God’s Sovereignty vs. Human Authority: Finding Balance in Faith

While the message encourages active faith, it inadvertently undermines the gospel by suggesting believers must activate blessings through verbal commands. The sermon's portrayal of God's limited sovereignty and human divinity creates theological confusion. Strengths include practical applications for overcoming challenges, but the core message needs to center more clearly on Christ's finished work and God's unchanging sovereignty.

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Theological Status: THERAPEUTIC / COMPLACENT Biblical Parallel(Archetype): Laodicea
❓ What do these grades mean?
🔍 Biblical Discernment: The 7 Church Parallels
The Faithful Parallels Smyrna • Philadelphia
Teaching that parallels the churches that endure suffering with true spiritual riches (Rev 2:9) and keep the Word of Christ without denial despite having "little strength" (Rev 3:8).
The Cold Orthodox Parallel Ephesus
Teaching that upholds doctrinal precision yet parallels the loss of the "first love"—the vital, motivating power of the Gospel (Rev 2:4).
The Formalist Parallels Pergamum
Teaching that parallels churches tolerating the "doctrine of Balaam" through cultural accommodation (Rev 2:14), characterized by weak boundaries, sloppy theology, and worldly compromise.
The Compromised Parallels Thyatira • Sardis • Laodicea
Teaching that parallels churches with active heresy, synergism, therapeutic deism, or dead orthodoxy (Rev 2:20, Rev 3:1, Rev 3:17).
Why strictly "Mark & Avoid"?
We do not issue this rating to attack the speaker, but to protect the listener. This ministry's overall teaching trend consistently deviates from sound doctrine. As per Romans 16:17, we identify these patterns so believers can guard their hearts.
Date: 2025-07-12 | Church: Andrew Wommack Ministries | Speaker: Andrew Wommack

📺 Media: Watch Sermon on YouTube

🧐 Overview

Sermon Summary: This sermon explores the relationship between God's sovereignty and human responsibility, but its emphasis on human authority risks shifting focus from Christ's grace to self-reliance.

Big Idea: God, though sovereign in authority, has voluntarily limited His direct control over human affairs by granting mankind dominion and authority; therefore, sickness, poverty, and defeat are not God’s will but the result of human failure to resist the devil and activate the authority Christ has already given — and believers must actively speak, believe, and stand in that authority to see God’s promises manifest. [00:00:00 ▶️ 📄]

Pastoral Analysis: While the message encourages active faith, it inadvertently undermines the gospel by suggesting believers must activate blessings through verbal commands. The sermon's portrayal of God's limited sovereignty and human divinity creates theological confusion. Strengths include practical applications for overcoming challenges, but the core message needs to center more clearly on Christ's finished work and God's unchanging sovereignty.

Biblical Parallel(Archetype): Laodicea — The sermon promotes self-reliance over Christ's grace, denies God's absolute sovereignty, and misapplies Scripture to teach human divinity and prosperity gospel principles, aligning with Laodicea's self-sufficient complacency (Revelation 3:15-17).

🎨 The Visual Metaphor

The cracked tablet represents God’s sovereign Word—unchanging and authoritative—but its lower half, broken and overtaken by life, symbolizes human authority activated in faith. The wildflowers signify God’s promised restoration, not imposed from above, but emerging where human belief and action break the soil of unbelief.


📖 How they Handle Scripture & Jesus

  • Primary Text: James 4:7
  • Usage Classification: Prosperity Gospel-oriented
  • Text-to-Talk Ratio: Moderate
  • Pulpit Decorum: ⚠️ CAUTION - Coarse language used (e.g., 'Satan in the name of Jesus I command you to shut up')

✝️ Christological Focus: Weak

"Sermon emphasizes human authority over Christ's finished work"

Scripture Saturation: Verses Read: 12 | Referenced: 10 | Alluded: 10

Passages Read Aloud:

Key References: James 4:7, Hebrews 1:3, Psalm 138:2, Deuteronomy 30:19, Exodus 23:25, Romans 8:28, 1 Peter 3:9, Hebrews 4:2, Acts 10:38, Psalm 139:16

💧 Liturgy & Sacraments

Altar Call / Invitation Observed: Yes

  • Theological Conditions: You must take your authority and stop passively begging God, God has already provided everything you need; you need revelation, not more from God, You are a god (as a human being) and have been given sovereign control, God will not overstep your authority; you must act to release faith, You must speak against sickness, poverty, depression, and demonic influences, Healing is already done by the stripes of Jesus; you must believe and claim it, You are blessed with all spiritual blessings; you must stand in agreement, Prayer of agreement with others releases supernatural power, You must stand up and enforce what God has already done, not ask Him to do it, Faith must be mixed with the Word; without standing, prayer won't work

🎙️ Sermon Content & Delivery

Word Count: 7,196 words

📌 Key Topics Addressed

  • God's sovereignty [00:00:00 ▶️ 📄]
    > Wommack explicitly rejects absolute divine sovereignty, claiming God limited His control by granting humans authority, and that God will not violate human choice even when it leads to suffering.
  • Human authority over circumstances [00:01:00 ▶️ 📄]
    > The pastor teaches that believers have total authority over sickness, finances, and demons, and must command them directly in Jesus' name rather than praying to God for intervention.
  • Faith as a human action [00:02:30 ▶️ 📄]
    > He frames faith as a mechanical requirement to activate God’s power, teaching that God will not act unless humans speak, believe, and resist the devil with their own will.
  • Sickness and divine will [00:08:28 ▶️ 📄]
    > Wommack denies that God permits or causes sickness, claiming God 'turns off' sickness and that illness results from believing lies, not God's sovereign plan.
  • Strongholds and mindset [00:10:31 ▶️ 📄]
    > He equates cultural and emotional beliefs about suffering with spiritual strongholds that block God’s power, urging listeners to replace them with Scriptural declarations.
  • Human Authority [00:33:56 ▶️ 📄]
    > The pastor teaches that God granted humans dominion over the earth and that believers must actively exercise this authority rather than passively pray for God to intervene.
  • The Atonement [00:33:56 ▶️ 📄]
    > Jesus' death is framed as a financial transaction to buy back humanity, after which He becomes a 'joint owner' with believers — emphasizing legal ownership over substitutionary atonement.
  • Faith as Action [00:33:56 ▶️ 📄]
    > Faith is defined not as trust in God's character but as verbal declaration and aggressive rebuke of opposing forces — presented as the mechanism that activates God's promises.
  • Sickness and Healing [00:33:56 ▶️ 📄]
    > Sickness is attributed to unbelief and demonic influence; healing is presented as guaranteed by the atonement and activated by human rebuke and agreement.
  • God's Sovereignty [00:33:56 ▶️ 📄]
    > The pastor explicitly denies that God sovereignly controls events in a believer's life, stating God will not override human authority — a direct contradiction to classical theism.

