Mike Bickle emphasizes the power of our testimony in overcoming the accuser, Satan, as outlined in Revelation 12:11. He explains that believers can defeat the enemy through the blood of the Lamb, their commitment to obedience, and the declaration of their faith. Bickle highlights the importance of actively resisting the devil's accusations and taking a stand by speaking the truth of God's word over their lives. He encourages believers to understand their authority in Christ and to consistently declare their testimony to experience the fullness of salvation and victory. Ultimately, the sermon calls for a proactive approach to spiritual warfare, urging believers to hold fast to their confession without wavering.

Father, we come before you in the name of Jesus. We ask you for the spirit of wisdom in Revelation. We ask you for the spirit of impartation. And we thank you now in Jesus' name, Amen. Tonight, we're going to look at Revelation chapter 12, the famous verse, the line that you all have heard many times, that they overcame by the word of their testimony. And I want to break that down a little bit, what it means in our personal life and how we walk in it, how we walk this thing out. Overcoming by the word of our testimony. It says in Revelation 12, verse 10, the accuser, of course, that's a word for Satan. And matter of fact, the word accuser is the Greek word devil. Devil and accuser is the same word. The accuser of the brethren who accused them before God night and day, in context, that's the devil, Satan. But they overcame him by the blood of the lamb, number one, by the word of their testimony, number two, and they did not love their lives even to death, number three. There are three aspects to overcoming the accuser that John the apostle identifies that are critical for our life in a daily way. We're going to look at these three, and we're going to look at one of them in particular, the word of our testimony. But first, I want to mention, point out that Satan, again, the devil and the accuser is the same Greek word. His primary means of attack is accusation. Matter of fact, he is so enraged with accusation he accuses us before God, God who is the truth. I mean, if there's one place his accusations cannot deceive or influence, it's God who is truth. But he is so filled with accusations that even in the presence of perfect light, he lies. He makes the case why you're false and you should be destroyed. Of course, the father has the blood of Jesus, which makes the case why you have life and you have the favor of God. Well, if Satan is that enraged with accusation to speak it before God, you can be sure that's the tactic he uses against your mind. He accuses you on many levels. He accuses God. He tells you God is not good. He tells you God's disinterested in you. God's forgotten you. He tells you you've sinned too much. You've gone too far. It's too late. You might as well give up and give in. He accuses you to you. He accuses other people to you. That guy is so off the wall and you're thinking, yeah, I know. And those are accusing thoughts. At every level, he accuses as his first means of assault. And then after the accusation is in place, he comes to destroy our life in various ways. He accuses and then he assaults us with an attack to destroy. But we can overcome him. The book of Revelation points out one of its main themes is the overcomers. But these are three aspects we must lay hold of in a daily way. The number one aspect is the truth of the blood of the Lamb. It's by the blood of the Lamb. What does this mean? Most of you, it's pretty obvious. But it points to Jesus' work on the cross. He gained the victory over Satan on the cross. And he removed Satan's legal right to destroy us. Now, it says here in Colossians 2.15, this is one of the grand verses describing Jesus' triumph at the cross. It says, speaking Jesus, having disarmed demonic principalities. Now, these principalities and powers are the different levels of authority in demonic ranks. He disarmed them. He removed their legal right to destroy you. He disarmed them because they want to destroy you. They were in a position of influence and power that was legally given to them by Adam. When God entrusted the dominion of the earth to Adam back in Genesis 1, 2, and 3, Adam gave that dominion to Satan. And Satan had a legal right to exercise dominion over the people of the earth. Through the cross, Jesus as a man won that dominion, the right to the earth, the leadership of the earth. He won it back. But between the cross and the second coming, the enforcing of that victory, the enforcing of the victory that Jesus won for 2,000 years between the cross or the resurrection and the second coming, that victory on the earth is only enforced if God's people take their stand. The victory is final and it will be forever on the earth. But for the 2,000 years from the cross to the second coming, Satan's defeat is only enforced if people in covenant with Jesus take a stand and enforce the victory of Jesus. And we do it by speaking the name of Jesus over the works of darkness and using the authority of Jesus to drive back the destructive assaults of Satan. Let's read Colossians 2, 15 again. Jesus disarmed demonic structures, powers and authorities, powers and principalities. There's many levels of demonic... I mean, in the demonic hierarchy, there's many levels of authority. He disarmed all of them. They no longer have the legal right to come after you if you will take your stand in a persistent way. Not at one time like, Jesus, I love you. Hey, let's get this thing over with. No, until the second coming, the battle is daily