Striving For Mastery Part 2 | The Laws Of Dominion by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Meaning of Koinonia

2 Corinthians 13:14 — The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. The word communion is where the word "koinonia" comes from — a Greek word meaning communion, fellowship, sharing together, participation. Like two people drinking from the same vessel.

Fellowship with the Holy Spirit has two dimensions. The first is intimacy — getting to know him and everything he brings as of the Father. Jesus said: when the Spirit of Truth is come, he will guide you into all truth. The second dimension is partnership — you and the spirit of God together doing exploits for the kingdom, with the Lord walking with them and confirming the word with signs following.

Every time you come to a place like this, it is an attempt to describe the experience that awaits you. Communion through the word, communion through corporate fellowship, and the breaking of bread — not just physical bread but the word.

Acts 2:42 — They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayer. This is what they continued doing until they became mighty men. Every encounter with God on this mountain is adding to your spiritual development and giving God a chance to evolve you into the version of yourself that will literally be a sign and a wonder.

Recap: The Foundation and the Two Keys to Mastery

This series is intended to help us rise from being babes and amateurs in spiritual things to gaining stature, power with God, and commanding victory perpetually through knowledge. The goal is to drive away guesswork and shadow boxing from the Christian experience so that, as the Bible says, you lay hold on eternal life.

In Part One, the foundation was laid: life and living is spiritual. The realm of the spirit controls the physical realm. All that you see is not all that there is. Everything physical was derived from a dimension that is outside this three-dimensional realm.

The first key toward mastery was understanding prayer. A major part of your victory and excelling in life depends on the health and quality of your prayer life. No matter how well-meaning you are, if there is a bankruptcy of fire on your prayer altar, it will translate into a life of perpetual defeat. When your prayer life goes down, it is only a matter of time before every other area of your life reports that absence.

Prayer has four assignments: growth and transformation, making requests and obtaining promises, spiritual legislation, and warfare and intercession.

The second key was understanding and engaging the laws and principles of the kingdom. You gain mastery by holding the keys of the kingdom. Every kind of faith walk that makes the outcome of your life absolutely dependent on God without any participation on your part is incomplete. Leviticus 9:6 — Moses told the people: this is what the Lord commanded that ye should do, and the glory of the Lord shall appear unto you. There are things to do.

Moses' first prayer request in Exodus 33:13 was show me thy way — then his second request in verse 18 was show me thy glory. There is a relationship between his ways and his glory. Don't just ask for his glory. You must know his ways.

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. 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.

Giving your life to Christ is an activity of surrender that prepares you for service. It is for mature believers who desire to be greatly used by God. Two believers can be in the same church, reading the same Bible, calling on the same name of Jesus — but the possibilities they command will depend on the degree to which they are surrendered.

The law of total surrender stems from the understanding that all that I am and all that I have belong to him, and that I must lose the ability to tell him no. Any believer who has not lost the ability to tell God no is not truly yielded.

• There are two things you must overcome to be great in life: sin and self.
• With one confession of faith, the issue of sin is dealt with. But self — you die daily, because there are many versions of self revealed only as you rise to new levels.

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• Unbelievers have two problems: sin and self. Believers have the problem of self.

When you surrender everything to God, you save yourself the burden of ownership. You cannot handle the burden of an owner because whoever owns something is responsible for its continuation — and you do not have the power to make anything remain. You can only maintain what you are given. The burden of stewardship is what you can handle.

Many of the medical conditions related to the mind come from men and women who are trying to do the job of the Holy Spirit in their own lives. It is burdensome to take the place of God. Anything you drive God from, you automatically invite Satan into. The absence of God is automatically the presence of evil.

Surrender is a very powerful kingdom secret.

