Mike Bickle emphasizes the transformative power of the Gospel and the message of the cross, asserting that they are synonymous and serve as the means through which God's power is released into our lives. He explains that salvation encompasses not only forgiveness of sins but also healing and blessings in our earthly circumstances, which are a foretaste of the ultimate blessings to come. Bickle encourages believers to apply the truths of the Gospel intentionally, resisting the enemy's accusations that seek to disqualify them from experiencing God's power. He highlights that believers have been qualified, rescued, and transferred into a new kingdom, and they must actively claim their inheritance and authority in Christ. Ultimately, he calls for a response of gratitude and action, urging believers to embrace all the benefits of their salvation and advance the kingdom of God.

Two very dynamic statements that I can imagine Paul's enthusiasm when he declared these statements and then when he wrote them down. Romans chapter 1 verse 16, he declares the gospel of Christ it is the power of God unto salvation. Then he says in 1st Corinthians 1 verse 18, for the message of the cross to us who are being saved it is the power of God. And so the two different phrases the gospel of Christ and the message of the cross are synonymous. They both are saying the same thing in two different terminologies. But it says here the gospel it is the power of God to salvation. What that means just in review from our last session is that the gospel truths by applying those to our life that is the means in which the power of God is released into our life. So when it says the gospel is the power it's saying the gospel is the way the power of God is released into the human experience. And it takes the power of God being manifest to experience salvation. Now salvation is far more than the forgiveness of our sins. Our salvation is spirit, soul, body but it's more than that. Salvation also involves our circumstances. And when Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead and and we were brought into his kingdom it was the guarantee of the salvation of our spirit, the full salvation of our soul, the full salvation of our body, and the full salvation of our earthly circumstances. You go what earthly circumstances? Full salvation yes because when the Lord declares salvation from the biblical point of view it puts this age and the age to come together in a continuum. And when the Lord says by his stripes you're healed that healing just doesn't mean physical healing now. It goes on to the full resurrected body with supernatural properties by his stripes healing. And it's not thinking of the little down payment only of healing we get in this age but it's talking about the ultimate as well the same with our circumstances. We can have blessed circumstances in this age but beloved they're connected as a small down payment to the ultimate circumstance of living in the New Jerusalem with streets of gold and blessing beyond anything that you can imagine. And so we experience those blessings in part in this age and in fullness in the age to come. But having said we experience them in part it is still substantial and it's significant. And we don't, we must never draw back from the partial because we're looking to the ultimate and we never lose sight of the ultimate because we're believing God for the partial. Well Paul said the gospel of Christ by the truth of the gospel it's the only way humans can experience the power of God. But the implication that's clear in Scripture but we will only experience the power as we apply these truths consistently and intentionally. Many people have the power of God available to their life as believers but they don't actually consciously and intentionally apply the truths. And the Lord says I've made the power available to the human experience. It is the gospel. Learn those truths but more than learn them apply them. And the challenge is that the enemy Satan and all his emissaries, all the hosts of darkness, demons, they are set, they are determined to constantly accuse us. So that we feel confused, we feel disqualified, so we don't feel confidence in the truth of the gospel. But we feel personally disqualified so that we'll draw back and we'll hesitate and the enemy wants us continually in that mode so that it will keep us from applying the truth of the gospel with confidence. And of course the reason the enemy does that he knows that if we're if we feel disqualified that we can't function in the spirit. He knows we can't effectively advance the kingdom because we're just preoccupied with how bad we're doing. Paragraph B, Colossians chapter 1, Paul gives some of the implications of the gospel being the power of God and the message of the cross being the power of God or releasing the power of God. He gives us some three very dynamic statements that are implications of the true message of the gospel. He says here in verse 12, Colossians 1, for the Father has qualified us to share in the inheritance. Now notice the past tense of three statements I'm going to make here as I read from Paul the Apostle. The Father has qualified us to share in the inheritance. Paragraph, I mean verse 13, He rescued us from the domain of darkness. And the third, He transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. So He qualified us, He rescued us, and He transferred us. All three of these dimensions of the gospel are in the past