Mike Bickle emphasizes the authority of believers in Christ, urging them to actively exercise their dominion over the earth as originally intended by God in Genesis. He explains that while Adam relinquished this authority to Satan, Jesus, the second Adam, restored it through His obedience and victory over sin and death. Bickle encourages believers to resist the enemy's attacks by standing firm in their God-given authority, submitting to God, and actively using the Word of God to combat spiritual warfare. He highlights the importance of faith and action in exercising this authority, reminding the congregation that they are empowered to cast out demons and heal the sick. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a proactive approach to spiritual authority, urging believers to not passively accept the enemy's attacks but to actively resist and declare their victory in Christ.

This morning I want to talk about a very familiar truth, the authority that we have as believers exercising our dominion in Christ Jesus. Now this is a truth that most of you are familiar with, but I find that it's a truth that many people easily neglect. Even really sincere, on-fire, prophetic believers that love the prayer movement, when it comes down to the day-to-day-ness of their life, it's easy to allow the enemy to attack and not to resist him and not to take our stand and to exercise and engage with the authority that the Lord has given us. Well it begins in Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 to 28, this glorious reality and this truth. The Lord gave the dominion of the earth to human beings. That's a remarkable reality and of course the reason he did this was not because he needed to, because he's a God of relationship. He was saying I want to release my power, my presence, my leadership in the earth, but I want to do it through you in relationship with human beings. I don't want to bypass them, I want to do it through them. So he said in Genesis chapter 1 verse 26, let them, speaking of Adam and Eve and their children and their children, the human race, let them have dominion. What an amazing and significant declaration from heaven. Let them have dominion over all the earth. There's no sphere that's an exception. Everything will be under their authority. He said in verse 28, God said to them, fill the earth. Now go multiply, go cultivate the lands of the earth, fill the earth with people, organize the cities, subdue the earth. And that meant to go forth in the cities and towns, go establish them, multiply them, establish society, cultivate the fields, bring forth God's ways in animal life and plant life and every sphere of life. Then he repeats it again, have dominion over everything. Psalm 115 says the same thing but in a more simplified way. Verse 16, the heavens or the heavenly realm, it belongs to the Lord because everything's the Lord's. But the earthly realm, He has given to the children of men. So the Lord is saying the spheres, the sphere of the earth, I'm going to move in powerfully but I'm going to do it through you. Now when God gave the dominion of the earth to Adam, Adam had the right to do with the earth what he wanted without authority. Because the Lord said I'm really giving it to you and the Lord will never take it away from the human race. When he gave it to Adam, he's giving it to the human race. And this is a decree that's never been revoked. On through the millennial kingdom, the thousand-year reign of Christ and on to the new heavens and new earth afterwards, this decree will continue in force. It will not be revoked. God has given the sphere of the earth to human beings. Now he means human beings submitted to his leadership, human beings as vehicles of his glory and power and his wisdom. But nonetheless, he does it through human beings. So he gave this to Adam and Adam did the most disastrous thing. He committed high treason with that authority because the authority that was now his, he gave it to Satan. Luke chapter 4, I have it referenced in the notes there, the verse, Luke 4. When Satan was tempting Jesus in the wilderness, he was offering Jesus the kingdoms of the world and he said, the kingdoms of the world were given to me. And Jesus did not contest that at all. Because Adam really had the right to give it to Satan and he did when he yielded to Satan's temptation. Paragraph B, the good news, God has an answer for this high treason of Adam. God sent a second Adam, a second man that would stand in a similar place as the first Adam. And Jesus is actually called the second man, the second Adam. And he was to represent the human race before God like the first Adam did. But he acted in an entirely different way than the first Adam. The Lord Jesus, he came in full obedience to the Father. He resisted the temptation of Satan in the same place where Adam yielded. Paul summed up what took place, the remarkable reversal, the remarkable victory for the human race. Because a man defeated Satan. It wasn't Jesus as God, although Jesus is eternally God. Eternally past and present and is God now, fully God. But he was as a man, he defeated Satan in that same place that Adam failed. Paul describes it, Colossians chapter 2, verse 15. He said, Jesus having disarmed the principalities and powers. Now the