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                        Governed by the Word of God
                          Part One of Two Messages

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By David Wilkerson
May 1, 2000
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          "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and
          the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name
          shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God,
          The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (Isaiah
          9:6).

          Isaiah is speaking here of a savior - a wonderful
          prince of peace coming to rule over a kingdom. This
          kingdom would be made up of a people wholly submitted
          to the prince's supreme authority. And the prince
          himself would provide loving counsel to those he ruled
          over, guiding and directing their lives.

          Of course, the prince Isaiah speaks of here is Christ.
          Jesus' kingdom has indeed come, existing in the hearts
          of his people. And the government of all creation rests
          on our wonderful savior's shoulders.

          Isaiah adds, "Of the increase of his government and
          peace there shall be no end...and upon his kingdom, to
          order it, and to establish it with judgment and with
          justice from henceforth even for ever" (verse 7). From
          now to the end of time, Jesus is going to rule over his
          kingdom with divine order.

          Now, if Christ reigns as the supreme authority over his
          kingdom, and we are his subjects, then our lives must
          be governed by him. What does it mean, exactly, for us
          to be governed by Jesus?

          According to the dictionary, to govern means "to guide,
          to direct, to control all actions and behavior of those
          under authority." In short, Jesus must be allowed to
          control all of our actions and behavior. He must guide
          and direct our lives daily, including our every
          thought, word and deed.

          Jesus also rules the nations of the world. The Bible
          tells us, "He ruleth by his power for ever; his eyes
          behold the nations: let not the rebellious exalt
          themselves" (Psalm 66:7). "The Lord hath prepared his
          throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all"
          (103:19).

          Don't be fooled - our country is not ruled by
          Republicans, Democrats or any human authority. It is
          not controlled by Wall Street or big business entities.
          No power, earthly or supernatural, rules America or any
          other nation. God alone is in control. He sits as king
          of kings and Lord of lords, ruling and reigning over
          all creation from his heavenly throne.

          I am amused whenever I hear politicians boast about our
          country's power - how we brought down the Iron Curtain,
          how we defeated communism, how we established ourselves
          as the most powerful nation on earth. We did nothing of
          the kind. All the nations, kings, dictators and
          presidents of the world are mere specks of dust in
          God's eyes. Our Lord rules over them all, pulling down
          one authority and raising up another.

          "Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are
          counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he
          taketh up the isles as a very little thing.... All
          nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted
          to him less than nothing, and vanity" (Isaiah 40:15,
          17).

          Notice here that God uses the image of a balance or
          scale. He sits on one side of the scale, while on the
          other side he places all the nations of the earth from
          throughout history. He's saying, "Go ahead - try to
          measure my might against the powers of the world. Take
          all the weapons and armaments of humankind, all the
          armies and navies of the nations, and put them on the
          scale. Next to me, these puny things are no more than a
          mound of dust."

          "The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of
          all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall
          see the salvation of our God" (Isaiah 52:10).

          Recently, communist Chinese leaders have been jailing
          thousands of members of a religious cult called Falun
          Gong. In the process, Chinese officials have also
          jailed scores of Christians, mistaking them as cultists
          because of their passive ways and worship practices.
          When an outcry began over this injustice, China's
          leaders turned a deaf ear.

          God has news for the Chinese government. They may think
          they can outlaw Jesus and control his kingdom - but he
          sees their nation as mere dust. He blew away the Iron
          Curtain like a pile of dust, and he can blow away the
          Bamboo Curtain just as easily.

          I believe it won't be long before China's communist
          government is history. God will blow down prison doors,
          blow away leaders from positions of authority, and
          establish his kingdom from one end of the nation to the
          other. Millions of godly Chinese believers will be able
          to shout freely, "Our God reigns!"

          Of course, we need to pray fervently for our persecuted
          brothers and sisters in China. But we also must be
          confident that God is still in control of all the
          nations.

                      -------------------------------

                            Do Not Think for One
                          Moment That Satan Rules
                         This or Any Other Nation.

                      -------------------------------

          All across America today, we're seeing awful moral
          decay, the rise of the occult, rampant sexual
          deviations, raging "in your face" atheism. Some
          Christians fear that the hordes of hell are slowly
          taking over our nation, establishing Satan's kingdom of
          darkness.

          We need not worry. Isaiah assures us, "The Lord hath
          broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the
          rulers...How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,
          son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the
          ground, which didst weaken the nations!.... Thou shalt
          be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They
          that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and
          consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the
          earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms" (Isaiah
          14:5, 12, 15-16).

