I was planning to go into my series on the Holy Spirit and finish it. It's been like two
or three years. We cut it off and we haven't gotten back to it, finished it. And I thought,
well, that's where we'll go. Let's review for a Sunday or two and let's finish it. And
this week the Lord shifted that whole thing on me. So we're going to go on a journey
here, especially this morning is going to be a journey. And we're going to talk
about our identity in Christ. Who am I? What am I? What is my identity? You say, why do
we need to know that? Because without us knowing that, well, let me say it this way, that affects
everything in life. It affects our beliefs, it affects what we're going to stand for, stand
against. It's going to affect our relationship with Him. It totally messes with our faith if we
don't know who we are. So this morning we're going to go on a journey. I'm going to go way back
and I'm going to grab something that to begin with you might think that doesn't even pertain.
It does. And we'll move it forward because one of the things we need to know
about who we are in Christ is what was the human race originally created for?
Because the first Adam lost that. But Jesus came as the second Adam to restore that.
So what was the human race created for? Because our identity is still wrapped up
and God hasn't left His original purpose. You know, here's what I made the human race for.
Yeah, that didn't work out. Let's do something different with Him. He has not done that.
It's going to flow all the way through. So here are the main things I want to hit in this
series. It'll probably take me seven Sundays. I'll hit the first one this Sunday.
The human being is of the God class. And then the human being fell into sin, but God.
Now I am saved. I am the Father's workmanship. And two specific areas I want to hit that
He's working on us in is sanctification, maturity, and empowerment.
So the first point that I was going to hit, which is we're in the God class, I thought,
well, let's just hit that and skip it and run. And I kept trying to skip it and go
to the next one and the third one. And I kept circling back, circling back.
Finally, it's like, well, okay, let's deal with this. The reason I hesitate to deal with this a
little bit is because the human being was created for a specific purpose. And there's a lot of
controversy around what that purpose was. There's a lot of ideas. There's a lot of controversy
about it. And I've had this question for years, which I'll tell you in a second here.
I've been researching this for years, and I've come up to conclusions that satisfy me,
which identifies who I am in Christ. I am going to pass those on to you this morning.
This was supposed to be a podcast topic. And we were going to hash this over in the podcast,
this first message. But since I'm hitting it here, we might still visit it. I don't know.
But here it is. Human being, we're made of the God class. We're made in God's image and likeness.
We're created to rule and reign. And our words carry tremendous power. We can't create something
out of nothing, but we can move things of God's creation around with the words of our
mouth, or the faith that's in our mouth like Romans 10 talks about.
So part of knowing, I'll just repeat it again, part of knowing who we are and what our identity is
is to know what were we created for. So here's where I started studying this subject
years ago, because I had two or three people. I was really young in ministry. I had two or
three people ask me this, and I said, I have no idea. And I started studying it, and I
still had no idea. So I've been on this for a long time. Here was the primary question,
and then others floated around it. Same type of question. Why would God put man on the earth
with Satan? Isn't that a recipe for disaster? Here you've got the leader of the heavenly rebellion
caused him and a third of the angels to be cast out of heaven to this planet,
brings total destruction to this planet. We don't know how long that went on, what the earth was in
that state. But God comes up with an idea and says, I'm going to do something. I'm going to create
a new kind of being, and I'm going to put them on that planet with that wretch,
that deceiver, that rebellious one. That's where I'm going to put them.
It's a great idea. And I'm going, that's a good question. Why would he do that?
You know, the whole thing of the two trees in the garden would have went a lot better if
Satan wasn't here. You know, if this would have been a totally clean, righteous planet,
the temptation for that second tree would have not been pushed near as hard
as when he showed up. Well, why did you put them on earth with Satan?
Which goes to begs the next question. Why did God create man? Now, here I'm going to stay extremely
scriptural because I've heard all kind of, I've asked people, I've asked ministers,
why did God create man? Because God wanted relationship. Don't say amen too fast.
Can you show me that scripture? That's why he created us so he could have relationship with somebody.
God has been around forever. He has multitudes of creations. He never created one he could
have relationship with from eternity past till us. Well, let's say it's true. Then why didn't
he say it in the scripture? It doesn't say it in the scripture. Well, God wanted a friend. He had none.
Really? I've heard some, you know, answers that it's like, naturally, that's not scriptural.
I know it's widely accepted. Well, why did God, well, he wanted someone he could have
fellowship with, commune with. Where does it say that? That's why he created us.
