Prospering in Heaven and Earth

Then Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said; “O LORD God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.” (2 Kings 19:15)

God is the Maker of heaven and earth. Heaven and earth are made up of the same stuff — the Word of God. The Bible says,

By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. (Hebrews 11:3).

Not only are heaven and earth made up of the same substance, they both operate by the same principle — the Word of God. When darkness was upon the face of the earth, God spoke His Word and said, “Light be!” and there was light upon the earth (Genesis 1).

Some people study only the earth, and they understand neither heaven nor earth. Then they propagate their ignorance. Others study heaven and think it has nothing to do with the earth, and so they fail to live effectively in either realm. The wise will study heaven with an eye toward understanding the earth, and they will prosper in both realms.

Having Dominion

How did God plan for Adam and Eve to have dominion over the earth and all its creatures? And how was it connected to their identity in Him? Find out in this month's faith-builder article, a study in Genesis 1:26-28, called Having Dominion.

Created to Know and Speak the Mind of God

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

Man is a unique creature in all the universe. He alone has the breath of God in him. Literally, God puffed the breath of life into Adam’s nostrils, then man became a nephesh chayyim, a “living being.” He was not just living, as the animals of Genesis 1 were said to be living. No, he was living solely and especially because of the breath of life from God’s own mouth was at work in him.

In other Bible passages, the word nephesh is often translated as “mind,” for example, at Genesis 23:8 and Deuteronomy 18:6. So in the context of God and man, it refers to more than mere existence. It involves the capacity for thought.

There are a couple of other words translated as “mind” in the Old Testament which help us understand this connection even more. The Hebrew word for “spirit,” ruach, is often used to refer to “wind” and even “breath.” But it also is used as a word for “mind” (Genesis 26:35). The breath that God breathed into Adam’s nostrils was actually the Holy Spirit, giving life to Adam’s body. But we can also say that what God breathed into Adam was the mind of God.

Another interesting word in this regard is the Hebrew word peh. In Leviticus 24:12, it is translated as “mind.” But it literally refers to the mouth as a means of blowing. God, with His mouth, blew the breath of life into Adam’s nostrils. It gives a new meaning to the term “mind-blowing.”

God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways, My ways” (Isaiah 55:8). But that does not mean that we cannot know God’s thoughts. Indeed, we were created with the capacity to know the mind of God, to understand His ways and walk in them. Though Adam fell, we still have this capacity to think the thoughts of God, if we have experienced the new birth by the Holy Spirit. For Paul says:

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 2:9-11)

An ancient Hebrew commentary, the Targum Onkelos, has something very interesting to say about Genesis 2:7. The commentator concludes that God blew into Adam’s nostrils a speaking spirit, and thus Adam himself became a speaking spirit. So not only did Adam bear the image of God, and the authority of God, but he was also a speaking spirit, to breathe forth words, even as God did.

We were created, not only to have the mind of God, to think His thoughts after Him, but also to speak forth the mind of God — our mouths breathing forth His words. His words are never idle or spoken in vain, but they accomplish everything He sends them out to do. As we speak them into our life and the world around us, they will bring forth the purposes of God.

God has created you and me with tremendous capacity, world-changing potential. Do not limit yourself by your own thoughts when you can know the mind of God. Why use your mouth to speak your own feeble words, when you can breathe out the powerful Word of God into the world.

Exercising Your Authority to Bless

We believe that God is a God of blessing, and that He has authorized us as agents of His blessing. We are learning and stretching out in this area. For instance, when we go out to eat now, we not only bless our own food, but all the food in the joint, that there might be a revelation of the goodness of God and an experience of His peace in those places.

Now, when I say, “bless the food,” I do not just mean that we ask God to bless it for us. Jesus gave us authority to bless when He taught us to pray, “Your [the Father’s] will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” So we take that authority and exercise it even when we pray at meal time — “I bless this food in Jesus’ name” — believing that the will of God will be done in that food, exactly as His will is being done in heaven. Can you imagine eating food that is charged with the power of heaven? Now go a step further and imagine charging it with the power of heaven! Every believer is an authorized agent.

Take the authority you have in the Lord Jesus Christ — the authority of His name, the authority of His blood, the authority of how He taught us to pray — and begin bringing forth the blessing of God’s kingdom upon the earth. The world does not need our condemnation, it needs the blessing of heaven to transform it into what He has called it to be.

