Why don't we say, actually God has given me giftings, He's given me the capacity to move supernaturally, and He has given me a territory to operate in. It's my job to discover what He's given me, and the territory He's given me, and to learn how to do what He wants me to do in that area. This would save a lot of frustration, because a lot of people sit in church and they're waiting for some ministry, waiting for some great thing and the most of the rest of their life is in the community. They haven't recognised that is their sphere of influence, that is their territory - for example, just using Bryan, there's no one I know in our church lives where Bryan lives - yeah, apart from you, yeah, that's right. [Laughter] Well the two are one, so I've just got to do it like that. In the workplace of course he works in a partnership, but there are people that he connects with that probably Bill doesn't connect with, the clients he has.
So he gets to meet people that I don't get to meet most of the time, and he gets to meet some people I do meet, so our territories overlap, so where they overlap is what's the church, the rest of it is his territory which is unique to him. So your job is to discover your territory, and find what God gave you to do in your territory, and then do it. Now that releases everyone to ministry, and most people are waiting for someone to get them going into some thing, in other words set it up for me so I can do it. That's okay when you're younger, but as you grow, you should actually start to say well God, what have you gifted me and what territory have you given me? How can I do something in that area? Okay, so let's have a look at our territory.
So your metron is your territory God measured you, gave you responsibility for. Your metron is your ministry assignment, so whatever your ministry assignment is, that's your responsibility, that's where you are, that's where you have an influence, and it's usually a specific location or a group of people, or a position of responsibility. It's usually a specific place, location; it involves people, and it involves a responsibility - place, people, responsibility. So my metron is not just here, it goes right up into Asia, primarily into Asia. That's where I have huge influence, far more influence there than here, so I've a stronger metron and a bigger metron in Asia than I have here. Here it's a few hundred, there it's multi-thousands. You say how did you get to do that? I don't know. Someone invited me just to go there, and then God told me to connect with someone, and then it's just gone from there.
It grows as you actually fill out and fulfil what God gave you to do, so if you realise that you have a territory that God has given you, and you discover it and then begin to think what can I do to fill that out, and bring forth fruit, and subdue whatever's in it that's negative and against the kingdom of God, you're busy all the rest of your life. It wouldn't matter if you had no position, you still have a territory. You still have something that God's called you to do, so you see whether I'm the Pastor of this church or not, I still have a territory God's given me, and so I want to try and identify that. So how would you identify your territory?
Notice what Paul says in Verse 15 of 2 Corinthians 10. I don't boast of things beyond measure or another man's labours, but have hope that as your faith is increased we shall be greatly enlarged in our own sphere. So he's talking about his own labours and someone else's labours, so he recognised his own territory that God had given to him. He said: I'm called to the Gentiles. That's an amazing thing. He's full of the gospel, he's full of the Bible, and he's sent to the Gentiles, so Paul was very careful not to go beyond his territory. Now it is important that you don't invade someone else's responsibility. When you do that, it becomes controlling, and it becomes witchcraft.
I was counselling one person, and it was about direction for this person's life, and the biggest challenge that they faced was that everyone in their life had told them what to do. What they needed to be encouraged was to identify what God had wired in them and then to step up and own it, then start to fulfil that assignment, you understand? Your territory's not what someone told you it was, it's something God put in your heart to do. That's why all ministry must flow out of our heart. Our heart has to be in it, or we're just fulfilling a duty and it's a dead thing. So Paul was careful not to go beyond his territory because there are two problems; one, if you go beyond your territory, you're into someone else's area that you're not responsible for, and meddling with their business, then you open the door for spirits of witchcraft to operate. Likewise if you don't occupy and take responsibility for your area, then again spirits come in and invade, as we'll see in a moment.