For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ (Rom 5:17).

Since it is in the spirit that we reign in life, the authority with which we reign is of a spiritual kind. If so, it is vital that we maintain ourselves awake spiritually so that this authority can work through us. One of the things that cause us to fail in doing this is a sense of guilt. Needless to say, a sense of guilt comes by sinning, and the best way to avoid it is to not sin. But even if we sin, we have Jesus the advocate who died for our sins, was raised from the dead, and is now interceding for us at the right hand of the Father. We believers have become the righteousness of God though Jesus, and it is unbiblical and illegal for us to have a sense of guilt.

A typical phenomenon seen in a person with a sense of guilt is withdrawal from the presence of God as seen in the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis. Look at how they acted right after they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil:

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden (Gen 3:8).

It was great joy for them to be and talk with God before this happened, but now they are so afraid of his presence. A sense of guilt, just like fear, causes a person to lose confidence to stand before God, and no confidence means no reigning. A person who feels condemned by God is dominated by fear of judgments—the power of darkness that results in spiritual death.

It was exactly for this that Jesus died—to save us from such darkness. The reason why so many Christians suffer from the sense of condemnation is that they still try to earn righteousness thinking they can get it without Jesus Christ. No sin can be forgiven without the death of Jesus Christ, and there is no sin that cannot be forgiven and cleansed by the blood of Jesus. It is so simple that people sometimes have a hard time accepting it. And without full assurance of the forgiveness of sins, no one can really reign in life boldly over the circumstances where the accuser, the devil, constantly attempts to bring troubles.

Peter, for example, disowned his master three times. He must have gone through a hard time suffering from the sense of guilt. It was not like some believer who heard Jesus speak several times and came to believe, yet disowned him. Peter was one of the twelve disciples chosen by Jesus, and saw all the miracles performed by him. In fact, he was the best of all the twelve, and was appointed as the “rock” upon which Jesus promised to build his church. He was the only one who walked on the water. Yet, he denied that he knew Jesus, his own master. The sense of guilt he had must have been so strong that there was a great possibility that he would kill himself as Judas Iscariot did. So, it is a great surprise to see in the book of Acts that he preached and proclaimed Christ, whom he once had disowned, so boldly. How could he do that?

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water (Heb 10:19-22).

In order to be able to reign in life, we need to maintain ourselves spiritually in a good condition to do so. That means that we need to avoid what hinders us from being able to do so. It is by God’s miracle that we reign in life. Thus, all the principles we have learned on the subject of faith also apply to this. In other words, it is by faith that we reign in life. So anything that hinders us from having faith work hinders us in the same way from reigning in life. Last week, we saw how fear causes doubt, and stops us from reigning in life—a miracle lifestyle which can be illustrated as walking on the water as Peter did.

This time, we will see how disobedience—not obeying God with a willing heart—prevents us from　reigning in life. What we need to remember is that it is by the authority given by God that we reign in life. And that authority is, of course, a spiritual one. So, in order for that authority to work for us, we will need to respect the one who gives the authority by obeying him, not only in actions, but also in our hearts.

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7).

Note that this scripture says that we need to submit ourselves to God first before we can resist the devil. Without doing the first part, even though we try to resist the devil, he will not flee from us. Submitting ourselves to God does not simply mean that we do the things that God told us to do in a legalistic way. Sometimes, we may look obedient on the outside, but are not really so on the inside. Submitting ourselves to God is something we must do spiritually, mentally as well as physically.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time (1 Pet 5:6).

To humble means to make low—in this case, to make oneself lower than God. Only when we make ourselves low under his authority, God can lift us up. To lift up someone means to make someone higher than he/she is: in this case, God does that by bestowing his supernatural power on him/her. God is, and we are not, the source of this supernatural or spiritual power. We cannot and should not make ourselves high. Instead, we should let God lift us up by humbling ourselves so that he can clothe us with his power when we need it.

