Dominion
by Dan MacLeod
August 13, 2023 · Harrison Hills Church
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Genesis 1:26-28, 1 Corinthians 15, Matthew 4, Luke 4, 1 Corinthians 9:27, 1 Timothy 4:16, Galatians 5, Matthew 16:24, Romans 8

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/dan-macleod--dominion
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

------------------------------------------------------------
Genesis 1 in 26 the word of the Lord says and God said let us make man in our image after our likeness let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth verse 27 so God created man in his own image and the image of God created he him male and female created he them and God blessed them and God said unto them be fruitful and multiply replenish the earth and subdue it I want you to notice this is this is the second time in three verses that the Lord says this and have dominion over the fish of the sea over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveeth upon the earth you would many times to the the Bible come to a place where you may

see we find it Jesus himself in the Gospels would say things like this verily verily I say unto you well that kind of sounds silly to us in America in 2023 but that ancient Hebrew culture repetition was a way of calling your attention to something and so for the writer in two times in three verses to make the statement let them have dominion over the fish of the sea over the fowl of the air over the cattle all the earth and all the creeping things upon the earth God is trying to draw our attention to this it's easy to simply look at what the Scripture says on the surface we understand he was given Adam dominion over the animal kingdom but there is much spiritual application here today and so for a few minutes I want to talk to you this morning on the subject of dominion amen dominion let's pray together Lord Jesus I thank you for

this great church these precious people father I'm asking that you would prepare our minds to hear give us ears to hear hearts that are tender to the Word of the Lord to the Spirit of God I'm asking Lord that you would speak to us as individuals as families as a collective church body I'm asking God that the Spirit of the Lord would minister the power of God would be revealed that you would help us press in to a greater measure of dominion in our lives and families and church I asked this in the only name that has power to save to heal and to deliver I ask it in Jesus name and the church said amen amen the Lord bless you you can be seated this morning dominion we don't have time to and nor do I feel to to give great attention today to this but I do want

to highlight it just for your understanding this morning the Bible and we have read highlights to us that Adam was given dominion in three areas or what we could call three dimensions he said you have dominion first over the fish of the sea over the fowl of the air and over the cattle or all the things that walk and creep upon the earth it's easy to just read over this and think now that he was given dominion over the animal kingdom which is to say Adam you can hunt them you can eat them because I put you over them but there's a whole lot more there than just that to say he has dominion over the fish of the sea he's speaking to us of the domain that is hidden within the earth then he says the fowl of the air that is that which is above the earth and now he

speaks of the cattle of things that walk upon the earth and so it's not simply the animal itself but it's the three dimensions God draws our attention to there's what's in the earth what's above the earth and what's on the earth and so now we see this translation into a spiritual reality in the order is of paramount importance today because dominion always starts on the inside it starts on the internal man and then once you get things working right on the inside God will help you deal with things that are above the earth the prince and the power of the air the Bible says and then you can move into the third dimension which is material dominion in this ancient culture a man's wealth and a man's means of living was determined by the herds that he had and the crops that he would harvest when you read of those Old Testament

patriarchs the Bible would tell of their wealth or the the size or the the means of their offering unto the Lord how not by dollars and cents but by the size of their herd well they would say Abraham had this many cattle so and so offered this to the Lord and so the parallel of what we read and the natural to the spiritual is that there are three dimensions of dominion for the people of God but it starts right here on the inside Jeremiah said it like this that your heart is deceitful and wicked go look up that word deceitful you know what it means it means slippery well what kind of creature is slippery fish because it's that first dimension of dominion but when you get your heart right and you get your life into alignment with God there's a second dimension of dominion

