Put Your Foot Down

Get our Bibles out and let's lift them up and wave them around.

Make Jesus glad, the devil mad.

Let's say this all together Say Heavenly Father, I'm so grateful for Wednesday night.

I look forward to the Word coming forth for me.

I'm listening for myself and I want to hear what the Holy Spirit enlightens to my spirit so that my faith will grow exceedingly and my fruit will increase.

In Jesus' name, amen, let's turn in our Bibles to two places Joshua, chapter one, and also, while you're finding another place, ephesians, chapter one, and we'll start with Joshua, chapter one, verse one.

Now, afteresians, chapter 1, and we'll start with Joshua, chapter 1, verse 1.

Joshua 1:1

Now, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, moses' minister, saying Moses, my servant is dead.

Now, therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people.

Therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which I do give them, even to the children of Israel.

Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses, from the wilderness in this Lebanon, even under the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites and under the great sea, toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.

There shall not be any man able to stand before thee all the days of thy life.

As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.

I will not fail thee, thee nor forsake thee.

And then, as we look at Ephesians, chapter one, the great Ephesians prayer if you've been praying that, I hope you pray it every day you should have this in your heart.

But this Ephesians, I won't read the whole thing, but I'll just read the part about Christ who God has put all things, verse 22,.

God has put all things under Christ's feet and gave him to be the head over all things to his church, which is his body, the fullness of him, that filleth, all in all.

So God has put all things under our feet.

The feet are in the body and all things.

That includes principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, wicked spirits, all things.

So tonight I have a message entitled Put your Foot Down.

Put your foot down.

God, the Father, has put everything under our feet and we're in Christ.

That means every resistance, every demonic power, every circumstance, every name that's named has been put under Jesus' feet and we're his feet.

So it's high time to put our foot down on some things and move forward.

You know, these verses in Joshua are dear to me because when Pastor Osteen went to heaven that day, I was awakened in the night and this is the thing that God spoke to me when we heard the news that he had been taken to the hospital.

To me, when we heard the news that he had been taken to the hospital, these were the exact words that I heard the Holy Spirit speak to my spirit.

Moses, my servant, is dead.

Now, therefore, arise.

And so he began to tell me about everywhere the sole of your foot shall tread.

That have I given you here in the book of Joshua.

God had already drawn the boundaries, but he reminded Joshua what he had told Moses.

He just went and gave him the exact same information, the exact same commands, and he empowered him to cause this people to possess their promises.

You know this people to possess their promises, you know.

So this is what I picked out of those verses was that I was receiving a fresh anointing to see to it that I was empowered not only to possess my promises, but to usher you into your promises.

I usher you into your promised land.

Promised land is your inheritance.

It's not heaven, because, you know, in heaven there aren't any giants, there aren't any wall cities, I mean.

So it is a type of our inheritance here on earth, what we possess by our authority and by the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

So essentially then, he's saying, hey, it's time to put your foot down on some things, it's time to take authority, it's time to exercise authority.

You can't exercise authority over something unless God gives you that authority.

And so he gives you authority over certain things.

And we're going to talk about putting our foot down, three ways to take steps taking faith steps.

You know it's not just doing everything all at once, it's taking steps.

You're going to take some steps to put your foot down, but when you think about the promised land, you say, everywhere where the sole of your foot shall tread, it wasn't just one step.

I mean, he literally walked up and down through the land.

Abraham did, and Moses had walked that land too.

Abraham had walked the land.

And so you take a series of steps, but it all starts with taking one first step.

So put your foot down.

I got three things I want to go over with you tonight.

Number one take steps to know what is yours.

Take steps to know what is yours.

What is yours?

Well, let's just we get hints in the Bible Genesis 13, 17.

He told Abraham walk up the length and breadth of this land, everywhere the sole of your foot shall tread.

That have I given you.

That was Abraham.

So that was that.

You know.

That translated to Moses, that translated to Joshua, it translated to Israel.

So they had all this land, and then it contained in Deuteronomy.

I mean, they divided the land into certain territories and they had specific areas that belonged to them.

In Genesis 2.15, god told Adam to dress and keep the garden.

He told him to dress and keep the garden.

He told him to dress and keep it.

And you know, of course, adam had.

He was the God of this world.

I mean, he had authority over everything on the earth.

But God gave him first.

His first assignment was the garden.

He didn't get to leave the garden until he was faithful over the garden.

And guess what?

I mean he wasn't faithful over the garden.

He let this serpent come in and tempt his wife and they lost everything.

They lost their God-given dominion.

So, for you, what has God given you?

Well, you know, sometimes we're so busy responding to the immediate that we forget the things that are important.

And I think this message is not necessarily a bunch of new information, but it's a reminder, serves as a reminder.

If you're married, it's your marriage, it's your home, it's your children, it's your spouse, it's your children and grandchildren.

If you're like my age, I mean I pray over my grandchildren, I watch over them, your career, your business, your ministry, your finances, your church.

