We have been dealing with your rights as a believer in Christ. Now that you have a basic understanding of who you are in Christ, let us take a look at WHAT YOU HAVE. 2 Peter 1:3, King James Version (KJV) tells us that
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.
What this is saying is God in His omnipotence has given me everything I need in order to live a victorious life; not just on this physical world but also in the spiritual. Basically, He covered everything.
Before I begin I want to ask you a question. Are you afraid of Satan? Do you think he is impossible to defeat? Let’s have a look and see.
In the book of Matthew 16:13-24, Jesus was having a discussion with his disciples. He asked, “Who do men say that I, the Son of man am?” But really what He was getting at was their understanding of who they thought He was. Of course Peter answered and said “Thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God.” A statement of faith. Jesus then made two powerful statements, First he said, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The word “rock” refers to Peter’s confession of faith. We know Christ Himself is always referred to as the Rock.
1 Corinthians 10:4 says, “And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” So Christ was saying not only would this Church be built on the foundation of faith but with Christ being the head. He also said the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. This means that whatever the church goes through she would always be victorious. This doesn’t mean that she wouldn’t be hurt or wounded. It is simply saying that despite all of this It is impossible for the church to be defeated. Hallelujah!!!!! Do you understand what this is saying to you? It says that THERE IS NO WAY THAT SATAN CAN DEFEAT THE CHURCH OF CHRIST.
The second powerful statement that Christ made was 19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Now let me break this down for you. If I give you the keys to my home it means you have access to the front door. You can walk up to that door and open it but a house doesn’t just have a front door. There are doors to the bedrooms, the kitchen, and the toilet. All these require keys. So you can see a house is made up of a lot of doors. But here is the difference; if I give you the keys of my house this means you have access to every room in the house. Christ did not give us the keys to the kingdom of heaven that would only get us through the front door. He gave us the keys of the kingdom. The keys of means I have limitless access to heaven.
He says now that you have limitless access to heaven, whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. God is so wonderful. Remember I told you that God always sees the ending of a thing. He does not look at the beginning or the middle that is why in His eyes the church is already victorious. Well what Matt. 16:19 is really saying is that, “Whatsoever you bind on earth is already bound in heaven and whatsoever you loose on earth is already loosed in heaven.” He is actually saying that Satan is already defeated before the Church of Christ. This is another POSITIONAL TRUTH. Hallelujah!!!!!
What is Christ talking about when He tells us to bind and loose? In the book of Luke chapter 10, Jesus sends His disciples out to preach the gospel. The disciples were astonished at the fact that even demons were subjected to the name of Jesus. It says in Luke 10:17-19, “…and the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.
18” And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
19 Behold, I give unto you power ……”
When the disciples returned they made a statement to Jesus. They said “Lord even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.” We were always taught that the statement the disciples made had a lot to do with pride but if you take a careful look at the text you would notice that there was nothing prideful about what they said. They said demons were subjected to them yes, but in the name of Jesus. They were right! They were basically babies in Christ and they were excited. For the first time the power of God was being demonstrated through their lives. Wouldn’t you be excited if that were happening to you?
Jesus replied, “I saw Satan like lightning fall….” What was He talking about?
As mentioned above and in my earlier post—God always sees the ending of a thing not the beginning or middle. Well this is no different. What Christ was showing them was the end result of what was going to happen to the devil. It was all wrapped up in the authority that He gave them. Satan is still the prince and power of the air. He has not fallen from heaven as yet; but the day is coming when he will be cast down. Remember God is in eternity and is not governed by time as we are. He saw the result of the church’s authority over Satan himself. He not only fell but he fell like lightening. It was a swift cutting down. Isn’t that how lightening moves? It moves swiftly.
Christ was saying to them (and I am sure they would not have made the connection) that what they had in the palm of their hand would eventually cause the downfall of Satan.
In verse 19 of Luke 10, Christ is saying to them, “behold I give you power…” The word power should be translated AUTHORITY. What was this authority? It was the right to use His name against anything that came against them. What was coming against them? He also said it in verse 19, “to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy.”
When the bible talks about serpents and scorpions in this verse it is actually talking about demons and their counterparts. This has to do with the higher and lower demonic power. Christ said “to tread upon them”. Let’s look at this for a moment. The Merriam Webster Dictionary has the meaning of tread as “to trample, to subdue, to crush”. Christ is saying when you are dealing with the Devil I want you to subdue him, to trample on him to crush him. This doesn’t include running away in fear. He says the authority I’ve given you is to be used to bring the Devil’s kingdom down. This is how we do it. Did you know God called you a violent people? He says in Matt. 11:12 “… the kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force”, that’s you! You are the violent. He said “And over all the power of the enemy.” What this is saying is that you have authority over everything that is Satanic. Christ is saying when you speak a command of authority Satan has to listen. He does not have a choice. He has to obey. Why? Because Jesus is at the back of every word you say. That is what authority means. It means acting on behalf of someone.
When you speak you are acting on behalf of God. Now, can you see God failing? I can’t. So why should His word fail? The bible says God and his Word are one. Notice what the disciples said “Lord even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.” When Christ gave them His name that meant whatever came out of their mouths, Christ was going to back it up. This is speaking about what lines up with the Word of God. Remember I said it is impossible for the church to be defeated? It is because we have been given authority to act on behalf of God to bring Satan’s kingdom down. God said the Word that goes forth out of my mouth will not return unto me void. It can never return empty. It is impossible for the word of God to return empty when it is backed by His authority. Can you see where I am going with this?
The church has been given authority in the name of Jesus to act on His behalf. The Word of God says “whatsoever I bind on earth….” What do we bind? In Luke 16:17 Christ gave His disciples the great commission He said “in my name shall they cast out demons…” We bind demons. The book of Luke 10: 19, states “…and over all the power of the enemy” Satan himself falls under that category.
So you have authority over demons and over Satan himself. We bind them. How do we do this? In the Name of Jesus.
We also have the power to loose. What does it mean to loose? We have been bound ever so tightly with sickness, poverty anything that keeps us under. The Word of God says that we have authority to loose these things from our lives in Jesus Name.
The Church of Christ is equipped with everything it needs to stand against Satan. There is nothing that the Devil could bring that should even surprise us. The Word of God says that we are not ignorant of his devices. All of this is to let you know that what we have is AUTHORITY.
I want you to meditate on this for a while and we will continue another time.
This is Pastor Karen Bruce. God bless.