God can move you to where you can start dealing with the fowls of the air and God can start giving you dominion over principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness and high places and you can start driving things out of your life and out of your family and out of your area then there's a third dimension a material dominion now I understand that this is abused by many in the Christian world in 2023 but just because somebody gets out of balance is not permission to neglect the reality or the truth of the Scripture I tell you today God desires to bless his people the work of the kingdom takes resources it takes finances it takes money and there is a dimension of dominion that we can move into where God blesses us in such a way to be able to bless the kingdom where there's no lack there's no fear but we live in

the bountiful blessings of God we live in a place where there's no lack but as the Bible says there's all sufficiency in him and so it's really not what I've come to preach to you about in its entirety today but I want you to understand when we talk about dominion today this is what I'm talking about there's three dimensions that are available to us that our maturity qualifies us to move into now it's only a couple chapters after this account we read in Genesis 1 that we would come to the story of Adam and Eve and we would find that the serpent deceives them and their disobedience to the command of God has caused them now to forfeit the dominion he just gave them sad as it might be the problem began with this they allowed the serpent to deceive them they allowed that snake to convince them that they should not be satisfied with what God

had given them and really we like to point fingers God comes to Adam and what's Adam do Adam points at Eve what's Eve do Eve points at the serpent see our human tendency is to neglect responsibility to point a finger at somebody else but I tell you today the problem started right here it started with Adam and Eve's inability to say no Adam's first problem wasn't with Eve and Eve's first problem was not with the serpent and I know that might seem like wayward theology because we like to blame everything on the devil but I've got to tell you today Adam's first problem was himself it was his inability to look himself in the mirror and say I'm gonna tell you no Eve couldn't just blame her problem on the old devil Eve's first problem was herself it was her inability to stand by her husband look themselves in the mirror and say no I'm

gonna say no to you let me tell you today you're not always gonna have somebody to say no for you sooner or later you're gonna come to a place where you've got to have the responsibility the self-government and the maturity to look yourself right square in the eye and say nobody here to tell me no so I'm just gonna have to tell myself no no no you realize the possibilities that were extended to them by the giving of dominion they would never know fear they would never know lack they would never know sickness or decline they would never know depression or anxiety they walked in a state of unparalleled and unequal dominion God gave this to them and they forfeit it all by their inability to say no and as the story would go and we would turn the pages of scripture when we come to the New Testament we would find a similar setting

we're only four chapters into the Gospels and both Matthew and Luke when we find the account of Jesus being as the scripture says led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil that might seem like an unusual thing you mean God by his spirit would lead us into such circumstance so I tell you he would he most certainly would and here is Jesus led where into the wilderness a setting similar to that which we find Adam and Eve a wilderness a forest a place filled with the beauty of God's creation trees and plants and vegetation and animals and wild beasts and now here Jesus is both in Matthew and Luke for and the Bible says the tempter comes to him with this accusation if thou be the son of God three times we find that in the scripture and each time Jesus responds with what it is written you see the heart

of the battle was this it was a battle for identity the tempter was calling into question are you really who they say you are are you really the Messiah are you really he who's gonna heal the world from the ravaging effect of sin are you really the one who one day is gonna shed his blood that can heal all humanity is it really you if it's really you I want you to prove yourself by doing this and now he is trying to appeal to the human nature he is trying to appeal to the human will in the ego of this man Christ Jesus but Jesus looks the tempter back in the eye and says it is written he tempts him again he looks him back it is written he tries to tempt him a third time and he just tells him it's written get behind me saying now I've got a question for you

today how can you say it is written if you don't actually know what is written when you find yourself in your own wilderness in the proving of your maturity in the testing of your Christian identity and the tempter shows up in the form of an unholy joke or an unwholesome advertisement or something comes up in the middle of your show that you know you probably shouldn't be watching and all of a sudden you find yourself being tempted and tested in your own Christian life in your own Christian walk how can you say it is written if you don't actually know what's written and see now we start faced with the dilemma of our day see we fall prey to the same thing that Eve fell prey to a misunderstanding of the Word of God a misquotation of the Word of God and I would draw your attention to this fact today that that Eve had

neglected the certainty of what God said and became increasingly influenced by tactile influence it was that which she could touch that was she could interact with he didn't say don't touch the fruit he said don't eat it but somewhere in the tactile exchange in the looking at the beauty of the fruit that the Bible says it was pleasurable to the eye it looks pleasurable to eat and now she reaches out with the enticement of pleasure and she starts holding that which is that tactile influence caused her to neglect the certainty of what God said oh wait what are you trying to get out preacher here's what I'm trying to get at what is this thing right here it's a tactile world the world is becoming increasingly tactile and with that there is a danger because we used to write in full sentences we don't write in full sentences anymore we like

