Invading the Impossible Part 9
I know I have said it before and probably will keep going but this series of "Invading the Impossible" really does feel like ascending an ascending escalator. Rob Rufus takes much time to repeat and repeat the glories of the New Covenant, but each sermon I feel like I grasp it and see it a bit more clearly. Each sermon feels like another step towards a glorious heavenly future! And this sermon is absolutely NO exception!
"Invading Through Reigning" - 9th March 2008.
"Romans chapter 5. One of the things I was having to talk a lot about down in Australia is that it is not just a matter of someone laying hands on you and praying a little prayer and all your problems go away. Because even if they did, it wouldnt help you much because they would soon come back. The real victory in life is that you get equipped and trained on how to live personally in freedom in Christ Jesus. That takes (I am sorry to say) a little bit more time to sit down and give yourself throughily to the teaching of the Word of God. Jesus said in John 8; "If you continue in My Word, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free". There are millions of Christians today that are not free in any way whatsoever and there are others that are primarily free but live with dysfunction, with guilt, with inferiority complexes, and with very low self esteem. That is simply because they have not given themselves to the time to listen to the clear teaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the freedom we have in Christ Jesus.
There is nothing you can do to help them. They will come and ask you to pray for them and you say; "Just come to church regularly and get trained in freedom" - they dont have time for that. They are too busy. They have got time to go to a doctors when their health breaks down, they have got time to go to a psychiatrist when their mental health breaks down but they havent got time to come to God and sit under the teaching of His Word. The medicine cabinet at home looks like a pharmacy because the first person they go to when they are in trouble is not Jesus or the Word of God. You hear Christians say "I am so sick now - I really need prayer" and other Christians say; "Oh has it come to that?! Has it got so bad that you have tried every alternative to Jesus - every medical practice, every medicine, every psychiatrist, everything and all of those options have run out. Now what a terrible state you are in! You actually are forced to go the Great Physician - the Healer of your soul, your body, your mind and your emotions". Folks, that is what the Bible calls "foolishness".
That Jesus is the last resort or help. And when Jesus is the last resort, they have had 20 years of making wrong decisions and unwise decisions and they are now in a position of 20 years having made wrong decisions and they now want the preacher or the Christian to lay hands on them and 20 years of bad decisions will go away just like that and then they can go on avoiding church and the Word of God and Jesus and life will be great. I wish it worked like that! But actually God has set it up so it doesnt work like that and He wants us to walk with Him and know Him and to know His Word and "you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free". So you are sitting under something that is not upto me - I am preaching stuff that does work. I want to get into this deeper in my life. I am a student and I am learning. There are levels of freedom that are available and I want to get in deeper but this stuff works in Glenda and my life! We have been married 20 years and we are still in love, we are not cynical or skeptical.
We get flu now and again but that is because we do stupid things like go for a run when I am feeling that my body is struggling! If I was wise and didnt go for a run then my body wouldnt have got the flu! I go for a run and so that is my fault that I have the flu - but we dont have chronic patterns of poverty, sickness and depression and defeat in our lives. Not because we are strong people - we are actually weak people - but because this Gospel and the truth that you know sets you free. The truth that you dont know cannot set you free! If you dont know truth then you are subject to lies and deception and bondage and then the devil says;
"Yes you must suffer in this life and you are meant to go through life sick with disease, with poverty and not paying your bills on time. Because you see when you get to heaven it will all be worth it". That is a lie! Jesus said; "Father let Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!". You dont have to wait to go to heaven - Heaven cant wait to come to you while you are on earth and you go to heaven in a bubble of heaven from earth!
Many Christians live like they are in hell - but it is not the will of God! That is the will of the devil! The will of God is that you live in joy and peace and victory in positive hope, expectation and you believe in influence, power and faith and favour! I am coming to a place where I am just going to preach the Word and if people cannot accept it then so be it! Those that want to receive it - let them receive it but I am not bailing them out! If they reject the Word of God and want me to pray an abracadabra prayer - I am not a magician and I am not going to pull a rabbit out of a hat! "Abracadabra" is magician demonic language by the way. There are no "abracadabra" prayers in the Kingdom. There is only, I just continue in the Word of truth and the truth will set me free! Let me read you a few testimonies from people who have been getting set free from our website here;
This is Roy - he says; "Dear Rob and Glenda - where do I start?! Listening to your series Invading the Impossible" and what can I say?! Also have gone right back to 2004 and am growing in my understanding of this wonderful faith that only Jesus could have authored and only He can perfect". Now I got his permission to read this because I emailed him (well I didnt - Glenda did because I cant email). Yet. I mailed you last year and mentioned that I had got plucked out of a life of homosexuality and drugs plus every other confused hedonistic mindset you can imagine - dont try. "Your teaching on grace has set me free from crippling condemnation - I am again in secure in the extravagant love of my heavenly Father. When I first got saved I experienced the grace and anointing of God in powerful ways but unfortunately Church got a hold of them and put the law on them. After a period of time through the counsel of misguided but well-meaning people I fell radically from grace to the point of wanting to commit suicide. Feeling that I would never ever make it either here or in heaven. I had lost all hope - prayed like a victim and even lost the ability to pray in the Spirit. A friend mailed me a link to your website and the rest is history. The lights are on and I am at home!". Delivered from drugs, from a lifestyle of homosexuality (doesnt practice it anymore) and all the other stuff.
