Striving For Mastery Part 1 | The Foundation by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Spirituality of Life

Life and living is spiritual. This is not a bias of faith — it is a fact that every human being will one day be forced to reckon with. The realm of the spirit controls the physical realm. Everything physical was derived from a spiritual origin; nothing physical is original.

Hebrews 11:3 — Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

2 Corinthians 4:18 — Paul categorizes realities into two: things that are seen, which are temporal, and things that are not seen, which are eternal and long-lasting.

The realm of the spirit governs the physical realm. That means for everything that happens in your physical world, attempting to deal with it only physically is proof of amateurism. The Bible is full of instances where scripture tells us that our wrestle is not against flesh and blood. When Jesus addresses problems, he starts from the realm of the spirit. When God wants to deal with things, he starts from the realm of the spirit. It is only men who address things physically — and that is why there is hardly any victory.

The financial situation, the health situation, whatever the condition, the origin is from the realm of the spirit.

Days Made in the Realm of the Spirit

The book of Job shows that there was a day allocated for what was concluded in the realm of the spirit to find expression. There was a certain day. It is your assignment as a believer to keep shifting that certain day so that it never manifests in your life. Everything concluded in the realm of the spirit depends on your cooperation to give it a certain day. You must master the keys that translate spiritual realities into physical manifestations.

In the book of Esther, Haman chose the date of destruction through divination — it was a discussion in the realm of the spirit to find what day was most appropriate.

There is a day that the Lord has made. There is also a day that Satan has made. And you yourself can make your day.

Many believers have not yet experienced the day that the Lord has made. When you experience one full day that the Lord made, his signature will be on it. Mastery can bring you to a point where every day becomes a reflection of the day that the Lord has made. In that day, God always gives bread — and bread here does not mean food alone. It means everything that is needed to make you efficient: relationships, anointings, wisdom. Give us this day our daily bread. Any day you do not see bread in it, someone else made that day.

The day you keep entering — who made it? That your life becomes a catalogue of defeat and pain with nothing in it that gives God glory is a question worth answering: whose day are you walking in?

True Spiritual Power Defined

Genesis 1:2–4 gives us the ultimate test of true mastery and spiritual power. The earth was without form and void. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And Elohim said, "Light be" — and there was.

True spiritual power is the ability to say — and then it happens. And God saw what he said. So you must see what you say, and when what you say appears, it must be good. These are the conditions: the ability to say, then it becomes, then you behold it, and it is good.

The centurion understood this. He came to Jesus and said, "Speak the word only and my servant shall be healed — for I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes." Jesus said, "I have not found this faith." The true proof of power is the ability to say and it happens.

God is bringing believers to points where their words are no longer empty babblings. Your words must carry power. And what drives this kind of result is understanding the spirituality of life.

The Litmus Test of Mastery

Hebrews 6:1 — Therefore, leaving the elementary principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection — to maturity and stature.

There are occasions that will only allow room for masters. There are realms where you are not allowed to be on practice. The throne is not for learning. The cave of Adullam gives you room for trial and error — but when you get to the throne, one mistake is taken as law and people pay the price for it.

God wants to bring us to greater levels of perfection and mastery. The desire is that your prayer works — not that you hope it will work. That every time you open your mouth to pray, you can know it works.

Negative Conditions Are a Report Card

Haggai 1:5–7 — Thus says the Lord of hosts: consider your ways. You have sown much but bring in little. You eat but do not have enough. You clothe yourselves but no one is warm. And he that earns wages earns to put it in a bag with holes. God mandates you twice to consider your ways. The outcomes are a report card. They tell you that there is something wrong with your approach, something wanting in your understanding.

Key One: Understanding Prayer

The first key that controls the pursuit of mastery is understanding prayer.

EM Bounds, a recognized authority in the school of prayer, wrote: how few know what it is to take hold of the strength of prayer and pray down the blessing of God. Most believers do not know the kind of power God has given them in prayer, and only a few have understood that if believers truly comprehended prayer, they could convert spiritual riches into material expression.