🖼️ Illustrations & Stories

  • Sermon Illustration [00:20:11 ▶️ 📄]
    > Wommack recounts how his infant son Joshua was severely ill for three days; after being confronted by a pastor who accused him of unbelief rooted in guilt, the child suddenly recovered, leading Wommack to believe his own theology of God causing suffering was hindering faith.
  • Sermon Illustration [00:18:49 ▶️ 📄]
    > He tells of a spiritual mentor who blamed God for her daughter’s death, leading to a confrontation where Wommack insisted God did not cause the illness, resulting in her leaving in anger and his family rebuking him.
  • Sermon Illustration [00:22:30 ▶️ 📄]
    > Richard Harris’s illustration of a father giving property to his son, who is deceived into signing it over to a crook; the father must buy it back and then give it back as a joint heir with stipulations, symbolizing Christ’s redemption and the believer’s need to co-sign with God.
  • Sermon Illustration [00:33:56 ▶️ 📄]
    > A man signs over his property to a deceiver; to reclaim it, he must buy it back and then give it to his son as a joint ownership, where both must sign for any transaction — illustrating Jesus' atonement and the believer's need to co-sign with God.
  • Sermon Illustration [00:33:56 ▶️ 📄]
    > The pastor's mother, healed of thyroid disease after throwing away medication, later relapsed due to negative speech around her aunt; the pastor rebuked sickness over his son and the illness ceased after he commanded Satan to shut up.
  • Sermon Illustration [00:33:56 ▶️ 📄]
    > Jesus rebuked Peter immediately after Peter confessed Him as the Christ, showing that even divine insight can be used by Satan if it contradicts God's Word — used to justify rebuking negative speech.

🚀 Calls to Action (Application)

  • Pastoral Charge [00:02:30 ▶️ 📄]
    > Speak directly to your mountain (sickness, finances, demons) in Jesus' name instead of praying to God about it.
  • Pastoral Charge [00:15:44 ▶️ 📄]
    > Resist the devil actively and refuse to be passive in your spiritual life.
  • Pastoral Charge [00:11:43 ▶️ 📄]
    > Renew your mind daily against worldly beliefs about sickness, aging, and genetics.
  • Pastoral Charge [00:07:24 ▶️ 📄]
    > Stop blaming God for your problems and take full responsibility for your choices and beliefs.
  • Pastoral Charge [00:13:24 ▶️ 📄]
    > Operate in Holy Spirit intercession with groanings that cannot be uttered to activate God's power.
  • Pastoral Charge [00:34:55 ▶️ 📄]
    > Come forward to pray with prayer ministers who will agree with you in authority to rebuke sickness, poverty, and depression.
  • Pastoral Charge [00:34:38 ▶️ 📄]
    > Get the pastor's booklet on taking authority, which he claims is one of his best writings.

🧭 Biblical Alignment Dashboard

Overall Verdict: Fundamentally in Error

CategoryStatusReasoning
Gospel Presentation ❌ FAIL The sermon emphasizes human action to activate blessings rather than presenting salvation through Christ's finished work.
Soteriology ❌ FAIL Salvation is portrayed as dependent on human action rather than grace.
Bibliology ❌ FAIL Misinterpretation of Scripture, such as misapplying Psalm 82:6 to assert human divinity.
Hermeneutic ❌ FAIL Flawed interpretive methods, including misusing Psalm 82:6.
Theology Proper ❌ FAIL Denial of God's absolute sovereignty, teaching that God voluntarily limits His control.
Sacramentology ⚪ N/A No sacramental elements addressed in the sermon
Confessional Depth ❌ FAIL Superficial treatment of doctrine focused on self-empowerment rather than Christ-centered truth

⚙️ The Gospel Engine (Confessional Distinctives)

The Law And Wrath: Not observed in the sermon.

Total Depravity And Inability: Not observed in the sermon.

Active Obedience Of Christ: Not observed in the sermon.

The Cross And Atonement: Not observed in the sermon.

⚠️ Theological Concerns

🔴 Human Divinity Claim (The Error of Treating Humans as Divine)

Root Cause: The error of equating human nature with divine essence, contrary to Scripture's teaching that God alone is divine.

"You are a god (as a human being) and have been given sovereign control" [00:00:00 ▶️ 📄]

Correction: Scripture affirms humans are created in God's image (Genesis 1:26-27) but are finite creatures, not divine. Psalm 82:6 refers to human judges under God's authority, not ontological deity (John 10:34-36). Only God is divine (Isaiah 43:10-11).

🔴 Divine Sovereignty Limitation (The Error of Conditional Sovereignty)

Root Cause: Denial of God's unqualified sovereignty over all creation and redemption.

"God is sovereign in the sense of being first in rank and authority, but He limited His sovereignty by giving humans authority." [00:00:00 ▶️ 📄]

Correction: God's sovereignty is absolute and extends over all creation without limitation (Psalm 115:3; Isaiah 46:10). Human actions occur within His sovereign will, but He never relinquishes ultimate control.

🔴 Divine Inaction Without Human Activation (The Error of Conditional Grace)

Root Cause: Misunderstanding God's active role in enabling believers' spiritual warfare.

