For too long, the Church has taught you religion when God gave you relationship. You've been told about God when Jesus died to give you a Father. You've developed your mind when you should have been developing your spirit. You know your rights but you've never taken your place. You've might heard a lot of sermons but the Word has never increased in you.
You've been working on the wrong part of yourself your whole life. Think about it. How much time have you spent trying to improve your body? The diets, the workouts, the supplements. How much money have you poured into developing your mind, the books, the courses, the degrees. You've invested everything into the parts of you that are going to decay and die. But there's a part of you that you've completely ignored. A part that never grows old. A part that's eternal.
A part that's in the same class as God himself.
Man was created in the image and likeness of God. You are in the same class with God. God is aspirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Psychology has called this inward man a subconscious mind. They've recognized that conscience is a voice from an inward personality.
But the natural man doesn't understand the things of the spirit. Here's the problem. The natural man can't know himself or know God. So the student of psychology, unless he's received eternal life, can't understand himself. He's studying something he doesn't have the equipment to comprehend. This hidden man of the heart is the real you. Your spirit is like God. It never grows old.
It's neither mortal nor immortal. It's eternal. Your body is mortal and will become immortal at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The senses that convey all knowledge to your human reason belong to the body and they will grow old with the body. But your spirit, that's the part that gets recreated when you're born again.
Apostle Paul tells Timothy that life and immortality came to light through Jesus Christ. Life here is Zoe, the nature of God. No one knew anything about that until Jesus came and unveiled himself to man. Apostle Paul gives us a glimpse of the three-fold man, spirit, soul, and body.
The spirit is the part that knows God. This knowing is an intimate relationship as one.
The soul is the intellect that knows the sensuous things. The physical body is the house in which we live.
God says that this three-fold man is to be preserved entire without blame at the coming of the Lord. Before man fell in the garden of Eden, his spirit dominated his reasoning faculties. After he fell, the ffive senses gained the ascendancy.
Before he sinned, his body was eternal like his spirit. But when he sinned, his body became mortal, and his spirit became a partaker of spiritual death. Man not only died spiritually, but his mind became darkened, subjected to the adversary.
Apostle Paul gives us a graphic picture. The invisible things of God since the beginning of creation were clearly seen.
Man lived in that realm before he fell.
But then knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasonings. Apostle Paul prays that God might give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened, illuminated, that the eyes of your spirit shall be so illumined that you may know the riches of the inheritance in Christ.
He's speaking here of the new creation, man, the man who has received eternal life into his spirit. You see, the senses have blinded man's reasoning faculties.
Believers are described as children of God, but they walk in the senses.
They've never developed a spiritual life. They may have been Christians for years, but they've never developed or grown. Since knowledge governs them, when their recreated spirits should have the ascendancy, the new birth is the recreation of the spirit of man. That recreated spirit is supposed to gain the ascendancy over the reasoning faculties and govern them. But in the undeveloped believer, the reasoning faculties govern the spirit instead. When by reason of time the recreated spirit should have gained the ascendancy, they're still living under the dominion of their bodies. Apostle Paul talks about presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice and being transformed by the renewing of your mind. Here is a believer whose mind has never been renewed. His body is governing him. His mind can't be renewed until he begins to practice and live the Word. He won't know the will of the Father. He won't know how to walk in the will of God.
If you're starting to see yourself in this and you want more truth like this, read on, what I'm about to show you will completely transform how you approach your walk with God.
Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. He that follows me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life". This is not a light that comes to the human reason, but a light that comes to the human spirit, this hidden man of the heart. Apostle Paul calls him the inner man. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. You need to understand that the human spirit can be developed. The human spirit is capable of marvelous development before it's recreated as well as after. After we're recreated, the Holy Spirit through the Word can lead us into marvelous development. And here's a strange fact.
The main stream church has never sought to develop the human spirit, the recreated human spirit. It has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on developing the mind that receives all its impulses from the senses. It has spent vast fortunes developing the physical body. But the real man, this hidden man of the heart, has never been developed.
Apostle Peter says, "But let it be the hidden man of the heart in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price. "
This hidden man of the heart is as capable of development along spiritual lines as the reasoning faculties are along intellectual lines. What we call conscience is the voice of the hidden man of the heart."
Apostle Paul says, "Herein I also exercise myself to have a conscience void of offense toward God and men always." Here is real spiritual development. He says, "I exercise myself to have a conscience that is always in harmony with the will of my Father." The conscience is the voice of the human spirit. It is governed by human reasonings and environment before it's recreated. But after it receives eternal life, it can become the voice of God. There is no limit to the development of the human spirit.
Apostle Paul says, "For our glorying is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God, we behaved ourselves in the world." The fleshly wisdom he speaks of is sense knowledge. We must develop our recreated spirits and let them govern us. I have found this true.
A believer can so develop his spirit that in every crisis of his life, his spirit can get the will of the Father instantly. And if he follows the leading of His Spirit instead of the reasoning faculties, he never makes a mistake in the investment of his money or in the choosing of his companions. He would practically never step out of the love walk.
Right now, I want you to speak these words. "My spirit is being renewed day by day." Don't just read it and move on. Write it out on a piece of paper. Declare it. My spirit is being renewed day by day. Because when you declare this, you're making a commitment to start developing the part of you that matters most. The war is between your senses and your recreated human spirit. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." In short, I am reality. If a man develops his spirit, he can walk in this reality of truth and he can enjoy all the fruits of eternal life.
Apostle Paul says, "Wherefore we faint not though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. The physical decays grows old and feeble. But the inner man can receive continual strength and health from eternal life, the nature of God, so that it's renewed day by day.
This inward man never grows old. And if we learn to take advantage of our rights in Christ, there's no doubt that we would live to a great age. Apostle Paul suggests that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life. The physical body is mortal, subject to death. Here is the suggestion that this mortal body be swallowed up of Zoe, the nature of God. Now, he that wrought us for this very thing is God, who gave unto us the earnest of the spirit. The earnest of the spirit is the recreation.