I want to say to all those people from around the world that believe this message of grace gives people a license to become more sinful. No it doesnt! It delivers people from sinful patterns because condemnation is what cripples people and brings them into the power of sin but grace liberates people to have victory over sin!
This same Roy says; "This grace message is spreading like wildfire here with astounding effect. Church leaders are asking for MP3 downloads". Then he says; "Please keep Port Alfred in prayer - revival is NOW! We are hosting a conference here on the 7-11th April - Wayne Duncan is the main speaker! We trust God for phenomenal things". Now Wayne Duncan is the main speaker was a pastor who led a very legalistic church. Well not very legalistic - but it was legalistic with very little light. He came to the "Glory and Grace Conference" and got totally turned around and went back to his church, the fire of God fell, gold dust broke out, oil started flowing - they saw healing miracles and people just packing into the church! So we are having a multiple effect in different parts of the world through the preaching of grace.
Heres Roy again - he couldnt stop! He sent us 3 emails in 2 days. "You will be interested to know that I joined a church law-based, blessings and curses, exhaustive intercession, shouting - you get the picture 3 months ago. They are now perfectly positioned for a transition into pure grace. All in leadership are listening to your stuff - I am also feeding them a balanced diet of Terry Virgo, Bill Johnson and Patricia King and Joshua Mills!". Thats not balanced! Were all preaching the same thing! "My CD burner has been working overtime. Last week the guy who planted the church 19 years ago led us in communion saying; We cannot continue preaching a mixture of law and grace - it is an offence to the cross. Man I nearly exploded! This is one of many testimonies as to how you are preaching to people here. Rob thanks so much for not backing down and inspiring and encouraging so many. Together we are headed for glory. Much love Roy Smith".
Just one or two more - I have got heaps here. This is a guy and his name is Frank. He is living in the UK and understands this thing. Now Frank understands that if you know the truth - the truth will set you free. If you lay hands on the sick and the sick dont know the truth, they will get sick again.
Truth takes hours listening to it and studying it and being under the influence of it. F W Bosworth says; "Most Christians are so weak because they eat 3 physical meals a day but they take one cold spiritual snack a weak. If you fed your body only one small snack a week - just think how weak your body would be. No wonder your spirit is so weak because you are not listening to tapes, videos and DVDs on a daily basis - feeding your spirit the Word of God so you can handle these things".
I was sleeping on average 1-2 hours this week in Australia because we were up all hours of the night but when I came home I slept 10 hours last night. This is what Frank says;
"Hi Rob, words cannot begin to explain how freeing it is to listen to your messages every day. I spend on average some days up to 4 hours listening to your teaching and taking notes. I feel like the chains have come off and I am flying in Gods grace. Your teachings (which are really not mine - they are Jesus teaching) have helped me break new territory and I am now invading the impossible. I am ready now not just to evangelise but to humbly pray for the sick and trust that Jesus will bring a revival to the people of the United Kingdom and into Europe".
Glenda and I are going to go and preach to 1, 000 leaders in Europe in May this year. So let me read you one more here;
"Dear Rob, Glenda and City Church International" - So this is written to you guys - "God bless you in the work you are busy with which I heard properly after many years as a Christian at the end of last year. I am indebted to you and committed to spreading the message. The world is listening, the message is spreading and lives are being changed. Much love Stef from New Generation Church International, Somerset West, Western Cape, South Africa".
One more from a guy whos a dear brother because he says thank you to you. His name is Dan. Hes got a blog - a website - up in the UK for me! He just transcribes everything I preach on a Sunday into written form and puts it up on the website so people can download who havent got time to listen to the tape or the CD - they can download it and read it for free. He does that for me! Just a very, very dear brother - he came to "Glory and Grace" and his life was turned around. And he says this;
"So I send all these attachments with my deepest love and respect for you all and City Church International. When I walked through the fire tunnel at the Grace and Glory Conference, what I couldnt get over was the utter non-judgemental, unjudgemental love that came from the City Church members. That they didnt know me but were praying for me and prophesying words over me that hit me like an Exocet missile. Again and again! The fire tunnel was the first time in my 20 years as a Christian that I have really, really felt the Fathers love for me. Thanks so much. Much love in our awesome God, Dan".
