Let your will be done on earth as well as in heaven. And then in Romans 5 17 it says, for if by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in. So we're alive by one, Jesus Christ.

It is our responsibility to bring the kingdom of God down to this earth. And it's such a high priority to Jesus that when he gave a pattern for prayer for the disciples, he started by getting them to acknowledge the name by which we have our authority, which comes from heaven. And then the very first thing we are to pray, come your kingdom.

You'll notice that the Lord's Prayer is not a series of requests. There's no requests given in the Lord's Prayer. They're all commands, they're all imperatives.

Come thy kingdom, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now if the Lord told us to pray that, he was not asking us to send out little rockets of requests, please Lord can you make this happen. He was telling us to acknowledge that name which gives us the authority and to stand in that authority and to issue a decree, a command into the earth.

Let your kingdom come. First and most important thing, we should be praying. Lord is very fussy about his kingdom.

We have got to bring the kingdom of God into this earth. And the key lies in learning to become a king or a queen, if you're female. How do we reign? We reign by using the powers of the kingdom of heaven.

And when we do that, we bring change into this earth. Well what exactly does it mean to reign? I just looked it up in the dictionary, just for interest sake. And this is some of the definitions I get.

To possess or exercise sovereign power or authority. Well now the scripture says we are to reign in life through Jesus Christ. Therefore we have been given sovereign power or authority.

To have control, rule or influence of any kind. That means we've been given control, rule, the ability to influence as children of the Lord. To dominate or be prevalent.

Are you reigning? Are you reigning? Most people aren't. They're not in control. They're not dominating.

They're not prevalent in this world. They're allowing this world system to control them, to dominate them. And the church is bowing to the kingdoms of this world, instead of causing the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God to come down and to dominate over the kingdom of this world.

How does it work? Well firstly, it doesn't happen automatically. So I'm a king. Look at me.

I'm a hotshot. I've got authority. I got power.

Can you see everybody falling at my feet? I'm not gonna do it just because I'm the king. I'm gonna have to know how to use that authority and that power. It has to be asserted.

And it's never passive. It's never I'll just wait for it to happen. It's always an active thing that we have to do.

So reigning is never, well here it is. I finally arrived. I'm on the throne.

Just look at me. I'm the king. And how wonderful.

Just in my beautiful robe. My golden crown on my head. See it takes a lot more than that to reign.

King has to stand up and start doing something with his authority. Well, where do we start? How do we start reigning in this world and in this life? What is it that we're reigning over? Well there are three things that prevent us from walking the way God wants us to. There are three things that try to stop us from rising up into the place God has for us.

And to live a victorious life and to bring change. You've heard me preach them plenty. The three enemies of the spiritual life.

What are they? They're the flesh, they're the devil, and the world. The flesh, the devil, and the world. So if we're going to reign in this life, we're gonna have to start by learning to reign over the flesh, and the devil, and the world.

What does that involve? A lot more than we realize. How about starting by reigning over your own flesh. Reigning over your body.

What does that involve? Well, we have the bodily natural function of nourishment. Are you reigning over the bodily function of nourishment? Are you reigning over what you eat? And the things that you lust for and desire? Are you reigning over them, or are they reigning over you? When your body's hungry, are you ready to drop everything and say, I gotta eat, I gotta eat now. You're not reigning over your body, are you? Your body's reigning over you.

What about the other part of the natural bodily desires? The desire for reproduction, which produces sexual desires. Are you reigning over your sexual desires? Or is the world reigning over you by offering you all these wonderful, tasty meals? By offering you one of the strongest influences that affects, especially men these days. And that's the big P, pornography.

Oh no, we're Christians here, we're leaders. We're not affected by things like that, aren't you? If you're a man, you're affected by sight. I'm not just preaching to you guys sitting here, I'm preaching to everybody in the camera.

Pornography is one of the biggest weapons that the enemy is using. And you know why it works? Because we're not reigning over our bodies. Satan and the world system are reigning over our bodies, using the natural things that God's created.

Satan has got his instruments that he's using. How can we be reigning in life? How can we be bringing the kingdom of God to bear on this world? When we can't even reign over our own bodies. Our body also has a natural function of defense and self-protection.

Are you touchy and aggressive? Then people rub you out the wrong way. You always have to have your way, you get irritated. You're not reigning over your body, are you? Maybe a good place to start if you want to bring the kingdom of God to bear in this world.

Are you reigning over your body's need for exercise? You're just too lazy. It's just so much effort. You know what, I'd rather just sit at the computer all day.

