Heavenly Authority by Dr. Pete Norris

Today on power in the world He's got this he's got your financial situation. He's got your sickness. He's got your crisis. He's got your circumstance He got your pain. He's got your heartaches. He's got your loneliness. He's got your Avenues, he's got your struggles. He's got your hardships. He knows when you're down discouraged and frustrated and busted He's still God on the throne. He's still looking say I got you. I got my hand on you. I'm crazy about you I love you. I'm gonna bring you through this and when you come through this you gonna have a testimony cuz you got to go Through a test to have a testimony. You don't get a testimony without a test Welcome to power in the word So often the cares of life choke God's Word out of our life. Well today. Dr Norris reminds us of our heavenly authority here on earth and that heaven lives in us No need to surrender to life's problems because believers have God's authority It's an encouraging word that will help you. So you stay with us. I want to talk about something today That's going to enlighten you a little bit on on what what I believe is happening in the world And I think this will help you understand what's happening in the world How many of you know that we have a spiritual authority on earth heavenly? Not just not just physically, but we have heavenly authority on the earth because Jesus came down and gave us heavenly authority Right how many of you know that before the felt before the foundation of world all authority heaven and earth There was no separation between it And then when Lucifer fail and was cast down to heaven him and a third of the angels we know the story from that and all upset all of a sudden Adam was Adam fell and Eve fell and separation come heaven was closed up and nobody had access to heaven anymore. How many of you know that? But when Jesus come along the Bible says the heavens were open and the Spirit of God spoke out of heaven and said this is My beloved son in whom I'm well pleased and he was baptized in water How many of you know that you were an hour in him and during that time? And we understand that the favor and the blessings of God from that point out heaven was open and when Jesus came down He brought heaven down to earth. I'm setting you up. Okay. I'm setting you up for what I want to talk about So today I want to talk about heavenly Authority because I believe and I'm gonna prove it to you in Scripture that Jesus brought heaven down to earth How many of you know Jesus was heaven? How many of you know Jesus was heaven so listen to me I want you to get a little deeper

I want you to grab hold of a little bit more revelation. Heaven's not a place. We're going to heaven is a place We're becoming Okay, you got to understand that so so go me to John chapter 3 verse 12 and 13 If I had told you earthly things and you do not believe how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things and this is in Red Jesus is still in John look man If I tell you earthly things and you won't believe how to worry you gonna believe if I tell you heavenly things verse 13 No one now watch this. No one has ascended to heaven, but he that came down from heaven That is the Son of Man which is in heaven now. I'm not trying to tear up any your theologies I'm not trying to tear up any your doctrines and what you believe how many you believe that Elijah was raptured up You've heard all your life that Elijah was called up and Enoch vanished away Then this scripture is not true because it says no one has ascended to heaven Stay with me now. I'm not trying to tear up your theology. I'm trying to show you heaven came down here No one has ascended to heaven, but he big H who came down from heaven who came down from heaven That is the Son of Man Who is in heaven, but now you gotta understand He was standing right there in front of John talking to him and tell him he was in heaven Did he not? No one has ascended to heaven, but he came down from heaven That is the Son of Man who is in heaven now if you notice something he hadn't become the Son of God yet because he hadn't resurrected He was bringing heaven down to earth already because he said that is the Son of Man who is in heaven He said I'm in heaven even though I'm standing right here in your presence. Is that not what he's saying? That's exactly what he's saying. He said I'm in you I'm in heaven even though I'm standing right here in your presence Guys we got to take our mind off of this place We're going to and understand that we've become a place And if we can get a hold of this thing, I'm telling you it's gonna bring some enlightenment to you Please don't let me shake you in you're gonna see your loved ones and they're gonna be glorious to see you Okay, you're just not going up meet him. He's gonna bring them down to you and it let me tell you something else If you'll notice throughout the Old Testament God took the bad ones out and snatched them out He never took the good ones and snatched them out

