Gregory Dickow - The Believer's Authority
- Watch
- Audio
- Buy this sermon
- Donate
- Store
Well, hey there, beautiful family around the world, welcome to the "Power to Change Today". The greatest work of the devil is to get you to think you're powerless, to get us to doubt and question our power. But Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, all of them, and Jesus has given you and me that same power to destroy the works of the devil by destroying his lies. I hope you'll share this with someone who might be feeling powerless today 'cause this is gonna change their life forever. It's time to walk in our God-given authority, our God-given destiny. So check this out, and I'll be right back to pray with you with you at the end.
We're in a spiritual battle and we're fighting for souls. The devil is called, "The god of this world," and he has blinded the minds of the unbelieving. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 4, that's exactly what he says, "The god of this world is blinding the minds of the unbelieving, so that they would not see," the glory, "The light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God". He is the god of this world, Satan is the god of this world, not the God of the earth, he's the god of this world. That word, "World," means system, he is the god of this world's system. The world's system is hate, the world's system is superiority over inferiority, the world's system is to take, the world's system is to lie, to steal, to cheat, the world's system is to put me first. God's system is not like that, God's system is the opposite.
The devil is the god of this world's system, but he is not the god of this world. Jesus is God of this world. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the God of this world and every world that came before it, and every world that will come after it. Our God is the God of the world. Satan is the god of the world's system, and the world's system is broken and the world's system has failed, and the world's system is shame, and the world's system tries to blame and shame and victimize everybody, and the world system tries to get you disempowered. What Satan comes to do is oppress. The Bible says, in Acts chapter 10, verse 38, I want you to see this in Acts chapter 10, verse 38, it says that, "You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how He was anointed by God and by the Holy Spirit and with power," "He was anointed with the Holy Spirit and power," who, "Went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him".
Jesus came, of course, to save the world, of course he came to save us, he came to die for our sins, he came to be the substitutionary sacrifice for all of us, but he also came to destroy the works of the devil, and here we have a picture of what the works of the devil really are. Now we know the devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but people do that too. The point is that here he identifies, Jesus identifies exactly what he is doing against Satan's power, and revealing to us what Satan does by doing the opposite. Jesus is revealing to us how Satan operates by doing the opposite of what Satan does. What does Satan do? He does the opposite of what Jesus came to do. Jesus is anointed with the Spirit of God, with the Holy Spirit and power, to do two things here in this verse that are listed: to do good and to heal all who are oppressed by the devil.
Special announcement, everybody: There is a devil. And what he does, and this is how you recognize the works of the devil, is the devil does bad and the devil oppresses. So Jesus came to do good and heal all that are oppressed by the devil, he comes to do good and heal all. So when you see bad being done: devil. When you see good being done: God, Jesus. It's not hard, it's not complicated. When you see oppression, what is oppression? The word oppression means to come down upon someone and remove from them the power to control their own life. Oppression is to remove from someone the power to control their own life.
So if, for example, in world governments such as the Roman Empire, when Caesar controlled the world, everybody was being oppressed by the devil through Caesar, because what Caesar would do is he would take away the rights of the people and grant them whatever rights he believed should be given. And everybody's power was determined by how much power the ruler of that age gave to the people. And we have to realize something, that oppression is happening all over the world: oppression is happening through governments, oppression is happening through parenting when people don't parent their children properly, oppression is happening in religion, oppression is happening in churches where people in power make others dependent upon them or try to control somebody by saying, "Well, God told me you need to do such and such".
Well, if God wants to get ahold of me, he has my number. Like everybody else seems to text me nowadays, I've had the same phone number since 1993. I've had the same phone number since 1993, I don't even care if you have it, like, you probably have it; pass it out, I don't care. But if everybody knows my number, and I'm just me, I think God knows how to get ahold of me. We have to realize what this church is all аbout: it's all about helping you discover your power, helping you discover your power, not giving you power. If I lay hands on you, what's happening is the power of God that is in you is being activated by the power of God in me.
It's not like I'm the powerful one, and you're not, the Bible says, "These signs will follow those who believe: In my name they'll cast out demons; in my name they'll speak with new tongues; in my name they'll pick up serpents and they won't harm them," put away serpents; "In my name they could drink any deadly poison and it will not harm them; and in my name they'll lay hands on the sick, and they will recover". He says believers will lay hands, "These signs will follow those who believe". "Those who," what? "Believe". Let's go back to verse 16, where it says that, or 17. It says, watch this, These signs, Mark 16, verse 17, "These signs shall accompany those who have believed".