Spiritual Substance

Substance is the underlying reality of a thing. Without substance, a thing does not exist. The underlying reality of the universe is spiritual in nature. God, who created the heavens and the earth, is spirit. The natural realm comes forth from the spiritual. Without the spiritual, the physical realm would cease to be. Spiritual substance is the underlying reality of everything. Understanding this helps us begin to grasp how Jesus was able to do the things He did:

• When Jesus turned water into wine, He was dealing with spiritual substance, the underlying reality of both water and wine.
• When He multiplied the loaves and the fish to feed the five thousand, He was working with the spiritual substance underlying the bread and meat.
• When He walked on water, He was walking on spiritual substance, the underlying reality of water.
• When the woman with the issue of blood touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, she was laying hold of the spiritual substance, the underlying reality of her wholeness. It manifest in the natural, for Jesus felt power go out of Him and the woman immediately experienced her healing.
  

Let’s go a little further. The spiritual substance which forms the foundation for everything is actually the Word of God. The Bible says, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible” (Hebrews 11:3). Now we can understand more of how Jesus did what He did:

• When He commanded the waves and the wind, He was speaking the Word of God, which causes things to be.
• When He commanded the fig tree, He was speaking the Word, dealing with the spiritual substance which was the underlying reality of that tree.
• When He commanded demons to go, He was exercising the spiritual substance of the Word of God.
• When He taught the disciples to speak to the mountain, He was instructing them in how to lay hold of the spiritual substance, the underlying reality of the mountain.
  

We need to change our thinking to realize that everything that exists is spiritual at its foundation — or else it could not exist at all. Food, money, houses, cars, the human body — these may all be physical concerns, but they are also spiritually-based.

Now, we can deal with all these things in the natural, but then we are only approaching them at a superficial level. We may have a little success this way, but it is limited, because we are only dealing with symptoms.

Because these things are all spiritually-based, the most effective way to deal with them, at the foundational level, is with the Word of God, the spiritual reality which lays under everything in the universe.

What does the Word of God say about all these things? That’s the real question we need to ask, and then line ourselves up with that. Listen to the Word of God, which cause faith to come, then proclaim it to the circumstances in your life. That’s getting down to the root of things, where true change can happen. For the facts of the world must line up with the truth of the Word.

Jesus’ Modus Operandi

And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him. (John 8:29)

Jesus always did those things that please the Father. That was the modus operandi for His entire life and ministry — everything He did! If it was not pleasing to the Father, Jesus was not doing it. Simple as that.

• He spoke only those things which He heard the Father speaking (John 8:28).
• He did only those things which He saw the Father doing (John 5:19).
• He judged only as He heard the Father judging (John 5:30).
• He willed only as the Father willed (John 5:30).
  

Everything Jesus did was totally about the Father, and that pleased God.

When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended as a dove, and the voice of the Father said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).

On the Mount of Transfiguration, when the glory of God overshadowed, Jesus face and clothes shone with the brightest light, and the voice of the Father said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” (Matthew 17:5)

The Gospel of Matthew records a third instance where God expressed pleasure in His Beloved, Jesus. Matthew is quoting from Isaiah 42. “Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in who My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He will declare justice to the Gentiles” (Matthew 12:18).

Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Since everything Jesus did pleased the Father, then everything He did must have been all about faith — taking the Father at His Word.

Pleasing the LORD is simple — it all comes down to faith. It did for Jesus, and it does for us. If the M.O. of Jesus was simply to please the Father, to do what He saw the Father doing, and say what He heard the Father saying, then what ought our M.O. be? If it is impossible to please the Father without faith, then what ought our discipleship to look like?

Exalting the Name of Jesus

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

Many Christians look forward to the day when Christ returns, and every knee bows to Him, and every tongue confesses that Jesus is Lord. The coming of Christ will certainly bring this to pass in all its fullness. This passage in Philippians, however, is not just talking about some future day. It is just as much for us today. In fact, it was just as true for the believers in the first century. It is an eschatological teaching — God’s truth about the “last days.”

Biblically speaking, we have been in the “last days” for almost two thousand years, ever since the Cross. For that is what precedes the “therefore” in Philippians 2:9. (Whenever you see a “therefore,” find out what its “there for.”)

The Cross is the reason God has exalted Christ and given Him the name which is above every name. First the Cross, then the exaltation. That is God’s way.

Friends, we are now living in the time of the exaltation of the name of Jesus, the time when every knee must bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord. Notice that it is at the name of Jesus that every knee shall bow.

Many Christians are waiting for the return of Christ for every knee to bow. However, it is not just at the return of Jesus that every knee shall bow, but at the name of Jesus. In other words, we do not have to wait for the Second Coming for these things to happen.

