Greater Light Part 1 | The Mysteries Of Dominion by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Your Role in Becoming

God has a desire and an expectation for every believer, but whether or not you will become that portrait in experience does not just depend on God — it depends on your cooperation and participation.

There is a tripartite cycle:

1. God's role — to send his word and supply the grace, because everything comes from him
2. The teacher's role — to help interpret the speakings of God, to communicate the counsel of God that makes for holistic development, and to allow through his life that the requisite grace may rest upon your life
3. Your role — to have a prepared heart, to receive, believe, and then obtain grace to engage

If you do not engage the truths that you hear, you will never see the results in your life. The word did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. You are the final factor responsible for your becoming.

The picture is that of a student — no matter how diligent the lecturer is, he will not write your exam for you. I can cook and serve, and I can even help you eat — but the food will only get to my stomach through my mouth. If it must get to your stomach to nourish you, it must pass through your own mouth.

Greater Light — The Mysteries of Dominion

Genesis 1:16 — God made two great lights. The greater light was given an assignment to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.

Isaiah 60:1–3

The lights that shine in your morning are enough to bring Gentiles, but not Kings. It is Kings who have the treasures. The treasures that reward you are resident within the palaces of Kings — and the Bible says the Kings will come in honor to the brightness of your rising.

There are different levels of light producing different levels of results, helping you to command different dimensions of dominion. God made two great lights — and now that God has helped you to come into your day, let the greater light rest upon you.

Man Created in the Image and Likeness of God

Genesis 1:26–28 — God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, over the cattle, and over the Earth, and over every creeping thing. So God created man in his own image; in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion.

God created man — and there are two very important dimensions here:

1. The Image of God — the spiritual quality, the nature of God. Not something physical but a spiritual and moral likeness. God captured the essence of who he is and imprinted it upon man. The most visible manifestation of the image of God is Christ — Hebrews 1:3 calls him the express image of his person.
2. The Likeness of God — to function like God. To replicate how God works, how God obtains results, how God manifests dominion.

No man will be able to walk in true dominion without understanding both dimensions. If you do not subscribe to this template, something will be wrong with your exercising of authority, something will be wrong with the quality of your Christian experience, and something will be wrong with the kinds of results you command in life, in business, in destiny.

The Image of God: The Nature of Christ

The nature of God can be learned and understood.

Isaiah 40:28–31 — Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, the Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth? He fainteth not. There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

God your creator does not faint and is not weary. As a man unassisted by God you will faint and be weary — but like God you can rise to the realm where the possibility of fainting and weariness will no longer be found in your life.

Psalm 145:8–20 — The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. The Lord upholdeth all that fall and raiseth up all those that are bowed down. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works. The Lord is nigh unto them that call upon him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him; he will hear their cry and save them.

This is a description of God's nature — and the nature of God becomes your assignment as far as transformation is concerned.

1 John 4:7–12 — Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us.

God is love. That nature of love is the hallmark.

When a man is carrying God, the ultimate proof that he is carrying God is not power — it is love.

Galatians 5:22–23 — The fruit of the spirit is love. But that love begins to express itself as joy, peace, patience or longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.

The fruit of the recreated human spirit should be love in all its variety. Matthew 11:28–30 — Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest for your souls.

The Fruit of the Spirit as the Original Ecosystem

The fruit of the spirit is beyond just a nature — it is the environment that optimizes the function of man. When man goes out of the fruit of the spirit, it is like a fish going out of water.

Most of the challenges in society, and most of the defeat in the life of believers, stem from deviation from the nature of Christ:

• Greed — there are wars today foiled by greed, families crying because of greed, companies folded because of greed
• Hatred — there is a whole industry built around hatred; if hatred stopped, the industry would die
• Pride and party spirit — these are not found in the nature of Christ, who sits upon a throne made up of righteousness and justice

The problem of the world today is that we have deviated from this reality of the image of Christ, and we are paying for it.

The first thing you see in Heaven is not the power of God — it is an atmosphere that carries within it the nature of Christ. If you want Kingdom to come, the first thing you need is not a download of God's power. The first thing you need is a download of God's culture.

Any policy that simulates Heaven is because it has captured within it the nature of God. The world is in hunger looking for the nature of God. They call it peace, they call it justice, they call it equity — but these are just intellectual names for the nature of God they are searching for.

The Fruit of the Spirit as Practical Policy

The fruit of the spirit should not only be in us — it should be translated into policies that become the environment for business, for governance, for leadership.

• Build a business whose environment and culture is consistent with the fruit of the spirit and watch what happens
• When someone goes wrong, the policy is: say "I'm sorry" immediately, specifically, and it ends there
• The only kind of criticism allowed is constructive criticism — if it moves forward, it is welcome; if it is tearing people down, it does not belong
• When rewarding excellence, begin by appreciating everyone, then distinguish the exceptional — this is how you build unity, not division

Use the fruit of the spirit to design your policies. Translate twelve or thirteen character traits that represent the nature of God as found in Christ into a business-friendly atmosphere — and watch your productivity.

The Likeness of God: Functioning Like God

The likeness of God means having the requisite knowledge of how God works, how God obtains results, how God manifests dominion — and then replicating it.

Genesis 1:1–4 — In the beginning God created. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. The spirit of the Lord moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light.

From these verses, we learn four patterns for functioning like God:

1. God created — every other person he created is also a creator. Within every believer is the ability to change your reality and change your environment.
2. God stayed — when there was darkness and chaos, he did not run away. He stood there and solved the problem. Never give up on things because they are not working. Any champion stays until they make it work.
3. God said — every spirit he created is a talking spirit that creates realities by speaking. God frames realities by saying. He did not discuss the prevalent situation — he simply said, Let there be light.
4. God saw — the power of vision. God did not see the darkness even though there was darkness. God saw the light. It matters what you see, not just that you see.