          Satan may be having his day now - shaking nations with
          an outpouring of wickedness, weakening multitudes with
          immorality and lust. But that's all going to change in
          a single moment, according to God's time. Even now, the
          devil and all his demons are under the Lord's thumb.
          They are limited in power, allowed to go only so far.
          And ultimately, theirs is a kingdom of mere dust.

          Hezekiah declared, "O Lord of hosts, God of
          Israel...thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the
          kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth"
          (Isaiah 37:16).

          Yet Satan works overtime to convince us he rules over
          the kingdom of the earth. He even tried this with
          Jesus. In tempting Christ, he took him up to a high
          mountain where "he sheweth him all the kingdoms of the
          world, and the glory of them; and [Satan] saith unto
          him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt
          fall down and worship me" (Matthew 4:8-9).

          This vision had to be some kind of apparition Satan
          conjured up. After all, no one can see a whole kingdom
          from a mountaintop, much less all the kingdoms of the
          world. The experience didn't faze Jesus in the least.
          He was God in flesh, present at the very creation - so
          he knew Satan wasn't in control. Therefore, the world
          wasn't the devil's to give. It was a lie, a deceitful
          fantasy.

          Indeed, Jesus knew that Satan rules only by permission
          of almighty God. And Christ knew the ultimate outcome
          of the father's plan. Whenever God was finished with
          the devil, he would send his archangel Michael to take
          him prisoner. Then the Lord himself would cast Satan
          into hell, along with all his demons and followers, and
          seal its gates for eternity.

          Beloved, our God is not one bit anxious about Satan. He
          isn't fretting over what we see as an evil takeover of
          our nation. With just one word from our Lord's mouth,
          Satan will be gone forever, tormented for eternity.
          Therefore, we are to fear no evil.

                      -------------------------------

                     In No Other Kingdom Does God Rule
                    as Supremely And as Powerfully as in
                      His Own Kingdom - the One He Has
                 Established in the Hearts of His People.

                      -------------------------------

          Jesus said, "Behold, the kingdom of God is within you"
          (Luke 17:21). And it is within this kingdom - the realm
          of our hearts - that Christ rules supreme over his
          people, guiding us, healing us, governing our actions
          and behavior.

          "Of the increase of his government and peace there
          shall be no end" (Isaiah 9:7). I noted earlier that
          this verse speaks of Jesus' endless rule throughout
          eternity. Yet it also has another significant meaning:
          We must always increase our submission to our king's
          rule.

          Can you honestly say that day after day, Jesus'
          government over you is increasing? Are you bringing
          your behavior more and more under his authority? Or are
          you defying his rule whenever it collides with your
          flesh?

          Let's look now at how God governs his kingdom. You may
          wonder - if Jesus is in heaven, ruling in all authority
          at the right hand of the father, how does he go about
          governing his kingdom here on earth?

          We find the answer in the book of Hebrews. The author
          tells us that in the Old Testament, God spoke to his
          people through the prophets. But today the Lord has
          chosen to speak through his son: "God, who at sundry
          times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the
          fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken
          unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all
          things, by whom also he made the worlds" (Hebrews
          1:1-2).

          Jesus is God's explicit message to us - the divine word
          made flesh. In turn, the father has sent the Holy Ghost
          to us today to remind us of the words Jesus spoke while
          on earth. Thus, Jesus governs us by the written,
          revealed word of God. The Bible is our ruler's scepter,
          by which he makes his word known to us.

          Scripture says of Jesus, "Who being the brightness of
          his glory, and the express image of his person, and
          upholding all things by the word of his power" (verse
          3). "The word of God is quick, and powerful, and
          sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the
          dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints
          and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and
          intents of the heart" (4:12).

          If you want to hear the testimony of a man who was
          governed by God's written word, you can find it in
          Psalm 119. David writes:

          "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not
          sin against thee" (verse 11). "Thy word is a lamp unto
          my feet, and a light unto my path" (verse 105). "I
          esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be
          right; and I hate every false way" (verse 128). "Order
          my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have
          dominion over me" (verse 133). "I rejoice at thy word"
          (verse 162).

          We all know about the problems David experienced in his
          life. But even though this man faced awful times of
          failure and confusion, he continually allowed himself
          to be governed by God's word - and the Lord always
          brought David's life back to divine order. David
          stumbled, but he kept his life under the supreme
          authority of the scriptures.

          Our society today would have nothing of the sort. The
          Bible has become an object of mockery and derision. It
          has been outlawed in our schools, courts and public
          places. As a result, America has no supreme authority.
          Our ship of state floats along aimlessly without any
          moral rudder.