He's given us this taste, this sample of the life of God in our spirits. Now, he says, "I want your body swallowed up of of this life." Jesus said how we, I am come that you might have life and have it abundantly. There is offered to us an abundance of the nature of God imparted to our spirits so that they will utterly dominate our mortal bodies. That would suggest a perfect physical body with no disease. Satan's power and influence eliminated.
What if there could be groups of believers who would develop this hidden man of the heart until it actually dominated the physical, until mortality would be swallowed up of life, Zoe, God's life. We would be spirit ruled. The hidden man of the heart would govern the reasoning faculties. The five senses would be under the dominion of the spirit. The new creation would rule the physical body. The name of Jesus would become a living reality. Its authority over diseases and over demons, a part of our daily walk, just as eating and drinking are part of our daily experience.
Apostle John says, "You are of God, my little children, and have overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world."
We've never given place to that fact.
Apostle Paul says, "For though we walk in the senses, our warfare is not according to the senses. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the senses, but they are of the spirit, and they are mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds. Our spirits should cast down reasonings born of the senses and bring them all into captivity to the lordship of Christ."
In part two, next I'm going to show you exactly how to develop this hidden man of the heart and let your spirit take its rightful place of dominance in your life. Because once your spirit starts ruling instead of your senses, everything changes.
You need to understand some facts that will completely transform how you see yourself.
Man is in God's class of being. Your spirit is capable of receiving God's nature so that you may be dominated by God's revelation.
The spirit of the natural man is in union with Satan. He's ruled by his physical body. The senses dominate him. His reasoning faculties can't know God or understand God. They can't know the hidden man of the heart. The hidden man that lives in the physical body. He's a total stranger to sense knowledge. So only the psychologist who is born again, who has given place to his own spirit can know himself his own nature. Then God renews the mind brings it into subjection to the recreated spirit through obedience to the Word. There can be no renewing of the mind without practicing living doing the Word. The natural human spirit has been governed and ruled by the senses. So it will be difficult for the recreated spirit to gain the ascendancy over the sense-led mind. But this must be done. We've never recognized that faith is a product of the recreated human spirit. That dominating faith means a dominating recreated spirit. Love is the fruit of the recreated human spirit. Consequently, natural man can't love in the New Testament sense. His love is dominated by his senses. The recreated human spirit's love gains the ascendancy over the senses. Love is not a product of the reasoning faculties. The spirit alone can love, can develop faith, and the other beautiful fruits apostle Paul talks about. Here's what most people don't understand.
You've been trying to develop faith in your mind. You've been trying to manufacture love through willpower. You've been reading books and listening to sermons, trying to get your brain to believe harder, to love better, to have more faith. And you wonder why it never works, why you keep failing, why you can't sustain it. It is because you're working on the wrong part of yourself. Faith doesn't come from your mind. So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Love doesn't come from your emotions. These are fruits of your recreated spirit. And your spirit has been sitting there undeveloped, untrained, ignored while you've been pouring all your energy into your physical body and your natural mind.
Think about the last time you tried to have faith for something. You probably sat there and tried to convince yourself. You repeated positive affirmations. You quoted scriptures at yourself. You worked yourself up emotionally. And when the pressure came, when the symptoms got worse, when the situation got darker, all that mental faith collapsed like a house of cards.
Why? Because it was coming from your reasoning faculties, not from your spirit. Your mind was trying to do a job it was never designed to do.
Your recreated spirit is where God lives. Your recreated spirit is where faith is produced. Your recreated spirit is where love flows from. And you've been starving it while feeding your mind and your body.
Apostle Paul says,"Though we walk in the flesh, we don't war according to the flesh." Let me put it this way. Though we walk in these physical bodies with senses that are constantly screaming at us, our warfare isn't fought with sense knowledge. The weapons of our warfare aren't physical.
They're spiritual and they're mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds.
What are these strongholds? They're reasonings born of the senses. They're the thoughts and beliefs that your physical body and your natural mind have built up over years of being dominated by what you can see, hear, taste, touch, smell and feel inside. They're every high thing that the senses have erected against the knowledge of God. And you're supposed to be bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, not with your mind. With your spirit, your recreated spirit casts down those sense-based reasonings and brings them under the lordship of Christ. If you're getting revelation right now about why you've been struggling so much, read on, because what I'm about to show you is going to give you the practical steps to develop your spirit and let it take dominance. Here's what needs to happen. Your recreated spirit needs to gain ascendancy over your sensuled mind. Before the fall, Adam's spirit dominated his reasoning faculties.
After the fall, the senses gained the ascendancy. And when you got born again, your spirit was recreated, but nobody taught you how to develop it. Nobody taught you how to let it rule. So, you're walking around as a new creation with an undeveloped spirit that's being bossed around by your five senses and your carnal mind. Your body tells you you're sick and your mind agrees and your spirit sits there knowing the truth but unable to speak up because it's weak and undeveloped. Your bank account tells you you're broke and your mind panics and your spirit knows that all your needs are supplied but can't override the fear because it has not been trained to dominate. Someone offends you and your emotions flare up and your mind starts rehearsing all the ways you've been wronged and your spirit knows you're supposed to walk in love, but it's been so neglected that it can't govern your response.
This is why believers live defeated lives. Not because they're not saved, not because God has not given them everything they need, but because their spirits have never been developed to the point where they can actually rule their minds and bodies. Now, confess this truth right now. My spirit rules over my senses. Declare it. My spirit rules over my senses.
Because you need to start establishing this truth in your consciousness.
So, how do you develop your spirit? How do you train it to take dominance? You practice the Word. You live the Word. You do the Word. There's no other way.