We are in what you might call a "Grace Revolution" and the controlling governments of religion are coming down. Lets get into this truth - "Invading the Impossible". Today is called; "Invading by Reigning". Reigning refers to royalty. Kings and queens reign as royal kings and queens.
You are looking at his Royal Highness Rob Rufus this morning!
I am looking at his Royal Highness Johnny and his Royal Highness Sam and her Royal Highness Tessa and Glenda. I am looking at a whole line of royalty this morning because royalty reigns. Invading through reigning! How do you enter into royalty to reign? I am not talking about the British Queen or King because they are just constituational monarchs. They dont have authority! We dont know what reigning is unless we know the Bible and history and what kings and queens of old what they did. They had absolute reigning authority and they were not subject to anything. They were sovereign! They lifted their scepter and that was it. Under the Old Covenant if you went into the presence of a king with an unhappy face you would be put to death. They wouldnt have unhappy people in their presence! If you came into the kings presence you came in humility and got the scepter pointed at you, you would be okay. But if you didnt get the scepter pointed at you then you were taken out and executed.
Now we dont do that to people these days but we reign in life over principalities and powers and demons and issues because we are reigning. Through reigning we are invading the impossible!
How do you enter into reigning to invade the impossible? By resting in the gift of Gods righteousness. How do you rest in the gift? By developing your faith more and more and more in the fact that you are currently, right now, irreversibly, perfectly the righteousness of God!
Today the Holy Spirit is going to show you how to develop your faith in the fact that you are righteous.
The more your faith in this righteousness grows, the more you rest and the more you enter into rest, the more and more you enter into reigning. And the more you reign, the more you invade the impossible and the more you invade the impossible, the more the Lord is glorified and the more exciting and fulfilling your life becomes.
The more your faith grows that you are righteous, the more you enter into rest. No longer striving, but rest! The more you enter into rest, the more you enter into reigning and ruling and into governing peace. The more you enter into governing peace and rest, the more you invade the impossible and the more you invade the impossible the more joyful and happy and the more God is glorified and you are blessed.
But you see faith has to grow and how does faith grow? Does faith grow by someone laying their hands on you? Not at all. I wish it did. I would ask the greatest men and women of faith to put their hands on my head and then I could walk in faith. No faith is not given that way. Romans 10:17 says; "Now faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God". So there is something you can do about little faith. You can hear and hear about the gift of righteousness and the more you hear the gift of righteousness, the more your faith increases! When faith in righteousness increases, the more peace and rest increases and the more they increase, the more reigning and ruling increases and invading the impossible increases!
So faith comes by hearing the Word of God - but faith goes by hearing the word of law, rules and religion. Faith goes by just watching TV or hearing bad news. Faith goes by listening to backslidden Christians who are bitter and twisted and cynical and unimpressed and oppressed.
I like listening to people who are impressed with the Gospel and righteousness and listening to Jesus!
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Any person on the planet who is walking with faith - you know they are listening to CDs, that someone is listening to tapes and DVDs on a regular basis - because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Faith goes by not hearing and hearing the wrong things. Faith is like Vitamin C - you cannot store it for long. You take it today and you are going to need to take it tomorrow because you dont store it for long. Faith can be used today but it will need to be replenished by hearing and the hearing of the word of righteousness.
Because when you use your faith to see a miracle happen, you use your faith for a marriage problem or for a demand or a challenge, then that faith is depleted. And you know that if you keep drawing out of your bank account without putting back in then the day will come when they will say if you keep drawing out of your bank account then you will go to jail. Do you know what a nervous breakdown is? A nervous breakdown is a sign that you are in a faith overdraft and there is nothing left in their account because they have not put faith back in. Faith comes by daily hearing the Word of God.
There are days that I can take time to listen to the Word of God and listen and listen and I come out of that time ready to face anything. But I know when I am praying for people and ministering week after week in these conferences when we travel - man at the end of that time I am a pushover to the devil. That is the time I am most subject to sickness, depression, discouragement, to lies and deception. But when faith increases and rises then you come out ruling and reigning in life! It is all about how faith comes! Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Write it down! Romans 10:17. That is how faith comes. When faith goes from ministry, you need to replenish that faith.
If your outflow of faith exceeds your income of faith - then your upkeep is going to be your downfall.