We can see them come to pass now, if we will exalt the name of Jesus. You see, Jesus has given us the authority of His name:

He has given us authority to bind and loose in His Name. “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that it two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered togetherin My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:18-20).

When we come together in Jesus’ name, that is, for His purposes and pleasure, the very presence of Jesus begins to manifest, and He never shows up without His authority. So it is in His name, acting on His behalf, that we have the authority to bind and loose upon the earth.

He has give us authority to ask anything of the Father in His name. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you” (John 15:16).

“Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:23-24).

We are given the authority of Jesus’ name for the purpose of bringing forth fullness of joy and bearing fruit that remains.

He has given us the authority to perform signs and wonders in His name. “And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover. (Mark 16:17-18)

This is part of the Great Commission which Jesus has given to His Church. It was for then; it is for now. We are called to exalt the name of Jesus, to act on His behalf in the world. As we exercise the authority of His name, demons must acknowledge that He is Lord and bow before Him. Sickness and disease must flee. New tongues come forth to praise and exalt His name and declare His Lordship.

Every believer has authority to bind and loose in the name of Jesus. We have authority to ask in His name. We have authority to cast out demons and lay hands on the sick in His name and expect to see them recover. For at the name of Jesus, every knee must bow before Him, and every tongue must confess that He is Lord. Our job is to believe this and exalt His name over every situation.

Fully Authorized Agents of Heaven

Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6.10)

Notice that the mood of these phrases is in the imperative. That is, they are not requests, but commands:

Kingdom of God, come!
Will of God, be done on earth as it is in heaven!

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus has given us the authority to exercise these commands. To put it another way, we are fully authorized agents of heaven.

Our authority comes from heaven, and it is given to us to exercise upon the earth.

1. Wherever we see a situation on earth where the kingdom of God is not manifesting, we have authority to call God’s kingdom forth.
2. Wherever we see a situation where the will of God is not being done, a situation that is out of sync with heaven, we have authority to call for God’s will to be done.

We need a revelation of who we are in Christ, of what He has commissioned us to do, and of the authority and power we have been given in the name of Jesus to perform it.

What’s it Like in Heaven?

Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6.10)

No doubt, you recognize this sentence from the Lord’s Prayer. It is what Jesus taught His disciples to pray. Here are few questions for you to chew over:

• Was it God’s will, in Jesus’ day, for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven?
• Is it God’s will today for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven?
• What is it like in heaven?
• Is it a place of blessing or of cursing?
• Of provision or of lack?
• Of prosperity or of poverty?
• Of health and wholeness or of sickness and disease?
• Is it a place of death or of life?
• What would the will of God being done on earth as in heaven look like?
• Can we pray for provision and expect to receive it?
• Can we pray for healing and expect to receive it?
• How about raising the dead? Can we pray for that and expect to receive it? (Jesus sent the disciples out to, among other things, raise the dead — and they did! And there are many instances in Church history of the dead being restored back to life — but that’s an article for another day.)

Jesus said, “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:24).

All Authority in Heaven and Earth — In Our Midst!

Where two or three are gathered in My name, I am there in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20)

Whenever we come together in the name of Jesus, to act as He would act and ask as He would ask, we can be assured that Jesus is present with us. This is not the general omnipresence of God, but His special manifest presence. It is a revelation of Jesus.

As I was thinking about this the other day, the Holy Spirit reminded me of what Jesus promised the disciples in the Great Commission:

All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth… And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:19-20)

So here are two promises of Jesus manifest presence with us.

1. As we come together in His name.
2. As we go out to fulfill the Great Commission.
   

Now, let me ask you: When Jesus comes and makes His presence known, does He show up with His authority, or does He leave it behind?

That’s a silly question, isn’t it? Of course Jesus comes with all His authority, and He comes ready to exercise it.

So when we come together or go out in His name, Jesus is with us, and all the authority He possesses — the authority of heaven and earth — is with us also.

Think of it. Whenever we gather to worship, to love, serve, give or fellowship in the name of Jesus, all the authority of heaven and earth is present in our midst, ready to be exercised. Whenever we go out to minister in the name of Jesus, all the authority of heaven and earth goes with us, ready to do the works of Jesus.

Hmmmmm. Since that is so, what ought our discipleship to look like?

Study the works of Jesus in the Gospels. See what He did with His authority and how He exercised it. Then when two or three of you gather in His name, or go out to minister in His name, begin learning how to exercise His authority to do the works of Jesus in the name of Jesus.

