How To Govern In the Spirit Realm

As we talked about in “Is Your Church An Un-Church” and “10 Practical Areas God’s Children Should Govern,” YOU were made to rule and reign. You were made to govern as God’s representative on earth.

That means that God’s people were never meant to be under the weather, under attack, or under the circumstances. We weren’t meant to be under anything. We were created to have dominion.

So how do you go about having dominion in your life? How do you exercise the authority God created you to exercise?

Here’s how to govern in the spirit realm:

1. Become a man or woman of prayer.

God moves when His children pray. It’s as simple as that. The halls of history are marked through the ages with the lives of men and women who shaped history through prayer. These men and women rose early, stayed up late, and spent days and nights in prayer.

If you want to govern in the spirit realm, you must learn to pray. Prayer is the conduit God has chosen to use to send His blessings into your life and mine. Prayer is also the conduit God has chosen to implement His purposes on the earth in churches, cities, and nations.

If you want to govern in the spirit realm, learn to pray.

Related: 5 Ways To Ask God To Increase Your Prayer Life; How To Get Your Prayers Answered 100% of the Time; and Radical Prayers Get Radical Answers

2. Stand on God’s promises.

God’s promises in the Bible are for everyone who has faith to receive them, and who meets the conditions laid out with the promise.

If you want to govern in the spirit realm, find God’s promises about your situation. After you have found them, begin to mediate on them. CHEW on them in your mind and spirit. This will build your faith. Then, as you chew on God’s promises, pray them back to God.

For example, one of my favorite promises is found in Isaiah 54:13:

All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.”

I stand on this promise for my spiritual children, and I pray it often. When I pray this promise back to God, I simply remind Him of what He promised me, and then I ask Him to do it:

Heavenly Father, Your Word says that all my children shall be taught by YOU personally, and that they shall have great peace. 

So Father, I ask that YOU would disciple _______ today. Show them the way they should go. Teach them. Shepherd them and watch over them. I cannot, but You can. 

And Father, I pray that _______ would have great peace. I pray that nothing would be missing in their lives, and nothing would be broken. Let them be totally whole on the inside and out.

Fill them with Your love and the fruit of the Spirit. Help them to sense Your presence and affection today, and keep them from sinning against You. Thank You, Father, for You have promised to do this, and I know You will. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

I just keep on praying this promise over and over, and I watch as God keeps His Word.

In what situation do you need to govern? Locate God’s promises about that situation, and claim those promises as your own:

• Chew on them until you really GET them in your spirit.
• Pray them back to God.
• Remind Him of His Word, and
• thank Him for keeping His promises.

You will see radical results.

3. Be bold. Pray and believe God’s Word for what it says, even if it sounds too good to be true.

Many Christians dumb down the Word of God because they don’t have enough faith to believe it for what it says. This is sin–the sin of doubt and unbelief. When God wrote the Bible, He meant it. Every word found therein is accurate and infallible. (Read this list of 10 proofs for why the Bible is true, here.)

So when God promises radical things in the Bible, like…

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).

… or that in the last days, He will pour out His Spirit upon ALL flesh (Joel 2:28) …

… He meant it.

He really meant that the earth WILL be filled with the knowledge of His glory–every square inch of it. And He really meant that He would pour out His Spirit upon ALL flesh–even upon people who don’t want it.

You can and should read, believe, and PRAY God’s Word for what it says. Not for what tradition tells you it says. Not for what your flesh wants it to say, and not for what doubting people are willing to accept.

If you want to govern in the spirit realm, you must take God at His Word… 100% of the time.

4. Call forth God’s purposes verbally. Command a thing to manifest.

When Jesus prayed the model prayer for the disciples to emulate in Matthew 6, He spoke these words:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9b-10).

You know what’s interesting about this prayer? The words “come” and “be done” are not pleas. They are commands in the original language. Jesus wasn’t begging the Father to send His Kingdom or do His will. He was commanding it to come forth. 

If I were writing it so you could hear the authority in Jesus’ prayer, I would write it like this:

Your kingdom: Come!

Your will: Be done on earth as it is in Heaven!”

Jesus commanded God’s will to happen. By speaking out God’s Word with His mouth, He manifested God’s plans on the earth.

So what is God’s will in your situation? Use your words and command God’s perfect will to come forth!

I do this all the time, even with things that others might deem inconsequential. For example:

I speak to the next conversation the Father desires me to have with _____, and I command it to come forth in Jesus’ name!”