Your mind gets renewed through obedience to the Word. Your spirit gets strong through practicing what God says. When your body screams that you're sick, your spirit speaks. By His stripes, I was healed. And you don't just say it once and hope for the best. You say it until your spirit's voice becomes louder than your body's symptoms. You say it until your recreated spirit dominates your sense knowledge.
When fear tries to grip you, your spirit declares, "God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind." You speak it. You live it. You refuse to let your senses and emotions dictate your response.
When someone wrongs you, your spirit rises up in the love nature of God and responds with forgiveness and grace instead of bitterness and revenge.
Not because you feel like it, but because your developed spirit is governing your undeveloped emotions.
This is what apostle Paul means when he says to exercise yourself. He exercised himself to have a conscience void of offense toward God and men. He trained his spirit. He developed it. He let it gain the ascendancy until it became the dominant force in his life.
And here's what happens when your spirit is developed and ruling. You can get the will of the Father instantly in every crisis.
Your spirit becomes so sensitive to God's voice that you don't have to agonize and wonder and second guessess.
You just know because your spirit which is one with God's spirit tells you.
You make right decisions about your money because your spirit is guiding you, not your greed or your fear.
You choose right relationships because your spirit discerns, not your emotions or your loneliness.
You walk in the love walk consistently because your spirit is governing, not your wounded feelings or your pride.
Apostle Paul says, "Our outward man is decaying, but our inward man is renewed day by day. Your body is getting older. Your mind might not be as sharp as it used to be. But your spirit can be renewed every single day. It can receive continual strength and health from eternal life, the nature of God. And here's the incredible part. Apostle Paul suggests that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life.
Your physical body, which is subject to death and disease, can be swallowed up, drowned in a sea of Zoe, the life of God. Jesus said he came that you might have life and have it abundantly. An abundance of the nature of God imparted to your spirit so that your spirit utterly dominates your mortal body.
Imagine groups of believers who developed this hidden man of the heart until it actually dominated the physical until mortality was swallowed up of life. spirit ruled people whose recreated spirits governed their reasoning faculties whose senses were under the dominion of the spirit whose new creation ruled the the physical body. The name of Jesus Christ would become a living reality in their lives. Its authority over diseases and demons would be part of their daily walk as natural as eating and drinking. Apostle John says, "Greater is HE that is in you than he that is in the world." But we've never become God inside-minded.
We've never given place to that fact. So here's what you do starting today. Stop trying to develop faith in your mind. Stop trying to work up love in your emotions. Start developing your spirit.
Spend time in the Word. Not just reading it with your mind, but letting it penetrate your spirit.
Speak the word out loud. Obey the word immediately when you know what to do. When your senses try to dominate you, speak from your spirit. When your mind tries to reason you out of God's promises, bring those thoughts into captivity with the authority of your recreated spirit. When your body tries to dictate how you feel and what you can do, let your spirit filled with the nature of God rule over it. This is the life God intended for you. Not sense ruled, spirit ruled, not dominated by what you see and feel. Dominated by the nature of God, living in your recreated spirit. Your spirit is in God's class. Your spirit has received his nature.
Your spirit is capable of unlimited development. Stop neglecting it. Stop feeding your mind and starving your spirit. Start letting the hidden man of the heart take its rightful place of dominance in your life. Because when your spirit rules, you walk in victory. When your spirit rules, faith is natural. When your spirit rules, love flows.
When your spirit rules, you're more than a conqueror. Live like it.
You've been to church for years. You've heard sermons. You've listened to teachings. You've sat through Bible studies. But here's a question that might sting a little. When was the last time you actually heard the Word of God? I don't mean when was the last time someone quoted a verse or used the Bible to make a point. I mean, when was the last time the living, breathing Word of God hit your heart so hard that it actually changed something in your life?
Look at what happened in the early church.
When they preached, something was different. The book of Acts tells us that those who received the Word were baptized and about 3,000 souls were added in one day.
Not those who heard a good message. Not those who enjoyed the preaching. 26:44 Those who received the word. A little later it says many of them that heard the word believed. And the number came to about 5,000.
Notice it doesn't say they heard the apostles. It says they heard the Word. There's a difference. You can listen to a preacher and walk away entertained.
But when you hear the Word, something happens inside you that you can't explain. The twelve apostles, these ordinary fishermen who had no formal education, said something that should shake us. It is not fit that we should forsake the Word of God to serve tables. They were being asked to do good things, necessary things, practical things. But they said no. Why?
Because they understood something most churches today have forgotten. The Word holds a place that nothing else can fill. They said, "We will continue steadfastly in prayer and in the ministry of the Word." And here's what happened next. That's absolutely stunning. The Word of God increased, and the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly, and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. Did you catch that? The Word increased. Not the church programs, not the ministries, not the buildings. The Word itself increased. It grew. It multiplied in the hearts of people. And when the word increases, everything else follows. Think about your own life right now. Is the Word increasing in you? Or has it been the same stale verses you've been reading for years without them ever really penetrating your heart?
When's the last time the Word actually grew in you, expanded in you, took over more territory in your thinking and your living? Here's what's tragic. They didn't even have the full Bible yet. The Pauline Revelation hadn't been written. 28:55 The four gospels hadn't been written.
All they had was the Old Testament and the living testimony about Jesus Christ. And with just that, the Word was increasing and changing entire cities.
Then persecution hit. Steven was stoned to death. Saul of Tarsus was dragging men and women out of their houses and throwing them in prison. The church was being torn apart. And what did they do?
They that were scattered abroad went about preaching the Word. Not their opinions, not their experiences, not their theories about what might help people feel better. The Word. In the middle of the worst crisis the early church had faced, the Word was what they carried with them.
I heard a well-known evangelist recently. In his entire message, he quoted two passages of scripture. Two. The rest was stories, anecdotes, things that kept the audience entertained. And people walked away feeling good but unchanged. God had no real place in it.