Just go for a walk around the block, that'd kill me. Are you reigning over your body? Or is your body saying, why don't we just sit down and do nothing? Are you reigning over your time? Think about what you spend your time doing each day. And somebody said time is like money in the bank.

If you don't spend it, it's gone. So are you reigning over your time? I just never seem to have time to do all that the Lord wants me to do. I'm so busy, I don't have time to bring the kingdom of God to bear.

Who's reigning over your time? The world system? Other people? Think about it. Until you can reign over the time that's allocated to you, you're not going to accomplish all that's needed to bring the kingdom of God to bear. Are you reigning over your sleep? Well, you know, if I'm tired, I need to sleep.

Yes? How long do you sleep? Your body only needs a certain amount of sleep, but you know what, I enjoy sleeping. Let's just take this extra couple of hours. What the heck, I've got the time.

But you know, I don't have time to pray. I don't have time to get into the Word. Because I'm busy sleeping! Because you have the other problem too.

You know, I've got so much hard work to do, so many more important things that I don't have time to sleep. So I cut down on my sleep completely. You know what happens when you cut down on your sleep? Your body becomes ineffective.

You know, your body has to sleep to let out all the stresses and tensions and to actually reorganize your subconscious mind with all the events that have taken place and to slough them in somewhere. If you lose enough sleep, your body says, that's it, I want to dream and I want to dream right now. You begin to dream while you're awake.

It's called hallucination. You start seeing things that don't exist. You may have to rule over your body and make it get the sleep that it needs.

I know we have situations, we have work, we have pressures that prevent us. But are we reigning over our bodies? Have we got our bodies under control and are we giving our bodies what they need in order for us to live successfully in this world? Are you reigning over your emotions? When somebody upsets you and you get angry, do you have control over that anger? Or is that anger controlling you? Do you have control over the negative emotions that come on you when things go wrong? And you want to sit and have a little pity party and wallow for a day or two. Who's in control? Who's reigning? You get what the psychologists call the manic-depressive.

You know what a manic-depressive is? A manic-depressive is a person who on the one hand is so strong in their emotion that they want to go out and conquer the world. And then suddenly they switch and the world conquers them. And then they get depressed and they sulk.

And then they swing back out again. See, if you're a manic-depressive, you are not reigning over your emotions. They're controlling you.

You're not being a king. Somebody else is being the king. Are you reigning over your words? What comes out of your mouth when you get squeezed? That's a tough one, isn't it? Well, you know, I don't normally use bad language, but there is times that it helps.

It's just a way of me expressing my frustration, my anger. I think we've all experienced that. But who's reigning? Are you reigning over the words of your mouth? Do you talk too much? Because you like talking.

It's about yourself. Are you reigning over your words? Do you have this weakness called foot-in-mouth? Where you open your big mouth and put your foot in it before thinking what you said? And then you want to go hide away because you said something you shouldn't at the wrong time? Who's reigning? We've all been there. You see, all of these are signs.

Somewhere along the line, we've lost our kingship. We've lost our authority over the flesh. And then sometimes our talk becomes negative, and we like to tear other people down and criticize with our tongues.

Or we complain and moan and groan about all our sorrows and what a tough time we're having in life. You sound like a king? Are you doing that? No, you're not. You're not reigning.

Your flesh is reigning. Are you in control over your own actions? Are you reigning over the things that you do? Do you have control of self, or is your self out of control? You consider other people in the actions that you do. You're only concerned about yourself.

Who's reigning? Now my intention is not to make you feel guilty, to make you feel bad, but just to point out that all of us, at one time or another, lose our authority as kings to our own flesh. And if we're going to reign in this life, we need to start here, before we try to reign over other people. It's easy for me to tell other people what to do.

I'm the boss here. I'm going to reign. But are you able to reign over your own flesh? You say, well, am I able to do that? Do I just grit my teeth and do it? Well, if you could do that, you wouldn't need the Lord, would you? Because sin is your master.

But you know, in Christ, we have received what it takes to overcome the flesh. Paul gave it to us right there. He said, those who have received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness.

Well, if you think righteousness is accomplished by how hard you work, and by you trying to live a holy life, and trying to do these things, you're going to fail. See, righteousness is a gift from the Lord. And grace is His gift, given to us.

So instead of gritting your teeth and trying to do that, why don't you let the King live through you? And pour His grace through you, and impart His gift of righteousness into you, that you can stand in Him, that you can stand as Him, and reign over your flesh. Every time you face these temptations, stop right there and say, okay. Lord, reign through me.