and the battle is brought to the gates of our own lives by the devil himself and we must resist him. Jesus made a public spectacle over the demons. Now, this public spectacle is before all the host of heaven and all the host of hell. They witnessed the triumph of Jesus when he was raised from the dead as a man who was obedient to God. He paid the price for sin, raised from the dead and in the raising from the dead, he breaks the power of death over the human race. He openly triumphs over Satan as a man. So, Satan's triumph over us is now broken from the cross and resurrection forward. Paragraph C, the second thing that we do, first, it's the work of the cross, the blood of the lamb, the finished work of the cross. Secondly, we have to be committed. We have to make a sincere commitment to pursue a hundredfold obedience. No one can do this for you. Nothing can substitute for this. Now, as a spiritual family, I believe that's one of the strong points that God has given us in the grace of God, the sincere desire to obey. Now, the follow through, we're not that great at all the time, but the sincere setting of our heart, I believe that the Lord has done a remarkable work in the lives of sincere people in this place. Now, we want the follow through to increase, that's called spiritual maturity. But I appreciate the vast majority in this spiritual family, you have set your heart to obey no matter what it costs. And when you come up short, it pains you. It's not like, oh, well, so what? It pains you. And that's part of the proof of your sincerity. That when you come up short, it's like, oh, I love you. This is not what I want to do. No, no, I did it again. And you declare war on the area of compromise. That's essential to do that. That's not the point of this message tonight, though that's a very important part of the overcomer. The third part is what I want to focus on, the word of our testimony. Now, Jesus accomplished the victory over Satan on the cross, and you're a committed and sincere believer. However, the balance of your experience is still determined by the word of your testimony. You can be sincere, and so many in this spiritual family are, and Jesus' victory is already final. It's finished and eternal. However, many people will still come up short in what God wants for them because they are not consistently holding the line on the word of their testimony. What is the word of our testimony? Another phrase for that is the confession of our faith. Now, the word of your testimony, some people would misunderstand that to mean only telling the story of how they were initially saved. Well, a few years ago, the guy witnessed to me, and I said yes to Jesus, and I brought him to the kingdom born again. That's the beginning of your testimony, but that's not at all the full essence of your testimony. Your testimony, as I have written here, paragraph D, it's what you believe about Jesus, what his personality is like. Is he kind? Is he good? Is he wise? The devil says opposite, but your testimony is the Lord is good. He is tender in his mercy to all that call on his name. The Lord's gladness. Many people think the Lord is either mad or sad. Most of the time, he relates to us. Let me tell you, the Lord is mostly glad. So your testimony has to do with what you believe about Jesus's personality, what you believe about his work on the cross, how effective was it, how much victory is victory. Number three, your testimony is what you believe you are in Christ, how you see yourself in Christ. Your testimony is how you view Satan's attack against you. Now, a lot of people, I would go as far to say, most believers, when Satan attacks them, they draw back in a passive resignation, and they just resign to it. They moan and groan, but they don't take a stand and contest the attack using the name of Jesus, and the attack goes on and on and on, and it wasn't the will of God for this to take place in their life. And people confuse their resignation, a holy resignation, God, I'm yours, I love you, even unto death, that's a holy resignation, but they have that sense of resigning themselves to the will of God, but then they take it, the next step, which they get into air, they have an unholy, passive resignation to the devil's attack. They're so, Lord, anything that when the devil comes, they receive the devil's attack in the same way they receive the assignment to obey God. We obey God, fully resign to obey him. We are not resigned and passive when the devil knocks on our door to come our way. But if we do not take a stand, he will not leave the premises. And so your testimony involves what you think about the devil's attack in your life. Is it okay? Is it life just going bad that week or that month? Or is there more to it? All of this is part of your testimony. There are other dimensions to the word of your testimony. Some of the commitments you have made for righteousness, like some of you made a commitment, I'm gonna pray, I'm gonna fast, I'm gonna, you know, like Lou Engle, the Lord used him to raise up Nazarites who made a commitment, they're not gonna do X amount of things. That's part of the word of their testimony. Focused, radical commitments are part of your testimony. They burn bridges and they break agreement with darkness. That's part of your testimony. You tell your friends that, it binds you to it and it's good. Part of your testimony is what we just saw a few moments ago with Corey and Anna. It's what you think about others. That's part of your testimony. And you overcome by the word of your testimony. Part of your testimony is what you understand as God's plans for the end of the