tense. They've been fully purchased by the blood of Jesus and they're ours. Let's just look at each one of them just for a moment each. First Paul starts off and says the Father qualified us. Beloved, we are qualified on the basis of what Jesus did and how He feels, not on the basis of what we did and how we feel. That's the basis of which Satan accuses us. Satan comes and accuses us through his demonic host and these thoughts that he inspires in our mind to get us to try to relate to God based on how we do and how we feel. So therefore we feel disqualified. Therefore we draw back and we lose confidence. Paul says, like a declaration from heaven, the Father qualified you. And there is no power, now when it says the Father it means through the work of Jesus because the Father is the one that sent His Son to do the work. And so the work can be connected to the Father, it can be connected to the Son. So the Father qualified us. It's His court that declares us qualified. There is no demonic court, there is no human court that has authority over the Father's court. There's nobody can reverse the declaration that we're qualified by the Father. And again the enemy will come and he'll, he'll try to constantly get us to relate to God on the ground of feeling disqualified and that's called accusation. Well we're not only qualified for the inheritance, verse 13, we're rescued from the dominion of darkness. Before we were believers we were under the dominion of darkness, the dominion of sin, the dominion of sickness, the dominion of Satan, which are all deeply connected together. Well Jesus paid the price and He unlocked the prison door so to speak and He says you're free to walk out of this dominion. The price has been paid, you're no longer under the dominion. The doors are unlocked. And the way I say it that way is because a lot of folks that love Jesus, they've been rescued but they, that all the prison doors are unlocked but they stay in prison. They never actually just open them and walk out. There's nothing stopping them besides them just getting up and just walking out. The truth of the fact, the prison doors are unlocked. You've been rescued. You're not a helpless victim anymore. That when the enemy attacks you, you can stand your ground with the authority you have and you can say in the name of Jesus I'm not under your authority, I'm not under your dominion. You say that fear will dominate my life, I say the peace of God will dominate my life. You say that the devil will destroy my circumstance. I say the blessing of God will be released in the place where the devil attacks me. In the name of Jesus I take my stand as one that's been delivered, one translation says, or rescued from the dominion of darkness. We're no longer helpless victims of Satan's attack. We don't just ride the storm out when the enemy strikes us. We don't just ride the storm out and hope it gets better later. We resist it and say no. We understand our authority. Well we're not only rescued, but verse 13 at the end, we're transferred. We're transferred into a new kingdom. We're, we're citizens of a new kingdom. We were citizens, if you will, of the kingdom of darkness. Now we're in a new kingdom, a new empire. We're part of the royal family. We have the family authority, the family resources are ours forever. And again we, we experience them in part in this age and enjoy them and that part is substantial. I don't want to minimize it, but there's an ultimate experience, but it's already ours. It's already guaranteed. Nothing can stop it. No power in hell can stop it. No army of men can stop it. It is absolutely guaranteed and finalized because we've been transferred. We're in another kingdom. We have a new authority. We're in a new family, a royal family. We have many covenant benefits as being part of that new empire, that new kingdom, that royal family. We have the authority of Jesus. So we can release the works of God and we can hinder the works of darkness, but that is if we use the authority that we have. And many believers, they possess the authority, but they don't actually use it. They shake their head when somebody says it, but when there's a situation in front of them in their own life or in the life of somebody that they love, they need to see the works of God. They need to see the works of God released and the works of the enemy hindered and stopped, but they just kind of think, well I'm just so sorry things are going bad. Well beloved, have more than sympathy. Take action. You have authority. You can speak the name of Jesus and things will take place. Things shift and it's not just one time and it's all done, but we we stand our ground for the position we have in the kingdom. Paragraph C, Ephesians chapter 1. Paul talks about the inheritance. Now Ephesians 1 is one of those classic chapters where, I mean the whole chapter is about our inheritance. It's about the covenant benefits that we received by our, automatically they are ours. They're fully ours because of our new legal position before the Father because of what Jesus did. We have an inheritance. We've received the inheritance. We're qualified for the inheritance. Now that's an inheritance, paragraph C. It includes all the spiritual blessings in heavenly places, but it also includes blessed circumstances, meaning natural blessing on the earth as well. There are all spiritual blessings, but there's also natural blessings or blessed circumstances on the earth. Now the reason I'm emphasizing