principalities and powers, that speaks of the demonic hierarchy. There are several different ranks among the demonic beings. Various ranks of authority as parallel to the angelic ranks. There's powers and principalities of angels and powers and principalities, different ranks of demons. Here he's obviously speaking to the demonic hierarchy. Jesus disarmed them. He defeated them. He made a public spectacle of them. He triumphed over the demonic realm, the demons and Satan in the cross, by what he did on the cross and also by implication, the resurrection as well. This is a unusual and very remarkable statement that he made a public spectacle of the demonic powers when he was raised from the dead. Because no man had ever been raised from the dead before. There have been people that have been resuscitated. They died and came back to life only to die a few years later. But in the true sense, a resurrection is a physical body that has the power over death, never to die again, with all the supernatural properties of the resurrection. The power of the Holy Spirit. Because that was God's ideal with Adam from the beginning, to have a body like that. That the human race was to live forever in that kind of body and condition before God. Well, there's a man in the tomb. The demons are watching. Now it says that Satan has the power of death. That's how his power, one of the ways it's executed, because he can bring death. Death is terrifying and death is destructive. So Satan has the power of death, it says in Hebrews, but Jesus triumphed over death and therefore over Satan as well. And he made a public spectacle that in the heavenly realm, I mean billions of angels and demons are all witnessing with anticipation what would take place on the third day. Because Jesus had made the declaration numerous times on the third day, I will rise again. They're waiting in anticipation and suddenly this man overcomes death and overcomes the whole demonic realm by stepping out of the power of the jaws of death to life. Life that's forever in his human body. It's never happened before. And in this way, Satan was publicly in the realm of the Spirit, witnessed by billions of angels and demons. He was clearly defeated. He was disarmed that very day by a man. Now the church must enforce this victory that Jesus won, this triumph. Because Satan, who is a liar, a deceiver, he continues to attack believers. Well, unbelievers as well, but he continues to attack the household of faith, presuming that he won't be resisted. Hoping they don't know who they are, that when he comes to destroy they will just back away in silence and accept it. Satan's attacks will continue if the church accepts them in their own lives, individual believers, the attacks won't be stopped. So he'll come and knock on the door and if we invite him in or we simply allow the thief to come in and draw back in fear and cower, he will steal everything. And it isn't the will of God that he does that. God says, I gave you the authority. You must believe what I said, what I did in my son, and the union you have with my son, and speak the word of God against the great thief, the one who comes to kill, steal, and destroy. The analogy I've used, I heard years ago was, so somebody knocked on the, on your front door and says, here I got a, I got something for you, a package. The package is full of poisonous snakes. Anybody reasonable would say, no, I don't want those snakes in my house. Well, that's what Satan does. He knocks on the door. Though he's not polite, he just breaks in and enters. Box full of snakes. Many believers say, oh God, oh God, I trust you, oh glory to God. He's, God's saying, rebuke the snakes, get rid of them. I didn't, it's not my will that you let them into your life. Some believers have a wrong application of trusting the sovereignty of God. They assume that in the sovereignty of God, everything that happens to them is ordered by God. And that's a misapplication of the sovereignty of God. The fact that God has all power, when we make sinful choices, God says, I didn't make you do that. I want you to repent of those simple choices. When you have wrong belief systems, the Lord says, I didn't give you those systems. I want you to change them. When the enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy, the Lord says, I gave you authority to say no to them. We don't passively accept the attack of the enemy or the encroachment of sin in our life, but we rise up in the sovereignty of God and we trust his leadership and his power, that in cooperation with them, we can resist sin and resist Satan. Here in paragraph C, we must take our stand against the devil and resist him. James chapter 4 says it very, very clear. He makes three statements. James chapter 4 verse 7. Number one statement, he says, submit to God. Second statement, resist the devil. Third statement is a promise. The devil will flee from you. Now the Lord wants us to have faith or faith or confidence, is another word for faith, in this God-given authority that Satan will flee from us. Now faith is more than just a passive confidence. Faith, living faith, has an element of urgency where we're really engaged in it. Believing, it's an active believing. It's, there's an element of urgency in the believing. It's not