Mark 11:24 — Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

There is nobody who gains mastery in this kingdom — mastery in converting spiritual realities into their material expression — without understanding the ministry of prayer. Efficient prayer is taught. You do not just pray; you are taught to pray.

Luke 11:1 — As Jesus was praying, one of the disciples said, "Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples." This was not an issue of prayerlessness. They were dissipating enormous energy in prayer but the corresponding results were not matching that energy. They said, "There is something we are doing wrong. Teach us." And Jesus taught them.

Most believers do not understand the jurisdiction of prayer or the assignment of prayer in the believer's life. The reason there is so much prayerlessness in the body is that believers keep telling you by their actions: "I am tired of this. It is not working." If prayer really works for you, you will not leave it.

The Four Assignments of Prayer

According to scripture, prayer has four major assignments in the life of the believer:

1. Growth and Transformation

   This is the highest assignment of prayer. Luke 9:29 — As Jesus prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered and his raiment was white and glistering. Prayer builds the believer. Prayer can turn a weak you into a strong you. Jude 1:20 — But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.

2. Making Requests and Obtaining Promises

   Philippians 4:6 — Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Every time you want to make requests and obtain promises, the platform for making this happen is prayer.

3. Spiritual Legislation

   Creating possibilities in the place of prayer. Making decrees. Job 22:28 — Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee. Numbers 14:28 — As ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do unto you. It happens in the place of prayer. You can establish realities through the power of decrees.

4. Warfare and Intercession

   Ezekiel 22:30–31 — I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them. The absence of intercessors has severe consequences. Prayer can prevent what destruction has been planned and legislated in the realm of the spirit.

Many believers do not pray for transformation, not as a platform to make petitions, not even to make decrees — and rarely engage the ministry of warfare and intercession. No wonder the lives of many zealous believers remain defeated. They love God with all their hearts but continue to find that nothing in their lives captures the grace, wisdom, and power of God.

Prayer must become a lifestyle — not a strategy for disaster management. Most believers only pray when conditions provoke them. Satan, knowing this, will not make the attack look severe enough to provoke emergency prayer. He will allow things to deteriorate gradually, until the prayer life goes cold and the attack comes suddenly.

Praying the Promises of God

The most effective dimension of prayer, second only to praying in the spirit, is praying the promises of God.

Isaiah 41:21 — Produce your cause, says the Lord. Bring forth your strong reasons, says the King of Jacob.

The word of God defines the boundary of God's commitment to the believer. God cannot be committed to the believer outside the provisions and allowance of scripture. Approach prayer like a legal system in the realm of the spirit. Do not just say, "God, bless me" — based on what? Do not just say, "God, change my life" — bring forth your strong reasons. The scriptural basis that commits God to move on your behalf.

When you say what you want, it is not yet prayer. When you say what is wrong, it is not yet prayer. Prayer is when you connect what you want and what is wrong to what God has already said.

Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed: "Remember, O Lord, how I have walked before you with a whole heart." He was not simply reporting his situation. He brought the promises that commit God to reward the faithful.

The word of God contains three things: promises, principles, and prophecy. Every time you open your Bible, you are interacting with one or more of these. Your first assignment before prayer is to find what God has said that relates to what you are bringing.

Outside of the ministry of the word and the spirit, prayer does not work. It becomes a motion of dissipating energy.

Key Two: Understanding and Engaging the Laws and Principles of the Kingdom

The second key is understanding and engaging the laws and principles of the kingdom.

Matthew 16:19 — I will give unto you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. The Amplified gives greater clarity: whatsoever you bind — declare to be improper and unlawful on earth — must be what is already bound in heaven. You have access through the keys of the kingdom to know what has been declared from the realm of the spirit and with these keys you bind and loose, you declare lawful and unlawful as far as your life is concerned.

Luke 11:52 — Jesus rebuked those who had taken away the key of knowledge: "Ye entered not in yourselves and them that were entering ye hindered." Every time any dimension of the kingdom does not open up to you, it means there is something wanting in your spiritual knowledge in that area.

Leviticus 9:6 — Moses said: this is the thing the Lord commanded that ye should do, and the glory of the Lord shall appear unto you. There is what you must know that activates what you do.

