AUTHORITY AND POWER, PART 6

Yesterday we read in 1 John 3:8 that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.  Today we will see in Hebrews 2:14,15 that Jesus rendered satan entirely useless.

Hebrews 2:14,15

Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

In this passage, let’s look at several words in the Greek.

Destroy:  Render entirely idle, useless; totally incapacitate; completely paralyze and put out of commission forever; render absolutely helpless

In the Berkeley translation it says that Jesus neutralized satan; in Goodspeed, He dethroned satan; in Rotherham, He paralyzed satan; in Moffatt’s, He crushed satan.

Power:  Strength, vigor, dominion

Bondage:  Slavery

From the understanding of the words “destroy,” “power,” and “bondage,” in Hebrews 2:14,15, we see that Jesus became like us by taking on a flesh and blood body.  He allowed His flesh and blood body to take on death in order that He might render satan absolutely helpless who had had the strength and vigor of death over you and me.  Every human being had been held in slavery to the fear of death all their lives.  Jesus delivered us from that fear when He put satan out of commission.

As you read this passage today, you may say to yourself:  Well, you could have fooled me that satan is rendered absolutely helpless.  It looks like he is tearing up everything in my life.  What every one of us must realize is that Jesus took care of satan and his works for us.  It is a done deal.  Now we have to personally enforce that defeat in our lives when the enemy comes to steal from us what is rightfully ours.  It is a stand against all the pressure and the tactics of the enemy.  But we always overcome, according to the Word of God.

Here’s what it amounts to in our lives.  Jesus has given us the victory over satan.  He has given us the power and authority to enforce that defeat.  If we don’t know we have authority or if we do not use our authority, then satan “runs over us” and loves every minute of it as he rubs in God’s face that another one of His children has gone down.

The purpose of these Pearls over this week and some of next week is to encourage you to get up and take back the territory that has been taken from you by satan, whether it is in your finances or your physical body or relationships.  Whatever it is, get up and fight for your rights.  And it has nothing to do with the way you feel.  There are some days when I feel like I am the weakest one in the Body of Christ, but that is feelings.  That is not what the Word says.  We must get to the point where the Word of God is the only, the first and the final authority in our lives.  If the Word says it, then I believe it and I receive it for myself.  That must be our attitude.

You are an overcomer in this world through Christ Jesus.  Rise to the fullness of the authority you have been given.  You are a mighty man/woman of God!

AUTHORITY AND POWER, PART 5

1 John 3:8b, Amplified Bible and KJV

…For this purpose, reason, the Son of God was manifest, visible, that He might loosen, undo, dissolve, destroy the works of the devil.

Over the next several days we will see what Jesus has done so that we can have authority on this earth over satan and all of His works.

Today’s verse tells us that Jesus has destroyed the works of the devil.  What are the works of the devil?  Sickness and disease, want, lack, poverty, doubt, unbelief, defeat, failure, death are all works of the devil.  They are designed to bring us down and divert us from God’s best for us, which is health, prosperity in all areas of our lives, faith, victory, success, a sense of well-being (which is what shalom is).

Think about it:  Jesus came to this earth in order to take care of all the works of the devil.  Did you hear that little word “ALL”?  Yes, He came for the purpose of destroying the works of the devil.  That is the best news I have heard in my life.  It’s over.  The battle has been won.  The victory is ours.

How does victory come?  We personally stand our ground for what belongs to us and we do not let the thief come along and steal our goods.  Say this after me:  “Health is mine.  Victory is mine.  Success is mine.  Prosperity is mine.  All that God has is mine.  I stand and receive it for myself.  It is mine NOW!  I have been given the authority to take all that is mine.  God gave me His authority and His power.  I am not a weakling.  I am strong in the Lord.  I draw my strength from Him.”

Jesus is the Head.  We are the Body of Christ.

We and He work together.

Jesus was manifested to destroy the works of the devil.

We have been given His authority to destroy the works of the devil also because, as He is, so are we in this world.  He gave us His authority to take care of all the works of the devil in our lives.

AUTHORITY AND POWER, PART 4

Matthew 28:18-20

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying,

All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you:  and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

Amen.

In verse 18 the word for power here is authority.

Why did Jesus tell us to go, therefore, right after He said that all authority has been given to Him in heaven and earth?  Jesus, with His power and authority, is in us.  Therefore, His authority is in us to use as He instructs and guides us by the direction of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus is assuring us here as God’s children that we have the backing of His authority in all that we do for Him.

