Glorious Way Church
Glorious Way Church equips believers for the work of the ministry and stands for God’s truth in our culture. We serve as a regional center, where people from all backgrounds find refreshing worship and true communion of the saints.
Glorious Way Church
The Believer's Authority 1
What if understanding the authority granted to you could change your life and the way you approach challenges? This episode invites you to explore groundbreaking insights into the transformative power of spiritual authority and its profound implications for personal growth and faith. We begin with a journey through the scriptures, reflecting on Genesis 1 and Matthew 28, and sparking a conversation on the significance of true discipleship versus mere conversion. We challenge you to re-examine traditional practices and encourage participation in church communities to deepen your spiritual walk.
Wave those Bibles around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad. Say this together. Say, heavenly Father, I'm so glad to be here today. I celebrate your resurrection. Power, lord. You've given it to the church, lord. We thank you for that resurrection. It's changing our lives, not just daily, but moment by moment. We're being made new, we're washed in the washing of the water by the Word regenerated by the Holy Ghost, and we give you all the glory for it In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1:Let's turn in two places today. First, genesis, chapter 1, right in the beginning of your Bible Genesis, chapter 1, and also Matthew 28. We'll start with verse 26 in Genesis 1, one of the greatest literary. I mean, you know it's the Word of God. Moses wrote it inspired by the Holy Ghost. And here in verse 26,.
Speaker 1:And God said you know, it's good to know what God said. Men have all kind of opinions, but what did God say? And God said let us Father, son and Holy Ghost is God, three in one, let us make a man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion. Everybody shout dominion Over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Everybody say all the creeps. He gave man dominion over the creeps. We're seeing the creeps scatter. They're scattering like rats off the Titanic. Amen, all right.
Speaker 1:Matthew 28. And this is Jesus, right after he rose up from the dead, like we sang just now, we sang about that moment, matthew 28., verse 16. Then the 11 disciples. You know where they're missing. One, judas, died and he's not there.
Speaker 1:11 disciples went away into Galilee, unto a mountain where Jesus had appointed them, and when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted even then. This is talking about the 11. And we wonder why people doubt today. I mean, you know the 11,. Some of them doubted even after Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to them. And Jesus came and spake unto them saying you're fired. I'm so glad he didn't. I'm so glad he doesn't fire us when we mess up. You know, thank God, he's got mercy on dumb animals. I mean, you know? No, he said.
Speaker 1:Jesus came and said unto them he said All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations. My margin says, and my margin teach is make disciples. He said make disciples. Go ye, therefore, and make disciples. He didn't say go have a campaign. You know a crusade? I've been in crusades, been in huge crusades, and they're important, but that's not really the building block of the kingdom of God. It's about making disciples.
Speaker 1:I mean, you can get lots of people to answer an altar call and you can get their name on a card and you can follow up with them, but until you've made a disciple out of them, you haven't done the job that Jesus sent us to do. That means the local church is supreme and absolutely necessary. All you people that decided that you don't need one, that are watching this morning or maybe follow me on Facebook, Pastor John Griner, you know a lot of those people that don't believe in the local church. Well, they're misguided and they're wrong and they're in error. You need to get discipled, honey. You can't do that by yourself sitting in your living room Passing judgment on all the churches and pastors and everybody that did a few things wrong. You know we didn't get fired. We've got another chance and we're doing some stuff right now. So grow up and wake up. Amen. Enough of that, all right.
Speaker 1:So he said make disciples of the convenient nations that are easy to get to. Nations there is people groups, ethnos, people groups. There are still people groups on the earth that have not heard the name of Jesus and we need to reach them and we need to do more than just have them come up in an altar call. We've got to establish a local church and disciple them and teach them. He goes on to say it again. He said disciple all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father. He goes on to say it again. He said at disciple all nations baptizing them in the name of the father, son, the Holy spirit. That's the first thing they do as disciples to get baptized in water.
Speaker 1:And that doesn't mean sprinkled immersion. Some of you've been sprinkled. I was sprinkled as a baby. That's not baptism. That's, that's precious, it's, it's notable, but it's not baptism. You can't get baptized until you're saved. Doesn't make any sense. Why would you get baptized as a baby when you don't even know anything? That doesn't save you. Catholic church teaches that that saves them. No, it doesn't.
Speaker 1:That's one of the things that got me out of the Catholic church. I was Catholic, I went to Catholic school eight years and all that, and you know, I started looking and being able to read some of the Bible, and not much of the Bible but some of the New Testament, and just didn't line up with what I've been taught. And God told me one day the traditions of men render the Word of God to none effect. I've been going to the Catholic church most of the time and going out to Lakewood I'd gotten saved, but I still hadn't been delivered from Catholicism. I hadn't been delivered from religion. And I mean, you're just. You know, if you've been raised Catholic and spent a lot of time in Catholic church, you feel guilty hanging out with Protestants. I mean, it's just drummed into you. The Catholic Church is the one true church established by God. Well, that's wrong. The Catholic just means universal, it doesn't mean the denomination Catholic.
