"SATAN'S AUTHORITY"

Colossians 2:11-15: "Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It's not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you're already in-insiders-not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin. If it's an initiation ritual you're after, you've already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as he did Christ. When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive-right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ's cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets."

I posted this Scripture on my Stephen's Gate Facebook page yesterday. I wanted to write something yesterday that would not only encourage, but excite and ignite, and I want to do the same with this week's Stephen's Gate.

First of all, the answer to the title, satan has no authority. What I want you to see this week is where and when his authority was stripped away. All of our freedom, all of our authority started at the cross. All things in this Christian life should point back to the cross. I love the above passage in The Message translation.

Our old arrest warrant was cancelled and nailed to the cross. Does that mean life is easy? It sure doesn't, but it means that the warrant that the enemy has out with your name on it, it's been nailed to the cross. When the devil reminds you of your past, remind him that you have an advocate, and that old arrest warrant has been cancelled.

I especially love that last sentence. "He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets." If you study this you find that back in this day, anytime there was a battle, the losing general would literally be stripped naked and paraded through the streets as a sign that he no longer had anymore authority. The devil and all of his spiritual tyrants thought they had won when Jesus was nailed to the cross, when actually, all authority was stripped from the devil and his tyrants. They were paraded through the streets as a sign that they no longer have authority over those who believe and call Jesus Lord.

Here's the key to walking in this freedom. It's found in verse 11: "Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve." It's not about what we do, it's all about what He's done.

I know there are some of you reading this that are struggling with your salvation. You are struggling with your freedom, your struggling with the attacks of the enemy. I want to encourage you and ignite you today. Your salvation is not about your works, it's about His works. Your freedom is not about what you do to achieve freedom but about what He did so that you can be free. The attacks of the enemy are real, and we can't avoid them. But, what we can be confident in is the fact that the attacks have no authority. All authority was stripped away at the cross.

So, go ahead, tell satan and all of his demons to move along, they have no authority in your life! Remind him that he was stripped of his sham authority at the cross! It's time for you to take the authority over your situations that you were given because of the cross and declare freedom in your life!

Listen to this song and be blessed!

Michael W. Smith "Shout Unto God" [A New Hallelujah]