We need to get a hold of Revelation here for going to understand no one has ascended to heaven But he who came down from heaven that is the Son of Man who is in heaven So Jesus was telling John right there in person. Hey, look man. I'm standing right here, but I'm in heaven Now I want you to go with me somewhere I want you to go with me to Ephesians chapter 1 verse 20 Which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in Heavenly places how many of you know Jesus was a seeded at the right hand of the Father and he still Seated there is our high priest and he's making intercessions for us continuously over and over and over seated at the right hand of now Where are you seated? The Bible said in Ephesians 2 and 6 that you and I are seated in Christ Jesus Now you said pastor I'm standing right here. I'm right here with you now. You got to get a different mindset You're a heavenly being living in earth You're a heavenly being living in earth Turn to my sound my heavenly being and if you look to heaven a little bit more and you look to earth You'll find more answers than you'll find trying to find out here You're trying to find peace down here when you ain't belong that you don't belong down here Guys you need to listen to me. You're trying to find peace down here when this ain't where you belong Why you want to find peace here? You ain't gonna stay And Jesus said I'll give you my peace. I cut a covenant of peace that cannot be broken So I'm gonna give you our peace my peace not your be you're not gonna have your peace your peace don't matter It's his peace that matters. Are you with me? So you're trying to get a happiness is based on happenings joy is eternal So watch this Go me to Deuteronomy 30 and 12. He gives us some ideas here It is not in heaven that you shall say who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us That we may hear it and do it Jesus Guys, the Bible city has seen it up on high and then he's seing it down below to do what? Put it on the mercy seat so you and I'd be free. So you and I'd be delivered

And what was he gonna do? He was gonna bring him back down to earth and live it rain on the earth So I can sit down shit. He was gonna bring me up on high and then he send you to hell Chris Thomas had his life back on. I didn't see it. So God took him. That's what's happened He send him up on high And what was he gonna do? He was gonna bring heaven back down to earth and let it rain on the earth You and I are heavenly beings now He was one's gonna bring it back that we could hear how the kingdom functions that we could hear how it works and speak it And do it on the earth. He'd give you all the power and authority on earth. It's a done deal guys. He fixed it and Heaven is where you belong but heaven is who you are not where you're going So think about in a minute if Jesus brought heaven down to earth And Jesus is living in us What's going on on the earth? Is this place as bad as we're trying to make it be? Or did Jesus really give us the power and authority to rise above it when Jesus raised from a dead? He didn't do it for you. He did it as you Now I hear all these people saying we know Jesus died for us brother, I'm not real sure he did that I believe he died as us So that we could live as him on the earth and when he walked around the earth He didn't get tore up ever 13 seconds about what was going on They tried to betray him the Jewish people tried to come against him. The religious folks tried to catch him They tried to trick him. They tried to do all kinds of things, but he said I'm only here for one purpose I'm here to do what the father Said do and I only say what I hear the father say Now did God talk with him that clearly all the time or did he really just know who he was? The the church is sitting around wondering when they're going to get to heaven And if that glorious day will just come and I can get out of here, man I can leave all these hellions behind and I can go on to heaven and I can have a joyous trail. I Don't believe that was Jesus at any time. I Believe Jesus struggle in his life was not do I cannot do this?

Can I go to the cross and cannot die as them? I believe his struggle was I don't know how to die I'm so full of life But I don't think that's true in the church I think we're just sitting around waiting to die so we can just get out of here, man It's tough and I'm struggling and it's tough around here. I'm just ready to go man I'm tell you I don't really care about all those folks You know you think about it don't sound real good If you leave 99 if I had a if I had a man looking after my cattle and he left the 99 He went and just got one That would seem like to me. He won't a real good farmer Or a really good herdsman, but you know, I understand Jesus point if the enemy can isolate you he can take you out And he's isolated church folks because they've been to church and they've gotten mad and they've gotten the feelings hurt and they got disappointed They got discouraged and they left and somebody hurt their feelings and they walked out and they said, you know what? I'll serve Jesus from home and Then what happens is you begin to serve Jesus instead of being like Jesus Because Jesus said if I'm gonna conquer this stuff, I got to go right up in the religious folks and deal with them I got to be where they can't get me upset. I can't get me uptight. They can't get me disappointed They can't frustrate me because I'm not serving them. I'm just walking with Jesus, man I look so much like Jesus. You can't tell us apart. And so you can't upset me and make me mad See, you don't understand. You ever been a pastor? You need to be one for about a week Why do you think so many's quitting? Why do you think so many's committing suicide on a daily basis? See, here's the key to the whole thing. I'm giving it to you an intimate relationship If you don't know who you are Then people's always gonna tell you who you're not Ask your wife, she'll tell you who you are, won't she? All the time, go to Colossians 2 and 9. For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now think about this, all the fullness of the Godhead was in Jesus. Now where's Jesus at?

