Now the problem is of course is what happened when Adam fell. Now the core of Adam falling, the core of His sin was this, because when I use the word 'sin' you think of drunkenness and all kinds of wickedness. But you see actually the core of sin is just saying this: I won't have God to rule over me. That's the bottom line. You can come to church and still live a sin-filled life because you're saying in your heart I don't mind coming to church, but I just don't want God to rule over me. I want to be in charge of my own life, see? That's the core and the heart of sin. Everything springs out of saying no God, we're saying no to You and no to Your government. We've got a better idea and it's we'll govern ourselves. Or the world puts it like this: I'll do my own thing. I'll do my own thing, see? And it says in the last part of the Book of Judges, it says because there was no king everyone did what was right in his own eye. So the core of sin is I'll do what I think is right for me. Getting the idea?
See when I start to bring these things out in the open like this you'll realise that these paradigms and thoughts dominate our way of thinking. If we're going to live and walk in the fullness of what God has for us we need to change how we think. So it's no longer I do it my way and you'll see why in a moment. You'll see that comes fully out of not only of the sin but also comes out in other areas of the democratic way of thinking. Let's have a look in Luke 4. I want you to see something that happened in Luke 4. I want you read in verses 5 and 6. So let's just look at the fall of man and we're going to look at Jesus being tempted. Now remember that Jesus came into the earth, He announced the kingdom of heaven is here. Then immediately after He was filled with the Holy Spirit and anointed for this mission of advancing the kingdom; immediately He had a season of prayer and fasting, and then He was tempted by the devil.
Now notice what the devil said to Him. Notice these words that the devil said to Him. He said to Him - verse 5 - the devil took Him up onto a high mountain and showed Him what? Showed Him all the kingdoms of the world at one moment. So He was actually transported in the spirit or physically up to a mountain and the devil, using the power he had, was able to show Him all the kingdoms and their glory. In other words He was able to look into the realm of the spirit and see the kingdoms of the earth and their glory. Whether he showed he showed Him the kingdoms that have been and are coming I don't know, but certainly he showed Him kingdoms. We've been there and seen some of the kingdoms, and the Roman kingdom at the time of Jesus was unbelievably magnificent - unbelievable buildings and organisation; it was a massive kingdom that influenced the whole of the earth.
It had conquered, subdued and colonised the known world. It was an amazing kingdom, and Jesus was shown all the kingdoms of the earth, and this is what the devil said: All of this power glory will I give to You for it's been given to me, and I can give it to who I like. Notice what he said, it's been given to me. Where did he get it, see? He didn't get it from God. He got it by overthrowing the man God put in and gave that authority, so when the devil said all this authority, all this dominion, all this glory, all this power to be able to build such kingdoms has been handed over to me by God's representative who declared independence. So where did the devil get that power? It was given to him by Adam when he seduced him and overcame him, and Adam yielded up and said I won't do what God wants. We have hardly any concept of the level of power and glory and dominion that Adam walked in, see? We tend to think of him just like us, but he hadn't sinned, no way. He was covered with the glory of God.
He had unusual and unbelievable power to be able to change things and make things happen, and to move about the earth and it came because he had access into the realm of the Spirit, the second heaven. He could govern the earth with the power God had given him. When he fell he lost his glory, he lost his power and the devil picked it up and so now in the realm of the Spirit there are wicked spirits temporarily occupying that place. So when you ask why have we got all the problems in the world, it's simple. The man God gave the entrustment to let Him down, declared independence; now the devil's got a hold of it - for the time being. God's intention is it does come back to His people. His intention is it comes back to His people. His intention from the beginning was we have it, so at the moment the devil is a usurper and he occupies the realm of the Spirit. The devil doesn't occupy hell; he occupies the realm of the Spirit, interfering and controlling and manipulating the affairs of nations on the earth. And God calls us to rise into that place and to do what Adam failed to do. Come on, just think about it, see?