Psalm 121:1–2 — I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made the heavens and the earth. God is a maker — to make means to coordinate resources together to produce something glorious.

1 Chronicles 29:11 — Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all.

Psalm 115:16 — The heaven, even the heaven of heavens, are the Lord's. But the earth hath he given to the children of men. The real trustee of this earth is everyone who is in Christ.

Romans 4:17 — God quickeneth the dead and calleth those things that be not as though they were. God does not wait for things to manifest before he calls them — he calls them to manifest. You get up in the morning and with the spirit of vision you begin to design a life using words. That is functioning like God.

Three Ways to Function Like God

1. Speaking — The Word of God as Template

Matthew 4:4 — Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God.

To function like Christ, your first assignment is to prioritize the word of God. The basis for everything you do must be with respect to what God said — not what you feel, not what society is saying.

Colossians 1:9 — For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

There are three kinds of knowledge every believer needs:

1. Spiritual knowledge — the highest level; knowledge of the word of God and the ways of God as revealed in scripture
2. Knowledge of the laws of life — the laws that govern the cosmos; there are laws you must know, else you will fail
3. Knowledge in your field of endeavor — your profession or specialty; this is the lowest level of the three

The greatest attack in your life will come from Satan distracting you and making you trivialize the place of God's word. Show me a man who does not place value on the word of God but desires to function like Christ — and I show you a man who wants to drive a car with no tires and no battery.

God is a speaking spirit. All believers are talking spirits and must function as such.

Never allow a day pass without making declarations of God's word. Never repeat after Satan.

If Satan says you are a failure, that is the bill about to be passed over your destiny — and it dies there because there is no secondment. But if God says you are lifted, echo it. Let it be passed into law that you are lifted.

Father, I contend for a greater revelation of your nature and your character. I contend for grace to function like you as never before. The nature of Christ be formed in me. The character of Christ formed in me. The fruit of the spirit manifesting in me and through me — love, joy, peace, patience, self-control, goodness. I am merciful, I am kind, I am compassionate — loving Jesus and loving men. I decree and declare that I begin to function like Christ. I am a talking spirit; I will not be silent. I make declarations; I recreate my destiny; I change things; I keep things; I edit things using the power of prophetic speakings. In Jesus' name.

2. Obedience — Doing What God Has Said

Philippians 2:5–9 — Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. But made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient even unto death, the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him.

Nobody is born obedient — people become obedient. He became obedient. It is a process.

Obedience always leads to exaltation.

A speaking spirit who does not walk in obedience will still be a limited spirit. Faith is not just saying what God has said — faith is doing what he has said as a way of committing him to deliver. The riches that are hidden in the word of God only answer to obedience.

Laws of the kingdom that demand obedience:

• Diligence — a diligent hand shall be made fat; whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it as unto the Lord
• Honor — a law of the kingdom; obey it
• Godliness — a law; obey it
• Value and capacity — a law; obey it
• Relationships — a law; obey it

Many people do not obey the principles that are connected to the results they desire, and they wonder why in spite of abundant confession things do not change.

3. Sacrifice — The Realm That Elevates

Psalm 50:5 — Gather unto me my saints, they that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.

There is obedience, and there is obedience unto death — sacrifice. None of the things that matter are convenient. Do you know what it means to lock yourself in prayer for two or three hours? That is beyond obedience. You have entered the realm of sacrifice. Do you know what it means to empty your account for the sake of the gospel? That is beyond obedience.

If you fear sacrifice, forget greatness. Forget dominion.

John 15:13 — Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life.

A man who speaks to be anointed, a man who obeys to be anointed, a man who sacrifices to be anointed — the difference will be clear. The realm of sacrifice is the realm where any spiritual activity agrees that it is the necessary requirement for attaining certain heights in the spirit.

The church has embraced a gospel of excessive convenience, and we have thrown away the sacrifice dimension. You do not carry the anointing on a vessel that craves for convenience.

At a point in time in your life, you will get to a place where sacrifice is no longer circumstantial — it literally becomes the realm that you live in. The more you die, the more you live. The more you are weak, the more you become strong. This is a principal of the anointing.

Galatians 2:20 — I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live — yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God. When you get to that point, no enchantment and no divination against you can stand.

Summary: The Path to Dominion

• The Image of Christ — the nature and character of God as revealed in Christ, captured in the fruit of the spirit; this must become the template and the ecosystem of every believer's life
• The Likeness of Christ — functioning like Christ:

  • Speak like Christ — consistent with the word of God, calling the things that be not as though they were
  • Obey like Christ — obtaining the doing grace, aligning your actions with the principles hidden in scripture
  • Sacrifice like Christ — entering the realm where your life is poured as a drink offering

If you want creation to respect you, you must allow God to reset you to the version he authorized creation to respect. Any version of you that is inconsistent with the nature of Christ — creation will treat it as an antivirus. It will not work.

I decree and declare in the name of Jesus: the nature and character of Christ will be evidently manifested in your life. Men will look at you and they will see Jesus. I pray for you the grace to function like God in experience. You will speak like Christ and see results. You will obey and see results. You will live a life of sacrifice and be elevated nonstop. This is the week you encounter destiny helpers. This is the week that you rise to another level. You will know God better, you will love God better, and you will see results in your life. The Lord bless you. It is well with you. In Jesus' name, amen.