May 31, 2020
Sunday AM
Matthew 16:13-19 13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Jesus didn’t say the gates of hell won’t prevail against just any church. He said the gates of hell won’t prevail against the church I build. There’s lots of churches, but they are not all what He has built. That’s why we have the Bible. It’s our blueprint. We’re to line up with the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts. This is a picture of what the church should look like; how we are to operate and function. The disciples sat under Jesus and their soul was transformed. They saw Him healing, and ministering for 3 ½ years day and night before they were saved. The soul of man has the ability to transform you into whatever you subject it to the most. Their soul was seeing everything He did and said, day and night, for three and a half years.
Battles you fail to win in the spirit, your children will have to fight in the natural. 9/11 wouldn’t have happened if the church would have taken her place and did what she should have been doing all along. If the church had won that battle in the spirit, we wouldn’t have experienced such loss and pain in our nation. If you think for one minute that God didn’t know that was going to happen, and that He wanted to stop it, then you don’t know God. God did everything within His power to stop it.
False statement: God is in Control.
If God is in control, why don’t He fix what were experiencing? Why, is it such a mess? The word doesn’t teach that. God is in control on planet earth when His people are in control. Why? Because He gave all of the authority on earth to His people! If God could do anything He wants at any time He wants, He would have come down here and slapped that apple out of Adams hand! But He gave us a free will! Adam was supposed to make earth look/function like heaven. God gave him the word to do it and told Him exactly what to do. When Adam didn’t do that, God still had to honor it, because He gave him that authority. Adam handed it over to the Devil. God is in control only when we are in control through His word. God has been endeavoring for His people to get to a place of maturity, where they can function in the privilege and the responsibility of being sons and daughters. “For as many as are led by the spirit of God they are the sons of God.”
The devil can only win in your life over what you don’t know. It’s what you know that gives you what you need to win over Him. Heaven defined what Jesus was. If you will get from Heaven, what God says to you and about you, then you have what you need to defeat any enemy. There are 2 different kinds of knowledge. Natural human knowledge, and precise knowledge. One originates from man and the other originates from God. What Peter said in verse 16, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” that originated from Heaven. God builds His church when we are in a position to hear from Heaven what Heaven wants us to do. The bible is God speaking to us. When you live out the bible, it’s no different than if God Himself stood right beside you and spoke it out of His mouth into your ear. When a true word from God comes, it’s as sure as the written word. Somebody has to hear from Heaven, and if you’re going to hear from heaven, you have to take the time to get to that place.
God can’t do anything in the earth unless someone gives Him permission. We have authority on this earth because we live in a natural body. The devil has to work through people with bodies. In the garden, He had to go through that snake. Jesus had to come from Heaven to get a body, to be able to function in the God’ given authority here on the earth. God can do nothing on planet earth unless somebody asks Him.
Matthew 16:19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Keys represent authority in this verse. Whatever you lock, God will lock. Whatever you unlock, God will unlock. Whatever you forbid, God will forbid. Whatever you allow, God will allow. Bad things happen, because we don’t hear God. We must stop waiting for the “booming voice” God is a spirit. He doesn’t speak audible English. That’s not his primary way of speaking. When you pray you develop a discerning ear. You become sensitive to his voice. God sees your future. And when you can’t hear Him, He has to do some extraordinary things to get your attention. It’s not too late! It’s never too late.
What we are experiencing in our nation is not about race. It’s about right and wrong. Light and darkness. If you make it about race, you’re just fueling the flame. Words are a double-edged sword. Watch what you say on social media platforms. Just make sure what you are saying, is what Heaven is saying.