just kind of passive and laid back and whatever and I have faith. It's not enough to know about our authority. We need to act on it for faith to really be living faith in our life. Well we are to believe that the devil will flee. But let's look at statement number one in James 4 7. Submit to God. Now essential to operating in spiritual authority, God's authority, is that we live under God's authority. We can't release His authority and operate in it externally except we live under it in our individual lives. Some people skip this step one when they're rebuking the devil. And to submit to God, there's two components of submitting to God. There's a character element where we resist compromise. We resist areas of sin. Now we may stumble. He's not talking about sinless perfection. But we may stumble. But we come back quickly and we wage war against that area we stumbled in. And so there's a sincere intention for obedience in this. So we are submitting to the Lord though in our weakness we still stumble. But we're not, we're not at peace with the area of sin we're stuck in. But we rise up and resist it. That still is submitting to God. But there's a second element to submitting to God. It's not about resisting compromise related to character. It's about resisting wrong ideas. About resisting lies about God and lies about who we are in Christ. And many believers have wrong ideas. They don't agree with what the Word says about who they are in Christ. They don't know that much about it. And many that do know about it, technically they don't do much about it. The Lord says I want you to submit to me by standing on my word. It's not just a character issue. It's a belief system issue as well. That's submitting to God. Then we have that in place. Step two of James 4 verse 7. Resist the devil. And one of the most effective ways, not the only way, but one of the most common, not common, but the way that we resist the devil most is by speaking the Word of God against the devil. Matthew chapter 4. Most of you know the passage, Jesus is tempted in the wilderness, the beginning of his ministry. When Satan came to him, three times, three temptations. Incidentally those were the same three temptations that Satan came to Adam with in Genesis chapter 3. Each time Jesus answered every temptation by, it is written. It is written. He spoke to the devil by declaring the Word of God to the devil. And the way we resist the devil is we declare the Word of God back to the devil. And particularly we declare the fact of Jesus' authority, but our union to Jesus, so therefore our right to use it. It's not just that we say Jesus has it, but we're in union, this dynamic union. We're united to Christ in his death and resurrection. That means the benefits of his death and resurrection are accessible to us. That's what it means to be united to Christ in his death and resurrection. Romans chapter 6 verse 5, an amazing truth. The benefits of his death, the benefits of his resurrection are ours. We have full access to them. That's amazing reality. Well when we resist the devil, we speak the fact of Jesus' authority, but not only the fact of our union with him and therefore the right to exercise that authority. Another way that we resist the devil by words is by renouncing his claims over our life. Satan, we renounce your tactics, your plans to attack my family right now, my life. I renounce and declare as a lie what you're doing. And I declare the name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, the supremacy of Jesus, the authority of Jesus. I mean there's many ways to do it. There's no one way that's the right way and all the other ways are wrong. It's just lining up with the truth of the Word of God. Then it says number three, third phrase, he will flee. The devil will flee. Now that doesn't mean that he leaves and stays gone. He'll come back again and again and again. Not always in the same way, but sometimes in the same way, over and over again. He wants to test and try and see if you'll hold your ground or you'll just give up and give in after two or three knocks on the door. And we say, go away, go away. And then finally, I mean, or he breaks in our house. See the analogy you want to use? And he wants to release those snakes in our house. That box of snakes. No! Go in the name of Jesus. He'll flee. Again, he will attack in the same way often, many times. And he won't always flee that very moment. Now we wish we could measure it and we could tell in an empirical evidence, he flees in this way, this is what it looks like. We don't know because it's always different. And we don't really know how to measure it and analyze it just perfectly. All I know is that he will flee and we stay with it. Now every one of these verbs here in verse 7 are in that continuous presence. We submit and keep on submitting. It's not a one-time act. We resist, keep on resisting. I don't mean every minute, every day. But resisting is a part of our walk with God and part of our way of the kingdom. He will flee and keep on fleeing. It's not a one-time deal and it's not an instant deal every time. Sometimes it's instant. And sometimes it's permanent in that area. But sometimes we stay with it and we keep, we maintain our testimony of what we believe about who we are in