Last week, we spoke about changing our perception. Doing so can help us shift our mindsets. Instead of seeing everything as a threat to our very lives, we can begin to see the good that God is doing even in the hardest of situations. We also talked about patience. We talked about natural versus supernatural miracles, gifts, talents, skills, etc., and we talked about serving.
This week, we’re going to finish up discussing the Intermediate Keys to Power. And, to start, we’re going to talk about Humility. Okay, so this is kinda like Perception Shifting, but it takes it to a whole different level. Humility is, according to society, “a modest or low view of one's own importance.” However, this is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches us that humility is “knowing and accepting who God made you to be; one’s place in life, society, etc. and knowing and accepting one’s own skills, abilities and talents.” A person who is humble does not think too highly of themselves nor too lowly about themselves.
Think Abraham. Wealthy man. Powerful. He didn’t think himself too good, but he also didn’t think of himself as a terrible, awful human being. Same with Moses. He led Israel, but he didn’t lord it over them. In fact, he wrote a good many things about himself that were not very flattering.
So, how do you practice Humility? You need to force yourself to stop seeing yourself the way you or anyone else sees you and you need to start seeing yourself through GOD’S eyes. Sounds like Perception Shifting, but it’s specifically focused on YOU, not on circumstances in your life. It involves the question so many ask. “Who am I?” When you remove everything unimportant from your life, and you just get down to the bare bones, who are you? In order to be humble, you must first answer this question. You must know who you REALLY are.
So who are you really? The Bible teaches us that we are all sinners to start with. That means we were like rebels. Let’s look at it from a Kingdom perspective. Jesus is King. Rebels are people who don’t abide by the King’s rules and they live in wilderness places. Satan is like the rebel leader, and before we accept Christ, we are all rebels with him, living in wilderness places with no rights, no benefits, no protection… nothing. We were slaves to Satan; slaves to sin.
When we made Jesus our King, we became citizens of His Kingdom, betraying Satan as our leader and swearing loyalty to the True King. He has, through His shed blood, given us the ability to have all our crimes forgiven so that we can become citizens.
Do you REALLY accept that you are a citizen of His Kingdom? Do you really LIVE like you are a citizen of His Kingdom? If so, how do you live like you are citizens of His Kingdom? If you truly are a citizen of someone’s kingdom, you are entitled to certain rights. So, as a citizen of the Kingdom of God, you should live like you have certain privileges. What privileges do you have as a citizen of His Kingdom?
Well, first, you can expect God to do what is best for you. A king is supposed to serve His people. His role, that He created for Himself, is to make sure his citizens are cared for and protected, guided and directed. He creates laws that are good for you, and for the most part, if you obey his laws, you should be good. Right? Isn’t that how a kingdom works? Citizens are supposed to be able to live and prosper under the protection of their king without fear as long as they abide by the King’s Laws.
But - time to get excited - you are MORE than citizens of God’s Kingdom. Romans 8:17 says that we are all “joint heirs with the throne of Christ.” We aren’t just citizens. We are nobility. Aaand, we aren’t even just nobility, actually, we are ROYALTY. Nobility means that someone is of a high class family bloodline. Royalty means that someone is the descendant of a king. It means that you are endowed with even more rights and privileges than a typical citizen of God’s Kingdom. You are a CHILD of God. That makes you a PRINCE or PRINCESS.
So, who are you? To break it down, you have all the rights of a Citizen of the Kingdom of God, a Noble of the Kingdom of God, AND a PRINCE OR PRINCESS of the Kingdom of God.
But wait! There’s more! Look more closely at Romans 8:17. It says that we are “JOINT HEIRS with the throne of Christ.” Heirs means that we are inheriting God’s throne. We aren’t just God’s Children. We are the INHERITORS of God’s Throne. God, the King of the Universe and Creator of All Things, has made us INHERITORS of His Throne.
What does that REALLY mean? It means we aren’t just the King’s Children. The heir is the one who will take the king’s place on the throne when the king dies or chooses to hand over his power. The heir is the one who will be the next ruler over the ENTIRE KINGDOM. If we are joint heirs, that means that when God passes the throne on to someone, it is going to be that person, the heir, Jesus, AND all of us who accept Christ as our Savior. God is having us ALL share the throne WITH Jesus. Jesus is willingly sharing His power with us.
