THE POWER AND AUTHORITY WITHIN US

 

THE POWER AND AUTHORITY WITHIN US

 

Not only is there power and authority, there is also dominion. In Genesis 1 we see that Adam was to have dominion on planet earth, just as God has dominion in Heaven.

God was wanting to have a duplicate of heaven on Earth. God created Adam in His own likeness and let him have dominion on Earth. Dominion means supreme authority.

When Adam willfully disobeyed God and allowed an intruder, Satan, to enter and take away, with the temptation eating of the tree that God has told him not to partake of, he lost what was given to him by God which was dominion, ownership of the Earth.

God had a plan to give man a chance to regain the dominion of the Earth. When the timing was right God sent Jesus to Earth.

Jesus came not only to save mankind but also to take the crown off Satan’s head and place it once again on man’s head. Jesus operated on earth as a man, a covenant man. Not as the son of God. Jesus did not operate in his deity.

He first taught his disciples to walk in dominion and delegated authority to them.

Luke 9:1-2    9 Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.

² And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.

Luke 9:10   ¹⁰ And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done. And he took them, and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.

This is how he taught his disciples to have dominion, using their power and authority.

Revelation 1:18   ¹⁸ I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

When the time became right for Jesus to sacrifice himself for mankind he went willfully to the cross. He made a show of Satan and took the keys of death, hell and the grave. He took mans crown of glory back from the devil and returned it to us.

Mark 16:16-18     ¹⁶ He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

¹⁷ And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

¹⁸ They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

Matthew 28:18-20   ¹⁸ And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

¹⁹ Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

²⁰ Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

These verses in Matthew and Mark are called the great commission. This great commission is why Jesus gave His authority to believers. Without the power of God, the authority of the believer would be useless. Jesus gave the authority; you exercise that authority in obedience and God supplies the power and the ability.

We have authority as a believer and God has the ability. God is able and willing. He is waiting for us to believe and release our authority. God wants us to exercise our authority. That is the express purpose of why Jesus gave it to us.

Jesus is the head and we are the body of Christ. We are his hands and feet and we verbalize about him and what he did for us to others. If we are faithful to do as he asks, he is faithful to keep his promises.

Here is another verse that reinforces our understanding of authority.

Matthew 18:18   ¹⁸ Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Verily here means truly, or this is the truth. This verse has a two-fold application. When we bind or loose something on earth, it is loosed or bound in heaven. When we bind or loose all of heavens power backs up our authority.

The second application of this verse is that what we bind or loose on earth is bound or loosed in the heavenlies. The heavenlies here refers to Satan’s sphere as the prince of power of the air: or to spiritual wickedness in high places.

When we exercise our authority on earth, Satan’s realm must adhere to our commands. As we use our authority, we invoke the name of Jesus, for it is through him that our authority flows.

When you speak the name of Jesus you are speaking the entire bible to the devil in one word. When you say Jesus, you have said it all. In His name we can do anything. God is able, Jesus is able and his name if able.

Behind the name of Jesus is the corporate structure of the power of the universe, the kingdom of God. His name is the most exalted name in the universe.

Philippians 2:9-11   ⁹ Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

¹⁰ That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

¹¹ And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

At the name of Jesus all of heaven stands at attention and all of hell trembles. The power of God is always there to heal, prosper and to provide when there is no other way. The power of God is always present because God is always present.

Faith moves God, faith brings things from Gods kingdom to your life. Satan will let you down, the world system will let you down. What will you do when the world system crumbles? Only faith in Gods word and his kingdom will sustain you through times of peril.

VICTORY OVER THE DARKNESS

  

VICTORY OVER THE DARKNESS

 

John 8:32   ³² And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Jesus promises His people that, “you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” If it takes the truth to make us free, then we must seek the truth that John is speaking of.

Our identity in Christ Jesus is a fundamental truth that we believers need to understand, if we are to experience this promised freedom and grow to maturity in our Christian faith.

We tend to identify ourselves and each other by what we look like, what we do and perhaps even our denominational preference. Is who you are determined by what you do, or look like, or believe in or is what you do, look like and believe determining who you are.

Your understanding of who you are is the critical foundation for your belief structure and your behavior patterns as a Christian. The only identity equation that works in Gods kingdom is you plus Christ. You plus Christ equals wholeness and gives your life meaning.

In Gods kingdom everyone has the same opportunity for a meaningful life. The wholeness and meaning of life are not products of what you have or don’t have. What you’ve done or haven’t done. In Christ you are already a whole person and already possess a life of infinite meaning and purposes because you are a child of God.

The truth is the key to having victory over darkness. The truth is His word. His word is His will for our lives which is the glory of God within us through Christ Jesus.