Speaker 1:Anyway, to help all your Catholic friends, if there's some Catholics here this morning, get out of the Catholic Church and get into a Bible-believing church. You there's some Catholics here this morning Get out of the Catholic church and get into a Bible believing church. You've got to come, and it's for a Pope, yeah, alright. And then he says in verse 20. Again, the word teaching, another word teaching them, making disciples of them, to observe all things whatsoever, whatsoever. I have commanded you, and lo, I'm with you always, even into the end of the age or the world. So today we sang about it this morning, but I'm preaching and starting a series on the believer's authority.
Speaker 1:The believer's authority Some of you have heard some of the messages about this before, and if you've heard it, well, thank God. Then this will be water for the seed that you've already got in your spirit. It's going to cause your faith to grow in what you've already heard, because faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, your authority and your revelation of authority can grow. God can give you more authority. He's given this church more authority over 30 years. We started out with this much and he just kept adding to our mandates.
Speaker 1:Okay, and every time he tells you to do something, he's not like the world. The world you know when you hire on at your place of business. A lot of times they're real fond of giving you more responsibility, but they don't give you any more money and they don't give you any more authority. It just gives you. They make you responsible for producing something good and they expect you to do it, but you don't get any more money and you don't get any more authority to do it. That's not how God works. When God wants you to do something, he does what. He gives you the authority to get it done. Jesus said all authority in heaven and earth is given unto me. Go ye. Therefore, they couldn't have gone into the world and made disciples without his authority. So authority is delegated power, all power. That word power there in Matthew 28 is the Greek word exousia, which means authority. You have to have exousia, which means authority, you have to have authority. Well, we have authority. A lot of people don't know it and a lot of people don't live like they have authority.
Speaker 1:I would say that in 30 years full-time ministry and eight years before that as a pastor at Lakewood, most people just live below their authority level. It's just waiting on God to do everything. God, do this for me, god, do that for me. God, give me this, give me that, god, help me, god, oh God. And they live a miserable existence, way down below what God has given through the blood of Christ. It's a very important message and you know God.
Speaker 1:Years ago God said you know I was kind of struggling. We moved in the building. You know it's been 21 years ago, this coming May, that we moved into this building, so the church had been in existence for what? Nine years or so and I thought there for a while I'd preached just about everything there was to preach. You know you start thinking well, what am I going to say this Sunday? I mean, I'm preaching three times a week Sunday morning, sunday night, wednesday night, leading worship. Talk about laying it all out. I'm laying it all out and God said why don't you preach what you take for granted? We're trying to come up with new stuff. They need the same stuff you've been preaching. They need to learn how to be led by the Spirit. I know you taught it a couple of years ago. They need to hear it again because they let some of it slip. They forgot it. Teach what you take for granted. I take these things for granted because I've been knowing about authority and all of that and studying.
Speaker 1:I taught for eight years at Lakewood on redemption, which is all about authority. Dominion over demons, disease and death was one of my classes. Eight weeks, Dominion over demons, disease and death. Jesus said all authority is given unto me. And in Genesis, in the very beginning, god said let us he's talking to the, the father is talking to Jesus and the Holy ghost, let us. Make a man just like us and let them have dominion. Roda, the Hebrew. It means subjugate, prevail, rule over reign. Boy.
Speaker 1:We sang some ruling over and reigning songs this morning. I love those kinds of those that's. I like the, the kind of worship songs that are full of redemptive truth. I don't like this hang dog begging. God, I'm about to go under, please rescue me. All of that junk. No, I'm telling you, we're on top. We have authority in the name of Jesus, all authority, and we, you know by faith, have to exercise that authority. Amen, which is why I'm teaching this, and it's going to be several weeks. I don't know if it'll be three weeks or four, usually it's four weeks, but you know, if you've heard it, then it's water for the seed you've already heard, and if you haven't heard it, well, now you've got some seed that can grow and you can begin to take over in your own areas of responsibility. All of us have areas of responsibility that God expects us to rule in, raina, amen.
Speaker 1:So you know, adam had that authority. Adam was the God of this world. He had all authority because God gave it to him. He created him and then he, then he created the woman and of course you know what happened. He you know the woman was tempted and, and you know, got deceived. But the Bible says Adam wasn't deceived. He saw what happened and he didn't do anything about it. He did not exercise his authority over the serpent. He didn't exercise exercise his authority over his own wife. He could have corrected her. No, don't you mess with him. You stop talking to him. You get out of here. This garden doesn't belong to you. Get out. He didn't do anything. He just sat there like a sap, like some of us, just let the devil crawl in the front door and do all kinds of damage and beg God to do something about it.
Speaker 1:When we've got the authority, we've got the 357 magnum in our hand, all we've got to do is pull the trigger. That kind of power is dunamis. We have both. We have authority and dunamis, supernatural power. Are you with me now? So Satan became the God of this world. God never intended for Satan to have that kind of authority. It was reserved for man, and so all the evil that you see in the world that's going on, that we're seeing exposed right now I mean we look back at October the 7th and what Hamas did to Jewish people and Jewish women and Jewish babies and just the height of animalistic evil is because of the fall.