You will hear about righteousness for some time now! Dont be discouraged by that - be encouraged because you will hear so much about faith and righteousness that your faith is going to grow this morning. But you know we are going to need to hear more on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We have got people downloading all around the world on our website and getting stronger and stronger. Lets be the strongest in faith because we are right here at the source - this is the fountain of City Church International! I am so grateful for the miracles happening out there through our website - but folks, something is wrong if they are getting further down the road than we are in here. They are not - and I am carnal and competitive enough to say; "No way - I would not rather be anywhere in the world than City Church International!".
How do you reign in life? Through having faith in the gift of righteousness. Romans 5:17 - "For if by the tresspass of the one man Adam, death reigned through the one man how much more will those who receive Gods abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ". So here is the biggest contradiction to the brainwashing of the religious community in the world. The religious world says if you want to reign and rule in life and have success in life then you have got to do a whole lot of things, perform, keep laws and rules and regulations - you have got to live holy and act righteous all the time. The Bible contradicts that in the New Testament. It says if you want to reign in life, it is not through what you do but through what you receive. You receive the abundant provision of grace as a gift of righteousness. A gift is something you dont pay for.
Now if someone gives you a gift and tells you it is free but a week later they invite you to do something with them and you say no I havent got time and they say; "Yes but I was generous to you last week" - then it was not a gift - it was a setup! It was a demonic ambush to manipulate you with guilt to do something for them. Now that is why when we hear that God gives righteousness as a gift, we struggle to believe that because we think He is like a human being giving you something that is not really free but is obligating you to do something for Him. But this is a gift from a God who is absolutely pure, holy and righteous and would never manipulate you. He means it is a GIFT and when you get this GIFT you are not obligated to do ANYTHING for God! It is a gift of righteousness and righteousness means "right standing with God!".
It means that God looks at you in exactly the same way as He looks at Jesus! All the time - every second of every moment of all day! It is a gift and you reign in life through receiving this gift and raising your faith by the hearing about this gift to higher levels!
You see Jesus Christs perfect faith before the Father is what causes you to stand in righteousness before the Father. So you dont even need perfect faith! Your imperfect faith is represented by Jesuss perfect faith before the Father so that all the time you are righteous even when your faith is very weak. But heres the deal. The benefits here on the earth go up as your faith increases. In other words in heaven, you are righteous all the time but if your faith in His gift of righteousness is at a very low level and you walk around going; "Oh I am so unworthy, I am so guilty, I am so condemned" but in heaven, all heaven is saying; "No you are not! You are worthy! You are the righteousness of God - perfect faith in heaven!".
But you see if your faith is low then you dont walk in the reality and experience of the fact. We are positioned in Christ Jesus in heaven in righteousness but how we live it out in experience and enjoy the benefits of that is according to the level of faith that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
So the reason why some people struggle to that we are the righteousness of God is simply because their faith in that gift is low. But the more your faith grows that you are righteous, the more authority in your life, the more victory over sin, the more joy and the more blessings - which we are going to see in a moment. But lets say God we need a fool-proof righteousness because we act like a fool sometimes. We need a devil-proof righteousness because we hear about this and then the devil comes along and says; "Yes but you have sinned so you are not righteousness anymore". We need a failure-proof righteousness because none of us are walking perfectly in this life ... yet.
What is the foundation for that? The basis of our righteousness has to be taken away from our performance and put on the performance of Someone who is always perfect. So here is the basis of a fool-proof, devil-proof, failure-proof righteousness that we have as a gift because it is not based on your obedience, but the obedience of the one Man Jesus Christ. For all human beings death reigned through Adams disobedience now in Christ we all reign in life through one Man Jesus Christ and His obedience.
Lets look at verses 18 and 19; "Consequently just as a result of one trespass" (that was first Adam) was condemnation for all men, so also was also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men". This is available for ALL men! (v19); "For just as through the disobedience of the one man (not your disobedience but Adams disobedience) the many were made sinners so also through the obedience of the one Man, the many (the Greek there is the many will be imputed with or given) the gift of righteousness".