   ²⁶ Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:

²⁷ To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

As you were born again, that rebirth, caused the glory of God in you. the faith of God is in you and the mind of Christ is in you. More important the love of God is in you. you have to walk in that glory even in the face of the devil’s attacks on your life.

Dare to release your expectancy of glory and before long you will realize you have it and more. There is no glory in the god of unbelievers because Satan and all he stands for is their god.

When your belief system is intact and your relationship with God is based on truth you will have little if any difficulty working out the practical aspects of daily Christianity.

1 John 5:4-5   ⁴ For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

⁵ Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

If we follow Gods prescribed order, we will overcome the darkness of the world. Faith in Gods word and what was finished at the cross gives us the victory over the darkness of the world.

This darkness that I am speaking of is some of the evil things that we are seeing on the news of today, killing for no reason, cheating, hating each other, stealing, looting, and many other sorts of meanness.

These things are the works of darkness and the devil is having a hay day. Convincing people that this is ok, it is not ok and never will be. An unbeliever cannot understand what I am trying to say, because they know nothing of God and live carnally.

Until they make Jesus the Lord of their lives by accepting him as savior, they will never have this spiritual wisdom. Wisdom comes by the Holy Spirit, people who have not accepted Jesus as Savior do not have the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit does give spiritual knowledge. Wisdom and knowledge are not the same.

1 Corinthians 12:8   ⁸ For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

   

God is saying here that people are sots, or stupid, or drunks and do not know me. They are wise to do evil but have no idea how to do good.

They have no knowledge of God, despite the fact that they were Gods people. Their lack of knowledge of God was due to their abandonment of the word.

To many people listen to the knowledge of men and have no desire to learn of the knowledge of the word.

   

Once again, the Holy Spirit tells us that all of our knowledge is futile unless we have the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom.

This truth will give you victory over the evil spirit of darkness.

Stay in the word,

Brother Andy

CREATED IN HIS IMAGE

  

CREATED IN HIS IMAGE

 

Genesis 1:26-27   ²⁶ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

²⁷ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

The creation of humans as male and female, forms the high point of the chapter. Unlike the rest of creation man and woman were created in Gods image, able to reason, to create and to commune with their creator. Gods desire is always to rescue that which he values most highly, the human race.

 We are made in the image of the triune God, which is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, not only us but they too are relational beings. Likeness indicates physical similarity, not just a spiritual resemblance.

Both male and female at creation was made in Gods image. Proving that neither gender is superior to the other. They each equally reflect his character and are Gods masterpiece.

Genesis 3:16   ¹⁶ Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

This change came about after they disobeyed God in the garden of Eden. It is what God said to Eve.

Genesis 3:17   ¹⁷ And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

God said this to Adam. Adam bore the weight of the curse of the ground, not humans. No curse was put on Adam and Eve, only the serpent and the ground.

When Christ returns after the seven-year tribulation to rule and reign on this earth during the millennium, life will resume as it was before the curse. Full resolution will be the eternal state.

Being created in the image of God is like when you take a photo of another person, the photo you have taken is only an image of the person, not the person itself.

God desires we as humans to seek Him as our heavenly Father, not just as an image. He walked and talked with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden before the fall. He just wants to love us and for us to love Him and put Him first in our lives.

Your image of who you are is your identity and we must guard our identity and shift it to reflect God in our every day lives. The way to do that is to believe in Gods word. It will produce faith. Faith grows out of us reading and believing in the word of God, not by praying for more faith.

Prayer does not cause faith to work, faith causes prayer to work. Our faith should never be allowed to stand still, we must expect the word of God to come to pass and believe it will manifest what we pray.

Faith is released by your words, supported with action. Once you understand how faith works you will understand how to bring things from the unseen realm of God to the seen realm of planet earth.

   ³⁷ Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

³⁸ For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

³⁹ Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In Gods eyes we are more than conquers, we are in Christ, and Christ is in us. It is called the great exchange.

Not only was man created in the image of God but was created in Gods class to be the associate and companion of Deity.

Mark 9:23   ²³ Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

All things are possible to God, and we are born of God: which makes all things possible to the new creation, which are the believers. He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

2 Timothy 1:7   ⁷ For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

The person who realizes he is actually been born again in Gods image will no longer be lorded over by Satan through fear and sin.

   ¹⁴ In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee.

¹⁵ Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake.

We have been trouble minded, poverty minded, sickness minded, weakness minded, and death minded. We have therefore been busy attending to all of these things.

Proverbs 4:20-23   ²⁰ My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.

²¹ Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.