Now, does he want fellowship and be able to commune with us? Absolutely.
But he created us because he needed someone to have a friend and commune and have fellowship
with. No, it doesn't say that. It doesn't say anything like that. So my question went on.
Well, eventually I started, I studied a bunch of different material on this. And whether it was a
Holy Spirit or some of this material, my brain started going in direction. Okay, God has a
rebellious being, Lucifer, who got full of pride and full of himself and got into sin. God had
a lot. We just let him roam unattended, him and his crew. What do we do with him?
God couldn't ignore him. But because of who he created Lucifer to be, either it was God himself
who had to deal with this, or he needed something other than what he had created,
because Scripture, it doesn't flat out say it, but it indicates Lucifer in authority and rank was
one of the highest creations God made. So who are you going to put in charge over him? Who has
the authority over him? So who was Lucifer? So we're going to find our identity now. So I remind
you, don't go, yeah, this has nothing to do with our identity. You wait. Be surprised.
So who was Lucifer before his fall? Lucifer is his pre-fall name. Satan is his after he fell.
Well, Job, forgot to give you that one. You can take a look at it.
Who was Lucifer? Well, Job 1 says he was called one of the sons of God,
which, you know, doesn't tell us a lot, but that's who he was.
The two Scriptures that get most into him as Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 gives us the most insight on
him. Now Ezekiel 28 is the one we're going to look at this morning. And it's addressing the
king of Tyre. But when you read it through, it doesn't apply to a man. It can't apply to a man.
So most scholars say it's addressing the spirit behind the king of Tyre,
which when you read it through, it's like, oh, I can see that. That's Lucifer. So let's read this
through. Ezekiel 28, son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him,
thus says the Lord God. You are the full measure and pattern of exactness, giving the finishing
touch to all that constitutes completeness, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
I have never seen a human being that could fulfill that. Completely, totally complete,
not just having wisdom, full of wisdom and perfect in appearance, in beauty. Now that's
probably not just what we would consider physical. That is the entire being.
This one kind of kicks the man right out of the picture. You were in Eden, the garden of
God. Yep, I don't think the king of Tyre was there. This is a long time after Eden.
So this has to be talking about something other than the direct man. And as we read through, it'll
go, oh, yeah, I see it. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering
and he lists them there. So literally he, I don't know how it looked, but he wore precious stones
for clothing, covering, expensive stuff. That was his clothes. Your settings in your sockets
and engravings were wrought in gold on the day you were created. So we're going to go back
to that previous line because that's a bad translation there in the amplified.
It's one of the few times he amplified misses it. Every other translation disagrees with that,
the ones that I looked at. But hit the last phrase, on the day you were created.
So Lucifer was a created being. He's not an eternal being. God created him.
And he created him with perfection beyond anything.
Now, if you go to the New King James, King James, NIV, some of the other translations,
this is how it says that. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you
in the day you were created. Timbrels and pipes speak of musical instruments.
Lucifer literally had musical instruments built into him.
Correct. He was a walking, living musical instrument. And
of course, the presupposition to that is to praise and worship God.
And since his position of authority, which we haven't gotten to yet, but his position of
authority was so high, he could have very well been what we call a praise leader.
It just came out of them. The music, the percussion, the timbrel speaks of percussion,
and pipes speaks of, it opens it up. Some even say strings can come in under pipes,
but pipes is more of an air driven type of musical instrument.
So when God created him, he created him a musical being,
which really makes a lot of sense in the culture and where music is at.
Because the mastermind behind all the rebellious music against God and what God wants
is him. So it makes a lot of sense.
Here is who he was. Well, Satan was an archangel. Well, see, Scripture doesn't say that.
You were the anointed cherub that covers. So you weren't just an anointed cherub.
Now, cherub is of the cherubim class. Remember cherubim?
They were the two that were over the Ark of the Covenant.
They were winged creatures, and they had the ability to guard and watch over.
Lucifer was anointed as a cherub, or of the cherubim class of being.
We're of the human class of being. He was the cherubim class of being.
And he was specifically given the ability to be a covering or an overseer.
If you're going to cover over something, it's more than just you. It's over many.
With overshadowing wings. Lucifer is a winged being. Not all angels are, but Lucifer is.
And I set you so. You were upon the holy mountain of God, and you walked up and down
in the midst of the stones of fire. The holy mountain of God. Here's one
person. He took the Hebrew word apart. It refers to a sacred elevated place of divine presence.
