Catch The Fire Church Raleigh
4 Levels of Relationship With God | Duncan Smith
This past Sunday Duncan Smith delivered a powerful message on four levels of relationship that we can have with God. Taking us through each one, we see the depths of God’s love for us and our calling and purpose in His Kingdom. Check out the full message!
(upbeat music) - Welcome to the Catch the Fire Church podcast. We're so glad you're joining us and we hope you're encouraged by this message. - Good afternoon everybody. It's great to be here with you this morning. It's already been an amazing, amazing time. Wasn't that a fantastic time of worship? Oh man. I just, so thankful to all of you who led the worship there. That was really just fantastic. (audience applauding) Yeah, thank you Lord. Yeah, let's give them a hand. It's easy to forget that they practice during the week and then they get up really early in the morning. And boy, it showed today. That was amazing you guys. Thank you so much. Wow. Well, Kate and I have been away for the last four Sundays. We, Kate and I have the privilege. I don't know where my wife is, but anyway, she was just here, but okay. Oh, there she is. Sorry, love didn't mean to call you out there. But Kate and I, we have the joy of leading catch the fire globally all across the world. We have hundreds of churches now. If you include all of our various networks that are part of our movement, we have thousands of churches. Aren't you just so glad to be part of a global family that's on mission together? And, you know, we live contextually in an ocean. Right here in Raleigh Durham. We live in an ocean of religion. And it's not until you go out of that. For example, two weeks ago, two Sundays ago, we were in England. And England is not like that. It is a post-modern, post-Christendom nation where people don't go to church on Sundays unless they know Jesus. And being part of church is like everything to them. And they just, their lives are just laid down. And it's really exciting for us after 24 years of being out of England to go back into the UK and see people that are just so hungry for God. It's amazing. And Angela, it's so nice to see you. You and Phil here, Angela was here for a number of years. And she's actually anesthesiologist. You're still an anesthesiologist. You are, yeah. She came and she did our School of Revival back in the days when we had a School of Revival. So, and it just was such a reminder. You know, we just had freshly stepped off from here, a Pentecost for Sunday or five Sundays ago now where the Holy Spirit really crashed in on me and crashed in on, I think almost everybody. And we had two services of fire tunnels and it was intense. It was amazing. And we went to England with this glory and upgrade in the Holy Spirit. And the Lord did not in any way disappoint and his glory just crashed in England in an amazing way. And then the next week, which was last week, we were in Greenville, South Carolina, and we were at a church which is a church similar in size to our church. And they've just been going through a challenging time. But, you know, the Lord just really was able to use Kate and I, we were supposed to have gone straight to Brazil to speak at a conference hosted by the largest catch the fire church, or at least if not the largest, one of the largest which is in Nova Ambergo in southern Brazil. But because of the floods down there, they had to postpone the conference. And so when we heard about that, and at the same time, the Holy Spirit put it in the hearts of the pastors that are friends of ours down in Greenville to let us know that they were in a situation and could use our help, what a joy it was to be able to go down last weekend. And oh my goodness, we had a fantastic time with the leadership on the Friday night Saturday. But then on the Sunday morning, wow, it was fantastic on Father's Day. The Lord just moved so powerfully. And in fact, Kate and I were ministering for two hours after I'd finished preaching because people just didn't want to go home. And family after family after family were just getting absolutely blasted by the Holy Spirit. It was kind of really neat because actually one of the daughters of a couple that are part of this church, they went back to this church for the first time having not been there for a number of years. And they went to the meeting last week and they got absolutely just so, so wrecked in the Holy Spirit, so wrecked in Daddy's love. And the little girl, maybe five years old, who's the granddaughter of the couple that are members of our church, they're part of the first service typically. The granddaughter told her mommy, mommy, I want more. And 'cause we'd already prayed for them twice. So now a third time she came over and the mom said to me, my daughter just wants to feel Holy Spirit to know for real. So I told her, just hold your hands out like this and I held my hands out like this and she just began to get activated in literally sensing the presence of God, which Hebrews 514 says that solid food belongs to the mature just goes to show that you don't have to be old to be mature and that being old