Mike Bickle emphasizes the importance of cooperating with God's grace through three primary principles outlined in Romans 6:11-13. He explains that understanding our identity in Christ, resisting sin, and actively pursuing a relationship with God are essential for experiencing victory over sin and living a life empowered by the Holy Spirit. Bickle encourages believers to recognize their new creation status, resist sinful temptations, and present themselves to God for His use. He highlights that transformation requires both divine assistance and personal responsibility, urging listeners to engage actively in their spiritual growth. The sermon concludes with a call to embrace these principles for a deeper relationship with God and a more victorious Christian life.

Father, we ask you, in the name of Jesus, for the spirit of grace, and we ask you for the spirit of inspiration and revelation. Even now, Lord, to strengthen our spirit with mind, with might, to clear our mind. Lord, I ask that the fog would lift and our minds would have clarity and revelation, even tonight, as we hear the word and sit before you. In Jesus' name, amen. Tonight, I want to talk about the three main principles that Paul outlined in Romans chapter 6, that give us understanding of how we can walk in victory over sin, and how we can walk in supernatural power to love God with all of our heart. Because I know that's the desire of so many of you. Lord, I want to be empowered that I could walk out the first commandment. I want to be empowered that I could walk free from sin and failure and depression, and all kinds of things that are causing setbacks in my heart. And Paul, in a very brilliant way, laid out three principles in a very concise and precise way here in Romans chapter 6, and each one of these principles has two applications to it. And we're going to look at it just as kind of a snapshot tonight. We won't have time to develop any of the principles in any great detail, but I want to give an overview and then for the next couple of weeks kind of work on these principles so that we get them into our own understanding for ourselves, as well as we get them into our understanding to equip us to minister to other people. Paragraph A, I'm going to take the first few paragraphs here and just give review from the last six or seven sessions I've been giving. For those that are new with us tonight, I'm on a series of walking in victory over sin, experiencing the grace of God in our personal life for personal transformation. Paragraph A, I've said this week after week, Romans 3 to 8, these six chapters, they give the foundational truths that are necessary to walk in what Paul calls newness of life, or to walk with a supernatural enabling on the inside to walk free from sin or to be empowered to love God. Some people think mostly about getting free and others think mostly about being anointed to love. It's really two sides of one coin. It's the same thing. Paragraph B, the passage we've looked at every week now, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17 to 21. And the reason I'm looking at this passage week after week, because it summarizes the six chapters, Romans 3 to 8. Now Romans 3 to 8 is that heavenly manual, so to speak, on what the human spirit, how it operates in redemption. It's how our spirit operates in the grace of God, Romans 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. But Paul here in 2 Corinthians, this one short passage, he summarizes it in a very precise way and he actually includes most of the key concepts right here. Let's read the verse. Paul said in verse 17, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, all things have become new. Then he goes on and says that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Now just to look at these phrases again that we've been covering the last number of weeks, Paul says that if anyone's in Christ, if anyone becomes born again, he is a new creation. Now the he, he's talking about the human spirit. Now most of us know that the human makeup is threefold, spirit, soul, body. And that it's our spirit that becomes totally new. When he says all things become new, this is not exaggerated. He literally means everything pertaining to our spirit man becomes new. Our spirit, which is spiritually dead, before we know Jesus, we have a spirit, but it's filled with darkness, it's powerless, and it's dead. The moment we are born again, the life of God, the Holy Spirit comes to live in our human spirit. And God imparts His righteousness to our human spirit. There is a supernatural miracle that happens on the inside of us, in our spirit man. Now our soul, our personality, where our emotions are, we may not feel it. In our body, we won't be able to discern what's happening in our spirit, but a dynamic miracle happens in our spirit man. And Paul says it in such a, I mean what he says is so dramatic here in verse 21, we become the righteousness of God. I mean this is literal. Our spirit receives the righteousness of God. There is no sin in your spirit. It's a miracle. And the Holy Spirit comes to live in you. Now what we're going to find out in a moment, it's knowing this fact is the beginning point of changing the whole internal environment of our inner man. When we know what happened in our spirit, that's the beginning point. And Paul talks about these three principles in a moment. They're based upon this reality of the miracle that happens in our spirit. And we've been looking at this for six or seven weeks now, so I'm not going to go over the same material again. Any of you that are new with this here for the first time and you are interested, all the notes are on the website if that interests you. Paragraph C, 1 Corinthians 6, Paul says, he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with God. Now this summarizes it again in 1 Corinthians, that the person that's born again, they're joined to the Lord. That means they're born again. Every believer is joined to the Lord. But he describes it, he says, that the moment you're born again, the Holy Spirit comes to live in you and your spirit and God's spirit become one. I mean this is extreme. I mean this is a massive miracle and we are one forever with God. Now this is a privilege that the angels do not experience. Only the redeemed experience this. We're joined. We're one spirit with God. Ephesians 4, and the new man, this new refashioned human spirit that formerly was spiritually dead, filled with darkness, powerless, devoid of the life of God, are this new man, this new spirit man is created in righteousness. It's as righteous as God is. God gives His righteousness to us. I don't mean just that we have a position of righteousness. It literally, righteousness is