this is that some camps focus on the spiritual blessings and they go no further. They want to put their, all their focus on we have all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Other camps focus on the earthly blessings and they, well they like the spiritual blessing of having their sins forgiven, but they don't necessarily go so deep in the spiritual blessings. They want their circumstances to be blessed and helped. Well if you read the Bible, we, it's both. It's not either or. It's both and because by His stripes we were healed and again this age and the age to come from the biblical perspective, God's perspective, God's perspective, it's one continuum. It's one reality. We walk in part with the down payment in this age. We walk in the fullness in the age to come and they're connected together. And so when the Bible promises these things we always take a step back and say how much of the earthly? How much of that blessing? How much of the spiritual blessings are we going to walk in in fullness in this age? And my answer is I don't know exactly the measure that we'll walk in, but whatever measure I walk in I'm always asking the Lord and contending for a double measure of it. And if I have a measure of blessing on the favor in relationships or open doors or receiving divine ideas or finances or whatever in the natural sense, if I have favor, I want, or blessing, I want a double portion of it. Then when I get the double portion I want a double portion again. Now when I get a double portion I'm gonna go on my deathbed. I'll be saying give me a double portion. In other words, we don't have to define how far it goes, we just continually are contending for more. And I just leave it there. Same with spiritual blessings. They're all ours. Legally they're ours in fullness now, but I want to experience them in my heart. I want to experience the walking out of the full authority. And Lord I don't experience it all. Someone says how far can you go and experience it in your emotions, in your behavior in this age? I go I don't know, but whatever it is I'm going for a double portion. And we don't have to define exactly what it looks like, we just want to go for more all the time. Well Paul made this declaration, it's a gospel declaration, it's the message of the cross, the implications here in Ephesians 1. And again the all of Ephesians 1 is just like, it's like statement after statement about who you are in Christ. Beloved you could take almost any one of these statements in Ephesians 1, there's a multitude of them, and when the enemy attacks you, you can speak back. It is written, and you pick the verse, verse 3, verse 4, verse 5, verse 6, right? I mean every verse you can pick as a statement you can say back to the enemy, it is written. And the enemy begins to draw back when you hold your ground and you speak the Word of God to him. Some people say well where, what verses? Well Ephesians 1, well it could last your lifetime to go through it over and over, but there's many more passages as well. Well let's read this, I love verse 3, the Father has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. What a loaded statement. I mean the Father has blessed us, there is no demonic power or no group of men that can cancel that blessing out. The blessing is past tense, it's already been decreed, it's already been paid for, and the Father who planned it has already given it, and Jesus' blood has purchased it, they're ours, they're ours now. Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Well what does it mean, blessing in the heavenly places? Well in short that means blessings that come from the presence of God, from the throne of God. They're the blessings that originate from God. Every one of them have already been committed to you by the Father. That is enormous. I mean it's fantastic, it's ours the day we're born again. It won't be more guaranteed to you a million years from now in the resurrection than it is the day that you're born again. Well these blessings in heavenly places that come from the Father's presence, they were given to us in Christ. In other words, on the basis of what He did and how He feels. You didn't receive these on the basis of how good you're doing today, or last week, or how you feel. Well I feel a little depressed, I feel a little down, I feel a little draggy, I haven't done so good spiritually the last couple weeks, I don't know, I don't know. I say well I do know. You were blessed and given every blessing because of Christ Jesus, not by how well you're doing. Now I want to experience it all in my emotions, and in my mind, and in my character. I want to walk in all of it, and we respond, we will enjoy more of it in our everyday life, but the blessings are guaranteed and given to us no matter what we're feeling or what we're thinking. Now when we talk about spiritual blessings, the ultimate spiritual blessing, the ultimate, I just can't say this too many times, it's not the only spiritual blessing, but it's the ultimate. There's many other blessings very important as well, but the ultimate blessing is the supernatural ability to walk in the love of God. I mean to participate in the love that the Father has for His Son, and the Son has for the Spirit. I mean the Father loves the Son with all of His heart and all of His mind, and the Father loves us with all of His heart and all of His mind, and the Father commands us to love Him with all of our heart and all of our mind. It's the same