I mean you know you should be watching over your church.

You ought to be involved in your church.

You ought to be part of the solution for things that come up, things that come against the church.

You ought to be part of the solution.

You ought to be part of the group that's praying and stalwart and protecting and defending and rebuking the devil, amen.

And so you have to thank God over what you have and watch over it and bless it.

You know 1 Peter talks about being sober and being vigilant for your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour.

I mean you need to watch over your children right now.

I mean our children are at risk.

They're being attacked online.

You got to be aware.

You can't get so busy with things that are, again, immediate.

Maybe they're immediate, maybe they're things that you know the good is the enemy of the best.

And so, you know, sometimes we need to spend some time praying and thinking and meditating on what is ours, what is our responsibility, and then we need to step up to the plate and make sure that we're watching over it.

You know, uh, one time, uh years ago, I mentioned having two mercedes.

Last last sunday we were joking about a a little bit tongue in cheek, but before I was saved, I bought a little 70 Mercedes 250 coupe and it was all dolled up, it was a really pretty little car.

And then, over a process of time, you know, it had a malfunction in its cooling system.

It got hot and the engine was ruined.

And then I tried to have my mechanic that worked on my regular cars try to fix it.

He didn't know anything about what he was doing and he damaged the car so badly that he turned the entire engine and transmission into worthless piles of junk.

I mean they were no good anymore.

I mean it would run, but it wouldn't.

You know it wouldn't run right.

And so it was parked in my garage.

And there it was in my garage when I got saved, you know, and I hadn't done anything about it.

We had a three car garage and it was just sitting in my garage for a couple of years after the damage was done and I'd been saved a couple of years.

One day I was walking around this car to get my other car that was in the side of the garage and I was going to leave, going somewhere, and the other car we had was parked on the driveway all the time.

But this car, I thought enough of it to have it parked in the garage, but I wasn't using it.

And the Holy Ghost spoke to me.

He says well, what are you going to do about your Mercedes?

I said what am I going to do?

I wasn't planning on doing anything.

And then, you know, I didn't ask him anything and it bothered me.

I thought why did the Holy Ghost ask me what I was going to do?

And then I realized, as I began to think about it, and he led me into how he cared about the leftovers.

When they fed the five loaves and two fishes for 5,000 men, they gathered 12 baskets full of leftovers.

And then, when he fed the 4,000 with seven loaves, there were seven baskets left over.

See, god cares about the leftovers.

He hates waste.

And that car was going to waste.

It was sitting in my garage and if it sat there much longer it's just going to rust out.

It's going to just dilapidate.

It's going to just correct.

Even though it's in a garage, it's just going to deteriorate to the point where it's just nothing but junk.

And he did not want me.

This is something that was valuable, even though it was gonna cost more than it was worth to fix it.

I thought so.

What his little reminder did for me is that I started looking to see and started talking about what can I do?

And to make a long story short, I was able to buy a used car that had the identical engine and transmission and I drove it.

The outside of the car was damaged badly and ugly, but the engine and transmission were in good shape low mileage, 40,000, 50,000 miles, something like that.

So I bought the car and I pulled the engine and transmission, had a mechanic just do an engine swap and I put my Mercedes back on the road.

See, then now I have a car that's almost as good as new.

I mean it's just driving around and I mean, I restored that thing because the Holy Ghost got me to pay attention.

Well, pastor, what in the world?

Listen, I'm telling you, let's watch over our garden and dress it and keep it.

Let's not let the devil steal, kill and destroy in our garden.

I know there's more important things than cars.

Our children are very important.

Your marriage is important.

Your career, your job, your finance all of those things are even more important.

So put your foot down on some things, take your authority and use your prayer life to find out what you can do to rule over what you have right now and be thankful for what you have.

And then, after you've done that number two, take steps to discover what else God wants to bring you.

Because there's a principle in the Bible you know, as you're faithful in little, god will make you ruler over much.

Jesus said that If you're faithful over what you have, then you qualify for more.

Well, I've got plenty.

Well, that's not the right attitude.

I mean we need more and more and more.

Why?

Because this world is going to hell in a handbasket and it's going to take billions of dollars to reach the harvest and to reap it.

I know I sound like a broken record, but we've been chosen to live in the last days in the greatest state, in the greatest nation, probably one of the greatest cities in the whole world.

I know there's a lot of wrong, but there's a whole lot right and besides that, god's not finished with any of it and we have everything to say about it.

So we ought to then find out what else God wants to give us.

You know, it's not that we're not content with what we have, but if you're faithful over what you have, god wants to give you more.

I think about Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4.10.

You know he was named.

You know his mother named him Sorrow.

That's a pretty bad name to get named Sorrow.

Hello, sorrow, how you doing?

And he said oh, I don't want to cause sorrow, I want to cause joy.

He said Lord.

He said enlarge my coasts.

And God did.

God hurt him and God enlarged his coast.