"God will not violate His word, so when He says 'resist the devil and he will flee,' He will not do it for you." [00:00:45 ▶️ 📄]

Correction: God empowers believers to resist the devil through His grace (James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:8-9), and resistance is enabled by divine strength, not human initiative alone.

🔴 Human Control Over Divine Will (The Error of Autonomy)

Root Cause: Rejecting God's sovereign control over all events in favor of human autonomy.

"God's will does not automatically come to pass; humans have 100% control over whether they obey God's plan." [00:04:45 ▶️ 📄]

Correction: God's eternal decree is efficacious and always accomplished, whether through direct causation or permissive allowance (Psalm 115:3; Isaiah 46:10).

🔴 Sickness as Solely Human Fault (The Error of Ignoring Providence)

Root Cause: Misattributing all suffering to human fault while ignoring God's providential sovereignty.

"Sickness is not God's will; it results from human unbelief and yielding to the devil." [00:08:28 ▶️ 📄]

Correction: God sovereignly permits suffering for His purposes (Job 1:12; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10), and sickness is not solely a result of personal sin or unbelief (John 9:1-3).

🔴 Conditioning God's Promise (The Error of Added Requirements)

Root Cause: Adding unbiblical conditions to God's promises, turning grace into a transactional system.

"Romans 8:28 only applies to those who love God and are actively resisting the devil and operating in Spirit-led intercession." [00:14:50 ▶️ 📄]

Correction: Romans 8:28 is a promise for all who are called according to God's purpose, grounded in His sovereign election, not dependent on human resistance or intercession (Romans 8:28-30).

🔴 Prosperity Gospel Theology (The Error of Self-Sufficient Faith)

Root Cause: Promoting a self-sufficient faith that replaces dependence on Christ with human effort and verbal commands.

"God has provided everything you ever will need you don't need anything from God what you need is revelation of what you've already got... Healing and deliverance are guaranteed by the atonement and activated by human verbal rebuke and agreement... God does not sovereignly control what's going on in your life... you got to find out that you are a god and you are true human beings way. You got to find out that God is sovereign and he sovereignly gave you control. And if you don't use it, he will not overstep your authority and step in and make it happen for you." [00:33:56 ▶️ 📄]

Correction: Healing and deliverance are gifts of God's grace, not guaranteed by human action (2 Corinthians 12:7-10); believers are wholly dependent on God's grace for every need (Philippians 4:19; John 15:5); God's sovereignty is absolute (Ephesians 1:11).

🔴 Miracle Activation Through Agreement (The Error of Ritualistic Prayer)

Root Cause: Treating prayer as a transactional mechanism rather than relational communion with God.

"Prayer of agreement with another believer is necessary to activate miracles." [00:35:08 ▶️ 📄]

Correction: Prayer is supplication to a sovereign God who acts according to His will, not human agreement (Matthew 6:10). Miracles are manifestations of God's power, not human rituals.


📜 Full Sermon Transcript (Audit)

Use the 📄 icons next to quotes above to automatically jump to their location in this raw transcript.

