I would like to give you some basic understanding of authority, and of judgment. What we are doing now is requiring a greater faith than any of us have ever realized. We have been slowly gravitating toward this truth: I not only must know who you are, but I also must have an equal revelation of your commission. The two things are more or less distinct. More and more, we are going to enter into a realm where we will really know one another in the spirit. We have not fully understood that, but we have moved toward it and we are coming deeper into it all the time.
The main difficulty in this level is to get your bearings. Before, we used to go from one level to another; it was like walking up a ladder. But this step is like being shot into outer space! And you live with the knowledge that you are going to have to cope with it without any “ifs” or “maybes.” The assault that comes against us in our positive declarations of faith is very intense, but the amazing thing is that there is a growing awareness of authority to cope with this level.
The first thing that you do when you hit a new level is meet the principalities and powers that have entrenched themselves in that area, and you have to cast them out. That is what was revealed in Mark 16. The Lord said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). But then He said, “In My name they shall cast out devils” (Mark 16:17). The first thing that you have to do is take dominion in the spiritual realm, because it has been honeycombed with demonic powers and principalities that must be cleared out.
We are moving into something new. We may not understand it fully right now, but that is very much of the Lord also. To live on one level and be able to comprehend what we are going to face on other levels would overwhelm us. That is why I don’t think that we should be disturbed by it. What we should do is continue the support, the strength, the ministering of faith that will shield us as we get into this next step; soon all of us will be into it.
Those who have heard that Word will have a foundation and will take the step. But will have the Word published as a basic foundation in the Kingdom, because it is Kingdom teaching.
While we will publish the Word, that is not the primary concern; the first thing to be done is for us to take the dominion in the spirit realm. That will see a total restoration of the authority and the Lordship and the name of Jesus Christ to the earth. That is what we have to do. We knew that from the beginning, but now we will have to do it.
It is very disconcerting to hit this realm and realize that with all God has done for you all of your life, you have not prepared for it. What is the old saying? “We have not passed this way heretofore” (Joshua 3:4). When you get into it you realize that we have been prepared by the Word God has given; but as we get into it, it is a totally unexpected realm. We are going to walk in this, though. We are in it; there is no “if” about it. We are in this now and everything is going to change a great deal, because you are going to understand simple, elementary things that are very important.
How can I best put it? You are going to stop looking at things as they appear, and you are going to see the spirit that is behind them. You will be surprised at how many things have gotten by you and whittled away at your wellbeing because you did not understand the spirit that was behind them. To get into that, though, and become sensitive to it, takes some adjusting to. Not only do we have to accept, in our faith; but our faith also must have the power to reject. And I think that we have been like sponges; we have soaked up a lot of spirit activity that has neutralized the effectiveness of the positive things we have received. We have to learn to reject a great deal.
You can be in a service where something positive comes; and then twenty-four hours after that service you wonder how there could be so much damage done to that perfect spirit you received when the Word was coming. You find that something just works away at you. Are you merely a victim of circumstances and problems and everyday routine? Oh no, spirits are behind that. The conspiracy of spirits that hits you is just weird.
Several years ago we said, “The Church Age was basically an age of soul.” In fact, that is what people did; they went out saving souls. Now the Kingdom Age is going to be predominantly an age of spirit. For years we have had teaching on the spirit, soul, and body being sanctified wholly, preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord (I Thessalonians 5:23). Now we are in it. Now we have to get rid of the things that have oppressed us. God has to cleanse us from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord (II Corinthians 7:1).
Did you ever hit a new realm and say, “Oh God, help me. What I’ve been doing has been just a fraction of what I should be functioning in.” Do you ever feel that way? You feel, “I have just been spinning my wheels, so to speak, because I should have been much more effective in the Lord than I was.” One thing is certain; there has been far less access for the psychic bombardment from the enemy to come through to us—that is gone.
When we talk about the spirit world some people think of spooks or one thing and another. But they do not realize that most of the material world and the circumstances that you face have the functioning of a spirit behind them. The object of that spirit is to conceal itself so that you think that you are trying to solve a circumstance or a problem, and you do not realize that the real issue is the spirit that is working in it.
That is why some person who doesn’t even know God can face the same circumstances that we do and solve them, while ours never seem to get really resolved. You see, you are not coping with the circumstance; you are coping with a spirit and you don’t realize it. The devil is not going to fight his own. A house divided against itself will not stand (Matthew 12:25–26). That is why people in the world can go out and do whatever they want without anybody bothering them much. In fact, they even cooperate with each other. It is a different world. If you would ask some of them, they would say, “Oh no, we’ve never seen a devil.” It’s like what Billy Sunday used to say. A preacher came up to him once and said, “I have been preaching the Word of God all my life, and I’ve never met the devil like you talk about him.” Billy Sunday said, “Yes, and you never will meet him because you’re walking in the same direction that he’s going. But turn around and start doing the will of God and you’re going to meet him.”