Do you realize what that means? One day, God the Father’s Heaven and Earth are going to pass away; at the End of Days when the book of Revelation events take place. On that day, God the Father is going to pass on His Throne and His Kingdom, the New Heavens and the New Earth, to Jesus AND all of us! Not just Jesus. ALL of us! The All Knowing, All Powerful, Ever Present, Indestructible, Eternal God who created all things not only saved our souls from Hell and forgave us of all our sins, but He even lowered Himself by creating Jesus to be our Earthly brother, the Ultimate Successor to the Throne of Adam, to be OUR EQUAL, that even though He is not technically our equal, He has chosen to be on the SAME LEVEL as us from a kingdom perspective. He, being the oldest Son of God, could have chosen to rule over us like a dictator and give us no power and authority at all, but He has CHOSEN, because of His unending love for us, to be our EQUALS and share with us His Kingdom! Joint-Heirs! Co-Rulers! We aren’t slaves, like we should be because of our crimes against God and one another. We aren’t just servants. We aren’t just citizens. We aren’t just nobles. We aren’t just royalty. We are EQUALS with THE heir, Jesus, the very Word of God - the very fabric of our reality. How incredible is that?
You see, by creating Jesus, by becoming Jesus, God completely destroyed the original reason why Adam and Eve sinned against Him. We want to elevate ourselves to be equals with Him, but He says, “No, Children. I will lower Myself to be your equals - not because I have to, but because I want to… because of My Undying Love for you - to show you how much you mean to Me.” Through Jesus, He threw all that stupid “I want to be a god” stuff out the window. His true desire from the beginning has always been to rule the Earth WITH us, and through Jesus, He has made a way for us to do that forever.
Yes, He is WAY above us. Yes, we are in no way REALLY His equals, but from a status perspective He has made Jesus our equal as a statement. That statement is, “Who cares about status? See? I don’t. I’m big enough that I can share ALL My power with you and not feel threatened by you. I only care about you. I only want to rule WITH all of you forever and ever as MY Children, MY brothers and sisters and MY friends. That’s why I said that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. It was so that all of MY Children will stop caring about who is greater than who - just as I don’t care about who is greater than who. It’s so that MY Children will only care about two things; Me and one another. This is love!”
So love and humility are actually one and the same. A humble person doesn’t care about status because they love God and one another more than such things. Love doesn’t puff allow a person to puff themselves up and be proud. It casts down pride because love would rather elevate others. Love says, “I don’t care if I become king. I’m fine with YOU being king.” But, you know what? Those who love like that are those God WANTS more than anything to BE rulers of the world. He wants people who are humble to be rulers because those who are humble love one another and serve one another and elevate one another as opposed to themselves.
This is a HUGE Perception issue that we have to try to overcome. If we can overcome this, it would REALLY change a lot of things about how we act every day. I mean, if we REALLY accepted this, think about it. How should we act? Would we walk around with heads hung low in defeat? Would we be begging and pleading for anything? The OMNIPOTENT God is OUR equal. He made it that way.
And here’s something else that should blow our minds if we REALLY meditate on it. The Holy Spirit of the ALMIGHTY GOD is IN us, making us ONE with Him. He even has given us HIS HOLY SPIRIT! Do you know what that means?
Remember how we talked about how energy is needed in a cell phone? In an electronic device, energy flows to various locations based on where the programming tells it to go. If there is no energy, there is no life in the device. The Holy Spirit IS the energy of the Universe. The Word of God is spoken, and the Spirit is the one to execute the commands God has issued. The Father puts all things in order, He speaks, and the Spirit makes it happen.
THAT Spirit is within us. WITHIN us! Jesus is the fabric of reality, and the Holy Spirit is the POWER that actually brings it all to life. THAT same power is in us. Let me put it another way. The same Holy Spirit that exists at the very edges of the physical universe AND BEYOND, who is presently touching the tiniest fragments of matter at the edge of all things AND BEYOND, also is with and in us - and has become ONE with our own spirits.
So we OUGHT to be walking around like invincible, indestructible, all-powerful beings who WILL overcome every problem we have in our lives. We OUGHT to be like Elijah and Elisha who, when a little river got in their way, they struck it and it parted so they could cross on dry land, or like Pastor E said two Sundays ago, like Joshua who commanded the sun to stand still, and it was still - or like Samson who killed thousands of Philistines by the power of the Holy Spirit in him. These people didn’t walk around with their tails between their legs or their heads down - they didn’t beat themselves up and call themselves names and ACT like they were lowly servants. They strode wherever they went, strutting like JOINT-HEIRS to the Throne of God. JOINT-HEIRS! Second ONLY to the King.
(Allow for praise and worship.)