Reign through me. You see, without Him, we cannot reign in this life. And that applies to every single principle that I'm going to share of how we to bring the kingdom of God.

Because it's not our kingdom, it's His kingdom. And it's Him in us that makes us kings. It's not we ourselves.

Once you've learned to reign over the flesh, we need to deal with the second enemy, which is Satan and his hordes of darkness. How do we reign over Satan? Well, I've done a whole long course on that called Overcoming Evil, which I'm hoping to release again shortly. In which I've explained in a lot of detail how we reign over the realm of darkness.

I'll just give you a few pointers as a reminder. Firstly, you need to know your position in Christ. You need to know who you are in Christ.

Because the enemy makes you think that he's more powerful than you. You need to know, firstly, that you are in Christ. You need to also know that Christ is in you.

And when you stand before the enemy, who's standing there? Christ is standing there. See, and you need to realize when the devil looks at you, he sees Jesus in you. And it's not you he's bowing to you, but Christ in you.

And when you know who you are in Christ, you can stand against any level of demon power, including Lucifer himself, and know that he has to bow. Until you know that, and know that without a doubt, you're not going to reign over him. You know the wonderful thing? Is if you're a king, you're already above him, because he's not a king, he's only a prince.

There's no such thing as a kingdom of darkness, it's a principality of darkness. He's just a prince. You're a king.

A king's higher than a prince. So keep that in your mind next time you're coming against Satan and all of his princes, because that's all he has. He has a lot of princes, and below them all the little other demons, the rulers and the principalities and powers.

You're a king. You stand in his name. And his name is the name above every name.

You stand in his power that overcame the realm of darkness. And you need to know how to deal with curses. We've dealt with that in a lot of detail.

You need to look out for your associations with other people which bring you under a curse. Because you see, what happens when you allow yourself to be in need to look to somebody else? They're raining. And when that person begins to rain over you, all the evil that is in them begins to rain over you.

And Satan in that person will rain over you. Because you allowed them, by looking up to them in admiration, saying, What a great man of God. What a great person.

He's so clever. He's so intelligent. He's so this.

Open our heart wide to receive. Be careful. Be careful.

Who you're receiving from. Because you're receiving more than you realize sometimes. There are curses that come through words that have been spoken against us.

And through words that we ourselves have spoken. He said we've got to control our words. The words that we speak can bring curses and open the door and license Satan.

You see, words are very powerful things. And God himself has limited himself to what he does in this earth. To the authority that's been put in man.

There's nothing God does in this earth that he does without a man. God does nothing in this earth without a man. Scripture says God reveals his secret to servants of the prophets.

So before God wants to do something, he finds a prophet to release it. And it's the authority of the prophet who speaks God's word into the earth that gives God authority to move in this earth. Today's prophets think that they're called to be a prophet because they can get revelation about whether you're going to get a new car or something.

Become wealthy. Tell you something about yourself that they didn't know so they can impress you. Now that's not the function of a prophet.

The function of the prophet is to authorize God in the earth to take the key and to unlock the door and say, God, do it. That's why God raises up prophets, calls upon them in intercession to birth into this earth what he plans to do. And without a prophet, without a man, God does nothing in this earth.

You know, some people are not licensing God with their words. They're licensing Satan. You know what? Satan can't do what he wants either until a man authorizes him.

He's just got a lot more people on his side. We as God's children, we've got greater authority. We've got greater power.

So when we speak God's word into the earth, it's going to be more powerful than some unbeliever speaking Satan's word into the earth. Satan's power is limited and God's power is unlimited. We wonder why everything's going wrong in this world.

Because believers are too busy waiting for a prophecy to be fulfilled, waiting for something to happen, not realizing that what God's going to do in the earth depends on us releasing his word into the earth. How are we going to reign? By speaking his word into the earth. How do we overcome Satan? We stop him from reigning by giving God license.

When we sin, who do we give the license to? We give it to the enemy. James 4 verse 17 says we've got to do two things. Submit yourself therefore to God first, then resist the devil and he will have to flee.

We've got to do both and we've got to do it all the time. On a daily basis we've got to come, submit ourselves afresh to the Lord, totally to him, and license him in the earth, then stand against the enemy and take away his license. He has to flee.

That is how we reign in this world over the powers of darkness. If we don't, Satan's going to come in. He's going to push.

He's going to find somebody to license him. We've got to stop it. We've got to license God and bring his kingdom to bear in this world.

And then finally we come to the difficult one. You know, most of us, we kind of know how to handle the flesh. And we have an idea of how to handle Satan.

