Don't Sign for the Wrong Package: Live From Your Spirit

Sermon outline

A born-again believer must engage his spirit rather than his senses, and refuse to speak what he sees, because whatever you acknowledge with your mouth is the package you sign for.

1. Live life from your spirit, not from the outside

   Do not live from your resources or your human reasoning, but engage your spirit, which is in communication with God and sees beyond the natural. The spiritual plane controls the human plane. Those who are led by the Spirit are sons of God, grown up and no longer tossed to and fro, and they look down on their problems instead of up at them.

   Illustration: If you are offered three jobs, your mind may choose one or two while the Spirit says number three. David was a boy on the outside but, he jokes, twelve feet tall on the inside. And where others see empty chairs, he sees thousands, like the seed God promised Abraham.

   “The spiritual plane controls the human plane.”

   • Romans 8:37
   • 2 Corinthians 12:10
   • Romans 8:14
   • Mark 4:39
   • Genesis 15:5

2. Don't sign for the wrong package

   When the devil challenges you with sickness or lack, the moment you acknowledge it you have signed for the package, and it is yours. Refuse it: by the stripes of Jesus you were healed. Jesus cursed the fig tree, it withered from the roots, and He taught His disciples that they would have whatever they say. When bills arrive, tell them you have enough to pay them and change left over.

   Illustration: Kenneth Copeland met a retired doctor serving as a missionary who had only one can of beans when friends dropped in; she asked the Lord to multiply it, and as they dished, the pot kept filling.

   “As soon as you acknowledge it, you've signed for the package.”

   • 1 Peter 2:24
   • Habakkuk 2:4
   • Mark 11:12-14
   • Mark 11:20-24
   • Proverbs 18:21
   • John 14:6

3. You can curse your own future

   Retrain yourself to speak words that produce life, and do not voice the negative things you see. Complaining about your job, your spouse or your own body seals your fate, and tithing will not cancel a curse spoken by your own mouth. Even "thank God it's Friday" curses your Monday; thank God for the job that puts food on your table.

   Illustration: As a policeman he passed his exams and waited with four or five colleagues for a high promotion. Trying to sound humble, he told them, "even if we're not promoted, it's fine." All the others were promoted; he waited two years, until the Lord told him, "Son, I couldn't help you. You cursed your own future."

   “Start to retrain yourself to speak words that will produce life.”

   • Proverbs 18:21
   • Philippians 4:19

4. Take your place of dominion

   Poverty, lack, sickness and disease are spirits, and Satan is their author, so refuse them any right in your life and do not pull up a chair to dialogue with him. Satan once came before God in the book of Job, but that door is closed: he has been placed under the feet of the church. Study the authority of the believer, because God cannot use weak, cowardly Christians.

   “A weak, cowardly Christian is of no use to God.”

   • Job 1:6
   • Ephesians 1:22

5. Bless it, then don't withdraw your angels

   Lay hands on your contract with your spouse or a partner in agreement, bless it, baptise it with success and send it out. Then do not scratch your head and wonder, because doubt withdraws your angels. Keep saying, "I've got the victory."

   Illustration: Faced with a huge invoice and the devil shouting that he could not afford it, the Lord told him to fold it and tape it under his shoe. He preached a whole Sunday service standing on it, heard the Lord say he was a giant over it, and closed the service declaring the money was given; the giant had become a cockroach under his foot.

   “What was a giant now became a cockroach under my foot.”

   • Matthew 18:19

6. Don't negate your healing: say what you want to see

   When the woman with the issue of blood touched Jesus, virtue went out of Him into her. When hands are laid on you, the healing power is transferred even if pain remains, so do not say "the pain is still there"; thank God that you are healed and the power goes to work. Grow your own miracle garden with sowing, confession, prayer and the Word, saying what you want to see rather than what you see. Speak blessing over your business, your church and your children.

   Illustration: Any man who is not blind can describe a toothless dog; a born-again man looks at the same dog and says, "What a nice dog." He demonstrates with a member standing in for someone who receives prayer for a sore leg.

   “Any fool can say what he's seeing.”

   • Mark 5:30
   • Hebrews 11:1

7. Order your conversation aright and be filled with joy

   In a prophetic word he says that when you order your conversation aright the clouds will burst, dry places will fill with water, and you will recreate your world. Refuse to be dragged down by people who bring bad news; like David at Ziklag, encourage yourself in the Lord. Be filled with the Spirit rather than wine, and the joy of the Lord becomes your strength. Churches full of conflict lack the oil of the Holy Ghost: anything full of oil does not squeak.

   Illustration: Old cars with no grease creak on every bump; a Christian full of the oil of the Holy Ghost no longer squeaks.

   “Anything that's full of oil do not squeak.”

   • Psalm 50:23
   • 3 John 2
   • Luke 1:28
   • 1 Samuel 30:6
   • Nehemiah 8:10
   • Ephesians 5:18-20