to say lol we don't say ok ok a y we just write k now we just use emojis and the danger of the tactile shift in the present world as we've got people that don't have just just step away from the scripture for a minute they don't even like to read anymore nobody buys books because who buys books went for 799 you can have Netflix and if you don't want to pay you can just scroll Facebook and YouTube all day long and it's this tactile world and I'm telling you there's a spirit working through the tactile exchange happening our world that's producing in illiterate people and the problem with an illiterate people is you don't have the means to open up the pages of the Bible yourself you don't have the means to get in the word of God and find out what is written and now all of a sudden you find yourself in a

wilderness lit up of the spirit you know why because God's proving you he's testing you to see do you have the maturity to move to the next dimension of dominion but in the testing our illiteracy proves our error and proves our way because you can't say it's written if you don't know what's written the problem of our present day is we've got people that are Christian in name they proclaim the identity but they really know little of what the word says it's why David said it like this my word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee he knew the only means of sustained victory he knew the only means of real Christian development in real purity of lifestyle was to know the word and to hide the word in his heart because in the moment of temptation you can't say it's written if you don't know what's written and

so here in the opening pages of Genesis we are reading of what the Apostle Paul wrote in 1st Corinthians 15 and it's the first Adam and when we come to the opening pages of the New Testament Matthew 4 Luke 4 it is he Jesus who Paul calls the second Adam the first Adam lost his battle in the wild among the beasts and now the second Adam comes to win his battle in the same place the first Adam lost dominion because of this his inability to say no and the second Adam restores dominion because of his ability to say no when he's tempted no because it's written well if you're really who you say you are do this no why because it's written well if you're really who you say no well why not because it's written you see this is why we have churches that were once full

that are not full because somewhere we allowed a culture to be developed among us where people were biblically illiterate and when the testing came and when culture overwhelmed them and when they left their parents house and when mommy and daddy weren't there to say no anymore they didn't actually know what was written for themselves and when they moved off to university they became exposed to the reality they didn't actually know they were just used to pastor telling them they were used to daddy telling them they were used to doing what grandma said and when they found themselves in their own wilderness and in their own temptation and when their dominion was tested they forfeited it because they didn't know what was written so they couldn't say no to the tempter but this Jesus walks into the same environment that the first Adam had thrown it all away and by his ability to

look the tempter in the eye and say no dominion is restored and so the Bible begins by telling us he is led up of the spirit into the wilderness but by the conclusion of the story only 13 verses later it says this Jesus returned in the power of the spirit and I would submit to you today this is where a lot of Pentecostal people are living they're living somewhere in the in-between of being full of the spirit and walking in the power of the spirit and you don't get to move from the fullness to the power until you've been proven by the temptation and see I know what we're like we're we're Pentecostal we believe and being baptized in Jesus name filled with the Holy Ghost we still speak in other tongues and praise God for it but in the Pentecostal movement we have created a culture where we celebrate moments and I thank God for

it because God can do a lot in a moment you can repent in a moment of time you can be baptized in a moment you can receive the Holy Ghost in a moment and I'm telling you today every single one of those moments is a life changing moment I fear we've allowed a culture to be developed among us where we celebrate the moment so much that we have neglected everything that comes after the moment let me tell you something you read that New Testament he gave you four books to get you ready for the birth one book about the birth of the church and then 20 something books about how to live it seems to me that God understood there should be a lot more emphasis put on what comes after the moment than the moment itself I believe that God can change a life in a single moment I

believe the spirit of God can touch somebody and that moment can be transformative but as quickly as you found God in a moment I'm telling you you can lose them in a moment too we emphasize the moment I thank God for it but I think we've got to balance the scales a little bit because our over emphasis on the moment can cause a neglect on everything after the moment and we can talk about being full of the spirit or getting filled with the spirit but we never make the transition of actually being in the power of the spirit well thank God Susie you know she she's got the Holy Ghost she took your ticket to heaven you might think that's what it is if you don't move on to those other 20 something books she realized he gave you the Holy Ghost to change who you are and how you think and how you speak and how you live and