Man, do you see this picture? This is a real picture. What did he say in John 10 and 9? He said, I'm the door, and he that enters through me shall come in and out of the door. What was he saying? He's gonna come in and out of heaven, guys. He won't talking about, he's gonna come through me all the time. You don't have to go through him, but what's the door? It's the avenue that opens heaven up to you. I'm the door, and anyone who enters by me, he will be saved, and he will go in and out and find pasture. What's he gonna do? He's gonna go in and out and find peace, man. You can have peace in this world when you understand this is not your permanent place. This is not where you belong. This is a temporary place that you're at, and heaven's in the middle of you, and no matter what you're going through and no matter what you're struggling with, I want you to understand that the destiny is win for you. Because no matter what you deal with, no matter what you struggle with, the struggles that you go through in your life are not about you. They're about other people that's gonna deal with the same thing, and you can help them through it. Guys, you gotta understand it's a heavenly place we're living. The word fullness here means the replete or completion, fullness of the Godhead. Faith explores what revelation's provided. Listen, you are full of faith. You are full of faith. Here's what you have to watch in life. Listen to me very carefully. You have to watch this in life, that you don't let life calcify you and make you hard, and begin to not see any good in anybody, because everybody you see is bad. And so Jesus walked around on the earth, and he had 12 disciples. Now, I want you to get it. You got 12 people working for you. One of them's gonna sell you out. One of them's gonna deny you. And two or three others ain't gonna stay with you long. He had 82, you know. 70 of them left in one day. In John 6 and 66, when he was trying to tell them,

you gotta eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, they thought he was talking about cannibalism, and they split. When you go deeper, the boat's gonna get lighter. So you gotta understand, there was 70 that was close to Jesus. There was 12 that was closer to Jesus. There was three that was even closer to Jesus, that he took every time he went to heal somebody, but there's only one that put his head on his breast. John. John's the one that endured. John's the one that persevered. John's the one that had a personal relationship with. John's the one that talked about love all the time. John was talking about the enduring. Listen, they burnt this dude, man. They put him in hot boiling water. Turned him upside down on Isle of Patmos. Left him for dead. John walked out of it. And he said, I know Jesus is alive. Why did he know, guys? Why did he go through the... John walked around with those other nine, them other eight, 11 guys all the time. Why did he get a hold of it? Why was he the one closest to Jesus? Why was he the one that put his head on his breast? Why was he the one that knew the Father? Because he's the one that talked about how much God loved Jesus. He understood a different dimension. Read John and then read Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It's totally different writings.

John knew something everybody else didn't know. What did he know? What did he know? What do you know that nobody else knows? You know, here's what you hear all the time. You ask people, tell me about Jesus. Oh, he died for our sins. That's not who he is. Tell me about him. Tell me about him. The Bible said this woman that was sick, had been sick for 12 years, and went to all kinds of physicians, she had heard about him. She didn't know him. She heard about him. Why has she heard? It must have been good. What have you heard? Well, God ain't doing what he used to do. He's the same yesterday and today and forever. In Hebrews 13 and 8, Jesus is. And let me tell you, we need to get back to where we put all of our focus in him and not in what we see or our ability to make it happen around us. He's the answer, guys. He's the answer. I don't care what you know or how much, how smart you are. That's a wonderful thing. But I'm telling you, Jesus is the answer. Go to Ephesians chapter 1, verse 20. Which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him in his right hand in heavenly places. How many of you know the one seated on the right hand is always the firstborn? 21.

Far above principalities and powers. He set him up high, far above principalities and powers and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. Look at 22. And he put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church. 23. Which is his body, the fullness of him who feels all in all. Who's the body of Christ? Listen to me. And I've said this. before and I'm going to say it again. If my head's name Pete, then my body's name Pete. If the head of the body of Christ is Christ, then what's the body's name? You ain't got Christ's head and Pete's body. If you've got Christ's head, you've got Christ's body. So what is he saying? I'm the fullness. I'm everything you're going to need. I can make you get through this life and you can conquer this life and you can overcome this life and you can defeat this life because I'm everything you need and I've put my whole being, I died and resurrected and seated at the right hand of the Father. Now I've put everything inside of you and you're absolutely the fullness of me. Gosh, we're the fullness of Christ. We need to get away from these pity parties and we need to get away from these ideas that I'm just barely getting by and things are going to be okay. Things are going to be absolutely marvelous. Go to Ephesians chapter 3 verse 19. To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. How many of you know it's all wrapped up in love? You know what's wrong in America? We're too busy with wanting to be right. We're not about each other. If we had a recession now, if we had a depression now, people wouldn't be giving you stuff. They'd be going and stealing what you got. Think about it. My granddaddy used to tell me during the depression, people would bring food to the neighbor's house and split it out and there's one man in the community that loaned money to people during the depression to help them get through so they could keep on farming and didn't lose everything they had. Where are we going, man? How far have we gotten away from what love really is? Because he said in John 13 verse 34, I'm going to give you a new commandment. That you love one another as I've