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:00] and i'm going to share with you about what i consider to be the number one thing that comes against the word of god out of everything that you could talk about and there's a lot of things but i'm going to talk against the extreme sovereignty of god teaching and i i wrote a book on this i back in february i think we started putting this out about april or something like this but in my estimation this is the worst doctrine in the entire body of christ let me just preface this by saying that i believe that god is sovereign if you'll use sovereign the way the dictionary defines it as first in order rank or authority that god is absolutely almighty i believe that 100 but when god created mankind he limited his sovereignty he limited his control over mankind by giving us authority there's many many examples of this in the word of god but james 4 7 says submit yourselves therefore unto god resist the devil and he will flee from you he said he will flee from you and yet the average christian they may use different terminology but they basically are saying oh god the devil is fighting me with finances you know lack of finances sickness uh something else and oh god please get the devil off my back please solve this problem he said you resist the devil and he will flee from you when god gave you that much authority and power he limited his own power and authority god will not violate his word it says in psalms 138 verse 2 that he has magnified his word above all of his name at the name of jesus every knee is going to bow every tongue is going to confess the name of jesus is all powerful and yet the word of god is even magnified in his name and he said you resist the devil and he will flee from you when god above his word in hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 it says that he upholds all things by the word of his power and if i had time i could go into details showing you that the whole universe is held together by the word that created it if god ever broke his word if he ever did something contrary to what he said the whole universe would self-destruct you and i would fly apart it's what holds everything together is the word of god and so god cannot lie it says that in two or three different places and so when god says you resist the devil that means he's not going to do it for you you can't ask him to do it you could take teaching from mark chapter 11 those passages of scripture that kenneth hagen wrote he used these so often people thought he wrote them but he said whosoever will say unto this mountain be thou removed be thou cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things which he say is shall not be removed from you and he said that he will flee from you and he said that he will come to pass he shall have whatsoever he saith it says you speak to the mountain most christians talk to god about their mountain oh god i got this problem please get the devil off my back oh god please do this please do that he told you to speak to the mountain that's implying that you have authority and most people are talking to god about their mountain you need to talk to your mountain about god you need to tell him you need to tell that mountain to go you need to speak and say body in the name of jesus you be healed i command you cancer to be gone you speak to your finances you take authority see all of this stuff goes back to the to the sovereignty of god the church has basically been taught that nothing happens but what god allows it and that is not true there are hundreds and hundreds of examples that we can use in scripture but things that mike and carrie and billy already talked about today you know uh we've talked about this before but i want to give you a little bit of an example of what god has done for us in the last few years in hebrews chapter 4 the word was preached unto them but it didn't profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it god never intended for the jews to die in the wilderness his intention was to bring them out and into the land it was their disobedience that caused that you have to be you have to be hard-hearted to think that god brought them out so that that whole generation could die in the wilderness they did die another passage of scripture is first peter chapter 3 verse 9 where it says that god is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance that just makes it as clear as you can make it that god is not willing it is not god's will for any person to die and yet the majority of people die and perish because god's will does not automatically come to pass god has a plan for your life but you have 100 control over whether or not you obey god's plan it says in psalms 139 verse 16 that before you were even born all of your days were written in a book god had written down what he wanted every day of your life to be like but he does not make it come to pass you have complete charge of whether or not you will cooperate with god i'm sure that every person in here can remember some time that god has told you to do something and you didn't think it was a good idea or it wasn't the right way to do it and so you choose to do things your own way and how did that work out it didn't work out good every person in here can look and see that god didn't control you you knew you did what god told you not to do you may have gone out and gotten drunk you may have started smoking you should have you may have done dope you may have done other things and you knew it wasn't god's will and you did it anyway so if god doesn't control you what makes you think he controls everybody else this is this is in my estimation the worst doctrine in the body of christ that god just sovereignly controls everything and that if your life is an absolute mess it's because god wanted it to be that way if you're sick god must have a purpose in you being sick that is not true and i'm just quoting a lot of things because i hadn't got time to turn over and so i encourage you to study these things out on your own but romans chapter 8 728 verse 28 and we know that all things work together for good to them who love god to them who are the called according to his purpose and people who don't know another scripture in the bible will quote that scripture and say that you know it's a cop-out basically it allows you to just live a totally defeated life you don't have to seek god you don't have to take responsibility if you're sick well i didn't want to be sick i don't have anything to do with it yeah you do you got total authority over whether you get sick you got total authority over whether you're poor. You've got total authority over your joy and peace, just like Mike and Carrie were teaching today. He says, behold, Deuteronomy 30, 19, behold, I call heaven and earth to record against you this day that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. And then he says, therefore choose life. He gave you the choice. If you aren't living in blessing, you're the one that chose death. And some, I did not. Yes, you did. You say, I did not.
[00:07:24] I didn't choose to be sick. No, you chose to just believe this stuff like what Billy was talking about, that you're only human and that you don't have any authority. You can't, you can't live in health after all. It's flu season. Everybody gets flu. I mean, you have to get sick. You have to have the cold once or twice a year. You're the one that believed that lie. Did you know it? One of the reasons that Adam lived to be 930 years old is because he didn't know it was flu season.