doesn't make you mature. Solid food is for the mature who by reason of practice have trained their senses to discern or distinguish between good and evil. How capable are you of using your five senses to discern the presence of God? And so it was just really neat because we got word later in the week this week that from the mom to say that this little girl and a little sister have been going round laying hands on everyone and anyone that will receive the Holy Spirit. Shakaraba. So turn with me to the book of Ephesians and I have the joy this morning of not being in a series which means I'm free to go. Now, I wanna just say that I love series. So don't get me wrong, don't misinterpret. I love being in a series. But there is something about also a moment like this and I've been excited all week because I just wanna share from my heart. Kate and I started this church 16 years ago in our living room. And here we are and we've been on this amazing journey and I'm so thankful for all y'all. I'm so thankful for the stage that we're at in our church family. And my prayer is that this church family will continue to grow all the way 'til Jesus comes back. And Abba, I'm so thankful for Aaron and Jess, our daughter and son-in-law who now lead this church and they're just doing an amazing job. And Kate and I are in that place of being grandparents with grandparents in the natural, but we're also kind of grandparents in the supernatural. And we very much enjoyed being grandparents, right? Lloyd and Lisa, Aaron's mom and dad, they're members of this church too. We just love being the grandparents of our shared grandchildren, it's epic. And what I wanna preach about this morning is I wanna talk about four realms of relationship that we're invited into by the living God. And I wanna read from Ephesians chapter one and we're gonna read the entire first chapter. Holy Spirit, would you open our eyes to the Word of God and open our eyes to the fullness just for a glimpse of the fullness of what Jesus gave his life for in both his death and his resurrection so that we could know an experience, the suffering, sharing in the suffering of his crucifixion, but also that we might share in the fellowship of his resurrection, in the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering, and the power of his resurrection. In Jesus' name, amen. Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him. Whoa, in love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins, our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him that's Jesus Christ. We have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will so that we who are the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him, were sealed with the promised holy spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. And so for this reason, because I've heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and parent dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (audience cheering) And to verse four, but God being rich and mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you've been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. For we are his workmanship created in Christ for good works that God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. I wanna talk about four levels of relationship and the four levels of relationship with God that I wanna talk about, I just read them, each one of them in that amazing passage of scripture. Paul understood these levels of relationship. And folks, I just wanna say from the get-go that I'm sure there are multiple levels of relationship. I just wanna talk about four that have meant the world to me, that have transformed my wife and I's lives completely. Over 36 years since we were born again, or I was born again, Kate has been saved a lot longer than me. I grew up in a family that loved Jesus like crazy, but it wasn't until I was 20 that I was set free from my rebelliousness and discovered in a moment in the Rocky Mountains that God's a lot stronger than me. And I was totally overcome by his presence and I was knocked to the ground and long story short, I was born again, born of the spirit. But I wanna talk about these four levels. And level one, okay, level one, you have been chosen into sunship. Level one, for those of you like writing notes, level one is sunship, sunship. Of course, before the sunship, there was no ship. (congregation laughing) You had absolutely no relationship with God, neither did I, no ship, just a lot of ship. (congregation laughing) But you had no ship. But God, who's rich in mercy according to the scriptures and according to each of our experience, if we're honest, in the midst of all of our poop and all of our mess, like Rochelle was talking about, that each of us had the Lord Jesus Christ, loved us and saved us. And before we could do anything to deserve it, he lavished grace and love upon us. That's what we just read. In fact, he did it before time even began. The reason you and I actually need salvation is even if we had spent our whole lives without sinning once, which, so to say, but you're already screwed up. (congregation laughing) Even if we