Speaker 1:You know, lions didn't eat animals, they lived off the grass. There weren't any carnivores, they got along, they didn't have any problem. But when the fall happened, well then you had the animal kingdom turned into a kingdom full of predators and prey. And if you ever watch any of these, you know these African, you know, I do watch some of those videos. You know what they hunt. The lion is the king of the jungle for a reason. I mean that guy's, he's, he's a cunning hunter and so he doesn't even do the all. The cunning is the women do the hunting, but he, he can hunt and he seldom, he seldom messes up and they're violent. They eat their prey while their prey is still living. It's brutal and you know, it's shocking to a human being to see that and we think it's cruel. Well, it's that way because of the fall of Adam, because the lion is going to lay down with the lamb.
Speaker 1:When Jesus comes back and establishes his kingdom, all the predator and prey stuff is going to be over with. I mean, everybody's gonna. I'll tell you, I'm looking forward to that. We're gonna keep crying against evil, but I'll be glad to have to quit crying against evil. The evil will be eradicated. There's coming a day when evil will be eradicated.
Speaker 1:So, god in Genesis, chapter 3, let's look at that real quick. After he found out that Adam sinned and Adam is hiding, see fear came as soon as Adam sinned. There was no fear, there was no death, there was no destruction until Adam sinned. No death, there was no destruction until Adam sinned. And so then God, verse 14, the Lord God said unto the serpent because you've done this, see, you've tempted Eve and you caused my son to fall. Because you've done this, you're cursed above all cattle and above every beast in the field. Upon your belly shall you go. So evidently he wasn't crawling on his belly. He didn't look like a snake. He's a serpent, but he didn't look like one like we think of a serpent. He didn't look like that. He was upright and talking to Eve. He had a voice, he was an upright being. God said because you've done that, you're going to be on your belly eating dirt.
Speaker 1:And verse 15, and I will put enmity, hatred, between thee and the woman, although I've been all over the world and I tell you, women are the most depreciated, abused species there is on the on the earth. I mean women are on the bottom of the heap everywhere. I mean they're mistreated, they're second-class citizens everywhere. Why the devil hates the woman? Why I'm going to fix to tell you why I'm going to put enmity. See, there's a supernatural hatred between the devil and women. Why I'll be enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed?
Speaker 1:Everybody say the seed of the woman. Now, see, everybody knows in biology the seed does not come from the woman, the seed comes from the man. There's no such thing as a seed of the woman. But but he's referring to the virgin birth of Christ. He's speaking in code. It's a mystery. Nobody understand it. The devil sir didn't understand it. Most of mankind certainly didn't understand it. But he's speaking his plan of redemption.
Speaker 1:From the very beginning God had a plan for the seed of the woman who is Jesus Christ. The second person of the Godhead In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God and the Word was with God. And the Word was made flesh, the seed of the woman. He was born of supernatural parents. If he couldn't have been born of a regular man, it wouldn't have worked. He would have been a legal human being and he would have been like all the other human beings. His nature would have been fallen. But no, he's the seed of the woman. Are y'all with me now? And his seed shall bruise thy seed, bruise your head. See, that's language. That's old Eastern languages. They understood Languages. They understood. The bruising of the head meant authority.
Speaker 1:In the first Gulf War, saddam Hussein was. He had a brother and they had some captives that they had on the news that evening in, I guess, 1990, 89, 90, whenever it was, and he had a uniform. Saddam Hussein was, you know, prime minister of Iraq and so his brother was something. He was probably a general or something. He had a uniform on. He had boots on and uniform. And he's going and all these poor people are, just, you know, ready to be executed. They've got. They're just bowing their heads, kneeling in a row and it and it shows him going down and looking at them and talking to them. You don't, you don't hear any audio. And he comes up to one guy and he puts his boot right on the guy's head and shoves his face down in the dirt and pulls out his pistol, say he's about to kill him.
Speaker 1:And I thought of this, I thought of this verse. I mean he, you know, we literally have the power, the authority to put Satan's head under our feet and put him in the dirt. If we only knew it, if we only were taught that, if we were on, we wouldn't be praying. Oh God, there's something about that. Oh God, please heal our land. We I humble ourselves and pray, and Lord, we're asking you to heal our land. God's not healing our land, folks. That's a. That prayer is not for us to pray, that's an old Testament prayer for Israel to pray when they've sinned, and that's their covenant. We have authority. If anybody's going to heal the land, it's the church, rising up and doing the right thing and doing more than just voting. We're going to have to do some other things besides vote. Vote is basic, but we're going to have to do some other things besides vote. Are y'all with me now, alright? So authority in 1 Corinthians 15 45. Y'all with me now, all right? So authority In 1 Corinthians 15, 45,.
Speaker 1:It calls Jesus the last Adam. The first Adam messed up. The last Adam did the job. The last Adam captured this, lost authority and took from Satan. He said I am he. I already said this earlier. But Jesus said I am he that liveth and was dead?
Speaker 1:Revelation 1, uh 18. He told Paul on the Isle of Poplar. So you appeared to Paul and when you read earlier in those verses you see a description of Jesus. I mean, he's so bright, his face is shining brighter than the sun is. His clothing is filled with glory. He said I am he that liveth? And I was dead. Now see, why did he have to announce himself to John? John walked with him for three and a half years because the glory made him in. He couldn't even recognize him. It had transformed the appearance of Jesus so much that Jesus had to introduce himself. I am he that liveth? Right, and I was dead. But behold, I'm alive forevermore and I have the keys of hell and death. Keys represent what Authority?