[00:07:51] He didn't know you were supposed to be over the hill.
[00:07:54] At 40, it took 930 years for the devil to convince him how to die. And yet we've been taught how to die. And we've been taught that, well, my family, it runs in the family that we got this cancer in the family and that we've got this and genetics and you have been taught and you're expecting it and you're talking it. There's a scripture in Exodus chapter 23, verse 25. Could you put that up there? I may not quote the whole thing. Boy, our, our team up here is awesome. Aren't they? The way they put these scriptures up here.
[00:08:28] That's great. It says, and you shall serve the Lord, your God, and he shall bless thy bread and thy water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. The word take and the word away is the same word, the same Hebrew word on either side of the word sickness. And the only definition of that word is to turn off. I will turn off sickness, turn off from the midst of thee. God said he would turn off sickness. He will make you so that you don't even get sick. And I know some people, I don't believe that. This is exactly what Billy was saying. I'm telling you what scripture says. That's what the scripture says. And your stronghold, your idol is saying, I don't believe that. That's the reason it doesn't work.
[00:09:23] Don't shout me down.
[00:09:24] Because I'm preaching good. And many of you right now thinking, but man, I know this person who loved God and they died. And I know this person who tried to believe and it didn't work. And you know what? That's, that's what's stopping the word from working in your life.
[00:09:41] It's not that it's so hard. I mean, the scripture says, I am the Lord, thy God that healeth thee.
[00:09:48] It says that Jesus went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil.
[00:09:54] Not oppressed of God, but we have been taught. That was Acts chapter 10, verse 38 for those of you up there. But we've been taught that no, it doesn't work that way. And you just have to be sick. And as you get old, you have to start having these problems and you can't live without this.
[00:10:12] And that's the reason that the word of God has no effect in our life is because of these other things. And we've been taught that God is just controlling. They say, we don't have control. You have total control.
[00:10:24] And if you're saying, but I'm only human again, that's a stronghold. That's a way of thinking.
[00:10:31] You know, Billy taught this last year. I'm not sure if it was this conference, but he was teaching from Hebrews. I mean, first Corinthians chapter 10, verse second Corinthians 10, three through five about the strongholds thoughts and imaginations are strongholds. And he was talking about it being like building blocks. And he was talking about how that those things build these castles. And as he was teaching, he was talking about how those things build these castles. And he was teaching on that. And he mentioned emotions. I thought, um, if all you did was put cinder blocks up here, and if you just stack them on top of each other, all the way up to this ceiling, did you know you could run and hit those things and you could make that whole thing crash.
[00:11:08] But if you cement them together and put some mortar in there, I guarantee you could run and that wall wouldn't move. You would be the one that would get hurt. You know, what cements all of these thoughts together are those emotions. When you have these negative thoughts, you can't get rid of them. When you have these negative thoughts, when you have these negative things that you've been taught and you combine that with emotions, that's like putting blocks together with mortar. And, uh, man, that makes us stronghold. And so we have these thoughts that are contrary to God's word. And we honor what we've been taught. We honor what we see in other people.
[00:11:43] We honor what's going on in our society today, more than we honor the word of God and those become strongholds. And that's, what's keeping the word of God from having effect. And one of the biggest strongholds is this sovereignty of God. I just can't tell you how many people I've seen this destroy them. And I've had to deal with this myself. I was taught all of these things. I was told that it was God that killed my dad when I was 12 years old, that it was God's will, that he needed him in heaven more than I needed him. Um, man, I could give you, if I had time, I could give you hundreds of examples of people that I'm seeing this teaching destroy their life.
[00:12:24] I'm, I quoted Romans 8, 28. I didn't finish, uh, answering that, but it says, we know that all things work together for good that to them, love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. But if you look at that verse, it starts with the word and, and is a conjunction. That means it ties it to verse 26 and 27 and in verses 26 and 27, where it says that the spirit likewise help us our infirmities and the infirmities. And it says, we know that all things work together as we ought, but the spirit itself help with us with groanings that cannot be uttered. And then it says, and so that's tying that, uh, the spirit helping us, uh, to this thing about all things working together. So it's talking about intercession. I got an entire teaching entitled groaning in the spirit. I don't minister on that much, but there's a difference between just praying and then having the Holy spirit take hold together.
[00:13:24] With you and having supernatural intercession. And that's what that word, when it's a pair of clay, though, or I don't know how to pronounce it, but it's four different Greek words put together. And it means to take hold together with us. The Holy spirit doesn't just intercede for you without your participation or all of us would have perfect things happening in our life. And it's not us just interceding on our own power, but you can get to a place to where the Holy spirit takes hold together with you. And there are groaning, that cannot be uttered. I have grown in the spirit hours at a time over something. And it's just causes supernatural breakthrough. I remember in one service, one time, Vanetta Copeland, Kenneth's mother was sitting next to me in a meeting and this friend of mine was preaching and it was pitiful and I didn't realize it, but I was interceding and praying and I didn't realize, but I was actually groaning physically. And when the meeting was over, she says, I was groaning in the spirit with you.
[00:14:24] I didn't realize it was outward, but when you groan in the spirit, that's powerful. And if you operate in that type of intercession, spirit filled, spirit empowered intercession, then you can know that all things work together for good. It didn't say all things come from God, but you can take anything that the devil throws at you and work it together for good to them who love God.
[00:14:50] That's a qualification. If you don't love God, things aren't going to work together for good.
[00:14:54] And to those who are called according to his purpose in first Peter chapter three, verse eight or nine says for this purpose was the son of God manifest that he might destroy the works of the devil. So if you are doing all things according to his purpose, well, that means you're resisting the devil. That verse I started with James four, seven, submit yourselves therefore unto God, resist the devil and he'll flee from you. So if you aren't resisting the devil, if you aren't resisting, if you aren't loving God, and if you aren't operating in Holy spirit intercession, then all things don't work together for good. That's wrong for people to think that this is just automatically saying anything that happens in your life works together for good. If you believe that, you know what? It makes you totally passive. You don't have any responsibility. You just cry and Oh God, please do something.