imparted into our human spirit. Now the goal is to see it outworked in our soul, our emotions, our personality, and our body. Paragraph D, we're still, this is the last point of review from the last few weeks. We've covered this week after week. The challenge in all of this truth and this information is that we don't feel what's happening in our spirit. We can't feel it. We can't measure it. We can't discern it. And the reason we can't is because our spirit is simply that. It's spirit. And our emotions, our five senses, and our emotions cannot discern spirit. So this dynamic miracle happened in us, but we can't get a handful of it. We can't measure it. You can measure your body. You can measure somebody else's body, even their soul. You can see what's happening in their personality, what they like, what they don't like. You can measure it. You can evaluate it. But you can't see someone's spirit. You can't see your own spirit. And Paul talks about it as well as Peter. Peter referred to it as the hidden person of the heart. The born again human spirit is actually hidden from us. You can't see or feel what's happening in your spirit. Now over time, as we began to develop understanding of what happened, this great miracle, that the Holy Spirit actually is living on the inside of us. Beloved, the Holy of Holies is in your belly. The Shekinah glory is actually in your spirit. Jesus said, out of your belly flows rivers of living water. That's the King James language. Or out of your spirit flows rivers. The glory of God, Christ in you, the hope of glory, literally God the Holy Spirit dwells in your spirit. Now what happens as our mind buys into this, and we begin to renew our mind, and we begin to develop a friendship and relationship with the Holy Spirit who lives in us, what happens? We become more acclimated to what's happening in our spirit. Matter of fact, the primary orientation of our life shifts from what's happening in our emotions, in our body, to where we pay more attention to what's happening in our spirit. That's called spiritual maturity. When the primary orientation of our life shifts away from our physical appetites and our five senses, and the primary thing that we are inspired by and that we make our decisions from is the dynamic that's happening in our spirit, the Holy Spirit living in our spirit. Paul called that Christ in you, the hope of glory in Colossians 127. It's Christ in you or the Holy Spirit in you. It's the same concept, the same reality. So this great miracle is hidden. We can't see it. We can't feel it. We can't measure it. The only reason we know it exists is because the Word of God says it exists. And the Lord requires that we believe what His Word says about this miracle in our spirit, though we can't feel it or see it or measure it, because God said it. And we trust God's integrity. And God is not a liar. And God is good. He says, if I said it, I want you to agree with it. That's how He runs His entire kingdom. He says it. We don't see it in the natural. We can't discern it with our five senses. But we believe it. And in time, we experience that which we believed. That's the way God runs His kingdom. And there's many reasons why He chose the way of faith to be the way of His kingdom. We're not going into that now. But it is the way that His kingdom works. And if we believe what God says about the great miracle that occurred in our spirit, we will begin to shift in our orientation towards our life. And we will begin to have a spirit orientation, meaning we'll begin to be more aware, more conscious of the spiritual dynamics happening on the inside of us. We will, our emotions will be inspired. Our mind will be illumined or enlightened by this activity happening on the inside. The Bible calls that transformation. Now paragraph E, now we're starting new material. All this in the last ten minutes has just been review that I've said the last number of weeks. But in a lot more detail. Now we're moving on because it's Romans chapter 6. Of the six chapters, Romans 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, those six chapters is where the main principles are put all together in one six chapter section of Scripture. The main principles related to how transformation operates in the life of a redeemed believer, a born again believer. But of these six chapters the premier chapter, if you had to pick one out of the six that has the most information about what's happened in our spirit, it would be Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. And we're not going to look at Romans 6 verse 1 to 10, I'm just going to mention it. In the weeks to come we're going to break it down a little bit. But I just want to mention it. Verse, I mean chapter, I mean paragraph E, Paul gives details of our union with Christ in Romans 6 verse 1 to 10. He gives the details of what it means to be in union with Jesus. And then he describes what happens to our born again spirit, our regenerate spirit, our spirit made new. He gives us insight and details for 10 verses. Now if you've never read Romans 6 1 to 10 you might read it and go, wow. You might not really relate to all that he's saying. Because Paul says it in very, very precise, intentional terminology that if you read it through one time you might not get much out of it. But with definition of 2 or 3 key concepts the whole of these 10 verses will make a lot of sense. And again we're going to get to that at another time. But the key verse here in this section of chapter 6 1 to 10, verse 1 to 10 is here in verse 5. And here it is right here. Here's the key idea. Romans 6 verse 5. We have been united together in the likeness of His death and in the likeness of His resurrection. What Paul's saying is here, the day we were born again we received the benefit of His death and the benefit of His resurrection. We were joined to Jesus in such an intimate way at the spirit level that the benefits of His death and the benefits of His resurrection are ours. That's what he says here in verse 5. He's summing up the whole of verse 1 to 10. We are unified. We are joined to Him in the benefit of what He experienced. What He experienced and what He accomplished they are ours the day we're born again. Paragraph E. Now God requires that we cooperate with the grace of God. Meaning we have this power in us. Romans 6 verse 1 to 10. We have this union with Jesus that brings us the benefit of His death and resurrection. We have this light of God dwelling in our spirit who is called the Holy Spirit. We have the power of God living in our spirit, the Holy Spirit. Our human spirit is filled with righteousness. Our human spirit is filled with God. God lives in our spirit. And therefore even the fruit of the Holy Spirit