Episode Transcript
Welcome to the World Changers Church Gold Coast Podcast. Join us as we listen to today's message. Right.
Hello, everybody. How are we? Everybody have a great time during worship.
Yeah. Let's give the worship band a round of applause because it's brilliant to be led by some brilliant, gifted and anointed people in the words. Oh.
I get a little bit nervous when you've got to get up after that. It's just like, oh, I could stay in worship all day. But we don't have time to stay in worship all day.
So we're going to get cracking with the Word. So I look about and I can see there's quite a few new people in here, which means you've missed the first three weeks or two weeks or you've missed one week of the four-part series that we've been in. And we get to finish that four-part series today, which is talking about the victory over darkness.
And we try and simplify this, try and take away the Christianese from stuff, and we try and talk about this in a way that actually everybody can understand. The trouble is, some people may struggle to understand me. I do apologise.
Are we all right so far? We're doing well. Good.
Happy with that. As long as we do, that is brilliant. Now, the first week we had was talking about the good news.
The good news is very simple. Jesus was born, Jesus was crucified, but Jesus is risen, present tense, okay? Remember that, it's present tense. And when Jesus died, He got on a cross for you.
for me, for everybody before us and for everybody after us. That's what he done. There is the good news, very, very simple.
The second part of the series was led by Pastor Kyle. And we talked about the relationship that we have with Jesus that connects us back to God. It's very important to know that when you know the good news, you get to know who Jesus is.
You get to stand on the name of Jesus. The third part, Claire talked to us last week about being repositioned, about knowing your identity in Christ. So think about it again. When you know the good news, then you start to know Jesus.
Then you allow Him to reposition you for what He has called over your life, not what you have called over your life. Okay? Now, one of the things that she said last week was Satan is not scared of you. He's not.
but he is scared of the Christ identity that belongs to you. Now I say belongs to you because we have to operate that authority. We have to operate what that is.
So today we get to look at, rule and over, the authority that we walk in through Jesus. Okay, the good news, he was on a cross. He died for you.
He rose, he sits at the right hand. He gave the Holy Spirit to you as a gift when you receive him as your Lord and Saviour. You now have a relationship.
You have trust in him. You now are positioned by him for the good works. And now you need to know the authority that you actually walk in.
Yeah, everybody with me so far? Good, happy with that. Whenever I first preached a couple of weeks ago, everybody was dead quiet.
It made me just a little bit nervous. Everybody's just staring at If you want to be vocal, be vocal. If you don't want to be vocal, that's absolutely fine.
I get it. Don't worry about it. But we are going to look at the rolling over, the position that we stand in.
And this only happens when we are operating in the authority that's already been given to us. When we look back at Genesis, And I think we jump back into, it's not actually on there, it makes no sense. When we look back at Genesis, we see Adam and Eve, okay?
They were given dominion over everything that they seen. They out of the fruit, they done wrong, they were taken out of Eden. So that rule, that dominion, that authority that we had over us back then was taken from us until the point in time where we got to Jesus on a cross.
When Jesus died on that cross, he conquered death. He came back, rose, he gave you back authority. That is yours.
We now claim that authority back. This was given back through the finished work of the cross. Jesus is the reason you have your authority.
And it's important to remember Jesus is the reason. He is our Lord, our Saviour. He is the connection back to God through the work of the cross.
And the authority that we've been afraid, too afraid to walk in is the very power the enemy fears we'll use. Get that, understand that. That power and authority is what the enemy is scared you'll use.
And when we don't know what that power and authority is, how do we operate it? How do we walk in it? How do we take charge of our life with Jesus to walk away from what the enemy wants for our life?
The power and authority that you have, that sometimes you're too afraid to use. I always think of Marianne Williamson, Our Deepest Fear. It's a poem that was recited at Nelson Mandela's inauguration and stuff like that. But it talks about the deepest fear is not the darkness, the deepest fear is the light.
That we have. We are children of God. Who are we to be shy, to shy away from all that stuff just because we make somebody else feel uncomfortable because of the light that we have on us.
It's the light that we're scared of sometimes because when that is illuminated, then we see all this bad stuff behind us. It's easy to stand in the shadows. It's easy to stand there and go, well, I don't want you to see that.
I can cover that up. But when we have that light shone on us, when we have the acceptance of Jesus Christ into our lives, he illuminates all that because that's what gets rid of everything. That once recognized gives us authority to say, that's not ours.
