There will be many situations I can't address, but I'm trying to lay the principles, because if you get the principles, you can then let God show you how you apply it to your specific situation, in your specific area. Do not get legal about it, but ask God to show you, as you hear His word, how to respond to His word in your life. This is the way to do this. Now we will find as we're speaking in this area, one of the reasons God is talking on these issues of authority, is because over the last three or four decades, there has been a restoration in the church of various areas of ministry. There was the restoration of evangelists around about the '48 through to '50s, the restoration of healing ministries, pastoral ministries, teaching ministries. In the '90s there came an emphasis in the church of prophetic ministries, so all over there's prophetic conferences for this and that, and there's an awareness that God is wanting to restore the prophetic gift (in office) into the church. But now, as we enter the 2000s and this decade, God is speaking worldwide about the restoration of apostolic ministries in the church.
So because of that, there will be changes take place, that we will need to understand. One of the things the apostles are interested in doing, is establishing the foundations right, and getting the order right; so in the next decade, you will find an increasing awareness of God's order, of how God wants things set in place, and you'll find the church will go through changes in how it's operating and organised. This is because God is calling it to be this way. He is restoring these giftings in their authority, their office, and in their direction into the church; and so with the apostle, there will come measures of anointing, that will cause disruptions in the spirit atmosphere. They will cause exposure of demonic powers. Everywhere you see the apostles ministering, there is great exposure of the works of darkness; and there was an ordering, and a setting into place, in a way that the church could properly be built. So God is doing that in this decade.
Now one of the areas you and I need to understand, is the area of authority, and how authority works, mostly because of the abuse of authority - that's all we ever hear about. You hear about the misuse, or abuse, of authority, and the reactions that come with that. All over the world, that's been very, very clear. However, you can't look at the exceptions, or the misuse, and build a way of thinking and relating on that. You must go to the word of God. What did God say? How does this apply to me? What must I do in my life, to adjust to what God is saying? Does that make sense? [Yes.] So as we begin to speak into these areas, this important teaching concerning spiritual authority, I could speak for weeks and weeks on it, because it covers every aspect of how we live, and move, and operate in the spirit.
One of the things that God has helped me to understand is, because of an involvement in deliverance ministry, I've had the privilege of seeing things happen that most people have not seen. Because of that, I've come to understand how some things operate in the spirit world, that people generally do not understand. Because they don't understand, they find themselves positioning themselves in a way that God can't bless them, so over these next months, we'll keep the issue of authority in mind, as we address various areas of how we walk with God. At the moment we're looking at the area of man, and his headship in the home, and I've been pushing it for a few weeks for this reason: one, that most of the problems that you can trace in our society, directly come back to the loss of men fulfilling the proper role God gave them, and designed for them. The second one is because there is tremendous brokenness and damage in the lives of people, and misunderstandings about this area; and thirdly because, as a result of this, demonic powers have set themselves into marriages and family situations, creating havoc and destruction, and they're able to continue to do so, because men do not understand their role, or understand the authority God's given them, or know how to use it properly.
I want to touch particularly on that today. Finally the final reason I want to keep pushing on it is this: my observation after preaching on this area for about three weeks, is that there is a general unresponsiveness in men, that no matter what I'm saying, it's not bringing change. Now there's only two things that can be the cause of that: one, there's a real need for deep repentance, and an understanding of the truth, and a turning of the heart; or two, that demonic powers are holding men in bondage, so that they are unable to see, grasp and arise in this truth. The third is the need for models of how to do it.