had, we were already in Adam and his wife Eve, later called Eve, when they sinned against God and they disobeyed God, we were in them and we sinned and disobeyed God with them. The Bible tells us, King David tells us in the Psalms, we were conceived in sin. We needed a savior and I'm so glad that that savior, according to the scriptures, we just read, before time even began, before the very foundation of the world, he chose us. And what did he choose us for? He chose us to be sons. He chose us to be daughters. And for the sake of ease, I'm gonna talk about being sons of God and ladies, if I can get used to being the bride of Christ, y'all can get used to being called sons of God. Okay, so God makes it all even. So from now on, when I say sons, I want all of you to know that's me. And the Bible tells us in Galatians 3, 26, we've all become sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Now, before you go bolting off on your horse, hold that saddle for just a moment. You, it's not your faith in Christ Jesus that Paul's talking about in that verse. You've all become sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ, that faith in Jesus Christ, and it's easy for us to read that English and think, oh, that's my faith in Jesus Christ. No, it's the faith that's in Jesus Christ that saved you. In other words, Jesus is faith saved you. Aren't you just so glad that Jesus' faith was working, saving you before the foundation of the world? Can you imagine if it was down to our faith, we would still be screwed up? Now that word, okay, we just read in Ephesians chapter one and verse five, we read verse four and five. We read that he predestined us for adoption as sons. And that word, adoption right there, is a compound Greek word of two Greek words, Huyos and Tithimai, who he authorsai, which means Huyos, son, Tithimai, this is amazing, is to be placed properly, figuratively and literally into a horizontal position of rest. Ah, woo, you see, orphans can never be like this 'cause orphans don't have a dad. So they have to provide everything for themselves. They have to do everything. But sons who know their dad, they know their dad will do everything for them. And in fact, Jesus Christ came to show us, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, came to show us that that is what it truly means to be human. It means to lie down in the Father's presence and do nothing. But let the Father do everything through you. And Jesus said in John 519, the Father, that the Son can do nothing of himself, but only what he sees the Father doing, whatever the Father does, the Son does in light manner and John 520, my favorite verse, one of my favorite verses. The Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Come on. And you and I are the beloveds, the beloved sons and daughters in the beloved Jesus, and we've been placed in him horizontally into a position of permanent rest, first through sharing in the death on the cross, then sharing in the burial on the cross, and then because you could do nothing and because he fully surrendered himself to the Father, the Father came by the power of his spirit. Boom, three days later, and raised him and us from the dead. Sharkarab, and the Bible just told us, seated us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Really glad, I don't know where Enrique is, but you don't have to identify yourself, but I'm just so glad Enrique, for I just, you know, there I was, mining my business in the restroom, taking care of business, and when I finished and I was washing up, he came up to me and he says, "Oh, Pentecost." He said, "Do you speak Spanish?" I said, "No, I don't speak any Spanish," other than just a word or two here and there. He said, "Oh, because I thought so, I asked a friend, "and they said that you don't speak Spanish, "but when I came through the fire tunnel, "you spoke whole long sentences in Spanish over me." And I said to him, "That's amazing, but just FYI, "he didn't do that for my sakes. "He did it for yours, Enrique, "because that's how much he loves you. "That's how much he loves you." You know, first of all, he's placed us in a horizontal position of rest. That's why I always say, I'm accidentally prophetic. And it's a kind of a joke, but at the same time, not really. You know, I've also been used by the Lord to open over 30 people's blind eyes in my life, and I never opened one of them. I accidentally opened them. I'm accidentally prophetic, you see, because I'm a horizontal son who's learning to do nothing of himself but let daddy God who can do everything do it through us. And there's nothing like somebody being faced with somebody needing a miracle for you to be reminded that you can't do it. So level one, sonship. And by the way, you didn't choose that sonship. God chose you, as we've just said. Just like in the natural, you didn't choose your earthly mum and dad. Now, level two, level two is exciting. Level two is friendship. And level two is the response to an invitation. Of a good father, that he's looking for friends. He wants to be your friend. The reality, though, is you're not a friend just because you're a son. See, one