He's there, he's calling you forward. We walk forward, but sometimes it's like, but hold on a second. I just, I want to pick this up and bring it with me.
Is that okay? He's like, no, put it down. It's not yours.
The further we walk away from what that is, the more free we get, the more comfortable we get. We look back at that stuff and it's okay to look back and we recognize, wow, how deceived was I that that was the stuff that I was carrying. And when I walk forward here, I'm walking in Jesus' love.
I'm walking in his strength, not my strength. That gives me more power. That makes me feel better than all the stuff over here that crushed me, that kept me broken, that kept me hidden, that kept me ashamed.
I walk with Jesus. Some people are happy with their religion. Think about that one.
Some people are happy with their religion because their religion allows you to be told what to do, when to do, how to do. You can pray for me. Thank you very much.
I need you to give me a word. Thank you very much. I need this over here.
I need you to do that for me. Thank you very much. I can't do nothing here because the pastor says that he will do it all.
The pastor's the head or he's in charge of everything and it's his responsibility for me. No, it's not. Your responsibility for you is you.
Because your responsibility is to walk to the foot of the cross, to leave everything there and to walk forward in Jesus. Don't rely on somebody else for your walk with him. Church is great on a Sunday.
We get to bring the word of God to you. It's about the walk that you have with Jesus, not the walk that I have. Because my walk is different to yours.
Yeah, so some people they're happy with religion because they're afraid of a relationship with Jesus and what that actually means. What does a relationship with Jesus mean? I know what my relationship with Jesus means.
The question is, what does a relationship with Jesus mean to you? That is your question. I'm not asking you to answer the question now, but that is a thought process for you.
People are happy with religion because they're afraid of a relationship with Jesus and what that means. See, you have to have faith in Jesus. People always have faith.
Even atheists have to have faith in something. But it's just sometimes that faith is held in the wrong place. And fear is simply having faith in the enemy.
Fear is having faith in the enemy because we doubt what Jesus has done. And we doubt what Jesus can do in your life. But we talk about faith.
Having faith, Mark 11:22 says, it tells us to have faith in God. Romans 3:25 says, have faith in the blood of Jesus. Romans 10:17 has faith in the word of God. 1 Corinthians 2:5 says, have faith in the power of God. Philippians 2:10 says, have faith in the name of Jesus.
You see, fear is having faith in the enemy and the fear will cause you to be awestruck and dumbstruck by the storms that surround you instead of being focused on the one who has enabled you to silence the storm. Not me to silence the storm for you, for you to silence the storm because you have authority in that through what Jesus has done. Fear will rob you of everything. I preached it before, fear.
Face everything and rise or face everything and run. Yeah, everybody know those two acronyms? Face everything and rise, face everything and run. I would rather face everything and rise to the Father.
Get off my knees in prayer because I know who I'm praying to. And if I'm going to run, I'm going to run to the Father. I'm not going to run to the world because the world, I've seen what the world has to offer.
I have walked in that and it wasn't great. I've tasted of that and I have seen the love of Jesus and the transformation in my life. And I've seen it in the transformation of lives around me and it is phenomenal.
Philippians 2:6 says, You see, when you give your life, you're raised with him. You're not set apart down here somewhere else. You're raised with him.
And we forget that. Revelations 1:6 says, we are kings and priests. And 1 John 5:4 says, we are overcomers by faith.
But this isn't a faith preach today. This is a preach on authority. But when I look back through things, I need to have faith in the name of Jesus Christ. I need to have faith in the relationship that I have with Him. I need to have faith in the good works that He is doing through me. I need to have faith that He has got good things planned for me.
And when I have faith in that, I know who I am. My identity is in Christ, not in me. My identity is not in the world behind me. My identity is in Christ.
And through that, my authority is given for me to take charge of the storms in my life, to silence them. Storms are still going to go on around you, but I'm going to speak authority over them for to be quiet. Because when the storms are quiet, I get to hear the word of God.
I get to see what He's doing in my life, in the lives of my family, of everybody around me. I get to see because I've silenced the storm, I've silenced the chaos, and I'm now focused on Him, not me. Yeah?
So what does authority actually mean? We look at the English Oxford Dictionary. And it says, it's the power to influence others, especially because of one's commanding manner or one's recognised knowledge about something.