Now, I gotta move on. But just like a child can’t physically make his parents do something, neither can we force God to do something. God is not a spiritual vending machine. We can’t just put in the right amount of “change”, press a button and get our miracles. We can’t just demand things from Him. We can’t have just the right amount of faith, just the right amount of prayer, just the right amount of Bible study, just the right amount of good deeds, etc.
However, just as a child can influence their parents to get what they want, so we can influence God to get the things we are hoping for. God is our Father and we are all His kids. So if we are all His children then we must act like children when it comes to influencing Him to get what we want and need. This is why Jesus also tried to teach His disciples that unless we become like little children we cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. It may sound a bit strange and even manipulative, but it really isn’t. God views us as we should view our own children. He looks upon us with love and compassion, and He wants us to treat Him as a child SHOULD treat his or her Earthly parent.
2 Timothy 1:7 & Acts 1:8 tell us that we should have power and authority to command things and they should be done. We should have power over our circumstances and even over our environment. So why don’t we?
One answer is that when Adam and Eve rebelled, the whole Earth was plunged into rebellion. As we humans became rebellious to God, so the world became wild and rebellious to us. If the king breaks his own rules, the servants are more apt to as well. Right? The world doesn’t obey us like it did Adam and Eve because why should it? It suffers because of us, and as a whole, we continue to rebel. Until the world is remade to perfection once more, things are going to continue to not listen to us. That’s just the way of it.
But there’s more to it than that. Another answer to why we can’t do these things is that we haven’t proven ourselves worthy of such responsibility. You don’t give your kid the keys to your car if they haven’t proven they are going to be responsible with it. Right? The same is true for us. If we don’t prove we’re responsible, we may even be joint-heirs to God’s Throne, but why would He let us exercise that power if we don’t first prove we can handle it? God isn’t going to give a person the ability to do supernatural things if the person is going to abuse that power.
In short, the world doesn’t obey you because it doesn’t FEAR you like it did Jesus. Even the unclean spirits feared Him and trembled in His presence. THAT is why they obeyed Him. So this leads us to our next question. How do we become responsible enough to receive such power and authority to command even the world and it will obey?
First, practice the Keys to Power: Tithe, the Word of God, Pray, Meditate, Solitude, Perception Shifting, Patience, Silence, and Servitude. Then you have to practice Humility. You MUST change your perception about yourself and others in the church. If you truly want to gain more authority and responsibility in the Kingdom of God, you have to start viewing yourself, for real, as a Child of God - as a JOINT HEIR to the throne of God. You may have to keep talking yourself into this before you believe it. You may need to force yourself to walk with your head held higher, saying only good things about yourself. Repeat the scripture, telling yourself that you ARE a joint-heir. Treat others like THEY are also joint-heirs to the throne - because they are. You need to start perceiving others as quite special to God. Be careful how you treat one another and what you say about them. They are HEIRS, just like you - EQUAL to you. So… LOVE.
After all that, the next step is to recognize your maturity level and begin to do those things that are expected of you at the maturity level you are at. What do I mean? There are two types of power. A person can inherit power or earn power. A child inherits power while a servant must earn power. A child can actually earn power as well, but until they earn power they must simply rely on inherited power.
What’s the difference between inherited power and earned power? The difference is actually in the execution of the power. Inherited power is something that is simply given because of who a person’s parent is. Just because a prince or princess is the child of the king means that they have certain power over servants of the king; and an heir has even more power than all the other children of the king just because they inherit more power.
Earned power is something that is given because of a person’s actions. The servant or child has earned authority or power over something because they have pleased the king or master. They have proven themselves to be trustworthy and responsible. Again, they have shown that they can handle the responsibility that comes with the increase in power and authority.
Think about a prince versus a servant. In what ways is the prince more powerful than the servant immediately from birth? Ah, but if the servant is given authority over the prince because the prince is too immature to handle their responsibility, then in what ways is the servant more powerful than the prince? Also, does it mean the prince has no power?
The prince can take a matter to his father, the king, at any time. That is his inherited power. Even though the faithful servant has been given almost total authority over the young prince because of the prince’s lack of maturity, the prince can still override the servant’s authority by going straight to the king.
As you can see, the execution of power is quite different. The prince’s inherited power gives him no authority to command. He must go to his father and get his father to intervene. The servant can tell the prince what to do because the king has given him the authority to do it because the servant earned the king’s trust. So the prince must obey the servant because of the earned authority that the servant has. Earned power, therefore, trumps inherited power.