Compare that to what we see in Acts of the Holy Spirit in the disciples. When Phillip went to Samaria and revival broke out, the report that went back to Jerusalem wasn't Phillip did an amazing job. It was Samaria has received the Word of God. When Peter went to the Gentiles for the first time and the Holy Spirit fell on them, it says the Holy Spirit fell on all them that heard the Word.
If this is opening your eyes to something you've been missing, read on now, because in part two, I'm going to show you exactly what happens when the Word gets its rightful place in your life. The Word was doing the work. Not clever preaching, not emotional appeals, not entertaining programs, it is the Word. And when Peter had to explain what happened to the Jewish believers who were upset that he'd gone to Gentiles, he said, "As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, even as on us at the beginning." You see two elements at work here. Peter preached the Word. The Gentiles accepted Christ. The Holy Spirit fell on them. Simple, powerful, effective. Preach the Word.
But notice something. The Jewish believers were stil governed by their five-sense knowledge. They were still ruled by the old covenant with its laws and rituals and traditions. They could not understand how God could work outside their system. Sound familiar?
We do the same thing today. We create our systems and our methods and our programs. And then we wonder why the Word is not increasing like it did back then. When persecution scattered the believers, they traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch speaking the Word, not organizing committees, not developing strategies, only speaking the Word. And even though there was a huge struggle between those who wanted to make Christianity just an improved version of Judaism and those who saw it was something completely new. The Word kept spreading. They did not have seminaries yet. They did not have the full revelation. Apostle Paul would later write about the new creation, the new covenant, the substitutionary work of Jesus, the body of Christ. They were living largely in the realm of the senses, believing because they saw miracles. But they honored the Word above everything. When Paul and Barnabas were sent out, a proconsul who had been entertained by a sorcerer called for them. But notice what he wanted. He didn't say, "I want to hear these famous preachers." He sought to hear the Word of God. That's what drew him. Not the messenger, but the message. Paul later said in one of his addresses to us is the Word of the salvation sent forth. And when he preached, almost the whole city gathered together to hear the Word of God, not to hear Paul, but to hear the Word. That stirred up persecution from the religious people, the Word. That stirred up persecution from the religious people just like it does today. But in the midst of persecution, hunger, and hardship, the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit, as they went from village to village, preaching the Word.
For the first time in Acts, the Word is called the Word of Grace. And all the equipment apostle Paul had on his first missionary journey was the Word. That's it. No professional training, no support team, no marketing plan, just the Word.
And he planted churches in every community he visited. We spend generations in some countries trying to establish a church. They did it in weeks. Why?
Not because they were smarter. Not because the crucifixion was fresh in people's minds. But because the Word held a place in their ministry that we've never given it. The name of Jesus held a place we've never given it. And the Holy Spirit was the guide and director in a way he has not been allowed to be since.
Confess this truth right now. "I give the Word its rightful place in my life", because you need to settle this. The Word isn't just another tool in your spiritual toolbox. It's not just something you read when you have time. It's the very power of God to transform everything about you. The Word brought conviction. The name gave them credentials through miracles. The Holy Spirit unveiled Jesus Christ to listeners as the Word was expounded. And the Holy Spirit governed where they went and what they did. He's still here. This is still his day. But we've pushed him aside with our programs and our plans. Paul ended up in prison in Philippi. His back was scourged. His hands and feet were in stalks, but he and Silas were singing and praising God. An earthquake hit. The prison doors opened. The jailer thought everyone had escaped and was about to kill himself. But Paul stopped him. And the jailer asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And they spoke the Word of the Lord unto him with all that were in his house.
Right there in that jail with prisoners and caretakers listening, a church was organized because they spoke the Word.
In part two, I'm going to show you what happens when the Word prevails in your life the way it prevailed in Ephesus.
Because that's what you're missing. Not more teaching, not more programs, but the prevailing Word that changes cities and transforms lives.
You've been fighting the same battle for years. The same addiction keeps coming back. The same fear keeps paralyzing you. The same sickness keeps attacking your body. The same financial pressure keeps crushing you. And you've tried everything. You've prayed. You've fasted. You've gone to the altar. You've had people lay hands on you, but nothing's really changed. What if I told you the problem is not that God hasn't answered. The problem is that the Word hasn't prevailed in your life yet.
Listen to what happened in Ephesus. Apostle Paul spent two years teaching daily in the school of Tyrannis. Not once a week, daily for two solid years. And here's what happened. Fear fell upon them all.
And the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. Many of them that had believed came confessing and declaring their deeds. And not a few of them that practiced magical arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the price of them and found it 50,000 pieces of silver. People who had been deep in witchcraft and the occult brought their spell books, their magic scrolls, everything they'd invested in and burned it publicly. Do you know what 50,000 pieces of silver is? That's about 140 years worth of wages, millions of dollars in today's money. They burned it. These weren't casual practitioners.
These were people who had their entire lives, their entire identities, their entire fortunes wrapped up in the occult. And they walked away from all of it. Why? Because so mightily grew the Word of the Lord and prevailed. The Word prevailed. It did not just grow. It did not just increase. It prevailed over the entire city of Ephesus, one of the most pagan, demon infested, occults saturated cities in the ancient world. The Word was stronger than witchcraft, stronger than demons, stronger than addiction, stronger than every stronghold the enemy had built in that city for generations.
And here's what should wreck every excuse you've ever made. They still didn't have the full Bible. Paul hadn't written one and two Corinthians yet.
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, all that revelation about the new creation and your position in Christ that hadn't been written down yet. They just had the spoken word, the living testimony about Jesus and the Old Testament. And with just that, the Word prevailed over an entire city's darkness.
So, let me ask you something that might sting. Why isn't the Word prevailing in your life? You have the complete Bible. You have every word Paul ever wrote. You have the full revelation of what Jesus did, who you are in HIM, what belongs to you. You have access to the Word in ways they could never dream of. You can pull it up on your phone anytime, anywhere. Multiple translations, study tools, commentaries, everything.