One of the things we learn from the book of Acts is that those disciples were very obedient to God’s commands and guidance. Here is one example:

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off (Acts 13:2-3).

Obedience needs to begin before, not after, God tells us to do something. We can be only obedient when we know what he wants us to do. We cannot be obedient when we are trying to do things with our own ideas and decisions. We need to ask him first so that he can tell us what he wants. The disciples at the church of Antioch were fasting and asking God what to do. Then, the Holy Spirit spoke to them. Here is an important lesson we need to learn.

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline (2 Tim 1:7).

Fear does not come from God. God has no hear, and he cannot give us what he does not have. If fear does not come from God, from whom does it come? Note that the above scripture calls it “a spirit of timidity”—not simply “timidity.” If it is “a spirit,” it must come from a spiritual being who also has the same type of spirit.

Fear is an enemy of faith. Fear goes against God’s word, and brings doubt. With doubt, faith cannot work. It does not mean that faith is lost, but with doubt, the faith you have becomes useless. If faith is useless, God cannot use it to do his miracle. If a miracle is already happening, it stops when doubt comes. Since it is by God’s miracle that we reign in life, when fear comes, doubt begins to dominate our hearts, and we stop reigning in life.

The best example to see this is the story of Peter walking on the water.

“Lord, if it's you,” Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus (Mat 14:28-29).

A miracle happens when you act upon God’s word. With the same principle, we reign in life. Reigning in life is like walking on the water. Peter walked on the water because of Jesus’ word—“Come.” In the same way, we reign in life because God’s word tells us so—“And God raised us with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.”

But something happened while Peter was walking on the water.

But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me (v. 30)!”

Why? How did he come to sink? Well, “he saw the wind,” and “he was afraid.” The moment he saw the wind, fear crept into his heart. Note what Jesus said to him:

“You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt (v. 31)?”

He said, “Why did you doubt?” Peter should not have doubted. But doubt came automatically the moment he had fear. So all of this happened in the following way:

1) He saw the wind, 2) He was afraid, 3) He doubted, 4) He began to sink.

A Christian, who rejoices and praises God for a miracle, begins to sink the next moment. Why? Well, Peter “saw the wind,” and “he was afraid.” He learned a great lesson, which he later came to apply to his life when he went to preach the gospel. In many ways, the lifestyle of the apostles we see in the book of Acts is typical of that of reigning in life.

With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all (Acts 4:33).

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess (Heb 4:14).

Faith is not only something that you profess, but also something that you “hold firmly to.” Indeed, Jesus, as Christ, King of kings, and Lord of lords, not only professed so but also held firmly to his own confession of faith before the Sanhedrin and Pilate, the Roman governor. What does this mean?

Let us see, for instance, the case of Peter—how he did with regard to this confession of faith and holding firmly to it. He once confessed wonderfully before his fellow disciples and Jesus as follows:

You are the Christ, the Son of the living God (Mat 16:16).

And Jesus was so glad and replied to him:

Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it (vv. 17-18).

But we all know what happened later:

The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: "Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly (Luke 22:61-62).

As a result of this, Peter was forced into a completely different spiritual condition—no joy, no peace and absolutely no strength with a strong sense of guilt and failure, which was nothing but a sign that death reigned over him. In fact, if Jesus had not prayed for him (Luke 22:32), he would have killed himself, as did Judas Iscariot. Think, how many of Jesus’ miracles he had seen, and how many of his teachings he had heard. He was with Jesus right from the beginning of his ministry. His mother-in-law was healed from a high fever. He caught a large number of fish after he worked all night and caught nothing. He was the only one who walked on the water together with Jesus. Yet, he failed to acknowledge his master before people. Look at the following words of Jesus:

Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven (Mat 10:32-33).

Peter once professed his faith all right, but surely did not hold firmly to it.

But, in the book of Acts, it is a big surprise to find this same Peter speak so boldly and reign in life before the Sanhedrin, the same people who killed Jesus:

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! … It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. … Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:8-12).”