loved you. Every place in your life that the love of God touches, his presence comes into fullness. Every part of your life that his love touches. You ain't got to sit around and worry about, is he going to look after me? Is he going to make sure I got any finances? Is he going to look after me when I get older? He promised you that he would. Let me tell you something. If you can't trust him with that, how can you trust him that you're going to make it to heaven? Why don't we get just to pick that part out? Ain't nobody ever come back and told you they went? So how do you know everybody was telling you the truth? What part of the gospel do you know to be truth? That's what I thought. It's all by faith. Be it according to your faith. But yet for some reason, we still want to control the finances part because we're the man and we're smart. We'll give God our heart. Now watch this. How hypocritical is this? I'm going to give him my heart, but I'm not going to give him control of everything I got. I'm going to keep the part that I want to be in control of because I don't know if he'll, he may not handle that the way I would. I'm not saying not be smart. You know I'm not saying that. But God will look after you just as good as, why don't we start where we get in our 60s and we didn't worry when we were in our 20s? Because we can't, we don't have the ability to make money like in our 60s like we did in our 20s. So it's really about us. Is it not? Think about it a minute. Is it really about us? Do we really trust him? Do we really trust him with ourselves? With our whole being? Go to Colossians 3 verse 1. If then you were raised with Christ. How many of you raised with Christ? Then seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Verse 2. Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth. What do you think about more? The physical world or the spiritual world? You know I heard a guy say something this week and it struck me wrong. And the guy said, well I've done everything that I'm gonna do man. I'm just gonna pray. Think about that now. How many times you said it? I've done everything I could do. I'm just gonna give it to God now. Seriously. I've said it. But he said it and I thought about it. I've done all I can do. I'm just gonna pray now. How many times have you done all you could do and then you gonna pray? Because you know if a man don't work he shouldn't eat. We've taken that one out of context. Because if you read on that ain't what it says actually. But then I've heard people say this. God works in mysterious ways. Does he? He doesn't. He works according this word right here. And here's what I hear people say. You know if you do everything you do then God will do his part. Then you give it to him. God's already done his part. He's wanting you to believe that he's done his part and then his part will show up in your life. That's all he's wanting you to do.

Look at verse 3. For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. He said set your mind on heavenly things because you know you did die and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Set your mind on heavenly things. See we're so worried about earthly things that we can't set our minds on heavenly things. How much time do you give him? I'm not condemning you today. I'm just saying value your time here. How much time have you given him? How much time are you thinking about him? Now most of you can't think about God while you're working. If you got a stressful job, you got to think about your job, and you need to. And most of you ain't thinking about God when you're sleeping. But the Bible says in Isaiah 6, 26 and 3, that if you'll set your mind on Christ, you'll have perfect, perfect peace. Are you living heavenly on the earth? Let me tell you something. I want to make this statement to you. You're dead, so stop acting like you're alive. The old guy died. Stop talking to him. Stop spending any time saying. In other words, what God is saying, come up higher guys. Come up higher. Come up higher. Come up higher. Come up higher. Listen, when you're ready to meet a person in your life, that person will show up. You got to trust him. You got to trust him. But you can't be afraid to open your heart. Because if you can't open your heart to what you can see, you can't open your heart to what you can't see. What did he tell Peter? He said, Peter, it's better for those that haven't seen me and to believe, than those that have seen me and yet believe. Most of you've never seen him. Most of us have never going to see him. We don't have to see him to believe. As we grow, we grow when we read about him. We study about him. We spend time with him. We get to know him. There's things about Anita Norris that I know that you guys don't know. I've been with her for 45 years. There's things about her I know. There's things about her that she knows about me. She better not tell. Matthew 6 and 33 says it all.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all these things will be added to you. He said if you'll seek first the kingdom of God. Is kingdom of God the number one thing you're after in your life? And his righteousness. In other words, that's not talking about being righteous. That means know that you are righteous through his righteousness. And then it says all these things will be added to you. They'll be added. You won't have to do anything for him. If you'll seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things will be added to you. Y'all want all the things, don't you? Then what you got to do? Seek the kingdom. Seek the kingdom. Where's the kingdom? Luke 17 21. The kingdom of God's inside of us. So if we seek what's on the inside of us, all the wisdom of God's on the inside of you. You're full of wisdom. You're full of God. You're full of his revelation. You're full of his understanding. You're full of his insight. You're full of God. You're absolutely full of God. But the world wants to push and press at you and get you to operate from an external realm instead of an internal realm. And if he can get you operating from an external realm, you're not going to accomplish anything. Happiness is not going to start externally. Let me tell you something. Listen to me very carefully. These are going to help you. Whatever's going on outside of your life is a reflection of what's going on internally in your life. Because there's turmoil internally, you're going to have turmoil externally. If people that get peace internally, they're going to start having peace. There ain't a lot of drama around my life. There ain't a lot of drama around my life. Now y'all create something for me. But think about it a minute. How many of you around people, you got people in your family, there's drama all the time. And so you're thinking that you're going to have peace externally. You're never going to have peace externally until you understand that you have peace internally. How many of you ever been around a ton of people and you were going through something in your life and it didn't matter how many people you were around, you were still by yourself? That's what created that, what you were on the inside. Go to Matthew chapter 6, 9 and 10. Stay with me. In this matter, therefore pray, Our Father in heaven, I will be thy name. Verse 10.