God gave him more than he had before and God made him a blessing.

He blessed him to make him a blessing.

I say he'll do the same for you.

You're a blessing now, but he can make you a greater blessing.

And so, as you're faithful over little, god will make you ruler over much.

You know I had been recovering from open heart surgery back in 2018.

I was at home and recovering every day and just going to rehab and getting a little stronger, getting a little better.

And just you know, and you know, I was praying in the Holy Ghost one morning, I think it was.

I got out of the hospital the latter part of January and I think it was around April or May of that year, 2018.

I was praying in my office at home and I was praying in the Holy Ghost and I'd been praying about an hour and I saw a vision.

I had a vision of this wall at the end of this pasture-looking place like it's open field, and at the end of this field was this big wall that was.

It looked like 12 or 15 foot tall, covered with brambles and briars, real rough vegetation, and I was, as I was, praying in the Holy Ghost.

All of a sudden, out of the middle of that wall, a door opened, a big, thick door.

It looked like it was like the door itself looked like it was 18 inches thick or maybe two foot thick and it opens toward me and the Lord spoke to me.

He said I'm opening a door into the regions beyond and this door has been reserved for you Into the regions beyond.

Now, you know God had told me years ago he was building a regional center and we've been faithful over this region.

We've been faithful over the region of Houston, harris County 10-county area.

But in this time of praying in other tongues, god showed me that he had a door open not just to the adjoining region but to regions plural, the regions beyond.

And I remembered that in the Bible it's 2 Corinthians, 10, 16, paul said I've been preaching in the regions beyond, you gospel.

And so God has expanded and enlarged our vision and I'm thinking about one of the things that's fulfilling, that is, my God Votes.

I mean, we've had success in sponsoring worship here in Texas and now God opened the door in Oklahoma.

We're well underway there.

We're well underway in Louisiana and Baton Rouge and God has associated us with local churches there that are taking the responsibility of prayer and covering those.

Of course we still pray and cover it, but then there locally, they're overseeing everything, the actions on the ground.

We can't be there for every service.

We've gone, went to a number of the services, but we can't keep it up all the way through the legislative session.

We don't need to.

We lit the fire.

God used us to light the fire in the regions beyond.

We're actually fulfilling that, and I didn't know what it meant at the time.

I had no idea, but we talked about it, we spoke about it, we continued to pray about it, and here we are.

Praise God, see.

So God's enlarging our coast, god's enlarging and increasing, and praise God that he'll do the same for you.

So, and then the last one that I want to tell you about is taking steps.

See, this is all about taking steps.

You have to take the first step, and the first step is always the hardest step, because you've got to do something you haven't done yet.

But take steps to overcome every obstacle.

And we've had a few obstacles, but you know what?

We wouldn't stop.

We just kept taking faith steps, believing and speaking.

See, those are the first steps that you have to take believing and speaking, and then acting.

And what is the action?

Well, you know, it comes from your prayer life.

God's going to show you exactly what to do.

You have to.

In any case, you have to act like the Bible is true.

We had to act like the regions beyond had been open unto us, and then we just got out there and we started.

We started making inquiries.

God started hooking us up with people.

He can do the same for you and Will.

He'll open the door.

See, when you begin to walk by faith, it opens the door to the supernatural, and you're no longer limited by the natural.

You're no longer limited by education or what you know, or even who you know.

I mean God gets in control of it.

In Luke 10, 19, he gave the disciples power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing he said shall by any means hurt you.

And so that's what we've been called to do.

God, jesus is our high priest.

He went and was seated at the right hand of the Father Book of Hebrews says expect until his enemies be made his footstool.

You know we have authority to tread and to walk on trouble, on resistance.

We're always gonna have resistance, what God wants us to have and what God wants us to do.

But we have the power to walk over it.

We just have to put our foot down.

When I think about putting my foot down against the devil, I think about Smith Wigglesworth telling that story about the woman who had a little dog, little Fifi.

I don't know if that's her name or not, but it sounds kind of appropriate.

Little old fluffy dog, you know, and she's leaving her house to catch the bus to go to work and little Fifi goes out the door and follows her down the sidewalk.

No, fifi, go back, go back home, go back, little darling.

And well, fifi didn't obey her.

Fifi just kept going down the street with her.

No, go.

I said, go back.

Now, go back.

And finally she stomped her foot.

She says Fifi, go back.

And Fifi, you know, turned around and went back.

You know, sometimes we've got to stomp our foot on the devil's head.

We've got to be more determined than he is that we're not going to put up with his noise, we're not going to put up with his resistance.

We have to submit ourselves to God, resist the devil and he will flee from us as in terror.

And we overcome him Revelation 12, 13, by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony, the word of the testimony of what the blood has done, is doing and it will continue to do.

No-transcript.

Come on, lift your hands and receive tonight.

Put your foot down.

Praise God, amen, glory to God.

I think I preached myself happy.