Creflo Dollar - The Supernatural Power of Sonship - Part 2
Saint John chapter 1, verse 11 and 12. Let's just go ahead and look at that, and get started, tonight. The Bible says, "He came unto his own," and making reference there to Jewish people. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not". They didn't receive him, they didn't believe him, and they did not depend on him, okay? He says, "But as many as received him," believed him and depended on him, "To them gave he power," and this word "power" is translated privilege, or the opportunity. "To them gave he privilege," they're privileged, those who believe have the privilege, "To become the sons of God". Somebody says, "I become the a son of God how"? It's a privilege, just by believing, receiving, and depending on him, you have been privileged to become, and it is a privilege, "To become sons of God, even to them that believe on his name".
So, if I had to define sons of God, you look it up, man, some of these seminarians get so deep, it's not that deep, it's real easy. In the New Testament, you are a son of God, somebody say, "Well, what about daughter"? You are already included in that, all right, all right? So, the only thing you do to be a son of God, and/or another translation, most of the time when you see sons of God, they just translate it, "Children of God," okay, is to believe in Jesus. So, the day you got born again, believe, received, and started depending on him, you entered into your sonship, you entered into your son. It's nothing big, special that you do, you believe Jesus, you receive him, you accept that privilege to be made sons of God, and you enter into your sonship, okay.
So, I can confidently say, tonight, that those of you who have been born again, you have entered into your sonship. Now, the Bible says that all of creation is waiting on the sons of God, so, I'm like, "Wait a minute, if you've entered into your sonship, what is it that they are waiting on"? Well, a couple of things here, just in review from last week. Understanding your divine nature, that's your spirit man, that's the real you, you are a spirit being, you possess a soul, you live in a body. You are not your body, you are not your soul, you are a spirit being. Say out loud, "I am a spirit being," okay? When you die, your spirit and your soul separate from your house that you live in in this physical world, okay? And then you're absent from the body and present with the Lord.
So, understanding your divine nature is the way to release the supernatural, as you begin to understand your divine nature. If you start just seeing yourself as a mere mortal, okay, someone that just is born to die one day, but you don't see yourself as immortal, see, your spirit man won't die, it'll move, it's gonna move out of this realm and move into another realm. You were created immortal, you were created immortal spirit, soul, and body, but you have to begin to understand your divine nature, and you begin to see the understanding of your sonship is the key to operating in the supernatural. How many of you are ready to operate in the supernatural?
Well, you've got to start focusing, everybody say, "Focus," you gotta start focusing on your sonship. "I am a child of God," we are children of God the day we got born again. When we got born again, we didn't stay the same, when we got born again, we entered into this divine family. When we got born again, now it's vital that we understand the divinity that we have on the inside of me. Somebody says, "Don't divinity mean God"? Yeah, the God you have on the inside of you, you live in him, he lives in you, you live by the faith of Jesus Christ. So, what we established last week is this, that there's a difference between a servant and a son, okay? Moses was a servant and those who were under the law were servants.
Now, this is huge, Moses was a servant and those who were under the law were servants. So, if you're fighting real hard to live under the law, you're fighting real hard to walk as Moses, a servant. But the contrast here is that Christ is the Son, and those who are in Christ are sons of God. So those of you who are in Christ, those of you who are born again, you are sons of God and you are under the grace of God. So we are no longer under the old covenant system where we are dependent on a priest to represent us before God, or a prophet to say something to us, we have sonship. Don't need no priest, don't need no booth, we have sonship, and in that privilege we have a right to have a personal relationship with God. You know there are sometimes prophets call me and they say, "I got a word from the Lord".
Appreciate it, but I talk to him every day, I talk to him every day and he talk to me every day. And I'm telling you, I appreciate it, but you have to understand, there's a difference between how you operated in the old and how you operate in the new. See, you're talking to a son, and my Daddy ain't gonna tell you nothing that he not willing to tell me. I felt something there, my God. Another thing we talked about is the fact that the law is for children, grace is for sons, the law is for children, grace is for sons. So you think about, at one time in your life, how hard you fought to remain in the law. The law is for children, grace is for sons. I'm giving you all this, so, we're gonna read it after a while, and you'll see it straight in the Word.
