Are you tired of being within range for Satan to harass you? Satan is completely defeated, but there are areas in which Satan is still allowed to move; and that is by divine design.
If you want to be free from his assault, you have to move into an area where he has been cast out. Then you will be immune from his assault. Although you live on the plane where he is working, you can be lifted up to another spiritual level where Satan does not have access to you. There is a place where Satan can touch us not. Let us examine a few Scriptures which establish that fact.
John 12:27–31: “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Thy name.” There came therefore a voice out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The multitude therefore, who stood by and heard it, were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, “An angel has spoken to Him.” Jesus answered and said, “This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes. Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world shall be cast out.”
John 14:30: “I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.”
There was no way that Satan could touch Jesus Christ. Do not think that Satan crucified Jesus. When the prince of the world came, there was nothing in Christ that he could touch.
According to the prayer in the fourth chapter of Acts, those who crucified Christ did only what the Father had predetermined was to be done. The cross was not an accident. The crucifixion was planned by the heavenly Father, not by the devil. The wicked one found nothing in Jesus Christ. Satan had already been defeated, as far as Jesus Christ was concerned.
In John 16 we read that the Holy Spirit was to come for certain purposes, and one of them was “concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” Verse 11.
I John 3:8b is a familiar verse which says, The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
Then we read in Hebrews 2:14–15, Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.
It is very evident that Jesus came for one express purpose: to destroy Satan, to destroy the works of the devil, and to bring judgment upon the prince of this world.
In the book of Luke, another passage of Scripture helps establish an important point. The seventy returned, rejoicing over all of the things that had been done, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.”
Luke 10:17–19. The seventy disciples had a commission. When they moved into that realm, Jesus said He beheld something that happened. Their obedience to use the authority of the Lord Jesus, to heal the sick and to cast out devils, resulted in that which Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning.”
Revelation 12:7–12: And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. And the dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death. For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea; because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.”
The defeat that Satan suffered is found in the Gospels’ account of Satan’s temptation of Christ in the wilderness. Christ’s consistent defeat of Satan lowered Satan’s access to the heavenly realm where he once even had the ear of God to accuse the brethren day and night.
He no longer has that; for when Christ ascended on high, it meant that Satan was cast down from heaven. Satan had not only been a usurper of the ear of the world, until he was called the prince of this world (John 12:31); but he had access to the spirit realm that was involved with this world. Therefore, he could constantly bring not only the defeat of individuals, but also accusations against them.
Now the opposite is true. Who is going to accuse us now? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Romans 8:33–34.
The Father does not hear a man’s story about you; He hears the Savior say, “I died for them.” “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death.” Revelation 12:11a.
In this day, believers are in an entirely different position. A great deal of the victory has already taken place. All the raging and appearing to be such an active satanic activity on earth is true, but if you could see into the spirit realm and see into the third heaven, you would find that Satan no longer has access there. He has been cast down from that place. Now he rages against the inhabitants of the earth, knowing that he has only a short time here. From here he will be cast into the bottomless pit, sealed there for a thousand years (Revelation 20:1–3).
If it were possible, Satan would cause a mass suicide or start some kind of war in which everyone on earth would be destroyed. In fact, the Lord warned that unless these days are shortened, there will be no flesh saved alive (Matthew 24:22).
And so we have to war against the timetable of the devil. We have to hit him, but the only way to come against him is from a place of supremacy over him where he cannot touch us. That is the only way to fight a war.
If we fight the enemy on the field, we can be easily hurt. It is better to be up where the enemy cannot reach us, but where we can still aim at him.
We can be hit if we live too much on the earthly realm, if we do not assume the victory that is ours in Christ. We must move to be seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. If we are not conscious and aware of our victory in Christ, we are without victory.
Spiritual attributes are possessed as you develop an awareness of them, an awareness that God has provided for you. They are promised to you. The Lord provided everything for you; and in becoming aware and assuming it all, you can rise in faith. Above the assault of the enemy, you can turn the tide of battle and hit him hard.