Now if I got in your car today after church, I would be accompanying you wherever you're going, right? Don't worry, I'm not coming. But if I was in your car with you, I'd be accompanying you; you're going and I'd be accompanying you. This is the same thing. Wherever we go, these signs are getting in the car with us and they're going with us. "And these signs will accompany those who," what? "Those who have believed". Back up for a moment to John chapter 1, verse 12, where the Bible says, I love this verse, John chapter 1, verse 12, "To as many as received Him". Have you received him? Raise your hand if you've received Jesus. Come on, shout amen if you've received Jesus.
What did you do to receive him? You just received him, "I accept". "Hey, I want to make you the offer that is too good to be true, but it is true, I'm giving you my Son, and with my Son I'm giving you everything pertaining to life and godliness. And I'm not withholding my own Son, so I'm not gonna withhold anything else that you need. And ask anything that you need anytime, by the way. Come to my throne of grace anytime, to receive mercy and grace in your time of need. Ask anything in my Son's name, and it'll be done for you. Do you accept"? I'm like, "I'm taking that deal". Because you know what? What if that deal comes off the table? I wanna get it while it's still going.
You know, there's certain sales, you know, you get these texts from different companies that you're signed up, you know, if you bought something with and they got all your information now, they know where you live, they know what you eat, they know, you know, what time you go to bed, they know everything about you. So, isn't that great? But we get these reminders all the time, "Hey, the sale, this 20% off is only till," it's only till, it's only till, it's only till. Thank God God's not an, "Only till" God, that his offer is good the rest of your life, and it's up to you, though, to accept it. So, "To as many as received Him," "To as many as received Him," back to John chapter 1, verse 12, "He gave them the right to become the sons and daughters of God". "To as many as received Him, to them He gave the right".
God wants everybody saved, but, "To as many as received Him, to them he gave the right to become children of God," and if it's unclear to you, he says, "Even to those who believe in His name". I believe there are so many more people saved than what we actually realize because, God made it so easy by paying the entire price for us, that all that's left for us to do is to receive. "To as many as received Him, to them He gave the right," the privilege, the power, "To become the children of God, even to those who believe in His name".
Listen, just believing in his name will get you to heaven. I believe in the name of Jesus. What that name means, what that name represents is evolving for me; it represents my salvation, it represents my healing, it represents the power to answered prayer, but that name is getting larger and larger in my mind, not smaller and smaller in my mind. But you have to get ahold of this, that this is not, God has taken the guesswork out of us walking in our authority, he's taken the guesswork out of us living our God-given, blood-bought privileges and our covenant rights as sons and daughters of God. He's taken all the doubt out of it, he's taken all the question out of it, he's taken all the worry and anxiety out of it. He says, "As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name".
And that's why it says, in Mark chapter 16, verse 17, "These signs will accompany those who," believe, "Those who have believed". Believed what? In my name. What name? The name above all names that we sang about, the beautiful name, the wonderful name, the powerful name. What a powerful name, what a beautiful name, what a wonderful name, right? That's the name of Jesus, and in that name we will cast out demons; in that name we will speak with new tongues; in that name we will put away serpents. Literally translated it means picking up serpents and putting them out of the way, removing them from being in front of you and trying to get in between you and where you're going. We pick up serpents, and if we drink any deadly poison, it's not gonna hurt us. It doesn't mean you go around and just find the strongest poison that can kill a man, and drink it.
Now we don't put the Lord to the test either, like that. But the point is that these signs don't follow those who do everything right, these signs follow those who believe, these signs follow those who believe. Doing right is better than doing wrong. Come on, can I get an amen on that? But doing right is not the condition upon which you have power and authority. The condition upon which you have power and authority is to be a believer and to believe in his name, and this is what gives you the power. It says that your drink deadly poison, it won't hurt you; and you shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. Now you've got sick relatives, go lay hands on 'em; you got sick friends, go lay hands on 'em.
Listen, I would love to pray for everybody, lay hands on everybody that's sick, but I'm just one person. We are the body of Christ. And I am telling you that we are not here for me to determine how much power you have, I'm here to announce to you how much power you have; I'm here to announce to you, "Behold, you've been given power". The Bible says in Luke chapter 10:19, it says Jesus said, "Behold, I give you power to tread upon serpents and trample over scorpions". He said, "I give you authority to tread on them, I give you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions". And by the way, in case you're wondering, "What about if it's not a serpent or a scorpion? 'cause those are pretty, like, random, you know," you have authority over serpents and scorpions, and if anybody's ever been bit by a scorpion you know how bad they are, serpents and scorpions, just in case that's not enough, "And over all the power of the enemy: and nothing," will injure you.
