Sermon: “God Has A Really Big Plan For You!”
September 26, 2021
Module 7: Doctrine of Perfection: “Get on the Road to Perfection, Now!”
Lesson 3: “God Uses Christians Who Live in Perfection to do Great Exploits—Turning the World from Up-side Down— Right-Side Up!”
Part B: Complete Domination of the Enemy is Determined by the Church’s Determination to Become “One in Love.”
As I have mentioned in prior sermons, God through Jesus Christ has given to the body of Christ, which is the Church, the five-fold ministry gifts: for the perfecting of the saints, the work of the ministry, and edifying of the body of Christ. (Eph. 4:10-16) Chief among the responsibilities of our Church leaders is to teach and train Christians on how to walk in love as Jesus Christ loved us, so that we may all grow up into a “Perfect Man.”
Becoming a Perfect Man in Christ is vital to the Church dismantling and removing evil from this world, as we are called to do by Jesus Christ. (Matt.16:18-19 & Luke 10:17-20) The more the Church walks in love and unity, the greater the exercise of “Spiritual Authority” and dominance it will display to conquer evil in this world.
We have been re-created in Jesus Christ to do the works of God ordained before the world began. (Eph. 2:10, Matt. 5:16, II Tim. 2:19-21)
These good works are not natural man-made works that any person can do and take credit for. Rather, these are mighty works never seen, nor experienced by mankind before in the earth, because they were created and approved by God before the world began. (I Cor. 2:9-10) These works are spiritual and mighty to the tearing down of demonic strongholds in places, institutions, and people. (II Cor. 10:4-6)
Saints of God, all it takes is for the Church of Jesus Christ to walk in love, “as One”—as a Perfect Man—to squash the devil like a bug under our feet! Jesus Christ expects the Church to make Satan and his defeated kingdom, the Lord’s footstool. (Heb. 10:13) In every place on earth, we are to give the devil the “footstool treatment!”
You see, when we walk in love, as Jesus Christ loved us and gave Himself for us, our love walk matches and mirrors how we are also seated and operate within the kingdom of Heaven—as one body of believers in Jesus Christ, joined together in love and unity in God in Jesus Christ. (Eph. 2: 4-6)
The more the Church moves toward loving one another as Jesus loved us, we align ourselves with the priorities of the kingdom of God, and our Spiritual Authority to bind and lose on earth increases exponentially, such that whatever we ask for we receive of God. (I John 3:22, John 1:10-13) Make no mistake about it, we have been made the sons of God to demonstrate power (Exousia) over all the power of the wicked one, Satan and the kingdom of darkness, until the Lord returns.
However, when the Church walks in hatred toward one another, as it has for many years up until this present time, our Spiritual Authority over wickedness is disrupted and blocked, and evil is allowed free course to spread like wild fire throughout the world.
This explains why the world we live in today is literally and figuratively on fire. All because the hearts of men have waxed cold against God, and iniquity is abounding in our nation and world. (Matt. 24:12) Historic flooding, windstorms, heat waves, earthquakes, pandemics, hatred, and violence are all happening with greater and greater intensity and frequency; and converging as never seen before in modern history.
Speaking of violence, media reports cite that during the first six months of 2021, nationwide, gunfire killed more than 8,100 people. That is a total of 54-deaths per day. Last year, 2020, was the deadliest gun violence year in decades, and so far 2021 is even worse. Tell me, what would cause a person to take away another person’s life (other than due to self-defense)? Surely, any person who seeks to shoot and kill another human being is not walking in the love of God. Nothing but the spirit of hatred, motivated by Satan, can drive a person to do such a thing.
As a nation and society we can enact anti-gun violence legislation at the federal, state, and local levels of government, hold marches, candlelight prayer vigils all we want—but it will not stop gun violence. Rather, it will only lead to more excessive use of guns, and other weapons, to kill people. Because America has turned its back on God and the Church, it’s cries for peace and harmony on earth are only lifted up into the ears of Satan—who in turn is inspired the more to steal, kill, and destroy mankind and the world. (John 10:10)
Oh tell me please, when will America and the people of the world come to know that spiritual problems cannot be fixed with natural solutions? Spiritual things can only be compared with spiritual things.
The Church of Jesus Christ is the only institution on earth that has the power and ability to stop gun violence, and all other evils occurring throughout the world. Only through the love of God: Loving one another “within the body of Christ as Jesus loved us,” can evil be stopped and destroyed. To the natural man (carnal man) this sounds like foolishness. But the natural man cannot understand spiritual things. (I Cor. 2:12-16 & 3:18-23)
The Church’s most potent and productive weapon against Satan is loving one another as Jesus loved us, and gave Himself for us. As such, Satan tries all he can to have the Church and Christians walk in hatred, strife, and division. Jesus told the Pharisees that any kingdom or house divided against itself cannot stand. (Matt. 12:22-28) Therefore, we are commanded to love our enemies just as Jesus loves us. (Matt. 5: 43-48) At times, our enemies can even be members of our own family, friends, neighbors, and fellow Christians.