Wherever we go, when we are obeying the Lord, and when we are doing His Kingdom business, going about our daily lives, He is there with His authority, which He has given to us, to use against the devil’s kingdom.  We are the ones who are the conquerors and the ones with the authority.  For thousands of years, the devil has been bluffing God’s people, telling them lies about their effectiveness.  It is time that we rise up to the fullness of the stature of the Lord Jesus Christ Who is in us and declare our freedom and our ability to overcome all the works of the enemy.

We are not to be cowering in some corner somewhere just waiting for the Lord to come back.  He is not coming back for a weak, passive bunch of cowards.  He is coming back for a victorious, overcoming church, one whose power and authority is made known to the kingdom of darkness.  We are the light of the world and the salt of the earth.  That’s who we are!

AUTHORITY AND POWER, PART 3

As we continue our study on the authority that God has given to us as His children, let’s look at Luke 10:19.  This verse is Jesus’ assurance to us of our authority here on this earth.

“Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy:  and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

Jesus says:  I Myself give to you authority (the legal power or right to command or act; exousia) to tread on (crush under the foot; subdue) serpents and scorpions (demonic powers), and over all the power (dunamis; inherent power) of the enemy (satan, the devil, the deceiver, the seducer): and nothing shall by any means hurt you or harm you.

This scripture is God’s guarantee to us that He has given us His authority and power to take care of our enemy, satan, and all that he throws our way to defeat us.  That is the best news I have ever heard in my life.  Meditate on this scripture today as you are going about your daily business.

We have been given the authority of God.  Let’s use it as He directs.

AUTHORITY AND POWER, PART 2

As we said yesterday, God created the earth, created mankind and delegated authority to us to rule and reign in this earth, taking dominion and authority over the world system.  Satan, God’s enemy, came to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and tempted them to listen to him and thus give their authority over to him by obeying what he said and doubting what God had spoken to them.  They had been given free choice to make decisions concerning what they would believe.  They believed satan’s lie; they were deceived and lost their position of authority.

Now satan is the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4) because Adam gave his authority, dominion (given by God) over to satan by believing him and obeying the devil’s voice.  The devil and his demons have a right to be here in this world, operating this world system.  They have the right to exist here because of Adam’s treason until they are cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10).

But we as God’s children don’t have to be under the authority of satan or his demonic realm.  We have authority over them.  Jesus came to this earth to take back what the devil had stolen from mankind.  With His death on the cross and His shedding of His blood and taking our place as our substitute, Jesus purchased for all eternity our place in the Father’s household.  That position has been restored to mankind.  Along with the position comes rights of the household and authority as Father’s child.  God through Jesus turned over all dominion, authority, rule, reign, ALL THINGS to the Church, the Body of Christ (Ephesians 1:22).  God has already done it—-past tense—-done deal.  God did all this for you—-His Church, His Body, the Body of Christ.

Jesus came to this earth for one purpose; God wanted His family back.  A thief called satan came and kidnapped Father’s family of mankind and was exercising the strong whip over them.

Jesus took on flesh and blood to become like us so that He could defeat satan forever for us and take back the authority we had forfeited in the Garden of Eden.  Oh, Hallelujah!  There was another garden called the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus came head to head with satan and committed Himself to the Father to take our place and suffer for us the penalty of death for sin.   He became sin so that we could become righteous.  He did not sin.  He became sin and conquered death, hell and the grave forever.  He stripped satan and all his demonic realm of their authority and now stands ready to offer that dominion once again to each person who chooses Jesus Christ and His Kingdom.  There are rights in this Kingdom while we are here on this earth.  It is our choice (just as Adam and Eve made their choice) to choose the loving life of Christ or the hard fist of satan and his rule.

AUTHORITY AND POWER, PART 1

As God’s children we operate in two different ways:  (1)  We enter into the intimacy of God’s personal presence and worship and honor him in all our ways, walking in the fullness of His Love and enjoying a Father relationship with Him.  (2)  On the other hand, we are great and mighty men and women of God, tearing down the enemy’s strongholds in our lives and other people’s lives, taking our God-given authority and using it to establish our rights in this earthly realm.  The result of taking authority over the devil and all his works is true freedom.  For the next several days, we are going to discuss the authority that God has given us and the power that resides in us to walk in victory.

We must start at the beginning with Genesis 1:26-28.  In this passage of scripture we see what God’s design was for us as human beings.  We are to be people of dominion and authority.  He commanded us to subdue and have dominion.

