "Are you married?" He said, "Yes." "Do you have any children? He said, "No." I asked him why didn’t he have children. He said in this kind of ministry it is very dangerous. And he is known as a demon caster. If I have given my spirit soul and body to serve Almighty God and He can't protect my family what kind of God am I serving? Again it depends on what we believe. And some Christians and even some ministers can believe some of the dumbest things that are unscriptural. It will be to their own disadvantage and defeat.
Tonight I pray that the Spirit of God stir your heart. In each one of our lives there still may be errors that we need to perfect. Remove them one by one until you become the word made flesh. Some of the things you believe could be wrong. If they are wrong you cannot adopt it any longer. Some teachers confuse the word of wisdom with the gift of wisdom. Because they confuse that they cannot operate in the gift of wisdom powerfully. When the Lord began to show the difference between the word of wisdom and the gift of wisdom you become sharper. But when you began to mix things together and you don’t divide the truth rightly you limit yourself. In this life in this world only truth can set us free. Remember this the test of the pudding is in the eating. The test of what you believe is in your result. I guarantee you if you don’t believe correctly that is scriptural you cannot produce the same scriptural result. If you don't believe the correct way about the doctrine of healing, you cannot produce the same bible result. It's important to believe the truth to get the result. We need to search our heart and search the word of God for what is true and what is error. It is not based on just what I say. It is not based on what history say. It is not based on what any church say. It is based on what the word of God says. History has come and gone. Denominations come and go. Men of God come and go. But the word of God remains true and unchanging.
Now you know why Jesus said that He sends us the Holy Spirit and He calls Him the Spirit of truth. Why suddenly the Spirit of truth becomes more prominent than the spirit of power. Because its truth that brings power. If you don’t see it you cannot have the power. When you see it you have the power. When you begin practicing the truth, the truth becomes a part of your life and you are not afraid of demons any more. The truth becomes a part of your life you know that healing is your right. Among those truths Satan was defeated, not is, not is going to, he was.
What about spiritual mapping? A truth can be understood from two angles. You can understand truth from a worm's eye view or from an eagle's eye view. The blind man felt an elephant. He was fingering the tail of the elephant. And he says an elephant is like a rope. Was he right? I call that worm's eye view. Then another blind man was feeling the body of the elephant. And he says an elephant is like a wall. Was he right? I call it bigger worm's eye view. Another blind man was feeling the elephant's leg. And he says an elephant is like a tree trunk. Was he right? But it is called a worm's eye view. Just because something is a fact and partial truth does not mean it is the whole picture. You can only see the whole picture from the throne room. Why something works. Why something doesn't works. Why is it that sometime people trace the history of a place and they go to the source and they pray and it works.
Let me explain in the psychology and the psyche just like we all have a soul. Do you know nations and cities have a soul? And the whole society can function like one soul together. Sometimes a whole mass of people is under a particular bondage because of their past and history and their belief. The whole Chinese culture believes the dragon is good and it puts us into bondage. They call it culture but if culture contradicts the word give up that part. It is in the psyche of a society of a nation. Remember, what we believe wrongly is what holds us in bondage. Why are Asians so different from Westerners? It is in our psyche. Confucian teaching of being filial respect for elders influences a lot of Asians. I am not saying those things are bad. There are a lot of good things that you can find here and there. As long as it is in the word of God, fine. But if it is not in the word of God, reject it. But it has come to a point where sometimes submission can become a weakness. So we Asians may submit to something wrong and we don’t voice out. It has become our Asian mentality. Now what is our strength can be our weakness. It would be easy to enslave a group of people like that. If you were a good ruler over people of this mentality, it would be good for the nation. If you were a bad ruler, it would be bad. And we can be so submissive that if Hitler is ruling and he say kill we kill. But I am pointing to a whole mass of soul consciousness. I am pointing to a whole mass of soul consciousness.
My question is how does it come? It doesn't just come through the genes. You can take any one with any colored skin. You can raise a Caucasian child in an oriental environment and the child will adopt the same thinking. It has nothing to do with skin color. It has to do with the mind. Let me make a statement. The only stronghold is the stronghold in our life. You read this scripture in the New Testament. In the Old Testament the strongholds are the cities. In the New Testament the only strongholds are the strongholds in the mind. When ten thousand people are having the same stronghold in the mind, you have a stronghold over a city. The only way to free the people is when you preach the gospel. And the truth will set them free. I don’t find apostle Paul going to the city of Philippi and going to the libraries of Philippi and say let me check the history of Philippi. Let me go there and bind the demon there. I didn't find the apostle Paul going to Ephesus and cursing the god of Ephesus. And you know what the god is in the book of Acts? Diana. And you know what the people said about what Paul said about Diana, nothing. Lets look at the book of Acts 19:35 And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, "Men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of Ephesians is temple keeper the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky?" Now the people in the city believe that and the whole city came under bondage.