Speaker 1:In Christ we have all authority. See, the key to that is in Christ. We're in Christ. That's another need of the church to understand who they are. In Christ, we're not hyphenated Christians. Well, I'm a black Christian, I'm like a black American, or African American or Native American or whatever. We tend to categorize ourselves by the flesh instead of being in Christ. In Christ we're new creations. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. There's no more Jew nor Greek. There's no more bond or free. There's no more male or female. In fact, we don't have to even relate to God as a male or female. We can relate to him as in Christ. And in Christ we have all authority. Everybody say I've got all authority available to me, amen.
Speaker 1:So, and then he delegated his authority to the believer. Well, no, pastor. It said that that he was talking to the 11. Well, that's true. But another version of that same verse is over in Mark, chapter 16, where he said go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them. That believe, they shall cast in my name. They shall cast out demons. They drink any deadly thing, it won't harm them. They'll tread upon serpents and scorpions and they shall lay hands on the sick and the sick shall recover. The literal Greek is hands. They shall lay, healed, they shall be how. In the name of Jesus, which is the epitome of how we operate in the authority of heaven Is using that name. The church is the only we're the only people on earth that have the right to use that name. Amen. So he delegated his authority to every believer, so that's why I'm teaching on the believer's authority.
Speaker 1:A lot of people think the authority lies in the pastor, the authority lies in the apostle, the prophet and all that. Well, yeah, I've got authority. I've got gifts. That's associated with the offices that I stand in. But every believer has authority. So authority is delegated power.
Speaker 1:And so when you look up the word exousia, it means privilege. Word exousia, it means privilege, force, capacity. I've got the capacity. Now, you're not short of anything. You're not in, you know, you're not begging. You have competency. Isn't that good?
Speaker 1:We have a lot of incompetence in government. We've hired a bunch of dumb people, stupid people, to do things. Did you read, I think, the woman that was in charge of the helicopter that ran into the plane that killed all those people? She's a DEI, she's a social justice warrior, she's real concerned about the LGBTQ++P and she's worked in the Biden White House. She should have been on that helicopter. They just hire these people so they can say that they're inclusive and they've got all these stupid rules that have nothing to do with your ability to do the job. I thank God we're going to try to get back to that. I mean, listen, you might as well be ready for all the Obama judges and the Biden judges to get in the way of the president doing it, because they're already saying he can't, but we have to keep on using our authority.
Speaker 1:That's the bottom line. The battle's not over. It's a good fight of faith. Why is it a good fight? Because we win if we don't quit. All right, freedom, mastery. Some of you have slavery in your physical line, your DNA, your natural line. Maybe you've got forefathers that were slaves and they reported to a massa, in fact the DEI group and all of the woke people.
Speaker 1:They got rid of master bedroom. Oh, that's offensive. We can't use the term master bedroom. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Master bedroom, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Master bedroom, that's where I sleep every night. I sleep in the master bedroom of my house and you don't like it lumpy. I mean, how stupid are you people? But you're the master now because of Jesus. You're the master now because of jesus. You're the master, master, joseph. Yeah, let's get over this, this sickening. It just dishonors god and dishonors the blood of jesus. We can't we can't keep doing this in the church. They can do it out there, but not in the church. Are you all with me now? Delegated influence Jurisdiction I like that term Jurisdiction. I like that term Jurisdiction.
Speaker 1:When 27 states sued the government for the 2020 election, where they uncovered all this massive fraud and massive cheating, there was no question about see, they tried to tell you there wasn't any evidence. There was massive amounts of evidence. They cheated period. End of the story. There's just no point in talking about it. Biden was an illegitimate president period and of course, they're all trying to say the opposite any time somebody they don't like gets it. Then they're going back to Bush. He's illegitimate all the way back. Any Republican is illegitimate. They're the only legitimate ones. But really they're the ones that have always cheated LBJ he would have never had a political office if he hadn't cheated in South Texas, stuffed the ballot boxes. Look it up. We have jurisdiction. So the Supreme Court says they don't have, you don't have jurisdiction to bring this suit. Well, baloney feathers on you, john Roberts, man, I hope. Is there some way we can recall that goofball. Supposed to be a conservative, but about 50% of the time he just All right.
Speaker 1:Everybody say jurisdiction, strength, okay, the power to do as one pleases. Woo, I can see tilt going on. Some of you are going what Do anything I please? Well, who is I See? You are a spirit being. You are a born again Christian. You are made in the image and likeness of God, so anything you want to do lines up with what God wants you to do, and so you have the power to do that. It's not pie in the sky, it's not just dreaming something up. That's not what in the sky. It's not just dreaming something up. That's not what I'm saying. But you have the power to do as you choose, like any other King. See authority. This authority is the King anointing kingdom, kingdom domain. Kings have dominion in their domain Kingdom, the kingdom of Christ. Are y'all getting this? So this whole thing about year of milestones is about the King's anointing. God is wanting the church to rise up in that kingly authority and rule in our individual domains and in our collective domain. So we can do as we please.