Christ. Now we base our faith or this urge, this sense of urgency about the truth of this on what the Word says, not on how we feel or what we see or what we can measure. Now a lot of believers, well-meaning believers, when the circumstances doesn't change immediately, when the oppression doesn't lift immediately, when the sickness is not gone immediately, they give up. And they just quit challenging the enemy. Now not all sickness is a demon. That's not what I'm saying. Some sicknesses are the result, I mean sicknesses are a result of the fall of sin back from Adam because we're in a fallen world. And we have fallen weak bodies. But there's sicknesses that are contributed to other things besides direct demonic assaults that are a demon, you know, that's attacking a body in that direct sense. Not all sicknesses in that category. And so though Satan energizes the whole realm of sicknesses and there's a demonic element often, we can rebuke Satan. But there's also other means that are involved in having health in our body. There's diet, there's medicine, there's exercise, there's all kinds of lifestyle issues. As you know, and there's biological, family issues. I mean it's a bigger subject than just a one, two, three. I guarantee you're going to be healed if you rebuke the devil. That's not what I'm suggesting. But rebuking the devil is part of the larger mix of things that are involved in healing. Well I have good news. We're not to run from the devil. He's to flee from us. But many believers, they flee from the devil. They flee into passivity. They draw back in fear and and then they again misapply the psalmity of God. I guess this is just how it is. Like no, no, it isn't how it is. The devil is a liar and he's a thief. I've seen a lot of believers, they skip the submit to God part. I mean, maybe their character's good, but their belief systems are bad and they don't line up with the Word. They're not submitting to the Word of God. Sincere hearts, but wrong thinking. They don't resist the devil. And instead of believing that the devil will flee, when they speak, they go, Oh God, resist the devil for me. God resist the devil. And the Lord says, No, I told you to resist the devil. I mean, God can vanquish the devil, you know, in a phrase, in a moment. Jesus, He's already been defeated, but God's a relational God. He goes, I've done my part. I want to do it with you, together with you. And I want you to do your part, not because I can't do it, because I've sovereignly chosen to do it with you. I gave the dominion of the earth to my people as they live under my leadership to manifest my presence, my power, my leadership, my ways, my wisdom. I want to do it through you. So people draw back in fear and say, Oh God, resist the devil, resist the devil. And the Lord says, No, you resist the devil. I died on the cross, rose from the dead, gave you my word. I'm behind you. I'm empowering you. Now resist him. A lot of people, they have, many people, I'm sure many in this room, have nightmares at various times in their life. And they have what some call terror in the night. They have this evil presence comes in their room and they just freeze up. Beloved, speak the Word of God. You don't have to scream it. You know, I've heard people say, I can't even say nothing. Just whisper in the name of Jesus. I'm telling you, it's real. Then you'll get your voice back. Then you get a little bit of energy behind it, if you want. But it's, you can say the name of Jesus. Don't just bear it. Spirit of fear comes on you. A spirit of oppression, a spirit of heaviness. And again, many of these things, there's other components. There's belief systems. Again, there's family issues. There's diet. There's choices that are made. There are social dynamics of who we're with and what we're doing. There's many things contribute to negative things happening in our life. But the enemy, he heightens the whole negative situation with demonic energy. What we want to take out is that heightened energy. That doesn't make all the other problems disappear, but it's a lot easier to deal with the other problems when the demonic energy that's heightening the problem is diminished and removed. And again, whether it's heaviness, you know, some people just say, I'm just stuck in a mindset. I can't even hardly move or think. And again, there's physical and emotional and hormonal dimensions to many things. And diet, many things are connected to these things. But the enemy, he moves in and he adds that extra dimension that can be resisted, diminished, and removed in our life. Look at paragraph D. Jesus said, I'll give you power. No, I mean, I'm sorry. I'll give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions. If you go to Psalm 91, it's talking about the demonic realm there specifically. He says, over all the power of the enemy. The enemy has many different tactics of which he uses power. Some very direct and blatant and overt, some subtle, some time-delayed tactics. He's very crafty in his attack in his many different ways. But we're to use that authority. We're to operate in it, regardless how we feel that day, regardless what's happened that day. This thing's not based on how amazing your prayer life was the last three days. Like if you're really feeling zippy spiritually