Favour Comes With Responsibility Attached

Sermon outline

The favour of God is real, but the believer carries a responsibility: you are seated with Christ and share His authority over the devil, so stand in your own faith, act on the word and stop letting distraction steal it.

1. Seated with Christ, carrying His authority

   God raised Christ and seated Him far above every principality and power, and He raised us up together and seated us with Him. So the authority given to Christ has been given to us. We do not go by feelings but by that authority, given only to those who are in Christ, and we carry out the work of heaven on the earth.

   Illustration: Have you ever seen a king struggling to get dominion in his own kingdom? The man in the office who bangs the table shouting that he is the boss is showing that he is not walking in his authority.

   “The authority that was given to Christ has also been given to us, 'cause we are seated with Christ.”

   • Ephesians 1:16-23
   • Ephesians 2:1-7
   • Ephesians 3:14-17
   • Luke 10:19

2. Authority over spirits, not over people

   Nowhere in the New Testament are we told to pray to God about the devil; Jesus took back the keys and gave us authority over the enemy. We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, and that covers the whole spectrum. But we have no authority over people's will; we can only stand in agreement with them.

   “We don't take authority over people. But we have authority over the spirit that's working in those people.”

   • Ephesians 6:12
   • Matthew 28:18-20

3. Knowing scripture is not the same as having power

   Many who grew up in church have heard "go ye therefore" all their lives, but until we apply the words, they are just words. Power comes by revelation through the Spirit. The signs follow every believer, so start acting on the word you know.

   “Knowing scripture doesn't necessarily mean that you have that power.”

   • Mark 16:15-18

4. The least of us has the same authority; stand in your own faith

   A new believer has the same authority as one of many years, and a believer who has been in sin can get right with God and walk in it immediately. Paul persecuted the church and received authority the moment he met Jesus. Resist the devil and he will flee. Other people's faith can carry you for a season, but God expects you to stand on your own.

   Illustration: Kenneth Hagin, bedridden with a bad heart, could not walk three steps, and God healed him and used him for decades. Later his son, sickly for years, was healed every time he phoned his father to pray, until one day it stopped working; the Lord told Hagin it was time for the boy to stand in his own faith.

   “How long are we as believers going to allow other people's faith to work for us?”

   • Matthew 17:20
   • James 4:7-8

5. Fight the spirit, not the person; don't let distraction steal the word

   The devil will never face you in a fist fight because he has already lost, so he works through people and we end up fighting the person. He hides our authority behind sickness, upbringing and trauma, and we make excuses: someone sat in my chair, someone looked at me funny. In a service he steals the word through the phone, gossip and the busyness of life. We are in the world, not of it.

   “Beast mode doesn't apply to me. God mode applies to me.”

   • John 17:16

6. Keep the balance of word and Spirit

   Narrow is the way, and anything that deviates from it is off course. A believer who is all Spirit drifts from the word, and one who is all Bible drifts from the Spirit. Those who chase prophecy without knowing the word end up trying to fulfil things they were never meant to do. A false balance is an abomination.

   Illustration: At a ministers' fraternal years ago, a man of God he knew told him he was meant to be a missionary in the Amazon. He had no witness to it, thanked him and declined, because God had already shown him his path.

   “If you are only a spirit person, then you're deviating from the word. And if you are only a Bible person, then you're deviating from the spirit.”

   • Matthew 7:14
   • Proverbs 11:1

7. A place of special privilege is a place of special attack

   Being seated with Christ is a place of special privilege and of special attack; becoming a Christian does not mean living among daisies. But there is victory in that authority, and many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers from them all. Change your prayer life: start with a proverb and a psalm a day, ask the Holy Spirit to teach you to pray, and take authority over the sleep that comes the moment you open the Bible.

   Illustration: He suffered sinus so badly that his brain shook when he sneezed. He heard a preacher on tape who refused to blow his nose on a four-hour drive, believing God, and arrived healed. He did the same and was delivered.

   “It's a place of special privilege. Together with that, I want to say that is a place of special attack.”

   • Psalm 34:19

In this message