dwell in our spirit. You know when the Holy Spirit comes to live in you the day that you're born again the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control. The nine fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5.22. I don't have that verse written down in these notes but I do in the other ones. The nine fruit of the Spirit they are fully in you, in your spirit the moment you're born again. It's this massive treasure. It's this great spiritual wealth that is ours instantly, freely the moment that we're saved. But the problem is because it's in our spirit and our soul our mind and emotions we can't measure our spirit, we can't even discern it. Our physical body in the five senses can't measure it, can't discern it. We have this tremendous wealth in our spirit that our mind and emotions and our physical five senses we don't even know it's there. It's huge deposit in our spiritual bank account so to speak. And the only way that we know it's there is because God's Word says it's there. And again when we begin to believe what God says about our spirit and we renew our understanding and our mind then we begin to experience the power of it in our emotions and in the clearing of our thinking. Our thinking begins to be inspired by the light of God. Our mind begins to be clear about spiritual truth. It's called the spirit of revelation. Now in order to experience this power, this benefit, this spiritual wealth that these ten verses talk about Romans 6 1-10 it is necessary to cooperate with the grace of God. Meaning we have to do our part and God will do His part. Look at 2 Corinthians 6 verse 1. Paul says, I plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain because it's possible to have the grace of God, the power of God and to receive it in vain. Meaning not to enjoy the benefit of it. That's what it means to receive the grace of God in vain. It means to have it but not to partake of it, not to enjoy the benefit of it in our everyday life. Now the grace of God is much more than forgiveness. Some people when they think of grace they think only of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a subunit of the grace of God. I mean it's part of the grace of God but it's only one department so to speak. It's mercy. And I love mercy and I love the forgiveness part of the grace of God. But the grace of God in its larger concept means a supernatural enabling. That's what the word grace, the concept grace means. It's a supernatural enabling that includes forgiveness. So Paul said, I plead with you. You've received the supernatural enabling which is described in Romans 6 verse 1-10. I just mentioned it. You've received this new wealth in your spirit. But if you don't cooperate with the grace of God, you actually receive this treasure in vain. It doesn't do you any good in this life if you don't participate with it. So he's going to give us, Paul is, the three key principles that enable us to participate with this supernatural ability that's in our spirit. Now the analogy I've used a thousand times over the years, I'll use it again. It's the analogy of the farmer and the preacher. That the preacher went home after church one Sunday with the farmer. And the farmer had this mass farm fully cultivated and all these manicured fields and beautiful, you know, multitudes of acres. And they're driving down the driveway up to the house. And the preacher says to the farmer, wow, this is amazing how beautiful, I mean just rolling acres. God really blessed you. And the farmer answered back, he says, when God had this farm it was a total mess. And the idea is this, there's a division of labor in the grace of God. God does His part and we do our part. God won't do our part and we can't do His. If you have a farm and you ask God to do your part, the farm will be a total mess. God won't plant the seeds and weed the garden. He won't do it. You can't produce the rain and the sunshine. God has a role, we have a role. God will not do our part, you can't do His part. Some people in the name of faith, they trust God to do their part. They think, I trust you Lord, just make my heart right. And the Lord says, no, I want you to make that decision, make it for me. He says, no. It'd be like saying to the farmer, the farmer said, Lord, you, you pull the weeds, you plant the seeds and pull the weeds. The Lord would say, no, the farm will be a mess if you don't do your part. And the reason is because God wants relationship with us. He wants a cooperation. There's a division of labor, even in the transformation of our heart, our emotions and our behavior. So if you're asking God to do your part, that's called presumption and it will cause chaos and confusion in your life. Lord, would you please make me stop doing this? And the answer is, no, I won't make you stop. I will honor your free will. Even if your free will leads you to hell, I will not violate your free will. I won't do your part. Lord, make me stop. And the answer is, no. Now the Lord breaks in and gets our attention sometimes. Sometimes He hems us in to the corner. How many of you have ever been hemmed in the corner? I have a number of times. That's not the way you like to get changed. But even then, He requires for us to make the decisions. He will not make it for us because He honors our free will. It's part of the dignity that He gave us. He goes, if I do it for you, then there's no relationship. If you do your part, I will release supernatural influence on it and then the growth and the transformation will take place. And we've done it in relationship. I've honored your will and you've submitted to my will. That's called love. God does not want robots. God wants relationship where we make real choices. And again, God so honors the free will that a person can say no and end up in hell. And the Lord, though He will try to get their attention, He will not make them say yes. He will let people go to hell if that's what they want to do. It will break His heart, but He won't violate their free will. So Paul outlines three principles here. And these three principles, each one of them have two applications. And again, tonight we're going to look at it just a snapshot, just to get you familiar with it. I call it the principle of knowing, the principle of resisting, and the principle of pursuing. Three principles, two applications for each one of these three principles. Let's look at that for a moment. And it's Romans chapter 6, verse 11, 12, and 13. It's three verses in a row following the ten verses describing the spiritual wealth that we inherit by our union with Jesus Christ in the new birth. So chapter 6, 1 to 10 tells us our new wealth that we have by virtue of union with Jesus in the new birth. Right after He