Speaker 1:I mean kings, don't ask for permission, gosh, you know, I don't know. What do you think? Should I wear a lavender jacket? Let me call and ask the board of demons. Hello, board of demons. Yes, this is Pastor Griner. I'm asking your permission. Can I please wear my lavender jacket today with a gold shirt? Because I want, you know, I just I would really like to have royal colors on today. I'm speaking about royalty. This is a house of majesty and royalty. It's an apostolic vine with a prophetic river. I'd like to look like that. I'd like to look like no, no, it's denied. Oh, okay, well, I'll put on sackcloth and ashes. No, kings don't ask permission, they don't beg, they don't wonder what to do next. No, they rule, they reign. Are y'all with me now? I hope this is helping somebody. It's helping me. I'm getting really I'm liking my decision every morning Physical or mental power, the power of rule or government.
Speaker 1:So you know, we don't have authority over human will, but we do have supernatural influence. I said we have supernatural influence over human wills. If we exert no authority, then God really is hindered in changing the hearts of people that are resistant to what he wants to do on the earth, of people that are resistant to what he wants to do on the earth. But if the church rises up collectively and you rise up individually and start using your divine authority in your domain, in our domain, you know, god can begin to present his will as very attracted to people who before were very, very hesitant. Look at our last election. Millions of people voted for Donald Trump. That would not. That didn't vote in 2020. Did you know that Elon Musk voted for Biden in 2020?
Speaker 1:So something happened to Elon Musk, and I believe it was when the church began to rise up and I don't know, maybe praying in other tongues. We didn't know we were praying for Elon Musk, but he's the richest guy on the planet and I mean that guy knows a few things. He's able to do a lot of things. I mean, you know, I've never seen any of our NASA people be able to launch a rocket and then retrieve it and bring it back to the launching pad. It lands in the ocean Big old waste. Did you see the picture of that? Did he do it? No, he just knows how to hire the people. They're most of them are about 19, 20 years old.
Speaker 1:Are y'all with me now? We don't have authority over human will, but we have supernatural influence. So you know I'm preaching this, so your faith will grow, that you'll get a divine revelation of what your authority is, so that you'll begin to walk in it. Because this is a year of milestones, and milestones are not going to happen unless you have faith to rule and reign. The devil has a plan to stop your milestones from occurring, and so you've got to get nose to nose with the one who's hindering you. If you ever think that it's God doesn't want you to have it, well then you can't have any faith. Then for that to occur, you're going to have this false sense of humility and you're going to say, well, I just don't deserve. See, it ain't about deserve, hon Ain't about deserve. Jesus deserves everything and we're in him, so we deserve everything. Our deserve is in his deserve. All right. So you got to feed on this faith, feed your faith on this God-given authority.
Speaker 1:Ephesians, chapter 1. You've heard us preach about this many times. Brother Mark, a couple of times ago, took a Sunday morning and preached all about Ephesians, chapter 1, the Ephesian prayers. And there are other prayers Philippians, colossians. There's lots of Holy Ghost-inspired prayers that Paul prayed for his churches and we can take those prayers and pray them for ourselves and others.
Speaker 1:I've been praying this prayer in Ephesians, chapter 1, verse 17, through Ephesians 2, verse 6. You know, in the in the Bible there are no chapters and verses, it's just written continuously. So the whole thing reads as a prayer. If you read it correctly, it's a prayer. You're asking God for something and when you pray according to the word, that's God's will for your life. It's God's will to give you that thing. That's written. God's will is his word. You can pray that prayer and know that God is saying yes and he says you know, and I pray this like I turn all the pronouns into personal pronouns in that prayer. So I pray it like this.
Speaker 1:Father, I pray you grant unto me the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of you. The eyes of my understanding be flooded with light that I might know what is the hope of your calling, what are the riches of the glory of your inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of your power toward me who am a believer, and what is the greatness of your power that you're so willing to use on my behalf when you raise Christ from the dead and set him at your own right hand in the heavenlies. Far above all, principality, power, might and dominion, every name, this name, both in this age and that which is to come, and you put all things under his feet and you've given him to be the head over all things to his church, which is his body, the fullness of him, which filleth all in all and me. Have you quickened together with christ, who was dead and trespasses in God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved me? Have quickened me together with Christ and raised me up together with him, so that in the ages to come, he might show what is exceeding riches of his grace toward me and his kindness toward me in Christ Jesus. Thank you, lord. I believe I receive it today. You pray that every day for six months and you're going to see things in the word that you haven't seen. You're going to see a revelation. You're going to begin to get rhema words, so many that you can't contain them. See, we leave prayer out. We want to pray like these begging prayers. Oh God, no, pray the word, spend time praying the Word. Lord, I pray. Ephesians, chapter 3. Father, I pray you strengthen me with might by your Spirit in my inner man, that Christ may dwell in my heart by faith, that I, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints which is the length and depth and breadth and height, and know the love of Christ with passive knowledge and be filled with all your fullness. Now, unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly. Above all, I dare ask or think, according to the power that worketh in me. To him be glory in the church throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Think.
Speaker 1:I've prayed those a few times. I used to have to read them, but now I just pray them Because they're in me. Used to have to read them, but now I just pray them because they're in me and it's in me so strong that I don't doubt, when I come up against demon powers, who's going to bow their knee? It ain't going to be me. Are y'all with me? Now? The revelation of the believer's authority and the seating far above. So I've got four areas, just the very simple things that ought to be evident. But you need to hear me say them and I need to say them in the atmosphere. But the believer's authority you know we have that authority, that privilege, that force, the capacity, the competency. You know all of those things that that means you look it up when you study your Bible.