age. As the enemy raises up a false worldwide church and a worldwide economic system, many in the church will agree with it because it will look peaceful and good. But the word of our testimony is, this is false and we resist it. That's part of our testimony. So our testimony is much more than just a few years ago, I met the Lord and was saved. Well, that's my testimony. And that's what most people think when you say, tell me your testimony. If you're gonna be technical, when someone says, what's your testimony? I mean, if you really wanna kind of blow their mind, say, well, you wanna know what I think about Jesus, the cross, who I am in Christ, the devil's attack, his end time purpose, my commitments, what part of my testimony do you want? You don't need to say all that to them. But that's what the word of our testimony is. It's the confession of our faith. Now I have several verses here I wanna read about confession. Now, if you look up a concordance in a Bible program, confession, you'll find this is a very prominent theme in the New Testament. The writer of Hebrews, in Hebrews 10, verse 23, we hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. Now he's talking about the word of our testimony. The confession of our hope and the word of our testimony is the same thing. It's what you say with your mouth about what you believe about God, yourself and the devil. That is your confession. In the present tense, it's what you believe today about God, the devil and who you are in Christ. The devil wants to convince you God is exasperated with you and he's at the end. He wants to convince you you're a hopeless hypocrite with no future. And he wants to convince you the way of darkness is the way of pleasure and gain. Those are lies. Our testimony is all of those are false. God is good and he is tender and he's wise. I am his beloved. And even in my weakness, because of his righteousness, I am beautiful in his sight. That when my love is weak, it is still sincere and real because weak love is not false love. I'm not a hopeless hypocrite. I am a lover of God. That's who I am. That's what I do. That's my testimony. And the devil has no right to encroach upon the sphere of authority that God has given me. That which God has entrusted to me physically, financially, relationally, he has no right to come into my territory. And if he does, I will use the name of Jesus to drive him out. That is our testimony. All of these things. Now, many sincere believers, they're big on the blood of Jesus. They go, oh, I love that one. And they're big on loving their life. They do not love their life even unto death. They will obey no matter what the cost. But many sincere believers are weak on this issue of the word of their testimony. They're passive about that. They're radical in their commitments, but they're passive about their confession. The writer of Hebrews said, hold fast the confession. Hold it fast. Don't waver on it day after day after day. Hold it fast. In other words, don't let go of it and don't neglect it. In Romans chapter 10, Paul gives instruction on this. He says, the word of God is near you. He goes, the word of God is nearer to you than you might think. You know, the guy says, I can't feel the power of the word or I don't understand the word. I can't feel it. I can't understand it. And I don't see its powerful impact anywhere. And Paul says, I understand that. But the word is near you. It's closer than you think. The way to operate the power of the word, the way to release the effectiveness of the word, it's actually in your mouth. And they're going, what? I can imagine these early saints going, what do you mean it's in my mouth? Paul says, the effectiveness of the word in your life and to be released through you is as close to you as you speaking it. Now the world, both the natural realm and the spirit realm is governed by words. That might be a new idea to some people. The world is governed by words. The world was created by words. I mean, back in Genesis one, you've all heard this, but the Holy Spirit's hovering over the earth. Genesis one, the world is formless and void. It's dark. The light has not been created. So here's the Holy Spirit full of power. You know, the Holy Spirit has as much power as God, the Father, God, the Son. The Holy Spirit is as much God as the Father and the Son. Here he is hovering over the earth, brooding. One translation says we're hovering. Another one says the earth is in chaos, formless and void, Holy Spirit. You've got the power to fix the problem. He goes, I know. I mean, you could make light anytime you want, but the Holy Spirit would not create light until the word was spoken by the second person of the Trinity. The plan is in the Father's mind, the first person of the Trinity. The Son speaks it and the Holy Spirit creates it because of the spoken word, releases the power. The Holy Spirit's moving with all the power. He sees the need to release his power, but he won't release it till Jesus speaks. Therefore, Jesus is called the word of God. He runs his entire kingdom forever by speaking his word and his people speaking his word. And then the spirit moves on it. So the word is closer to you than you think. It's in your mouth. And if you would consistently release it, this word of faith is what it's called. You would see a progressive increase of the power of it in your life. It goes on in verse 10, for with the mouth confession, or you could put the word testimony is made. And it's not just a public testimony at a worship service about, you know, how God provided for you. Those testimonies are good as well. But I'm talking about, it's the