And yet that addiction is still there.
That fear still has you.
That sickness still attacks.
That situation still hasn't budged.
The Word hasn't prevailed. Why?
Because the Word does not prevail just by sitting on your shelf or being downloaded on your device. The Word does not prevail because you read a chapter this morning and felt good about yourself. The Word prevails when it gets into your mouth. When you speak it, when you act on it, when you let it dominate your thinking instead of your circumstances dominating you.
Look at what happened when apostle Paul was in prison in Philippi. His back was scourged. His hands and feet were in stocks, locked in a dungeon. If anyone had an excuse to complain, to give up, to question God, it was apostle Paul. But he and Silas were singing and praising God. At midnight, an earthquake hit. The prison doors flew open. Everyone's chains fell off. The jailer thought everyone had escaped. He was about to kill himself rather than face execution for losing his prisoners.
But apostle Paul stopped him and said, "We're all here. Nobody left." And the jailer, shaking with fear, asked, "What must I do to be saved?" And they spoke the Word of the Lord unto him with all that were in his house. Right there in that jail with prisoners and guards listening. They spoke the Word, not their testimony, not their story about the earthquake, the Word.
And a church was born in a prison because they gave the Word its place even in the worst circumstances.
That's what you're missing. You're waiting for your circumstances to change so you can believe God. But the Word prevails when you speak it in the middle of the prison, not after you get out.
If you're starting to understand why you've been stuck, say these words, right now. The Word prevails in my life.
Declare it. The Word prevails in my life.
Because you need to settle this before we go any further.
There are three phases of the Word you need to understand.
First, there's the Word incarnate in the flesh. That's Jesus Christ. Apostle John says the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Second, there's the spoken Word. That's what we see all through the book of Acts. The apostles speaking, declaring, proclaiming the Word with their mouths.
Third, there's the written Word. That's the entire New Testament. Especially apostle Paul's letters revealing who you are in Christ. The Word in Jesus lips was the Father's Word given to men through his Son. It was the healing Word, the miracle performing Word. When Jesus Christ spoke, lepers were cleansed. Blind eyes opened. Dead people came back to life. Demons fled. Not because Jesus worked himself up into some emotional frenzy, but because the Word in his mouth carried the power of God. The Word preached by the apostles was the living Word, the lifegiving Word, the recreating Word, the miracle performing Word.
When apostles Peter and John said to the lame man at the gate in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,"Rise up and walk," that was not just a nice prayer. That was the spoken Word carrying creative power. And the man's ankles and feet received strength instantly.
The Word given to us by the Holy Spirit through the apostles, including all the letters Paul wrote, is not just a written Word sitting in a book.
It's a living Word.
It's a lifegiving Word.
It's a healing Word.
It's a prevailing Word.
It's a God-indelt Word.
And here's what most people miss. In the lips of men and women of faith, the Word is filled with faith, filled with love, filled with grace, filled with the very nature and life of God. That is why it matters what comes out of your mouth.
That's why it matters whether you're speaking the Word or speaking your doubts, your fears, your complaints.
God is love. God is light. But God is also a faith God. So when he gives you his nature in the new birth, there comes with that a measure of faith to every one of you. But that life has to dominate you. It has to be sustained and fed with the Word. And as you act on the Word and live in the word, faith grows in you. Here's the difference between believing and faith that will set you free. Believing is acting on the word.
Faith is having acted on the Word. You're not trying to get faith. You get faith by acting on what the Word says.
When the Word says you're healed by his stripes, and you act on that by refusing to accept sickness and speaking healing over your body, you're believing. And that believing becomes faith as you continue to act. What a privilege it is to have in your lips this living Word, this lifegiving Word. But it only works when you speak it, when you act on it, when you let it prevail over every other voice screaming at you.
Your body screams that you're sick. The Word says, "By his stripes, you were healed." Which voice are you going to let prevail?
Your bank account screams that you're broke. The Word says, "God supplies all your needs according to His riches and glory. Which voice prevails?
Your emotions scream that you are abandoned and alone?" The Word says, "He will never leave you nor forsake you." Which voice gets the final word?
The Word prevailed in Ephesus because Paul taught it daily for two years and the people received it, spoke it, acted on it until it was stronger than every demonic stronghold in that city.
The Word will prevail in your life when you stop giving your circumstances, your feelings, and your fears more airtime than you give the Word.
So here's what you do starting today.
Stop reading the Bible like it's just information. Start speaking it like it's the prevailing Word of the living God.
When fear attacks, open your mouth and declare what the Word says about fear.
When sickness tries to take hold, speak the healing Word.
When lack tries to convince you God's abandoned you, proclaim His promises of provision.
Feed your spirit with the Word daily. Not when you feel like it. Daily.
Let it dominate your thoughts. Let it fill your mouth. Let it govern your actions.
Because the same Word that prevailed in Ephesus will prevail in your situation.
The same Word that broke witchcraft and burned spell books worth millions will break every chain the enemy has wrapped around you. But it only prevails when you give it the place it deserves. Not as something you read when you're desperate.
As the living Word that rules your life every single day. The Word is alive. The Word is powerful. The Word prevails.
Let it prevail in you. Live like it.
There's someone in your family who never does their share. Everyone knows it.
They show up for the meals but disappear when it's time to clean up. They're always in crisis but never actually help anyone else. Others have to constantly carry them, cover for them, do their work for them, and it's exhausting for everyone around them. Here's what you might not realize. You might be that person in God's family.
I've watched it for years. a man or woman who's been a Christian for 30 or 40 years and they haven't grown at all in the last 35 of those years.
When they get sick, someone else has to pray for them.
When they're in a hard place, someone else bears their burdens.
They're always seeking help, always needing someone to prop them up. Yet, they have ability inside them that's never been exercised or developed. You know your place in the family. You know your rights and privileges. Apostle John says, "Beloved, now are we children of God. Not someday. Not if you try hard enough.