of my favorite fathers is just sitting there three rows back. And all of his kids are the sons and daughters, the daughters and son of their father. But any father in this room will tell you there is a certain dynamic that is so beautiful when one of your sons and daughters begins to pursue you in friendship, love. It doesn't make them any more your son and daughter. But the level and quality of your relationship increases dramatically when your own children begin to pursue friendship with you. And that is a reality of the kingdom as well as our own earthly lives. I'm glad, by the way, that all your kids pursue you as a friend. But we easily forget that reality and we just think, great, I'm saved now. I'm a son. But there's a greater level of intimate relationship that God's looking for. And by the way, friendship is all around sharing the deepest part of your heart with each other. John 1514, let's have that up, John 1514. You are my friends if you do what I command you, Jesus said. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know the masters what the masters doing. But I've called you friends, for all that I've heard from my father, I make known to you. I have made known to you. You see, Jesus is looking for friends. And he is the ultimate friend of Daddygad, and he's looking for us in friendship so that he can start to share with us Daddy's secrets and his secrets that he's known from before time began. Because there are things that God's planned in advance that only you can do with him. And for you to do those things with him requires a level of relationship with him of trust. And trust is the currency of relationship. And any relationship that is bankrupt in trust is no relationship. And God's looking for those who he can trust and entrust the knowledge of his will to them. He wants to give them wisdom and revelation concerning his will. And his will is always love. And there's a world that's out there desperate for love, desperate for his love. And so this love that we walk in, when we respond to his love, his love begins to not only draw us deep into his heart, but it begins to cause us to start to look out beyond ourselves and what we can get from God. And we begin to start to have the heart that he has, that Jesus has, where now we become givers, not getters. And I think about Philippians chapter 2 and verse 4 onwards where it says that your attitude should be that of Christ Jesus. Now I don't know about you, but man, I've got such a problem with attitude. I'm 56 years old and you would think that 56, 36 years of being born again, decades have been filled with the Holy Spirit. And I'm not just talking about being filled with the Holy Spirit two decades ago, I'm talking about being filled with the Holy Spirit just a few days ago. That ongoing being filled with the Holy Spirit, and yet I'm struggling all the time with my attitude. And the Lord says through Paul the Apostle, your attitude should be that of Christ Jesus, who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped onto for himself as a son, but instead emptied himself and became a servant of all. And in doing that, taking on the form of a servant as the son, he showed us what the pathway is to friendship with God, that that pathway is lower, lower, lower, lower, and having gone lower, go lower still. Because humility has no worthy opponent. Humility is of great worth, and you don't get humility by practice. You get humility, there's only one way to grow in humility, and it's face-to-face encounters with Jesus. Because the more you have faced, and I have face-to-face encounters with him, the bigger he gets in our eyes and the smaller we get in our eyes. We start out with him very small and ask very, very big. And you know, there's nothing like social media to help us remind ourselves of just how big we are in our own eyes. But our attitude, it's not that God's saying, "You're attitude." He's saying, "You're attitude." I want to go deeper with you. I want to be a greater friend with you. Why? Because there's something even beyond merely friendship with God, and that's level three. Level three is "colleagueship." It's being a colleague with God. It's a big a colleague with God. Yes, there's a family business, everybody. There's a family business. You were born into a family, the family of God, when you were born again, you were chosen before time began, and as you've grown up now, as a son, you're being invited to a greater depth of friendship with him, and that greater depth of friendship with him means that he begins to start to share his secrets with you. Son 24, sorry, 2514, the Lord confides in those who fear him, and he will show you or show them his covenant. There's this invitation that as we draw near to him, we realize he's asking us to walk in his ways, and his ways are lower still. His ways are always to lay down his life and serve the world. And I tell you what, what an opportunity we've got, everybody, in this ocean of religion right here, stretching all the way through South Carolina, all the way through Georgia, all the way into Tennessee, all the way through the whole of the