and, wow, I'm ready. The authority is given to you based on what Jesus accomplished, not how well you've done the last three days or three weeks. It's bigger than that. Praise God for that. We can be tired, in a bad mood, had a bad week spiritually. But if we're submitted to God or say, Lord, I did some things. I thought some things. I went there in my speech. I've been not good the last couple of days, but I'm submitting to you. I'm clean with you. I'm wanting obedience in my thoughts, processes, in my character, and I'm saying yes to you. Beloved, we can have confidence in the authority that he has given us in Christ. It's not based on how good we have done or how good we feel that day. Now, an analogy I've used for many years, I've heard it from many other preachers, is the analogy of the police officer who uses authority to stop cars in the traffic. A police officer doesn't use power. A police officer uses authority, meaning if he used power, he'd get out in the, he or she, they'd get out in the middle of the street and just kind of ram the car with their shoulder. That's power to stop a car. No police officer would do that. They use authority. They show their badge or they wear their badge. Their uniform speaks. The whole military, the might of a nation, stands behind their badge. So they, they invoke the power behind their badge. That's how the car stops. When they pull that sign up, you go, I'm stopping because there's no end to what the might of the nation is accessible to back up that police officer. Well, we have a powerful one behind us. We don't have the power, but we got, we have the badge. That's the name of Jesus. That police officer could have a real lousy day that day, feel real tired, real bad mood, very passive feeling, but if he's or she's got that badge, I tell you, you got the might of the entire military behind it. We got to remember that. Well, let's look at paragraph E. Jesus said in Mark 16 verse 17, these are the signs that will follow those who believe. He mentions three of them right here. Number one, they'll cast out devils. Number two, they will speak with new tongues. And number three, they'll lay hands on the sick and the sick will recover. Now these signs will follow any believer. Some people imagine that these signs only follow those people with a special healing ministry that, you know, have big crowds and let's get that guy or that gal to pray for us, because that's how it works. Beloved, these signs follow any believer. Even the most immature have access to this authority. Well, let's look at them just real quick. They'll cast out devils. Now, some people imagine that to cast out a devil always has a dramatic, spectacular manifestation. You know, like in those movies, you know, they always have that. Or maybe you've seen that. I've seen a couple of dramatic deliverances that were very wild-looking when a demon was thrashing a person around. But all casting out devils or breaking the power of a devil in a person's life, taking authority over it, isn't always dramatic and spectacular to the eye. Much of the devil's work is that heightened energy he adds to fear, depression, sickness, oppression, all these kind of negative and dark emotions. And many times the Lord is doing something, but you can't measure it effectively. You pray, in the name of Jesus, I take authority over the spirit that's tormenting this person, their mind, their body, their heart, their emotions. And if you do that, we can have confidence that we have authority to cast out devils, to break, to diminish and dismiss the power of Satan in that situation, that person's life. Now, you might look at it and say, well, nothing happened. But sometimes you take a step back and we can't measure this. And so if you try to measure it, you're going to end up on the wrong highway, going in the wrong direction. Sometimes it's just like praying for the sick and it says they will recover. Recovery is a process. See, I like to pray for the sick and have miracles. Miracles are instantaneous. Healing is recovery. It's process. Healing is not near as dramatic. It ends up with the same result in time. But I like traumatic. I like instant. And the person goes, wow, I'm healed. Now that's what I love. Those are miracles. And the working of miracles is a gift of the Holy Spirit. But healing is a gift of the Holy Spirit as well, though if you pay attention it says the gifts, plural, of healings, plural. Both of them are in the plural. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. But the point I'm making here is there's a recovery. We don't really like the recovery process. We prefer miracles because you can't measure it accurately. And sometimes the Lord uses a thousand prayers over a person and they're all accumulated together before Him. Like in Revelation chapter 5, verse 8, it says all the prayers are gathered in a bowl in heaven. They're stored up around the throne. And there's a point in time where the fullness of those prayers will be released on the earth. And there's a time where the fullness is released. And sometimes in healing the guy comes forward and we pray for or just in a situation. It's the thousandth time. The Lord is not doing anything. The Lord says, how do you know? Or maybe you're somewhere in that