So your territory includes everything that God wants you to be responsible for. I'll say it again: your territory is everything God has given you specific responsibility for, so let's try and identify it really simply. The first thing is yourself, you're responsible for yourself. Now that seems sort of an obvious thing, but actually people forget it. You're responsible for your body, to have dominion over your body and to care for your body. If your body breaks down because of ill health you cannot fulfil your other parts of your assignment, so you need to bring your body and discipline your body and learn how to keep your body healthy so you can fulfil your assignment. Your soul is your territory. Your soul includes your mind, your thought life, your imagination. It includes your emotions, it includes your will. They are all your territory. You must govern that territory, so if you've got an anger problem your territory is out of control. Your territory's been invaded by something, so your soul is a vital part of your territory.
Your skills, the skills you have are part of your territory. You're responsible for them, and so if God has given you say a musical ability, develop it and cultivate it and grow it and have dominion over that area until it becomes productive and fruitful. Do training. A lot of people get this thing that you've come to the Lord now, and so everything natural is lost. No, actually God uses all your natural skills. They're not just natural, they're part of you, and you're a spirit being. They're spiritual. No, don't sort of try to minimise natural abilities we have, because that's what God gave you to earn a living, it's what God gave you to make a mark with your life. He just enhances it by the power of His spirit so it's more productive, but you need to develop it. So your metron firstly then is your own spirit, mind, your body and so on.
Another area is your relationship with your spouse, now that is your metron, that is your territory where the two become one. Now that doesn't mean you have the right to command, or boss, or have dominion over your spouse. What it does mean is that what's happening in your spouse's life is part of the territory God wants you to care for, so therefore you are responsible for that whole realm, the realm of what's going on in that relationship. Another area is your family. Now we're not responsible for the choices our children make, that's their territory, but we are responsible for the culture, the values, the training that goes on in the home. That's our territory. You can't delegate that to the church. You may let the church do a little bit on Sunday, but actually the primary training is in the home. You can't let the schools take over that - the primary place of training is the home. Your children are your children, not the church's children or the school's children. They are your children.
Now once you see that, you'll make it your business to know what's going on, and if something's going wrong you'll speak up, because it's your territory, and you're going to have a voice in your territory. Often in the education system it can be intimidating to parents. My experience over many years, both as a teacher and a parent, is the parents know what's going on in their kids, and then they should speak up if they're not happy about what's happening. We need to have a voice into those areas. Sometimes people in education can treat you as though you don't know anything, but I've found parents do know a lot, and they know a lot about what's going on in their kids, and what's right for their kids, and what isn't right for them. So you understand, these are your areas?
Now we're going to talk a little bit about what it means to take ownership, and so let's keep going on - so your finances are your territory. It's not just a matter of something casual. Your finances need to be cultivated and grown and developed and managed and so on. Your home is your territory, so your home has an atmosphere in it. The atmosphere's created by how you develop your relationships, what you permit in the home. There's a whole realm there where your home can be a place where the presence and peace of God is, and where people can come, and it's a ministry centre. So your home is your territory, and God gave you a home. We've always believed and bought houses that could be a place where people could come and find hospitality and ministry. Sometimes it gets a bit busy and I have to get a break, but on the other hand it is a place of ministry. It is our territory, within which we are called to use what God gave us to advance His kingdom.