tells us our wealth, chapter 6, 1 to 10, the next three verses He tells us how to appropriate that wealth, how we can benefit from it, how we can cooperate with Him so that the good of that power that's in our spirit actually touches our emotions and it touches our body and our appetites. And then God will supernaturally affect our emotions and even our appetites. And He will give us supernatural ability to walk out a transformed life, little by little over time. Principle number one, verse 11, the first thing that God says after He tells us the power that is in us, He tells us that we have to believe it. We have to know the powers in us. He says in chapter 6, verse 11, He said, Reckon yourself to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. It's what I call the knowing principle or the faith principle. To reckon ourselves, that's the new King James language. Many translations will just simply put the word, see yourself, because to reckon yourself is the same thing as to see yourself in a certain way. Or some translations will use the word, consider yourself. The first thing that we need to have established on the road to recovery, on the way to, on the road to transformation, in being empowered to love God with all of our heart, the absolute first issue is we must know the right things. And there's not that many things to know, but we must know them. And we must more than know them intellectually, we must apply them, the Bible calls it the renewing of the mind, where we see ourself in agreement with how God sees us. And it takes time to do this. Because though we can know these facts intellectually, it takes us a while before we actually see ourself in the light of how God sees us. It takes time. It's called the renewing of the mind. So Paul said, see yourself alive to God. Well he says two things, dead to sin and alive to God. And they, me and they're two sides of one coin. It boils down to the same reality. But I'm just going to focus on one of them, see yourself alive to God, because he's really saying the same thing from two different directions. We must know who we are in Christ. We must know what we've received in Christ. We must know how he sees us. He sees us as sons of God and the bride of Christ, which means he's a father and a bridegroom. Knowing is the beginning place of transformation. Because when we know the right things, and again it's not just a disconnected knowledge, it's the seeing of ourself. It's knowledge that we apply that we actually see ourselves differently. And when we agree with the Spirit about what we look like to God, it changes how we feel. It changes how we approach the battle. When you see what's true about you, you feel different and you approach the battle against darkness in an entirely different attitude when you see yourself right. You approach it with a confidence in victory and you approach it with knowledge of what the weapons are, what your authority is, how it works. And anyone that's in a battle and they're sure they're going to win, and they know what the weapons are, they have a whole different attitude and approach to the battle than if they're in confusion, bewilderment, depression, filled with shame, ready to quit, just disoriented all the time. That kind of soldier is easy to defeat. The enemy does not want us to see ourself alive to God. Paragraph B. Now to see ourself or to reckon ourself alive to God, it means alive to the realm of God. Because we were in the realm of sin, under the reign of sin, but now we're in the realm of God. Matter of fact, Romans chapter five and chapter six outline that whatever is true of Jesus in his relationship before God as a man, whatever is true of Jesus in his relationship before God in his humanity is true of everyone that's born again. Now Jesus is not only fully man, he's fully God. So there's things about Jesus related to his deity that aren't true of us. But whatever is true about Jesus in his relationship to the Father, it has become true to us and those truths are ours in our spirit the moment we're born again. Now I'm going to give you four of these truths, four categories right here in paragraph B. These are massive points. We've looked at them so over the last few weeks and we're going to stay with it, but I just want to give them very brief. To see ourself alive to God, number one, we're enjoyed by God. Some people would use the word forgiven. And though forgiven is the biblical word, when God forgives us in Christ Jesus, it's more than stamps our passport. He actually enjoys us like he enjoys his son. John 17, 23, he actually feels about us like he feels about Jesus. When he forgives us and gives us favor, it's so much more than a stamping of our passport says okay, forgiven, next, don't bother me, you little sinner, now go on, get in the line, go on, you're in the kingdom, next. It's not that kind of transaction. He actually feels about us like he does about his son. He enjoys us. Secondly, that to be alive to God means we're indwelt. God lives in us. The holy of holies is actually in us. God doesn't just live in us for a while, forever. Again, this is a privilege the angels don't have. But many believers, they never live in relationship to the Holy Spirit as though the Spirit is a real person who lives in them. Now they know the Holy Spirit's a person, but in the practical administration of their everyday life, the Holy Spirit is kind of relegated to a distant thought. He's an influence. He's a thing. He's help. He's something. But let me tell you, the Spirit is a real person and He's really in you and He really is smart. He has a lot of feelings, a lot of power. He really likes you and He's in you and He's waiting for you to talk to Him. He will not talk to you, usually, unless you start the conversation. Typically if He starts the conversation, more times than not, that's not always good news. Sometimes He'll just surprise you, but He will talk to us at the level, at the amount I'm talking about, that we talk to Him. If we talk to Him and we can talk to Him, I'm talking about He's in our spirit. It's like the burning bush that Moses saw is in your spirit. His name is the Holy Spirit. The Shekinah glory and the Holy of Holies in Solomon's Temple, He's in your spirit. He's called the glory of God, the Holy Spirit. And many people, they never ever develop a friendship with the Holy Spirit. They don't have a practical connection with Him. They know He's in there, but they never ever draw on the relationship or develop it. So therefore, the power that's in their spirit, they never ever feel the impact of it in their emotions. We're indwelt. Number three, we're empowered. We're empowered with the authority of Jesus. We can speak words in the name of