October 31, 2004
HAVE YOUR WAY
- Before God can have His way, His people must know their purpose.
- God operates in this world through His people. If we don't know our purpose, then God is not able to have His way.
- God gets the blame for much of the evil that takes place in this world, but is it God's fault or is it the result of God's children not doing their part.
In the beginning:
Gen 1:27-30: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
God gave purpose to mankind as soon as He created them:
- To be fruitful.
- To multiply.
- To replenish and subdue the earth.
- To have dominion over it.
To be fruitful means to be productive. Jesus describes being fruitful in John 15:
John 15:1-8: I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
- So to be fruitful we must remain connected to God through knowing His word and declaring His word over our lives.
- God can only be involved in our lives to the degree we know and act upon the word.
- God is not interested in us doing He is interested in us being.
- When we are abiding in Christ we are one with Him and His life is able to flow through ours.
- Doing anything for God apart from Him is nothing but dead works.
- God only requires us to do that which we see Him doing through us in prayer.
- Just because we are busy does not mean that we are productive. The God kind of life is a simple and balanced life, full of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. If our life is unbalanced it is because we are adding to our life that which God did not lead us to do.
Rom 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
- The moment we have a lack of peace, and are full of worry and fear, we are apart from God doing our own thing.
- The bible says that in His presence is the fullness of joy, so when we lose our joy we know that there is something we are doing apart from Him.
To Multiply:
- Means o enlarge our territory, to be going forward, moving ahead.
- Every year we should look back and be able to say we are at a different place than we were a year ago.
- Whenever we are either stagnant or going backwards we have somewhere missed God.
1Ch 4:10 Jabez prayed to the God of Israel, "Please bless me and give me more territory. May your power be with me and free me from evil so that I will not be in pain." God gave him what he prayed for.
God desires more than anything that we prosper, when we are not going forward we disappoint Him. God has a territory for each of us to conquer. Our blessings are wrapped in our obedience to where God has sent us and what He has called us to do.
3Jo 1:2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
- God will only bless those that are fulfilling their purpose in life.
- God wants us never to remain comfortable where we are at but always seek more.
- Each of us God has given territory in this earth to take.
- Our everyday environment is our mission field; it is our place of ministry. For the bible says we are all called into the ministry of reconciliation. We are responsible to reconcile the everyday people we encounter around us to God. We will be held accountable for the blood of those around us that die without hearing the gospel message.
- Our earthly responsibility is to multiply God's kingdom on earth not by building more churches and buying more land, but by getting into the world and leading the world to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ; for the kingdom of God is not made by human hands it is established in the heart.
To replenish and subdue:
- To replenish means to make full or complete again.
- To subdue means to overcome and conquer
So part of our purpose on earth is to overcome and conquer the kingdom of darkness and to fill this earth with the kingdom of light.
Eph 6:10-12 Finally, my brothers, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the world's rulers, of the darkness of this age, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
- I take the territory around me as I identify, overcome, and conquer the principalities, the powers, the world's rulers, the darkness of this age, and the spiritual wickedness in high places.
- It is my responsibility as God's redeemed to take what was stolen when Adam first sinned.
- Whatever God has for me it is not just going to come to me easy. I must be willing to fight the good fight of faith.
- The bible says the battle is not mine but the Lord's, my responsibility is to identify the enemy around me and pray regarding. Without prayer God cannot do anything. God is only involved in my world to the degree of my prayers.
Luk 11:9 "Here's what I'm saying: Ask and you'll get; Seek and you'll find; Knock and the door will open.
To have dominion over:
- To have dominion means to have authority.
Mat 10:1 And having called His twelve disciples, He gave them authority over unclean spirits, so as to cast out, and to heal every disease and every weakness of body.
Mat 28:18-20 And coming up Jesus talked with them, saying, All authority in Heaven and on earth was given to Me. Then having gone, disciple all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things, whatever I commanded you. And, behold, I am with you all the days until the completion of the age. Amen.
- As the body of Christ the authority that was given to Christ has been given to us. We now have all authority in heaven and earth. Everything that is not of God is subject to us.
- God can only have His way in our lives to the degree we walk in the authority He has given us.
- We walk in that authority as we step out into the world and take claim to what is ours. God has commissioned us to take the nations.
- To take the nations we have to become active, we cannot just sit around in our churches hiding away waiting until Jesus returns.
- We must get involved in the world around us for us to have a place to exercise that authority.
- The majority of the body of Christ is not called to the five-fold ministry but to the world. The purpose of the five-fold ministry is for the equipping of the saints. The saints are to be equipped to disciple the nations.
Eph 4:11-12 And it is he who gifted some to be apostles, others to be prophets, others to be evangelists, and still others to be pastors and teachers, to perfect the saints, to do the work of ministry, and to build up the body of Christ
- A disciple is one who imitates their teacher.
- For one to disciple another it means to have such a relationship that the other can imitate the other's life.
- We need to stop living for ourselves, spending all our time in church, and interact with those around us.
- The world thinks we act like we are better than them because we don't involve ourselves with them, have we forgotten it is only by grace that we are saved.
- Jesus accepted all mankind He spent the majority of His time interacting with the world rather than being in church. Do we think we are to be any different?
- We must be true disciples and imitate Jesus before we can disciple anyone else.
- We have no place to exercise our authority if we don't get out to where the sick and dying are.
The world is in need of Jesus will we take our place and walk in our purpose so God can have His way in this earth.
Summary
God does not enjoy seeing His creation suffer, for the bible says that God wishes above all things that we prosper. God wants to have His way in this earth, but God has given this earth to mankind, and He can only be involved as much as we allow Him to be. If God's people do not know there purpose how much can God really do. The purpose of mankind was presented in the beginning to be fruitful meaning productive, to multiply meaning to enlargen or increase, to replenish and subdue meaning to complete what Christ has started by overcoming and conquering the darkness of this world, and to have dominion meaning to walk in our God given authority allowing the lost and dying world around us to see Jesus Christ lived out through our lives.