Thanks for joining our discussion tonight on the subject of living life under the New Covenant. As we've already discussed, the Bible clearly lays out for us how life ought to be lived to the fullest and in all its ABUNDANCE (John 10:10). But we have to discover for ourselves INDIVIDUALLY how that happens, how to actually experience that fullness and abundance. Initially, it seems like a simple idea: go to the Word of God, turn to the New Testament, learn from it and then live life out of what we learn. But as it turns out, it usually doesn't work that way for several particular reasons:

 

* One, we bring into our Christianity a past HABIT of being spiritually lazy, so we don't make the necessary effort.

 

* Two, we therefore tend to overly rely on what others including clergy tell us about how to live the New Testament life.

 

* Three, we begin to pass on those opinions to other lazy believers and they soon become TRADITIONS.

 

* Four, there's a high incidence of ERROR in those TRADITIONS which HINDERS our ability to perceive TRUTH.

 

* Five, there's an enemy in our midst that's largely ignored and whose primary mission is to separate us from the TRUTH

by influencing us to adopt those TRADITIONS into our belief structure.

 

Last week we focused on the fact that in order for believers to experience the abundant Christian life that Jesus paid for, we have to ACKNOWLEDGE that there's indeed an enemy, that his name is Satan and that he's working 24/7 to make that life impossible. I said all that because I know by observation that MOST folks in the Body of Christ are either ignoring this enemy or denying his existence or blaming God for not rescuing them when the devil's on the attack. Amazingly, all these points of view can be observed in today's modern Church and they're ALL in disagreement with the New Testament.

 

So last week we emphasized that Satan is indeed mentioned extensively there in the New Testament and that he's an important factor to be dealt with in Christian life. He tried repeatedly to influence Jesus BEFORE the New Covenant actually went into effect (Matthew 4:1-11, 13:23), and he's present throughout the rest of the Bible up until the end (Revelation 20:10). There is NO scripture that says Satan ceased to operate after the formation of the early Church. On the contrary there are numerous warnings that he's a dangerous presence that future believers will have to deal with. He's a fallen angel who first appeared to Adam in the Garden of Eden as the serpent and he's working to nullify the authority of today's believer the same way he did with Adam and Jesus and Peter and Judas and Ananias and Paul and all the rest.

 

 

Now it's true that according to Scripture, Satan is called the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4) but you and I as believers aren't of this world (John 17:16) so he's no longer our god. We've ALREADY been rescued from the domain (the rule) of darkness and TRANSFERRED to the Kingdom of the one true Creator God (Colossians 1:13). That transfer happened the moment we accepted God's forgiveness and became a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). His Kingdom was reinstituted on the earth when a New Covenant was inaugurated at the Cross of Calvary and the ensuing Resurrection when God through Christ DISARMED Satan's rulers and authorities of darkness that had dominated the earth since the Garden and then made a "public display" of their defeat (Colossians 2:15). Until Satan is removed, that leaves us with two spiritual systems on the earth: the world system which Satan oversees and the Kingdom of God which Jesus oversees. Satan has ALREADY been defeated but he's been allowed to remain on the earth until every person in creation has had an opportunity to choose between life and death, between good and evil, between righteousness and unrighteousness, between Jesus and the World.

 

Notice that Satan has ALREADY been DISARMED. Read it for yourself: he was once armed but now he's DIS-armed. He used to have weapons he could use against those who believed in Creator God, BUT now he's DISARMED. He still rules over the world system, BUT he's not allowed to come into the Kingdom of God. And, if he's been DISARMED then he doesn't have any means to ever win a battle with believers unless WE allow him to win particularly when we try to do things according to the world system. That's why the Bible says that God ALWAYS leads us to triumph in Christ (2 Corinthians 2:14). The bottom line for the believer is to stay out of the world system and INSIDE the Kingdom of God where Jesus is.

 

Because of all this, James the half-brother of Jesus was able to give us the following instruction which I've reworded somewhat to hopefully deepen our understanding:

Notice that we have to RESIST the devil if we expect him to flee but that by the empowerment of God (grace) and Satan's previous defeat at Calvary, this enemy WILL flee if believers take the time and make the effort to RESIST him. Those who're suffering in life with chronic problems may be ignoring the actual cause of those problems, or denying the existence of the cause or blaming God for what Satan has caused. No friend, the Bible says that the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour and that we're to RESIST him so we can obtain the victory (1 Peter 5:6-10). The only question that remains is HOW we're supposed to go about RESISTING the enemy.