Law Two: The Law of Mental Transformation

Proverbs 23:7 — As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

Your mental construct has everything to do with the quality of life you live. Most of us derive our thinking and our mindsets from three sources:

• Culture — the cultural experiences we've had shape the way we view life
• Experience — past and present experiences, especially negative ones, build destructive memories that can affect us when God is saying one thing but our history is saying another
• Associations — subconsciously, when you bring people close to your life you are submitting yourself to their ideologies. He that walks with the wise shall be wise, but the companion of fools shall be destroyed

Medical science confirms that in addition to genetic programming, humans are shaped largely by environmental programming. When man fell, God asked him: "Who told you?" — pointing to a submission of influence to another entity. The failure you have embraced came as a result of programming.

There are people today whose limitation to exploits in the spirit has nothing to do with demonic attack. All the spirits have been driven out and yet they are still failing — because there is a stumbling block programmed into the mind. A mindset can be as large as a demon, and when the demon finds that stumbling block already there, it simply goes back.

The difference between you and anyone you admire is: first, the quality of information — primarily spiritual information — they have access to; second, the relationships they have to honor that heightened level of enlightenment; and third, the kind and level of grace at work in their life.

Never downplay the extent of limitation that a poor or faulty mindset can bring to your destiny. There are times demons don't need to do anything when they find a mindset that is already working against you.

What God says about you must remain. You can be in Egypt and yet think Canaan — in fact, you must think Canaan to get to Canaan.

Whatever mindset has kept you down that is inconsistent with the word of God — by the power that raised Christ from the dead, let that stumbling block depart from you now. From this day, your mindset will be derived from the integrity of scripture.

Law Three: The Law of Value and Contribution

Your relevance in life will always be a reflection of your value and your contribution.

A mango tree does not have a signboard that brings people to it. A mango tree does not have a worship team. All the mango tree does is begin to produce fruit — and while it is forming, people can pass. But give it a few months, and people will stand there responding to the quality of the fruit on that tree. People who once neglected it will now climb it. They will be there early in the morning picking the fallen fruit.

There is an explanation to loneliness. For as long as you believe that people will be indefinitely committed to you without you providing notable value and contribution, you are dreaming. Nobody will follow you and invest in your life and destiny unless it is at the instance of ever-increasing value and contribution.

Jesus, the meek and lowly, had the audacity to say: "I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life — and no man comes to the Father except by me." That is the language of irreplaceable value. Joseph said to Pharaoh: let the king look for a man who is discreet and wise. God energizes you to walk on your value and contribution — and when he sees you have done your assignment, that finger will lift you in a way that nobody can compete with.

• When you become valuable, those who need you will find you — it doesn't matter what city you are in
• Excellence is a language. Competence is a language. Skill is a language. There are people who know how to speak it
• Man of God, stop just moving around telling people you are anointed. Sit down and ask God: what is the secret of fire? How do I understand scripture with precision? Build your value first
• There are some whose reason for not being promoted has nothing to do with bias — they have simply not shown their superiors that they have built enough value for promotion to be worthwhile

Law Four: The Law of Authority

You are as powerful as the authority that sends you.

James 4:7 — Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee. Most people go straight to resisting the devil without understanding that the level of your submission to authority determines the power of your resistance.

Authority provides three things in the life of any individual: provision, protection, and promotion.

Matthew 8:5–13 — The centurion came to Jesus and said: Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof. Speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me — and whatsoever I say happens. Jesus marveled: I have not found this faith.

Daniel 11:32 — But the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits.

Moses asked: who shall I tell Pharaoh has sent me? It will take more than skill to bring deliverance. Life and destiny must ask you this one question: who sent you?

There are times your skill will fail, but the covenant of the authority you are under will speak for you. When God calls a man or a ministry, there are covenants attached to that calling that become the platform for certain possibilities to happen. You can tap into that covenant by honoring the authority.

When David stood before Goliath, he announced the basis of his victory: "You come to me with spear and sword, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, whom you have defied." In the life of the believer, never fight alone. You are as powerful as the authority that backs you.

Law Five: The Law of Faith

John 11:40 — Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?