Now I want you to turn back to Romans 1 - something very powerful and interesting here. Here is the great apostle in v16 and he says; "I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes first for the Jew and then for the Gentile". Now look up at me for a moment. Paul says "I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power". That is a wonderful word; "Power". There is a power of God for salvation for all who believe. That word "salvation" is the word "soterio" and the short version is "sozo". It means "wholeness, health and blessing and provision and protection". Some people think that salvation means only going to heaven. But folks, it doesnt speak about "heaven" here. This word is a reference to temporal or earthly wholeness, wellness, blessing, strength, victory and provision! So Paul says I am not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of God unto wholeness, protection, preservation, cleansing, power for provision for health, for wholeness for all who believe! How do you come to believe? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
But he says I am not ashamed of this gospel! Why would he say I am not ashamed? Today when you hear people say; "I am not ashamed of this gospel" - they do not mean the same thing that Paul means. What they mean is that I am not ashamed to preach this gospel. Thats not what Paul was saying. They will say I am not ashamed to stand at the traffic lights and and theres a lady with a baby and the veins in my neck will say you are going to hell and Jesus Christ died for you and I am not ashamed! You may not ashamed but your relatives are very ashamed of you! You have missed the whole point of what Paul is saying. Paul lived in a time that was dominated by Jewish legalistic thinking, the Old Covenant way of thinking - the law of Moses. The very idea that someone could be righteous apart from their work, performance or obedience was a shameful thing. They would kill you and stone you if you said you were the righteousness of God apart from your law, works or performance. They would have said you were crazy and would stone you.
Paul gets up and says I am not ashamed to say that the power that operates in you for wholeness, health, wellbeing, preservation and protection doesnt come from my works but it comes from a gift of righteousness that is Gods gift to me. That is how I reign in life! Not through my works, not through how well I do, my obedience or my holiness - it comes from a gift of rightousness.
Many Christians and preachers are ashamed of this Gospel! They will not preach it fully - they will say, yes you are righteous through this gift but you have got to do a whole lot of things after you are saved to earn the blessing. Why are they ashamed? Because they think if they do not preach at least a bit of the law then people will go out and do a whole lot of sinning. So they put a whole lot of law in to try and curtail and cajole people not to sin and actually the more they preach a FALSE gospel, the more sin breaks out in the church and the more defeat and the more sickness and the more disease.
Every time you hear this message of grace and righteousness being preached in the earth, the red flags come up in the church world. This message that is bringing liberty and freedom and deliverance to homosexuals and drug addicts and alcoholics - this message of grace - red flags are coming up where-ever it is preached! Why? I would like to ask one question - why dont the red flags come up when people preach a mixture of law and grace? Why dont the red flags come up when people preach the law? The reason red flags come up is that people instinctively know that if I preach this great gospel without any shame then I lose control in my church over the people. If I can keep them under some guilt and control them then I have still got control. But if I set them free in the gospel then they may not listen to me and may not follow me. Thats what its all about friends - it is not about law and grace! Its about whos got control! The Church world has had control over peoples lives for so long so this is a revolution that GOD is initiating not us! God is! To free the masses of Gods people into liberty!
How does this great power flow? For centuries the Church has been preaching law and grace mixed together and you have got churches full of sickness and defeated people and passive people that lack PASSION! Here God shows us the way that salvation operates for "sozo" - for health, for healing, for wholeness, for preservation, for protection. The way it works - what is the cause of this power? What releases this power? A revelation that a righteousness from God has been given to you as a free gift. No obligation! Just believe it and you will see the outworking of it!
You should have seen the hope coming into peoples eyes when I preached this Gospel in Australia! Every day witnessing to unsaved people! They said; "Rob I didnt know it was so good!". I believe that if most Australians heard the Gospel for the first time then most Australians would get saved on the spot! I believe that! They just havent heard the Gospel once - they have only heard religion preached for centuries. Lets look at (v16) again and when we get to (v17) you will see where the power for salvation comes.
"for in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed - a righteousness that is by faith from first to last. Just as it is written the righteous will live by faith".
What is the faith the righteous will live in? The faith that I AM the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. This context that Paul is speaking about is in the context of the gospel, the power of salvation and that a righteousness from God is revealed. That is by faith from first to last and ever lasting. That is what your faith is. What is your faith as a Christian? You dont need faith for healing, blessing and prosperity, wholeness - what you need to develop your faith to higher and higher levels is that you have a gift of righteousness and you are the righteousness of God. THAT releases the power of "soza" - health, healing, protection. The Church is teaching people to have faith for healing, faith for blessing, for prosperity. You hear about "Five Steps for Faith for Healing", "Five Steps for Prosperity", "Five Steps for Protection". I am running out of steps - I cant remember what the first and second step was! That is exhausting and it doesnt even work!
The righteous - those who have a gift of righteousness - they live by faith! Faith in what? Faith that they are the righteousness of God from first to last! Now all over the world people are getting this message and lives are being changed as we read only a few of the reports back. Also around the world you have got people reacting to this message. That is encouraging because if no one is reacting then we are not preaching the Gospel that Paul preached! This Gospel Paul preached, people hated it and beat him and put him in prison! Today they just write nega