Series: Other Speakers
Sun am 1st May 2011 – Sam Festus
Acts 17:22-28; Jer. 31:33; Ps. 139:14; Matt. 16:18; Gen. 1:27-28; Dan.12:3; Rom. 12:2
In Him we live (Acts 17:28), in Him we move and in Him we have our being. We have been created by God. He put things in place for you to be here; you are not here by chance. You are here for a plan and a purpose. God didn’t leave you fatherless. As Paul explained, God does not live in shrines, He lives in us.
We need to understand that it is God who does everything. It is not how much effort I put into my walk with God; it is how much compliance I have to the Word of God that makes the difference. It is my agreement with the Word of God; how I align to this Word. The more I align and come to agreement with the Word, the easier and clearer my path forward becomes.
God said He would make a new covenant with us and He would write His law, which is His Word, on our hearts; and He will be our God and we will be His people (Jer. 31:33). God is taking responsibility for the Word He gives us, because He is writing it on our hearts. The Message Bible says it is a brand new covenant that He will make with the house of Israel. It is something new that God has called into being for you and me.
“… Wonderful are Thy works, and my soul knows it very well” (Ps. 139:14). How many times do we blame our soul for messing up? The Psalmist is saying that God has placed something inside of you that knows that you are a great creation; that knows you are created in the image of God. Your soul knows it!
“… I will build My Church and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it” (Matt. 16:18). Jesus is saying that He will build His Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. What is really happening is that the Church is invading hell. The Church is moving and taking ground and conquering. The Lord said to Joshua, “Wherever you put the soles of your feet, it is yours.” The Church that Jesus is building is taking dominion and wherever it puts the soles of its feet, the gates of hell are going further and further back, because we’re taking over. In Him we live, we move and have our being.
God wants us to be an exact representation of Him in the earth. In the Lord’s prayer, we understand that heaven must invade earth. The dominion of heaven must come into the earth. How? When we are the exact representation of what God is. That is why it’s important for us to see ourselves as God sees us. If we see ourselves as less than how God sees us, we are a problem to ourselves and a problem to the progress of what God is doing in the earth. We are supposed to shine as bright lights. We must allow God to live through us; then He takes the responsibility. We must align ourselves to allow God to do what He is doing.
You cannot function to the detriment of your brother or sister. We are all knitted together and we draw from each other. Each joint supplies to the other joint. A joint cannot operate on its own; it needs the other joints to supply to it. God wants us to start finding our place. In Gen. 1:28 when God said, “Rule” the Message Bible says, “Take charge.” God has created us to represent Him and to be His glory in the earth; but He has also called us to have dominion, to take charge and rule over the earth and subdue it.
Align your mind to be renewed (Rom. 12:2). I have discovered in my own walk that the renewal starts with repentance. Not repentance from sin, but repentance where you change your mind, there’s a turn-around, where you say to yourself, “From this day forth I will allow the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to help me. I will comply and allow that change of my mind to happen.” Otherwise, all you are doing is filtering everything through your natural mind and you are coming up with natural conclusions. Renewal of the mind actually means new ideals and a new attitude. Then you come to the place where you put your feet down and take charge; it doesn’t matter whether it is in sickness or in health, whether it be in your job or relationships. You take charge in line with what God is saying. It is not taking charge to dominate another group of people.
Some of us are so used to suffering that it is part of who we are. God has the best for us. Suffering is part of our lives but is not all of our lives. There has to be times of joy and peace, there has to be times of happiness; and we need to come to the place where we say, “I am taking charge now.”