way, it's what you believe before God. You say it sometimes in the witness test, sometimes you say it in prayer, but the angels and the demons hear it. Either way it goes. And the mouth with the mouth confession or testimony is made unto salvation. Now the word salvation, you don't want to reduce that word to meaning just the day you were born again. Salvation is the manifest victory of God. It's the provision of God. You will be experiencing salvation forever. A million years from now, you will have a renewed experience in God. The Holy Spirit will renew and release more experience. And that's part of your salvation being released to you. So it's true to talk about our salvation in the past tense. I am saved. You could talk about your salvation in the present tense. I am being saved as a process. You could talk about your salvation in the future. I will be saved. The Bible talks about all three tenses of salvation. I have been saved, justification. I am being saved, sanctification. I will be saved, glorification. The past, present, future tenses of salvation. But here's the point I want to make. With the mouth, the salvation experience unfolds. The provision of God through Christ Jesus is released when the mouth agrees with the word of God. Now you can whisper it. You can say it in prayer quietly. But it must be declared. And many people, their salvation experience is minimized because they will, they don't know the word of faith is in their mouth. It's nearer to them than they think. Oh, they're praying, Lord, give me faith, give me faith, give me faith, give me faith. And you can pray for faith. But the way that faith grows is by speaking the word. So we speak it. That's why we pray for the sick, whether we feel anything or not, whether we see much happen. We take authority over the devil, whether we feel it or not. We pray and ask for the breakthrough of God in cities and nations, whether we feel it or not. Because the salvation experience, the provision of God through Christ is progressively released according to the confession of the mouth, the agreement of the mouth, because God governs the world through the word. He created it and he governs it. And your salvation experience is dynamically connected to your confession. Paragraph E, spiritual authority. We've been given spiritual authority. Now, spiritual authority is delegated power. What do I mean by that? The police officers, the best analogy, I've heard it many times through many preachers over the years. The police officer, when the car comes down the road, raises his hand and he stops the car by authority, not by power. The power is in the government, particularly in the military. When the police officer says stop, that's authority, meaning he is using authority delegated to him, backed up by the whole power of a government. So in an extreme example, it never comes to this. The police officer said stop and the guy doesn't. It could accelerate to the entire resources of the army would stop that car. That's what's behind the police officer's words, stop. Now we don't have authority. I said it wrong. We don't have power. Jesus has the power. We have authority. The police officer doesn't see the car coming and they go tackle the car, run into it. They stop with power. It would just mow him down. We don't stop the devil with our power. We don't have any. But the whole government of heaven is behind us when we speak the word and show the badge, so to speak. Now the thief, Jesus is speaking in John 10, 10. He's talking about the devil in context. He describes what the devil does. He breaks into your house is the analogy to kill, steal and destroy. So think of the idea of your house is all that God has entrusted to you emotionally, physically, you got X amount of money, X amount of relationships, X amount of physical strength, X amount of emotional strength, whatever you have is your house. And the analogy is the devil breaks into your house and you have the option to go hide in the back room and let him take everything while you cry. The devil comes in, many believe like, oh no, head under the blanket and they just start crying. They get on the telephone to their best friend. And the thief keeps stealing everything. Now in the natural, it's not enough to moan and complain about the devil. He must be addressed in the name of Jesus or he won't leave. It's a fact. He knows his authority and your authority far better than the average believer does. He knows when he comes into your house, he's coming in as a thief because his legal right to be there has been taken from him at the cross and resurrection. He knows it, but he also knows that you probably don't know it. Or if you do know it conceptually, you're in a bad mood, so you don't want to bother enforcing your authority. So you put a blanket over your head, go to the back room, cry, get on the phone and say, the devil beat me up, the devil beat me up. He goes, hey, you can go, you can put me down all day long as long as you don't command me in the name of Jesus to leave your house. Now in the natural, somebody broke in your house, you use your authority. The way you use your authority is you call the police. But as a citizen of the nation, you have the authority to call the police. But if you don't use your authority, if you sit down and said, oh no, and went in the room and cried, the thief would probably leave, probably be so freaked out and confused, he wouldn't know what to do. But for the sake of the story, if you don't get on the telephone, if you don't use your authority and say, leave and call the police, that's using your authority in the natural sense, the authority