Proverbs 16:32 tells us, “He that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city.” This proverb came from the wisdom of Solomon. As a ruler, he recognized what things were difficult to achieve. Although he failed in fulfilling his own proverb, yet he established a truth that is very real for us today.
Solomon was probably raised with his father, David, and no doubt he could see that his father was somewhat like an animal. David had lived in caves (I Samuel 22:1). He had been a fugitive from the wrath and jealousy of King Saul (I Samuel 20–23). He had had to fight a troop and leap a wall (Psalm 18:29). There was within him a nature which was more like an animal than a human being. But in the midst of all of this, God was dealing with David to prepare him to be a king. The bottom-line truth was that when David eventually became king over all Israel, he would have to move with a different spirit. He had conquered everything that stood before him, and during this natural, human process a great deal was worked within his own spirit that helped him to conquer himself, or rather which helped God to conquer him. We see from this that “he that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city” (Proverbs 16:32).
Solomon had to rule over the areas that David had obtained almost as a savage animal going out, killing Philistines by the hundreds, slaying the ten thousands. The women in Israel sang, “Saul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands.” This was an occasion of jealousy in Saul (I Samuel 18:7–9). Saul was a man who did not rule his own spirit. He could go out and be mighty in battle, but he did not rule his own spirit; because of this, jealousy overtook him. David was an example of that too, for even though he loved Uriah the Hittite, David had him killed so that he could take Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba (II Samuel 11). He did not rule his own spirit.
During years of struggle, certain men seem to walk with such promises from God, such a faith and determination, and they stay true to the Word. But once they obtain the peak of the ministry, then the areas where their own spirit has not been perfected come to the surface. Then we say, “How have the mighty fallen” (II Samuel 1:19). You must understand that the ruling of your own spirit becomes a determining factor when you have finally attained the place where you can be effective, where you can move in a life that is a complete fulfillment of the promises of God.
Let us look at this a little closer. What does it mean for us to rule our own spirit? The wisdom of the Lord has shown us that when a man has become determined to be submissive in his own spirit to the dealings of the Lord, and he has an absolute determination to obtain what God has for him, then that man will have a focus of faith which is undistracted by circumstances that could affect his own spirit. He is undistracted by the relationships round about him that could distract his spirit. When his spirit can focus undistracted upon the objective set before him, then the results can be ten times greater than before. Faith that is unhindered and undistracted is the faith that pulls down strongholds (II Corinthians 10:4). This is the faith that brings forth the Kingdom of God in the earth.
Have you ever been out in the ocean surf? A wave might hit you hard and knock you down; then you stand up and face the next wave and it hits you too. Anyone can stand out there and let a wave knock him down and then get up again. But riding that wave is one of the greatest sports and arts in the world. Likewise, God’s dealings sometimes hit you and knock you down, but this is not an endurance contest to see how many waves of God’s dealings can knock you down before you die. You must learn in your spirit to ride those waves. You are experiencing the dealings of God so that you might learn by them. Keep in mind that the issue is not what you learn in your mind; the issue is what you learn in your spirit. The thing that is wrought in your spirit makes you a conqueror, an overcomer. This is what the Scripture is speaking about when it says, “He that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city” (Proverbs 16:32).
With every step I take in the Lord, I see areas where my own spirit needs to be conquered and controlled. Blessed is the man who sees that the dealings of God are not just to harass him, or threaten his position, or anything else along that line. Those dealings are designed to bring him to a place of total devastation, so that in a brokenness of spirit he can finally be the ruler over his own spirit. This truth is not easy for us to see. When our spirit is not right, we tend to shift the blame onto our circumstances, or other people—anything else except seeing our own need in it. However, the Lord will not allow us to focus upon anything else except the need we have—to be a ruler over our own spirit.
To be a ruler over your own spirit means that it has come under the control of Christ totally and completely; it is only in this position that you actually are a conqueror. You may be a ruler over a city, and yet not be a ruler over your own spirit. You may have an effective ministry and quite a large following, and still not have the dominion over your own spirit. But when you rule over your own spirit, God places an invincible quality in the anointing upon you; this is the anointing which will bring forth fantastic things in the earth. When we consider the exploits and the greater works which will be done, as recorded in John 14:12, we must also look to the book of Revelation and its many references to the overcomers (Revelation 2:7, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21; 12:11; 21:7). These who overcame did so because God had worked something in their own spirit and they submitted wholly to His dealings; thus they became the ones who ruled over their own spirit.
The fourth chapter of Ephesians tells us about great ministries (verses 11–13), and then it comes right down to the way we deal with one another and relate to one another (verses 15–16), the way we control our own spirit (verses 22–25), the way we do not grieve the Holy Spirit (verse 30). Rather, we submit as dear children to the Lord and we enter into that fantastic relationship with Him. The key to this, of course, is that there cannot be any true worship until you are a ruler over your own spirit, and you are able to focus upon the Lord and to worship Him without distraction. The greater works will not be done until you are a ruler over your own spirit and you can focus in your own spirit, undistracted by anything, until you see the objective really accomplished.