Jesus. And demons and angels move. We can bind demons and loose angels. We can pray for someone far away and their body can get healed. Or God will visit them. We can speak words because we have the authority of Jesus. We've been empowered. We've been entrusted with authority. Things happen when we speak if we will speak. And then number four, the fourth category, is we are commissioned. The day you're born again, you receive a life assignment. It has many subunits, many seasons and many chapters in the book, so to speak. You are commissioned before God. You are no longer living an aimless life. God commissions you. Now the commission may be to something, again that commission has many seasons and subunits to it and many different assignments within that great lifelong commission. Now usually that commission is not a big commission in the eyes of men. People think of being commissioned by God, they're going to be preaching or leading worship at a stadium. Beloved, most of the commissioning and the assignment God gives us, they're small in the eyes of men but they're important to the eyes of God. And the assignment that He gives us, we are commissioned, He watches us because it's His commission on our life and it moves His heart. And He actually writes it in His book and He rewards us in the age to come as an expression of His enthusiasm and delight over our obedience in that commission. I mean you may be in a back room out of the eyes of men, nobody appreciates you, nobody recognizes you, but God's eyes are on you and His heart is moved and He remembers it forever and He rewards it forever. Beloved, that makes every single day of your life relevant. We have a relevance because we move God's heart and He remembers it forever. Like, wow, if you don't see anything that I'm doing and I see nothing, you're doing but God sees it all and it delights His heart. Beloved, we have it made. It's not about how big a stage you can get on, it's how much God's heart is moved. So you are no longer aimless. Your life is not irrelevant. Whether it's big in the eyes of men or not, your life is very important to God. It moves Him and He remembers it. Wow! That happens the day you're born again. So these four categories, and you could use different terms for these categories, they sum up what it means to be alive to God. And we could develop them more but that's the general idea. And not only are these four things enjoyed, indwelt, empowered and commissioned, they are eternal. All four of them are now and forever. We will be enjoyed forever. We will be indwelt forever. We will be empowered forever and we will have a commission for billions of years. The purpose will keep unfolding. What an exciting way to live. Those things are true of us because they're true of Jesus and His relationship to the Father. See that? It's not on the notes but we're here on Romans 6 verse 11. Just the verse before, Romans 6 verse 10 says, Jesus is alive to God, therefore see yourself as alive to God, is what Paul is saying. Because Jesus is enjoyed, because Jesus, well He is God, He has a lot of authority and He has a real important commission. I'm talking about as a man, as the son of David, as a human. He has all of these dimensions. He is alive to God. Romans 6 verse 10, so verse 11 Paul says, now see yourself in the same position, in the same privileges in your relationship to God. Now beloved, you see yourself alive to God, it will change all your approach to the spiritual battle. Now what happens in a lot of situations, when people are wanting to live, I mean have recovery over failures and sins and problems, they go right to the behavior mode. We have to be established in the knowing mode first, the seeing mode. Because our behavior, our attitude and our feeling in the behavior will be very different if it's based on the knowledge of truth. Now a lot of people, they kick right to the behavior of repenting of this and doing that and doing these behavior things, but they do it with shame, with guilt, they think God's mad at them, they feel aimless, they don't know what their life is about, they feel confused. And so when they do the behavior, it's not near as impactful, it does not change them. Though the behavior is important, the behavior flows out of knowing, the knowing is critical. Top of page 2, principle 2, the principle of resisting. We've looked at the principle of knowing, now we're looking at the principle of resisting again. There's two applications here of this principle. It says in Romans 6 verse 12 and 13, he says, therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin. He says two different things about this one principle. Now it's important, what Paul is saying here, just to summarize it real quick, we resist sinful promptings in our body. Then we refuse circumstances that are sin provoking. Circumstances that inflame sin in our body. We must resist, look at paragraph 8, we must resist sin, Satan, and very important, sin provoking circumstances. Paragraph B, Paul says, therefore do not let sin reign. Don't let it reign because he personifies sin. He makes sin like it's a person, like it's a monarch, like it's a real living entity. He personifies sin as a cruel dictator. He says don't let him reign in you. Here's the reason he says it, because if sin is not held in check, sin will dominate it. Sin is always seeking opportunity to dominate us and to reign in us. Paul says you have power in your spirit, you're alive to God, you have the resource to check this reign and to resist it. And Paul emphasizes the need to say no. But the need to say no only works if you know who you are in Christ and if you have the right foundation of knowing and reckoning yourself alive to God. Now the good news is sin need not reign in your body. Paul is saying, hey, sin wants to reign, but it doesn't have to. You don't have to go that direction. Now every promise of God, every promise of God has in the promise, I mean I said it wrong, every command of God has in the command the promise of an enabling. If God says don't let sin reign, in that command is a promise in the grace of God for help to succeed in that. God never commands us to do anything that He will not enable us and empower us in our weakness to do. Now one, He says you must say no. There is a place for saying no and denying yourself. Again, that's the second principle, it's not the first one. And it doesn't work in a vacuum by itself, but it works well based on knowing who we are in Christ. Look at Titus chapter 2, verse 11. Paul said the grace of God has appeared to all men and here's what the grace of God does. The grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness. The grace of God teaches us to live soberly, righteously and