of a citizen of a nation, the thief could take everything. And once he knows you won't use your authority, he'll come back day after day after day after day. He'll tell his other thief friends. But if he knows you're going to call, which the vast majority would do that, they would go, leave, police, ah, that's using their authority. Now we would do that naturally in terms of a natural thief breaking into a natural house. But in the spirit, often I'm telling you, the average believer, they go in the other room, put a blanket over their head, they cry and they tell their friend how bad it is, but they don't actually stop the thief. And the thief is in your house on a false premise. He's been defeated. He's there as a thief and a liar. He lost the right to torment you when Jesus rose from the dead. And when you came into covenant with Jesus, it's a fact. Now, the way that he torments you is through emotional oppression, financial oppression, physical sickness and oppression, addictions, fears, and many other ways. People attacking you and harassing you. Paragraph F, our problems are the result of several factors working together. Sometimes it's just one issue. Typically, it's a combination of several of these issues. Not that this list is complete. Our problems are the result of demonic attack. Now, when a demon attacks, the word picture, Revelation 12 calls Satan a dragon. So think of demons like little dragons. And they have this fiery breath, breathing fire on your spirit to agitate you, to stir you in a wrong way, to oppress you with fear. It's like the fire from hell breathing on your mind and spirit. And the fears are irrational. The feeling of rejection, abandonment, the feeling of destruction, of hopelessness is irrational. The addictions, whether sexual or alcohol or food or whatever kinds of addictions, they're irrational, meaning they're brought beyond even a natural level. And a demon is agitating the situation with heightened energy. In a relational conflict, not all relational conflicts, but many of them, there's a demon moving on one or more of the people involved. And the demon is telling lies and agitating with fear and rejection and anger. And one person is really getting stirred up or two or three or four of them are or more. That's why there's wars. That's one part of our problem as human beings. Heightened demonic intervention or involvement. The second part is that we have a wrong mindset. We have wrong thinking. We make wrong choices. We have wrong belief systems that creates problems. It's not even related to a demon. Sometimes we just have wrong information, wrong paradigms. Other times we're violating physical, God's physical laws of nature. If you violate physical laws in your diet for decades, doesn't take that long. You could go up to the healing line and say, he command the demon to come out. It's not a demon. It's a violation of physical laws. There's genetic problems. There are diet problems. There are other physiological problems that lead to oppression that aren't demons. There's sometimes chemical imbalances that are physiological. It's not a demon. It's physical. Same with financial. We break God's financial laws. The devil could come in as a devourer and add to the problem. We can bind the devil, but we still have to obey the laws of God and finances. You can't bind the devil and create or undo the breaking of God's laws in an area for years. Now, God as a mercy, gift, working of miracles may just undo the whole thing, but you can't always count on that by any means. You can count on the devil being bound. Sometimes God does a miracle turnaround, and the guy has violated every physical law imaginable. His body's an absolute wreck because of choices he's made. The demon has been involved in it. We take authority over the demon. The power's broken, and God heals the person's body. It's like, wow, but more times than not, we take authority over demon. The demon power is broken, and then the slow, long process of restoration that comes from obeying God's laws in our physical life, our financial life, or our social life, whatever. Socially, there may be conflicts, maybe because we've lacked humility. That's what we bring to the problem, our pride, our ambition. We can humble ourselves, but if there's a demon stirring up the other person, you can help yourself. It's not always going to work. We need to take authority over that demon. Here's why I'm saying all this. I don't want a simplistic approach to this, because a simplistic approach to this causes people to not have confidence in their authority. Because they go, I tried it, it didn't work. Here's what our authority does. Our authority, if persisted in, it's not a one-time, in the name of Jesus, I bind you, devil, it's over. It's a holding of our confession without wavering. How long? Until. And then when that problem's over, hold your confession to keep the victory that you gain. Because even when you break a stronghold of Satan in your life, he's coming right back with seven demons stronger than him to make entrance back in that area of victory. So you hold your confession to the end. But you can take authority over a demon by literally, the way you do it is by speaking in the name of Jesus over that demonic work. And that heightened energy, that heightened energy that a demon brings to one of these problems, that energy can be diminished and removed out of the problem. Now the problem gets solved a lot easier. It's much easier to break an addiction to alcohol when the demon power has been taken out of the equation. The guy still has to say no to his alcoholism or his pornography, but it's