South, everywhere that is referred to as the Bible Belt in this nation, when God called us here, I'm like, Lord, are you kidding? There's a church everywhere. I grew up in the edge of the Sahara Desert where everybody will follow us of Islam. That's a mission field, not cities with churches on every corner. And the Lord spoke to me and he said, son, I'm sending you to a people who are just as unsaved as Muslims, even though they go to church every Sunday, because they're into Christianity, not Christianity. And I discovered that when I have conversations with people outside in just ordinary life at restaurants and various places, I talk with them and I'm chatting and it doesn't take five minutes to realize you want to talk with them about Jesus, and they answer you with church. And you're in that ocean with me and all around you at work and in your communities, at your swimming pool communities, at your pickleball communities, all around you. Cars and coffee, you name it, all around you in your workplace are people, millions of them, inoculated with just enough of Jesus to make them thoroughly immune to him. And God has hand picked you to help them discover. It's not about church, although church is amazing. It's not enough to be born in a family that goes to church. You've got to become the church, and the only way you become the church is by becoming born again and born of the Spirit and having a relationship with God. And so this invitation to work, this is an amazing invitation, everybody. And I want, I just, you know, here's Jess. And honey, I'm going to do it again, so, but this is our eldest daughter. She's 30 now, and she's an amazing, accomplished human being. I can say that because I'm her dad, and it's true. I know you've boast about your own children, but it's true in Jess's case. And same with her husband. When Jess was born, I was very anxious. Because I grew up going to boarding school for 13 years, I didn't know what love was. And I was very anxious, even though I was born again and I was full of the Holy Spirit, I just was very anxious at a deep subterranean level that I would not know how to love my children. And I needn't have worried because the moment she was born, the moment I saw her, I love exploded in my heart. And she came out and she breastfed on her mom's chest, and I'm like, it sucks to be a guy, excusing the unintended pun. But actually, anyway, we won't go there. And then when Kate and Jess had finished having this amazing moment, I was finally my turn, and rightly so. I went through nothing for her to be born. And so, I'm sitting there, well, that's not true. I didn't go through nothing, but from a pain perspective, I went through nothing. Very traumatic seeing Kate go through sheer hell for her to be born. But anyway, so they took Kate away to tend to her and clean her up and so on and so forth. And Jess was placed in my arms. And I sat there with Jess, and I held her on my lap with her little head and golden strands of hair. And by the way, Jess is naturally blonde. I know that's rare in this world, but she is a natural blonde. There's absolutely no bottle whatsoever on that hair. And she was born that way. And the first thing I noticed was these golden strands of hair, even when her hair was wet. And so there she is, she's on my lap, and I'm just looking at my daughter, and I'm so filled with love for her, and I'm looking straight into her eyes. And she locked eyes with me. I thought kids were supposed to be like, you know, like eyes closed and bozo, you know? But no, not this one. She just locked right into her. And she's just looking right into my soul. And I was looking right into her soul. And it was a spectacular moment in which this amazing love from my Heavenly Daddy just gushed in my heart and straight out of my eyes, straight to my daughter and my hands, and just filled this, I felt this amazing supernatural and natural love for my daughter and best 20 minutes of my entire life, one of the best 20 minutes of my entire life. Now, just imagine, okay, as beautiful as that is, just imagine if by the time she went off to UNC Chapel Hill, which she did, I went running after her. Honey, can we just, don't worry, we can sit in the lectures, but you're on my lap. I got you, I got you, I mean my arms just long enough, I still got you. She'd be like that, that, that, please. Dad, get off, right? Because even though my love for Jess has grown, even though my love for Jess, he's grown way beyond what it was in those first 20 minutes, she's not stuck on my lap in her father's love. In the same way everybody, in the Kingdom of Heaven, we are loved by our Heavenly Father, and we have those moments where he locks onto our eyes, we have those moments where he just causes his liquid golden honey love to be so tangible for us, to be so immense and we lock onto his eyes. But in that we realize there's a life and a world that he's longing to rescue and to save and to reach through us, and there's a mission for us where we get to go still figuratively on his lap, still properly on his lap, but no longer looking for his love for ourselves, but looking to carry his