This is why the Apostle Paul affirmed and encouraged the Church never to allow anything to separate us from the love of God. (Rom. 8:35-39) Not hardships, persecutions, death, principalities or powers, nor any impending or threatening things to come; can separate us from the love of God. We prove our love for God, as we demonstrate our love for the brethren. (I John 3:14)
However, Church fragmentation, largely caused by denominationalism, has rendered the body of Christ an ineffective partner with God at eradicating global and national- scale iniquity, which has resulted in the world being on fire. In the United States, there are about 250 separate church denominations, and world-wide 45,000 denominations—hardly any of which have fellowship with one another.
While a few churches in the body of Christ have been able to regularly perform some of the same works of Jesus Christ and the Apostles—such as healing the sick, casting out devils, and raising the dead—most churches have not.
Let’s just be truthful about things. Most Christians have never performed a miracle, nor seen a miracle performed before them. In your Christian experience, how many church services have you attended and seen miracles performed right before your eyes—the lame made to walk, blinded eyes opened, devils casted out, and dead raised to life? Yet, Christians would be astounded to know that miracles are on an eternal spiritual continuum, and available to us 24-hours a day seven days a week. By our faith in Jesus Christ, and as we walk in love, we can grab hold of miracles and bring them into manifestation at any time.
However you see, faith works by love. (Gal. 5:6) We rarely see miracles in the Church because most of our churches no longer preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in the streets to win the lost, and there is an absence of love that churches and Christians show one to another. As a result, the Church by and large has turned off the “Gospel Cycle!”
If we rarely, if ever see the works of Jesus Christ performed in our churches, how can we realistically expect to see the “greater works” of Jesus Christ performed as Jesus promised believers in Him would do? (John 14:12)
In any city or suburban area in our nation, there are literally dozens of churches located within a five-mile radius of each other. Most likely, none of the church leadership from these churches have any meaningful fellowship with each other. They never work together to coordinate a strategy for using the Church’s Spiritual Authority to remove demonic strongholds in communities. Sadly, our churches do not believe in each other and fail to recognize that we are all members of the body of Christ—full of power and anointing to subdue the enemy. (II Cor. 1:20-22)
Remember this: When love is absent, God is absent. Therefore, God can do no mighty work among us! For God is love. (Matt.13:53-58 & I John 4:8)
The Apostle Paul stated, “there are to be no divisions” between us, and we are to care for one another. (I Cor.12:25-27) Nevertheless, most churches appear to have little or no concern that annually, about 3,000 to 4,000 churches nationwide permanently close their doors.
The Church operates in ignorance of I John 4:20-21, which asks, “how can you say you love God who you have not seen, and hate your brother who you have seen? To neglect fellowship with your brother is hatred and makes a mockery of the commandment we have from Jesus Christ to love one another as He has loved us! (John 13:34-35)
Notice Jesus Christ said when we love as He loved us, the world will know we are His disciples. The world will know we are His disciples because they will see supernatural manifestations in the earth that clearly witness that God is in us and working for us.
Most churches, and Christians individually, do not even believe we have the Spiritual Authority to turn tsunamis around, to cause collapsed buildings to instantly be gathered up again and restored whole. To push back hurricanes and tornadoes. That wild fires can be blown out with a single breath of wind by the saints. That dead bodies caused by Covid-19 can be raised from the dead, simply by the saints of God walking through grave yards and saying arise! Didn’t Jesus say, “all things are possible unto him that believeth?” (Mark 9:23)
These supernatural manifestations of the spirit, and many more belong to the Church. They are to be performed by the Church to serve as a witness to the people of this world that God loves the Church, and Jesus Christ was sent to save the world. When the people of God place their faith in God and love one another as Jesus Christ loved us, we will do these greater works of Christ.
Follow this please. The Old Testament is chock-full of stories of God using men to perform supernatural signs and wonders that impacted the lands, seas, wild life, environment, and atmosphere—everything concerning mankind and the world.
The men God used all had this in common: they wholly trusted God, took up God’s righteous cause, and obeyed Him. These supernatural wonders were only a foretaste of the supernatural wonders the Church of Jesus Christ—which I call “World Impacting Churches”—are destined to perform before the coming of our Lord.