[00:15:44] And you don't have any responsibility in the thing at all. And it will, it'll totally stop the power of God from operating in your life. You've got, you've got to know that God has a perfect plan for you, but it does not automatically come to pass. You have to resist the devil. You have to be violently resolved. Matthew chapter 11 verse 12, the violent, take the kingdom by force. You need an attitude. You got to get an attitude. And most Christians are just super passive. You can see this in the political realm that we have just not been involved in lately. When things started getting so far out of control, Christians have been talked to and, and we've had people rise up like Charlie Kirk and just so many other people that are challenging the church and telling them to get involved. And because of it, we've seen a turnaround in the political process. It's not solved yet, but we're seeing some good things happen. Matter of fact, they just passed the big, beautiful bill just a few minutes ago in the Senate. So that's good. And we're seeing some things happen, but you know why? It's because Christians finally woke up. The reason we got into the message is because we're seeing some good things happen. We're seeing some good things happen.
[00:16:54] We're seeing some good things happen. We're seeing some good things happen. We're seeing some good things happen. We're seeing some good things happen. We're seeing some good things happen. Why? Because Christians, we're passive. You need to get an attitude. You need to get the attitude like, who is this uncircumcised Philistine? He doesn't have a covenant with God. Who is this sickness to come against me? How dare the devil come against me? How dare the devil do these kind of things? And yet most Christians aren't that way because they think God is the one who sent their problems to make them better. And if God is the Shepherd, then why does source of your problem, then it makes you passive because you don't want to fight against God.
[00:17:30] And you know, this is not something you just learn one time and you get it nailed down and you never have another problem with it. It's something that you have to constantly renew your mind because in the world system, uh, everything is just full of unbelief. And so you have to constantly be dealing with this. You know, I remember after I first saw these truths, um, I was over and this woman who is kind of like a spiritual mother to me, she was much older than me and she was, uh, had really impacted me. And, uh, her daughter is the one that you heard me mention sometimes that I was unofficially engaged to her. I did, I wasn't engaged, but her parents, when I was in Vietnam said we were engaged and they got me to come home and I was with her when she died. And it was because she was believing that it was God's will for her to come home. And I was with her when she died. And I was with her when she died. And I was with her when she died. And I was with her when she died. And I was with her when she died. And I was with her when she died. And I was with her when she died. And she prayed and asked God to give her a cancer so she could glorify God. And anyway, after all this was over and after I got back from Vietnam and after Jamie and I were married, we were sitting there with this woman who was this girl's mother. And she was at my mother's house. My mother was there. My sister was there. Jamie was there. And I was there. And this woman got to talking about how it was God's will. And this was God's will that her daughter died. And I said, no, it wasn't us. God's will that, that she died.
[00:18:49] and she said, what are you saying? God is sovereign. God controls everything. And I said, well, he's not the one that makes people sick. And she got on my case and she got to criticizing me.
[00:19:00] And it was the first time that I had ever been bold enough to stand up and counter this person who was, you know, in the Lord a lot, much longer than me and kind of like an elder to me. And I just stood up and refused to compromise. And anyway, she got mad and left. And I remember sitting there, Jamie and my mother and my sister jumped on me like a chicken on a June bug.
[00:19:26] How dare you talk to Mrs. Smith that way? And they got on me and I said, look, I'm not mad.
[00:19:34] I'm just refusing to back up. But they took it that I was mad and I may have been forceful.
[00:19:42] But anyway, I didn't feel mad. I just feel like I'm not going to compromise on this issue. God did not do this. And so anyway, right after that, Joshua, our firstborn son, he got sick and we had been praying and we were believing for healing and we didn't go to a doctor. I'm not condemning people who do, but we didn't go to a doctor. We didn't take his temperature, but he was so hot that you couldn't touch him. And for three days, he ran this high temperature.
[00:20:11] He was less than a year old. He was less than a year old. He was less than a year old. He was YEAR OLD AND THREE DAYS HE DIDN'T EAT OR MOVE BECAUSE HE WAS SO SICK AND WE PRAYED OVER HIM AND I DID EVERYTHING I KNEW TO DO AND I WASN'T SEEING RESULTS AND MARSHALL TOWNSLEY MAN WHO PASTORS BELIEVER CENTERS ALBUQUERQUE NORTHEAST AND HE WAS AN ASSOCIATE PASTOR WITH ME AT THAT TIME MARSHALL CAME OVER TO MY HOUSE AND SAT ON THIS STEREO THIS IS BACK WHEN YOU HAD RECORD PLAYERS AND IT WAS A BIG OLD STEREO THING AND HE SAT ON THAT AND HE WAS TALKING TO ME AND HE SAYS YOU KNOW YOU CAN PREACH IT BUT YOU DON'T BELIEVE IT AND HE JUMPED ON ME AND GOT TO REBUKE ME AND HE SAYS THE PROBLEM IS BECAUSE YOU HAVE BEEN CONDEMNED AND THINKING THAT YOU DID SOMETHING WRONG AND THAT YOU HURT A PERSON YOU THINK THAT GOD IS DOING THIS TO YOUR SON AND THIS IS GOD THAT'S CONTROLLING IT AND SO YOU'RE SAYING THE RIGHT THINGS AND YOU'RE PRAYING FOR HEALING BUT IN YOUR HEART YOU THINK YOU DESERVE THIS AND YOU THINK GOD IS DOING THIS TO YOUR SON AND YOU THINK GOD IS THE ONE WHO'S DOING THIS AND BOY HE UNLOADED ON ME AND SO THEY GOT UP AND LEFT AND THEY ONLY LIVE FIVE MINUTES AWAY AND BY THE TIME THEY GOT HOME HIS WIFE CINDY HAD REBUKED HIM SO BAD THAT HE TURNED AROUND TO COME BACK AND APOLOGIZE TO ME AND BY THE TIME HE COULD GET BACK TO MY HOUSE TEN MINUTES AFTER HE HAD LET ME HAVE IT JOSHUA WAS UP AND EATING AND THE FEVER BROKE AND THAT WAS THE THING THAT WAS HINDERING ME WAS I WAS THINKING THAT WELL I DESERVE TO DESERVE THIS GOD IS DOING THIS AND I GUARANTEE YOU IT'S I'VE HAD TO FIGHT THIS A LOT OF DIFFERENT TIMES YOU KNOW WE'VE HAD A LITTLE DOWNTURN IN THE FINANCES AND A YEAR AGO I WENT AND DID SOME THINGS AND I'VE DONE THINGS AND I'VE HAD TO THINK ABOUT GOD DID I DO SOMETHING WRONG AM I NOT RESPONDING AM I NOT MINISTERING THE WAY I SHOULD AND I'M NOT SAYING THAT I DO EVERYTHING RIGHT BUT I KNOW THAT IT'S NOT GOD WHO'S CAUSING OUR FINANCES TO GO DOWN I DON'T CARE IF I DID MISS IT I'VE MISSED IT HUNDREDS OF TIMES AND WE'VE STILL PROSPERED AND I'M NOT GONNA TAG GOD'S MOVEMENT IN MY LIFE BASED ON MY OWN HOLINESS BUT SEE THAT'S THIS SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD THING THAT YOU DESERVE IT AND THAT GOD CONTROLS EVERYTHING THAT'S NOT TRUE MAN I'M OUT OF TIME ANYWAY I LEARNED THIS FROM UH RICHARD HARRIS I WAS LISTENING TO ONE OF HIS BROADCAST ON TRUTH AND LIBERTY AND IT WAS JUST A GREAT