godly. Here's why I'm saying this. There's a lot of false teaching about the grace of God. The grace of God isn't enabling. That's the essence of grace. Yes, it has a forgiveness dimension and that's a very important dimension. But the grace of God teaches. The grace of God convinces us of the value of denying ungodliness. And then the grace of God empowers us to follow through and to walk it out. Some people think of the grace of God as God not caring about ungodliness and the grace of God means there are no requirements. It's opposite. The real grace of God teaches us the value of self-denial and empowers us to actually walk it out. The grace of God has appeared, Titus chapter 2, let's look at it again, teaching us to deny ungodliness, teaching us the value of denying, of ungodliness and lust and then giving us the ability to sustain it. Paragraph C, not only do we deny sinful lust, and again we're going to look at this a little bit more in detail, I'm just giving you the snapshot of the three principles because the three principles together are kind of like a road map of how to go forward in this thing called transformation or being empowered to love God with all of our heart. Notice in paragraph C, he says, not only don't let sin reign in your body, he goes, there's another application of this principle. Don't present your members to sin. This is a slightly different thing than resisting sinful promptings. He's saying refuse to be in circumstances that inflame sin in you. Now pastoring over the years, heard many stories, the guy gets in the car, drives to the place he should not be going, ten times in a row where when he went there, it inflamed sin in him and he fell. But he gets in the car, he has that uncomfortable Holy Spirit displeasure in his heart, so he goes, help me Lord, help me Lord. He mutters a couple seemingly sincere prayers, but those prayers can't be answered because he's already in disobedience to the Holy Spirit. We can't live in disobedience to the Spirit and ask for the Spirit's favor and power while we're disobeying Him. It doesn't work that way. The guy's driving to the place, he gets there, he puts himself in a position, and I could describe ten or twenty places he might go. We'll break that down in the weeks to come. He gets there, and now he's in a circumstance, he's presented his body already, he's presented himself to this fire, this flame, this environment that's enticing him. And it may be going to his computer down in his basement, that may be the place he goes. Or it may be going to an apartment, or to a faraway place with the wrong person. Or it may be going to a social gathering with even believers, but believers who are not walking in obedience. And just the social setting itself inflames things, and they all end up compromising in various ways. There's many, many different applications to this. But what they do is they get themselves in a position where they have to trust their flesh to do the right thing, and that's a disaster. You don't go places where you need to trust your flesh to respond right. Ten for ten, the guy blows it, but he goes again. Muttering a prayer, then he gets there and cries out for the bailout prayer, oh deliver me, and he falls. And again, the Lord's Paul said, don't present yourself, don't put yourself in that position. The very putting of yourself in that position is in itself grieving the Holy Spirit. And then asking for the Spirit's favor and deliverance while grieving him, ten times out of ten, the guy falls. And he can't figure it out. And so he's asking God, God don't let me go to that place. And the Lord says, no, it doesn't work that way. I won't pull the weeds in the garden. If you go, you go. I will not make you not go. It doesn't work that way. Oh Lord, don't let me go to that place. That is a totally unbiblical prayer. It's like the farmer saying, pull the weeds, pull the weeds God, pull the weeds. And God says, no, you pull the weeds. I'll provide the sun and the rain. It's called presumption. Principle number three, the pursuing principle. It's the love principle. The first one is faith, the knowing principle. The second one is repentance, the resisting principle. And the third one is the pursuing principle. And again, there's more than just the simple presentation tonight. These are, these are masterfully presented in the Word of God with the, there's implications that are beyond what meets the eye at a casual reading. Now this also has two applications. He said, present yourself to God, number one. Romans 6 verse 13, present yourself to God as being alive from the dead and present your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Now this is the pursuing principle. You're pursuing God. You're cultivating relationship with God, personally, one to one relationship. You're cultivating intimacy and connection, the presence of God in your life. You're pursuing God. But you're doing a second thing. You're also presenting your body, instead of to a sinful circumstance like the last principle, you're presenting your body to be used by God to be a blessing to other people. To bring the presence of God, or just to bring the supply of God, a servant spirit. It doesn't have to be a, a dynamic supernatural encounter. I'm talking about just serving one another. Speaking words of kindness. Presenting yourself to God saying, Lord, I want to have friendships, relationships, I want to serve in a way where I bring your heart and your goodness to other people. Even if it's a one on one conversation with a friend, that's part of presenting your members to be used by God. Many applications of this. Paragraph B. Now when we present ourselves to God, our first call is to love God. And you know, we could go on and on talking about the necessity of, of pursuing God, of fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit, growing in the knowledge of God. Growing in the first commandment. Those kind of things. We'll look at that again at another time. Paragraph C. Presenting your members. Now when you present your members, you are, there's many again, uh, uh, applications of this. Any way that you are preparing yourself to be used in the future, whether the future's a week from now or a year from now, if you're preparing yourself to be used, you are presenting your members to God as a vessel. Or, if it's not a preparation mode, you're actually serving. The people driving the shuttles tonight presented their faculties, their person to God to be a blessing to the body of Christ. Any way that we're serving, whether we're leading a small group, we're in the healing teams, the ministry teams, the children's, uh, equipping center, one-on-one discipling, counseling, the people praying for one another