A person with extensive or specialised knowledge about a subject, an expert, or a book, or other source able to supply reliable information of evidence. Who's got a Bible? Some not, eh?
My Bible's on here. My Bible is at the back. My Bible is on my phone.
It's everywhere. But that is a reliable source of information. Go check it out.
Go read it. It's factually correct. The most factually correct book that we've got.
Or books. 66 of them. but there is reliable evidence, okay?
Authority. But the worldly authority, I'm not too interested in. I wanna know what the biblical explanation of authority is.
What does God say about this? And a couple of things. They say authority comes from God.
It originates from God. Romans 13:1 says, let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there's no authority except that which God has established. Ultimate authority lies with him, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
It is his authority. Authority was given to man. Jesus operated under divine authority.
And in Matthew 28:18, he said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Authority given to man. We already said that Adam at the start abandoned that authority.
He gave that over. Satan has authority in this world. because Adam got it wrong at the very start.
But Jesus came and he silenced that. He sorted that. He washed us clean.
He gave us back our authority. We get to walk in that. So authority was given to us.
And authority is now given to believers. Luke 10:19 says, behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you. We exercise authority in His name.
I don't exercise authority in my name. I have to use the name of Jesus, but I can only exercise that authority once I have a relationship with Him and I trust Him, that He is within me, able to do more. I'm ex-military for those that know me.
I had a rank, I was a petty officer. I was in the police. I was an officer in the police. A police officer, not an officer, lieutenant and stuff, but I was a police officer.
I had authority. I was able to turn around and tell people what to do, when to do and how to do. because I was told what they do, when they do, how to do, it all flows downhill, yeah?
But I was given that authority to take charge of fire crews, to take charge of flight deck crews, to take charge of interrogation crews. When I was in the police, I was taking charge of situations where there was attempted suicide, domestic violence, all sorts going on. I had authority given.
I actually commanded authority because of my experience, not because of a rank given. My experience gave me authority. I was able to walk in that.
People looked at me, people knew. They heard by reputation what I could do, what I had done, authority was given. And I walked in it.
This isn't worldly authority. We exercise authority through his name. Philippians 2:9 to 11 says, therefore God exalted him to the highest place and given the name that is above every name.
That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth that every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. You're not acknowledging that Paddy Patterson is Lord, I'm far from it. I can go and buy a Lordship and that's all right, but I ain't Lord.
You can get them little foot by foot Scottish titles. Yeah, you can become a Lord. It's very, very easy.
But that doesn't give me authority. It gives me nothing. But Jesus' name gives me authority to speak to the world.
It gives me the authority to speak to the enemy. It gives me authority to speak to the storms in my life, the disasters that are happening around me. It gives me authority because I use Jesus' name, not mine.
We exercise authority through his word. Hebrews 4:12 says, for the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit.
Joints and marrow, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. We exercise authority through the power of the Holy Spirit, that gift given. Acts 1:8 says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
But authority has to be exercised. You can't sit there and do nothing with the authority and claim you're living a great life. When things are going on around you, if you're not exercising authority given to you, what are we meant to do?
Jesus is looking at you going, I've given it to you. It's yours, walk in it. But sometimes as Christians, we're sitting there going, Jesus, I want you to come down.
I want you to get back on that cross for me because I think I've got it wrong. He's like, not a chance. I've done that once.
I can imagine that was pretty painful. That's not something he's going to tell you what. Claire, I'm going to get back down and I'm going to get on that cross again for you, for what you've done wrong here.
It doesn't work like that. Once and for all it was done, it was dusted. There he is, he's given it to you.
Why do we set about going, God, come do this for me? Don't been there, done that. Go do it yourself.
But call my name and I will do it. It's already done. Call my name. Walk in my strength and in my power, not in your own. It is yours.
Have it. Own it. Walk in it.
That sounded pretty harsh. I'm really sorry. No, I'm not.
Exercise your authority. James 4:7. Submit yourselves then to God.
Resist the devil and he will flee. Resist him. Oi, you have no authority in my life.
Get gone. Smith Wigglesworth, for people that might know Smith Wigglesworth, it's a bit of a mouthful to say as well. 1800s, a phenomenal pastor, evangelist.
He was really great at what he'd done. And he tells a story. One night he was in bed and he got awoken. And he looked up and at the end of his bed, he saw the devil.