²² For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

²³ Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

We must look to Gods word as the final authority in our lives bringing our spirit into the ascendance by meditation on the word of God. You can’t be a doer of the word and talk in unbelief.

God is a spirit, those that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. The soul praises God the spirit worships God. Worship is man’s reaction to Gods holiness and his word. It means to bow down before Him. Putting His word absolutely as number one in our lives.

1 Corinthians 1:30-31   ³⁰ But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

³¹ That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

There are four major forces of the recreated human spirit. Faith, righteousness, wisdom, and love. Faith is not the product of reason, it is born of the human spirit at the time of conversion.

The reborn person is a faith being and is to live in the likeness of His heavenly Father. To live as one with God, is a far higher and more divine life than to simply live our life in submission to God.

We must seek to become righteous minded and lean hard on God given righteousness and believe that He can do all things. Don’t be inferior minded. Be bold in your praise and worship, seek Him as a loving Father. He is waiting for us to reach out to him in loving worship.

Stay in the word.

Brother Andy

HAVING DONE ALL TO STAND!

 

HAVING DONE ALL TO STAND!

 

Ephesians 6:13-14   ¹³ Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

¹⁴ Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

Because of the circumstances of what we are facing today, is referring to the resisting and opposing of the powers of darkness. We must stand, because as a believer we are not to give an inch. There is no plan B, there is no other option.

I’m going to try to explain what is happening in our nation. There are leaders in our government, some moral, others govern by evil, evil spirits are working in them to do their evil deeds.

Their god is not the God of the believer, it is a demonic god called Satan. He is the one influencing these leaders. As long as they follow him there will be chaos.

Matthew 6:24   ²⁴ No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

The problem is the lust for money and power. I don’t judge these people because honestly, they don’t have a clue what the end is, most of them are old. God the Father will judge them.

This is what Jesus was talking about. You can’t serve two masters. The word mammon means money. Money is not evil; the love of money is the root of evil.

Hosea 4:6   ⁶ My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

Spiritual wisdom, knowledge, understanding and discerning only come from God through the Holy Spirit. Gods wisdom is a wisdom that doesn’t belong to this world or to the rulers of this world.

1 Corinthians 2:7   ⁷ But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

Gods wisdom leads sinful men to the great sacrifice, the offering up of Jesus on the cross which paid the terrible sin debt of man and all who will believe.

I won’t say these people in government that are getting ready to rip the American way of life from us are not saved, however, I will say I don’t know a Holy Spirit filled person of God that wants a government that operates on a socialist platform.

This insanity and demonic thinking is coming from a people you don’t want to socialize with.

1 Corinthians 1:19   ¹⁹ For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

In other words, God will reject the intelligence of the intelligent people and of this world system. If you only have worldly wisdom, your foundation will crumble. Your foundation must be framed on the inspired word of God, just as our constitution was.

Psalms 15:5   ⁵ He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.

We were not purchased with such corruptible things as silver and gold but the precious blood of Christ Jesus.

Psalms 55:22   ²² Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

This should be a tremendous encouragement to all true believers. Give your burdens to the Lord and leave them there.

Psalms 62:6   ⁶ He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved.

Once again, the word is used only concerning his Rock which is Gods salvation, I shall not be moved.

Psalms 66:9   ⁹ Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved.

Holding our soul in life means the preserving of our salvation. Our feet not to be moves refers to having on the whole armor of God with which we are able to stand against all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Psalms 121:3   ³ He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

As long as our foot is anchored on the path of His word, he will see to it that nothing can move it off.

Hebrews 12:28   ²⁸ Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

This is referring to our entrance into the kingdom of God. all was made possible by the cross, and Jesus, and the means by which we obtain grace.

By staying in the word of God we can declare, I shall not be moved.

Here is affirmation of Gods eternal vigilance for his people, the believers. The danger could be great if God does not intervene in the dangerous days ahead. The ruin of America could be inevitable, Satan has already got his evil grip on our country.

Matthew 7:14   ¹⁴ Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Jesus consistently teaches the difficulty of following Him. There are two roads: one is to follow Him. The second is to follow the world. We still have two choices, if God the Father decides to send Jesus to rapture the church, His people, then the chance of having a choice is gone.

Matthew 7:21   ²¹ Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

²² Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

²³ And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Without a personal relationship with Christ Jesus, religious words and religious ways that is attending church, performing good works have no value. It is in our personal relationship with Jesus, or Jesus will say to you I never knew you. These are words you do not want to hear. If you are ready to have a personal relationship with Jesus pray this prayer. Jesus, I recognize you as my savior, I want you to come into my heart and my life. Live in me and lead me daily with your Holy Spirit. Amen

Until next week,

Stay in the word.

Brother Andy