much easier to say no when there's not a demon present, breathing on their spirit, enraging and infuriating them in this addiction. Same with anger. We have to humble ourselves and ask forgiveness, but when the demon is gone, it's stirring it up. It's so much easier to look someone in the eyes and say, I'm really sorry, I blew it and I forgive you. It's like, why was that so big? Because a demon was moving on your spirit or on their spirit. That's what we do in the name of Jesus. We take authority over the demonic element. But in doing this, don't assume that all of the consequences of breaking God's laws in those areas will instantly be recovered within a week. All of a sudden, you're richer than you've ever been. You took authority over the demon. All of a sudden, gold fell from heaven. You know, sometimes it really happens that way. We take authority and there's a tremendous turnaround. It's a working of miracles. It's not according to God's natural way that God normally runs a person's life or intervenes. So you always want to believe for that, but you don't get disheartened and give up and quit because it's not working. Because we can drive the demon out, but we still have to obey God in the area and the restoration takes time. It's rebuilt to the place of blessing little by little as a rule, but occasionally God does the big turnaround. I mean, the most marvelous things happen. But if the big turnaround doesn't come in a day, don't give up and say this authority thing must not be working. Ask the Lord what laws of God you must come into agreement with while you're breaking the devil's added dimension of involvement in the problem. Paragraph G, the prayer of faith. Says in James 5, the prayer of faith will save the sick. Now it's talking about a sick person you're praying for, but the principle is whether it's your sick body that you're praying for or your sick relationships or a spirit of oppression against your emotions, it's wherever there is sickness, the prayer of faith is the answer. Now, again, the prayer of faith releases the angelic and removes the demonic and there's sometimes natural dimensions that still have to run their course. There's a difference between a healing and a miracle. A miracle is instantaneous. A healing is progressive. Many people we pray for healing and it takes weeks and months and the healing grows. I mean progresses. And it's a genuine gift of healing. Healing is process. Miracles are instantaneous. And most people think miracles are the only thing they're interested in is the instantaneous and they invalidate the healing process of their emotions, of their physical body, of their finances, of the relationship. The healing process kind of seems like, oh, that's a little boring and slow. They only want the miracle suddenly in all those areas. And the miracle comes. But don't disregard the healing process and the gift of faith involved in it. It says in Ephesians 6, the shield of faith quenches all the flaming missiles. Now, these flaming missiles, these arrows of Satan is this heightened energy that strikes us. Just, you know, one night you go home or some of your cases, one morning you go home after the night watch. I'm going to give you another chance at that. One morning you go home because of the night watch. Okay, you scared me. So you go home one night and all of a sudden you have this crazy irrational fear about something, some ominous feeling of something negative or a profound anxiety about a relationship. And over time, you've looked back at those and they never happened like you were thinking. That is a flaming missile. That is an arrow from the kingdom of darkness agitating you in a heightened way. Or a dream comes, disturbing a nightmare. Or a sense of evil comes in the room. Or just an unnatural sense of anxiety. Beloved, don't ride out the storm. Command the intruder to leave your house. In the name of Jesus, I take authority over this flaming missile. This arrow, no, go in Jesus' name. And I'm telling you, if it's a prayer of faith, of confident agreement, that's what faith is, the arrow will be pulled out. The enemy will come back again. He'll say, I don't, I'm not convinced you're in this thing long haul. He'll come back again. A lot of folks, they get into physical or emotional or mental oppression. They ride the storm out. They get obsessed with the fear and anxiety. They just hang on for a day or week or month or year. And they, now sometimes there are physiological, there's physical things that need to be done and some of those things. But many times, it's a flaming missile that needs to be extinguished, put out. And it's put out one way, by commanding the intruder to leave the premises. Your house, whether it's your money, your emotions, your relationship. No, in the name of Jesus. That's what it means that the missile is extinguished. It's quenched. It's put out. Now look at Philemon. Philemon is only one chapter, little book. Paul wrote it to his friend Philemon. He said, I pray that your faith would become effective through the knowledge of every good thing that's in you. Beloved, your faith becomes effective. This is the NAS, is the New American Standard Translation. That's how I learned it in that. Then the New King James says it slightly different. Your faith becomes effective. It becomes operational through the knowledge of every good thing. Jesus said this in John 8, 32. He says, you'll know the truth and the truth will free you. That's, he's, Paul's, in essence, quoting the principle of Jesus. It's through the knowledge of every good thing that's in you in Christ Jesus that your faith grows. Hosea, the