ILLUSTRATION OF WHAT I'M TRYING TO TALK ABOUT AND SO HE SAID UH RICHARD WAS SAYING THAT IT'S LIKE A PERSON THAT IF YOU HAD A PIECE OF PROPERTY AND THEN YOU YOU SIGN IT OVER TO YOUR SON AND YOU TURN IT OVER TO YOUR SON AND SO NOW HE IS THE UNDISPUTED OWNER OF THIS PROPERTY BUT THEN A CHARLOTTAIN COMES BY AND TAKES ADVANTAGE OF HIM AND DECEIVES HIM INTO SIGNING THE PROPERTY OVER TO THIS OTHER GUY IF HE DID IT LEGALLY DID YOU KNOW WHAT THE ORIGINAL OWNER EVEN THOUGH THAT WASN'T THE ORIGINAL OWNER WASN'T THE MY INTENTION I WANTED MY SON TO USE IT FOR HIS OWN BENEFIT AND STUFF AND HE HAD SOMEBODY TAKE ADVANTAGE OF HIM BUT IF HE SIGNED IT OVER WHAT CAN I DO AND SEE AGAIN GOD IS A GOD THAT DOESN'T LIE IN UH PSALMS 89 34 MY COVENANT WILL I NOT BREAK NOR ALTER THE THING THAT HAS GONE FORTH OUT OF MY LIPS WHEN GOD SAYS SOMETHING IT BECOMES A COVENANT IT IS BINDING AND SO GOD SAID YOU HAVE DOMINION OVER THIS EARTH YOU REBUKE THE DEVIL AND HE'LL FLEE FOR YOU SO GOD GAVE US THIS AUTHORITY AND INTENDED FOR US TO USE IT PROPERLY BUT WE HAVE YIELDED OURSELF TO THE DEVIL AND WE ALLOW THE DEVIL TO SPEAK THROUGH US AND SPEAK THAT I'M A FAILURE AND IT'S NEVER GONNA WORK AND AND SO WE VIOLATE THESE THINGS AND GOD CAN'T JUST COME DOWN AND IMMEDIATELY SOLVE THE PROBLEM BECAUSE HE GAVE US AUTHORITY WE ARE THE PROBLEM WE'RE THE ONES WHO CREATED THE PROBLEM SO WHAT DO YOU DO IF THIS MAN IS SO IT HAD GIVEN THE AUTHORITY OVER THIS PROPERTY TO HIS SON AND THEN HIS SON SELLS IT TO A CHARLOTTE AND WHAT DO YOU DO THE ONLY THING YOU CAN DO IS GO AND BUY IT BACK FROM THE CROOK SO YOU PAY FOR THE THING TWICE AND NOW IT'S BACK UNDER YOUR CONTROL BUT YOU WANT YOUR SON TO AGAIN HAVE IT SO THIS TIME YOU GIVE IT BACK TO HIM BUT WITH ONE STIPULATION YOU DON'T OWN IT COMPLETELY BY YOURSELF THIS IS A JOINT AIRSHIP AND SO IF A CHARLOTTE COMES ALONG AND WANTS TO DECEIVE YOU AGAIN HE MAY DECEIVE YOU BUT I'LL NEVER SIGN ONTO IT IT'LL NEVER PASS AGAIN INTO THE HANDS OF ANYBODY ELSE IT'LL BE SAFEGUARDED BECAUSE I AM NOT GONNA COOPERATE AND SO THIS IS WHAT JESUS DID JESUS CAME AND BOUGHT US BACK BY PAYING THE PRICE FOR OUR SIN AND NOW WE ARE JOINT HEIRS WITH HIM AND SO IT'LL NEVER AGAIN SATAN WILL NEVER AGAIN BE ABLE TO STEAL OUR SALVATION FOR US BECAUSE JESUS IS SIGNED ON WITH US AND HE'S GONNA REMAIN FAITHFUL EVEN IF WE AREN'T BUT DID YOU KNOW ANOTHER THING ABOUT A JOINT AIRSHIP IS NOT ONLY COULD ONE PERSON GIVE IT AWAY BUT IF ONE PERSON WANTED TO WRITE A CHECK YOU CAN'T DO THINGS ONLY ON YOUR OWN YOU HAVE TO HAVE TWO PEOPLE TO SIGN IT AND SO IF YOU AREN'T SIGNING ON WITH THE LORD IF YOU AREN'T IN AGREEMENT WITH THE LORD AND SAYING THE SAME THINGS THAT THE LORD'S SAYING EVEN THOUGH GOD HAS PROVIDED THAT HE'S GONNA TURN OFF ALL SICKNESS ON THE INSIDE OF YOU AND THAT NO WEAPON FORMED AGAINST YOU WILL PROSPER AND YOU'LL OVERCOME EVERYTHING YOU'RE ABOVE ONLY AND NOT BENEATH THE HEAD AND NOT BELOW THE HEAD AND NOT BELOW THE HEAD AND NOT BELOW THE HEAD AND NOT THE HEAD AND NOT BELOW THE HEAD AND NOT THE TAIL IF YOU DON'T SIGN ON IT TAKES THE TAIL IF YOU DON'T SIGN ON IT TAKES THE TAIL IF YOU DON'T SIGN ON IT TAKES BOTH PEOPLE TO SIGN TO GET ANYTHING BOTH PEOPLE TO SIGN TO GET ANYTHING BOTH PEOPLE TO SIGN TO GET ANYTHING DONE SO GOD HAS PROVIDED ALL OF THESE DONE SO GOD HAS PROVIDED ALL OF THESE DONE SO GOD HAS PROVIDED ALL OF THESE BENEFITS FOR US BUT MOST OF US AREN'T BENEFITS FOR US BUT MOST OF US AREN'T BENEFITS FOR US BUT MOST OF US AREN'T SIGNED ON WITH THE LORD WE ARE SIGNED ON WITH THE LORD WE ARE letting all of the unbelief that we've been raised with and that's in this society and we are allowing those things and we're trying to accumulate great knowledge but we aren't countering all of the unbelief that we've heard you're going to have to get radical and you're going to have to stand up and take a stand against things did you know jesus turned around to peter peter had just said you are the christ the son of the living god and he said blessed are you simon peter for flesh and blood didn't reveal this unto you but my father which is in heaven and within minutes he said i'm going to go to jerusalem and they're going to crucify me and i'm going to die and peter said no it'll never happen to you and jesus turned around and said get behind me satan he rebuked the man who had just said that you are the christ the son of the living god and you had divine inspiration and he said get behind me satan he wasn't really talking to peter he was talking to that demonic power that spoke through him and you have to get that jesus is love jesus was love manifest in the flesh but he made a cat of nine tails and drove the money changers out of the temple not once but twice he did this at the very beginning of his ministry and at the end of his ministry jesus talked about people and he says leave them alone let their the blind leading the blind they'll both fall into the ditch go tell that old fox harry and he rebuked people and he talked about people and he said leave them alone they're the blind leading the blind they'll both fall into the ditch go tell that old fox harry and he said leave them alone they're the blind leading the blind they'll both about the scribes and the pharisees you hypocrites you're whited sepulchers this is the one who is full of love if you truly love somebody or something you have to hate anything that is against it if somebody came up and tried to rob or abuse jamie and i said oh i love jamie but i i don't i would never hurt anybody else ben if you come against jamie i've got guns and i know how to use them and if you truly love somebody you are going to defend it and yet there's a lot of christians that sit there and say oh i believe that god healed me and yet you will allow this sewage of the world to come through your mind that god is the one who makes you sick and god doesn't heal everybody when it's completely contrary to what the scripture says by his stripes we were healed it's a part of the atonement of the lord jesus christ and so it's not a matter of just getting the truth you got to get violent and stand against it and did you know as you get more mature you can you can do this more tactfully but like when i was talking about this woman and stuff maybe i didn't do it the way i should have but i fight for the first time i finally stood up and the first time i finally stood up against somebody that was just countering everything that god was showing me it might have come out rough but you just got to do it i remember that not long after this our son joshua we went on a vacation my mother invited us to go to the rocky uh to the smoky mountains and we had no money whatsoever so man this was a great opportunity so we went and my mother had always had a thyroid problem and she had to take thyroid pills her entire life and so one night i was talking to her and she says do you think god had healed me i said yes and i stayed up until one or two o'clock and she she decided to throw her thyroid medication away and she was totally healed of something that she had lived with for 50 or 60 years and she got so excited she was just believing god for healing and then she was going to go visit my aunt who raised her in texas canada texas and i said now mother when you go there i said all you do is ask about who's died recently uh you know who's sick and all you do is talk about negative stuff and i said this is going to war against the stand that you're taking if you sit there and just discuss sickness and disease the whole time and she says but i couldn't offend my aunt she's the one that raised me and i said it's just a choice you got are you