at the awakening services, they are presenting themselves to God to be an instrument of blessing to others. The ushers in the marketplace, in the neighborhoods, in family circles, speaking blessing one to another, serving one another, doing the dishes for mom. Say, well, I don't live at home anymore. That's what makes it more powerful. Drive over there and do them. Blow her mind. Well, I live far away. Good. Pay your friend $10 and have him go do it and blow her mind yet still again. I got lots of ideas for how you can do those dishes. So, presenting yourself is making the effort even to be equipped. Forerunner messengers are presenting themselves. They're putting the effort to get equipped to be an answer and a supply in the days ahead. Now, again, that presenting, we're serving today, we're serving next week, and we're serving in 10 years. This application is at various different time frames. Paragraph D, the final, the final, uh, paragraph. Now, this, I want you to put the asterisk by D because D sums the whole thing up. So, you'll look at this later. Here's what it comes down to. Paragraph D, we must know truth, resist darkness, and pursue God. Those are the three things we must do and the full application of those. Now, together, these three principles create a dynamic for change on the inside. But it's the three principles together, not your favorite one principle in isolation. What happens is that many ministries or, or, or individuals, they pick the one or two that they want to focus on and they ignore the other one. But it's the dynamic of the three together that creates the context for internal transformation. I have written here in paragraph D, we pursue loving God in people as we resist sin, Satan, and sin provoking circumstances in the context of knowing who we are in Christ before the revelation of God as a father and a bridegroom. I just summed it up as precise as I can, one short sentence that goes about three paragraphs. Now, none of these principles can be omitted. I just want you to see the next sentence or two that we'll end with. Where, what I'm doing in this, I'm just giving a few examples of how somebody may pick one of the principles or two of them at the neglect of the other one. Some people, they're really focused on holiness. So they will put a lot of energy resisting sin. But they don't know who they are in Christ. They resist sin, but as a shame filled, defeated, discouraged beggar. They, they come before God to resist sin. They, they turn, they say no to the sin reigning in their body. But oh God, I'm going to probably fail. I'm so miserable. If you help me this one more time, I'll never ask again for anything. I'm sorry to bother you again. It's just me. Devil's beat me up. I don't know why I'm about to quit anyway. And the Lord says, I'd really like you to get established in truth so we could have an intelligent conversation together. Because I would like to talk to you according to what is exciting me about you, but you have no capacity to hear anything I'm saying to you. I love you, but I would actually like you to understand what I'm telling you. Other people, they will pursue God. They'll go to the prayer room. I mean they'll pursue God, but they don't pursue people. And they don't resist sin. They go to the prayer room, oh God, oh God, oh God, and they go right out and get drunk somewhere. They pursue God, but they don't resist sin. It's just the opposite of the one I just told you about, the people that resist sin, but they don't know who they are. Other people, they pursue people, they pursue ministry, and they will even pursue wholeness. They want to get free from things that bother them, and they want to pursue people and ministry. But they don't know who they are in Christ, and they don't pursue the presence of God in their life. You can't pick and choose. Paul laid out the overall context to where the power in chapter 6, verse 1-10, will be effectively released in a way that transforms our emotions over time. Amen. So I want you to study this page, if you would. Just, and then again the weeks ahead, we're going to keep hammering at this, and we're going to break it down. There's a lot more details, but I wanted to give you the overview first. Let's stand. Now I don't do all these all the time, but the important part of knowing this overview, this roadmap, so to speak, is that over the years, I know where my weak spots are and what I need to shore up. I know where I'm lacking nutrients in my diet, so to speak, in my relationship with the Lord. And so find the one or two that you're strong at, find the one or two that you're not so strong at, and begin to strengthen the principles that you've been neglecting. Let's just wait on the Lord for a moment. Lord, here we are. So I want to encourage you for a moment just to close your eyes so you're not distracted. Let's just talk to the Lord for just a moment. We're saying, Lord, I want to live in the power that's in my spirit. I want to experience it in my emotions. I want to know how to do this. And I say yes to you. Lord, I'm going to grow in this. I'm going to do this. And I'm going to teach others to do it. You may teach one-on-one. You know, you may be teaching a young believer. That's a teaching ministry. You don't need a big platform to teach. Teach one or two people. Teach them these things. Get with them over coffee and on a weekly basis, just talk to them about these kind of principles. And you have a teaching ministry if you do that. And don't wait for somebody to tell you to do it. If there's human beings out there, go get two of them and start teaching them. Don't wait to find it on the org chart. Where do I fit on the org chart? If there's a human being, you've got the Holy Spirit in you, they have a need, go and start meeting with them. Pick the time. Pick two of them. Pick eight of them. Start talking to them. Start telling them these things. Beloved, you're in the ministry then if you do that. Start tonight. Anyway, we're in the prayer mode, aren't we? Lord, here we are before you. We say yes to you. We say yes to you. We want to do this. Holy Spirit, just release your presence on us. I ask you to break strongholds in the mind right now. Break strongholds in the mind. The Lord wants to lift the fog, that kind of that dizzy, confused thinking. He wants to break the power of that foggy thinking so this stuff seems clear and it seems real to you. Lord, I ask you to touch minds right now. Holy Spirit, across this room, I ask you to rest on people right now. You know, earlier we prayed for migraine headaches. Well, I'm praying for the same kind of thing but right now I'm talking about for the strongholds of the mind that you're saying my mind feels foggy. It's