reality, it's the same love. Beloved, we are been given by the Holy Spirit a supernatural ability to receive the love of God. I mean to understand it, receive it, and feel it, and return it, and to overflow in the love of God to other people. That's what I call participating in the family dynamics that the Godhead enjoys, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That's ultimate, that's the ultimate of what salvation is. I mean that, there's nothing more glorious than that. But our spiritual inheritance, though that is the ultimate, is not limited to that participation. There are other dimensions of it in practical ways that we walk out, and there's earthly blessings that are all part of our inheritance as well. It says in verse 7 that in Him, that means in Christ, we have the redemption through His blood. Again, when it says in Him or in Christ, it means it's based on what He did and how He feels. It's not based on what you've done and how you feel. So when the devil comes to try to make you feel disqualified, say no, it's in Him that I have the redemption. It's in Him that I have the redemption. It's not in me, it's not in what I've done. My, the redemption is secure. Now the word redemption, in the most simplistic way, means the price has been paid. We were in prison, we were in slavery, and there was one Christ Jesus who paid the price to redeem us, to buy us out of prison. He paid the debt so the doors are unlocked. He paid the debt, the chains that bind us as slaves, they're unlocked. And He, the price has been paid by another. And the implication is there's nothing you can do to enhance your position before the Lord. Your position is secure. Your position is full. You have been given access to the Father by the blood of Jesus. Your prayer and fasting, your dedication doesn't enhance that. It enhances your ability to enjoy and receive and walk in it, but not for it to be made available to you. It is fully been made available based on the paid price, the redemption of Christ Jesus. All the covenant promises that go along with your legal position being citizens in the new kingdom, being part of the royal family, all of those covenant promises are paid in full by the blood of Jesus. Verse 11, in Him we have an inheritance. There it goes again, there he goes again. Paul says make no mistake about it. Don't relate to God on the basis of how you're doing. It's in Him that you have the inheritance. The inheritance, again, it's a spiritual inheritance, and it's also a natural inheritance. There's blessed circumstances on the earth. Because even in the resurrection, when we live in the New Jerusalem, that New Jerusalem's coming down to the earth. Even then, your blessings will be on this earth. Even in the age to come, it's the heavenly and the earthly realms joined together in the age to come, and you'll see how real and how ultimate even your blessed circumstances are, and what was paid for because of the blood of Jesus. Now paragraph D. We looked at this in our last session, Psalm 103. David said, bless the Lord, O my soul, forget not all of his benefits. David was saying, I'm not going to neglect to apply all the benefits. There is no benefit that's a small one that I'm going to neglect. Beloved, there is no benefit that Jesus paid for, for you, that's too small for you to be concerned with. Like, well, it's a small one, what's the big deal? He paid for it. It's yours. David had zeal. He goes, I want all of them. I want to walk in the spiritual ones to my full capacity, and I want to walk in the natural ones, the blessed circumstances. I want both and, not either or. Now again, some camps will focus on the spiritual, neglect the natural blessings, the blessed circumstances. Others focus on the blessed circumstances, and they neglect the spiritual. We don't have to pick between our heart, our liver, and our kidney. We want all of them. We want the full inheritance. David said, I want all the blessings, and then he goes on, and he describes some here. Some of the blessings he describes are spiritual ones. Some of the ones he describes in Psalm 103 are natural blessings of blessed circumstances. And he says, with equal zeal, I want both of them. I want all of them. I want all that God paid for. And so, we don't want to get into some kind of, kind of a sincere, but confused, false humility. Well, Lord, you know, I don't want to bother you. You know, just give me a little cabin on the edge of glory, and you know, don't worry about me. Don't worry, I'll be over here. I'll be fine. I just want to love Jesus, and I want to stay out of your way. And the Lord says, well, number one, I'm not worried about you at all. Number two, you're in my royal family. You are my eternal companion forever. I've given you my signet ring. I've given you my name. I want you in the center of what I'm doing, not over in a cabin on the edge of glory. And it doesn't cost, Jesus doesn't lose any of His wealth when He releases His wealth to you. So, He's not, He's not any less the richer when you receive some of His earthly blessings. That's not how it works. David said, you forgive all of our iniquities. Beloved, how many of you know there's not hard sins and easy sins for God to forgive? The blood of Jesus can cover the hard sins, the big ones, as sufficiently as He covers the little ones. Some people have this idea. They think, well, I mean, the really big ones. No, the blood of Jesus is sufficient. All of my sins, all of them. The