what you do and what you find pleasure in who you hang out with it changes the very essence of who you are so I thank God today for each one that has been full of the spirit but I tell you today the call of God at this moment and this hour is for us to move from the elementary infilling of the Holy Ghost to a place of spiritual maturity in a place of spiritual dominion where we are walking in the power of the spirit would you just lift your hands to the Lord right now let's let's ask God right now God help me move on to maturity stir something in me God that's not content to live at the elementary level of what you have for me help me press on the deeper God help me understand the mysteries of your word put a hunger within

me for the holy things of God hi yara mohoshatara mahiya katara mahiya in the name of Jesus come on we want to transition from just being full to walking in the power move us beyond the elementary level move us into deeper waters God we're hungry for we desire it if you have more for us we want more if we have to empty things out to make room we're going to empty things out in Jesus name in Jesus name I thank God for the moment but I've come to talk to you about the process today because if we emphasize the moment and we neglect the process we will lose the moment I tell you today that yes you can receive the Holy Ghost in a moment but you're not going to get dominion in a moment dominion is a process it's a journey it's faithfulness it's

sacrifice it's formation that's why the very end of the Apostle Paul's life when when he's weathered some storms he's battled some things yeah I know he'd seen some success but he lived with a thorn in his flesh too he said in 1st Corinthians 9 27 I keep under my body and bring it into subjection what do you mean Paul you're the Apostle Paul you're the greatest missionary the early church has ever seen Paul I'm not sure even to the present day anybody's had such an a profound effect on the world like you did you're the one we look to when we model you're the one we imitate you're the one whose letters we we read and build our life upon yeah I know but even Paul had the end of his life understood this I still have to fight my flesh to keep my body in

subjection to God I don't ever graduate beyond the process of working out dominion in my life I don't get a certificate I don't graduate the class I don't ever come to completion as long as I have flesh the process of formation is continually evolving that's why Paul wrote to Timothy he's writing to that young man in the ministry that he's mentoring up to carry on the gospel to carry on the torch of revival and he said in 1st Timothy 4 16 Timothy take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine I would submit we've done a pretty good job of being a people a church a culture an organization that takes heed unto the doctrine we've got Bible schools and Sunday school class I mean we're putting the doctrine from childhood to adulthood you want to get licensed we've got tests and you you got to have interviews and

boards and you want to get a Bible school diploma there there's tests and essays I mean we we've proved the doctrine we've got safeguards around our churches and organizations about what you've got to believe in position papers on what the scripture says what is that that's called taking heed to the doctrine it's protecting the purity of the word of God making sure the winds of false doctrine don't move our position our lives our churches in the areas of doctrinal area we've taken heed to the doctrine but I would submit today maybe we've neglected the first part because before he said take heed to the doctrine he said take heed unto thyself in other words as careful as you have been about the consideration of truth and the preservation of my word and the preaching of my gospel as careful as you have been in protecting

the doctrine and teaching sound doctrine throughout the generations I wish Timothy that you would be as careful and as considerate about taking heed unto thyself so you can't just have one you need both because you can have a wrong spirit and the right doctrine and it's not going to work you can have the right spirit and the wrong doctrine and it's not going to work you've got to take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine and not just in a moment he said continue in them it's a process hey I know you came into alignment the moment God filled you with the Holy Ghost I know you emptied yourself of self in the moment you first spoke in other tongues but that moment is not sufficient there's a process a continual formation that you've got to take heed unto thyself I'm talking to you about dominion today I'm

talking to you about what's necessary to move from being someone who's just full of the spirit to being somebody that's actually walking in the power of the spirit unless you think walking in the spirit is just about miracles and ministry and it's about about all these great experiences let me tell you what Paul said in Galatians 5 he said this I say then that if you walk in the spirit you should not fulfill the lusts of the flesh wait a minute kind of messes with our modern theology because I'd always heard if you walked in the spirit God was going to use you I heard if you walked in the spirit you were going to see miracles signs and wonders but according to Paul who was moved on by the spirit to pen that scripture walking in the spirit was about what the spirit kept you from doing