 

 

When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, He RESISTED him by quoting scripture and finally by COMMANDING him to depart (Matthew 4:1-11). This is our example for how to RESIST the enemy because Jesus said (in red letters) that believers are able to perform the same or even greater works than He performed (John 14:12). The Word says that Jesus has been given all authority on earth (Matthew 28:18) and that it's by faith in His NAME that His authority is released (Acts 3:6, 16, 4:10). Therefore, RESISTING the enemy amounts to simply audibly SPEAKING Scripture directly to the enemy and COMMANDING him to depart from us in the Name of Jesus: "Satan, depart from this place now in the Name of Jesus." If you feel sick, remind the enemy that you've been redeemed (Galatians 3:13) from the Curse of the Law (including sickness and disease) and command the enemy to take his symptoms off your body. You can also speak directly to the symptoms (as to the mountain in Mark 11:23) and command them to get off your body. When you encounter anything in your life that's in DISAGREEMENT with the Word of God, it's probably from the enemy and you can take authority over it in the Name of Jesus.

 

Finally, I want to point out that while Satan has been DISARMED, you and I have been ARMED with what the Bible calls the "armor of God to use against the schemes of the devil" (Ephesians 6:11). In other words, we're instructed to also RESIST the enemy by using certain spiritual weapons that will be effective because our struggle isn't against flesh and blood but against the rulers, powers, the world forces of darkness and the spiritual forces of wickedness that are all in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12). In other words, we've been equipped to ALWAYS defeat spiritual forces with spiritual weapons. We're instructed to use ALL six of those weapons and here's my considered explanation of them (Ephesians 6:14-17) that I hope will deepen our understanding:

 

* Girding your loins with Truth requires that we KNOW what truth is so we're not easily deceived.

* The breastplate of righteousness equates to the pursuit of a righteous lifestyle which increases spiritual perception.

* Trusting in the Gospel gives us the ability to maintain peace in the face of extended demonic confrontation.

* We use our faith, the stronger the better, as a shield to deflect the attacks of the enemy and make them ineffective.

* A Helmet of Salvation equates to having confidence that the outcome of any confrontation is victory for the believer.

* The Sword of the Spirit is the LIVING Word of God that's sharper and more powerful than the sharpest two-edged sword one could find in the natural realm.

 

 

In conclusion, there IS an enemy and his name is Satan. He rules over the world system and his objectives are: 1) to separate believers from the Word, and 2) to hinder us from achieving the ABUNDANT LIFE that Jesus has made available. Consequently, Christian life under the New Covenant is supposed to include a persistent confrontation with this enemy. Many Christians are ignoring his influence and live lives of defeat thinking that their winless struggles are the norm for Christian life. Others are praying and asking God to deliver them from their battles when He's already equipped us with all the weapons and authority we need to get the victory ourselves on every single occasion.

 

Until Jesus physically returns to earth, which He has promised to do (John 14:1-3), the Church is to OCCUPY the territory of the Kingdom on His behalf (Luke 19:13). The Greek behind the English word OCCUPY means "to do business." In other words, the job of the Church and the believers who make up the Church is "to do the business of the Kingdom" until Jesus returns. The job of the enemy is to disrupt that business as much as possible and make our lives miserable in the process so that we give up occupying.

 

It's time friend for the Church to RESIST this enemy so we can be good stewards of the Kingdom's business, so we can be good "occupiers" as we prepare for the return of our CEO in the near future. Hopefully you see more clearly now that we are REQUIRED to engage the enemy as a key aspect of life under the New Covenant. On the other hand, your reaction may be, "well, we don't do that in our church," or, "I don't feel comfortable confronting the enemy like you're describing." And my response is that I am presenting to you Scripture out of the New Testament of your Bible. This is the way our lives are supposed to be and our TRADITIONS and lack of understanding are rendering the Church way less effective than it should be. Who do you think is causing the persecution and tribulation coming from our government these days? Who do you think is blocking the REVIVAL everyone is praying for all the time? Are we going to go by TRADITIONS or by the Word of God? Try it and let's get busy defending the business of the Kingdom!

 

Thanks for joining our discussion tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on December 13. In the meantime may the Lord bless you with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), pushing you to VICTORY in every area of life!

 

 

If you've been edified by Prosperous Life Newsletter, please consider a LOVE offering to support the Ministry (Galatians 6:6-7). PLN is a nonprofit gift to the Body of Christ so your financial support should be tax deductible. Just go to the secure Shopping Cart on the Cornerstone web site by connecting through the following link.

 

 

 

If you've never invited Jesus to be your Lord, you can do so today by believing and saying out loud the following simple prayer:

 

 

If you were sincere as you prayed, God has already come into your life and you're a new creation, a totally new species recreated in His image. Now ask the Lord to lead you to a good faith-based, bible-teaching church where you can be equipped to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God.

 

When you get a moment have someone help you look up the following scriptures because they confirm what you've done by saying this prayer and believing what you said:

 

 

 

If you have a Prayer Request, please connect to the Link below and follow the promptings. The PLN staff members pray over Prayer Requests every Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM central time. Agree with us for God to answer your petitions.

 

 

 

PLN is an outreach of Make A Way Ministries, published continuously since January 1998. It's a FREE e-publication about life in the Kingdom of God and is sent to our email list of MEMBERS. If you're reading this and aren't on our list, please click on the MINISTRY WEBSITE link at the top of this article to find the PLN enrollment link.