Now, right now, you are a child of God." But here's the problem. You've never taken a son's place. You've never assumed a son's responsibility. You've never enjoyed a son's privileges.
The Father is a stranger to you. Sure, you enjoy preaching. You help support the church. You show up on Sundays. But you do not appreciate your righteousness in Christ. And you do not take advantage of it to help yourself or others. You understand that righteousness means the ability to stand in the Father's presence without the sense of guilt or inferiority. Apostle Paul says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." You're in Christ. You have access to the throne. You've heard the invitation to come boldly to the throne of grace, to make your requests known, to receive mercy and find grace, to help in time of need.
But in your time of need, you go to others. It's like you're ashamed to go into your Father's presence.
A sense of inferiority has taken over. You've never entered into the rest of faith, the rest of righteousness.
You're still anxious, still worried, still afraid.
Jesus said, "My Father who has given them unto me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my hand.
But you've never recognized that your Father is greater than all your circumstances.
Your circumstances are your master.
Demons and their work hold you in bondage. You're afraid of sickness, afraid of lack. Yet your Father is greater than all these things. You know nothing about this quiet rest where you no longer fear anything. You don't know what it's like to simply know that your Father cares for you. To know that Jesus Christ ever lives to make intercession for you. You've never enjoyed his intercession. You've never taken advantage of it. You've never quietly said, "He's praying for me right now. He's holding me. You've never enjoyed your rest." The writer of Hebrews talks about people who failed to enter into rest because they couldn't be persuaded.
Today, so many people are unable to act on the Word. They can't be persuaded to enter into the rest of Christ. And because they won't rest, they don't have the fruits of righteousness.
Do you know what the first fruit of righteousness is?
Rest in the Word. That quiet confidence in the Word. Isaiah describes it. The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness. Quietness and confidence forever. That's what righteousness produces in you. Peace, quietness, assurance. This is the highest type of faith. No irritation, no anxiety, no restlessness.
Apostle Paul said,"I know in Whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto HIM, against that day. No fear of demons, no fear of circumstances, no fear of lack. No fear for the future. He knows the Father cares for him." If you're starting to see yourself in this and you want to finally step into your place in the family, read on, because in part two, I'm going to show you exactly how to move from being carried to being someone who carries others. Jesus Christ said, "Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all of these things shall be added unto you. The believer has sought and found the kingdom of God. You're a new creation. You possess the very nature of the Father, and that nature has given you righteousness.
So, you can live and walk in fearless quietness. But here's what's happened to most believers. The writer of Hebrews says, "For when by reason of time you ought to be teachers, you have need uh again that someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk and not of solid food." Notice that phrase, by reason of time. How long have you been a Christian? How long have you had eternal life? Right after you received eternal life, you should have begun a careful study of the Word because you never know when a crisis will come and you'll desperately need faith in the Word. You also need the Word every day. You need that quiet, restful spirit.
Apostle Paul says, "By reason of time, you ought to be teachers."
Every believer was supposed to be an evangelist in their own circle, a soul winner, praying for sick folks, carrying other people's burdens.
But instead, though you ought to be teachers, you haven't learned anything. You're not able to teach yourself or guide yourself from day to day. You need someone to teach you the first principles of the Word of God. You can't eat the solid food of the Word. You can't understand it. You're a baby who must be fed on milk. And here's why. You never acted on it. You never practiced it. So it never became a part of you.
Apostle James describes these people. But be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deluding your own selves. What an army of self-diluted Christians. They think that because they go to church and got water baptized or had some wonderful experience years ago that they're all right. (See Acts 2:38 again) But when a crisis comes, they utterly collapse. When by reason of time ye ought to have known the Word. Yet we're still babes in Christ. We've never exercised ourselves in the Word, never exercised our faith, never put love to the test, never tried to live the word. We've just floated along being carried by others. Right now, I want you to say these words, . I am taking my place in the family of the Father. Don't just read it. Speak it. Declare it. I am taking my place in the family. because you need to settle this today. Apostle Paul says, "And such confidence have we through Christ, God's Word. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to account anything as from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant."
Notice such confidence have we through Christ to God ward. I want you to be able to say that in the face of every difficulty.
Such confidence have I in the Word that nothing can overwhelm me. I stand here a master in the midst of the failures of others. You're conscious of the reality of the Word. He can't fail you. He's with you. He's with you in the written Word. He's with you in the name of Jesus. He's with you in the presence of the Holy Spirit. That sufficiency of God is your sufficiency. His ability is your ability. Apostle Paul challenges us. And God is able to make all grace abound unto you that you having always all sufficiency in everything may abound unto every good work. Here is the sufficiency of God at your disposal. Here is the fullness of God. For of his fullness we have all received and grace for grace. This fullness, this sufficiency, this ability of God belongs to every believer. And he's made it to abound to you so that you having all sufficiency in everything may abound unto every good work. But you're not just a giver of money. You're a giver of your time, your ability, your wisdom. when by reason of time you ought to have much to give the church. You ought to be able to open the Word up to hungry hearts that come into your home.
In part two, I'm going to show you exactly what the fruits of your righteousness look like and how to walk in them daily because it's time to stop being the person everyone has to carry and become the person who carries others.
You've become the righteousness of God in Christ. Do you know what that actually means in your everyday life? It means you have the ability to stand in the presence of Satan and all his works with complete freedom without a sense of inferiority.
You can walk into the Father's Presence any time with boldness. You can stand in the presence of other men's failures as a victor. The Father has invited you to come with freedom of speech to the throne of grace and make your requests known. It may be for yourself or it may be for others. You have a right here.
Not because you earned it, not because you're good enough. Because you're his child and he made you righteous. Apostle Paul says, "Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God, you are filled with the fruits of your righteousness in Christ. Your ability to know the Word, your ability to heal the sick. You strengthen the weak. You bear the burdens of the overloaded.