The Authority of Heaven and Earth

Did you know that Christians have authority in heaven and on earth? We have authority on earth because we were born here. In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, He created man. The Hebrew for “man” is, adam, from adamah, the Hebrew word for “earth.” Not only did God create man, but He gave him dominion, or authority, over the earth (Genesis 1:26).

We have the authority of heaven because, if we know the Lord Jesus Christ, we have been “born again” — literally, “born from above” (John 3:3) by the Spirit of God. Not only that, but Paul tells us that God has seated us in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6). Jesus is seated on the throne of heaven, at the right hand of the Father, and we are seated there in Him, far above all principality, power, might and dominion (Ephesians 1:21).

In His earthly ministry, Jesus taught His disciples about how to exercise the authority of heaven on earth.

We have the authority of the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). These are not requests, by the way, because the mood is imperative: “Kingdom of God, come! Will of God, be done!” Jesus has given us the authority to look at how the will of God is done in heaven and call it forth to be likewise done upon the earth.

We have the authority to bind and loose. Jesus has given us the authority of heaven to bind and loose things upon the earth. “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18).

As we bind and loose things upon the earth, we will see that they are also bound and loosed in heaven. The Greek tense actually means that what we bind and loose on earth will have already been bound and loosed in heaven. Here again is the authority to bring forth the realities of heaven upon the earth.

We have the authority of agreement. “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:19).

This is earth and heaven coming together, like Jacob’s ladder, with angels ascending and descending. As we come into agreement with each other on earth, it will be done for us by our Father in heaven.

Have you ever applied for a grant before. Well, this is a heavenly grant from God that changes things on the earth.

Our agreement must be, not only with each other, but with the will of God as well, because God will not do anything for us that goes against His revealed will. Fortunately, we can discover the will of God by meditating on His Word, because His Word reveals His will.

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. (1 John 5:14-15)

We have the authority of Jesus’ name. Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18.20). In another place, Jesus said,

Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16.23-24)

You see, this is all about Jesus. We come together in His name, we bind and loose in His name, we ask in His name. That does not mean tacking on “In Jesus’ name” to everything we do. It means we have the authority to act on His behalf and according to His purposes. It means to do as He would do and ask as He would ask, because that is where our authority is — in Jesus.

We have the authority of the Great Commission. After the resurrection, and before Jesus ascended to heaven, He gathered the disciples and said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). This was not idle chatter, Jesus was going somewhere with this. He was preparing to extend this authority to His disciples. How else would they be able to fulfill this next command?

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28.19-20)

If you have received the Lord Jesus Christ, you have both the authority of heaven and earth. Are you learning how to walk in it?

Anointed With Power

Power is the ability to get things done. In the New Testament, the Greek word for “power” is dunamis, the power for working miracles. It is the power Jesus had.

“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power [dynamis] , who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. (Acts 10:38)

Jesus did not draw on His divine nature as the Son of God. Rather, being fully human as well as fully divine, He drew on the Holy Spirit and the power with which He was anointed in His human nature. The dyunamis with which He was anointed was the power of the Holy Spirit, and it was out of this anointing that He was able to heal all who were oppressed by the devil.

Remember the story of the woman with the issue of blood? She heard Jesus was passing by, and she crept up behind Him, saying to herself, “If I can touch the hem of His garment, I shall be healed.” She did. And she was.

Jesus turned around and said, “Who touched Me?” Well, they were in the middle of a great crowd of people pressing in. Peter’s answer was, if I may paraphrase, “Lord, who didn’t touch You?” But Jesus said, “Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power [dynamis] going out from Me” (Luke 8:46).

The touch of faith drew dynamis out from Jesus’ body. The woman experienced that power coming forth, for she was immediately healed. Jesus experienced that power going forth from Him, and knew it was by a touch of faith. This dynamis was tangible, a power that could be conveyed through a faith-filled touch, even through the fringe of a prayer shawl.

This same dynamis of the Holy Spirit is available for all who know the Lord Jesus. Before He ascended to heaven, Jesus gathered His disciples together and gave them this promise: “You shall receive power [dynamis] when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me” (Acts 1:8). This was fulfilled ten days later at Pentecost.

We have this dynamis power so we can be witnesses concerning Jesus. A witness is someone who presents evidence, someone who produces proof. As Holy Spirit-filled disciples, we have dynamis power to produce proof and bring evidence of who Jesus is and what He has accomplished for the world. It is healing power, delivering power, even power to bring the dead back to life.

Have you felt power go out of you lately?