Many of us have tackled certain objectives in our faith, only to have God put us under His dealings again. Perhaps we were not ready to move that mountain; we were not ready to conquer that enemy. So we must enter into the dealings of the Lord again. During all of this we pass through an “animal” period. We refuse to be religious. We will not withdraw simply because we see a few little things about which we could be critical. But during this time, we become animals in the sense that we must either fight or flee, and we determine to fight. We will not withdraw. When we go in to possess the city—only to find that we are not yet a ruler over our own spirit—then the dealings of the Lord must be perfected within our spirit. As we learn to submit and become a ruler over our own spirit, then the will of God can come forth in us. This is the true place of humility, because you will have no ego left when this process is completed.
If you “take a city” without first ruling over your own spirit, your ego will be inflated and you can become like King Saul. After Saul and his army defeated the Amalekites, he returned, leading Agag with a rope and bringing the choicest of the animals, saying that they were for sacrifice unto the Lord. Actually, Saul did this so that he could have a parade and say, “Look, I have taken a city! I have destroyed the Amalekites as the Lord told me to do.” However, Saul was confronted by Samuel, and Samuel dealt with his spirit, saying, “No, God said to slay them all. If you had obeyed His Word, you would have come back without any ego. You would have come back without any evident trophies to show that you were a conqueror, that you were invincible in the battle.” Saul did conquer his city, but because he was not a ruler over his own spirit, he lost the throne. Samuel confronted him and said, “Now God will take the kingdom of Israel from you and give it to another, a man after His own heart” (I Samuel 15).
God is always looking for people to whom He can give authority, and whom He can trust to move in that authority and power—for His glory alone. Alas, how few of them there are in the world. But now as the Kingdom comes, we see that the dealings of God during these many years are bringing forth the army of the Lord. They have had to live like animals, battling principalities and spiritual powers, things that many Christians at this present time know nothing about. But now the time has come for the Lord to perfect this army and let them become a ruler over their own spirit. They will enter into that close communion with Christ until they are agents of God to bring forth His Kingdom in the earth. There will be no ego in it, no ego or pride remaining—only the humility of a people who have been broken before the Lord, who have seen their need, and have glorified God by appropriating grace for the miracle change that must take place within their spirit.
“He that ruleth his own spirit” is the result of a miracle of divine grace; and that divine grace does not just happen. It is the result of God exposing a need through many dealings, through many testings, through much chastening. After this chastening is completed, that spirit becomes a partaker of His holiness, of His righteousness (Hebrews 12:6–11). This is what God desires. There will be no big shots in the Kingdom of God, but rather you will notice that the exploits will be done by those who are rulers over their own spirit.
At the present time we are on the threshold of God releasing the judgments in the earth. We know that for several years we have been violently interceding and believing God to bring down Babylon, principalities, powers, nephilim spirits. To some extent we were successful, and in every way God had His will in it. We saw results from the intercession, but the greatest result was not the answers to the prayers. The greatest result was the fact that every time we became intense in intercession, crying out to God to move in the earth, He threw us back into His dealings. We prayed ourselves into a situation where the dealings of the Lord came to us first. In order to understand this, we must come back to the text of this message, Proverbs 16:32. God wanted us to be rulers over our own spirit.
Sometimes we saw people become uncontrolled in their own spirit as they set about to make intercession unto the Lord. Then the Lord dealt with them, and you almost wondered if they had not boomeranged the judgment back on their own head. Perhaps they had, in a sense. The truth is that God was so pleased with their focus and desire to enter into His will, that He would not allow their spirit to be without the necessary dealings to perfect it, so that it could possess that high place in Him and see those things wrought. Whom the Lord would raise up to do His will, He must first work His will in them. The will of God is wrought within the vessel who does the will of God in the earth. When we pray to the Lord, “Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10), we are making a mighty prayer. The earth in which God’s will shall be done will be the vessels of clay, the earthen vessels in which He will put His glory and His judgment (II Corinthians 4:7). They are the first ones who will be perfected.
Have all of our days and months and years of intercession been in vain? No, because God has been testing our spirits. The spirits of some of the people wavered and they drew back. In fact, some of them did not even have a revelation of the intercession or the focus of it in the first place. They never saw what was happening. Others who believed to be intercessors went about it violently, only to be thrown into more dealings of God themselves. Of course, all of this was by divine intention. Daniel 7:22 and Revelation 20:4 say that judgment will be given to the saints of the Most High, and they will possess the Kingdom. This is the promise, and we believe for it to come to pass. This is where we are now: in the place where the focus of our faith will never waver. We will pray, believe God, and bring forth His will in the earth because we are submitting to His will coming forth in us first. This step we are taking.
We are becoming those who rule over their own spirit. This is greater than those out in the world who have attained a measure of success, who have “conquered a city,” who have become successful; yet they are without the dealings of the Lord to enable them to be a ruler over their own spirit.
Let me put this truth very simply: You will never rule over your own spirit until Christ has devastated it, it has been submitted to the work of the cross, and then it has been filled with the resurrection life of Christ to rise up and do the will of God (II Corinthians 4:10–12). Jesus said, “I lay My life down; no man takes it from Me. I lay it down and I will take it up again” (John 10:17–18). This is very important. We can will to die on the cross, but we must also will to come forth with that resurrected, perfected spirit, determined to do God’s will in the earth. Whatever He wants—that is exactly what we will do.