Every man who ever tried to serve God was hindered. Spirits were behind that. You can think, “Well, I have had my enemies.” But there is no reason why godly people should have enemies, everything else being equal. They are in the world for a blessing; they are not hurting anybody. Why do the persecutions come so viciously? It is because of the spirits that are behind the people who persecute what God is doing. Why do your circumstances persist? Because of the spirit behind them. That is why you have to learn to exercise authority.
Matthew 28:18–20: And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Authority is the thing that counts, but the problem is that we have not seen the necessity of exercising authority. Instead, we thought we needed prayer for deliverance. How many times did Jesus rebuke a disease, rebuke a spirit of infirmity? You say, “Well, I sure have had headaches, aches and pains, and so forth.” There are signs of the Holy Spirit, but there are signs and symptoms of assault that you get from demon spirits. When those things are there, don’t take an aspirin; take the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Get at the spirit that is behind that.
This is where you can start: If you are going to walk in this realm of spirit and this whole age, you must walk with an awareness of how important it is for you to discern spirits, for you to understand the nature of the spirit opposition. Then you begin to realize what Paul meant when he said, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood” (Ephesians 6:12).
“Well, I have an enemy at my place of work.” That is not your enemy, and if you try to overcome that enemy you will make a big mistake. You have to overcome the spirit, bind the spirit that motivates it. “Well, there are so many deliverances to be worked.” Yes. “So much to be done.” Yes. “We’ve got to get busy and heal the sick and work things out and see the Kingdom of God come.” That is all very true, but first bind the strong man. First bind the strong man; then plunder his house (Matthew 12:29).
We have known these truths but we have to apply them. We are conquerors, more than conquerors in Christ (Romans 8:37, KJV); but the victory is not manifested because our faith has not developed that awareness of it. We are not focused in on where the problem really is. The problem is that Satan is a usurper. At the very best, all he can do is just hinder a little bit. Paul even said that Satan hindered him on things that he had set his heart to do (I Thessalonians 2:18; Romans 1:13; 15:22). I have known that too. But we will get to the day where nothing is going to hinder, because we are going to speak the Word, and that Word will deliver.
You begin to understand in your heart that a lot of the things that lead you to self-condemnation, to a sense of failure, to feeling that you are no good, are the lies of the devil because he is resisting you. He is making you think that you are your own enemy, when actually there is a demon spirit behind it. This is so important.
You could not have heard as much good Word as you have heard over the years and not have turned the world upside down if it were not for the fact that we did not give enough attention to the spirits that hindered. But it is the time for it now. It is the time that the Lord is unveiling it and saying, “You will have to discern these things.”
You have to have a faith without an “if.” Don’t even think, “If this, if that,” because the minute that you speak something negative—an “if,” a question—you open the door to an area of conflict, and the devil starts battling you on that “if.” Remember the story of the man who came to Jesus with the epileptic boy possessed of a demon (Mark 9:15–29). He said, “I brought him to Your disciples and they couldn’t cast it out. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and heal my son.” The demons threw the boy into the fire to destroy him, because they are destructive. All demons are trying to destroy the human race; they work toward that destruction. And when the man said, “If You can do anything,” the Lord put it back to him: “If you can believe. All things are possible to him that believeth.”
You see, I don’t care if we would even be ninety-nine percent wrong in our interpretation of Bible prophecy; if we just had one verse that we stood on, and we believed it, all things would be possible. You say, “Well, things have to have their time. Is it the time?” Don’t put any “ifs” in it. Any time is God’s time. Today is the accepted day (II Corinthians 6:2). Just believe it. You have to have a faith without an “if.” And what is that faith in? The faith is not in trying to make things happen so much as it is faith in the authority of the name of Jesus Christ and in the victory He has won. Believe it is yours! That sounds simple, doesn’t it? It is simple. That is why it is so hard to do it.
We are conditioned to “if” thinking. We have a dual personality when it comes to the things of God. We pray for rain and forget to take our umbrellas.
You must hear this over and over and over again until you have a new conditioning to reject the “ifs” and the doubts and the fears. You say, “But I don’t have any discernment in the spirit.” Why don’t you?! It is a gift of the Holy Spirit. God will give it to you.
Most people are conditioned to accept what has been commonly distributed in the Spirit, but do not really accept all that the Word says is theirs. The working of miracles, the gifts of healings, the discernings of spirits (I Corinthians 12:8–10)—what about those things? “Well, I don’t know. That’s for somebody else.” That thinking is wrong. You have to open up the door to the fact that the gifts are an expression of Christ’s victory. When He ascended on high He led captivity captive, and He gave gifts to men (Ephesians 4:8). These gifts are given so that we will be perfect and entire.