You have ability to teach the Word and have it become a living thing in your lips." Jesus Christ said, "The words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life."
Those words will become spirit in your mouth. They will become life. They will become healing. They will become strength when you speak them. Have you ever thought about that?
The same Word that was spirit and life when Jesus spoke, it becomes spirit and life when you speak it. Apostle Paul said, "In nothing shall I be put to shame, but that with all boldness as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body."
He said, "Christ is now living in my body. He shall be magnified in my body."
What does that mean? He will be seen as a victor in you, throughyou, in your circumstances, in your battles, in your daily life.
Thanks be unto God who always leads me in triumph in Christ. That should be the song on your lips every single day. There is not any reason for you being a weakling. There is no reason for it. Whatever. The strength and ability of God are yours.
So here's the first step in this life. Recognizing the lordship of Jesus. Not just saying the words, actually letting him be Lord. That means you confess the lordship of his Word. It governs your life, not your feelings, not your circumstances, not what people think. The Word governs you.
You confess the lordship of car ove. That new kind of love that's been shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit.
When you received eternal life, you received the nature of the Father. And the Father is love. You received the love nature. Now you let that love nature dominate and rule you. Think about this. When someone cuts you off in traffic, does love rule your response?
When someone at work takes credit for your idea, does love govern your words?
When your spouse says that thing that always pushes your buttons, is love dominating you in that moment?
Or are you still being ruled by your emotions, your pride, your need to be right? This is what you must give to the world. This is what you must give to the church.
You're learning what must be given to the people. You're like a mother who eats in order to produce milk to feed her baby. You're feeding on the Word so that you'll have ability to minister to others so they'll no longer be in the class of those who must be carried like an infant. If you're ready to stop being carried and start carrying others, say this right now. I walk in the fruits of my righteousness.
Declare it. I walk in the fruits of my righteousness.
Apostle Paul says, "We're all to study to show ourselves approved unto the Father. We must satisfy His heart. He has no pleasure in ignorant or sickly children because He has made provision for their education and perfect healing. He never intended that His children should be dependent in their old age upon the world for their care. My God shall supply every need of yours."
You want to learn to trust that absolutely. You want to trust I can do all things in HIM who strengthens me. That must become part of your very being. Not just a verse you quote when you're desperate, but the reality you live from every single day. Apostle Paul said, "For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therein to be independent of circumstances." Independent of circumstances. Think about what that means for you today.
If you are an employee, your boss can't control your peace. Your bank account can't dictate your joy. A medical diagnosis can't determine your faith.
You're independent of your circumstances because you're dependent on God. Jesus Christ has made unto you wisdom. You know that wisdom is the ability to use knowledge that you've gathered from experience, from books, from the Bible.
Now you know what to do with that knowledge. Wisdom leads you out into victory.
Here's what this looks like practically. You wake up tomorrow morning and your body hurts. Instead of immediately complaining and reaching for medication, you stop. You recognize your righteousness. You speak to your body. By his stripes, I was healed. Body, you will line up with the Word. That's not denial. That's not ignoring reality.
That's speaking the higher reality of God's Word over your temporary circumstances.
You check your bank account and it's not where you want it to be. Instead of panic, instead of anxiety, you stop. You remember : "my God supplies all my needs according to His riches in glory. I am independent of this circumstance because my Father is greater than all." Then you go about your day in peace, doing what you know to do, trusting HIM for what only he can do.
Someone at church needs prayer. Instead of immediately looking for the pastor or the prayer team, you recognize " I have the ability to pray for the sick. I have access to the throne. Christ lives in me." So you lay hands on them and pray with confidence, not hoping God might show up, but knowing He is already there in you.
Your teenager comes home with a crisis. Instead of freaking out, instead of letting fear dominate, you stop. You let love rule. You speak life. You declare the Word. You stand in your righteousness as a parent who has access to the throne of grace. And you intercede with boldness.
This is what it means to take your place in the family. You're not waiting for someone else to have faith for you.
You're not running to others every time there's a problem. You're standing in your own righteousness, accessing your own covenant rights , exercising your own faith. You know your Father is greater than all. You know Lord Jesus Christ ever lives to make intercession for you. You know the Holy Spirit is in you, guiding you, strengthening you, giving you wisdom in every situation. You're not hoping these things are true. You know they're true and you live from that place. The first fruit of righteousness is peace. The effect of righteousness is quietness and confidence forever. So when the storm hits, and it will hit, you're not the one panicking. You're not the one falling apart. You're the one standing in quiet confidence, speaking peace to the storm, carrying others who are losing it. That's your place in the family. Not the one being carried, the one carrying, not the one always in crisis, the one bringing solutions, not the one always needing ministry, the one ministering to others. God has no pleasure in you being weak and dependent. He's made provision for you to be strong. He's given you His nature. He's given you His Word. He's given you His Spirit. He's given you righteousness. Everything you need to walk in victory is already yours. Stop acting like you're waiting for God to do something He's already done. He's already made you righteous. He's already given you access. He's already put his Spirit in you. He's already supplied everything you need for life and godliness. The question is, are you going to take your place and walk in it?
Apostle Paul said, "Christ shall be magnified in my body." Let Christ be magnified in your body today, in your words, in your actions, in your response to crisis, in your treatment of others. Let the world see a victor, not a victim. Let them see someone who walks in the fruits of righteousness, peace, quietness, confidence, love, joy, strength. You're not trying to get these things. You have them. The love nature is in you. The ability of God is yours. The sufficiency of God belongs to you. Now walk in it. Live from it. Give it away to others who are still struggling, still being carried, still living like spiritual infants. This is your inheritance. This is your place in the family. Take it, walk in it, live it, and watch what happens when you finally stop being the one who needs help and become the one who brings help. When you stop looking for someone to carry you and start carrying others. When you stop being ruled by your circumstances and start ruling over them through Christ who strengthens you, that's the life your Father intended for you. Not someday, but today, right now.