Sometimes it is just one error that holds a whole group of people. Do you know what held all the Germans and the Nazi together under Hitler? He thinks that the Aryans were a super race. And he convinced them that they are a super race. That was an error. God made all men equal. But it’s a conviction. When he became convinced by the wrong error he began to behave wrongly. He began to conquer people and enslave a group of people. It can be just one major error that people believe in. Let me warn you in our society today the time of information age, there can be things that are circulated that you can believe easily. Sometimes it creeps through without you knowing. Kenneth Hagin was talking about how one day he was reading the Reader's Digest. And a medical article talks about when you reached a certain age you begin to forget certain things and certain things don’t function so well. Subconsciously he believed it without realizing it. He accepted that as a fact. And he found that he started forgetting things. Until one day the Holy Spirit gave him a Holy Ghost jolt. He said that’s not scriptural. Yes that’s not scriptural from that day onwards he remembered everything. Think about the thing you accept and believe in the natural because natural people told us. And we don’t see it from God's point of view.
It says in Acts 19:36-37 Seeing then that these things cannot be contradicted, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. For you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess. I would not go out and destroy something that is legally there. But if somebody comes to the field in front of me or the tree in front of my house and puts an idol there, I would immediately remove it. In the first place it's illegal. He may have the freedom to put it there. I have the freedom to remove it because both are against the law anyway. But when something is legally there you don’t remove that illegally. It says Paul didn’t seek to do that. This is a statement observers made of Paul. They were neither robbers of temple nor blasphemers of your goddess. In other words in all Paul's 3 years of teaching there, he has never said one wrong word about their goddess Diana. He only went there and he preached the gospel. And when the truth came it will set the people free.
In the book of II Cor. 4:3-4 It tells you the secret of how Satan holds society and people from God is all is in the mind. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God. It’s the mind.
Turn to the book of Ephesians where we left off. And you find that the battle is the battle of the mind. Eph.2: 2-3 In which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind.
In the book of II Cor. 10:3-6 For though we live in the world we are not carrying on a worldly war, for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine powers to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. People are out in bondage through their thought life. A whole society, a whole city can believe the wrong thing. In America they believe homosexual has a right and its accepted. That thought becomes a bondage to the whole country. It is a sin in the bible. It is an abomination in the bible. But society has justified it. When you accept it, that’s it. People jump in and out of the kingdom of light and into the kingdom of darkness. Even though they may be children of light just by a mere thought, when you accept as fact that the enemy offers to you, you are in there. We have to guard our hearts and our minds to make sure that what we believe is scriptural. And there is a whole lot of junk that he tries to give to you through newspapers, magazine, everything. You got to read it with a filtered mind. You don’t just read it and accept it. When you look at those things, you got to ask yourself is this in line with the word. What is not in line with the word should be rejected. The moment you casually read it, casually subconsciously accept it, it begins to work in your life. This whole life is built around thoughts and words. This whole universe is built around words and thoughts. When God destroyed the society in Noah's time, it was because He saw the evil thoughts. Gen. 6 you find, He saw the hearts of men were wicked all the time. The thought and intents were all wicked. And he destroyed men for their thoughts. Every bad habit that has become part of your character came from one thought that you believe in. If you believe that certain things that are wrong are right, it will become a habit for you to commit those things. It's all wrestling in your heart and mind. The only stronghold that is there is in the thought realm.
Now lets look at binding and loosing in Matt.16 and 18. There are other passages that talk about binding. Jesus says that unless a strong man is bound you cannot spoil his goods. You check that out in Matt. 12. And you find that how Jesus binds was by casting out. The Pharisees said He cast out demons by Beelzebul. Jesus was casting out the devil. When you cast him out there was a limit set of what the enemy could do. There was a line drawn. When you cast the demon out you are saying don’t cross this line. You are binding him.
Matt.16:19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Now the binding and loosing is based on the keys that Peter had. Tradition thinks that apostle Peter will be the one opening the keys of kingdom of heaven and meeting you at the pearly gate. Peter died physically and if the keys of heaven were given to him, when he died we would have no keys left. It says I will give you the keys of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. The promise to every believer is based on the keys. Now you look carefully what those keys are. They are revelations that Peter received. And there are many revelations along the pathway of our spiritual life. For him Peter has come to the stage where he has a revelation. Jesus asks, "Who do man say that I am?" They replied all kinds of answers. Then He asks, "Who do you think that I am?" Peter replied, "You are the Christ the Son of the living God." And Jesus said, "Blessed art thou Simon Bar Jona. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father in heaven has revealed this to you." What was happening? A revelation was taking place. And when Peter got hold of that revelation that He is the Christ, He is the Messiah, He is the one who is to come, he was risen up into another realm of authority.