Mark 11:22–24 — Have faith in God. Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Faith in one word is obedience — obedience to the scriptural demands that commit God over the affairs of your life. It is not obedience to anything at all. There are scriptural demands for everything you want God to do in your life. Faith is the name given to your complying with those scriptural demands.

There are no guarantees in life. Your guarantee is your faith. This is the victory that overcometh the world — even our faith.

Four times in scripture the Bible declares: the just shall live by faith.

Law Six: The Law of Relationships

Relationships are very powerful. There are three kinds:

1. General relationships — be friendly and kind to all, regardless of status
2. Seasonal relationships — the key is discernment, because these relationships are not permanent; you must maximize the moment while they are present
3. Covenant or destiny relationships — protect these at all costs, because part of your success and results is connected to them

Genesis 12–13 — God called Abraham alone, and Lot went with him. By chapter 13, everything Abraham had, Lot also had — to the point that you could not tell who God had called and who had simply followed. Then Lot made the mistake of separating himself from Abraham, and the next thing we find is a gradual decline until Lot found himself in the middle of Sodom.

The prodigal son was successful only because he was in relationship with his father. The moment he got away from that relationship, lack began — until he found himself with pigs. We as believers excel only based on our relationship with Jesus and with his Spirit.

The two things required to maintain relationships are forgiveness and forbearance. Forgiveness is pardoning a default. Forbearance is creating an accommodation for that lapse because it will happen again. Some of the people God will use most to lift and help you may carry frustrating limitations. Your ability to endure those limitations will make way for you to receive the grace that is in that person.

There are burdens you carry as a leader. The question is: are there people in your life who may not be able to carry the burden — but can carry you while you carry the burden? As Simon of Cyrene said of Jesus: "I may not be able to die for the world, but I can help the one who can."

Law Seven: The Law of Honor

Honor is the discerning, celebrating, and rewarding of men because of their value and their uniqueness.

Honor can open more doors for you sometimes even than your skill. Honor is an accelerator. It can fast-track your destiny and bring you into the achievement of your ten years now.

There is only one reason why people fail in life, expressed in three dimensions:

1. Dishonor to God
2. Dishonor to men
3. Dishonor to principles

Honor is the key for access. Every time a door closes over your life, dishonor closed that door — especially if it was once open. Business doors, doors of help and support, doors of ministry circles — all can be permanently shut by dishonor.

Dishonor is the trivializing, demeaning, and downplaying of people's achievements, uniqueness, and value. When you trivialize, demean, and downplay people, there are severe and life-threatening consequences.

Practice honor:

• Honor children
• Honor your subordinates
• Honor your contemporaries
• Honor your superiors
• Honor all men

If you genuinely honor, it must be for all men — not only those who are already prosperous. The person who is already made, you know their end. But the person who is rising, you do not know how far they will go.

Law Eight: The Law of Favor

1 Samuel 16:22 — Saul sent to Jesse saying: let David, I pray thee, stand before me, for he hath found favor in my sight.

Favor is the number one reason people prosper. There are dimensions to favor. The saving grace of God is unmerited — you cannot earn your way to God's love. But there is a dimension of favor that is very much merited. You can initiate favor. Favor is a reaction.

Proverbs 13:15 — Good understanding procures favor, but the way of the transgressor is hard.

There are many anointed men and women of God who lack the favor factor. Favor is when God anoints people to participate in your success — when they provide the leverage of their credibility and resources to help you rise. Without favor, life will be difficult and hard regardless of your skill and your consecration.

Law Nine: The Law of Spiritual Empowerment

You must obtain and maintain spiritual empowerment through the Holy Spirit. These are not just organizational principles — they are spiritual keys. Without the empowerment of the Spirit, all the laws above remain inactive.

From this day, may God bring you into the discovery of those who are the beneficiaries of your anointing. May your value become so obvious that kings and nobles look for you. May the stumbling blocks in your mind be removed by the power of the Holy Spirit. May every door that dishonor closed over your life be reopened. And may you find the relationships that carry you while you carry your burden — in the name of Jesus Christ.