Day 18

The Gospel Gives Us

All Spiritual Authority

Roger and Eileen Himes

www.ThePracticalGospel.com

For instructors, spiritual warfare is BIG BUSINESS! They present long seminars telling how to battle Satan. I’m not saying spiritual warfare is never necessary. I’ve been involved in it — and also in deliverance. But check it out: spiritual warfare, as we are taught it, is not mentioned in scripture. For gospel believers, warfare is the exception, not the rule! Gospel truth is about spiritual authority — not spiritual warfare! Gospel truth shows us this difference!

Luke 10:19 says Jesus has given us authority over ALL the power of Satan. I John 5:18 says, “He who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.” I’ve heard it preached many times this means ‘keeping yourself from sin,’ but this isn’t right. It means keep yourself in the love of God, and in the gospel. Verse 20 says it: ‘Keeping yourself in him, who is true.’ We keep trying to revert back to John the Baptist’s preaching about sin (Mark 1:4). Jesus wants to transform our minds to gospel message of grace and truth, not sin (Mark 1:15).

Ephesians 2:6 says we are seated with Christ on the throne of God. Of course this is spiritually, not naturally. Naturally, we’re still living on this planet. Do you realize every angel of God, and every demon of Satan’s sees you as in Christ on the throne of God. Getting revelation of this, will totally change whatever you believe about spiritual warfare!

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GOSPEL TRUTH #35

Colossians 2:14 says Jesus beat Satan so badly and so completely, that he 1) totally disarmed him, (2) triumphed over him, and (3) made a ’public spectacle’ of him. He put him to shame! Luke says Jesus saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. John 16:11 says Satan has been judged: sentenced to having NO power over Christians. I John 3:18 says Jesus came to destroy Satan’s works. He has also given us ALL authority over Satan (Luke 10:19). That is true humiliation!

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Instructors imply that Jesus failed! He didn’t really botch the job, but he didn’t finish it either! He has to come back and fight Satan again! Despite these teachings, he did the job better than we’ll ever understand in this life. The biggest fault of instructors today is they are afraid to give Jesus too much credit. If I’m going to be in error, I’d rather be in error on the side of giving him too much credit, than too little credit.

We have absolute authority over Satan! There is ‘no contest.’ Satan cannot touch us if we live in gospel truth. If we don’t live in gospel truth, he can only (1) roar, and (2) blind minds to the power of the glorious gospel of your overcoming authority. The gospel gives us this astounding authority — but we must believe it, receive it and live it, it to know the REALITY of it!

In Galatians 4:9 Paul says it is important to know God. Then he stops and reconsiders this, and adds that it is more important to be known BY God. This same principle applies to spiritual authority. It is more important to be known BY Satan, than it is to know all his tactics.

It’s important to know the foundation of anything.
The foundation of our spiritual authority
is knowing, believing and living the truth of the gospel.
Let’s now look at the Bible passage that reveals this.

In Acts 19, there is a story of some people in spiritual warfare, trying to cast out a demon. They were even using the name of Jesus (which we know is vital). The demon beat them up and sent them running, saying, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul, — but who are YOU?”

We know why he said JESUS, but why PAUL? Why didn’t he say Peter, James or John? These were the big guns. They walked with Jesus the entire time of his ministry. They were the leaders.

Paul had killed Christians, and wasn’t with Jesus and the twelve. He was ‘the new kid on the block.’ He wasn’t a ‘seasoned pro’ like them. He says he wasn’t fit to be called an apostle. But now, here is the answer to this question. Paul had received revelation knowledge from God of the gospel.

The other disciples didn’t receive it. Paul received it. More than the others, Paul knew (1) the power of Christ’s finished work, and (2) who he was in Christ due to that finished work. Why? Because of revelation from God himself, that led him into living in the process of the gospel. Paul’s life’s work was the gospel.

Peter learned the gospel from Paul, when Paul confronted him (Gal 2). Peter talks about ‘THEY who preach the gospel to you’ (I Pet 1:12). He doesn’t even include himself. He knew what he knew about the gospel he had received from Paul. This was true of ALL of the disciples, — just as it is true of you and me!

SEE IT! Paul knew who he was in Christ: “As Jesus is, so am I in this world.” Because HE knew it, SATAN knew it too! This doesn’t mean he didn’t suffer hardship. He suffered a lot. What he said about God, could be said about Satan: “Satan knows me well.” Satan knew Paul had total authority. Satan couldn't touch Paul, like he could others who didn’t know and live gospel truth. This was because Paul believed, lived and preached the gospel. It was his lifelong ministry (Acts 20:24).