We have made a big mistake—people should have heard this Word and what God had for them, and somebody should have reproved them for not appropriating what was theirs. We are hitting a new level of repentance. You say, “Oh, I’ve got to repent because I failed this way and I failed that way and I feel self-condemned.” No, that is not what you repent of. Repent for what you are not, when God told you that you were. Repent for what you have not done, when He told you what you could do. Repent for what you have not possessed, when He told you it was yours. That is the level of repentance that we should have.
We should begin to repent for that unbelief which has not appropriated. We have had access to a great deal that we have not taken. This is hitting me so real! You could almost get morbid over it. You think, “Oh God, help us; we thought we were doing fairly good,” and you begin to realize that we have not even touched the greatness of what God really wants to do. Many of you have not even reached first base. You have not learned to appropriate the joy of the Lord. I thought that recently. I hit this realm and I thought, “This is miserable, miserable.” Then I just felt a rebuke in my spirit: “Don’t even talk about it. Believe for the joy.” We do not have to be afflicted by anything that the enemy brings. Walk through a fiery furnace; it is not going to hurt you. It will burn off the ropes, but you will come out without even the smell of smoke on you (Daniel 3:23–27). Can we believe it?
This is what is wrong with a lot of the families. In the home where there is not everything that there should be, it is because you are just not believing for the home and the marriage that you have. Appropriate for it; bless it. You say, “Well, I’m waiting for him to shape up,” or, “I’m waiting for her to change.” Well, you can keep waiting. But you know that already you have been waiting too long, so why don’t you get in and make a change? When you enter in with the joy of the Lord, does Satan ever get furious! Why? Because those who laugh in the Lord are laughing at the devil. “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; He holds His enemies in derision” (Psalm 2:4).
The whole world is a mess, but it is because of the demon powers that rage behind the scene. It is like the frogs that came out of the mouth of the dragon and beast and false prophet in the days of the book of Revelation. They were the unclean spirits that went out into the whole earth (Revelation 16:13–14). That is why we have to believe in what He has created us to be. Believe in your destiny. Believe in your authority. We have to get rid of these “ifs.” We have to be believers. We are believers. Don’t even say, “We have to be.” I don’t think that we should put “ifs,” and neither should we put a future tense in our thinking. Don’t say, “God is going to work this and that in us.” God has worked it in us. I have told you and I tell you again: we are further into the Kingdom than we know. Now we manifest it; now we believe it. We are loosed. We are free. We are one another’s shield and buckler in the Lord, because the Lord Himself is the grace which gives us that capacity.
In Matthew 21 we read about the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ, and it says that they quoted the Scripture, “Hosanna! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 21:1–10). That is such an interesting thing, because while that is in the twenty-first chapter, in the twenty-third chapter the Lord weeps over Jerusalem and says, “Henceforth you are not going to see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord’ ” (Matthew 23:39). They were quoting the Scripture lightly in their “Hosannas,” but He was talking about something very significant.
When the Lord comes in these great days of the Parousia, how is He going to be revealed? How is He going to be seen? “Oh, He’ll appear in the sky and everybody will say, ‘Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.’ ” He is the Lord. But He will come forth in those who are using the name of the Lord with authority.
The great revelation of Christ to this earth is going to come through the many-membered Body, through the great force of the Kingdom. And when they have revelation, the world is going to say, “Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord.” Now that is a new wrinkle, isn’t it?
Think of it carefully for just a moment, because until we move in authority, until we come in the name of the Lord against the powers of darkness that bind and blind people, until we loose them from their bondages, they are not going to see the Lord. We are not wanting them to see us, but we want them to see the Lord in us. Then they will say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
Jesus saying that the people will not see Him until they say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” occurs twice in the gospels, once in Matthew 23:37–39 and once in Luke 13:35. The triumphal entry is mentioned in three places, where they quote the same Scripture, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” But those two references are very significant. John’s Gospel, from the fourteenth through the sixteenth chapters especially, points over and over again to those who are going to ask in His name (John 14:13; 15:7; 16:23–24). “If you ask anything in My name I will do it” (John 14:14). The promise of the greater works is tied in with the verses about “in My name.”
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” John 14:12–14.
We will never see the greater works done until we grasp this truth and come into the awareness of the authority that is coming over the spirit realm, the victory that has to be manifested. It was won almost two thousand years ago for us, but it comes to us now to walk in it—not as a few individuals here and there, but as a mighty remnant that comes in the name of the Lord. I tell you, Satan hates this. This is the death and the doom of Satan.