When it comes to the world system, that's the one we battle with. How do we change the world system? How do we change the people around us? How do we change the government? How do we change the organizations that are running this world? How do we change the workplace? It's out of our control. I've actually struggled with this one for a long while.

You know, Jesus said, in the world you will have tribulation. Be of good cheer. I have overcome this world.

John says, and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. And it sounds great and it's a theory. And in my mind I know I should be overcoming the world.

But how do I actually get in there and bring the kingdom of God to bear in this world and bring change? To displace the kingdoms of this world. To displace the reign of Satan in this world. And to bring God down to be king in this world.

And as I looked to the Lord he began to give me a hint. And he said, I want you to take all of your natural abilities and heal them up to me. And let me empower you to fulfill those natural abilities better.

Okay, let me show it to you in scripture. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. You know, the three Hebrew children.

Daniel says, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom. And Daniel, he had understanding in all visions and dreams. God has, in the past, empowered men to improve and increase their natural ability.

By adding an anointing. We go back to Exodus, to the time of the creating of the tabernacle. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, see I've called by name Bezaliel, the son of Uri, the son of Herb, the child of Judah.

Called him by name. And I've filled him with the spirit of God in wisdom and in understanding, with skill in all kinds of crafts. God said, I've given it to him.

He didn't go study at university. I gave it to him. To invent devices, to make things out of gold and silver and brass.

To carve stones and finish them, to carve wood and to carry all kinds of crafts. God wants to empower you to enhance your natural abilities. There was one man who proved it.

The Lord Yahweh was with Joseph and he was a prosperous man. And he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord Yahweh was with them.

And that the Lord Yahweh made all that he did, all that he did to prosper in his hand. Everything Joseph did prospered. Because God made it to prosper.

God wants you to make your natural abilities in this world available to him. And he wants to anoint them and empower them so that they're better. Why does he want to do that for? Because he wants you to be better than the world.

He wants you to be a carrier of his blessing. So that when you are employed in a job, your employer is blessed because you're there. Because you're better than the others.

Because you carry a blessing. I've shared before that the Lord gave me a perfect example of this. The last job that I worked in.

As I joined that company, the Lord spoke to me and said, Because of you, I'm going to bless this company abundantly. Within my first month, even though I was still learning the job, I was overwhelmed with all the work. And my boss said to me one day, I don't know what's happened.

He said, This is the busiest we have ever had for this month of the year. It's never happened before. Well, he didn't know why, but I did.

Because I was there. Was I so good? Actually, I was still learning the job. I was still a trainee.

But I was there. And my very presence caused the blessing of God to come down on their business and caused it to flourish. I remember being in a business before.

It was owned by a Christian. And he had financial difficulties. He could barely make his budget.

And my salary was due. And suddenly, out of the blue, somebody who had placed an order for some equipment, instead of waiting for the equipment to be delivered before paying, paid up front before it was delivered. Unheard of.

He said, Nobody's ever done that before. But you know what? There was enough money to pay my salary that month. He still shook his head and he said, You know, I'm still battling financially, but God's provided your income.

He said, I don't understand. I understood. Why? Because I'm so special.

We're all special. God wants us to be carriers of his blessing. He wants us to be better than the world.

And like Joseph and Daniel, we should automatically rise up. We should be recognized. We should be promoted.

And come into places of authority and control. Because people can see we've got something different. Well, what are we going to do with all these abilities? We're going to use them to gain wealth.

Huh? That's going to be spiritual, isn't it? Deuteronomy 8, verse 18. God said these words to his people. And you should remember that the Lord Yahweh, your God, is the one who's giving you the dynamic power and anointing to produce wealth.

So that you may confirm his covenant which he swore to your fathers, which still stands today. God said, I'm giving you a power. I'm giving you an anointing.

Dunamis. Dynamic power. I'm giving you an anointing to get wealthy.

Oh, the church is preaching against that. We're supposed to be poor as believers, you know? We're not meant to touch the world, are we? No, we're supposed to hand it over to Satan so he can control it and make us poor. And keep us under bondage so we can't reign and bring the kingdom of God to bear.

That lie has been sowed in the body of Christ for so long. And Satan has been riding high knowing the believers are too stupid to see the truth. Are we going to reign and bring his kingdom to bear? We're going to have to start changing that.

We're going to have to start showing people that instead of giving all the wealth to the world, we need to be taking it for the kingdom of God. Tell me, what is it that gives a person power in this world? What is it that gives a person more power than anything else in this world? Wealth. Well, the wealthy of this world are the ones who control this world.

