Before You Help the Neighbors, Clean Your House

I’m learning more stuff about the concept of authority.

God and Satan are fighting for flesh in the earth. Jesus is assembling the Body of Christ, and Satan is assembling the body of the Antichrist. God is trying to exterminate the seed of the rebellious angels, and Satan is trying to exterminate God’s people.

If it sounds silly to say God is “trying” to do something, I would simply recommend taking a look at the Bible. Over and over, God started projects that didn’t pan out. He was relying on human beings to get the job done for him, and we failed him. Also, he is limited in what he can do, because he’s good. He can’t do anything that goes against his goodness.

Each of us is part of Christ’s body. Like the parts of a man’s body, we are supposed to obey the will of the head. Jesus told us that as many as were led by the Spirit were the sons of God. John said, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” He was not just talking about things God told us to do in the New Testament or the Torah. He was referring to the real-time commands Jesus issues through the Holy Spirit.

Every body has a nervous system. The Holy Spirit functions as the nervous system of the Body of Christ. He transmits information and power. We are expected to clear a pathway to him, so these things flow through us. We clear that pathway and allow the flow through prayer in tongues. It’s like physical therapy for a stroke victim. Over and over, you tell a body part to do things, and over time, it obeys more and more readily, and with more strength and certainty.

The body of Christ is God’s fetus. The earth is his uterus. We are growing stronger and more aware, as a fetus does. We are growing to resemble the father who conceived us, as a fetus does. Satan is working constantly to abort the fetus.

We see this described in a very literal way in the Revelation:

Now a great sign was seen in heaven — a woman clothed with the sun, under her feet the moon, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and about to give birth, and she screamed in the agony of labor.

Another sign was seen in heaven there was a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven royal crowns. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of heaven and threw them down to the earth. It stood in front of the woman about to give birth, so that it might devour the child the moment it was born.

She gave birth to a son, a male child, the one who will rule all the nations with a staff of iron. But her child was snatched up to God and his throne; and she fled into the desert, where she has a place prepared by God so that she can be taken care of for 1,260 days.

We ARE Jesus, just as the Antichrist’s followers are the Antichrist. We are supposed to be his limbs and eyes and so on. We are supposed to be unified in purpose, so we do the things he commands.

How do we give him control? First we have to take control of ourselves.

A human being is like a demolition derby driver who is tied up in the back seat of a car. Before he can get into the fight, he has to get free of the ropes. Until he can get loose and take the controls, other cars can ram him whenever they like and push him in any direction. Our flesh is like the car. It controls us and keeps us bound. Sometimes demons are involved. But we have to fight our own flesh before we can accomplish anything.

Look at the problems most people face. They come from a lack of self-control. The biggest killers are heart disease and cancer. Why is that? It’s because we smoke and overeat. Bad behavior kills us. Poverty usually comes from bad behavior. A lot of people suffer and die because of things they can’t control, but there are a lot of problems we bring on ourselves. We can’t control our flesh.

Jesus said that in order to spoil a strong man’s house, you have to bind the strong man. You have to bind the flesh, or it will run your life. It’s like being on a horse with no bridle. Your flesh is stupid and immoral. Do you really want it to have executive power?

We become enslaved by the flesh at an early age, and many of us also unwittingly invited demons to live in us, so we are not in charge. We may hear from Jesus, but we also hear a lot of other voices. We are tossed around, like boats in a storm. We have no course. And to have no course is to be on course for destruction. There is only one way and one gate.

To get free, we have to develop authority. As far as I can tell, it begins with faith, because faith is like a snaking tool we use to pull things from God. If you have faith, you can be baptized with the Spirit, and then you can pray in tongues. From tongues, you get more faith, guidance, power, and cleansing. Eventually, you will reach a point where you can overcome your flesh. Once that happens, you will begin to be able to exercise real authority over external things. Spirits and matter.