And Jesus was talking about that realm; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Peter felt like a giant. He could have been five foot eight but he felt ten foot tall. Then Jesus began to give them another revelation. More advanced that what Peter had come to receive. You know sometimes we get one revelation we think it’s a big deal. Some people saw one angel and they think they are heroes now. They had one vision of Jesus and they broadcast it for the rest of their life they have no other experience. It’s a continuous walk. Or they get some new thing in the Spirit whether laughing in the Spirit or groaning in the Spirit and they think that’s it. No, Christian life is a continuous experience. I have many, many experiences in the Lord. But I have never built my ministry around that. You don’t hear me talking on Sunday about Jesus appearing to me in 1986. I don’t build around that. And so Peter was 10 foot tall. Jesus then said that the Son of Man must be betrayed, be crucified and be raised on the third day. Peter now thinks he is equal to Jesus and said that will not be. Whatever I bind on earth will be bound in heaven. That shall not be. He took Jesus aside and rebuked Him. Jesus looks at him and said, "Satan get thee behind me." And he realizes that there were some other revelations that he didn’t have a hold on.
Just imagine how could Satan choose to rebel against God when he has been so long with God. Because he thinks he knows everything God knows. You know when rebellion comes? When people think that they know everything they know of their leader. And that is why they can be equal. Remember Miriam and Aaron who said, "Who does Moses think he is? Does he think that he is the only prophet? Doesn't God speak to us too?" They think they are equal. Remember this in this world and in the kingdom of God, it is God who sets position, not us. We will all be rewarded not based on our position but based on our faithfulness. Bible says first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, to function as a team you cannot have all Red Indian Chief and everyone gives the command. To function in this life we just recognize where our position is. Even for the rest of your life you play second fiddle, if that’s how God meant it, let it be so. He who plays first fiddle must die to self, he who plays second fiddle must die to self; everybody must die to self.
And so Peter thinks that he is 10 foot tall. He doesn’t have that revelation and he couldn’t move on. What I have proven to you is that the authority to bind and loose is related to the revelations of God. When you see you have the authority. When you have knowledge you have the authority. If you know what the word of God says about your rights of healing, you have authority when you pray. When you pray it is different. It won't be like a baby Christian prayer. You must be established by the word. It is not just mental knowledge. You must know it from the very depths of your heart. How do you know whether something is really in your heart? When you become so deeply convicted of it. And you have no more doubts about it. When it's in your mind you still have doubts. When it is a part of you, you don’t have any doubt. When it drops into your heart its different. A lot of people see it mentally but they don’t have the conviction. You have to meditate on the word until it becomes a part of your life. It’s a different thing when you know that the devil is a defeated foe. You know that the enemies you face are disarmed. And tonight when you pray it's different. You pray knowing that God hears.
There are many people going out trying to do spiritual warfare, taking authority over cities and they are getting defeated. And it makes the devil looks so powerful. They are approaching the right battle with the wrong knowledge. It is like going into the battlefield with bows and arrows when you should approaching it with nuclear weapons. Its just like if you switched off the light and someone who is young in the Lord will see any little moving shadows as demons. But when you are trained in the Lord you are not looking for demons; you are looking for angels. The same manifestation that appears to different people will draw different interpretations. It depends on your knowledge. And that is why when people expect the wrong thing they get the wrong thing. Then when something begin happening, they interpret it the wrong way. What do some people interpret a small little thing happening when they go into territorial warfare? They say that this is a satanic battle because in their hearts they are expecting it. Many people are trained wrongly because they believed wrongly.
Binding and loosing is related to revelation. And Satan is more afraid of what you will know than anything else that you can do, because if you do it out of the right knowledge it defeats him. That is why he tries to prevent knowledge. He tried to prevent Daniel from having the right revelation. Why should the prince of Persia come and stop Gabriel from delivering that message? Do you know why? The moment Daniel understands what the 70 years mean he can pray differently. When you pray differently it is more powerful. That is why every new truth that comes in the body of Christ has always been fought tooth and nail. He used religious people to go against the word of God. He uses everything he can to destroy truth. Because he is afraid that people will come to know the truth. Martin Luther first brought forth the doctrine of justification by faith. He was attacked upside down. The first few people who believe that you could be saved by grace were all killed before they could tell others. The church of those days kills those people. But when just one person just got enough time and enough life span to write and publish it, Christians came to know about justification by faith. The truth just set them free. Martin Luther didn’t do any mapping. Martin Luther just preaches the truth that was revealed to him. He struggles for his whole life to find this one truth: the just shall live by faith. When he got that one revelation, he broke the chains of cities, of nations and the reformation period began. It is the truth that set us free.
God's word is like a laser sword. No matter how great the bondage just one word from the Lord is enough to cut spirit and soul loose and to cut bondages off. Lets not under estimate the power of the word. When the Pentecostal Movement first started many people were running it down, saying that this is the last deception of Satan. It is not the deception of the devil; it is the move of God. In the realm of the devil we need to see that he is a defeated foe. And sometime you got to believe even against natural facts. When you break through those realms then you know it can be done. Matt. 18 is the other verse of binding and loosing. Matt. 18:18-19 Truly, I say to you whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by Father. You know what the binding and loosing is related to. In verse 19 the power of agreement. When the church gathers together and they agree on something, that’s it. When two agree or three agree on something, that’s it. That is the power of agreement.
This series is found at http://www.eaglevision.com.my/zinheriting.htm
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