Speaker 1:You need to get your concordance out and you need to get it expanded. I have a little book. It's about this big. I bought it off Amazon but they sell it, I think, at Mardell. Mardell closed close to me, so I don't want to drive across the city to Mardell anymore, so I'm sorry they lost my business. They should have stayed open if they wanted my business. So Amazon's gone. Well, amazon has done. Well, I don't know. They sell pretty good books so I can buy this book I bought it at Amazon the Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament, which is an expanded version of the Strong's Concordance, and it gives you really the original languages and all of the shades of meaning. That's what I gave you this morning about authority, the power to do as one pleases. How about that? Wow, that blows your stack. So, number one the believer's authority. You have authority. You have competency. You have the power to do as you choose over your own body and mind. Rule your body, rule your mind, exercise authority.
Speaker 1:When your body is suffering with pain, don't allow it to stay, don't ignore it. Don't ignore symptoms. You're not healed by what you ignore. Well, that's hurting. I'm just going to ignore. No, that's not how you get healed. By ignoring the symptom, you confront it. You say, in jesus name, j Jesus was, well, you know, by his stripes. I am healed. This, this pain has to go. I don't give you permission to stay in my body, leave.
Speaker 1:And then, if these symptoms, whatever they are, if they are intruding on your schedule, to where you've got to stay home and get in bed, or you've got or you, or you can't walk or you can't move, then you, then that's the time to go find out what's wrong. That's the time to go and maybe get some medical opinion about what it is you're facing, so that you'll know more accurately exactly what it is that you're dealing with, cause I've seen people just ignore symptoms and go to heaven. I mean, you know, if I were you, if a certain you know, I think I would know all the symptoms of a stroke. And if I ever had a symptom of a stroke, I'd get on top of the devil and kick him, and if those symptoms kept on going, I'd get to the emergency room. Well, I don't have an insurance. Well then, that's another area. See, that's another area. We're going to work on your finances. Let's get your finances in order so that you're not at the mercy of the devil. Are y'all with me? Now You've got this thought that comes in your mind.
Speaker 1:Well, quit owning that thought. That thought was thrown there by some little demon. He baited you with this unclean thought or this bad thought or this you know uncomplimentary thought about someone. And then you go oh, I'm so sorry, lord, please forgive me, I shouldn't have thought that. Well, no, that's not a sin, that's just a thought that came your way. Turn it around and say I'm not, I don't accept that thought. Devil, I'm not receiving that, get out of here.
Speaker 1:We go around all guilty about thoughts that aren't ours. There are thoughts that he threw at us. Now, if you don't do anything about it, you just let it sit there and marinate and just you know, and it's just going around and around. Well, now then you have sinned because you didn't do anything about it. And then it becomes your thought, and now you're actually acting on that thought. Pretty soon you're going to speak in line with that thought. Now you do have something to ask God to forgive you about. But see, the key is to turn it around as soon as it happens.
Speaker 1:See, that's your authority. That's your authority. You have the authority to do that Answer those false accusations. He knows your hot buttons. He knows your issues. He knows your tendencies buttons. He knows your issues, he knows your tendencies, your weaknesses. The devil doesn't know everything, but he does know your history because he's got familiar spirits that have traveled down your family line from your grandpa, great grandpa, great great grandpa. And you think about all the family members you've got. You've got one line down your father's side and one down your mother's side, and then they've got two lines feeding into them, and then they have to, so it's two to the eighth power. You've got millions of lines of demonic powers that have access to your brain and to your body.
Speaker 1:Pastor, that sounds negative. Well, that's why you need authority. You're not intimidated by the devil. You have power over him. Are you with me now? All right, authority over your home. See, let's have authority over our home. Establish jurisdiction and influence over your spouse. I mean husbands pray over your wife and vice versa wives pray over your husbands. Run the devil off when you see things that are not right. Instead of having an argument, instead of having a bunch of nagging and all that, just start to use your authority. Sometimes you have to do that in private. You know a bunch of nagging and all that. Just start to use your authority. Sometimes you have to do that in private, you know, but use your authority. You've got authority. Nobody's got more authority than you do, especially over your children. There is nobody on God's green earth that has more authority over your kids than you do. You can run the devil off of your children.
Speaker 1:Now, gladys was a stay-at-home mom after a while. She worked when Claire was little, a toddler, but when Jay was born she quit work permanently and was a stay-at-home mom and so she'd be cooking them breakfast every morning, sending them off to school. And when I got saved and she came into the word of faith and came into the Holy Ghost, got baptized in the Holy Ghost, we started praying over our kids. You know, every day, sent them off to school, we'd lay hands on them and pray over them. If I was home, I'd join in. If I wasn't home, a lot of times I'd already be gone. When they went to school she would do it and make sure that she spoke over them and laid hands on them. You know and you know how kids are. They just kind of. They didn't respond. You know, when they get a little older they roll their eyes. Let them roll their eyes. If you skip one time, they're going to tell you hey, aren't you going to pray over me? That's what happened to us. I mean, gladys got in a hurry one morning. We were late for the bus and she was hustling her mouth. Aren't you going to pray, mom? Run the devil off. Set the day over your children. Are y'all getting this done?