The most essential key to our reigning in life is to use the power of our mouth confession wisely according to the biblical principles. We have already discussed the importance of our tongue along with the following scripture:

From the fruit of his mouth a man's stomach is filled; with the harvest from his lips he is satisfied. The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit (Pro 18:20-21).

According to Rom 5:17, death no longer reigns over us, but we reign in life over death and our circumstances. If we believe in this, the confessions we make must go along with it. If we still confess defeat, darkness and fear, we are liars, and cannot expect this truth to work for us.

I suggest that you pretend to be a cat sometimes, and just listen to what the people around you are confessing with their mouth. You will be surprised to see how negatively they are speaking about their circumstances—financial needs, health problems, broken relationships with others, etc. It seems that they do not mind speaking that way, and even brag about the bad things that are happening. When they talk about what the devil does, they are actually praising him. For them the devil is so big and strong, and he is greater than God.

Only when you confess what God does—all the benefits he does for you—you can praise him. What you confess with your mouth indicates which spiritual river you are in—God’s river or Satan’s river. The water that is flowing in the river of God’s spirit is of life, light, love, victory, joy and peace, and the water that is flowing in the river of Satan’s river is of death, darkness, hatred, defeat, anger and anxiety. If you want to stay in the river of God’s spirit, you should always talk about good things God has done to you.

Praise the Lord, O my soul;

All my inmost being, praise his holy name.

Praise the Lord, O my soul,

And forget not all his benefits—

Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,

Who redeems your life from the pit,

And crowns you with love and compassion,

Who satisfies your desires with good things

So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's (Ps 103:1-5).

If you are a Christian, you know what God has done to you: you are saved through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God has brought you out of all the hardships you had in the past. You haven’t forgotten that, but sometimes they do not stay in your immediate consciousness. That is why we start confessing negatively. The key to keeping them in your consciousness so that you always stay in God’s river is to talk or testify about them whenever you can. The more you testify about God’s work, the more you praise him. Faith is something you profess, and you need to hold firmly to it: that means, you need to confess it continually no matter what circumstances you are in.

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess (Heb 4:14).

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Rom 10:9).

This is how a person can be saved—by confessing that Jesus is Lord, and believing that God raised him from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus is so vital to our Christian faith. Without it, our faith is meaningless and futile. So, we Christians are all supposed to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead and is still alive today. But are we really believing that?

First, we need to realize that among the Christians at Corinth there were those who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. Paul says:

But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead (1 Cor 15:12)?

What? Were these people really Christians? I know what you mean. Being a Christian means believing in the resurrection. But if you asked them, “Are you a Christian?”, they would probably say, “Yes, I am.” They all believed in Jesus all right.

Think about Jesus’ disciples. When did they believe that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God—before or after the death and resurrection of Jesus? Well, at least, Peter did believe so and confessed it already in chapter 16 of Matthew. Then, did he believe in the resurrection of Jesus that time? The Bible tells that Jesus spoke about his death and resurrection many times, but none of the disciples believed that.

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you (Mat 16:21-22)!"

This proves that a person can believe in Jesus without really believing in the reality of his resurrection. Pay attention to how the disciples were on the day Jesus was raised from the dead.

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you (John 20:19)!"

Why did the disciples lock themselves in a dark room? Because they were afraid of the Jews. But why were they afraid of the Jews? Because they killed Jesus. What? Didn’t they know that God raised him from the dead? I guess not. They did not believe even though some women went and told them that they saw Jesus on that day.

So many of us are in the same situation like these disciples who believed Jesus was the Messiah, but knew only that Jesus died, and did not believe in the reality of his resurrection. They live still in darkness with fear and the sense of guilt and failure. Death is still reigning over them while it has been already swallowed up in victory. It does not make sense, doesn’t it?

In order to successfully reign over the circumstances where there are all kinds of daily needs and problems, you need to make sure that you are living in the river of God’s spirit of life and light, not in the river of Satan’s spirit of death and darkness. Otherwise, it is impossible to resist the devil, bind his evil spirits, and go against the forces of this dark world.