An elevated place of privilege, and a sacred elevated place to the closeness of God.
Stones of fire seems to indicate
the one guy I studied that makes the most sense to me.
He said he walked among the building blocks of creation.
Stones of fire literally being...
You know, we used to think atoms were the building blocks, but now we've come to understand
that it's a wavelength that goes back and forth between the spiritual and the physical realm.
Well, how does that work? I don't know, but Lucifer did. He walked in that. He understood what God was
doing. Highly, highly intelligent being. You were blameless. Back up. You were blameless.
In all your ways from the day you were created. Again, a created being
blameless. He was without fault. He was perfect. He was complete.
Verse 16,
Through the abundance of your commerce, you were filled with lawlessness and violence.
That's interesting. The word commerce there literally means... Let's see if I can find it here.
Where did I put it? I'll find it and then I'll repeat it.
But it's dealing with a traveling tradesman. That's what the word commerce means.
So somehow in the creation that was before he fell,
he was working between cultures. He was working between different kind of
creations. He was traveling the whatever universe was at that point.
For God.
Which is like, well, we don't have enough information on that to even really speculate.
But that's what it was.
But he did so well in that realm. He started pulling dirty deals.
Lawlessness and violence started having, you know, violence. He was violating people.
I cast you out as a profane thing from the mountain of God.
Now listen to this next part.
And the guardian cherub drove you out, one of his own kind.
God chose and said, you get him out.
Wow. That is interesting to me too. It's like, well, why didn't he use Michael?
Why didn't he use a different kind of creation?
No, he chose one of his own kind to drive him out.
Verse 17, your heart was proud and lifted up because of your beauty. He was perfect.
And you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor,
whether that's referring specifically to the beauty or to the splendor that he carried
because he was perfect. He was blameless or whatever.
He was full of wisdom, but wisdom got corrupted because he was too perfect.
If you want to say it that way.
So now I've noticed the pattern here.
Anytime, I mean, God is capable of handling full wisdom. He is full wisdom.
Anytime it seems like he gives too much of that on, it corrupts. Corrupted Lucifer.
It corrupts with corrupted Solomon. It doesn't specifically talk about Adam being a really
wise person, but every creature that God had created, God brought to him and said,
figure this out. Tell me what this is and name it.
You got to have the marbles roll in the right direction to pull that one off.
So I think Adam was pretty wise. So you look at Lucifer, you look at Adam,
you look at Solomon, and you say, how can you be so wise and make such dumb choices?
Because they did. They made some bad choices.
His case, his perfection caused him to hit the ditch. That's what it says. His splendor,
his perfection. He was perfect. He was complete. And he got enthralled with himself.
You have profaned your sanctuaries. Sanctuary is a consecrated place
like a palace, a holy place. What it's talking about, I don't know, but apparently he had
some holy places, some palaces. I don't know, maybe he had a place set apart where he would go
and he would minister to God in music. It was a holy hell of a place, a sanctuary.
And then again, it could be palaces that were for him, like we're going to have mansions.
He had palaces where he profaned the whole works by the multitude of the inequities and
the enormity of his guilt. And by the, here it says it again, the unrighteousness of your trade.
Interesting. So Lucifer was an amazing creation, complete in perfection. He was exactly
perfect. Covered with precious stones, he had musical instruments built into him. He was created
an anointed cherub, so he had oversight. He walked on the holy mountain of God among the
sacred stones, the stones of fire. He was blameless. Here it is. He was in business. He traveled
for trade. That's literally what that word commerce in the King James means. He traveled
for trade. I have no idea what that's about. And he was perfect in beauty,
but then we had a problem. He sinned and he was cast out of heaven to earth. So now what?
What do we do with this? This isn't some Joe Schmo. This is a being that God created
and all the inferences of what we read is there was no other being created like him.
He was above somehow in his splendor, in his beauty, in his wisdom. There was, he had full access
to the workings and the presence and the inside behind the scene stuff, the mountain of
God, what God was doing in the stones of fire. This wasn't just some Joe Schmo angel.
This is a very, very high being that God created. We can't leave him unattended.
He's way too smart. You leave your two-year-old unattended. They're going to come up with
stuff that's like, how do you think of that? You shouldn't have done that.
Well, you think you can't leave him unattended. He's got to be controlled. He's got to be
watched over. He's got to be kept in line. What are we going to do with him?