not what the spirit made you do so when I'm walking in the spirit you know what it's doing it's giving me the ability to say no no I'm not gonna listen to that no I'm not gonna watch that no I'm not gonna laugh at that no no I'm sorry no I'm not gonna be a bitter person no I'm not gonna be an angry person no I refuse to give up my peace and throw away my joy I refuse to be I I refuse to live in unforgiveness I refuse to live in carnality I refuse to be lukewarm that's what the holy ghost will do the holy ghost will give you the power to say no to the things you gotta say no to that's what walking in the spirit looks like it looks like no I think I'm gonna turn that radio off I think we'll skip the rest of this video

no I don't think I'm gonna read that no I don't think I'm gonna go there I'm not gonna laugh at that joke why because I'm walking in the spirit it's the ability to say no he said for the flesh lusteth against the spirit there's something in your human nature that is literally warring it's contrary to what the spirit wants to do constantly fight attention within you a war he said it lusts against the spirit wars against the spirit the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so you cannot do the things that you would so you don't have the ability in your flesh so God in his kindness fills you with his spirit so you have the power or the ability to say no and I'm telling you there's a lot of people that have forfeited their dominion because they couldn't say no there's a lot of families that have lost God's potential for

their family because they didn't have the ability to say no there's churches that have forfeited the promises of God in the dominion that was available because somebody didn't know how to say no that's why Jesus he made it plain in Matthew 16 24 then Jesus said on his disciples if any man any man don't care if you're black white I don't care if you're from America Africa Asia I don't care if you're from Europe I don't care from a wealthy family a poor family I don't care if you speak English or Spanish any man no prejudice here any man can come after me but he's going to have to deny himself take up his cross and follow me the first prerequisite to being a disciple of Jesus Christ was self denial the ability to say no preacher I thought I thought I just had to say no to the devil oh no you will

but before you ever have to say no to the devil you're gonna have to learn how to say no to yourself because the devil only shows up because he knows the nature of your flesh he knows there's something inside of you that wars against the spirit of God and so he seeks that uncrucified flesh to pray on is that not what the curse said upon your belly you shall go you should eat the dust of the ground what was he speaking of he was speaking of humanity because it was from dust that Adam had come and why is the serpent in the book of Genesis revealed in a different nature in the gospels because he'd been feasting on the flesh of humanity for thousands of years he'd been praying on the uncrucified flesh of men and women and as the principle has been stated it is true you will become what you eat

what you digest into your life what you consume through your eyes and ears the things that you allow to occupy occupy the space of your mind and the attitudes of your heart undoubtedly influence who and what you become so Jesus says if you're going to follow me the first thing you're going to have to do is deny yourself what's the difference today what is the difference between the invitation to any man and the some that actually do it what's the difference between the crowd that Jesus extends the invitation to anybody can come anybody's welcome and the few that actually do i'll tell you what this it's self-denial those that move from the any to the some are those that learn how to deny self to look themselves in the mirror and say no i know you want to do this but no i know you think this would be easier but no

where do you find that strength though i don't find it in myself i find it in him when i start walking in the spirit when i'm fellowshiping in the spirit when i'm drawing from the vine his spirit's putting something in me that gives me the strength to not fulfill the lust of the flesh when i should have given up when i should have committed sin when i should have done wrong when i should have went wayward when i when i should have been lost something rose up in me by the power of the spirit and it said no that is dominion see what jesus teaches us the principle of the second atom is this the first atom lost it because he couldn't say no the second atom regained it because he could say no and i know we preach a lot about saying yes and i know

on an elementary level you got to say yes to god you've got to say yes to his word you have to say yes to his lordship you have to say yes to baptism in jesus name you have to say yes to the infilling of the holy ghost you have to say yes to lifestyle disciplines and consecration i know there are some yeses in this journey but i'm telling you if you're going to move from just being somebody who lives at the elementary level of being full of the holy ghost and you're going to become somebody who walks in the power of the holy ghost you're going to have to graduate beyond some elementary yeses and you're going to have to learn to say no because walking in the spirit is as much about what god gives us power not to do as it is what we do it's why peter said dearly