process. And some of them are healed instantly the very first time. You just don't know. You can't measure it and you can't guess it. The Lord just said, take your hands out of your pocket, lay your hands on them, and pray for the sick. Trust my leadership. We should pray for the sick till the day they die. I had a brother who was paralyzed 33 years. We prayed for him thousands of times and he died some years ago. And at the very end we were praying for a miracle. Someone goes, how does that work? And my answer is, I don't need to know how it works. I have little brain, big God, me little brain. All I know is this. I'm gonna pray for the sick until the day they die. He didn't trust his leadership and not backing away till then. And some miracles, healings are five to twelve. And some of them, I mean every believer is healed ultimately in the resurrection for billions and billions and billions and billions of years. So for sure everyone is healed in the 99.9999999999999999 percent of their life. Forever. By the blood of Jesus. But there's healing that happens in this age as well. But we don't have to be able to analyze it, measure it, have answers for it. When it doesn't happen, why it happens in part, why it happens slow. God says no no you don't do that part. And some people really energized by healing, they feel mandated to have the answer why it doesn't work. And I just think I've never seen that very helpful. Mostly it's confusing and and it is a logic that misses a couple principles that are in the Bible about healing. So I don't have simple answers. I just have a simple mandate. Pray for the sick and believe for them to recover and don't analyze it and keep praying for them. And believe the day before they, the minute before they die. Pray for a miracle. And then when they, it doesn't happen, we say Lord I don't have the answer. Let's keep praying for the next one. I really believe in this. I believe in 60 and 90 second prayers. I believe in longer prayers too. But I believe in speaking what God says. The authority we have, the nature that God is as a healer. Speaking it over people and not backing up and not quitting and not waiting till you have an hour to do it. 60 and 90 second prayers really really matter. You know I do this a lot. I pray lots of prayers for lots of people for a few minutes. It's a lifestyle and many of you do. And sometimes I see an answer. Sometimes I don't see an answer and sometimes my prayer is one of the many prayers that resulted in an answer later. I don't know. I don't have to know that. I just need to pray. Need to pray with confidence that God hears and it matters. He didn't call me to analyze. He called me to pray. You know on a Sunday morning, regardless of I'm feeling good, feeling bad, tired, whatever. The Holy Spirit's not tired and the Holy Spirit's not in a bad mood. And the Holy Spirit's not young. You know someone says, oh that little guy prayed. That's a miracle. Amazing. What? Like the big guy isn't? It's, there isn't a little Holy Spirit. A ten-year-old. Holy, the Holy Spirit of a ten-year-old is the same as the Holy Spirit in an eighty-year-old. It's all the same. So I could feel rotten. I could feel attacked by the enemy way down. I tell you, still lay hands on people. Stuff still happens. That's why I, again, I really believe this. It's why I've called our leadership team. I said, I want a culture. I mean the 18 years of IHOP, we've done it every meeting. Almost. 99% of my guests, I mean way up there, almost every meeting. We pray for the sick. It's just, I don't want to be in a spiritual family or a culture that doesn't do this real regularly. I mean, just all the time. Not 100% of the time, but just real regularly. That's why I've called our leadership team. I've said it over and over and over for 18 years ago. We're not backing away from this. I want you, every time we're gathered, you're in a meeting, I mean there's always that one time you can't, you got your grace, grace, grace. Come and do it for a couple minutes. It's not only a statement of your shepherding of people, it's also a prophetic statement that says, we believe in these passages. And though we don't see everything the way we want, we believe it. And when leaders make that caring, shepherding statement, it touches people. But when they make the prophetic statement, new believers see that and they go, well you know the the leaders are really, they buy it. If they buy it, I buy it. I mean it's a prophetic statement. That's why I ask our leaders. I go, really? I want you to do this. When we gather and you're in the meeting, come forward and lay hands on them. Function as a shepherd and make the prophetic statement. Two or three minutes. You don't have to be here for an hour. I mean we believe in this. We do it. And by the grace of God, we're never gonna stop doing it. You know it was just two days ago. I was at home. One evening, a couple nights ago in the evening, and Diane said, oh man I have this pain that's just, my ear, my jaw, my shoulder area, it's just a horrible pain. She goes, it's just hit me the last, been building all day. I go, okay let's just take. I met her too, and I said in the name of Jesus, I rebuke this pain. I asked her, the same prayer we pray every time for every little ache and