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves (Col 1:13).

God has brought us into the kingdom of the Son. That means, we are under the authority of the Son, and with this authority, we can surely protect ourselves from Satan’s attacks and victoriously reign over the cicumstances. We used to be in the territory of Satan, our enemy, and wherever we fled to, he attacked us and could not get away from him. But now, we are in God’s territory, his kingdom, where Jesus Christ sits as a king with all authority and power in heaven and on earth.

… which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come (Eph 1:20-21).

We, those who believe in him and confess, “Jesus is Lord,” were brought into this dominion of the Son, and as members of his kingdom, being seated together with Jesus at the right hand of the Father, we can surely reign over our circumstances in life through him.

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ (Rom 5:17).

Now, standing on this truth, we want to know how actually we can reign over our circumstances. The tool we need to use for that is our mouth confession. We have already learned the importance of our tongue as the following scripture teaches:

From the fruit of his mouth a man's stomach is filled; with the harvest from his lips he is satisfied. The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit (Prov 18:20-21).

The key to successful reigning is to use this tool wisely for our benefits. Think this in terms of two spiritual rivers—God’s river and Satan’s river. If you want this power of your mouth confession work for you, it is essential that you stay always in God’s spiritual river. Our mouth is really a door for the spiritual world, and it determines which river you stay in. Look at the following scripture:

Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:3).

In fact, it was by the same confession that we came out of Satan’s river and got saved by coming into God’s river.

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved (Rom 10:9-10).

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7).

When it comes to the discussions of how we actually reign in life through Jesus Christ, James 4:7 is the scripture we need to go to. We as believers must resist the devil, and if we do, he will flee from us. This is how we reign in life. 　But most importantly, this scripture tells us to submit ourselves to God first. What does this mean?

Try to see that there are two rivers running in the spiritual world: one is Satan’s river where Satan’s spirit is flowing, and the other is God’s river where God’s spirit is flowing. There is nothing in between, and you are either in Satan’s river or in God’s river. The following scripture tells us in which river we used to be floating:

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient (Eph 2:1-2).

To follow “the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air” means to float in the river of Satan’s kingdom. We did not know we were doing that. But now God has saved us from there through Jesus Christ, which means that he took us from that river and put us in his river—the river of his love and life.

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus (vv. 4-6).

When we were in Satan’s river, we were slaves of sin, and death reigned over us. But now, having been raised with Christ, and seated together with him at the right hand of the Father, we reign over sin and death in life with him.

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves (Col 1:13),

Where the dominion of darkness is, the spirit of the ruler of darkness flows, and where the kingdom of the Son is, the spirit of his light and life flows. It is obvious that in order to reign in life over the darkness, you need to be in the kingdom of the Son, and float with his spirit. Only then, you will be able to resist the devil as James 4:7 says, “Submit yourselves, then, to God.”

Just as there are spiritual death and physical death, there are spiritual sins and physical sins. Physical sins are those done in action, but spiritual sins are those not seen in action, but done spiritually in our mind and heart. For instance, unbelief is one type of spiritual sins as the following scripture indicates:

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him (Heb 11:6).

Note the expressions of “it is impossible” or “must believe.” Faith is not something that it is better to have, but something you must have.

We come to church to study God’s word: in the sermon, we learn about the authority given to us in Jesus’ name! We sing, praise God, make confessions and shout, “All things are possible!” and “God is good all the time!” We even bind Satan, worries, anxieties and doubts in the name of Jesus. And five minutes after the service, someone, as he goes out of the church building, says to his fellow Christian, “Oh, the economy is so bad. I don’t know if my company will make it or not. I am afraid I might be fired…” or “A bad flu is spreading around the world—strong one—and people are dying. Oh, I’m afraid I might catch it too … ” What this person does not know is that all the wonderful scriptures he heard and learned, and all the good confessions he made in the service are all gone—stolen by the thief, Satan! He lost them all—the promises and the blessings of God.