Jesus didn’t need tongues, to the best of our knowledge. He was worthy and sinless from birth, so he was not like us. He was baptized with the Spirit, and then he went into the desert to fast. During the fast, he defeated his flesh. He showed it he was willing to die before letting it control him, and it yielded. When Satan came to tempt him, he couldn’t find a handle. He couldn’t find an internal ally to help him. The flesh was submitted to the authority of Jesus, so Satan could not bring internal division and rule over him.

It was not until after the fast that Jesus began exercising real power. His first miracles came after the fast. His ministry of perfect teaching began after the fast.

When we fast, the purpose is to defeat the flesh so the Spirit can have more control. When we show the flesh we mean business, it backs down before us. We can command it, in the name of Jesus. We can command spirits. We can free ourselves from iniquity, which is the inclination to do evil. We can do away with Satanic habits like drug addiction, alcoholism, pornography, whoring, habitual anger, overeating, laziness, and so on. We can become like Jesus, inside ourselves.

What happens without authority? We may be defeated. The sons of Sceva (a priest) told a demon to leave a man, by the authority of Jesus. The demon told them it didn’t know them, and it stripped the men naked and chased them so they ran down the street. They were exposed as lacking authority; the nudity symbolized that. The fact that they were sons of a priest was also significant. It shows that authority comes from the Holy Spirit, not earthly prestige. Authority comes from a supernatural anointing, as well as submission and obedience.

The unfortunate consequence is that sometimes we have to fast. That’s just how it is. We can ride the horse, or it can ride us.

This confirms something I already believed. If you know a preacher who has no self-control, you know someone whose words have to be put to the test. For example, if a preacher is obese, how can he say the flesh doesn’t run him? Would he choose obesity deliberately? Of course not. It has to be the result of submission to the flesh. What if he smokes? What if he fornicates or suffers from greed? What if he’s addicted to approval and admiration? What if he loses his temper habitually? You have to keep your eye on him, because from time to time, when he speaks, the flesh may be in charge, and we know who rules the flesh when we don’t.

Right now, the Body of Christ is like a person with MS or cerebral palsy. Jesus sends the commands, and the Holy Spirit transmits them and gives us the power to accomplish our tasks, but we don’t hear. We don’t obey. We are like taxis with the radios removed. We are “lawless,” as the Bible calls it. We are “workers of iniquity.” We do what our habits tell us to do. Sometimes we obey Jesus, but not nearly often enough. So the Body of Christ is like a disabled person who can’t coordinate his limbs and get out of bed.

This is why our experience is not like the experience of the Apostles. This is why we don’t see more people raised from the dead. The telephone lines are down.

The other day I fasted, and I asked for more authority. This was before I understood all these things the way I do now. A few days later, I got the idea that it was okay to give commands directly to my flesh. To address it as though it were a dog. I started doing it, and my flesh obeyed. I usually have trouble falling asleep, but when I ordered my flesh to become drowsy and sleep, it did. I had trouble with sexual thoughts. I ordered my flesh to knock it off, and it did. I had lost some of the victory God had given me over gluttony. I ordered my flesh to stop craving food and drink, and it did.

After I started seeing these results, I understood that God had granted my request. I had more authority.

It’s not perfect. Sometimes I get resistance. But the flesh is now in retreat. It is losing the war. Things are getting better and better.

The Bible says whom the son sets free is free indeed. People think this is about hell. It’s not just about hell. It’s about living in authority, right here. As Adam did before the fall. It doesn’t mean your life will be perfect, but overall, you will be victorious.

Look at the people Jesus freed in the Bible. Lepers. Crippled people. The blind. He didn’t just promise them eternal life, fifty years down the road. He set them free here on earth. Authority is for this world.

Churches resist this, because Satan has a lot of control over churches. It’s a message he fears. But it’s true. This is why the “gospel” really is “good news.” If you’re suffering on earth, it’s very nice to hear that you’re going to paradise some day. But if Jesus delivers you right now, wow! That’s GOOD NEWS. That’s the kind of news that will make you jump up and down. No matter how great the promise of eternal life is, it really can’t compare, in immediate emotional impact.

This stuff continues to work for me. If you have inner problems you can’t control, give it a try. I think you’ll be amazed.