It's a known fact that the people who hold the purse strings control what happens. Even the big politicians who think they're in leadership are usually controlled by somebody who has money. Well, so, are we supposed to now get into the world system and be just like them? No, we're going to be better than them.

Because we know what to do with the money. We're going to use it to extend the kingdom of God, not extend the kingdom of darkness. Wealth is the power of this world.

And if we're going to exert power and authority in this world, we'd better get our hands on the wealth. Otherwise the world is going to overwhelm us. It goes against everything that's been taught.

Didn't Jesus say how hard it is for a rich man to go into the kingdom of heaven? Yeah, it is, because the rich man depends on his riches. After he said that, the disciples said, hey, but Lord, you know, that's a tough one, you know. He's given up everything to follow you.

What did the Lord say? He said, what you've given up, I'm going to give you a hundred times back in this life. In this life, not only heaven one day, in this life. A hundred times back.

God doesn't want us to be poor. He just doesn't want us to depend on wealth. He doesn't want our dependence to be on this world system.

He wants us to use this world system. He wants us to get our hands on the wealth of this world and use it to extend his kingdom. You know, the scripture said that God will cause the wealth, the unrighteous build up, to be handed over to the righteous.

We're praying that some rich millionaire will have a dream tonight that he must give a million dollars to our church. It's not going to happen. We're going to become the billionaires.

That's how it's going to happen. We're going to have to get into the world and use what God has given us, his anointing and power, to get the wealth right out from under their noses. Because we're going to do business better.

We're going to do it God's way. Okay, well if you think that one was tough, what else are we going to use these abilities that God's given us to do? We're going to use them to become famous. You mean I've got to exalt myself? Become a big name out there? Put myself up as a big hero? What did Jesus say concerning himself? He said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to me.

Okay now, where is Jesus right now? He's lifted up about as high as you can get up there in heaven. But you know what? He's not functioning in this world as he was before. He's functioning in this world through you and me.

If you want to see Jesus today, find a believer. Oh, there's Jesus sitting right there. Oh, there he is.

So tell me, if he's going to draw all men unto him, he's going to have to be lifted up. So how's he going to be lifted up? While you grovel around in obscurity? Hidden away in your little flat? Unknown to the world? Is that going to lift Jesus up? But you've got him. You've got everything.

You've got the authority that he's placed in you. But you know what? The king is in hiding. The king must be visible.

He must be public. He must be revered and admired. And people must look to him.

I'm not saying you must exalt yourself. I'm not saying you must, in your selfishness, make a big name for yourself. Let me tell you something.

People will not listen to a nobody, even if he's a king. Jesus must be lifted up. And for him to be lifted up, you're going to have to be lifted up.

And if you are not lifted up, this is risky. Money and fame are going to pull the flesh out of us. See, that's why we're going to learn to rule over the flesh first.

Before we can rule over the world. Because once you learn to rule over the flesh, when the Lord lifts you up, makes you wealthy, and makes you known, your flesh is not going to take advantage of that and destroy your authority. God wants us to use these abilities to gain influence and authority.

We're not going to have that while we are groveling to this world. Please, Mr. Bank Manager, can you give us a loan for our church? Who's controlling your ministry? Mr. Bank Manager, who's part of the world system. That's who's controlling.

Well, you know, the government has to help us out, you know. Because they've got all the money. Please, government.

Who is reigning? Not you. Not the Lord. The world is reigning.

It's time the church rises up and stops groveling to the world and expecting their provision to come from the world. Expecting opportunities to come from unbelievers who've set it up for us. The Bible says we are to be the salt of the earth.

The Lord said the salt has lost its saltiness. Might as well just throw it on the ground and stand on it. I'm afraid the body of Christ has lost its saltiness.

Who wants to taste that tasteless salt? People come and taste and I say, oh, that tastes pretty good. I like that. What have you got to offer? That the world would want to come to you instead of going to some person in the world.

What have you got to offer? See, you're going to have to start asserting your authority as a king. You're going to have to reign over your own flesh. You're going to have to reign over the realm of darkness.

Satan and all of his hordes. And you're going to have to reign over the systems and the kingdoms of this world and the structures of this world. We can only do that with his help.

It's our task to bring God's kingdom to bear in this world and to have his kingdom influence the lives of others. To accomplish this, we're going to have to learn how to reign. You'll have to learn how to reign.

Once you know how to reign, start doing it consistently. And if you do that with his power and his glory, what's going to happen is God's kingdom will be manifest in this world. Do you think it's time you start reigning?

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