devil comes and says, well, that one's a big one. You better put yourself in a little bit of spiritual probation. Put yourself on the bench. Get out of the game. Sit on the bench. Take yourself out for a while. And just kind of wallow, or wallow, how do you say it? Wallow something in your sorrow. And just, you know, check out and be consumed with how sorry you are for what you've done. Now, there's a big difference between godly sorrow for our sin and living under condemnation because of our sin. I mean, I am sorrowful for my sin. But because I'm sorrowful for my sin, and that sorrow lingers in my soul for a season, sometimes even years later I look back with sorrow. That's not the same thing as condemnation, where I'm now disqualified to function in the kingdom, and I take myself out of the game, so to speak, put myself on the bench until I, you know, feel a little bit better. I mean, actually, in the natural, I don't like it. You know, I sin, I get forgiven, I feel sorrow, and the Lord says, your sorrow, that's good, but you don't get rid of the condemnation. Push, delete, stand up, go pray for people, go minister to people, go serve in the kingdom, advance the kingdom. I felt miserable about what I did. That's good that you're sorrowful, but don't confuse that with condemnation. You have all the kingdom rights, rise up, and go forward. Like, oh, Lord, can't I just kind of indulge in a little self-pity for a while? I mean, my goodness, I feel bad, and I want to feel good about feeling bad. I mean, leave me alone for a while. You're only laughing if you relate, or maybe you know someone who relates. Okay, he says he heals all of your diseases, and some folks, you know, they think, wait a second, David exaggerated a little bit. We looked at this in our last session. Beloved, no matter how dynamic the physical healing is in this age, it's only a partial healing, because a body can be healed, and we've seen many healings, and we're zealous to see the kingdom of God go forward in healing bodies, but that body that got healed is still aging, and it's going to die. And so no matter how healed you get in this age, it's only a little bit of the healing promise. And there are many godly people who die with a sickness in their body, and somebody says, well, I mean, David said he heals all my diseases. Did David exaggerate? I go, no. I believe David sees it from that kingdom continuum of this age and the age to come. It's one salvation. It's not salvation of this age and another salvation of the age to come. It's one reality. Well, that guy, that godly man died on his deathbed. He had sickness, and it appears he died even premature. Well, I guess healing didn't work right. Well, I promise you the next time you see him, he will be so full of a power of God in his supernatural resurrected body that you'll think, well, I guess he really did get healed. Glory to God. Now, because we see the ultimate healing, we don't draw back from seeing the partial healing in this age. And again, the fullest healing in this age is partial because the guy still grows old and he still dies. And so it's only a partial healing at best. But David said, I want to see it. I want everything God will give the human experience in this age. What a glorious reality. Okay, let's look at paragraph E. Paragraph E. The psalmist said in Psalm 116 verse 12, he had this question. He goes, what shall I render? What shall I give? How shall I respond to the Lord for all of His benefits? The Lord has been so gracious to me. How, what is the appropriate response to all the benefits that the Lord has given me? Now we'll notice it's that same phrase that David said in Psalm 103. We're in Psalm 116 now. That same phrase, all of His benefits. And the psalmist says, I'm overwhelmed with gratitude. What is it you, how do you want me to respond? And the Holy Spirit gives him the response. Verse 13, he is to take the cup of salvation, call upon the name of the Lord. Verse 17, he's to offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon the name of the Lord. In other words, here's what the Lord says. You want to show your gratitude to me for how good I've been to you? Yes, anything. I want to show my gratitude. He says, then take everything I've provided. Verse 13, and say thank you. Verse 17, take and say thank you. Don't draw back. Don't think that you're loving me less if you take more. It because the Lord knows that when we take His blessings, all the benefits, and walk in them to the degree, the full degree that we can operate in our faith, when we operate in it, actually we love Him more. We don't love Him less. The devil comes along with a false argument. I just love Jesus. I don't need all that other, and the Lord would say this. Well, you will love me actually far more effective if you walk in the benefits I've made available to you. I believe that David understood that the measure, that's why he said I want all your benefits, the measure that David could give his heart to God in love was limited by what he received from God. And if he did not receive a big measure, he would not respond in a big measure. Beloved, we will never give ourselves to God in a greater measure than the measure we first received from Him. So those that say I want to love Him, I'm just going to go for Him, I don't need all this other stuff. I assure you this. You will be limited in your ability to give yourself to Him by the ability that you receive from Him. And you're not going to love