pain. We take a minute or two or three. We pray it over each other. Anytime any of us feel anything, even if it's a bump in a bruise we got from something, you know, we're doing something, we're lifting something in a wrong way we shouldn't have. We go, Lord just help us anyway. And many times, I don't see anything happen. But many times I do. And I never know when is when. So we did that the other night, I think it was Wednesday night, and then an hour later, I mean she was, it was throbbing pain in her jaw and ear and shoulder area. She goes, man I'm just hurting bad. It's like, I don't, it's building all day. An hour later, she goes, it's totally gone. She goes, it's, she was trying to make it hurt. She goes, it's like really gone. You know, the week before, or whatever, we prayed, nothing happened that we saw. I mean, we don't have to know. I would do that for my wife every single time she's got a little bump and bruise. It doesn't matter to me. Or if she's got a little, I just feel bad. Okay, let's pray for 60 seconds. Let's see what happens. We do it for each other. We get emails all the time. Hey, so-and-so is sick. We just take a few minutes together and we say, Lord, in the name of Jesus, you know, Sherry Hall's having her baby. Let's just pray for the grace of God for a couple minutes for her. I mean, just anything. Just anybody can do that. And as I have found that this is a, a non-negotiable lifestyle reality that I'm committed to, and I want a leadership team and a community that's committed to this reality. And we won't always see things happen in our timing, in our way, but beloved, it matters every time. Even if we're part of the many prayers that ends up in the recovery down the road, we don't have to know. We just know we're going to do it all the time. I don't mean hours a day. That's what I mean. But I mean just a lot of small little increments of the glory and the power of God. Let's turn to the top of page two. Let's take the next few minutes just on this paragraph A, on this passage. Paul said in Ephesians 1 verse 17, the most, the prayer prayed most often at IHOP, probably because it's on the first one on the, on the list there on the page of prayers on the, on the platform up there where the prayer mic is. But I love it. This is like a fantastic prayer to be the most prayed prayer. Well, maybe the most prayed prayer is help God. But anyway, that's not on the list. But man, we do that one easy. You know, one other thing. Somebody, I take authority over the devil's tactics in his ways. And somebody goes, how do you know what the devil's doing? How do you know it's a devil? I go, I don't. They go, oh. I go, hey, I speak healing, blessing, cancel the devil, devil's assignment and his plans. You know, we pulled back the realm of the spirit, pulled back and we saw it. Maybe there's only angels. The angels go, hey Mike, there's no demon even attacking this guy. I'd say, so? So I overshot this time. So what? I don't worry about it. I mean, we come to the throne of grace, not to the throne of literary accuracy. And so I don't know. Sometimes I do know, but a lot of times I don't. I just go, I'm not giving the devil even a chance. I'm just going to, I know demons have to move by the name of Jesus. And if there's none there, they didn't hurt anything. We don't want to make it mystical. We want it supernaturally natural. We want a practical, everyone can do this. Well, let's go back to page one because I'm going to save page two for next week. I look, page two is so, ooh, I love it. And I have 90 seconds. And so, you know what? I'm just going to do page two next week. It's, I don't have the stuff I want to share. It's not on the print. I went off on it real long in the first service, but I'm just going to do it next week. And enjoy preparing for it. There's so many dynamic phrases here. Let's go back to page one. Paragraph F, Satan has no legal right to torment us. 1st John 4, 4, he who is in you, Jesus, is greater than he in the world, Satan. Beloved, whether we feel it or see it or measure it or analyze it right, it's true. I don't care what I feel like. The one in me is greater than the one attacking me or the one attacking you. So, I'm going to use the grace and the access of the union I have with the one in me to lay hands on you. Look at 1st John 3, 8. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifest, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Worship team, go ahead and come on up. One of the reasons Jesus came in the flesh, not the only reason, but one of the reasons he came in the flesh, was to destroy the works of Satan, the attack of Satan. Meaning, Jesus is fully God in heaven. The Father says, I want you to become human. Go down there. But one of the things I want you to focus on, destroy the works of the devil. And today in the kingdom, I want to walk in godly character and godly wisdom and blessing in various areas, but I want to have zeal to destroy the works of the devil too. One guy said, well, you know, that one group, they see a devil under every trash can. I said, well, they can't be talking about us. I see two devils behind every trash can. I mean, demons are everywhere doing stuff, just so are angels. I didn't really say that, but my point is, I want to love Jesus, but