I could almost hear the Trinity saying, I don't think it's our job.
I mean, we're going to leave heaven, go sit at the edge of earth and watch this clown.
We're not going to, we're not going to do that.
I don't know who came up with the idea, but it said God said.
God is Elohim. God said, let us, so it must have been a triune thing. Hey, I've got an idea.
Let us make man in our own image. Elohim said that. Elohim is the Trinity means God's more
than one. That's why he said, let us make man in our image. Speaks of total power and might,
complete sovereignty, complete creativity and creative power.
And everybody has that booklet. If you don't grab one, it gives you the names of God,
so you can inject them then and go, oh, now I see what this is saying.
So God created man. He needed somebody
to be able to deal with Satan and the fallen angels, specifically Satan.
So he created a being higher in authority than Satan and the fallen angels.
If I had a big mirror here, I'd hold it up and say, that's you.
That's you. Even in our ugly, fallen, flesh, nature, existence, Satan is scared, spitless of you.
Because you carry a bigger club than he ever dreamt of holding.
We were created to deal with this Satan problem.
God needed a being that can rule and reign over Satan. So he created one, man.
To me, it's the only thing that explains our design, which we're going to get to now.
And it's the only thing that explains why would you create a being and put them on earth with that jerk?
Oh, you need someone to be in charge of that jerk. That's us.
So who or what is this man or this woman that God created?
We are a creation that was made just below God in authority.
Lucifer was very high, but God put us right under him. Here's where it says it.
And you have made him a little lower than the angels.
I added that parentheses. That word angels there is not angels. It's Elohim.
It means the Trinity, the name that describes the creative power of God, the all sovereign,
the all powerful one. You made him just a little lower than yourself and then to make sure that
everybody got it, you crowned him with glory and honored him and who you made him to be.
Wow.
You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands and have put some things under his feet.
All things. Now we know where we rank in the order of creation.
We are way up here right under God. And he put all things under us.
Wow. I already gave you the definition to Elohim.
Here's what's interesting. All the way through chapter one to chapter two,
verse three, where he starts dealing with Adam and Eve specifically and creation and lays that
out all the way through chapter one. He uses one name Elohim. Chapter two, verse four, he adds another
name to it because now he's dealing with this creation that is put right underneath him.
If you read it in the King James, the word God is Elohim. In chapter two, verse four, it says
the Lord God. Lord is Yahweh. That is the big kahuna name. The self-existent eternal one,
the one who will be, who will be. In conservative Jewish culture, they're not even allowed to
speak that name because it's so holy. So right under God, he sticks us and then when he starts
talking to us about specifics as human race, he says, by the way, I am your Lord God.
So just because you're a big shot doesn't mean you don't surrender and follow me.
You still must stay submitted to me. He now uses the term Lord God through all the way up to
Genesis 17.1. We go through all kinds of things, creation, the fall, Cain and Abel,
Nephilim, the flood, the first covenant with Noah, the tower of Babel, the calling of Abraham,
Lot, Melchizedek, the covenant with Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael. This is all Lord God,
Lord God, Lord God. Chapter one was Elohim, God. He changes and reveals another one of his
names in chapter 17, verse one, when he's trying to convince Abraham, I'm capable of giving your old
wife a son. Remember, she was 90. Don't frown at me, ladies. She was 90. She was old to be having
kids. Abraham thought so. She thought so. I mean, and Abraham wasn't buying it. Hence the previous
chapter, Hagar. They didn't think it was possible. So God shows up in chapter 17 and says,
by the way, I am Al Shaddai. I am the all-sufficient one. I have everything you need.
And I'm going to make covenant with you and get it to you.
So it's like, wow. But everything to that point was Elohim, Elohim, Elohim, Elohim, Elohim,
Lord Elohim, which puts him just above us. He's the master ruler over us. So he empowered us,
gave us the authority to literally, we have power and authority over everything.
But he added something. The heaven, even the heavens are the lords, but the earth,
he has given to the children of men. The earth is up to us. And we are doing a bang-up job of it.
But the earth, literally, he gave to us. So now I'm going to put something together for you here.
God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let him have dominion over any
names, physical things, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
Catch that phrase. I underlined it there for you. Every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth.
So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and
female. He created them. Then God blessed them. And God said, this is all Elohim.
And God, Elohim blessed them. And Elohim said to them, be fruitful and multiply.
Fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion, fill the earth and subdue it.
Take note of that. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air,
and over every living thing that moves on the earth. See, at this point, Adam and Eve
were totally innocent to the spirit realm that was around them.
They didn't... God was... I'm sure he was in the process of teaching them, and he was going
to instruct them and take them down the road and clue them in and say, by the way,
you two are not here alone. There's lots of... lots of others here with you.
And he was going to move that way. But he just summed it up for them.
Things that creep on the earth. Every living thing that moves on the earth.
Well, here isn't it interesting when Satan had to present himself before God as one of the
sons of God. And God said to him, he said, where'd you come from? Which means he has some
ability to roam and move. And Satan says, well, from going to and fro on the earth and from
walking back and forth on it. Well, that verse says everything that moves on the earth is under
our authority. Satan just said, I'm just wandering around walking on the earth.
So out of his own mouth, he made the statement that says, yeah, we're over you.
Because we've been given authority over everything that moves on the earth.
So here's an interesting question for you, which we won't take time, but I'm just going to plant
some seed here for you to think about. Is this why angels are under our administration
or judgment? 1st Corinthians 6.3, they use the word judgment in King James. It actually
means administration. Since it seems Lucifer was a creation created above the angels
for us to have authority over him, God created us above Lucifer, which means this whole works
down here is under us, which that's why Paul says, don't you know you're going to judge or you're
going to administrate angels? So that whole, apparently, that whole thing is under us.
So what was this man made like? What are the characteristics?
Well, it says image and likeness gives us a few clues. Image means this.
It's an illusion or resemblance like a phantom image, a representative figure.
So in other words, when you see us, it's like they look a lot like God.
But the word image doesn't seem to carry the thing of look. It seems to carry the thing
of represented tid authority, authority granted, a class or a category of being that authority
has been granted. He said, you've been made right under me, Elohim. New Testament calls us
ambassadors, ambassadors who represent his authority. We call things. We declare things.
We bind. We lose. We don't do that in our own power. We're representative ambassadors
of him. So image seems to be dealing with more authority than sight.
And it's over spiritual and physical because he already made that plane. Anything that moves
on the earth. Well, Lucifer said, I move on the earth where Satan said, well, guess what?
Now you're under my authority. So we've been given that authority. Now
we can't create from nothing. We're not, God reserves that for himself.
God created the mountains. We can move them.
God created the trees. We can bless or curse them.
God is the creator, but he gave us the authority to move the pieces around
with the words of our mouth. That's how we're like the father. Image.
The two ultimate languages, we talked about these just a little bit in that
pre-message message. Death and life lies in truth.
Faith is in our mouth. Either it's a God kind of faith or it's fear faith,
but we're always walking by faith as human beings. We've been designed to walk by faith.
It's who we are. It's part of our identity. Well, I walk by sight. No, you don't.
Every human being on earth walks by faith. And we can talk about that as we get further
into that. So image and likeness. Resemblance. Here we've got like the model, the shape,
the fashion. Like if you're going to build a new car, they make a model of it first.
So this is what it's going to look like. It seems to be talking more about the physical
aspect, the appearance. So what did mankind appear like before the fall? They looked like God.
Looked at us. Looked at God and said,
they look alike. They got a likeness. But what does that mean? What does God look like?
Revelation 1. In the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the Son of Man. So this is Jesus.
Jesus is God. Clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded with
and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head,
hair were like wool, white like wool, and white as snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire.
Okay, so that's how John saw him. His feet
were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace.
Almost like hot molten metal. His voice describes that at the end. It says,
his countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. So he was really, really bright.
So there's some similarities that show up as you go through Scripture.
God the Father can look completely white also, like Jesus was there, very bright. And Daniel
7 talks about that. And God the Father and the Holy Spirit are described as being
bright and like on fire, like glowing metal, which that would have been under Jesus,
his vesture, his clothing, his feet stuck out. He saw that part of him. Let me show you this from
what Ezekiel saw. Ezekiel 1, and above the firmament over the heads was like the
likeness of a throne in the appearance of a sapphire stone. And the likeness of the throne
was a likeness with the appearance of a man high above it. Here is the Father.
He looks like a man because man looks like him. Also from the appearance of his waist
and upward, I saw as it were the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around
within it. So from the waist up, it looks like he's on fire.
And from the waist down, it looks like he's on fire and he's really bright.