Speaker 1:Authority over your finances. You're a king with a domain. Your domain includes your finances. It includes where you work. It includes your business. However you make money, your investments, your 401k, your whatever All your money. Move your money into the kingdom of God. Move it all in there. Don't just move the 10th, don't just move just the offerings that you kind of stuck on a certain offering and you haven't really expanded. Look, if you move all of your finances into the domain of your kingdom, then your authority will work to expand your finances. What is a milestone? A milestone is the history of an event in the development of a person or a thing. So your finances ought to be developing.
Speaker 1:The word develop means increase. It means increase. It means getting bigger. It doesn't mean shrinking, it doesn't mean allowed to be eaten alive by inflation. Listen, we ought to be able to use our authority to nix the effects of inflation. We might not can erase inflation, we may not have that kind of authority to get up there and alter all the crazy reasons why there is inflation, but we can stop its effect in our finances.
Speaker 1:How are you going to do that? Well, because the Bible says give and it shall be. Jesus said this Luke 6, 38. He said what he said give. It's just simple give and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall God give unto your bosom, shall men give unto your bosom, for with the same measure that you measured out, it will be measured back to you. So if you measure it out generously, it's going to be measured back to you generously. Who's got that money, men? Well, pastor, you said that I don't have authority over men's wills. That's true, but you have divine influence, you have supernatural influence over the men that can bless your life financially, ie your boss, your customers. Are you with me now? So when I give, when I give in my offering, I always have words that I speak over that offering.
Speaker 1:I'm first of all, I'm tithing. I'm giving God the first 10th and that's not giving, that's giving God back what belongs to him. That's the 10th. The Bible calls the tithe the 10th, the first 10th off the top. I can't tithe. Yes, you can. It's a choice. It takes faith to tithe when you're at a certain level. At a certain level where you're, you've got too much month at the end of your money, tithing looks like it's impossible. Put him to the test. He said, put me to the test. If I won't open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, there's not room enough to receive. I put him to the test 40 some odd years ago and he's never failed me.
Speaker 1:I've gone down some bad roads. I made some terrible choices. I violated the witness of the spirit, got myself in trouble. You know what? I'm still here and I'm better off now than I was Costs a lot of money to keep Gladys in that assisted living house Whole lot. Cost a lot of money to keep Gladys in that assisted living house A whole lot of money. Where does it come from? Me, us, there are times when I didn't even make that much money in a month. Wow, yeah, oh, oh, are you panicked? No, I'm not panicked. God's got a supply. He always takes care of us in grand style. He's taken care of us. But I've lived through times when I just didn't have very much, but I never quit tithing.
Speaker 1:And then when you give over and above the tithe, then you're little that you give when you're in a lot of trouble financially and you can't give very much. But you're going to give something. Bless God. I'm going to give something. I'm going to sell something. I sold a car one time to give. I'm going to sell something if I'm going to sell something. I sold a car one time to give. I'm going to sell something if I have to to have seed in the ground. And then God is going to give me favor with somebody. There's somebody out there. So, angels, now I'm speaking to you, I'm going to give this offering and I'm giving it in faith. God gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater. I thank you, lord, that you have a supply for me. Angels, go out and bring men to give to my bosom. And he's done that over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.
Speaker 1:Authority, Everybody say authority over your finances. Move your finances into the kingdom of God. You're not just giving money for yourself. You're blessed to what To be a blessing? It's imperative that you be a blessing, so you must be blessed. You can't be a blessing unless you're blessed. Amen, amen.
Speaker 1:So in Matthew 6, 33, you know, in Matthew 6, that's the Sermon on the Mount he's talking about, he's expounding about God as their Father and loves them so much. And the Jews? They'd never heard this kind of preaching. They just didn't relate. They related to God as a judge and a God that was mad at them, and he had been mad at them because they disobeyed him and they were suffering because of it. But Jesus came and gave a side of God that loves them and he said you know why do you be anxious? Don't be anxious about tomorrow. Don't be going around saying what are we going to eat, what are we going to drink, what are we going to put on? Your heavenly father knows that you have need of all these things, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things that you need will be added unto you. That's why I'm telling you move all of your finances into the kingdom of God and seek him first financially. Seek the wellbeing of the kingdom financially, on your side, as much as you can, and everything you need will be added unto you. I'm doing better preaching than I am amening. I haven't heard a lot of amening. I start talking about money and people clam up. They get really nervous. I'm not taking the offering yet.
Speaker 1:Finally, authority over your neighborhood and over your city, your state and your nation. First, timothy 214. You know? Uh, first of all, I would that you give thanks for those that are in authority. Give thanks for them, pray over them. Give thanks. We don't? We rarely give thanks. We don't. We rarely give thanks. We mostly complain. But we can give thanks for the ones that do rule properly, the ones that do the right thing. We ought to be thanking God for Trump and his administration. They're, they're turning some things around. Are they perfect? No, nobody's perfect. Nobody does everything perfectly. But you know, when you have righteous, you know.