Your kingdom come and your will be done, where? As it is in heaven. He brought heaven down to earth. He wants what's going on in heaven to be going on in earth. Psalms 119 verse 89 said the word of God is forever settled in heaven. If the word of God has been settled in heaven, then it's settled in you because you're heaven. And so when we're operating in the kingdom, then the peace of God, listen, you don't have to look anywhere for the answers, you have them all. You just don't know that you have them. That's why when you read this, you're not reading to find you, you're reading about you. Because this is the last will and testament. You ever been to an attorney's office and heard a last will and testament? You really, seriously, anybody know what I'm talking about? You go and they read the last will and testament and what it says, that's the way it functions. Well, that's the same thing with you today. He gave you his last will and testament, why don't you believe it's yours? Because it takes faith, right? Do you understand this was an apostolic prayer? This was a, apostolic means somebody has been sent. How many of you know that Jesus is the apostles of our confession? confessions. The Bible tells you that in Hebrews. So what does that mean? That means that whatever you confess that lines up with his word, he's been sent to manifest it. But he can't manifest if you're not speaking the word. He can't manifest your doubt and your unbelief that you're speaking. Are you with me? Now go to Mark chapter 8 verse 17. And Jesus being aware of it said to them, why do you reason because you have no bread? Have you not perceived or understand? Is your heart still hardened? When you've tasted a supernatural supply, you have lost the right to have a thought pattern for what you don't have. We are so consuming what we don't have, we are not even joyful and rejoicing in what we do have. Most of you in this building have got, I'd say, 90% of your health. But the enemy talks to you about that 10. And you focus on what you don't have and never focus on what you do have. Majority of the people in this building, 90% of your life is cool. 10% of your life is you got some struggle areas. Those are the ones you focus on. Remember the guy that

come to Jesus and he had a withered hand? Jesus didn't tell him which one to stretch forth. He said, stretch it forth. I'd have probably stretched my good one. That man stretched his withered hand. Because if we can understand that ain't about our strength, because the weakest time of our life is when we're the strongest. Because we're out of the way. So every time we give God our best, we give God our best, we give God our best, I'm all for that. But the Bible says, when I'm weak, then say I'm strong. What's really happening in our lives? What's really going on in our lives? He died and resurrected as you. Christ is longing to live on the earth through his redeemed people, guys. He's redeemed us. Go to Ephesians chapter 1 verse 22. And he put all things under his feet and he gave him to be the head over all things to the church. He's the head, he's got it under control. Are you understanding me? He's got it under control. All he wants you to do is stand and see the goodness of the Lord. All he wants you to do is stand and just trust him because he's got this. He's got this. He's got your financial situation. He's got your sickness. He's got your crisis. He's got your circumstance. He's got your pain. He's got your heartaches. He's got your loneliness. He's got your avenues. He's got your struggles. He's got your hardships. He knows when you're down and discouraged and frustrated and busted, he's still God on the throne. He's still looking to say, I got you. I got my hand on you. I'm crazy about you. I love you. I'm going to bring you through this. And when you come through this, you're going to have a testimony because you got to go through a test to have a testimony. You don't get a testimony without a test. Thank you for joining us today at Power in the Word. All of us here at Harvest Fellowship Church want you to know that God is not mad with you, but he loves you so very much. And he has a plan for your life. Please feel free to contact us here at Harvest Fellowship Church at our website, HarvestFellowshipChurch.net. So until next week, please remember, there's Power in the Word.