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it:  and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

Let’s specifically look at some of the words in these verses.  God said:  LET US.  That means that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit were all involved in making man.  MAKE:  Mold into shape, create, form from nothing, cause to exist (1828 Webster’s Dictionary)  The word asah used in this verse describes God’s creative ability (Hebrew-Greek Study Bible).

MAN:  Adam refers to generic man as the image of God, the crown of His creation, distinct from the rest of creation.  God created human beings by a special immediate act.  God put Adam and Eve in a position of honor and had great plans for them (Hebrew-Greek Study Bible).

IN OUR IMAGE, AFTER OUR LIKENESS:  We are like God in our nature because He made us like Him, in His image, with His qualities.

AND LET THEM HAVE DOMINION:  Strong’s Concordance and Webster’s 1828 Dictionary tell us that dominion means to rule and to reign with supreme authority.  It is the sense of being in charge.  God gave us authority over the earth like He has authority over us.  He delegated His authority to us to take care of the place He has created for us to live in.

AND GOD BLESSED:  The word “blessed” means to be prosperous, to enjoy happiness and the favor of God, the enjoyment of good, great joy.  God intended for us to enjoy life in the fullness in every aspect—-spirit, soul, body, socially, financially.

FRUITFUL, MULTIPLY:  Increase, excel, produce in abundance.  Everything we touch is blessed and prospers and comes to maturity.  We must see that in our mind’s eye.  We were created with God’s ability to multiply and increase and produce abundance, which is overflow in every area of life.

REPLENISH:  Keep filled up and fully supplied

SUBDUE:  Conquer, tread down, bring into subjection, implies a permanence of conquering

God created the earth, delegated His authority to Adam and gave Adam the command to operate as a king in this earth, under God’s direction as The King.

FREEDOM HAS A PRICE

The greatest freedom we have is the freedom that Jesus Christ has given us as sons and daughters of God.  He paid the ultimate price for that freedom —- His blood.  Likewise, we must remember that the freedom of our nation came with a great price, the blood of many men and women who fought in wars both past and present.

As a person who loves peace, I hate war.  It destroys.  But war is a consequence of man’s sin-driven desires for power and prestige.  Today we see this drive for power in governments all over the world, in businesses everywhere, in families and yes, even in the church.

The greatest power in the universe is God Who is Love.  If mankind could only see, have the veil removed from their eyes, they would see that anything that they strive for will ultimately be removed and replaced with another greater and bigger earthly “thing.”  What a waste our striving is!  When we lean on Him and allow His Love power to take over, He brings each of us to a place of peace and victory and prosperity, the very things that we are aiming for in our personal lives when we are attempting to do it in our own human ability.

Jesus declared in John 8:31 and 32 that if we continue in God’s Word, then we are His disciples and we shall know the truth and the truth shall make us free.  That is true freedom, the freedom of God that comes from knowing the truth of His Word in our lives.  He also said that he whom the Son sets free is free indeed.  We are forever free in Jesus, regardless of where we are or what our circumstances are.  Remember that you are free in Jesus Christ.  Declare that freedom and value it as more precious than all that earth can offer you!

Today, let us take inventory of our true freedom in Jesus Christ.

MY THOUGHTS

Proverbs 16:3, Amplified Bible

When I roll my works upon the Lord,

when I commit and trust them wholly to Him,

He will cause my thoughts to become agreeable to His will

and so shall my plans be established and succeed.

I have always looked at the first part of that verse and not really noticed the middle section.  Today, it stood out as a great truth for all of us.

When we commit our works upon the Lord, when we roll our care upon Him, when we commit all our cares, anxieties and worries and works over on Him, when we trust Him with everything,

THEN,

HE WILL CAUSE OUR THOUGHTS TO BECOME AGREEABLE TO HIS WILL.

In other words, God is the One Who will cause our thoughts in our mind to line up with His will, which is His Word.  Remember that Jesus prayed that His will be done on this earth.  Isn’t that a wonderful reassurance.  God will cause our thoughts to be in agreement with His.  What a comforting realization.

THEN,

your plans will be established and succeed.

Ponder this verse in your heart for a while and there will be such a peace and rest that will surround you and permeate your very being.

He causes His thoughts to become your thoughts when you commit everything wholly to Him.

THE WORD OF GRACE

Acts 20:32, Amplified Bible

And now [brethren], I commit you to God [I deposit you in His charge, entrusting you to His protection and care].  And I commend you to the Word of His grace [to the commands and counsels and promises of His unmerited favor].  It is able to build you up and to give you [your rightful] inheritance among all God’s set-apart ones (those consecrated, purified, and transformed of soul).