love to the world that so desperately needs it. So important everybody that we understand that. And then we discover as we get invited in this friendship love into the boardroom of the Kingdom and into the family business of the Kingdom, we begin to realize, "Oh, wow, there's a lot of work that God's excited for us to do and him to do with us." And by the way, level four, so level three is colleague shit. And then level four, it turns out that this family business, the family business is royalty. This family business is royalty everybody. You were born again into royalty. You are a prince with God. That's actually what one of the meanings of Israel is - prince with God. You and I, in Christ Jesus, we've been made sons of God, daughters of God, who are being invited into ever increasing friendship with him, which comes as we respond to his invitation to go lower still, to let our lives be spilled out to the world, to lay our lives down, not to serve God like a slave. No, no, we're not slaves to religion, no, not at all. We're already now sons of God, but our laying down is our voluntary willingness to lay down our lives now and serve the world that we live in. And we serve the world that we live in with all of Heaven's resources. You know, I was just - Santa has just been to Zambia, and she goes all over the world. She's our global missions director for Catch the Fire World. It's easy to sort of, you know, look at Santa and think this, how could this 30-year-old be like the global director of missions? Yes, she is globally celebrated all over hundreds of churches as our global missions director. And she's just got back, she goes all over the world. Do you think Kate and I go all over the world? She really goes all over the world. And she just got back from Zambia, and she just told me that there was just an explosion of miracles. And I'd like to make room at some point to have you testify about that. But why was there an explosion of miracles? Because Santa understands that she is royalty. And she lays down her life all over the nations of the world, whether it's in Zambia or whether it's in Raleigh. Whether it's with the wealthiest people in the world or whether it's with the poorest people in the world. When we recognize that we are sons of God, that we are friends with God, that he wants to share his secrets with us. And when we obey his commands, when we begin to move out of revelation of his will for what he wants us to do in this world, we realize, "Oh my goodness, there's a phenomenal invitation to work." And that work is ruling and reigning, bringing the kingdom of God into the world that we live in. And I don't know if you've noticed, but there's a lot of people who need miracles around you. There's a lot of people who don't know the love you take for granted and I take for granted. There's a lot of people who do not know that God is a God of power. There's a lot of people, millions of people in this world that are afflicted by demons, left, right and center. Thousands of demons in one individual. And God thinks you and I are the answer. In fact, he's convinced that you and I are the answer and he's really excited about doing extraordinary works through us. So, before we finish, it's important for us to go over three things that's important to know if you're a king. Number one, number one in level four of relationship with God. Number one is a king whose royalty kings speak powerful words. Ecclesiastes 8 verse 4, king Solomon, one of the greatest kings that's ever lived, he said this. Where the word of the king is, there is power. Where's power? Wherever the king speaks a word. Some of you, in myself included, we spend so much energy whinging, whining, complaining and gossiping about challenging circumstances that we feel afflicted by and we wonder why it just gets worse. Where the word of the king is, there is power. So, the moment we wake up and realize, well, wait a minute, these adverse circumstances, this is my opportunity to bring the word of the king. I'm going to speak the word of a king into these circumstances. And the moment we disengage from gossip, the moment we disengage from whining and complaining, the quicker we are to forgive, the quicker we are to release and bless, the quicker we are to step back on our throne and the quicker we are to let go of all that stuff we held on to so that now with an empty hand, we can take hold of that staff of rulership and rule in the circumstances. Because where the word of the king is, there is power. Please catch the fire, Raleigh Durham. Let's not be a people that are weak through whinging, whining and complaining. Let's be a people that are powerful in our daddy's love and rule and reign with him from the throne that Jesus has given us. Amen. Speaking of which, we've got a problem at our property. Kate and I have a swimming pool. And the reason we have a swimming pool is because I come from a family that have been blessed generationally, serving and loving God generationally, but our business people generationally. And as a result of that, Kate and I have received inheritance. You'll be pleased to know I don't have a