          This was brought home to me recently when I was
          summoned for jury duty. During the juror-selection
          process, a lawyer told us the following: "You may
          believe that when a witness places his hand on the
          Bible and swears to tell the truth 'so help me God,' he
          is obligated to do so. But that oath doesn't bind
          anyone to speak the truth. In fact, it has no meaning
          whatsoever."

          Invoking the authority of the Bible in a court of law
          today is merely an empty exercise. Moreover, it has
          become illegal. Consider the example of a Christian
          judge in Alabama, who was ordered to remove a plaque on
          his courtroom wall inscribed with the Ten Commandments.

          A schoolteacher in the Bronx recently lost her job for
          merely placing a Bible on her desk. This woman could
          have legally displayed pornography, the Koran or occult
          literature to her students. But our society gets
          absolutely enraged whenever God's holy word is merely
          mentioned. (By contrast, if you carry a Bible in Russia
          nowadays - whether on the streets or in the halls of
          government - people will ask if you can spare a copy
          for them.)

          Isaiah writes, "He shall judge among the nations"
          (Isaiah 2:4). You may not believe that God will judge
          our nation for shedding the blood of 25 million babies
          through abortion. But the Bible is very clear on this
          matter of despising his word: "This is a rebellious
          people, lying children, children that will not hear the
          law of the Lord.... He shall break it as the breaking
          of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces" (30:9,
          14).

          America's stock market may soar. Our economic boom may
          continue for a season. But God says, "If you despise my
          word, I will break down your structures overnight. I
          will wither your nation's strength the way a potter
          smashes his vessel to pieces." The time will come when
          the balloon of prosperity will burst.

          "All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is
          as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the
          flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth
          upon it: surely the people is grass...but the word of
          our God shall stand for ever" (Isaiah 40:6-8).
          Everything in this life is eventually going to burn and
          fade away. The only thing that will stand is God's
          word.

                      -------------------------------

                          Far Worse Than a Nation
                         Despising God's Word Is a
                          Child of God Who Lightly
                             Esteems His Word.

                      -------------------------------

          Fewer and fewer Christians are allowing their lives to
          be governed by God's word. This problem has become a
          spectacle in the church today, as multitudes of
          Christians are no longer willing to sit in God's house
          to hear sound doctrine preached. They're easily bored,
          wanting entertainment and ten-minute sermons instead.

          Such Christians are building their houses on sand, with
          no real foundation. They have spent years in the
          church, yet they know very little of God's word. This
          is why so many people end up traveling across the
          country seeking "a word from God" through some
          celebrated prophet.

          I want to sound a very loud warning here: Many such
          Christians have fallen into grave deception. They have
          been deceived by the flattering words of false
          prophets, who speak not from God's mind but from their
          own. These so-called prophets are nothing more than
          charismatic fortune-tellers. And many are clairvoyants,
          speaking from a spirit of divination.

          How does a believer come to a point of such deception?
          Consider the Christian who hears God's word preached to
          him clearly. The word begins to convict him - yet he
          quickly shakes it off. Why? He has a dream, an ambition
          of some kind that he isn't willing to bring under
          subjection to God's word. He wants to do or be
          something great, and he doesn't want to endanger his
          dream.

          So, instead, this person goes to a meeting to get a
          "word" from a prophet. He is thrilled when the prophet
          tells him things about his life no one could possibly
          know. Then the prophet begins to tell him amazing
          things about his future.

          This Christian won't judge that prophetic word
          according to God's word, because he doesn't know the
          scriptures. So, now he is staking his life on a man's
          word. And the fact is, the so-called prophet's word
          will never come to pass. That Christian has fallen
          under a delusion, believing a lie to be the truth
          because he can't tell the difference.

          It is dangerous for you to seek guidance from anyone if
          you don't know that person's life. Ezekiel warns of
          what happens to many: "Thus saith the Lord God; Every
          man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in
          his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his
          iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I
          the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the
          multitude of his idols...because they are all estranged
          from me through their idols" (Ezekiel 14:4-5).

          God's word condemns every fleshly ambition. And his
          Spirit is faithful to expose every hidden lust to you.
          But if you refuse to come under the supreme rule of his
          word, he states very clearly: "If you go to someone who
          is known to give words, and you aren't living under the
          government of my word, I will permit him to speak to
          you as an idolater. In fact, I'll allow that false
          prophet's voice to speak directly to your idolatry."

          "For every one of the house of Israel...which
          separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in
          his heart...I the Lord will answer him by myself: and I
          will set my face against that man...And if the prophet
          be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord
          have deceived that prophet...(and) the punishment of
          the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that
          seeketh unto him" (Ezekiel 14:7, 9-10).

