Anchored in Identity: Why Your Decree Is Turbocharged

Sermon outline

Jesus our high priest carried His blood past every power of darkness to the mercy seat and stripped them of their authority, so a believer anchored in that identity is seated with Him and speaks with an authority Job never had.

1. Stay anchored in Christ through every current

   In the turbulence of life, high tide and low tide, mountain top and valley, you have to stay anchored in Christ. The hope we have is an anchor of the soul that cannot slip and cannot break down under whatever pressure bears down on it, and it enters behind the veil where Jesus has gone as our forerunner. He is the finisher as well as the author of our faith, because He knows the end from the beginning. God spoke into a world without shape, and you must speak into your environment to bring order out of chaos, because by your words you are justified or condemned.

   Illustration: The anchor on the stage was chosen because it sits in water, where the currents pull at it.

   “Your tongue is a vital part of your salvation.”

   • 1 Corinthians 9:22
   • Hebrews 6:19-20
   • Hebrews 12:2
   • Matthew 12:37

2. Jesus, the faithful high priest

   Under the law Aaron, himself a sinful man, offered a spotless lamb for his own sins and the people's, and took the blood behind the curtain to the mercy seat once a year, only for the people to accumulate their sin again. Jesus lived on the earth as a man, worked, had relationships, obeyed His parents and went to the temple as His custom, and was tempted in every way yet without sin. If you need a download, be where God commands the blessing, because faith comes by hearing. Jesus gave up the luxury of heaven and came to His own, who did not receive Him.

   Illustration: On the screen she shows the tabernacle: the outer court, the holy place, the curtain and the mercy seat, and how the high priest went in with a string tied to his ankle.

   “We are not sin conscious. We are living under grace.”

   • Hebrews 4:15
   • Luke 4:16
   • Psalm 133:3
   • Romans 10:17
   • John 1:11

3. Grace takes karma out of the equation

   God's love does not depend on how you behave; He loves you with an everlasting, unconditional love. She reads from a book she has with her: religion needs paying and returning customers, and no witch doctor would make money if the ancestors were not always portrayed as unhappy. Jesus did not come to persuade an angry God to be nice to mankind but to persuade an indifferent and hostile humanity about the goodness of God. God does not look at us from where we sinned but from what Jesus has accomplished.

   “His love towards you does not depend on how you behave.”

   • Jeremiah 31:3
   • John 14:9

4. Power: what Jesus did between the cross and the throne

   Jesus did not simply lie in the tomb for three days. As the high priest He carried His blood to the mercy seat while the powers of darkness clung to Him and tried to impede His progress, and He stripped them off, disarming their authority, their dominion and their rights and making a public show of them. That is why He told Mary not to touch Him: He was still carrying the blood. The Shekinah cloud surrounded Him as God's protection, and a power, energeia, was sent from God when the cross had left Him weak. He also went to Paradise and led the Old Testament saints out in triumphal procession. Only when the blood was on the mercy seat was the atonement complete.

   “You can only operate in power, in the fruitfulness they've been telling you about, is when you understand who you are.”

   • Hebrews 9:12
   • Colossians 2:15
   • John 20:17
   • Ephesians 4:8-9

5. Seated with Christ in heavenly places

   When the blood was on the mercy seat Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father, and we are seated with Him. So why sing about reaching His feet when you are sitting next to Him as a co-heir? You are the righteousness of God in Christ, redeemed, sanctified and holy, so stop having a small mindset about yourself and worrying about who did not phone. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is in you, the earth is waiting for the sons of God, and things stay the way they are because of our apathy.

   Illustration: When the devil brings his packages to her door, she has a very good stamp: return to sender.

   “I'm sitting next to Jesus. I don't want to just reach the feet.”

   • Ephesians 2:6
   • Romans 8:17
   • 2 Corinthians 5:21
   • 1 Peter 5:7
   • Romans 8:11
   • Romans 8:19
   • Psalm 68:19
   • James 1:17

6. Authority and dominion

   All authority in heaven and on earth has been given, so go and make disciples. Authority is the legal and moral right, power or permission to give orders, make decisions and enforce obedience, and believers are responsible for the moral temperature of their community. It also carries expertise, because when Jesus rose He gave gifts, which is why you are creative and full of solutions. If you do not use your authority, do not blame the devil for walking all over you. Be the high priest in your home, and stand tall without being rude, because as He is, so are we in this world.

   Illustration: A policeman on the road carries the authority of the government, and when he says stop, you stop. You carry the power of heaven to say stop to anything contrary to the Word: no entrance here, you have no legal right in my home.

   “If you don't use your authority, don't blame the devil for walking all over you.”

   • Matthew 28:18-19
   • Joshua 1:5
   • Joshua 1:9
   • 1 John 4:17
   • Isaiah 9:7

7. Your decree is turbocharged

   Job said you shall decree a thing and it shall be established, and Job was in the Old Testament. Yours is turbocharged, because Christ is in you, the hope of glory, and the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead reigns in you, so power goes through as you speak. Our world is the people and the environment we come in contact with, and we carry governmental authority to decree over it. When we exercise our God-given rights and authority we bring realignment and order.

   “Job was in the Old Testament, so he had to decree. Yours has got turbocharge.”

   • Job 22:28
   • Colossians 1:27

In this message