Him less by taking less from Him. Matter of fact, the more you walk in the covenant blessings, whatever measure that is, and everybody has a different assignment in their life, you will be more effective in advancing the kingdom. And again, some folks think, well if I take more, I feel like I'm loving Him less. Wrong. That's not a biblical mindset. Others say, well if I take more, I mean, well, you know, what am I supposed to do with it? Use it on the kingdom. Advance the kingdom. I mean, because you take more, does it mean you have to use it on you? Use it on the kingdom. I mean, enter into all the spiritual blessings and enter into all the blessed circumstances, whether it's the favor of God in your life in relationships, whether it's open doors in the will of God, whether it's divine ideas, whether it's blessed family, blessed relationships, blessed livestock, blessed crops, blessed business, blessed economics, all kinds of...our labor is blessed, our thinking is blessed, our position of favor is blessed. The more you receive, the more you can advance the kingdom. If you have a kingdom mindset, then beloved, you want to enter into everything God has for you. Paragraph F. And by the way, we're not going to get through much of these notes. I'm not going to try to. But, you know, I'm believing God in a personal way, literally. And I've said this over the years, but for a billion dollars, because the Lord has given me a very strong indication, I will make a billion dollars available to you. And I want it. I want a billion dollars. And when I get that billion dollars, whether it's all at one time, I'll take it in installments if it comes that way. I'm a generous guy. When I get that billion dollars, I want to use all billion of it for the kingdom. All billion of it. I don't have to use it on me. I can use it on the kingdom. Matter of fact, I'm going to throw in an extra thousand just to spite the devil. It's going to be a billion and a thousand that I'm going to send to the kingdom. Some guy comes along and says, well, God wouldn't mind if you used it on yourself. And I would say, I know He wouldn't. He wouldn't mind at all. I mind. Because I want to see the kingdom go forth with every ounce of my strength. And when I get more resource, more favor, more insight, more open doors in the will of God, I want to see the name, the fame of His name go forth. I don't want just a bigger profile for me. And some people want a bigger this and a bigger that. That's between them and the Lord. It's none of my business. But my point is this. Believe God for the fullness of the benefits and advance the kingdom. You're not going to love Him less. And you don't have to use it on yourself. Use it on the kingdom or use it in whatever measure you want. And again, the guy says, God won't mind. And I go, I know He wouldn't mind. He wouldn't mind at all. I'm the one that has, I got the vision to go forth. I'm going to give it all. And then the Lord would look down and say, I can work with that. That pleases me. We can make that work. That's good. And so we don't have opinions as to who does what with what God gives them. God does bless circumstances. The Bible calls that prosperity. My definition of prosperity, it affects favor. It affects open doors. It affects health. It affects family blessing. It affects all kinds of things we put our hand to. It affects financial increase. I believe in the covenant blessings of prosperity, a little down payment in this age and the full ultimate in the age to come. Earthly blessing in the age to come and the connection between the two. Now my definition of prosperity is that we have our needs met and we have the ability to meet the needs of others. That's my definition of prosperity. Most of you in this room are operating in pretty significant prosperity from the global point of view. You're already operating in it. You have your needs met and you're giving to other people. I just want a double portion. And then I want another double portion. And then I want another double portion. I mean when I get the billion, I might go for two. I don't know. I may be just overwhelmed. I don't know. I'll figure that out when I get there. Okay. Let's look at paragraph F. Paragraph F. Look at John chapter 10 here. John chapter 10. It says, the thief, Jesus is talking about Satan. And he says, the thief, he does not come except to steal, to kill and destroy. The only reason Satan comes to your life is to kill and steal and destroy. Meaning there's no ambivalence. When he comes to you, he has an intention and a goal. He wants to steal the blessing of God. Now he can't cancel the blessing of God. He can't, he can't reverse it. The blessing is available to us. The Father has already given it. He can't touch that realm. But he can convince us we're disqualified or convince us the blessing is not real so we draw back from it and then he stole it from us is what happened. He stole it, right? Just in that way. He comes to kill. He comes to kill our bodies, pure and mature. He comes to kill our hearts. He comes to kill our marriages, our business, our ministry, our families. He comes to kill. He has an agenda to destroy. And it says here in James chapter 4 verse 7, submit to God. There's several very key passages, I mean phrases here. Submit to God, resist the devil and then he will flee. So there's two commandments, submit to God, number one. Number two, resist the devil and then there's a promise, the devil will flee. That's