This is one of my favorite scriptures because of the meat in it.  I know some of you are thinking that I say this about all scriptures.  Well, you are right.  I love all of God’s Word.  However, this particular one is very special to me.

We are deposited in God’s care.  He is in charge of us.  That means that we can trust Him to protect us and take care of us at all times.  There are no “oops” times with God when He says:  Oh my, I didn’t have time to take care of you during that time of difficulty.  I was too busy with your neighbor down the street.  No, God is always right there for us.

Here in this scripture His Word is called the Word of His grace.  Grace is God’s ability released to you through Jesus, because of His great love for you.  It is God’s gift of Himself to you, with all the “perks” of heaven given to you to live life more abundantly, to accomplish what you were designed to do while you are here on this earth.  That’s why God told Paul that His grace was sufficient for him.  What more do we need.  There is nothing else to help us.  That’s it—–GRACE!

Look what His Word of grace does for you:  it is able to build you up and to give you your rightful inheritance.  Wow!  The Word of grace, God’s gift to you and me of Himself personified, builds us up.  That Word of grace gives us our rightful inheritance.  What is that rightful inheritance?  Everything that God has and is!  We are special to Him.  He is our Father.  He loves us with a total love, and until we understand that He loves us dearly, how can we trust Him and believe that He does care for us?  Yes, He does love us and yes, He does take care of us totally (that is, if we will let Him).

Take this scripture this week and put it where you can see it often and remind yourself of how special you are, whether you feel like it or not and whether you think you deserve it or not.  It has nothing to do with how you feel or what you think.  It just IS!

HOLY SPIRIT’S PERSONALITY

Today, let’s look at the wonderful ways in which the Holy Spirit totally takes care of us, if we will let Him.  He never forces Himself upon us.  He waits for our yielding to Him.

The Holy Spirit of God is many-faceted.  He is our Comforter.  He is our Helper.  He is our Counselor.  He is our Intercessor.  He is our Advocate.  He is our Strengthener.  He is our Standby.  He is our Truth.  He is our Peace.  He is the One Who brings all things to our remembrance when we need it.  We see all of this in scripture, particularly in John 14, 15, 16 and 17.  Read those four chapters again and see what Jesus has to say about Himself, about the Father and about the Holy Spirit.  These 4 chapters give us the guide for our relationship with God, of knowing Him intimately.

The Holy Spirit is our Comforter.  To comfort means to strengthen, to support the person, particularly during distress or danger, to cheer or enliven, to encourage, to strengthen the mind when depressed or enfeebled, to relieve from depression or trouble.  A comforter is one who brings consolation to you when you need to be encouraged and lifts you up from the place where you find yourself.

The Holy Spirit is our Helper.  This one is pretty self-explanatory.  He comes to give assistance to us to accomplish whatever we are doing.  He helps us to do what we need to do.  He is there for us.

The Holy Spirit is our Counselor.  Yes, we do need Him to give us instruction, direction, advice and recommendations.  We need His input.  He tells us what is the best way, and He is always right.  He never makes a mistake.

The Holy Spirit is our Intercessor.  Because of the blood of Jesus, He stands in the gap and pleads our case before the Father.  He brings reconciliation for us when we mess up.  He presents us before the Father as pure and clean because of the sacrifice of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is our Advocate.  An advocate is very similar to an intercessor.  He pleads our cause before the Father.  He supports us and pleads in our favor.  He shows reason why we should be supported and accepted in the Kingdom of God.

The Holy Spirit is our Strengthener.  We need His strength to grow strong and then to grow stronger and stronger as we continue our walk with the Lord.  We cannot do it in our own human strength or effort.  It is all about Him.  We are strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

The Holy Spirit is our Standby.  He stands alongside us at all times to take care of us, to let us know that He is there to bring us forward successfully on our path of life toward our final destiny.

The Holy Spirit is our Truth.  Nothing false will deceive us as long as we yield to Him and God’s Word.  He shows us the true reality of God and His Kingdom as being the only way.

The Holy Spirit is our Peace.  Wow, do we need this in the world right now.  In God’s Kingdom, peace encompasses everything that makes us whole and free.  It is freedom from this world’s trigger points like fear, anxiety, doubts, upsets, etc.

Finally, the Holy Spirit brings to our remembrance everything we need to know and to do, so that we may live a successful life, carrying out God’s plan that He has given us to accomplish while we are here on this earth.

My prayer for you is that you will come to know the Holy Spirit intimately as your best friend and the One in Whom you can put your confidence.  He is God here right now in you to love you and take care of you.  Seek His Presence.  God is such a loving and giving and good God