And like the appearance of a rainbow and a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the
brightness, which was the glory. The brightness was the glory surrounding him. This was the
appearance and the likeness of the glory of the Lord. So Ezekiel is describing the Father here.
So Adam and Eve were made to look like him. Now put this in your mind. When Adam and Eve
sinned, Paul says, Romans 3.23, they fell short of the glory. And all of a sudden they went,
were naked. They were naked the whole time except for one thing. They were clothed.
They looked like God. Very bright on fire.
And it even looked kind of like a fire with a molten metal. That was their clothing.
Now Lucifer, who had been in the secret places with the Father,
put this in your head. When the Father came walking through the garden
and he is looking like that with extremely bright, Lucifer knew that's the Father.
Seen that before, know who that is.
Who are those other two? They look just like them.
Our original appearance, our clothing as a human race was that. So just by walking
through the garden with the Father, the Father was showing Lucifer, these two got one up on you.
Which he's in rebellion. So what's the first thing when you tell a kid who's
in rebellion, you can't do that? Well they're going to try to do it. So hence here we go for the tree.
But that is what it looked like. Man was God's representative on earth to rule the physical
creation and the fallen spiritual creation. How that was supposed to play out we don't
know because it never got there. First Adam messed that up. The second Adam came to restore that.
Now I want you to think about something. Adam and Eve, originally the human race was originally
put here to rule this physical world and everything that was here was under our
rulership and our reign and our control. They sinned and lost that.
Jesus comes, Paul says, as the second Adam, to restore back to man what they lost.
Or what they lose. They're supposed to be ruling over everything including the spirit realm
and he restores us back to the same thing. I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning.
Don't worry about him. Nothing in that realm shall by any means hurt you. I give you power to
tread on over all the power of the enemy. What's he doing? He's putting us back to where Adam and
Eve were. You know those creepy critters? He's supposed to be under your control not you under
his. He's supposed to be under your control. This whole physical realm it's supposed to
be under our control. As he gave it to them they lost it. Jesus bought it back. What does Paul
say in Romans 8? The very creation is groaning, waiting for somebody who resembles God, says
sons of God, to show up and set it free from what it's been put under. That's us. The creation
itself is waiting for us to begin ruling and reigning again. So how do you keep the earth
from being ruled and reigned by the human race? You keep them fighting and divided.
Here we are. And we are literally as human beings powerless to rule the physical realm.
It's like we're always reacting to what's going on rather than leading it. If the whole human race
would get saved, understand who we are, we could end every destructive thing on this earth
because it is designed to obey us. We've been given that authority.
The problem is that's not happening. So let's come to a conclusion on this.
Man was created an outstandingly awesome being. Image and likeness, appearance and authority
were like God. We're created to rule right beneath Elohim.
Right beneath. We're created to rule
with our words. Three scriptures for it. One Old Testament, two New Testament.
The curse was you're going to have to make a living with your hands which is going to cause
your physical body to get hot and perspire. By your hands, your work, the sweat of your brow,
you're going to make a living at them. That was the curse. Adam was designed to just speak to
it. I want this there and I want that there. Jesus even alluded to it, you want to mountain move
or speak to it. That was our original design. Wow.
We were created to rule the physical realm and Jesus gave us examples of that.
Calming the storm, walking on the water. How do we get there? There's a lake in the way.
Walk over it. It has to obey you. You're charged. See, that's what we were designed to be.
Wow. Created to rule the spiritual realm,
including the judging and administration of angels. So my opinion, to this point in life,
man was created to be the solution to the Satan fallen angel problem on earth.
Again, I don't know how that was supposed to play out under Adam and Eve because it
never got there. But under us, we're supposed, the keys to the whole thing is binding and
losing. So Jesus said, I'm going to give you keys to the kingdom. It's the binding and losing.
We're supposed to bind and lose. We're supposed to cast out. We're supposed to defeat, overcome,
be victorious. We're supposed to kick the gates of hell open and go in and get out.
We're to rule and reign over the kingdom of darkness. We are,
we are, I'm going to say this two, three times before I'm done. God created us to be the solution
to this world in Christ. I mean, it's always Lord Elohim, Yahweh Elohim, and then us. In Christ,
or under His authority, He created man to be the solution to this world.
Who am I? I am in the God class of being. Who are you? I don't like the song,
the lowly worm such as I. I'm not a worm. I'm not a furry.