Moses made two requests in Exodus 33. The first was verse 13: show me now thy way. The second was verse 18: show me thy glory. There is a relationship between his ways and his glory. God showed Moses his ways, but to Israel he only showed his acts — results without giving them mastery over how to reproduce them.

Every facet of your life has the ways of God that control it: finances, health, longevity, ministry, influence — there are laws of the kingdom governing all of it. Your immunity in these days is the fortification that knowledge of these laws provides. These laws can surround you like chariots.

The Two Laws of Dominion

Law One: The Sacrifice of Total Surrender

2 Corinthians 5:14–15 — For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then were all dead. And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again.

The sacrifice of total surrender. It will take everything from you, but it will give you everything.

Most believers want to gain mastery, want to command power with God, want to excel at extraordinary levels — but they violate this first law. The first law of dominion as far as gaining mastery is concerned is absolute surrender: not just what you do, but who you are. You must assume a state and a posture in the spirit where your life is completely surrendered.

There are two things every believer must conquer: sin and self. An unbeliever's primary challenge is sin. A believer's primary challenge is self. With one confession of faith, the issue of sin is dealt with. But when it has to do with self, you die daily — because there are many versions of self you will not see until you rise to a particular level. You can think you are dead until promotion comes. You can think you are dead until trouble comes.

• To be totally surrendered means you have killed the option of "no" forever. Whatever God wants, your answer is yes.
• To die to self does not mean to throw away your plans. It means to demote them to a point where God stands at the epicenter of your life.
• God does not trust you when you are alive to yourself. Your tendencies are too many and too unpredictable.
• When you are dead, he can give you money, wisdom, power. Like keeping money on a dead man's body — it will still be there when you return.

God will demote everything you hold above him not by commanding it to go down, but by allowing it to fail you one by one, until you are left with nothing, and come and say, "Lord, I thought it was this. I thought it was that."

Jesus himself in Gethsemane modeled this law. The Bible does not hide the fact that Jesus did not want to die. His prayer was: Father, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me. But he said: Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. That is the language of those who have died to themselves.

Romans 12:1 — I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. He calls it your reasonable act of worship. To be surrendered means you lose the ability to tell God no.

Can it be said that there is nobody and nothing that has the ability to replace God in your life? As long as God is still something you use to build a good life — as long as he is still a deity you employ to get prosperity or success or power — forget about certain levels of mastery. You must come to the realm where God is not your strategy. He is your everything.

There are realms you should have entered by now. There are dimensions you should have attained. But you are too alive in yourself for it to be safe for certain prophecies to manifest in your life. The Lord searches the heart. He tries the mind. He weighs the motive. Let the weight of glory He has reserved for you find you yielded enough to carry it.

The Price Behind Uncommon Results

Behind every strange dimension of mastery and grace is an altar with blood dripping on it — a token of death. A covenant of sacrifice. As Psalm 50:5 says: gather unto me my saints, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.

Those who operate in occultism understand the principle of sacrifice better than many believers. They fast for days and submit to the most severe conditions because they want power and will pay whatever price is demanded. The question is not whether they are right — they are not — but whether the serious believer is willing to pay the price that a holy God requires.

Are you willing to keep playing nominal Christianity — or are you really ready to dive into this river of seriousness with God and say: Lord, as for me, there is no plan B. There is nowhere else to go. The bridge is burned. We live here and we die here.

You have plan B, C, D, and E. That is why when you say, "God, I give you everything," all your other plans raise their hands and say, "What about us?" You must burn everything and say, "Lord, it is all about you."

Nobody has the power to give God everything. You can only give God access to take everything. There are things too precious in your life that will not go easily. You just have to give him access and say, "Lord, I do not even fully understand what I am surrendering, but you must be my God."

Lord, you are the one who knows the truth of who I am. You know the tendencies in my heart. You know what is blocking what I have seen in my visions from happening in my life. I have been weighed in the balance. Search me now. Remove what is not of you. I am not just trying to use you for a good life. You are my God. As for me, there is no plan B. I surrender — not as a strategy, but as a way of life. Take everything. You are my everything. In the name of Jesus Christ.