Now we have to make up our minds as people today, are we gonna take God at his word? Or are we going to believe the lies that try to infiltrate our mind and somehow try to minimize promises like this that Jesus made to us? He said, "Behold, all authority has been given to me in heaven and earth," in Matthew chapter 28. "Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations". He said, "All the authority has been given to me, and I give it to you". He said, "Behold, I hold the keys of hell and death".
You see, I believe that the great work, the greatest work of the devil is to get you to believe that you are powerless, it's to get you to doubt your power, to question your power, to establish what you think disqualifies you from your power. You see, you make up things: "Oh, I'm disqualified because I'm having a difficult time with alcohol," or, "I'm disqualified because I watched some pornography," "I'm disqualified because I, you know, had this happen in my life," or, "I did this".
That's your rule, that's not God's rule; you made that up, God didn't say that. God doesn't say you're disqualified because you messed up; God doesn't give you power and then say, "You know what? You haven't been using it very well, I'm taking it back". No, he actually lets you use it even when you're messing up. Because Romans chapter 11, verse 29, says something very important that I wanna encourage you to build your life upon. "For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable". They are irrevocable. Show us that in another few translations, just see what that word irrevocable is translated as, team. What else do we have?
"The gifts and callings of God are," the King James says they're, "Without repentance," meaning God doesn't give you a gift and then repent, and say, "Well, you know what? I repent, I'm taking your gift back". That's what repentance means here. "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance". What does The Message Bible say on that verse? Let's see. "For the gifts and calling of God," it's is gonna say something similar to that, Amplified Bible is gonna say something similar to that. But the point is, look at what he says, "God's overall purpose, they remain God's oldest friends. God's gifts and God's call are under full warranty: never canceled, never rescinded".
There you go, that's it. In case you were wondering what irrevocable means, there it is, baby, it means, "God's gifts and God's calling are under full warranty". Now I don't know about you, but whenever I have something that's under full warranty, I use it. If it's under full warranty and it breaks, I'm excited about getting it fixed 'cause I know it isn't going to cost me a penny. A guy said to me the other day, like a month or two ago, he's like, "Your car, you know needs this, this, this, and this, but you know what? It's still under warranty". I'm like, "Well, go ahead and do everything it needs then".
This is your power, you have this power, you have this power and God's not taking it back. Now you might hurt yourself with that power if you don't use it in the right way and so you gotta be careful handling weapons like this just like you have to be careful if you ever had a gun or had any sort of piece of equipment like that. You have to know how to use it, you have to know how to use it and you have to be trained to use those kinds of things. And that's all we're doing here, is training for reigning, all we're doing here is just trying to teach you how to walk in your authority, teach you how to walk in your power. Because oppression is from the devil, and oppression takes power from people, and so anything you see in this world that takes power from people is from the devil; it may be done by people, but it's from the devil.
And people have bought into the lie that they know better for you, so therefore you should give them your power. And you can't give anybody your power because Jesus said, "Let no man take your crown," let no man take it. He said don't let anybody take your crown, don't let anybody take your authority from you. A crown represents victory, a crown represents authority, a crown represents kingdom, a crown represents power. And Jesus said, in Revelation chapter 3, "I'm coming quickly! Hold fast to what you have; don't let anybody take your crown".
Don't let anybody deceive you, don't let anyone mislead you into thinking that you don't have this kind of power. You've been crowned, you're a king and a priest, you have authority, you're the head and not the tail, above and not beneath. You have been given the same power as the Son of the living God. He is sharing his power with us, he has bestowed it upon us, he's bequeathed it to us, he has put us in his will, he has left everything he has in his will for us, his children. And who are his children? "To as many as received Him, to them he gave them the right to become the children of God".
Come on, stand up to your feet right now, we gotta walk in our authority. C'mon, y'all, I know you can't hardly hear me now. My God, my God, it's time to walk in our God-given authority. These are your rights. They're not given to you because you somehow have earned them, these are your God-given, blood-bought rights. You have the right to put away serpents, you have the right for poison to hit you and it runs from you rather than you running from it, you have the right. You have the right to get up when you've fallen.
And we, as sons and daughters of God, how do we get up? We get up quickly, you just gotta get up quickly. You have the right to lay hands on the sick, you have the right to believe God's promises, you have the right to go to the throne of God's grace, to a high priest that is tender and compassionate and loving. Jesus even said, "What father among you, if his child asks for a fish, he would give him a snake instead; or if he asks for an egg, he would give him a serpent instead"? He said, "No father would do that," no earthly father. And he says, "You," earthly fathers, "Being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him"!