just that kind of I'm a little bit in a daze. I mean, I love God and I love the Word. I love this whole thing but it seems foggy like I can't quite get out of it. If that's you, it is an attack of the enemy to keep you from entering into this. If that's you, you're saying, I don't know, it's just kind of strange. When I read the Bible, I get foggy. It's kind of like I can't even concentrate hardly when I read it. Beloved, that's an attack of the enemy so that you don't enter into your wealth. If that's you and you would like prayer, I want to invite you to come forward. You're just saying, yeah, I just need like a jump start. I just need that lightning strike to touch my mind. I've had seasons like that. It doesn't mean you're demonic. It just means the enemy is coming. A demon is confusing your mind to where just nothing can take root. It is warfare against you and there's shame, confusion, lack of clarity. I don't know if God really likes me. I know He does technically but I don't know if He really does. It's that kind of fog that's on the mind. But you're going to feed your spirit on these truths. You have to do your part. God will not feed your spirit. If you don't read these truths and confess these before God in your relationship with Him, He won't do this for you. You must do this but He will cause the fog to lift. Again, I've had seasons like this where just my brain, it just couldn't get a hold of it. And then it lifts. And then it goes, you know, a few years later, I get attacked again. And I go through a season where it's like, I've got to get clear. In the name of Jesus right now, I just take authority right now over strongholds attacking the mind. I break the power of it. Holy Spirit, release your presence right now. Cause the mind to be cleared. It may happen in a moment. It may happen over some days. Just wait on the Lord for a few minutes. His presence is touching some of you right now. Holy Spirit, increase your presence right now. Don't be ashamed by this because the next time around your friend will be in the fog and you'll need to minister to them. This may hit you a few times over the years but it can be resisted. Lord, release your power right now. More, Lord. Release your power right now. Clear their mind. I take authority over demonic spirits that are harassing their mind. The enemy can strike you here. Then you can't know the truth and get clarity and he can stop everything else. In the name of Jesus, I release the spirit of revelation right now. Lord, let that lightning and thunder from heaven touch their mind. Right now. Right now tonight. In the next day or two even. I ask you, Lord, I break the power of this stronghold in their mind. Now, obviously you're standing up here. You're saying, I agree with this. Because if you don't agree with it, it doesn't work. You must be in agreement that you want this thing gone. And you're serious about it enough to fill your mind with a word. Paul said, see yourself alive to God. It's a lie if you think you're rejected by God. It's a lie from hell. Lord, release your power right now. The devil lies. He says, you've gone too far. It's too late. You're too messed up. That's an absolute lie straight from hell. It's a familiar lie. He uses it all the time to millions of people. You just say no. In the name of Jesus, it is written, I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. It is written, I am a new creation. I have been since the day I was born again. You may be in a fog right now, but you are a new creation. It is written, do not buy the lies. See yourself alive to God. You say to the devil, it is written, I am alive to God in Christ Jesus. I am alive to God. He enjoys me. His spirit lives in me. I have his authority. I'm commissioned by him. I am alive to God in Christ Jesus. I tell you, the devil will, he will start backing up if you will hold the testimony, your confession. But he won't, he won't back up the first minute. He'll say, ah, you don't believe that. You're just inspired because you heard a message on it. You don't really buy that. Now, Holy Spirit, I just ask you to release power right now. Release power more, Lord. Wait for a few minutes. Release your wind and your fire and your wine right now. Release the wine of your spirit, the wind and the fire of your spirit. Whatever you want, Lord, release it in this room. I know he wants to free some people even tonight, in the next couple of days as well. Tonight, Lord, I ask for freedom tonight. I ask for the mind to clear tonight, for this thing like lightning to strike their spirit, lightning to strike them. I'm not talking about physical lightning. I'm talking about the Spirit of God just clearing the fog, breaking the fog is what I mean, the lightning from his throne. More, Lord. Release your wine, Lord. Release your joy right now. Release your fire. Release the wind. Release the wind of your spirit. Just let the Lord touch you any way he wants. Just take your liberty to express your heart what he's doing to you. Just receive from him. He's not getting in a hurry. If you need to slip out, go ahead and slip out, but we're going to wait on the Lord for a few minutes. The Lord will do more if we wait on him. Break the strongholds. I command the confusion to leave right now. Spirit of confusion, spirit of fear. Fear and confusion, I break the power of shame. It all goes together. Confusion, shame, despair, it's all one big package with different faces. I invite anyone in the room that wants to come pray for people. If you love Jesus and you've presented your members as instruments of righteousness, that which is the third principle, come on up. Take the next five minutes or so and lay hands on a few folks. Anyone in the room, if you love Jesus, you're welcome to come pray for people. You pray for them, stand in front of them when you pray for them, because you might talk to them or I find you could communicate better if you're right in front of them. Let's get a few guys to stand behind people so people don't get hurt. Lord, release your glory right now, release your glory right now in this room. Just pray whatever impressions come to you that are biblical concepts, simple things like God loves you, just little phrases like that. Don't think anything is too simple. The Lord wants to know he's listening to you. Little phrases come biblical truths. You don't have to know where it's at in the Bible or the exact language, but the truths of the scripture. Just speak them as they come to you. God's with you. He's helping you. It's little phrases. Some of them, I tell you, they're like a lightning strike that breaks the power. Simple phrases do that. Lord, I ask you for the spirit of glory. Release the spirit of glory right now.