Christians gather together for a special potluck luncheon. After they pray over the food and drink they have brought, they start eating and drinking: the food tastes so good! Then, someone says knowingly to the people who sit at the same table, “You know, that thing in that food is bad for you, and if you eat it, you will get a cancer.” Does he know how the person who brought the food will feel when he/she hears that? Well, everybody is free to eat, or not to eat. And there are certain types of food, of course, that we need to be cautious about by not eating too much. But if that caution goes to the realm of fear, Satan will use it. It produces the flow of spiritual force, and it will come to be realized according to the confession he makes.

From the fruit of his mouth a man's stomach is filled;

With the harvest from his lips he is satisfied.

The tongue has the power of life and death,

And those who love it will eat its fruit (Pro 18:20-21).

Your stomach is filled with the words you speak with your own mouth. If you believe that you will get a cancer by eating certain food, you should not eat it.

Unbelief spreads among people who hear the words of unbelief. The book of Numbers has the story of the spies who were sent to the Promised Land, and gave a report on their return. They said before the whole assembly:

We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan (Num 13:27-29).

Whenever we speak, our words always contain some subjective views, judgments, assumptions and even beliefs or faith we have in our hearts. Look at the expressions like “powerful” and “very large” in the above report. Also, note that so many names of the peoples who lived there are mentioned. Hearing this, people began to be agitated with fear. Then, Caleb silenced them and said:

We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it (v. 30).

If you have discerning ears to judge the words you hear in terms of faith and unbelief, you can stand firmly on your faith by not being affected by negatives words of unbelief you hear. But without such ears, you are easily affected by the people around you, and you come to feel weak and down spiritually without knowing why. In that way, it is impossible to reign in life.

From the fruit of his mouth a man's stomach is filled;

With the harvest from his lips he is satisfied.

The tongue has the power of life and death,

And those who love it will eat its fruit (Pro 18:20-21).

Such is a spiritual principle, and it works in the spiritual world. Words you speak with your mouth, whether consciously or unconsciously, dominate your life and change your circumstances in either good or bad ways—life or death. If you want to reign in life, you will definitely need to learn to control and use your mouth for that purpose: get rid of confessions that lead death to reign, and start making confessions as the one who reigns in life through Jesus Christ.

Take, for example, the confession of salvation that all born-again Christians make. Those who are born again by accepting Jesus into their hearts say, “We are saved.” This is a very biblical confession in spite of the fact that no Christians on earth have complete salvation in a true sense yet. We, having been saved, still need to fight against the forces of darkness even though, the Bible says, we are already winners—more than conquerors—through Jesus. We struggle, have needs and problems, and suffer in this world. This cannot be called “salvation” in a realistic sense. The complete salvation comes in the future when our bodies are redeemed (Rom 8:23). So, our confession, “we are saved,” is a confession of the faith we have. As we continue to confess it, and hold firmly to this faith with hope, the true salvation will surely come to pass. Our tongue confesses words of life and we will eat its fruit. Note what the following scripture says:

But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming (Rom 10:8).

The word is “in your mouth,” not in your head. When you hear God’s word, it first goes into your head through your ears, but do not expect it to work for you automatically. Unless you believe it in your heart it will not remain in you, and unless you confess it with your mouth it will not do any good to you. Believe in it, keep it in your heart, and let it speak to you with you mouth.

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (v. 9).

When you confess God’s word with your mouth, it begins to produce a flow of spiritual force in the spiritual world, which eventually comes to pass in the physical world. It is this flow of spiritual force that will raise you from the dead at the last day in the same way that God raised Jesus from the dead.

For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved (v. 10).

So, we confess today, “I am saved,”—in the present tense—meaning, “I got saved when I believed, and I have been saved since then, and I will be saved forever!” Do the same with the other promises in the Bible. Make sure that you believe in your heart—not in your head—and confess with your mouth. Confess it again and again and again and again …

Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful (Joshua 1:8).