the promise but there's two commandments that are to be embraced if we're to believe God for that promise, that the devil will flee. Now submit to God, there's I think of two things come to mind automatically when we submit to God. We submit to the truth of what he has given us. We submit to the truth of the gospel. We don't look at the gospel and reduce it to forgiveness of sins only. We submit to the truth. Father, we submit to you. You have qualified us. You have rescued us. You have transferred us to another kingdom. You have seated us in heavenly places. You have called us to be the eternal companion of your son. I submit to it. I submit to it regardless what my religious background tells me. I submit to what your word says, to what your son has done. And the second way we submit to God is we submit to his leadership. So we submit to his work of redemption and we submit to his leadership. So we have those two clear, then we resist the devil. And the devil will come over and over again in many different faces, sometimes overt, sometimes very subtle and James said if you resist him, he will flee. And James could have said, and I can tell you by experience, that the devil will come back very quickly and he'll knock on the door again. But you continue in that mode of resisting. It's not a one time resisting and he's gone. You resist him, he'll return. You resist him, he'll return. You resist him, he'll return. And the reason he keeps returning because he has so much success with Christians giving up and giving in after a period of time. He goes, if I keep coming back, they won't hold the line. All I got to do is keep coming back. And the way that we resist the devil, the primary way, not the only way, but the primary way, it's the Matthew 4 model where the devil came to Jesus and on three occasions the devil came to him and in Matthew 4 every time he said, it is written. He spoke the word of God and the devil left. The devil comes back for another temptation, it is written. So he draws, the devil draws back on that temptation. Then the third one, Jesus said, it is written. And that is the model. We speak the word to the enemy who's the accuser who comes after us. Now if we don't challenge him, he will come and destroy. He will take over. Now we have the authority, but we have to use the authority. A lot of folks get confused between trusting God's leadership and being passive towards the devil's attack. I know many sincere Christians. They trust God's leadership. They love his leadership and they say, Lord, whatever you want, I trust your leadership. And that's a glorious thing. That's a statement of spiritual maturity. But they get confused because when the devil knocks on their door and he's got all dressed up in a suit with a big smile and he's got a nice present all wrapped up, looks great, but it's filled with poisonous snakes, and he offers this to your family. Some sincere believers go, well, I just trust God. Come on in, devil, and let the snakes loose. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. The father goes, what are you thanking me for? I gave you authority to resist that. Don't thank me for that which I commanded you to resist. Some believers go, well, God, you resisted. And he goes, no, don't put into my hands that which I have put into your hands. I gave you the authority. I accomplished the redemption through my Son. You now resist. No, Father, you resist. No, you resist. Father, thank you for this. I didn't give it to you. I gave you authority to drive it away from your house. What are you doing? Resist the devil and he'll flee. I'll end with this verse. 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 7. Because I want to pray for people with this. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Now, the enemy comes with a spirit of fear. What I mean by spirit of fear, there's a difference, worship team, come on up. There's a difference between natural fears that are based on logic and reason. There are legitimate natural fears. They're based on logic. You don't grab the electrical wire. You'll do it once and you'll never do it again. Don't put your hand on the hot stove, you know. Don't put your hand on a hot fire. Those are natural fears based on logic. But the spirit of fear, they're irrational. They're heightened fears and they're not based on reason. It's an idea that comes in our mind, has this heightened feeling of dread and power, and it's not based on reality. It's a demon is inspiring this and we're to reject that spirit. God says, I didn't give it to you. Don't thank me for it. Don't endure it. Don't ride out the storm and just let fear dominate for a while. Resist it. Resist it. I gave you a spirit of power to resist it. I didn't give you the spirit of fear. I gave you the power over the fear. But you need to operate in it because I'm going to release my power as you stand and believe me for it. And so that's what I want to do now. I want to pray for folks all over the room that the enemies resent coming against you with accusations. That's condemnation making you feel like I'm just going to quit or he's coming with fears. There's all kinds of fears and beloved. Don't ride the storm out. Rebuke the fear. Rebuke the irrational heightened fear and you know, respect the the natural fears that are built on logic. Those are those are safe. Amen. I'm going to ask you to all stand in the room. I'm going to ask the Lord to release a spirit of grace and a spirit of peace.