I'm not something that Satan is trying to convince the world we are.
I and you are created in the God class of beings. We have to know that.
Now don't get all proud over that. Oh, you should see who I am. Yeah, you're nothing outside of Jesus.
But in Jesus, that's who He created us to be. And someday, you know what? The glory we lost
when we get out of this crate, we get our new body, I expect to be walking clothed in fire.
That's the original design, original intent. We've been given His power and authority
over everything. Now, the one verse we read inferred all the works of His hands.
Well, right now we're limited to earth. But Jesus indicated when we get there,
those limitations come off. And He who's been faithful and little will be given much. He who
ruled well over one thing will be given ten cities. And we have been created as human beings
to be pure representatives of God, ruling and reigning over everything. That's you.
And your ability, you know, this is how deception works. This is how
Satan gets in and gets us concentrated on things that we are, they're okay. They're good,
but they're lesser. Your ability is not in your hands. Your ability is not in your head.
Your ability is not to make crafts or be an electrician or be an inventor or an engineer.
Those are all great, wonderful things. But the greatest ability you have is in your mouth.
The greatest power we have is in our mouth. That's why James said, what was Satan after?
He set our tongue on fire. When we died in sin and we all fell short of the glory of God,
Satan said, their power is in their mouth, Jim. We got to stop that. So he set our tongue on fire,
James says, with the fire of hell. Why would somebody say that to me? Because they're
speaking like hell would speak. What's he after? To hurt people's feelings? No.
He's after what we talked about in that first portion. He's after the greatest power we have,
which is our tongue, our mouth. So what does he do? Genius.
He gets us saved, and then he baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
And where does it, oh, how can you say it? Where does it come out of? Where does it
attach to? What is the evidence of it? Other tongues. What is God after? Our tongue. Why?
Because it's him. It's how he does things. Satan took it away and gave us other tongues.
And they're not godly tongues. They curse. They lie. They accuse. They judge. They belittle.
They puff themselves up. They did all kinds of boasts and all kinds of garbage falls out of
that. That's his kingdom's tongues. God says, yeah, that's not going to work. Once I get them saved,
we've got to fix that. That's a mess. So let's just let the Holy Spirit go in there and clean
that mess up. That's you. That's why he gave us baptism in the Holy Spirit. Well, one of the,
not the only reason, but one of the reasons he gave us the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
If I'm going to return these people back to the authority they were meant to walk in,
I've got to clean up their mouth. Because if I give authority to what they're saying,
everybody on earth is going to be stupid, dead, cross-eyed, whatever.
You know those things that you said about the guy who cut you off when you were on the
way to the cities. Just driving, minding your own business. And then this guy pulls up
beside you and waves with one finger and comes around and cuts you off. Friendly guy.
And the words that fell out of your mouth, if God would have put those into effect,
God's got to clean up her mouth. He's got to get us talking like him. Because he's got to
restore us back to that original design. So now here's just, I've said it before,
just little food for thought. Out of all the Christians in America, out of all the denominations,
I think this is true worldwide, but America is where I live. Of all the denominations,
everything here. Who are the people who believe? We have authority over the demonic.
We can cast out demons. We can raise the dead. We can speak to things and they obey us.
We can lay hands on and speak over people and they're healed. We can see miracles. We can...
Who are the people that believe all that? There's only one group.
Them tongue-toggers. No other denomination believes it. You know why?
Because they don't have the power in their mouth to make it happen.
See now, I'm going to go, I have a couple of minutes here. I'm going to go a little side
story. This summer is going to be kind of off and on. This is going to be a series and
Pastor Igor is in a series. So between the two of us, we're going to be batting back and forth,
because there's... Like last weekend, we were speaking at a different church.
We've got stuff that's going to break up the summer, different churches ministering
different places, so forth. So I'll be bouncing back and forth. Well, last weekend,
we were at church and the pastor said this to us. They said... I don't remember what we
were talking about, but we were conversing about demonic stuff. And the pastor said,
now here's an interesting one. We had a person coming to the church who, nice family, we loved
them. They stayed for a while, and then they left and went to a different church in town. They
named the church, went to a different church in town. And they said the reason they left is
they don't like to speaking in tongues. Well, I said, well, we can identify with that. We've
had that happen. And the pastor said, but now let me give you the rest of the story.
