The more I learn about God and His word the more I find myself lacking. This is not bad, it is a process of course, for where I find myself lacking then God has somewhere to work in my life. I find that when I think I know more than I do and don't really need to study or consult God, that's when I feel the most empty and wanting. God's word tells us that as we think, that's what we become. It's interesting to see how God's laws work, laws that never change, never go away and are always faithful. In this message I would like to examine what God says about our authority that we have in His son Jesus Christ and how we are to use this authority in this world.
The first area we need to look at is ourselves and how we think about things. You see, this is one of God's laws. Proverbs 23:7a "For as he thinks in himself, so is he." This verse simply says, what you are thinking is who you really are. Before we can learn about how to use God's laws we must first learn something about ourselves because wrong thinking can destroy what God wants for you. For example, if you spend your life sitting in front of the television watching depressing shows, you will naturally become depressed, or maybe you watch violent shows or you hang around people that always talk violence or hatred, your thinking is going to become just like what you feed your mind. You may find yourself being lustful and envious of others, then I would suggest that you are feeding your mind these types of thoughts either by what you watch on television or by the people you are friends with or even the material you read. Your thinking has control of you. On the other hand you feed your mind with positive material or watch good uplifting shows and hang around people who are positive in nature then you will no doubt become more positive in the way you think and act. Your conversation will be encouraging and uplifting instead of doom and gloom. Philippians 4:8 tells us to think on these; "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. The way we think will determine how we live by or not live by God's laws. You are the deciding factor on how well God's word works for you. When you look at Proverbs 23:7 the word thinking comes from the Greek word "shaar" which means calculating. So seeing this in context it is not what you say as much as what is in your heart and mind or what you are thinking or calculating. In other words, your thinking determines the type of person you are. Philippians 4:8 lays it out for us plainly. Verse 9 gives us the result of practicing this kind of thinking, Likewise, keep practicing these things: what you have learned, received, heard, and seen in me. Then the God of peace will be with you. You have a choice as to what to think on and what you feed your mind, and what you choose to dwell on is really who you are in a sense. The key word and phrase in this verse is "keep practicing" and "Then." Simply put, practice what you have learned from Gods Word and then these things will the God of peace will be with you, not before. This is God's law for us, to renew our minds in His word, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, Romans 12:2a.
Now that we have established that the way you think has a direct effect on you, now lets look at something that many believer's have failed at miserably. This is an area that is greatly effected by how you think. The believer's authority that they have had ever since they were born again. First you must understand that when you were born again you received the power of God and it dwells in YOU. When you believed on Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit replaced your old sinful nature with a brand new nature just like that of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit now dwells within you. The very Spirit of God dwells in YOU. Just by that alone tells us that we have the power of God in us. This is how it works, power comes with belief in Gods Son. The problem most seem to have is that they don't realize the power that dwells within them, and for those who do know the power is there don't understand how to utilize it. You need to realize that the authority the first Adam lost was restored by the second Adam, Jesus Christ. When you place your belief in Christ you receive back not only Gods power, but also the authority that was lost. So now every believer has within them the power of God and the authority to use it. This is Gods law so to speak, that's the way it works. Your thinking will determine whether or not this power and authority are any good to you and the kingdom of God. If you go about saying that this isn't for this age, then naturally it's not going to work, you just null and voided it. Maybe you think that only certain individuals have the gift of healing, and you have to get to them to be healed, then maybe it will work for you. Maybe is not faith. If you are one of those who think that some have to suffer for Christ and stay sick or poor then you have just cancelled out God working in your behalf. You must understand that when you were born again, God placed in you faith along with His Power and Authority. The faith you have in His Word will determine whether His word will manifest in your life.
The problem that confronts most of us is believing that Gods Word is for us today and that it will accomplish that which it is sent to do. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." Isaiah 55:9-11. Think about this for a few minutes, what does this say to me? How is this going make a difference in my life? Does this apply to me personally? Now, what are your thoughts? Are you thinking this is fine but it does not apply to me, or, this is Old Testament stuff and it doesn't apply today? I tried believing this but it didn't work for me so it is God's will that I am in this situation. It's not my fault it's God's. Maybe your thinking I just don't have enough faith for these things. If you are thinking this way, can you see how your thinking is affecting the outcome of your prayers or the results that you are asking God for. What then on the other hand your thinking goes something like this; I know God's word is true and will not fail me. I stand on God's word even though I may not be seeing any results at the moment I know God it will not fail me. God's word is the same yesterday, today and forever so if He said it will be, then it will be.