Speaker 1:I just see where he's paying attention to persecution of Christianity. He talked about having an office in the White House that's going to watch out over the government agencies that are discriminating against Christianity. All this business about these coaches trying to pray over their teams and then they get fired because they prayed. And one lady, a teacher, she had a crucifix in her classroom and she got fired because she had a crucifix. This is all outrageous. And all these crazy lunatics that have been in charge they've been in charge for 16 years, 12 years eight for Obama and four for Biden. That's a long time for nut jobs to be in charge of our country.
Speaker 1:Everybody says Biden is the worst president. I really think Obama was the worst president in history. He did more to hurt the country than anyone. Besides that, we know Biden was just a placeholder. He didn't make any decisions. They were all made for him. It's Obama, so don't waste your time on a dithering old codger like Biden. I mean he's corrupt, no question about that. But really the people underneath him and around him and all of the Obama they called him Osama. They called him Osama the other day Got it all messed up. It's not too far from the truth. All right Authority over your neighborhood. I mean you. All right Authority over your neighborhood. I mean you know, let's pray over your neighborhood, pray over your city.
Speaker 1:This church has been a light to our city. You didn't probably notice it in the video of our 30th anniversary, but there was a clip of me prophesying over City Hall back in 2002. We had a Sunday night service in the Seventh-day Adventist church down in West Houston Seventh-day Adventist. We were there for four and a half years. Nobody knew we were there. I mean, you had to really look for us. We were invisible. How many of you started coming to the church during those years when we were in the Seventh-day? Thank God, thank God, you found us and but anyway, we just left on a Sunday night service and we did a caravan to downtown and we sang some praise songs out there and we had the guitar players and we had the drums and we sang and then I wound up. The Holy Ghost came on me and I prophesied the city hall. So we've been doing some things in our city, praying over our city, and that led us to praying over our state and having influence in Austin in 2023.
Speaker 1:And now look at us. We're going from state to state. Now We've got Maine. Did you see that clip of our Maine? We had a service in Maine. It was on Facebook. I mean, praise God, maine, that ain't a Bible Belt. Michigan wants us to come, indiana wants us to come and a lot of other New York we even heard. I mean, I don't know if New York has directly approached us, but we have a friend of a friend that's interested. How about New York? New York needs a lot of help.
Speaker 1:Authority In Jesus' name. We have individual authority over our personal domains and then we have this corporate authority over these kinds of things and they are given as God gives this church mandates. Before we had the mandate, we didn't have authority to go to New York or to Maine and have capital worship. You know, paul and Silas say to go to Bithynia, and the spirit suffered them. Not. We just read where they were told to go into all the worldia and the spirit suffered them. Not. We just read where they were told to go into all the world to preach the gospel to every creature. Now, didn't Jesus say go into all the world? Then why didn't they go? Well, because that was the blanket statement, but it was not for them personally. They were forbidden to go to Bithynia. We don't know why God didn't give them authority to go there. If they had gone there, they probably would have died. And then they were forbidden of the Holy Ghost in Acts 16, forbidden to preach the word in Asia minor. Well, what in the world is? What's that all about? It's because they God didn't allow them to do it. He wouldn't give them any authority except to relate to his open door. And so then, after they dodged two bullets, they could have listen, they could have missed God and they could have just think about. The Bible would have been written by somebody different, all the Pauline epistles would have been different, because he'd have been dead. But no, he listened to the Holy Ghost. And so then, our authority needs to be governed by the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is the one that gives us authority to do certain things.
Speaker 1:I've seen this. There are people that pray. I was reading about a woman. I heard her tape and she's in a group that is charismatic, but they're kind of flaky, they're not word of faith, and back when the Afghanistan war started, she went off by herself and rented a hotel room in that capital city. I forgot the name of the city and prayed for two weeks. Well, you know, jesus didn't pray like that. He didn't pull down principalities and powers and rulers of darkness over cities, he preached the gospel. Paul did the same thing. He preached the gospel in Asia Minor for three years. And the word of God grew and mightily prevailed. He didn't pull down principalities and powers in prayer.
Speaker 1:And so what I see, when people don't have the authority to deal in that realm of that kind of a spiritual battle, they're overmatched and they either wear themselves out and in some cases they can get sick, in some cases they can die, and so it's not wise to violate God's line of authority. He does. You know, we don't let teenage, we don't let junior high kids drive cars. Why? Because they're just not mature enough to know the dangers of it, besides not being big. Some of them are big enough, but some of them aren't. So we have aged. What does it make any sense that a child can make a decision about changing their gender, which is impossible anyway? These people are nuts. They really are. But my point is that God is not a child abuser.
Speaker 1:He will give you authority, as you've proven in the past, to be faithful, and that's what he's done in this church. This church started off with a mandate to wake up the church. It didn't look like anybody was listening, but after all these years, 23 years of obedience, now God is opening doors. He's given us authority. We're occupying places and state capitals across and I think ultimately we're going to get it all the way across the country. I believe all 50 states are going to have an opportunity to have capital worship. It's because of the authority of the believer and it's imperative that all of us, both personally and corporately, exercise authority in our domain. Come on, lift your hands and receive the word of God, the authority of the believer. Hallelujah, glory to God.