| WEEKLY WORD |
Exercising Our Position with Christ in the Heavenlies
(Overcomer Wu)
“... Raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” -- Ephesians 2:6
“What is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe . . . which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion . . . and had put all things under His feet and gave Him to be head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all” --Ephesians 1:19-23
Our Lord Jesus Christ is Head over all principality, power, might and dominion and every name that is named in this world and in the age to come. When He ascended to the heavenlies and was enthroned, ALL things in the heavens and on earth are subjected under His feet! His position and power are of the utmost, supreme and unchallengeable. Yet there is still a battle raging on this earth today. Ephesians 6:12 warns the believers in Christ: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Our risen Lord enthroned at God’s right hand rules "far above" every other force which seeks to control and govern this dark world and to frustrate God's plan.
Through the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus, God the Father, "has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places" with our risen and enthroned Lord. Thus, raised up together and seated together in Heavenly places with Christ (Eph 2:5-7), through the grace of God, every believer has been elevated with Him to the right hand of God and can assume in our prayers the authoritative throne position of the Lord. Christ is the Head of the Church (Eph. 1:22; 5:23-24). Born-again believers are His body (Eph 1:22-23). We share Christ’s authority (1 Cor 12:27; Eph 5:29-30; Jn 17:18; 1 Jn 4:17). Head and body have been raised up together (Eph. 1:19-23; Eph 2:1-6).
In the economy of God, the spiritual reality of our joint-resurrection and joint-ascension with the Lord Jesus Christ occurs through our identification with Him with from His death all the way to His ascension (Rom 6:3-5Eph 2:1-6 ). For the Church of Christ to stand victoriously at the closing of this age when Satanic forces, knowing that they their days are numbered, are united in full and deadly array against her, every believer must understand the necessity of exercising with Christ the place of spiritual authority and fearlessly bind these forces of darkness in enforcing and executing the Calvary’s triumph over them.
In order to make the necessary advances in the work of the Kingdom at this hour it is absolutely essential that believers, in humility, giving honor to God, take their seat in the heavenly places in Christ at His right hand, far above all fallen angelic authorities and powers of the air, and from that throne-position of Christ hold them in subjection, through faith in the Name and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ Who has crushed Satan under His feet at the cross! Every believer shares this mighty conquest of Calvary to the full. Jesus who has absolute command over the forces of evil confers this authority upon His disciples for He says, "Behold I give you authority . . . over all the power of the enemy" (Luke 10:19). Furthermore, Ephesians 1:19-22 tells us clearly that the Supreme authority of Christ is conferred “to the Church”, or in other words, at the disposal of “the Church”
The believer whose eyes have been opened to comprehend and apprehend his authoritative position in Christ soon learns in the exercise of this authority that the power he possesses "in the heavenlies in Christ" is infinitely greater than that of all God's enemies combined. The powers of evil are compelled to be subject to the believer as he boldly and in faith under God's will exerts his authority in Jesus’ Name. Every demon is subject to the believer in Christ through His Name (Luke 10:17). Likewise, the angelic rulers, authorities, powers and lordships of spiritual dark forces in the heavenlies, cannot but yield in obedience to the authority of Christ when properly exercised by a believer who stands in the position of the throne of Christ in ruling and overruling against the evil forces of Satan whenever and wherever he sees them at work.
The powers of darkness may bitterly oppose in futility, because we are simply enforcing Christ's victory over them at the cross of Calvary. The Cross has already robbed Satan of his power. To overcome him, we simply present the Blood of Jesus Christ in the face of every attack from the pit whether the attack is upon your Church, family, mind, soul, body or circumstances. Satan was overcame by the Blood of the Lamb of God, and by the word of our testimony, and by our not loving our soul-life even unto death (Rev 12:11). It is important to give special attention to the last phrase of this verse, because it is crucial in our proper exercise of the authoritative power of Christ. We need to be willing to become nothing by dying to our soul-life, so that Christ can become everything to us. This is the principle of Galatians 2:20 – of “Not I... but Christ Who lives in me.” When Christ becomes our everything, then His Headship and His authority can then be exercise through us without any hindrance.
The devil is a defeated foe. This is an accomplished fact! There is no “ifs”, “ands”, or “buts” about it. Christ overcame him and destroyed him through His death on the cross (Heb 2:14). We have now but to enter in and exercise this spiritual reality of Christ's victory by faith. We do not need to fight Satan ourselves but to hold over him the accomplished triumph of the Cross of Christ. The Blood of Jesus, which speaks of the accomplished facts of the cross of Christ, is God’s provision for overcoming the enemy. The Blood of Jesus is the token of Christ’s complete victory over Satan and his evil forces and their complete subjection to Him as He sits on His Throne. However, we need to keep in mind that we need to die to our soul life and live in Christ, because the moment we are in our fleshly self, we are liable to become victims of the enemy. Only when we are one with Christ by abiding in Him (John 15) can we be secured from the attacks of the enemy. The enemy's strategy then is to vex us with so many other occupations, problems, burdens, confusions, and even depressions to get us out of Christ into our our self-interests, self-seeking, and even self-pity. We should not be ignorant of the enemy's devices in this matter.
We are exhorted to "neither give place to the devil" (Eph 4:27). Are we daily displacing the devil and his despotic and Satanic control in the affairs of this present evil world? God has given us power to tread down the power of the enemy (Matt 18:18-20). God has committed to every believer the responsibility of displacing the devil by allowing Christ to rule through us. This was one of the primarily purposes of God in creating man as we have seen in Genesis chapter 1:26 – that we are to have “dominion over ...” this earth where satan has temporary custody. We alone are to be blamed if the enemy continues to have power in and around us. Christ through His death has rendered the devil powerless to withstand the believer who will, by faith and obedience, exercise the authority of Christ over him. The devil now has no power except what we allow him to usurp (1 Jn 3:8). Therefore, to us we have been entrusted and empowered to resist the Devil (Jam 4:7) and he is sure to flee from us! It is incumbent upon us, in humble faith in Christ’s finished work, to take our seat in the heavenly places at His right hand and exercise the authority which He has entrusted to us to courageously bind the powers of darkness and bring in God's kingdom.
In these perilous times, the powers of darkness conscious of their impending overthrow, are fiercely resisting on all fronts, so much so that every prayer Godward needs a resistance against His enemy for us to cover the back and every aspect of our prayers – much like a soldier needs to wear a full body armor not only for his front but also his back to prevent getting shot from behind. The way to have the authority of Christ is to make Him Lord of our lives! To the extent that we make Him Lord and enthrone Him in our hearts in our daily lives are we able by faith to enter into a continual, experiencial spiritual reality of this crowning victory which He has procured for us and readily available for us to apply and exercise.