Take your place. Walk in your righteousness. Live like the child of God you are. You call him God. You pray to God. You worship God. You ask God for things. But when was the last time you actually called him "Father"? Not just the word.
Not just saying, "our Father who art in heaven ..." because that's how the prayer starts. I mean when was the last time you talked to him like a Father, you approached HIM like His child, lived with the consciousness that you have a dad in heaven who actually cares about you.
Here's what's stunning. No body of believers since the reformation has majored on the Father fact. And yet it was one of the most outstanding features of Jesus Christ's teaching. It was always this undercurrent running through everything Jesus Christ said and did. This desire to go back and be with his Father. Jesus said, "I came out from the Father and am come into the world again. I leave the world and go unto the Father.
There are four striking facts here that you need to understand.
Jesus is the Word made manifest. He remembered who he was before he became a man. Jesus Christ said, "Father, glorify me with your own self, with the glory which I had with you before the world was." He remembered what the glory had been before the world was ever made. And he wanted to go back to his Father.
Think about that. The thing Jesus Christ longed for most wasn't recognition, wasn't power, wasn't even the miracles. It was being with his Father again. Apostle John says, "No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten son now in the bosom of the Father, he has declared HIM." One translation says, "He has introduced HIM." Jesus introduced the God of the Jews, Elohim, as his Father, and he called HIM his Father so often that the Jews considered it blasphemy. They said he not only broke the Sabbath but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God. Jesus Chris was crucified because he called God his Father. The unveiling of the Father to the world cost Jesus his life.
The Jews said, "We have a law, and by that law he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God." But look at the intimacy between the Father and Jesus Christ.
The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For what things soever HE does, these the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the son and shows him all things that Himself does. Here he is the intimate companion and assistant and fellow worker with the Father. Not distant, not formal, but intimate, working together in constant communication. When Philip said, Lord, show us the Father and it's enough for us. Jesus answered he , " have I been so long time with you and you don't know me, Phillip, he that has seen me has seen the Father.
The entire ministry of Jesus Christ is interwoven with this Father fact he came to introduce the Father, he came to do his Father's will. Jesus Christ said "I can of myself do nothing, as I hear , I judge and my judgment is righteous because I seek not my own will, But the will of HIM that sent me."
Whose will is it that he's doing? His fathers. I am come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of HIM that sent me. And here is one of the strongest verses. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father. Jesus said, I know HIM because I am from HIM and He sent me." That should be precious to your heart.
Jesus Christ says, "I know my Father because I am from HIM. I came out from heaven. I have lived with HIM through the ages. He sent me and I am doing His will here in the earth."
One of my students once asked, "What is the outstanding feature of Jesus' life?" It was his continual confession of what he was to the Father and what the Father was to him. There are many striking things about Jesus Christ, but there is nothing like this. If this is opening your eyes to a relationship with the Father you've never had, read on, because in part two, I'm going to show you how this same Father relationship belongs to you right now. Jesus Christ said, "HIM that sent me is true, and the things which I heard from HIM, these speak I unto the world." Then he said one of the most beautiful things that ever fell from his lips. He that sent me is with me. He has not left me alone. For I do always the things that are pleasing to him. Notice I do nothing of myself. I teach nothing of myself. I teach what the Father taught me. The Father is with me. He has not left me alone.
Why? Because he was the Father-pleaser.
Do you know that every one of us can be that? What a change it would make in your life. Almost all of us are hindered and imprisoned in the things we want that He's not pleased with. We're struggling with things that shut us away from the sweetest fellowship with HIM.
Jesus Christ said, "Oh, I came out from the Father not to do my own will." Now you can understand the power and the authority of that man. The singleness of purpose is one of the keys that unlocks the miracle power of the man. He had nothing to seek for himself.
Jesus Christ said, "If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father that glorifies me. Of whom you say that he is your God." Do you notice the difference?
The Jews called him God and Jesus called him Father. The church today calls him God. How few ever intelligently call him Father. How lonesome he must be. He is a Father god with a Father heart, and his people call him God. Just Mr. God, like they should speak of a neighbor. Let us learn the secret of His Father heart.
Jesus said, "The works that I do in my Father's name, these bear witness of me." Then he said, "My Father who has given them unto me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." Then the great sentence, "I and the Father are one."
Now we can see the man in his majesty and greatness. He's been magnifying the Father. He's been lifting the Father up before our hearts. And now he pushes aside the curtain and lets us look at HIM as he really is. I and my father are one. Jesus said, "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do the works, though you believe not me, believe the works that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I in the Father."
This is the very relationship of the church to the Father. Now this is your relationship as a child of God. You are in the Father and the Father is in you.
He's imparted His life to you. His very nature has been given to you. You are as much His child as Jesus was. When your heart can take this in, he will become more to you and you will realize something of what you are to HIM right now. Say these words. He is my Father and I am His child. Not just intellectually, also heart level. He is my Father and I am His child. Because until you settle this in your heart, you'll keep approaching HIM like a distant deity instead of your dad.
1 In part two, I'm going to show you what it means to live as a fatherleaser and how this transforms everything about
1:18:53 your daily walk with God. Because once you understand that you have a father, not just a God, everything changes.
1:17:54 This is the very relationship of the church to the father. Now this is your relationship as a child of God. You are in the father and the father is in you.
1:18:03 He's imparted his life to you. His very nature has been given to you. You are as
1:18:10 much his child as Jesus was. When your heart can take this in, he will become more to you and you will realize something of what you are to HIM right now. Say these words. He is my father and I am His child. Not just intellectually, heart level. He is my father and I am his child. Because until you settle this in your heart, you'll keep approaching HIM like a distant deity instead of your dad.
In part two, I'm going to show you what it means to live as a fatherleaser and how this transforms everything about your daily walk with God. Because once you understand that you have a Father, not just a God, everything changes.
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