You can stand with the Son of God at the right hand of the Father, seated with Christ in the place where He is above all rule and authority, and has a name that is above every other name. What can you do from that position? You can use the name of Jesus Christ.
When the seventy, whom Jesus commissioned, went out to do such great feats, it is interesting to note that Jesus saw Satan fall from the heavenly realm over that area.
By divine commission, they had a great deal of immunity. I do not think the enemy hit them, and yet I do not think it was a permanent immunity, because we do not hear of the seventy continuing on in that spiritual immunity. Authority was designated to them for a specific function. It was a commission to do a job. They did it, and then the authority rested back on Christ.
Today we are to have the impartation of authority that is to be permanent if we follow Christ. Remember what Peter said to the Lord: “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?” And Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Matthew 19:27b–28.
That principle operated for the disciples, but it also operates for every believer who follows Christ in the work of the cross. You have to follow Him through the things that He sets before you.
James and John wanted that place of rule. When their mother asked Jesus if they could sit on His right and left hand, He asked, “Can you drink the cup I am about to drink?” They answered, “We are able.” Then He said, “My cup you will drink, but to sit on My right and on My left is for those who have been prepared by My Father” (Matthew 20:20–23). You will have to drink that cup of Christ. You will have to receive the baptism that Christ was baptized with. You will have to go through the testing’s of following Him. You will have to be baptized with fire.
Do not spend time down on the lower level where the enemy can hit you. Rise up where he cannot reach you and where you, in turn, can be very effective in doing the will of God and in binding the power of the enemy. We will no longer be harassed and held back and limited when we are walking with the Lord on the highest plane. On the highest plane, there will be the release. Intercession will be there. God has ordained our striving in intercession. It is the way that He has chosen for us to break through to a high level of immunity.
As God’s people prophesy judgment, every realm will be excluded to Satan. When we come into the Kingdom, everything will be different. We will come into such a pure love and perception that even the natural eye will be able to see things that cannot be seen now. The day will come in which we will know even as we are known (I Corinthians 13:12). We will be able to see the realm of the spirit. How limited we have been! The Lord is going to give us eyes to see the spirit world as clearly as we see the natural world. We will not be limited in anything, but we will see everything that the Father is doing.
The purer we are, the better we will see. Matthew 5:8 gives us an amazing truth which is a basic law and principle of the Kingdom: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Some Christians are not aware of the moving of the Lord; and yet they seem to be very sharp to know what the devil is doing, because that is the level on which they are living. They live on the lower level where those vibrations are visible, and so they react to them.
Anyone who is really walking with God must have a special gift of the Holy Spirit to discern what the devil is doing, because they are not walking on that lower level where suspicion exists. They do not have that natural tendency on a human plane. Instead, they are living up on the higher level with a purity of heart that does not try to accuse anyone. He is always thinking about the things that are of good report. They look to see what God is doing.
It would be worthwhile to ask God for a deliverance from wanting to see what is wrong with people. Seek to find what God is doing in them. Strengthen the gifts and the ministry, and begin to rise to that place where you can see God in them. This will happen by the work of the cross within your own life. The more you become pure in your heart, the more you can see God. If you are not able to see Him very well, then you need to rise up to the realm where God will be real to you and the wicked one will not be able to touch you.
Through earnest worship you can rise before God in the majesty of His presence to the place that is effective in warfare. There is no other place where you have as much authority over the enemy as that place of worship, before God’s very throne. From that place, you can rise out of your present situation, where you have been hit by the enemy, and become a worshiper who can bomb all the assaults of the devil.
Open your heart to the Lord, and let Him search your motivation, so that it will be right before Him. Your heart must be pure. Purity opens up the realm where spiritual truths are known, where the things of God are clearly discerned. The pure in heart will see God, and they will not be harassed by the enemy.