Let's go a little bit more and then we'll get started, tonight. The spirit of sonship brings with it a sense that we are right with God. I'm a son, it brings the sense that I'm okay with God, I'm right with God, I'm the righteousness of God. Righteousness is basically okayness with God. Now, the spirit of a slave brings with it the sense that we need to perform to earn the right to be in God's presence, but that's not the spirit of sonship. The spirit of sonship doesn't feel like it has to perform in order to feel like they have a right to be in God's presence, that's the spirit of a slave. The spirit of a servant brings with it the sense that we need to perform, we need to do good in order for God to be good to us, we need to do something to deserve it.
The spirit of a slave operates in dead works, the spirit of sonship moves in good works, and the determining, the differentiating factor there is, "What's your motive, what's moving you to do what you do"? Now, under the law, God was a judge, but under grace, God is a father. So we're dealing with Father God, today, and I think sometimes Christians still relate to God as he was under the law, a judge. He's not a judge in this dispensation, in this dispensation, under grace, he is a merciful Father, amen, amen. And see, the way you see God is gonna be the way that you're expecting from God. If you see him as judge, you see? Or do you see him as Father? And that becomes very important. So, as sons, we don't need to fear judgment from God. I'm a son, I am not fearing judgment and condemnation from God, this is not a relationship that's based in fear, but it's in the privilege and the freedom to call him "Daddy," all right?
Now, one more. Look at Matthew chapter 3:17. If you have it in the NIV, go there, if you would, Matthew chapter 3, verse 17. Now, our sonship comes from three things, and this is very important, and we close here. Our sonship comes from three things, number one, our sonship comes from our sense of identity, everybody say, "Identity". Number two, our sonship comes from a sense of acceptance, say, "Acceptance". And then, number three, our sonship comes from a sense of approval, say, "Approval". Now, in Matthew 3:17, he says, "And a voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son.'" All right, what did he do there? He identified him, he gave him the identity, "This is my Son," all right?
So, that's identity. "A voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son,'" and then, notice next, "Whom I love," that's acceptance. I love him, I've accepted him, all right? Ephesians 1:6 talks about how he was accepted. And then the final one, he says, "Whom I love; with him," watch this, "I am well pleased". "I am well pleased," he gave his approval, "I am well pleased," and that is what comes with every child of God. With every child of God, he identifies you as his son or as his children. With every child of God, he says, "Whom I love," he's accepted at you, so you don't need to work real hard to be accepted by other people. And to every child of God, he says, "I approve of you," he says, "I am well pleased".
See, I'm saying that to you, tonight, that God says to you, because you're his children, "I am well pleased". Now, you're thinking, "Oh, but you can't be... you just don't know". No, no, no, no. See, my kids can't do no more to get me to love them no more than, I'm already at the top where my love is concerned. Up, down, good, bad, I love them, I have accepted them, I have approved of them. And so, what happens is, I'm telling you right now that God says he is pleased with you. And somehow, that part of you in your soul that needs to be renewed is saying, "No, I don't know, I just can't receive that he's pleased with me".
So, what happens? Now you start trying to perform and work to try to get that to be accomplished because you don't really believe that it is, and this is what it's like under the grace of God. Now, I wanna have some reading time, I want you to go to the book of Galatians, and I'm gonna read out of the NLT Bible. And what we're gonna do, Galatians chapter 4, I was gonna start at verse 21. Yeah, yeah, let's start at verse 21, Galatians chapter 4, verse 21. And I'm gonna read, we're gonna look and have a study from that verse to the next chapter, verse 1, and I want you to see some amazing things here in the Word of God. Okay, you ready? All right, whoo, this is good, I love this, I don't get enough time teach on this, but this is good.
All right, now, notice throughout the Book of John there's always that comparison between Moses and Jesus, a comparison between the law that came by Moses, and the grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ. All right, now, Galatians was written because there were a lot of religious leaders that were trying to get those who believed in Jesus and received the gospel of grace, they were trying to get them to turn back to the law. Now, that's like saying, "I'm gonna get you to turn away from your sonship, stop being children of God, and go back to being servants," yes-sir-master servants. You understand? All right, so here's what he's saying, he said, "Tell me, you who want to live under the law".