We will come to see the spirit behind things more. We will see where Satan is lurking, what he is doing. Our churches can be anything that they believe God to create themselves to be. I think it is time that we end this thing of being a comfortable little church, going through a few battles; and instead we become the power of God in the earth. That is what He created us to be; it is what we are. But when are we going to believe it? When are we going to do it? We are still intimidated. We are intimidated by one another. In fact, I know that if we do not accept this we will be sorry; we will fall under the dealings of God for our unbelief. That is all it is—just pure, old, stupid unbelief.
You say, “Well, I don’t see these things.” Our blindness is a result of unbelief. If we believe, we will see. Do you remember John chapter 11? “Lord, You show us and we’ll believe.” But then the Lord put it the other way around. He said, “If you will believe, you will see the glory of God” (John 11:40). Everything comes out of believing.
COMMENT: Recently there came a warning to those who have a reluctance. There will be dealings if we don’t get with it with our faith. What causes people to have a breakthrough and then go back under the old? We retain the negativity; we accumulate it; we are saturated with it. This step is the newest, heaviest thing that I have ever seen; and no one in his dedication can just come and say, “This is what we are,” and then go live his own life. You cannot do that. This Word brings a total change. From now on we move into a deeper dedication that ministers to the Lord twenty-four hours a day. If you don’t keep that focus, you get thrown into battles; you get stalemated; you wonder whether you are in or out or whether or not you did the right thing. Just stay in one focus; minister to the Lord no matter what is coming through in your head. You are a ministry. It is a twenty-four hour focus.
The negativity is Satan’s propaganda; and if you are not careful, you will get to believing it. You just cannot be negative. There cannot be any “ifs.” We have to stand fast, all together, all the time, day and night in this, because that turns the tide. The tide is turned. It changed at the Feast of Pentecost. It was a dispensational landmark. Things are different than they were. We are changing, and we do not realize how much more we are going to change. But the Lord is going to show that to us too, and we are going to move fast in it. We are changing. We are becoming real creatures of faith.
I don’t know anything about skiing, but I know that it is difficult to get up the slope. That is why there are ski lifts, because when you try to go up, you slide back a little more; you go up and slide back. That is what the enemy has done; very subtly he has tried to push us back. The forces of gravity, the demon powers manipulate to pull you back. So all that we can do is decide totally in our hearts to just hang onto the ski lift and soar up to the top. No doubts. No “ifs.” No “maybes.” You may have speculated, your faith may have questioned; but you cannot doubt now.
I think we are seeing the end of an illusion of intimidation. Another illusion that Satan could use is intimidation. It’s another bluff.
You see, nothing has happened to some of the churches that was not a result of mutual intimidation. The leaders were afraid to communicate, so they did not open up to say anything and it created a great vacuum. The people were intimidated, afraid to enter in, afraid to accept it. This is ending. “The Unfolding” is going to have all of its practical power manifested with us now. We do not need to go over a lot of that anymore. It is in our heart. All we need to do is manifest it. We have it.
It isn’t my battle and it isn’t your battle, but it is something where the victory of the Lord is being made manifest. We have that access to one another, and my rejecting it is the same as your rejecting it; we are still exercising the same authority because it is a oneness. It is a level where we are moving into a oneness of rejecting the enemy, of exercising that authority, of being free and seeing you free. Everyone who is moving in a freedom or having that access to move in a freedom is seeing your freedom. There is no distinction in it because it is a Body coming forth in it.
The Church basically is going to become a prophetic community. We will prophesy things into their manifestation. We will have a great deal of appropriating, a great deal of impartation; it is going to be a participation. We all are going to speak the Word together.
We need to learn a little more about authority. We need a few simple illustrations out of the Scriptures of what we can do, because when you think of authority you think of somebody sitting up on a throne. But we are using authority as you would use a power of attorney. That is what the Holy Spirit enables us to do. “Ye shall take of Mine. All things that the Father hath are Mine, therefore said I, that He, the Holy Spirit, shall take of Mine and manifest it to you” (John 16:13–15). What authority does is take a designated provision of Christ—all authority in heaven and earth—and it gives us the power of attorney.
In His name we write the checks. In His name we can do the business. And the glory stays with the Lord. Isn’t that wonderful? We are doing business for the King. We’ve got to understand more about authority so that we get out of our strain, and it’s faith that just believes it, believes in that authority and manifests in everything. “In the name of the Lord! In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ! In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!”
Let’s speak the judgments. We are going to discern the spirits that are behind a thing, that seem to be coming through; and we are going to believe, because we know that the Lord can make judgment a chastening, disciplinary action that corrects, or He can make it a punitive action, as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1–11). He is capable of any kind of judgment. It is in God’s heart, whether an individual can be chastened and redeemed through the judgments, or whether that same judgment will bring his destruction. But we can be the instruments of God to speak His judgment. That is perfect. We do it.