“I speak to the doors of opportunity the Father desires me to walk through, and I say, ‘Doors, open! In Jesus’ name!”

“I speak to the finished works the Father prepared for me before the foundation of the world, and I command them to manifest in my life today in Jesus’ name!”

“I speak to this situation, and I say: ‘Victory from God, come forth in Jesus’ name!'”

“I speak to our church service today, and I say: ‘Love of God, come forth in Jesus’ name!'”

When you command a thing to manifest, it will. So make sure you’re commanding good and holy things. Never get over into witchcraft, but ALWAYS speak God’s Word and will into every situation. 

Related: How To Avoid Witchcraft Prayer

5. Speak blessings over communication, people, events, and situations.

I bless things all the time. I bless every email, every important conversation, every blog post, every Facebook message. Here’s how:

If I’m blessing something visible, like an email, I put my hand on it right on the computer screen. Then I speak a blessing over it:

I bless this email with fully performing God’s purpose for it in Jesus’ name.

I bless this email with carrying the rhema word of God to _____. I bless this email with ministering the love of God to _____.

I bless this email with bringing me great favor and the response from _____ that the Father desires them to send, in Jesus’ name.”

If I’m blessing something intangible, like a conversation I haven’t had yet, I speak this blessing out loud:

I speak to the next conversation the Father desires me to have with ______, and I bless it with fully performing God’s purpose for it in Jesus’ name. I speak to that conversation, and I say:

• Will of God, come forth in Jesus’ name!
• Love of God, be revealed in Jesus’ name!
• Purity of God, come forth in Jesus’ name!
• Unity of God, come forth in Jesus’ name!
• Wisdom and revelation from God, come forth in Jesus’ name!”

You would freak out if I had time to tell you the specific results that speaking blessings over just about everything I do has brought me. Let’s just say that when I started blessing my written communication, my favorable response rate became almost 100%. Also, the conversations I started having (after I began to speak blessings over my conversations in advance) would freak you out. Why? Because I’m putting the blessing of the Lord on everything I do.

Try it. It works. 🙂

6. Increase your faith, your intimacy with God, and your ability to hear God through fasting.

Don’t get into fasting in order to manipulate God. Trust me; as I wrote about here in “Field Notes From My Fasting Failures,” it doesn’t work.

Instead, learn to fast so you can draw closer to God. Fast so you can stare at His face. Ask Him to give you clean hands and a pure heart. Separate yourself from your daily routine for awhile so you can dance with Jesus through fasting and prayer.

Fasting shakes Heaven, mobilizes angels, and vanquishes the enemy. Fasting works. Do it with a right heart, and fasting will change your life and the lives of others that you’re praying for.

If you want to govern in the spirit realm, become a man or woman who knows how to use the weapon of fasting.

7. Decree God’s Word over yourself and others. Speak the things that are not as if they already were.

This is one of the biggest ways you implement God’s purposes in your life and see your heart changed. God’s Word is powerful and effectual. When you speak it over yourself, it takes root and births in you both the desire and the power to perform it.

For example, if you’re struggling with a stronghold of anger, you might speak God’s Word over yourself as follows:

I decree in Jesus’ name that I cease from anger and forsake wrath. I do not fret; I know that fretting only causes harm (Psalm 37:8).

I am swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. I know that the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. I am the righteousness of God in Christ, so I am filled with peace.

I decree that I lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and I receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save my soul.

I am a doer of the Word, not a hearer only. I obey God’s truth and do not deceive myself.” (From James 1:19-22 and 2 Corinthians 5:21.)

God’s Word will always accomplish the purpose for which God sent it (Isaiah 55:10-11). So speak it over yourself as if it were already true–even before its manifestation becomes evident in your life–and it will manifest.

My recommendation: Do what I did and get Joyce Meyer’s book, “The Secret Power of Speaking God’s Word,” if you want to just read her Scriptural affirmations over yourself. I used to do this for hours each week to help myself get over anger, depression, hopelessness, and many other things. Trust me. It works. 🙂 (Amazon affiliate link.)

There you go. The 7 keys listed above are how to govern in the spirit realm. These are not hard things. They do require purposeful action and choices, but you were made for these things.

You were made to govern. If you will do these 7 things consistently in your life, you will see dramatic results as you learn to govern in the spirit realm as God’s representative on earth.

Will you take the challenge and begin to exercise the authority Christ died to give you today?