So their son is late teens, I believe, is what they said. And all of a sudden,
the son is starting to manifest demonic stuff. And in church stuff was manifesting at that other
church. And the pastor said, just freaked everybody out and they didn't want anything to do
with them. And they kind of backed away and like he's a weirdo and what's going on.
The pastor sought, they tried to get together with the pastor, had the pastor do something.
Here's what the pastor said. I have no idea how to deal with demonic stuff. I don't know what
to do with it. So the pastor said, they came back to me, the tongue talking idiot,
and said, we know you know about this. Can you get our son free?
I said, what'd you say? Because you should have said, why should I go to your pastor?
Perfect example. God wants to clean up our mouth the way he's chosen to do it is the baptism
in the Holy Spirit, starting a fire from heaven in our mouth to burn out the fire of hell and get
rid of it so that he can empower us to be ambassadors who represent him on this planet,
a creation with authority over everything right under God. He needs us to walk in the full
happy meal deal. Not just eat the fries, because we don't like how the burger looks.
Well, that's great. But when you really run into trouble, who do you go back to?
That's sad.
But just put it down in your thinking that when she hits the fan,
the people who mocked you will be knocking on your door.
You know, I remember something about, you said something one time. What was that now?
Mark my word. It'll happen. Because where they went to make them feel good and comfortable,
won't work to fix the problem. Because he, according to God, nothing is impossible for God,
but according to God, nothing is impossible for you in Christ. He would just like them.
We are one of, I don't know if we're the highest, but we're one of the highest ranking
creations God ever made. We're above angels, because Paul said we're going to administrate
and judge them. We're above demons. We're above fallen angels. We're above Satan himself.
And the reason we're above is not so we can strut around and say, oh, we're so great.
He made us that way to fix a problem. We're the solution to the problem.
And you know what? He made Adam and Eve that way, and nothing has changed.
He's looking at you and me and His true church to change this world. We're the solution to the
problem. The problem is we've gotten our eyes too much on not our most powerful asset,
not who we are, and we've allowed the world to move into the church.
And they're influencing us, rather than us influencing them. And it's messed up.
So that's why, going back to that lineup I gave you at the beginning, that's why he needs to
save us as a human being, as a race of humans. He needs to save us, forgive our sins,
get us back on track, and then he's going to clean us up
by his spirit, by his word. Then he's going to mature us,
save us, clean us up, and maturing and cleaning up kind of go together.
And then he empowers us. You don't give a stick of dynamite to a kid who says,
oh, big firecracker. Let them grow up a little bit before you hand them that power.
Honey, don't ever set this off in your sister's bedroom.
Let them mature a little bit, let them grow up a little bit,
and then give them the power. You know, the scripture goes along with that.
God is able to do abundantly above what we can all ask or imagine according to
the power that's at work in us. John added some light to that. He said, I want you to prosper
as your soul prospers. In other words, as you mature and grow, I want to see the power grow.
I want to see it develop. We are not only the answer...
Well, let me say it this way. I'm going to say it a different way. We are not...
We not only have the answer according to God's original design,
but in Christ we are now the answer. Again, I'll say it. We are the solution
to the world's problems. That's who you are. And if we don't believe that, we're going to live below it.
Well, I don't really know if I really carry much power. Well, what were you designed to carry?
I mean, if you go buy a car that's got a big engine, or some people buy electric cars where
they have power too, and you get on the accelerator in that baby, and it's like,
you know what you're going to say? Something's wrong with this.
First time, it was a 1980 Buick I bought that was the new fuel-efficient eco-friendly model.
I took it out west to the mountains. I got behind this truck. He had a huge load
and he's going 20 miles an hour up this two-lane road. And it's curves. You can't
finally pop out. There's a little bit of a straightaway. Nobody's coming. I floored it.
It went nowhere. It was like a truck just stayed right there. Slowly, slowly, now cars come,
had to pull in behind them. First thing that went through my mind, something's wrong with this.
This is no way it's supposed to work.
Well, I don't know if I have much power. Well, what are you supposed to have?
Unless you know how God created you and what your identity is, we'll be happy to live down here
when we're supposed to be living up here. We need to understand that if we're going to walk in
the fullness of what God has. So Lord, in the name of Jesus, by your spirit, drive this into our
hearts. Help us to understand what you made us to be. What our potential is, what our
responsibility is before you, in the authority you've given to us. Help us to see the big picture
rather than taking it apart in little bits and pieces. Help us to see the big picture and move
forward in you in Jesus' name. Amen.