The way you think about God and His Word is the determining factor on the outcome of your prayers. Faith is a positive looking forward process. It does not look at the situation, it looks ahead to the results. Faith accomplish's the unseen things in our lives by bringing them into existence. Faith is not saying it's up to God, or if someone would just pray for me, although other's prayer's of faith can help see your prayer manifest. Ultimately the answers to your request to God depend so much on your thinking. Consider what I am saying, negative thoughts bring negative results, positive thoughts brings positive results. To many of us think that God is responsible for everything that happens to us. If something bad happens it's God's way of teaching me a lesson or He's punishing me for the wrong I did. This way of thinking is contrary to God's Word. James 4:7 tells us to "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Now I ask you, who is supposed to resist the devil, God or you? Gods Word says you are to resist the devil, God has already defeated the devil, and God gave us the tools, His Word, to resist with. What about the healing of the sick? Do we just leave it up to God and say that it is His responsibility to heal the sick? If we pray for the sick then it's up to God to heal them, right? Take a look at this in Matthew 10:8, "As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give." Who is to go and proclaim the gospel, the pastor, the evangelist, those who have a gift of speaking? No, it says YOU go! Who is to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper, drive out demons? Again, is this just for the Apostles of that time, is it those with a gift of healing or some other spiritual gift? No, it says YOU go! When we begin to understand that it is not God's responsibility to do these things we will begin to see Gods Word manifest. Remember that power and authority I mentioned earlier, when Christ went to the cross He took every sickness on Himself, He took our poverty on Himself, He took every sin on Himself by taking our very sin nature. So when Isaiah proclaimed "Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him And by His scourging we are healed." Key word here is in verse 5 where it says "we are" healed. This is a past tense statement meaning that it is already taken care of. God has already provided your healing before you were even sick or depressed, wounded, in a financial situation, everything was already taken care of. God has already done His part! So, when you say it is God's responsibility you are shucking your responsibility of doing what God has commanded us to do. God has not only provided His power for us, He has also given us authority to use His power, now that is amazing and an incredible truth. In Ephesians 1:18-20 we see that God generated power within us and in Matthew 16:15-19 Jesus tells Peter about the power in the church that we as believers have; “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will bee loosed in heaven.” Do you see it, Christ will what? "give YOU the keys of the kingdom of heaven" Now look at the other YOU's in this scripture, what do they say? They say YOU bind on earth and it will be bound in heaven and whatever YOU loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. God gave us the responsibility to use His power and His authority to do this. God has already taken care of these things through His son Jesus Christ. So, if your thinking is wrong and because you don't see instant manifestation of what you ask for, then you place the blame on God for not healing, providing, or releasing. This is totally a lack of faith and unbelief because God told us that He has already defeated the enemy and He has already provided what we need. The Atonement took care of everything. So where does the problem come from then? It comes from first the way we think about Gods Word, do we believe it or not? Then it comes from our not believing. We don't see it manifested instantly so we say it didn't work, or God is letting me suffer to teach me something. We have such stinking thinking that Gods word becomes ineffective. It is cancelled out by our unbelief; And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief, Matthew 13:58.
Let me share this, God has placed in every believer the power of the Godhead. Romans 1:4 clearly states that we have the power of God within us, His word, the Spirit of God within us, and he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord. That same Spirit dwells within us, the Holy Spirit of God. Our part is to access that same power and authority that dwells in us and use it according to Gods will. Instead of pleading and begging God to heal, cast out demons or provide for us we need to reach out in faith for what God has already provided believing that He will honor His word, no matter the circumstances. Remember this verse; Isaiah 55:9-11, His word will not return to Him without it accomplishing for which it was sent to do.
Friends, if you can get your thinking right and start doing what God commanded us to do, believing that He will give you what you ask. "And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it, John 14:13-14. Our responsibility in this is to reach out in faith and receive what God has already provided through Jesus Christ, believing that what you ask for He will give you. How is your thinking? Is it negative and with lack of belief or is it positive with faith and belief that God will do what He said He would do? It's up to you how you believe, hopefully it is with a positive attitude and positive belief. Learn the method or way of speaking to your mountain, no matter what it is and you will see great things happen, Matthew 17:20, "You don't have enough faith," Jesus told them. "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible."
Now that we have established that the way you think has a direct effect on you, now lets look at something that many believer's have failed at miserably. This is an area that is greatly effected by how you think. The believer's authority that they have had ever since they were born again. First you must understand that when you were born again you received the power of God and it dwells in YOU. When you believed on Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit replaced your old sinful nature with a brand new nature just like that of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit now dwells within you. The very Spirit of God dwells in YOU. Just by that alone tells us that we have the power of God in us. This is how it works, power comes with belief in Gods Son. The problem most seem to have is that they don't realize the power that dwells within them, and for those who do know the power is there don't understand how to utilize it. You need to realize that the authority the first Adam lost was restored by the second Adam, Jesus Christ. When you place your belief in Christ you receive back not only Gods power, but also the authority that was lost. So now every believer has within them the power of God and the authority to use it. This is Gods law so to speak, that's the way it works. Your thinking will determine whether or not this power and authority are any good to you and the kingdom of God. If you go about saying that this isn't for this age, then naturally it's not going to work, you just null and voided it. Maybe you think that only certain individuals have the gift of healing, and you have to get to them to be healed, then maybe it will work for you. Maybe is not faith. If you are one of those who think that some have to suffer for Christ and stay sick or poor then you have just cancelled out God working in your behalf. You must understand that when you were born again, God placed in you faith along with His Power and Authority. The faith you have in His Word will determine whether His word will manifest in your life.
