LEARNING TO REIGN–PT II
a. In the midst of trouble, we have victory — peace, joy, wisdom, provision, etc.
b. In the midst of trouble, we experience all that the Cross of Christ has provided — health, freedom from sin and condemnation, freedom from lack, etc.
c. We have ability to accurately represent Jesus in this life, both His character and His power.
2. Reigning in life doesn’t happen automatically. We have to learn how to do it.
a. Paul said he learned to be independent of circumstances.
b. Phil 4:11–For, however I am placed, I, at least, have learnt to be independent of circumstances. (20th Cent)
c. We are taking some time to learn the things necessary for us to reign in life.
3. In the last lesson, we said that if you are going to reign in life, you must learn to see yourself and your situation according to unseen realities.
a. Then, you must learn to walk in the light of those realities.
b. We used Israel at the edge of the promised land and David fighting Goliath as examples of this. Num 13,14; I Sam 17
4. Several things are involved in seeing unseen realities.
a. You must recognize that there is an unseen realm, the eternal realm of God.
II Cor 4:18
1. This unseen, invisible realm created the visible, will outlast the visible, and can and does change and affect the visible. Heb 11:3; Gen 1:3; Mark 4:39
2. All of God’s help and provision for us is spiritual or invisible or unseen at first. Eph 1:3
3. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not real. II Kings 6:13-17
b. You must recognize that your true identity is spirit (unseen, eternal). I Thess 5:23; John 3:6
1. There is a sense in which we cannot see the real you.
2. When you were born again, everything that happened to you happened in the part we cannot see, in your spirit. II Cor 5:17
3. Just because you can’t see the changes which occurred doesn’t mean they aren’t real.
c. Our only 100% reliable source of information about the unseen is God’s word.
5. Several things are involved in walking in the light of unseen realities.
a. You must assess you and your situation based on what God says about you and it despite what your see or feel.
b. You must then talk and act based on what God says rather than on what you see and feel.
6. There are two ways to view yourself and your situation — according to what you can see or according to what God says.
a. You can live according to the visible, or you can live according to the invisible, according to the natural, or according to the supernatural.
b. Both produce definite results in our lives.
1. Israel at the edge of the promised land looked only at the visible and
failed to enter the land (Num 13,14).
2. David looked at the unseen and defeated Goliath (I Sam 17).
7. In this lesson, we want to deal with some more issues related to walking in the light of
the unseen to help us learn to reign in life.
1. In the Bible, God tells us about unseen realities.
a. He gives us revelation knowledge = information we could not possibly have if He did not tell us about it, because our five senses cannot perceive it.
b. Sense knowledge is not necessarily, automatically, wrong. It is limited, because it cannot perceive unseen facts.
c. God’s word takes us beyond sense knowledge.
2. We reign in life when we reach the point where revelation knowledge dominates sense knowledge in our lives.
a. We reign in life when we are able to say “I don’t care what I see. God says…, and what God says is so”.
b. I John 5:4–This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith.
1. Faith is the word prevailing over sense evidence.
2. Luke 5:1-6–Sense knowledge = we, experienced fishermen, have worked all night and caught nothing.
3. Revelation knowledge = go back out and put your nets into the water.
3. When you say: I know what the Bible says, but…, that shows your are sense ruled (at least in that area) and are living as a mere man. I Cor 3:3
4. We must give the word of God the same place we would give Jesus if He were here with us physically.
5. God wants us to take Him at His word and then act accordingly.
a. Faith is acting on God’s word. Believing is acting on God’s word as we would the word of a banker or a lawyer or a doctor.
b. If a bank statement says I have $1000.00 in the bank, I don’t try to believe it, wonder if I have the faith to believe it, I accept it and act on that word = live my life as though it were so.
c. The issue isn’t — do I have enough faith — the issues are: Is this man trustworthy, reliable? Does he have the power to make good what he said?
a. When we talk about God’s plan, we aren’t talking about something you do, but about something you are.
b. Then, you act because of what you are. You do what you do because of what you are. You act like what you are.
