Pursuing what others ignore. Sounds strange when you say this, but when you pursue what others ignore there will be many misunderstandings.
1 Corinthians 4:20 reads “For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power”. You remember the old saying, I can’t hear you because your actions are speaking too loudly. You’ve been given a promise by someone and then they never make good on it. Oh, they’ll have plenty of excuses why they couldn’t, but then why are they so willing to give their word to someone without truly considering what they’ve promised.
That’s part of the church’s reputation. Big on words and small on follow through. Some of this failure lies in the “I” mentality. I, I, me, me, mine, mine. “I know I made a promise, but this came up and I have to do this instead”. Once you give your word to someone, you follow through even if it cost you something.
The only I’s that ought to be in the church are “Identity” and “Integrity”. Both are lacking. A lack of identity or knowing who you are in Christ will cause you to go down many wrong paths and be in bondage to the lies of the enemy. A lack of integrity will cause others to never take you seriously. We ought to let our yes be our yes, and our no be our no.
What we believe and what we teach come with a promise. It’s a promise from God and you can bet He will keep it. It will confront doubt, unbelief and sickness in your life and others. It will cause your expectancy level toward God to explode.
We have all power and authority. How can I make that statement? Well, I didn’t. Jesus did.
In John 17:18 in the New Living Translation, Jesus speaking said these words. “Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world”. These are red letters. Then in Matthew 28:18 Jesus speaking again. The text reads “Jesus came and told his disciples, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth”. These are red letters also. So, since Jesus spoke both of these truths, just use simple step logic and put them together. Here’s how it reads. Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world with all authority in heaven and earth.
Here’s further truth to support this. Psalms 115:16 – “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath He given to the children of men.
God gave the earth and all dominion to man. Adam in the garden was given the power to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth with offspring in right relationship with God. This plan/edict has not changed. It’s still God’s perfect will. It’s right there in Matthew 6:10 where it reads on earth as it is in heaven.
What happened in the garden is Adam handed this authority over to the enemy. Satan didn’t come into garden and violently take possession of Adam and Eve. He couldn’t. He had no dominion there. Dominion empowers and he didn’t have any.
The enemy knows he has no power unless he gets it from us, so his tact is and has always been to challenge any truth of God’s word with the opposite. He always couches it in the form of a subtle challenge.
Remember, he said to Eve, “hath God said….?” Remember the three challenges to Jesus in the wilderness? Remember God said about Jesus that He was his beloved Son in whom He was well pleased? Then the enemy comes along and says “If you be the Son of God…?”
Every word of God received must by necessity be challenged with contradiction. If Jesus was challenged, we will be also. You get a revelation from God through your renewed mind and the enemy will try and convince you that what was said is not probable or even possible.
Satan does this in order to get power. He uses our mouths to speak his messages. He uses our actions to keep us and others in bondage. It’s called performance based Christianity. He suggest things about others to us to make us suspicious concerning their intentions toward us. This is how he gets his power. If he didn't do these things, he wouldn't be doing his job, which is to steal, kill, and destroy.
All these things are designed to try and get you to avoid pursuing what others ignore. Others ignore the supernatural direction from God because their minds are not renewed to know who they are in Christ and the power and authority they have.
Okay. I can already hear the cries of the religious audience saying “Wait a minute! Satan is powerful”. I never said he wasn’t powerful. I’m simply showing you where he gets his power from. He was given that power by man. If you're interesrted in knowing where he gets his power, study Luke 4:6,7, because that's where we are going to pick this back up in part 2. Grace and Peace