Paul knew the gospel was the power of God (Rom 1:16), and that Christ lived in him and through him (Gal 2:20). He knew he was greater than anything in this world — including the prince of this world (Satan).

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GOSPEL TRUTH #36

Here is the key: Learn and live gospel reality! Know who you are: “As Jesus is, so am I in this world,” — because of the finished work of the cross. If you live in gospel reality, Satan will not ask, “Who are YOU?”

Instead, he will say, “I know Jesus, I know Paul, and I know YOU!” The key to HIS knowing you is that you know who you are in Christ. The only thing that reveals who you are in Christ is the gospel: you are one with God, and you thus have total authority over Satan.

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Living by principles, discerning good from bad from The Tree of Knowledge will NEVER give you this revelation. The thought of Christians who know who they are in gospel truth gives Satan NIGHTMARES! So he blinds us to gospel truth (II Cor 4:4).

In I Corinthians 2 it says Satan would not have crucified Jesus had he known what was going to happen to him. This is also talking about the principalities and powers of the day — the Pharisees. But who ruled in the lives of the Pharisees who were conformed to worldly religion? Satan mainly only works through people. He rarely manifests himself except by means of flesh and blood human beings.

Now, let’s look at HOW we should wage spiritual warfare,
in the truth and the power of the gospel of Christ.
We do this by telling and teaching Satan gospel truth.
If we do this, then HE knows that WE know gospel reality,
and who we are in Christ.

Consider Ephesians 3:10: “In order that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in heavenly places.” This says three things: (1) The subject is the manifold wisdom of God, which Paul says is the gospel. (2) It is to be made known to Satanic powers. (3) The church is to make it known. Who is the church? We are part of the church: you and me.

If we know ALL the things freely given to us in Christ (I Cor 2:12), this includes spiritual authority. Living by faith is living the gospel (Phil 1:7). It is knowing who you are in Christ (I John 4:17), and that Christ lives out through you (Gal 2:20). It is to know that Christ is your life (Col 3:4).

Satan believes the gospel more than we do (Jam 2:19). Thus we are called not just to believe it, but to experience it and live it in daily reality.

But if YOU tell him about the gospel, and make it known to him, then he knows YOU know it. If he knows that YOU know it, his regard for you is 100-fold. He says, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul, — and I know you too!” The gospel is the foundational power of spiritual authority which rules in spiritual warfare! In this we have all the power of the glory of God in dealing with deliverance, healing, signs, wonders, etc.

We lawyers are keen on spotting the real issues in any case. If we don’t see the real issue, we know we’ll lose our case. If we follow rabbits, as important as those rabbits may be, we are majoring in minors. Applied to spiritual warfare, the biggest issue is believing the gospel. The biggest job Satan has is to deceive us, turn our attention from the gospel and to blind our minds to the reality of it (II Cor 4:4). The real battle is gospel belief. The greatest temptation we face from Satan is to live life in some other way than the process of gospel belief and reality.

Why is this true? It is because, if we live in the reality of the gospel, we see there really is LITTLE real spiritual warfare! Warfare occurs between two enemies where neither one is in control and authority, and they both want control and authority. This is NOT what the gospel of the New Testament says about us and Satan, is it?

See it again: Jesus destroyed the works of Satan. He triumphed over him thoroughly and made a public spectacle of him. He was kicked out of heaven, where he can no longer accuse us before God’s throne. He didn’t just fall from heaven. Jesus says he fell ‘like lightning.’ This means God kicked him out on his butt! He is a roaring lion because that’s ALL he can do: ROAR. He is declawed and he has no teeth!

Now, does Satan still have an inroads into us? YES! If we walk ‘The Dirt Road’ of unbelief, or living life by religious principles, he has a lot he can do in our lives because we’re on the wrong road. The road leads to heaven, and eternity, — but our earthly life is hell. If we live the reality of ‘The Gospel Road,’ in total belief in Christ’s finished work, we live secure in gospel truth and power: the glory and presence of God. Here, Satan is powerless. And don’t miss this: and he knows it!

The term ‘spiritual warfare’ does not exist in the Bible, at least as we think of it, and are taught by instructors. Warfare is about (1) faith and (2) a good conscience (I Tim 1:18-19). It is gospel truth that gives us a good confidence before God (I John 3:21).

Confidence before God results in confidence before Satan.
The gospel is what gives us confidence before God
— and both confidence, and total authority over Satan.
Nothing else rates honorable mention.