How many of you have met people, still today, who still want to live under the law? And you know, we've got to be patient with them, because a lot of people were patient with us. I mean, every time you think about getting frustrated when you meet that, just think about the journey you took to get where you are today. "Tell me, you who want to live under the law, do you know what the law actually says"? Now, remember, the law was perfect, mankind wasn't, so you're dealing with something that's flawless, and somebody who's fallen from perfection trying to keep that which is perfect, and they think they can keep it on their own. And so, for a fallen human to try to keep something that's perfect, that's God, that's God's character. It's going to judge them, it's going to, the perfection is going to condemn them, the perfection is going to shame them, the perfection, literally, is gonna kill them.
And a lot of people died for stuff you would say little, like condemnation, a lot of folks died. And I don't think people realize that when God came down from the mountain, Mount Sinai, where the law was being given, and he wanted to speak to them, they begged Moses, "Please, ask God that let you talk to us, we can't handle him talking". Oh my God, but today, under grace, that God they couldn't handle speaks to you every day. All right, let's get on. Verse 22, "The Scripture says that Abraham had two sons, one from his slave wife and one from his freeborn wife". So he's getting ready to talk about the mother of Ishmael and the mother of Isaac, and what it represents here, so follow this carefully. "The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God's promise".
All right, so it was human effort, human performance. In other words, they did not depend on God for the birth of this child, they just performed out of their own efforts and their own supply, and Ishmael showed up as a result of the supply that they had, human resources. "But the son of," Sarah, "The freeborn wife was born as God's own fulfillment of his promise". So, one was born out of human fulfillment, the other one came because of God. Abe and Sarah didn't have nothing to contribute, their supply had stopped, right? All right, watch this. "These two women serve as an illustration of God's two covenants. The first woman, Hagar, represent Mount Sinai".
Now, what's the significance of Mount Sinai? That was, "Where people received the law that enslaved them". That's interesting, They received the law, and the law enslaved them, or, it's trying to demonstrate and show you, they were servants, they were under the law, your servants. And Hagar represents Mount Sinai and the covenant of the law, and it's where people receive the law. And so we've got to move our pulpits away from Mount Sinai, because, right now, too many pulpits are still at Mount Sinai, and we're producing slaves in the church, or servants in the church, when we should be giving birth to sons and children, right?
All right now, watch this. "And now Jerusalem is just like Mount Sinai in Arabia". Boy, I tell you, whoo, you could say some stuff there, I don't think I want to get canceled yet, but you can sure say some stuff there, he said, "Because she and her children live in slavery to the law. But the other woman, Sarah, she represents heavenly Jerusalem". So we talking about what's in the realm of the Spirit, "She is the free woman, and she is our mother". Hagar is not our mother, we are not children of the natural. Oh, no, no, no, we don't do that no more, we're not dependent on what we can do in the natural, we are children of the supernatural, we depend on God, we trust God to do some stuff, you know? In other words, our life is not dependent on the abundance of our supply, hallelujah, When we out of our supply, we don't call for no refill. All of heaven glad that our supply is gone so God can supply all of our needs according to his riches in glory, all right?
Now watch this. "And Isaiah said," and you know, this is pertaining to this situation, "Rejoice, O childless woman, you who have never given birth! Break into a joyful shout, you who have never been in labor! For the desolate woman now has more children". You know what she talking about now, because the supernatural produced Isaac, and all of us are children through the supernatural means of making Jesus the Lord of our lives. She said, "You now have more children than a woman who lives with her husband"! Now, "And you, dear brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, just like Isaac". You see where he coming from here? 29, "But you are now," now this is so cool. So you're children of the supernatural, "You're children of the promise, just like Isaac," you came into being through a supernatural means, that old man died and the new man stepped forth by supernatural means.
"But you are now being persecuted by those who want you to keep the law". Wow, even, I think another translation says, "Even today you're still being persecuted because you live by grace and not by the law". I mean, the stuff that has happened to me, none of it started happening until I made a commitment that I was gonna be a student of grace. While I was teaching law and producing slaves, so something happening here now. "You're now being persecuted by those who want you to keep the law, just as Ismael, the child born by human effort". And we got a church full of people that's trying to be saved by human efforts.