2. You must understand that you are what you are either by God’s decree or by birth.
a. Abraham became a father by God’s decree. Gen 17:5
1. Because God is so reliable and His word is so effective, once He declared Abraham a father, it was as good as done. Rom 4:17
2. However, Isaac did not exist at that point. He did not come into existence until the moment of his conception.
b. We become God’s sons and daughters by birth. God puts His life and nature
in us at the new birth and we become literal, actual new creatures. II Cor 5:17;
I John 5:11,12
3. When God tells us about what we are in Christ, what we have in Christ, He is not talking about something that will be true at some point in the future, He is talking about a
present tense, unseen reality.
a. He that believeth hath eternal life, ZOE, the life and nature of God in him.
John 3:36; 6:47
b. Whatever is in that life is in us because that life is now in us. I Cor 1:30;
John 15:5
c. I have these things, not because I believe it, but because I am a believer.
4. I have these things because I am born again — whether I believe I have them or not.
a. I am a citizen of the US and have the benefits of citizenship whether I believe it or not. I am and have those things because of my birth.
b. Believers have, not because of something they did, but because of something they are.
c. Believers have because they are believers, not because they believe.
5. Mark 9:23–All things are possible to him that believeth = a believing one = one who has come into the family = a new creature.
a. The question or issue now is walking in the light of what I am and what I have.
b. As a new creature, if you are trying to get or become something (anything already provided by the new birth), you are on the wrong track.
6. God’s plan for us has been carried out through the Cross of Christ. Eph 1:3-7
a. Now that you are born again, you don’t need faith for any of this — it’s yours because you are God’s son.
b. He that believeth (he who is a believer, is born of God, is a new creature) hath.
c. Now, it is a question of us taking our place and enjoying our rights (walking in the light of what we are and have).
d. Faith is used for things that are not yet ours, things we must take hold of and possess (healings in the gospels, salvation before we are saved).
7. Now. we simply know what God has made us, has given us, through the new birth, we thank Him for it and act on His word as we would the word of a banker or a lawyer.
John 8:31,32
1. We must learn to speak God’s word about ourselves and our situation despite what we see or feel.
a. Heb 10:23–We are to hold fast to saying the same thing God says. Profession = HOMOLOGIA = to say the same thing as.
b. Notice, we say it because God is faithful, not because we feel like it. Heb 11:11
2. Many Christians struggle with this issue of the words of our mouth. But, consider these points:
a. In the examples we looked at in the last lesson, Israel at the edge of the promised land and David taking on Goliath, each experienced exactly what they said at the
outset about themselves and their situation.
1. God specifically told Israel that He was giving them exactly what they said. They said they couldn’t go in the land, and they didn’t. Num 14:28-30
2. Heb 3:19–What they did at the edge of the land is called unbelief.
3. Confession is faith expressing itself. Confession is unbelief expressing itself. Every time we speak we are confessing something.
b. When you say what God says despite what you see or feel, you are not lying. You are speaking of unseen realities which have been revealed to us by God in His word.
c. We are to act like Jesus in this life. He continually confessed who He was — not according to sight, but according to His Father. John 6:35; 8:12; 10:9; 11:25; 14:6
3. God works through words. God’s word is God’s faith expressed. It is His confession.
a. When He speaks, things happen. He rules through the word of His power.
b. When He created the world, He spoke. His words were His acts of creation.
c. We act or express our faith through the words we speak.
d. Through our words, we imitate God. Through our words, we obey God.
4. Heb 13:5,6–God has spoken His word to us so that we will believe it, feed on it (meditate), and act on it (speak it out). Then, we’ll see visible results.
a. This verse is actually a quote from the OT. It is interesting to note when God first spoke these words. He gave them to Israel at the edge of the promised land. osh 1:5
b. Why? So that they would take those words, and in the face of sense evidence (walled cities and giants), say: God will not fail us. We’re going to take this land.
c. Notice, the connection of these verses to God’s number one key to success in life — meditation in God’s word. Josh 1:8
1. God has given us His word to give us access to the unseen realm.
a. His word tells us what He has done to us and for us through the new birth.
b. Now, we must walk in the light of these realities and learn to talk and act based on what God says rather than on what we see or feel.
2. The number one thing we need to do is meditate on God’s word, saying it over and over, until it begins to dawn on us, take on reality to us, so that it will be our response to life, so that it becomes part of our consciousness and becomes our reaction to life. (Indian and gun story)
3. Through the new birth, God has made us masters who reign with words. Learn to say what God says about you and your situation, despite what you see or feel. That is a vital key to learning to reign in life.