beloved i beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul he said there's something in your human nature that wars against what god's doing in you it wars against the formation and the maturity it wars against the spiritual dominion so what you have to do you have to make the conscious choice to abstain you have to identify the things which are a hindrance to dominion the things which present unnecessary and ungodly temptation in abstain remove it because paul said of the second atom in first chrindians 15 that just as we bear the nature or the image of the first atom so too will we bear the image of the second atom this is what real dominion looks like now i know you probably thought dominion was being able to see a miracle you probably thought real spiritual dominion was when spooky stuff started happening

and i'm not going to deny that you know i've seen a few things and there's some of that in here but let me tell you what real dominion is it's when you move on from just getting his name and baptism and you start getting his nature in your life real dominion is not what you do but it's who you are that's why when paul got done talking about the lusts of the flesh and the works of the flesh then would he start talking about in galatians five he started talking about the fruit of the spirit into our surprise the fruit of the spirit wasn't the gift of prophecy it wasn't the working of miracles no you know what the fruit of the spirit was it was characteristics of christ's nature that he puts in us so the spirit gives us the ability to say no to some things so i can become

more like him that is real dominion and when we start becoming more like him when we start forgiven like he forgives and we become meek like he's meek and temperate like that's dominion when we start becoming kind as he is kind that is real dominion and he said just as you bear the nature of that first atom your earthy your flesh your human there is a second nature brought to you by the second atom that's going to cause you to bear his image that's why paul said in romans eight he said hey all things work together for good he didn't say all things are good it's not pleasurable it's not always fun it's not always easy there's nothing joyful about self-denial but what it produces all of a sudden he tells us in the next verse that i would be conformed to the image of his son that's why god lets you go

through trial that's why god lets you go through pain that's why god lets you face tests and temptations and battles and that's why god leads you into the wilderness because he uses those circumstances as agents of crucifixion and agents of formation to bring about a maturity in your life to bring about a discipline in your life because the fact is some of us would never pray if life was easy so god says all right no problem i know you love me i know you desire me but you're just not disciplined enough to pray you can't say no to youtube you can't say no to your smartphone you can't say no to the tv no problem i'm just going to put an equalizer in your life your inability to say no means i have to put some things in your world a thorn in your flesh a discomfort a problem that forces you to recognize your need of me

and all of this it's not given so we can be great preachers or great musicians or great singers it's given so we can become like him and i fear that somehow some way the corporate and celebrity culture of america let me tell you what america's biggest export is culture i know maybe you thought it was cold or fuel or this or that but i'm gonna tell you something i've been in 20 countries 20 something countries all around the world i've been in villages in africa i've been on the border of russia i've been places so far from american culture and it never ceases to amaze me you walk in a restaurant and what are you gonna hear some song written and produced in america i've been in countries all over the world you know what they're watching the same movies that hollywood's making why because the biggest

export of america is not fuel it's not natural resource it's culture and culture moves through this tactile thing at a pace far quicker than they can ship oil around the world and i'm telling you there's some spirits at work in american culture that are very contrary to the kingdom because the celebrity culture of america make it all about people and heroes and personalities so we celebrate performance and we completely overlook nature see in the kingdom it's not really about how good you can sing how good you can preach what position you hold the question of dominion rests not simply do you have his name not on your ability but have you taken on his nature and let me just tell you the ability to take on his nature is going to require you to say no to yourself a whole lot there's times that jealousy and envy is going to rise up inside of

you and you're going to have to say no that's the work of the flesh dan mcleod you can't give into that there's going to be times pride and ego rises up in you and you have to say no there's no space for that god i need you to give me power through the spirit to say no because i want to be me like you're me i want to be humble like you're humble so see real dominion is not just what you do it's who you are our music can come back and get ready to close paul says this of the works of the flesh he said his sexual immorality and purity sensuality idolatry sorcery enmity strife jealousy fits of anger rivalries dissensions divisions envy drunkenness orgies and things like these now i know 90 percent of us if not 100 we got no problem with stuff like sexual immorality sensuality drunkenness all that stuff