He looked at him and he said, ah, it's only you. And he went back to sleep. How gutsy is that?
Because I know what I would have done. I would have put my pants. Throw the size at me, I tell you what. I'd have been scared.
But he took authority over it. He's like, it's only you. What have you got?
Nothing. You've only got what I give myself. You've got nothing.
Off you go, I'm going back to sleep comfortable in the identity that I walk in through Jesus Christ. Authority is not about feeling powerful. It's about knowing who you are in Christ and walking boldly in the victory that he's already won.
We look at authority and we go, wow, that's given to me. Check me out. We've got it wrong again.
Oh no, it's not about you. It's all about him. Always has been, always will be.
You aren't looking to be blessed. You are blessed. There was a bloke walked up to Reverend Hagen, a senior once.
And he kept coming to him, Reverend Hagen. He started the rainbow over in America. And he kept coming up and he said, Reverend Hagen, I want you to give me a word. And obviously there's a lot of people trying to get words, trying to get prayer, trying to talk to Reverend Hagan and stuff. And he was there one day and this bloke just came up straight in front and he said, Reverend Hagan, you have to give me your words. Reverend Hagan looked at him and he said, oh, stand fast, hold on a second.
There's a Bible full of words for you, read it. If we're not reading our Bible, we ain't getting the words, are we? If we're not coming to church, we're not getting the words. If we're not listening to our podcast, we're not getting the words.
What's feeding you? If the world's feeding you, it's not feeding you Jesus. But if you're here surrounded by people who are lifting you up in Christ, they're feeding you Jesus.
They're challenging thought processes. They're challenging what you do. And that's good.
That is good. Is it always perfect? Are we always perfect?
Far from it. I've got my wire stuck here, hold on a second. There we go, let's get that down.
There's gonna be a photograph coming up on screen. Have a look at the words. The words on this, read the words.
Lost, confused, I feel judged, I feel empty, my shoulders aren't big enough. What am I good at? It seems like more things that I can't do than what I actually can do.
I want to change, I'm useless, where do I start? What's important to me, unworthy, inferior, sad, I feel alone, angry, I wanna cry, imposter, overwhelmed, I feel judged. Has anybody in this room ever thought of any of those words?
Doesn't have to be all, but just any. Yeah. There's a few hands going up, people are bold, they're like, yeah, absolutely, and I'm sure that every single person in there has felt those words.
So these words that you see on here, I'm gonna be honest and I'm gonna be raw. Last week, two weeks ago, every single one of these that you see on the screen, I put in a text to Claire. Me.
Every single one of them, two weeks ago, that was me. When I put them there, I looked at them. For two or three days, these had been building up and building up.
And we talk about when we're doing something, when we're really challenging people, and when we're really going after God, and when we're really talking about the victory that we have and the authority that we walk in, things come against you. I wasn't looking at me. I was looking at my wife, I was looking at my son, I was looking at my family.
I missed me. For three days, I dwelled in that. When I wrote it down, I looked at it and I realised in a moment in time, it's only three days, but three days is enough.
I realised in a moment in time that I was praying into the wrong things. Father, my shoulders aren't big enough. Help me to bear this cross, to carry the cross better.
Help with the confusion, Father. I'm useless. I've got this feeling of uselessness about me, Father.
I would love some wisdom on how I can be less useless. All of a sudden, I'm praying into the flesh. This time, I refuse to pray into the flesh.
I learned it a long time ago and it's fine, but I was deceived for a moment in time. So when I looked at this, I wrote it down, I seen it. I seen the eyes of the enemy.
I've seen the lies that he had over me for that time. And as Clare preached last week, she talked about the identity that we have in Christ. Who am I?
Who are you? I didn't pray into any of these. I prayed the enemy out of the situation.
the enemy out, gone. Because then I get to stand on what the next picture is. Would you stick that up, Jeremy, please? The next picture is what I got to stand on.
Who am I in Christ? Accepted, God's child, friend, justified, united with the Lord. I am significant.
I am the salt of the earth, the branch of the true vine. But because I believe in Jesus, because I have a relationship with Jesus, I get to walk on that, know that and trust that because that's who the Bible tells me that I am. And that's who the Bible tells you that you are.
The enemy wasn't prayed, or the enemy was prayed out of the situation, be gone from that. This is what I'm praying into, not the other stuff. I don't care about the other stuff anymore because I know now, thank you, Jesus.