          We see an example of this in the life of wicked King
          Ahab. When Ahab asked his prophets for a word from the
          Lord, those false seers gave him only flattering words.
          They spoke directly to the ambition in Ahab's heart,
          reinforcing his pride, lust and covetousness.

          Scripture tells us something amazing about this scene:
          "Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying
          spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets" (1 Kings
          22:23). A spirit had actually stood before the Lord in
          heaven and said, "I will persuade them.... I will go
          forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all
          his prophets" (verses 21-22).

          One discerning brother wrote to our ministry: "If one
          more 'prophet' comes up to me with 'a word from God,'
          I'm going to vomit. I have already been given a hundred
          such words, and none of them have come to pass. It's
          getting ridiculous."

                      -------------------------------

                          What Is the Lie That So
                           Many Christians Today
                              Are Accepting?

                      -------------------------------

          Paul warns that in the last days, "God shall send them
          strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that
          they all might be damned who believed not the truth,
          but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (2 Thessalonians
          2:11-12). What is the lie Paul speaks of here? It is
          the deception that the Antichrist will be humankind's
          deliverer.

          You may wonder, "How could any Christian be so deluded
          he would believe the Antichrist is the messiah?" Paul
          gives the reason in the previous verse: These believers
          "received not the love of the truth, that they might be
          saved" (verse 10).

          Such Christians ignore God's word, neglecting to come
          under its governing authority. Thus, they open
          themselves up to all kinds of deception, and are easily
          swept up by every wind and wave of doctrine. A minister
          I deeply respect believes deluded Christians may
          actually be the force that brings the Antichrist to
          power.

          I believe you can tell right away if a Christian has no
          discernment. Let's say you were to gather a group of
          believers, randomly chosen, to view a videotape of a
          meeting where bizarre manifestations took place. The
          things on the tape are inane, silly, crazy, some even
          bordering on immoral.

          Right away, the people who are grounded in scripture
          will shake their heads in disbelief. They might even
          begin weeping or get up and leave the room. But those
          who have neglected God's word will applaud what they
          see. They'll think all the unscriptural manifestations
          are the work of the Holy Spirit, saying, "Isn't this
          wonderful?" Yet those grounded in God's word can
          discern true manifestations immediately.

          I was shocked by a newspaper ad someone sent to our
          ministry. It read: "This ain't your Mama's church.
          Services limited to forty-five minutes. Our goal is to
          make you happy. Come casual. Football updates."

          I ask you - how biblically literate will that
          congregation be five years from now if the only word
          they hear on Sundays is a ten-minute lecture about
          human goodness? How will they ever be able to test
          anything by God's word if they never learn what it
          says?

                      -------------------------------

                          The Frightful Things We
                         See Happening Around Us in
                       Both the World and the Church
                      Should Drive Us to God's Word.

                      -------------------------------

          We should desire to be governed by no voice other than
          the one we find in the Bible. We can't trust even the
          sweetest inner voice we may hear. Paul says that even
          if an angel were to bring us a word that's contrary to
          scripture, we should reject it.

          I cling to this attitude especially in my role as a
          counseling pastor. The Bible is my only handbook. So,
          when a couple comes to me seeking counseling, I ask
          them: "First, do you believe the Bible is the final
          word in everything we talk about? And second, will you
          submit to whatever it says? Will you surrender your own
          feelings to do what God commands?"

          The Lord promises, "To this man will I look, even to
          him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and
          trembleth at my word" (Isaiah 66:2). The Hebrew word
          for trembleth here means to shudder or quake.

          Within minutes I can tell which spouse is in subjection
          to God's word and which one isn't. I've had the joy of
          seeing a husband or wife begin to weep as scripture
          exposes their condition. I've seen them tremble, wring
          their hands, shed a flood of tears - all because the
          word has convicted them. When that happens, I know the
          process of healing has begun.

          But this kind of brokenness has to take place in both
          parties. If I see one spouse wrinkling his brow or
          stiffening his body in resistance to what God's word
          says, I know things will only get worse. And the
          partner who won't submit to scripture will precipitate
          the divorce, making reconciliation impossible.

          The scriptures make it abundantly clear: When you
          submit to God's holy word, he fills your life with joy.
          "Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his
          word...he shall appear to your joy" (Isaiah 66:5).

          Finally, James writes, "Receive with meekness the
          engrafted word, which is able to save your souls....
          But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and
          continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer,
          but a doer of the word, this man shall be blessed in
          his deed" (James 1:21, 25).

          Allow your king, Jesus, to govern your life through his
          word. Then you will be blessed indeed, your life filled
          with his joy.

          ---
          Used with permission granted by World Challenge, P. O.
          Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771, USA.

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