we're beyond that preacher i know but i've been around long enough so you hear me today all the stuff that he tucked in between the extremes is just as serious i know on the scale of sin we would say well sexual immorality that's up here getting drunk that's up here and god said yeah well your jealousy is right up there too you're uncontrolled anger is in the same place he didn't list these categorically or by rank or by value he just threw them all together as if to say one is as bad as the other and they all hinder our ability to have dominion so well i tell you today what is available to you by virtue of the dominion mandate of genesis one i've also got to tell you the only way you ever get there is by submitting to the process of formation in learning how to rely on the spirit

to give you the ability to say no and as i've already said in my own life i have watched peers good people well-meaning people forfeit their ministry lose their families i've watched the potential of churches shrivel up and die because somebody or some people didn't have the ability to say no oh but preacher this seems like it'd be an easier way it might be easier but it could still be wrong sometimes saying no is saying no to what's easier because what is harder forces you to become dependent on god it forces you into a position of trust where you need god to do because as the scripture would say except the lord build the house our labor is in vain it's not about me it's not about you it's not about our ability or our talents no it's about what god is building young man came up to me at the church i was that last sunday and

to be honest i was just so uncomfortable with how he was trying to make me somebody special listen i believe in honor i give it and i'm humble when people give it to me i'm not gonna stand here today and lie to you god talks to me i hear the voice of god in my life but i'm just a man and i watched this young adult come up to me last sunday google over me like i was some big celebrity i looked him squarely i said let me tell you something i said you honor ministry you stay submitted let me tell you something i'm just the donkey that had the microphone today i'm just flesh i'm just a man just like paul who was continually having to bring his body into subjection to take heed unto myself so i can walk in the dominion god has for my life

stand together with me at the conclusion of jesus temptation the scripture would say then the devil leaveth him and behold the angels came and ministered unto him so my question and closing for you today is this are you tired of dealing with the devil in your life are you tired of all his unnecessary trauma and torment are you tired of him trying mess with things that you don't want to mess with you want your peace fat you want your joy back you want strength you want god to help you i've got good news there is a way that you can make him leave james gave us the answer submit yourselves therefore to god resist the devil and he will flee from you this is to say that you can't have dominion over things until you first submit to god's dominion over you you can try to resist

the devil all day long but you're not going to get anywhere until you first submit to god and when you submit yourself to god there's going to be a power in your submission to resist and you're not going to have to run him out of town you're not going to have to run him out of your mind i'll tell you what'll happen when you make up in your mind to just submit to god and live for god and serve god and be in a relationship with god the devil is going to flee from you you don't have to run him out of town he's going to run on his own the word submit it comes from the greek word hypoteso it literally means to arrange yourself under and resist means to set oneself against this is what i've come to tell you today to arrange yourself under does not mean that there's chaos and disorder no no no no no

to arrange implies an orderly conduct let me just tell you the stuff all over your counter the stuff all over your living room floor the stuff piled up in your house everywhere you don't have it arranged you do you i'll do me i couldn't do that and it's my humble opinion that a disorder in life stems from a lack of submission to god you say well i'm just so busy i have so much stuff well if you submit it to god he might give you the ability to say no to some things that would allow you to better manage what you have see you've got to arrange your life under god what's that mean it means i get in this book and i find out what's written and i set my life in order according to the word of the lord why we're here today

because a few thousand years ago this is a good picture looks like there's stars on the screen because a few thousand years ago god set the stars in the sky they're not in a linear order oh but they're in order that's why they're not all crashing all the time that's why the earth is still here because they're orbiting in order around how god set them and i'm telling you today your submission to god is not just a vocal declaration it's not you telling god i love you and i'm going to serve you no it's arranging your life under the order of his word under the issue of his command so if god says this is how i want you to live and this is how i live if this is how god wants me to give this is how i give if god says this is how you treat somebody this