The problem that confronts most of us is believing that Gods Word is for us today and that it will accomplish that which it is sent to do. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." Isaiah 55:9-11. Think about this for a few minutes, what does this say to me? How is this going make a difference in my life? Does this apply to me personally? Now, what are your thoughts? Are you thinking this is fine but it does not apply to me, or, this is Old Testament stuff and it doesn't apply today? I tried believing this but it didn't work for me so it is God's will that I am in this situation. It's not my fault it's God's. Maybe your thinking I just don't have enough faith for these things. If you are thinking this way, can you see how your thinking is affecting the outcome of your prayers or the results that you are asking God for. What then on the other hand your thinking goes something like this; I know God's word is true and will not fail me. I stand on God's word even though I may not be seeing any results at the moment I know God it will not fail me. God's word is the same yesterday, today and forever so if He said it will be, then it will be.
The way you think about God and His Word is the determining factor on the outcome of your prayers. Faith is a positive looking forward process. It does not look at the situation, it looks ahead to the results. Faith accomplish's the unseen things in our lives by bringing them into existence. Faith is not saying it's up to God, or if someone would just pray for me, although other's prayer's of faith can help see your prayer manifest. Ultimately the answers to your request to God depend so much on your thinking. Consider what I am saying, negative thoughts bring negative results, positive thoughts brings positive results. To many of us think that God is responsible for everything that happens to us. If something bad happens it's God's way of teaching me a lesson or He's punishing me for the wrong I did. This way of thinking is contrary to God's Word. James 4:7 tells us to "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Now I ask you, who is supposed to resist the devil, God or you? Gods Word says you are to resist the devil, God has already defeated the devil, and God gave us the tools, His Word, to resist with. What about the healing of the sick? Do we just leave it up to God and say that it is His responsibility to heal the sick? If we pray for the sick then it's up to God to heal them, right? Take a look at this in Matthew 10:8, "As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give." Who is to go and proclaim the gospel, the pastor, the evangelist, those who have a gift of speaking? No, it says YOU go! Who is to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper, drive out demons? Again, is this just for the Apostles of that time, is it those with a gift of healing or some other spiritual gift? No, it says YOU go! When we begin to understand that it is not God's responsibility to do these things we will begin to see Gods Word manifest. Remember that power and authority I mentioned earlier, when Christ went to the cross He took every sickness on Himself, He took our poverty on Himself, He took every sin on Himself by taking our very sin nature. So when Isaiah proclaimed "Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him And by His scourging we are healed." Key word here is in verse 5 where it says "we are" healed. This is a past tense statement meaning that it is already taken care of. God has already provided your healing before you were even sick or depressed, wounded, in a financial situation, everything was already taken care of. God has already done His part! So, when you say it is God's responsibility you are shucking your responsibility of doing what God has commanded us to do. God has not only provided His power for us, He has also given us authority to use His power, now that is amazing and an incredible truth. In Ephesians 1:18-20 we see that God generated power within us and in Matthew 16:15-19 Jesus tells Peter about the power in the church that we as believers have; “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will bee loosed in heaven.” Do you see it, Christ will what? "give YOU the keys of the kingdom of heaven" Now look at the other YOU's in this scripture, what do they say? They say YOU bind on earth and it will be bound in heaven and whatever YOU loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. God gave us the responsibility to use His power and His authority to do this. God has already taken care of these things through His son Jesus Christ. So, if your thinking is wrong and because you don't see instant manifestation of what you ask for, then you place the blame on God for not healing, providing, or releasing. This is totally a lack of faith and unbelief because God told us that He has already defeated the enemy and He has already provided what we need. The Atonement took care of everything. So where does the problem come from then? It comes from first the way we think about Gods Word, do we believe it or not? Then it comes from our not believing. We don't see it manifested instantly so we say it didn't work, or God is letting me suffer to teach me something. We have such stinking thinking that Gods word becomes ineffective. It is cancelled out by our unbelief; And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief, Matthew 13:58.
Let me share this, God has placed in every believer the power of the Godhead. Romans 1:4 clearly states that we have the power of God within us, His word, the Spirit of God within us, and he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord. That same Spirit dwells within us, the Holy Spirit of God. Our part is to access that same power and authority that dwells in us and use it according to Gods will. Instead of pleading and begging God to heal, cast out demons or provide for us we need to reach out in faith for what God has already provided believing that He will honor His word, no matter the circumstances. Remember this verse; Isaiah 55:9-11, His word will not return to Him without it accomplishing for which it was sent to do.
Friends, if you can get your thinking right and start doing what God commanded us to do, believing that He will give you what you ask. "And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it, John 14:13-14. Our responsibility in this is to reach out in faith and receive what God has already provided through Jesus Christ, believing that what you ask for He will give you. How is your thinking? Is it negative and with lack of belief or is it positive with faith and belief that God will do what He said He would do? It's up to you how you believe, hopefully it is with a positive attitude and positive belief. Learn the method or way of speaking to your mountain, no matter what it is and you will see great things happen, Matthew 17:20, "You don't have enough faith," Jesus told them. "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible."
