AUTHORITY AND POWER, PART 8

Let’s review what we have learned so far:  Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.  He rendered satan entirely useless, and the principalities and powers have been stripped of their authority.  The handwriting of the note (the law of sin and death) has been cancelled.  That is enough right there to take care of our lives.

Today we look at our deliverance from the control of darkness.  God is Light.  In Him is no darkness at all, not one little tidbit.  He is all Light.  That is the way creation happened.  God stepped out where there was darkness and said:  Light in Me be!  And Light was!  By the way, the same thing happened to you when you were born again.  When you said yes to Jesus, God basically was saying to you:  Light in Me, be in you!  Now we are called the light of the world as God (Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit) is called the light of the world, because He Who is Light is in us.

Colossians 1:13,14, KJV and Amplified Bible

The Father has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us, translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of His Love, in Whom we have and enjoy our redemption, our release is secured, our sins are forgiven through His blood.

It gives our dear Heavenly Father, who loves us intensely, great pleasure to see us delivered out of the control, the dominion of darkness.  Darkness no longer has any control over us.  Why?  Because we have been delivered from darkness.  Not only have we been delivered from darkness but we have been transferred into another Kingdom, the Kingdom of God, where Love is King and joy and peace reign.  God’s Kingdom is a kingdom of light and love and life.  Where He is, life is.

In Jesus, the Son of God’s Love, we have redemption.  We have been redeemed from the power of the enemy, the adversary, the one who is in opposition to us, the devil.  We have been released from his clutches forever.  Our sins are forgiven forever.  We are a free people.  It’s all because of the blood of Jesus.  When His blood was spilled on this earth, it sealed the covenant between God and man forever.  We are forever free.  When Jesus purchased our freedom, it was a permanent work.  Nothing can change it.  We come through His blood to stand pure and spotless in the eyes of our heavenly Father.  Jesus’ blood is on the mercy seat of heaven forever declaring Life.

Celebrate your freedom today!

AUTHORITY AND POWER, PART 7

So far we have learned that Jesus came and destroyed the works of the devil for us and he rendered satan entirely useless.  Today we will see what he did to the principalities and powers and the law of sin and death.

Colossians 2:14,15, Amplified Bible

Having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us).  This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross.

[God] disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it, [the cross].

God through Jesus personally cancelled the handwriting of the note that was written against us.  He completely blotted it out and wiped it away.  It was a legal demand which had been decreed against us.  It was in place and stood against us, condemning us and accusing us.  It was hostile to us.  What was that note?  It was the law of sin and death that had been instituted by Adam’s yielding to satan.  Satan has only one thing—-death, which results from sin and fear because he is fear personified.  We see in Romans 8:2 that the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death.  Jesus nailed that note to the cross when he was nailed to the cross because He Who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus—-that we may be made right with God and enjoy His rights bestowed on us (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Then, in addition to dealing with the law of sin and death, God through Jesus dealt a blow to satan’s kingdom by spoiling or disarming and stripping every one of satan’s demonic forces of their authority over us as God’s children.  He triumphed over them in the cross.  The cross is where the tide was turned for you and me.  We are on the other side of the cross.  We are on the victory side.  Since Jesus came to this earth and completed His assignment, we are forever free from all the dominion of the satanic realm.  We must exercise the authority we have been given over this realm in order to walk free ourselves.

We are free people!  Believe it and receive it!  Take hold of the truth of who you are in Christ Jesus!

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!