swimming pool because you've been tithing. I have a swimming pool because our grandfather was an amazing businessman. Murray and I and Russ. And so, at this swimming pool, we're suffering for the gospel with horseflies. Which we should have known when we bought a house that's called Horsefly. Down Horsefly Avenue. And so, but the last six years, seven years, I've walked in a revelation. Kate, myself, horseflies, you shall not in any way touch anyone of us or any person on our land. Did you hear that? Don't you dare touch us. You shall not touch us in the name of Jesus. Well, this year, they've been biting us. And then I realized they weren't there last year. This is a new brood. And this new brood needs to come under submission to the word of the king. Are you following me? You are a king, everybody. You're a king with a little K who's in the king with the capital K, who's the king of kings. Don't live lower than the throne you've been given by Jesus. Amen. Amen. Rule over your circumstances. Number two, we rule by decree. Kings make decrees. Job 22, 28. Everything and it shall be established for you that light may shine on your ways. Learn to make decrees. Instead of using your mouth to gossip, use your mouth to make Kingly decrees. Amen. What does that look like? Oh, I just want to get a husband. I just wish the dad could get married and everybody else is married and I'm not married. I'm just picking on that subject for just a moment because it's easy. That's not going to release the husband you're looking for. Anyway, like attracts like and that's the last kind of husband that you want. Instead, remind yourself, wait a minute, I'm a king. Actually, I'm perhaps a queen. In the name of Jesus, I decree that my mighty husband is coming to me and that I shall come to him and that our God is the God of generations will give me a mighty husband. I decree it in the name of Jesus. Can you see the difference? That's a big difference. Thirdly and lastly, the power of agreement. Kings make agreements. Kings use their words, they make decrees and they make agreements. Matthew 18, 19 says this, decree a thing. No, it says this. Where two of you agree on earth concerning anything that you ask, it will be done for you by my father in heaven. No ifs, no buts, no babies. No maybes, I said. And in fact, actually on the subject of babies is quite remarkable how the Lord has used that verse, which we call the nuclear bomb of prayer. We have seen countless babies born to families who previously were not able to conceive. And I just heard about the latest one as well, which is very exciting. I'll leave you all guessing as to who that might be. And there is an amazing proliferation of babies across this church family over 16 years. Some of them have gone on to do other amazing things and part of other churches. But guys, we've literally had scores and scores and scores of babies born. Why? Because of the power of agreement. You see, when you agree as a king with another king with the big king, it's absolute. It's absolute. Let's stand. Let's stand. Four levels of relationship with God. Four levels of relationship with God, and I just want you to be thinking for a moment. Where am I in the midst of all of that? I want to say a huge welcome to our School of Ministry from Toronto. Where are you? Are you guys here at all? Oh my gosh. Guys, just so happy to see you all. And they're here for, what, about a month? Three weeks, and made the Holy Spirit rock your socks off, and made the Holy Spirit use you mightily to rock this North Kacalaki region while you're here. And I'm so glad that you're here to hear this message. And so everybody, I want you to just take a moment. If I'm really real, where am I in the midst of this dynamic? Do I know God as my daddy? Do I know that my daddy's really rich? Do I know that my daddy in his wealth wants to share that wealth with me so that I can change the world with him? Am I willing to go lower, to give up my right to winning arguments, to being right? Am I willing to be a conduit of his love and a carrier of his weighty glory and ever-increasing measure? Am I willing to lay down my life for my friends, for my enemies? See, love loves your enemies. Love doesn't just love the people that are like you and agree with you. Love loves the people that don't agree with you and loves them still, loves them even more. And I want to give you an invitation. Right now, just to make an agreement with God, Lord, I want to go. I want to go on that journey of friendship with you. I want to walk as royalty in this world. As Bill Johnson would say, "I want to be a king with the heart of a servant, and I want to serve with the heart of a king." And I want my workplace to know fire, to know the fire of love, to know the fire of his presence. Make me bold enough, Lord, to release your glory and your power in the midst of this suffering world. Thank you so much for joining us. There are so many opportunities to grow, connect, and be encouraged. To learn more, visit ctfrolley.com and follow us on social media. Thank you so much for being part of the family. We are so thankful for you. [music]