However, if the prince also earns power, then who has more power; the servant or the prince? As the prince gets older, more and more is expected of him. Also, the servant becomes more and more respectful of the prince’s inherited power, for the servant knows that the prince is being raised to be a ruler as well. More and more authority is to be granted to the prince as he comes of age; as he PROVES himself responsible. Therefore, the servant becomes more apt to obey the prince because the servant FEARS the prince’s combined inherited AND earned power.
You see, inherited AND earned power trumps all. In other words, though the servant has earned a great deal of power, because the prince is who he is, when the prince starts to earn power, WATCH OUT! His earned power has more weight because of his inherited power. It’s as if his inherited power exponentially increases his earned power. Again, the king favors the prince, so the prince doesn’t have to work as hard to earn greater authority. It’s as if the prince has a talent for power, but the servant has to build up a skill for power. The prince just naturally has power, but the servant has to work hard for it.
How does this translate to us? We, being Children of God, again JOINT-HEIRS, start out with inherited power from the moment we are saved. This means that, simply because we are God’s Children, we have the power to go to our Father, and we can ask Him to bless or curse ANYTHING we desire to have Him bless or curse. If He agrees, He will do it. That is pretty much the extent of every Christian’s power and authority unless they do something to earn more.
This is, unfortunately, where many Christians stop and coast. They must rely on inherited power alone because they don’t really do much to earn more authority. Shoot! Many Christians don’t even exercise their inherited power because they don’t perceive themselves as even having inherited power. And so, they don’t mature because they aren’t exercising the authority and power they DO have. God will not reward you with more power and authority if you don’t responsibly exercise the power and authority you already have. In other words, if you never go to Him and ask Him to do stuff for you, you aren’t exercising your God-given inherited authority. Thus, He isn’t going to reward you with more power and authority to command stuff because you won’t even use what you already have.
But, as a Christian becomes closer to God and begins to learn more about Him through prayer, Bible reading, SPEAKING the Word, tithing, serving, etc, the angels and the world around that person become more apt to listen to them and obey them because they FEAR them. Therefore, what I’m saying is, if you can’t command and things happen, you have inherited power. Exercise it and watch as you start to gain earned AND inherited power; the Ultimate Power.
And how do you exercise your inherited power? You have to bring your requests to God. But this is more than just praying. This is Supplication, the 11th Key to Power. It is essentially Advanced Prayer and is often interchangeable in scripture with prayer. Supplication means, “the action of asking or begging for something earnestly or humbly.”
So, to be clear, the difference between prayer and supplication is that prayer is casual talking to God. Supplication is effective, fervent requests from Child to King - from Heir to King. Prayer is sharing your day with your Father and telling Him all the things that are bothering you, what you love and don’t like, etc. Supplication is more like a focused and dedicated war room, specifically telling the King your problems and asking Him for help.
But, there is an effective way and there are some not-so-effective ways to approach God about what you want or need. First, let me say, God adores the prayers of His Children. Even when you complain or gripe or just dump your issues on Him, He is listening - and yes, He adores those prayers too. He wants you to talk to Him about ANYTHING and everything that’s going on in your life. Like a parent wants their children to share with them what’s going on in their lives, especially when they are having difficulties in school or with other kids, so it is with God. There is no prayer too silly or foolish or negative or bitter or angry or happy or whatever. God WANTS you to tell Him EVERYTHING. Share ALL of your life with Him.
And practice makes perfect. The more you pray, the better at it you will get, and the more comfortable you will be with it. Do it as much as you possibly can. As you go about your life, pray on the go. Talk to Him in the car. Take a moment at work to tell Him something that’s bothering you, that’s making you happy, etc. And if someone asks you to pray for them, pray right then and there. Make it an immediate Supplication - earnestly praying to God on their behalf. Even if you don’t pray WITH them, pray as you are leaving them. Don’t wait to pray for them because you’ll probably forget. The prayer doesn’t have to be long whether praying with them or not. Sometimes the most powerful prayers I’ve ever prayed were short.
But, to better understand Supplication, let’s think about how a child gets something from their parents.
Demanding: A child may try to get what they want by commanding their parents to do it. This doesn’t usually work too well. A parent will most likely punish a child for daring to disrespect them like this. If we as parents don’t want our kids disrespecting us, do you think God would? Therefore, my advice is that you shouldn’t go around demanding that God give you something and then getting mad and throwing a fit if He doesn’t. It’s just not the right way to influence God, and it may even bring a punishment.