Revelation 12:4–5 tells how the dragon was ready with his snapping jaws to devour the manchild as it was born; but immediately the manchild was caught up to a place of rule. There is no other way for that which is being born of God to survive, except that as soon as it comes forth it must be taught to renounce sin, to renounce every unclean thing, and to rise up in the Spirit to be in the presence of the Lord. That is the only place we can survive, the only place of immunity, and the only place where we can triumph in warfare.
What does God have to do in order to bring us His victory? God does not have to do anything. Answers to our prayers may hang in abeyance, but not because of God’s reluctance. If God has His cannons aimed, He is not going to fire them as long as we are standing in front of the enemy. If He does, we will get hit. We have to rise above the range of fire.
If Satan has been progressively cast down, level after level, then we must rise, level after level. The higher we rise, the more we will be immune to him. How can we rise?
The early disciples could never have been disciples if in their spirits there had not been that which enabled them to forsake all—families, land, businesses, houses, everything. I do not know how they did it, but one thing I do know—discipleship has not changed one bit throughout the centuries.
We are like a helium balloon; we want to go higher. We have it within our spirits to go higher; therefore we have to cast out the ballast. We have moorings, ropes that tie us to lower levels. We have loyalties on the human level—family ties, business ties, and various circumstances. If only we could just say, “Lord, by Your Spirit, we will cut loose anything that prevents us from rising to the place of worship where You are everything.
Lord, You can break, in our minds and in our spirits, any conflicting loyalties or hindrances, any other interests, any other bonds, any other ties that keep us from a close walk with You.” This does not mean that we are not going to face responsibilities in all that God wants us to do in every situation; but it means that we are not going to be earthbound, not even by a sense of day-by-day responsibility.
A guideline for us is found in the parable of the sower. If the devil cannot take away the word, like the birds who take away the seed that has been sown, then he lets the thorns grow up—the cares, the riches and the pleasures of this life (Luke 8:5–14). Being concerned about too many cares or blessings will keep us tied to a lower level. Satan can then choke out the word.
We will not be fruitful until we resist the devil and open our hearts to the revelation of the word. Not only will we see it rooted in our hearts, but we will not allow anything to be in our lives which chokes out the word. Nothing must choke out our walk with God. One of the best things we can do is to say, “Lord, anything that hinders us, we are cutting it loose!”
Jesus said that if we do not hate father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and even our own lives in comparison with our love for Him, we cannot be His disciples. That is how intense we must be. Our hatred for Satan and for the things in our lives that hold us in the realm where he operates must be in the same category. We are going to be free; and we will see God because we will be pure.
Whenever you are limited in perception and cannot figure out what is happening, it means that you are not rising up in your dedication to the realm where spiritual things can become real to you. You are still earthbound. Cut the moorings loose, in the name of the Lord. They must be cut loose.
Are you ready to cast off all the mooring lines and everything that would hold you back, laying every relationship on the altar? A great percentage of people still praise and worship the Lord because they are trying to attain something from Him on a human level. They have a complaint, or they want something without having a pure motive.
Your motive must be pure so that you can move into a realm without one human hindrance standing in the way to slow you down. Rise up in worship, and proclaim your victory into being. Do not become harassed by sinking down to a human level where you say, “Come on, Satan. Come out of the corner and fight.” Look upon him as a defeated foe.
Move up into the realm where his defeat has already been manifested. He has already been thrown out of that realm. Rise up by worship; come closer and closer to the Lord. There your proclamations and claims can be made.
In Romans 16:20 we read that the God of peace will bruise Satan under our feet shortly. Even in spiritual warfare, we can feel a peace of spirit and an absence of emotion. This is what the Lord meant when He said, “Do not let your eye pity” (Ezekiel 9:5). “Do not hold back your sword from blood” (Jeremiah 48:10). Yet there is to be no spirit of vengeance in us, for He said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” Where your enemy is concerned, feed him and give him drink (Romans 12:19–20). You can actually come to the place of absolute peace, to the place where you refuse to fight on a natural plane. If you fight on a natural plane, you will be defeated because you have not accepted the victory of Christ. Move into the victory of Jesus Christ, and feel peace in your spirit.