From the Old Testament, recall that it was:
*Noah (above 500-years old) who God gave instructions to go and build an ark in a time of severe drought, and saved Noah and his family, and a remnant of every living thing on earth. For the rain covered the whole earth, including the mountains and every living substance for 40-days, until all things were destroyed. And, only covenant blessed Noah and the passengers aboard the ark survived, and walked again on dry land. God gave a new earth to Noah and his generations to be once again fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth. (Gen. 6:14-7:1, &17-23)
*God who commanded Moses to stretch forth his hand-held rod and divide the waters of the Red Sea, and the children of Israel crossed over on dry ground—while Pharaoh and the Egyptian army were swallowed up into the sea. Afterwards, the dead bodies of men were found on God-made peaceful shores. (Exodus 14:21-31)
*Joshua, who in the presence of all of Israel, commanded that the sun and moon stand still for a whole day, as the mighty armies of the kings of the Amorites were destroyed at Gibeon. It was God who fought the battle for Israel that day, slaying and chasing their enemies. As they fled, God rained down stones and hailstones from heaven upon the kings’ armies. The Bible records, “there has been no day like this, either before or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man.” (Joshua 10:5-14)
*The Hebrew boys (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) who were bound by mighty men of war and cast into the fiery furnace made 7-times hotter for their refusal to serve and worship the golden image made by king Nebuchadnezzar, as all the people of the nation of Babylon did.
But to the king’s surprise, the three boys were seen walking in the midst of the fire, loose and unhurt, and the form of a fourth person they saw in the fire was like the Son of God. The king and all of his officials saw that the fire had no power over the boys, and not a hint of smoke could be smelled on them or their apparel.
Thus, on that day, the king made a new decree that all the people in his kingdom should serve the God of the Hebrew boys. Having a complete change of mind and heart, the king acknowledged that “there is no other God that can deliver” like the God of the three Hebrew boys. The three lads were then promoted by the king to positions of leadership in the Babylonian government. (Daniel 3:19-30)
* Finally, it was Daniel who defied the decree of king Darius,’ that anyone found praying (making a petition) to any God or man, other than the king, would be thrown into the lions’ den. Daniel paid the king’s decree no attention, and prayed three times a day to God anyway. Daniel’s haters reported his defiance to the king and was thrown into the lions’ den, with a stone laid across the mouth of the den so he could not escape.
But early the next morning, when the king checked on the fate of Daniel, he was still alive and well, as an angel of God came and shut the lions’ mouths. Afterwards, Daniel’s accusers were thrown in the lions’ den and devoured. King Darius made a new decree that all of the people would now serve the God of Daniel, and Daniel prospered under the rule of multiple kingdoms. (Daniel 6:7-23)
In each one of these amazing and supernatural stories, as the men trusted in God and did what God commanded them to do, God delivered them out of all their troubles and blessed them mightily. But I want you to understand that as great as these miracles, signs, and wonders were—all of these men died in faith, without having received the promise of the Messiah Jesus Christ. (Heb.11:13)
But praise be unto God, we the Church, have received the Messiah Jesus Christ. We are born of God, and God dwells in us and we are in Him. God is not just with us, as He was with the Old Testament saints, but God is in us. (John 1:10-13 & I John 4:15)
We are new creatures having the identical Spirit that dwells in Jesus Christ. (II Cor. 5:17) The same Spirit that released, “the resurrection power of God, and raised Jesus Christ from the dead on the third day, took Him up to heaven, and seated Him at the right hand of God Father. The same Spirit that washed us all in the blood of Jesus, quickened us together, raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Jesus Christ throughout all eternity. The release of God’s power was all motivated by His great love for us and the world! (John 3:16)
I tell you there is no greater power, than the resurrection power residing in the Spirit of Christ! (Romans 8:9-11, Eph. 2:4-6 3:20) There is no man-made power, nor demonic power, that can match the resurrection power of Jesus Christ in us! For consider that death itself could not hold Jesus Christ, neither was it possible! (Acts 2:24) Moreover, Jesus Christ abolished death for us! (II Tim.1:10) Death could not hold Jesus, neither can death hold the Church and Christians!
In closing, God has invested the Spirit of the life of Jesus Christ in the Church, and every born-again Christian. The power of the resurrection is deposited in our born-again spirits, and is available and ready to go to work, through the Church and every Christian, to turn the world from, upside down, to right side up!
When the Church obeys the commandment of Jesus Christ to love one another as He loved us, the unmatched resurrection power of God will flow through the Church, and Christians alike to dominate, devour, and destroy the works of the devil! (Eph. 3: 14-21) God will do the greater works of Jesus Christ through the Church—the exceedingly and abundantly above all we dare ask or think—when we entreat every Church and Christian that bears the name of Jesus Christ, as well all people; with the sacrificial love, forgiveness, and kindness of Christ!
Next week, we will take a forward look at the coming Church of Jesus Christ, called the “Remnant”—a collage of World Impacting Churches that will be netted together and born out of the fire of the Holy Ghost. The Remnant who will go about turning places in the world from upside down, to right-side up, as we see the day of the Lord approaching.