prophet, you've heard this over the years, Hosea 4, verse 6. Hosea 4, 6, it's down in the notes. It says, my people are destroyed. Why? By lack of knowledge. They don't know their rights. They don't know their covenant rights with God. And when the enemy comes, the intruder comes in, they don't contest him. They just, in passive resignation, they bow down when they need to resist him. The intruder has no right in your house. And again, I'm talking about your house, your emotions, your finances, your ministry, everywhere. Says John 8, 32, you'll know the truth. Philemon 6, your faith is operated, it's effective through knowing what has been given to you in Christ. Or Hosea 4, 6, my people are destroyed by lack of knowledge. Let's turn the page. We need revelation of our authority in Christ. Now, Ephesians 1 is IHOP's favorite prayer, it seems like. It's the prayer I hear the most, which that's good. I mean, you're not going to do any better in Ephesians 1. I'm happy that that's the prayer that's prayed most. Paul asked for the spirit of revelation for three things to operate in our life. We're only going to talk about one of the three. He says, I pray that you would have, that the, that the light would go on in three areas. And I don't have the first two on it, but it's just the hope of your calling. You would know your divine assignment. You would know the hope. You would know the calling, the certainty. You'd know your assignment in God. So the light would go on. Beloved, when you know your assignment, life is really different when you know you're in the will of God. No matter if it's, it's a, if it's a small assignment, which is almost everybody's assignment is really small. But if it's God's assignment is good in our hearts are assured. Number two, you would know the glory of being Jesus's inheritance, how dear you are to God. Oh, wow. I mean, I like to pause and go off on that and I'm sure you would as well. But I'm going to look at the third part of this prayer. Paul prays the third part, verse 19, that you would know the exceeding greatness of the authority that you have. Beloved, what Jesus has the power, but you operate in authority to understand his power. The implication is you will operate in authority. You will be the policeman raising up the badge because you know the whole army of heaven is behind you. Paul says, oh God, that they would know by implication. This is what he's saying. They would know the greatness of the authority they have in Jesus. They would know it. They would say no to the intruder. He would not molest their life uncontested any longer. He could not as a thief, destroy their emotions, their relationships. They would take the name of Jesus and drive the intruder off the property. Verse 20, now Paul goes on and says, let me tell you how great the power is behind you. The power that you have the right to exercise authority to release his power. He said, it's the power that the father worked when he raised Jesus from the dead, put him at the right hand and look at verse 22. Verse 22 is the big verse. The circle verse 22, this is like wow, wow, wow. He put all authority under one man. Now beloved, that's a man with power. The father said, now it's not unusual that God would give God power. It's not God the first person giving God the second person. Jesus already had the power. This is talking about Jesus in his humanity. The father says, Jesus, when he raised from the dead, all of the power of my eternal kingdom, I'm putting it under you as a man. Whoa, that's intense. That means Jesus has the ability to change everything and everything is under his command. But that's not it. That's one thing for God to give all the power to a man. When he raised him from the dead and seated him in the right hand. Beloved, that is awesome, but I'm going to tell you something equally awesome. He gave that man to you. He gave all the power to a man. There he is, enthroned and empowered. All the power of the father. Then he says, the father says, now here's the next Jesus. You and the people I'm giving you as a gift, you are now connected. And here's the point. Whatever is true of Jesus is now true of all that are in Christ. Whatever is true of Christ in his exalted humanity. Not his deity, but his humanity. Whatever is true of him is true of everyone that's in Christ. This is the basis of our authority. The great prayer of Ephesians 1. Paul said, oh, that you'd know the hope of your calling, your divine assignment. Oh, that you would know how dear you are to God. You're, you're his inheritance. Oh, that you would know the exceeding greatness of the authority you have. God gave all the authority to the man, one man, and he gave that man to you. And so what's the next thing? Paragraph B, this man, because everything that's true of this man is true of everything. To everyone who is in Christ, Jesus said, I'm raised from the dead. Look at Ephesians 2.6. It's in the same flow of thought. He says, I'm raised from the dead at the right hand of the father. From now on, you have access to the right hand of the father. Now our bodies on the earth. You know, when I was younger, I used to read this going, now how am I supposed to, I tried to figure out, you know, I could sit up there like, am I really there? But I'm really here. I can't figure this out. Try to picture myself sitting there and you don't have to do all that. What it means that you're seated in heavenly places, your body's down here. You're seated, seated in the blue chairs, actually, where you're seated physically. But being seated in heavenly places means you have access to the throne when you pray. When you