This is who I am, this is who you are. And sometimes in life, we get so stuck where we are that we forget who we belong to. We forget who died for us on a cross.
We forget the calling that we have on our lives. We're not perfect. I'm not calling you to be perfect.
I'm not calling myself to be perfect. I am calling myself to be better, to have more awareness. to see the deception that comes in different ways, in different forms.
The quicker I see that deception, the quicker I get to rebuke the enemy. The quicker I get to stand on the promises and the faithfulness of God. How many people are praying in their flesh?
How many people are praying into the situation without rebuking the enemy first? The authority, the currency of authority of which we use is our heart posture. The currency of authority is our heart posture.
Authority in the kingdom isn't earned. It's not timed on. If you're in this building now and you haven't given your life to Christ and that is a decision that you are gonna make today, you have as much authority in your life straight away as what I do standing here.
It's not time served. Authority is received. But the key to walking in it is a heart turned towards God.
You can't have a heart turned towards the world and walk in authority. It doesn't work. It has to be turned towards God. A heart bowed before God stands tall before men.
It's a posture. It's seen. How many times you see a person or has a person looked at you and seen you and go, wow, what's different about you?
Christ in me. Christ for me. Because who can be against me?
Pride forfeits authority, but humility unlocks it. See, Jesus didn't grasp for power. He surrendered.
He surrendered for you. He surrendered for me. He didn't fight for it. He didn't grasp for it. It was already given to him. but he surrendered.
And in doing so, he was exalted. Philippians 2, 5-9 says, submission isn't, well, it doesn't say this, sorry, it's not on there, but submission isn't weakness. It's alignment.
When your heart is aligned with heaven, you just don't carry authority. You release heaven's power on earth. Is that not what we want?
When you carry authority, you release heaven's power on earth. Love, peace, and compassion equals power of authority. See, the world looks at authority and it looks like dominance, but in the kingdom, love is the weapon, peace is the strategy, and compassion is the force that shakes the gates of hell.
Love, peace, compassion. Love disarms the enemy. See, Jesus' greatest act of power wasn't calling down angels, but it was laying down his life.
Peace crushes chaos. When Jesus spoke, peace, be still, the storm obeyed. True authority silences the noise.
And if you silence the noise around you, then you will get to hear what God is saying. And compassion moves mountains. Every miracle that Jesus performed was fueled by a heart moved with compassion.
It says it in Matthew 14:14, 14 actually. Authority isn't just about commanding, it's about carrying God's heart. When you love like Jesus, you know the good news of salvation.
You have based your life on a relationship with him and you have allowed yourself to be positioned in him and now you walk in the authority he has granted to you. we have to surrender to Him. Surrendering to Him is an action.
So we call to action. I've said it before, I think I said it in the last preach actually. I'm not always the one that's up for hands in the air whenever we pray and I'll see your hands and thank you, give your life to Jesus. This is being bold.
Jesus didn't hide away when he got on the cross. Everybody's seen. I wanna be seen for Jesus. I do not wanna be seen against Jesus.
I wanna be seen for him. So we're gonna open this space now for prayer. But that prayer has to be bold.
If you have never given your life, given your heart over to Jesus, then I ask you now to be bold, to step up, to step to the front and somebody will pray with you up here. There is no shame, no guilt, no condemnation. There is nothing to be embarrassed about up here.
The thoughts going through your mind now is the fear of the enemy. Don't do it. It's gonna be embarrassing.
Don't do it. We speak to that. So if you've never given your life, then I want you to come forward because we wanna rejoice with you and pray with you.
But at the same time, if everything that I have said today has challenged you in a way where you're not walking with God the way you should be, and you want prayer into that, you want somebody to stand with you, to understand your identity in Christ, to intercede for you and with you, then again, I want you to come to the front. This space is going to be held for the next however long. Worship her back up on here.
I'm sure they'll go into a song. I'm sure something will happen. But let the Holy Spirit minister to you. It's not about getting up now.
Be still. Listen to what God is saying. Understand who you are.
Then boldly move. Thank you for tuning in to today's message. To connect or find out more, you can reach us online at worldchangers.life.
Remember to subscribe for more uplifting messages from our pastoral team, and may you continue to walk in faith and transformation until we meet again.