going to stand do what you got to do anyway after visiting my aunt she came back and she had a cold and i told her i said i this is what i warned you and she says but i just couldn't counter that because it would have been disrespectful so as we started on this vacation my mother was really discouraged like she had blown it and she was very very negative and so the very first day you know it was hot in the summer and joshua was sitting on my lap in front of the air conditioner and she says don't let it blow on him he'll get a cold and i said he's not going to get a cold and i'd counter it and she just everything we don't have enough money and i said well i have no money if you don't have enough money we don't need to be going and anyway she was just negative negative negative and so about the second day or so we were in a hotel room and all of us were together and joshua came back and she said you know what i'm down with this croup or something you could hear him breathing in the next room he was it sounded terrible and so i'd get up and i'd pray in tongues over him and then he was in this little crib type thing and we'd lay him back down and then i'd go back to bed and in about 10 minutes it would start again and so for about three or four hours every 10 or 15 minutes i was up praying over joshua and didn't turn the lights on i'd just pray over him and things like this and then i'd go back up he said we've got to go i was out praying and it got dark all the time. weight 대 newes back to bed and on my last trip back to bed she you know is in the dark and she said admit it Andy he's sick and I got right down in her face and I said Satan in the name of Jesus I command you to shut up I refuse to allow sickness on my son and I rebuked her and maybe you could do it better than what I did but you know what he never got up again the entire night he slept the rest of the night and he had no problem and we were gone for eight days and I think it was six days she never said a word and finally she goes I'm so sorry you think I'm the devil and I said mother I don't think you're the devil but I said that was the devil speaking through you and you knew it and I said I'm not gonna allow that and anyway my mother and I were super close and we had a great relationship and she lived to be 96 and and anyway I'm saying hopefully you can do things better than I did but you've got to have that attitude to where you aren't gonna let something contrary to God's Word come and very few people will do that and therefore very few people have as good a result as what I have and I'm not saying that in a prideful way I'm saying it in a thankful way but you've got to recognize God gave you authority God does not sovereignly control what's going on in your life God has provided everything you ever will need you don't need anything from God what you need is revelation of what you've already got like it says in Philemon chapter 1 verse 6 I pray that the communication of your faith would become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing that's in you you've already got everything God has already given you the same power that he used when he raised Jesus from the dead now are you going to use it and stand up and enforce what he's done for you are you gonna sit there as a beggar and approach God and say oh God I have nothing and I can do nothing and and but I have nothing but I know that you can do all things you'll die praying that way you got to find out that you are a god and you are true human beings way. You got to find out that God is sovereign and he sovereignly gave you control. And if you don't use it, he will not overstep your authority and step in and make it happen for you.
[00:33:56] Amen or oh me. And did you know, in just my opinion, when people come and I visit with people before services, I would say nine out of 10 people, this is the exact thing that they need to know. They're sitting there and go, I just don't understand why God hadn't healed me. And they haven't taken their authority. They're saying all the right, wrong things. They're doing the wrong things. And they're wondering why it's not working because they've prayed and they've asked you got to stand up and use your authority and speak against things. So this little booklet that I've written, this, this is one of the best things in my opinion that I think I've ever written. And I'd encourage you to get that. We've got that. And I'd encourage you to take advantage of it.
[00:34:38] I'd like to call our prayer ministers forward if they would. And if you've been stirred up and you realize that you've just been passively begging and asking God to do something, but you hadn't taken your authority and you want to do that. These people know how to pray in authority.
[00:34:55] And it says, if two of you agree is touching anything, it'll be done for them. And so you could come forward today and let somebody agree with you and say, I want you to agree. And I'm going to start taking my authority against this.
[00:35:08] I'm going to start taking my authority against this sickness, against this poverty, against this depression, against these kinds of things. And if you would do that, man, the, uh, we can overcome a lot of things by just a prayer of agreement. Amen. So father, we are thankful for everything you've done. Thank you for the word that's come forth here today. And father, we just thank you so much for everything that you've done. We pray that you would give us eyes to see and a heart to understand that you've provided everything. And it's not you that we're waiting on, that you're waiting on somebody to stand up and take the authority and release faith and to overcome all of the things that Satan is trying to destroy us with father. I just pray that the Holy spirit open up people's hearts so that they can see and understand this. And we agree with them right now for a miracle in their life. You know, I'm going to ask you to come forward, but if you need a miracle right now, and if this, I know there's a lot of people that may say, well, I need a miracle. So you're going to stand up.
[00:36:08] But I'm talking about if you receive something in a, you and your heart are saying, I'm going to start taking my authority and I'm not going to submit to this stuff. I want you to stand right now. Let me just pray a prayer for you real quickly. And I believe that this is going to make a difference in your life. Thank you, Jesus. If you aren't standing, I'm going to pray. This won't work. You got to stand. If you're going to believe.
[00:36:38] Amen. Do something. Father, we are just so thankful. We believe that by the stripes of Jesus, we were healed. It's already been done. Thank you that you've already commanded all blessings, all blessings upon us. And it's already done that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings. Father, thank you that we are always triumphing through our Lord Jesus Christ. We just agree.
[00:37:08] Now, I just released this word. I believe that as people are standing and in agreement, we command the supernatural power of God to flow right now to whatever it is that is coming against us and trying to hinder us. Father, we thank you that finances are just supernaturally released right now, that bodies are healed, that marriages are placed together, that fear and worry and care about stuff is gone. Father, we just agree and thank you that you've done your part.
[00:37:38] And we stand up and mix the word with faith and believe for miracles to happen right now in the name of Jesus. Amen. Y'all agree with that? Praise the Lord.