Whining or Begging: A child often tries the begging approach because sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Notice how when a child does this to a parent oftentimes the parent will give in because they just don’t want to hear the whining anymore. However, if you are a parent you’ll know what I mean when I say almost every time a parent gives in to a whining child the parent never feels good about it. They always kind of wish they didn’t give the child what they wanted. Sometimes whining will lead to punishment too. We see examples of God doing this all throughout the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Whenever Israel complained and whined in the desert God sometimes gave them what they wanted and sometimes punished them. Suffice to say, this is not the best way to influence God to get what you want, so if you are always whining at Him to do something in your life, maybe you need to change your approach. Let me give you some better options.
Negotiating: This is when the child strikes a deal with the parent to get what they want. Basically, I’ll do something for you later, Dad, if you give me what I want now.
Warning: If God answers the Negotiating prayer, He expects you to keep your end of the bargain. If you don’t, there will likely be consequences. If you make a deal with God and you keep your end of the bargain, there is actually nothing wrong with this. God has no problem with someone who will keep their word. In fact, if you do this, He will honor you for keeping your word. After all, He has trusted you and you did not disappoint. Therefore, He knows that He can trust you with making such deals in the future with Him - especially if that deal was hard for you to keep. There is only a problem with the Negotiating method of Supplication if you don’t keep your end of the deal. This is definitely NOT GOOD. This is, in fact, dangerous for many reasons, but one of the biggest is that now God knows He can’t trust your word. You’ve just shot yourself in the foot by making a deal and backing out after you got what you wanted.
So what is the best type of Supplication?
Serving especially in secret BEFORE you make your request.
This approach is the one God wants all of his children to use more than anything. This is the approach every human parent also wants their children to use when trying to influence them. It is THE most effective way to influence a parent to get what you want.
Why? It’s very much like the negotiating approach except the child does whatever the parent wants - and then some - without asking and before they even acquire the thing they are going to ask for. This is the situation where the parent comes home from work, finds housework and homework done, dinner is made, dishes are done, etc. Now what do you think most parents will say if their child has done this? Either “What did you do?” or “What do you want?”
And so, Key # 12 is Secret Service, and it is used in conjunction with Supplication. It isn’t just serving. It makes serving even more potent because it is serving in secret. Think about it. What happens when a kid sees dishes that are dirty, and they go ahead and wash them or put them in the dishwasher without asking and without telling anyone? The parent sees the dishes are done, and they go searching for who did it. They seek out the child who did this wonderful thing, and they praise them thoroughly and even reward them thoroughly because they did this thing without asking and without even seeking praise for it.
More than anything, a parent desires their children to recognize a problem at home and handle it themselves. What does that do? Shows maturity and responsibility to the parent. By not seeking praise or reward as well, which is basically practicing Silence as well, it shows a whole other level of maturity. The child is owning the issue and dealing with it themselves, no longer needing their parents to give them anything in return. They are taking a load off the parents simply because they want to please their parents.
Think about it! How awesome would it be if instead of you having to seek God for help in your life, to have God seeking YOU out?
But here’s the problem. You can’t secretly serve if you never get around other people and learn about what their needs are. It’s impossible to secretly serve if you don’t get to know others and share their burdens. Ah! Now we’re bringing Giving back into it. You have to let others know you have needs too, so that you can give them the opportunity to serve you, and maybe even serve you secretly. See how it is all coming together?
One word of warning about Secret Service before we close. It CAN backfire and requires wisdom. You need to learn what the person is comfortable with in regards to you serving them. You don’t want to invade their privacy or ruin plans they might already have for that issue. In other words, your heart can be in the right place, but you might do more harm than good.
A good example of Secret Service: You have the day off. Your spouse normally does the laundry. YOU do the laundry, fold it and put it away before your spouse even gets home and notices. Then, say nothing about it. IF your spouse notices and thanks you and really appreciates you for it, respond with a “It was no problem” or “It was my pleasure” - something short and simple - and let it go. Don’t go on and on about it because you’re trying to receive more praise from them. Secret Service, like Silence, is NOT seeking praise for your good works. It is doing something and actually kinda hoping the good deed isn’t discovered so God will reward you even more for it. That is the whole point of it. You WANT it to go unnoticed because you know that if it goes unnoticed, God noticed, and He will reward you all the more for it going unnoticed.
Next week, we’re going to begin the final two lessons. We’ll be finally getting into the Advanced Keys To Power that will allow even those with very little authority, who have not earned a good deal of authority yet, to GREATLY please and influence God and earn power. Using these Advanced Keys to Power has even caused supernatural miracles to happen in people’s lives all throughout the centuries. Even before Christ came and died for us, prophets and people of God were putting these last Keys to Power into practice, and they were seeing unbelievable moves of God.
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