BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

B V O V : 2 3 suspected, was that her neighborhood was under my jurisdiction as a blood-bought man of God. And I wasn't playing around. Psalm 103:19 says, "The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all." The kingdom of God is a governmental system. In fact, it's the most powerful government that's ever existed. It has authority over the natural systems. So often, we are so focused on getting something out—such as debt, sickness or addiction—that we forget we really just need to get the kingdom of God in. That's what we did in that neighborhood. Our focus wasn't on getting the drug dealers out. Our focus was on getting the kingdom of God in. That lady and I prayed together, and the Holy Spirit told me what to say. I handed her a bottle of oil and said, "Take this bottle of oil, bless it, and pour it down the middle of the street." I knew the Word of the Lord wouldn't return void (Isaiah 55:11). A few days later, she came back. She was so excited. "Pastor, guess what?" she said. Then she explained that the drug dealers were coming in at noon and leaving at midnight every day. After she poured the oil, the drug dealers came and only stayed for one hour. They left and never came back. We had taken dominion over that area and invited in the kingdom of God. The enemy and his puppets had no choice but to fl ee. Operate by the Spiritual When you're born again, you are no longer limited by the physical. You're beyond those earthly limitations. The physical world—what you can see, feel, taste, hear and smell—is not the thing that dictates your reality. From your new birth on, you're called to operate by the spiritual, and doing that will often defy what your senses tell you. When our church bought a shopping mall for our church, our town suddenly rezoned the area so we couldn't hold services in it. We found out about the rezoning on Tuesday and had our members coming for church the next day, on Wednesday. I didn't know what to do, so I prayed. The Lord told me, Go to bed early. Then wake up early and pray in tongues. I obeyed. Then I asked for an interpretation for my prayer according to 1 Corinthians 14. God told me, Take Romans 13 and read verses 1 through 4 to the mayor. I obeyed, and that rezoning became a thing of the past. If I'd relied on my natural mind, we wouldn't have gotten the approval we needed. But I didn't do that. I obeyed the Lord by faith, invited the kingdom of God into the situation, and the situation changed. Often people rely on their natural minds to confi rm their faith, but that's the opposite of what we're supposed to do. When God speaks to our hearts about something, we shouldn't wait for our heads to confi rm it. That is not walking by faith. The understanding will come, but fi rst we must obey by faith. That's when things come together and miracles happen. Our spirits were designed to produce, and our hands were designed to gather what our spirits produce. That's how Jesus operated. He took dominion in the spiritual before He touched anything. He spoke to a fi g tree, and it dried up from the roots (Mark 11:13-14, 20). He multiplied two fi sh and fi ve loaves of bread and fed 5,000 people (John 6). He told Peter to sail out into the deep parts of the sea and let down his fi shing nets for a catch that was almost too big for his boat to carry (Luke 5). In each of these examples, Jesus was operating in the spirit, not the natural. It didn't matter what could be seen, touched, tasted, heard or smelled. God's laws had dominion. Satan operates in the spirit, and his results are seen in the physical realm. In recent years, he's gained tremendous ground—convincing people to mutilate their bodies, confusing them about their God-given identities, driving them to suicide, and so much more. But God's people aren't limited by the physical. We follow the examples of God's people as recorded in the Word—the examples of people who saw great miracles because of their faith. Watch Bill Winston on C H A N N E L Bill Winston on C H A N N E L i Mon-Fri: 2 a.m. | 6:30 a.m. | 4 p.m. ET Bill Winston is founder and pastor of Living Word Christian Center located in Forest Park, Ill. He is also the founder and chairman of The Joseph Business School and Bill Winston Ministries. For more information go to billwinston.org

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