pray, it's approved at the throne. That's what it means. So the principle is Jesus is at the right hand. And whatever's true of him is true of everyone that's in Christ. He says, now you have access to the father. Now you have to use it. Now from the cross to the second coming. Jesus has victory over Satan. Satan has lost his legal rights to torment you. But it's dependent upon you to exercise the rights to enforce the victory by the word of your testimony. Let's go to paragraph D. The authority of the earthly realm has been given by God to his covenant people. Look at this. This is one of the verses. There's many verses that back this up. This is the one I really like a lot. The heavens, the heavenly realm belongs to God. But the earthly realm he has delegated to humans. The authority of the earthly realm he's given to us. Satan took it by deceiving Adam. Well, Adam gave it to him in Luke 4, 6. You can check it out on your own time. Luke 4, 6. Adam gave it to Satan. Satan deceived him. But he gave his legal right over the earth to Adam. Jesus came and won it back. But beloved, the earth realm belongs to people in covenant with God who are on the earth. So we're on the earth. We have to use the authority. We can say, father, father, stop the devil. And I'm telling you, this may be sound shocking to some of you. Father, stop the devil. The father will say, no, I raised Jesus from the dead. I gave him to you. You now use your authority. No, father, you do it. It's like the farmer. I don't want to plant the seeds in my farm. You plant them, God, and you grow my farm. God will not plant the seeds for a farmer. God will not exercise the authority. He'll give you the authority. He raised Jesus from the dead and gave Jesus to you, joined us together. You must, on the earth, enforce the victory by your words. Matthew 6, Peter spoke of binding and loosing. We bind demons and we loose angels by words, by words. There's a war of words going on. Paragraph G, whose words are you going to let take dominion in your heart? The devil's words or God's words? Many believers, they just constantly give voice to the devil's words. The devil's accusations are in their lips. Speaking falsehoods about who they are before God and who God is and how things work. They're agreeing with the devil, releasing the devil's presence in their sphere, in their house. Let's go to H. We must not allow Satan's attacks to go uncontested. When he comes in the house, he is an intruder. It's illegal. But he's a thief so that he don't care. He don't care that it's illegal. It's what he does. If he's not stopped, he's going to keep on stealing and destroying. And again, this idea of confusing passive resignation to the devil's attack. Just yielding to the devil, resigning. Whatever the devil does, it's the will of God. And God says, that's not my will, actually. But I gave you the authority and I won't use it. I won't plant the farmer's seed for him and I won't make the belief. I won't make the believer use their authority. So James says it very succinctly. Submit to God. That's the love your life not even unto death part. That's the anything you want God part. I love you. I love you. I love you. Submit to God. That's in that. That's the verse that the overcomers don't love their life even unto death. But beloved, strange as it might sound to some of you, submitting to God's not enough. Not loving your life unto death. In other words, being willing to have costly obedience. No matter the cost, it's not enough. You have to have the word of your testimony in place, in agreement with the word. A lot of sincere believers submit to God, but they don't resist the devil. They just hide in the back room, put a blanket over their head, and they cry about the pain and the confusion. God says, why don't you resist him? Maybe you have a problem, an addiction. And something with your body, physically. Maybe it's food. Maybe it's drugs. Maybe it's alcohol. Maybe it's pornography, some addiction. Maybe it's anger, bitterness. Don't just grit your teeth and try and fail, try and fail. Rebuke the devil. Get the demonic energy out of the equation. And I guarantee you, you will be able to obey a whole different level. Getting rid of the demonic energy is not the same thing as making the choice for you. You still have to make the choice to deny the flesh. But denying the flesh with that demonic energy, heightening the whole thing, is way easier than trying to deny the flesh with the devil breathing on your spirit with power. Do you resist the devil? Or would you feel oppressed physically, emotionally, spiritually? Do you just wait out the storm? Submitting to God, I love you, I love you, I love you. God goes, oh, that's the part I love most about you. You love me. But you must resist the devil because I won't do it for you. Oh, I love that you love me. But why won't you believe me and line up with what I've done for you? 1 Peter 5 says the same thing. The devil's an adversary, beloved. He's an enemy. For the word adversary, enemy. He's an enemy. He wants to devour you. He wants to devour your emotions. He wants to devour your body, your money. He wants to devour you. You must say no to him. Not just one off. One day after a sermon, you need to do it steadfast. Day after day. Remember the verse we looked at, Hebrews chapter 10, verse 23, it says, we hold fast our confession without wavering. We do this steadfast. Because God runs the universe and upholds it by Jesus speaking the word. He runs the whole world by the word of God being spoken. And the word being spoken through your lips is a critical part of you having dominion. Amen. Let's stand.