is how i treat them because i'm cleaning up my life to arrange it under the order of god so i can have the power to resist the devil and when i do that what happens the same thing that happened for jesus the bible said angel showed up and started ministering to him in other words he didn't have to endure hey there was a lot of no he had to say no to himself he had to say no to the devil and saying no didn't stop there he finds himself in the garden of gethsemane and again the same thing happens go read it what's he say if there's any other way if you can let this cup pass from me if there's any other way but nevertheless not my will not no it's not about me it's not about what i want it's not about my comfort it's not about my pleasure it's

about the purpose of god so no to my will and the bible said an angel came and ministered to me just tell you today i thank god that you've got the holy ghost you might talk in tongues a little bit because you said yes to an altar somewhere but if you're ever going to graduate from being full of the spirit to living in the power of the spirit you're going to have to learn how to say no and i'm telling you there's a dimension of spiritual ministry that god makes available to people like that he showed you he did it in his earthly humanity he did it right there two times he said if you can say no if you can deal with your flesh i have these angels that the writer of hebrew said are ministering spirits sent to the airs of salvation in other words you don't have to do it by yourself

but you don't get that if you don't first arrange your life that's what submission is submission is bring an order to your life it's bring an order to your closet bring an order to your finances and bring an order to your car bring it bring it you know that means your kids french fries or your grandkids french fries them four weeks ago shouldn't still be on the floor say preacher does that really matter look you might go to heaven with dirty french flies on your floor i'm just going to tell you the likelihood of us moving to the dimension of dominion i'm talking about without bringing an orderly arrangement of our lives every area of our lives i'm preaching does god really care about that let me ask you what do you think have you ever just taken a walk around the earth and considered the beauty of creation

the cycle of seasons how the forest populates itself made this world look any old way he wanted to they made it beautiful there's beauty to behold all around because in creation he set some things in order and i'm telling you when you are recreated in the image of god when you repent and are baptized in jesus name and filled with the holy ghost i thank god for it but i'm telling you that was just your beginning there's one book given to the birth of the church twenty one given to how to live once you're in the church would you just lift up your hands right now father we need you god i'm asking that you would highlight things in our mind right now bring to memory areas of our life that we can bring order to i'm telling somebody today in the holy ghost that if you bring order he'll bring the angels if you'll bring order he'll bring the

angels but if you're gonna bring order you're gonna have to learn how to say no you're gonna come on i came here to preach to somebody today because god spoke to me this morning and he said he has more dominion available for you than you are walking in you're full of the spirit and i thank god for it you're talking tongues and i thank god for keep on talking in tongues paul himself said i'm glad i'm talking tongues more than you all praying in the spirit is part of the way you get there but when you finish talking in tongues and you walk back into your natural world you're gonna have to say no you're gonna have to bring order you're gonna have to clean some things up and when you do you're gonna find out there's dominion for you there's angels to help you

you're not all by yourself if you're here today and you want to run the devil out of your mind and you want to run the devil out of your family and you want to run the devil out of this village and you want to run the devil out of this church i'm gonna invite you to step out of your seat and make your way to this altar right now and when you get up here i would that you would just lift your hands and lift your voice and begin to pray come with a heart of submission come with an attitude of vulnerability come on you were looking for an answer you were looking for a resolution you were trying to find a way out it might not be that god's going to take you out he might take you through it preacher i don't know if i'm strong enough to do that

no you're not you're not strong enough by yourself but if you'd fall on god by saying no to yourself he'd give you the strength by his spirit administer to your mind and your body through the presence of an angel come on that's it you're not alone you're not forsaken he hasn't forgotten you it was the spirit that took you to the wilderness to teach you how to say no so he can move you to a higher dimension of dominion yes yes yes yes come on that's it let god move on you right now let god speak through you right now when you're pressing into prayer he's forming you he's forming your spirit he's shaping your thoughts he's changing your perception i'm telling somebody in the holy ghost today if you will learn how to say no your know can change the atmosphere for your family you say i'm the only one i feel all by

myself no you're not the only one there's a host of angels but you don't see them until your perception is altered you don't receive them until you say no to self