I want to be zealous also to destroy the works of the enemy. It's not okay if you have oppression and fear and depression and torment hitting your family, your marriage, your body, your finances, and we're all believers with access to Jesus and union with His and the resurrection, and we're sitting around together. No, we're attacking the devil. That's not all that we do, but that's part of what we do. Amen. Let's stand with that. And next week, this Ephesians 1 passage, I think that you'll be, there's a lot of dimensions, and there's about five different phrases in here that are not what meets the eye at a casual read. They're dynamic phrases. One of the most dynamic passages in the scriptures, Ephesians 1 right here. So I'm going to unpack a little of that, related to our authority and being seated in heavenly places, but we'll look at that next week. I want to invite anybody in the room that would like prayer for your physical body, or you're just being attacked by the enemy. And the reason why more people pray, you don't need someone to pray with you, but the Lord says, I'm so relational, I will give more to you if the church prays for the church. Because God's relational. He ordered it that way. But don't wait for someone to pray for you, but at the same time, call people to pray for you. And again, I call our leaders. I want to be in a family where the leaders lead as shepherds praying for people. 90-second prayers. You don't have to pray real long. You have no energy. You can whisper the prayer if you want to. I want to be in a place where the leaders are making a prophetic statement. We believe in this, no matter what we see with our eyes. Dwayne Roberts, good to see you again. I thought you were gone. You need prayer, Dwayne? My wife is right there next to you. She'll pray for you. She just got healed the other night, so she's all happy. Father, we ask you, in the name of Jesus, I invite you to come on up. I'm going to ask anybody in our leadership team and our ministry team to come up and join us. We don't have any more room up here, so if you want healing prayer, and you're in the congregation or in the bleachers, raise your hand up. I can't make my way up there. If you need prayer for healing or something, raise your hand up. Just keep it up until three or four people. Go ahead and turn around, folks. Some of you, and just get two or three around them. You can walk them up to the aisle. You don't have to stay in the chairs. As a matter of fact, it would be better if you walked down the aisle. It would be effective to you. Keep your hand up. Let's get people around them. Some of you, just move around. Lay hands on a frame for a minute or two. Father, we ask you, in the name of Jesus, Lord, what you say, we will say. What your word declares, we will declare over symphonies, over people under attack. Holy Spirit, we invite your presence across this whole room right now. Come on fire, Holy Spirit. Move and break oppression. In Jesus' name, I take authority over oppression. Anyone in this room with a spirit of heaviness, a spirit of fear, torment in the night, nightmares, I take authority over them right now. Break the power of Satan's attack to energize this situation in your life. Fire Lord, release your power right now, I ask. Father, we want to see our authority. We want to understand the Lord. Anyone somewhere in the room, keep your hand up. And saints all around, just go ahead and take a minute, get together around them. The Lord wants to use us. The newest believer, the Lord wants to use you today. Father, release your manifest power, your glory right now. Lord, you gave us dominion in Christ Jesus over the works of darkness. You said lay hands on the sick and they would recover. We believe you for recovery right now. Recovery right now in lives, in minds, finances, relationships, marriages. Recovery, recovery. Healing, recovery in Jesus' name. We pronounce the name of Jesus. We declare the supremacy of your power, Jesus. Come on, we sing. Lord, we resist the enemy. Lord, we resist the enemy in Jesus' name. Beloved, don't hesitate to pray for your children, your neighbors, your spouse. Little short prayers. Don't neglect to do that. In the workplace, on your worship team, in your neighborhood. A little 60, 90 second prayer. Father, we renew our minds by your word. Say the things you say. Let us be established in your word. Let us walk in all that you've called us to. Lord, we say we will walk in all that you've called us to. Listen, it's ringing through. In your name, we call it home. We declare breakthrough today. Right now. Freedom. Right now, we declare it over life. Hold us of your blessings. Father, we say what you say. Freedom. Healing. Breakthrough in life. In your name, we call it forth and we proclaim freedom. But I ask you, release a wave of your spirit into this auditorium right now. Lord, even right now. Just breathe by your spirit across this room. We proclaim life. Remember that. Freedom. Yes, there's breakthrough in your name. We call it forth and we swallow all you've purchased for us. Give salvation. Bring healing. Your name is a refuge, a strong, strong tower. And we ride it. In his authority, in his name we pray. Don't wait, don't hesitate. Walk in his authority, in his name we pray.