The Lord wants to teach us about His authority and His fullness so that we can move into what He has for us. His authority and His fullness are really the issue in this day. Our adequacy is never an issue unless we make it one. If we keep feeling adequate, He has to make us feel inadequate, because our moving in God has to be based upon our sense of His sufficiency and fullness in us.
People wonder why they go through certain difficulties as they start to serve God. When God gives a man a promise of a place of ministry, He first makes that man feel wretched. God does this to bring him to the end of self-sufficiency, pride, and arrogance, which are evidences of a religious spirit. When God reveals what a man is to be and to do, the old religious flesh says, “Give me a few minutes, Lord, and I will whip it up for You. I know how to put it together. I can do it!” Serving God cannot be done that way. If a man does something that way, his efforts are like adding synthetic ingredients. The end result is not a living thing.
God wants us to repent of the dead works that come from ourselves, and to enter into His living works. This is not easy, because we must constantly fight the tendency to become adequate and efficient in ourselves. Too often we rely on experience, thinking that we know what to do. This is a problem that some of the young pastors face as they try to lead God’s people. They start to come forth with some degree of success, and then they feel that they automatically know how to do certain things; yet they ought to have a complete dependence upon the Lord in everything they do. Those who feel like professionals need to know that God is getting rid of the professionals in His present moving in the earth. People who want to walk with God must go through some kind of dealing that will put them into a total dependence upon the Lord, an absolute total dependence upon His sufficiency and His adequacy. If they do not come into that holy place in God, they will not survive spiritually.
A pastor may find himself continually under the dealings of the Lord and repenting that the Lord has to deal with him that way. There is a good reason for this; where ministry is concerned, a pastor must have integrity. He must constantly look to the Lord for what He wants and not allow anyone else to influence him. There must be an integrity in the ministry, and even though there must be confirmation from others, it should not be according to human reasoning. It should be an honest confirmation by the Spirit of the Lord. Something in a true pastor’s heart wants to be submissive and say, “Yes, Lord,” when he hears others speak a Word of the Lord. He should fear a day dawning in which he would automatically go about doing things because he thinks he knows how they ought to be done.
In whatever God sets before you, be faithful to trust Him and to draw from Him. That must be done, or you will go the way of the professionals in denominations. The moving of God upon the earth today is not a denomination; therefore, the Lord will constantly deal with your heart so that you do not become a professional. Do not become so experienced that you automatically know what to do. This is a serious matter. Do not ever reach the point where you serve God by habit, by experience, by what you know, and by your wisdom.
We will never be God’s creative people until He tells us what to create. Experience can teach us how to handle situations as we did in the past, but the changing scene demands that we know how to cope with things that the world has never seen before. Experience has no value when we are dealing with situations that have never existed from the foundation of the world until this time. We will face situations which have never been faced before. No one in the whole world has passed this way before.
In Paul’s letter to the Colossians, we can learn the importance of Christ’s authority and our submission to it. Paul wrote, For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:13–14. Notice that Paul was speaking about transference. It is very important to realize that a transference takes place when a man accepts the Lord, bowing His knees to Christ’s authority, and saying, “Jesus, You are my Lord.” Christ lifts that man, while he is on his knees bowing to Him as Lord, and He transfers him into God’s Kingdom. Probably this is the most significant thing that happens at the time of conversion, at the time of submission to His Lordship.
What does it mean to be transferred? A man may work for a certain company and be transferred to another district. Though he is working under a different set of circumstances, it is still the same company. However, when a man is transferred out of the domain of darkness, he is then in the Kingdom of God’s Son. God says, in effect, “Anyone who bows to My Son I will transfer into the Kingdom.” The instant that people bow their knees totally and say, “He is my Lord,” they are transferred into His Kingdom. From that time on they live under a different exposure. Satan may fight them just as hard, but he does not have any right to fight them. The minute they are in the Kingdom of God’s Son, they are in the realm of Christ’s victory. That makes the difference. In the domain of darkness, before people submit to the Lord, the devil has far more occasion and jurisdiction to harm and harass them. Often he does less, because there is no purpose in it as long as people are where he wants them. However, once they are in the Kingdom of God’s Son, seeking first His Kingdom and being submissive to the Lord, they are in another area of jurisdiction. It is like passing over the border line and into another country.
In the old Western movies, the sheriff sometimes chased the bandit across the Rio Grande River and on into Mexico. Then he would take off his badge because he had no authority in Mexico. Though he still wanted to capture that bandit, he had no right to do so. The sheriff then had to face the bandit, man to man, without any governmental jurisdiction behind him. So, also, Satan can pursue us, but whenever he pursues us into the Kingdom of God, he approaches us as a defeated foe. He comes into the territory where someone can put a heel on his head. Here he has no jurisdiction—not that he ever really had any jurisdiction anywhere, but he operates a little more freely where he has the hearts of men under his control.
There is a power over Satan that you have in Christ. All authority belongs to Christ, in every realm of heaven and in every realm of earth. Satan only has his leverage where people are bound to him by sin and by their lack of dedication to the Lord. When you serve the Lord, Satan does not have dominion over you. Although you can never be arrogant in your approach to Satan, you dwell in the territory where you can say, “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ’s Kingdom, in which I am a resident, I have dominion over you. You are an intruder. You are preying upon something that you have no right to prey upon.” In spiritual warfare Satan does not have the right to do what he is doing, and so we must put an end to it. We must constantly say, “Satan, you are not going to do what you are doing, because we are going to put an end to it by doing what we are doing.” There is a certain wisdom behind this that we must grasp.
In Colossians 1:16 Paul said, For in Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. Let us keep that very much in mind, when we are talking about where we are going and what we are going to do. All we should try to do is to enforce what Christ has won. We are the ones who manifest it. Everything has been made by Him and for Him. All authority and every dominion belong to the Lord. We are to try to win back everything for Him. It all belongs to the Lord. We are simply to claim what is His.
Many times men have lived frugally and have become wealthy, only to have their children spend all their money. That illustrates the way that Christ opened up the door for us to receive what He has won. All authority—over all things—was committed to Him in heaven and on earth! Now we must appropriate it. It is not as simple a matter as having a lawyer hand it over to us. It does not happen that way. The Holy Spirit first reveals to us the things that are ours. Then we can move into them and possess them. We possess them for Him, because they are His. We do not possess them, saying, “These things are mine!” We cast out the enemy and say, “These things are His!”
Our appropriation is not a matter of our becoming wealthy. We must not desire to become wealthy. We need only to see that the Lord gets what belongs to Him. We must seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, but not for personal advantage or gain. We must claim that anything the Lord brings forth is His. Satan is not to have it. All the dominions and thrones and powers were created for the Lord. We are to move in and say, “This belongs to the Lord!” The devil will fight us, but we can just blow the whistle and present him with an eviction notice. Wherever the usurper squats, we must push him off because it belongs to the Lord. We will be able to displace him from the whole earth this same way as we say, “This belongs to the Lord!” We are not even to be personally concerned about which personalities are in governmental offices. Our only concern must be the fact that Christ is governing all. Everything must be for the Lord, not for ourselves. We have no responsibility except to see that the usurper is replaced.
In Colossians 2:10 Paul again spoke of authority and rule: In Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority. Do you see that you are complete in Him who is the head over all rule and authority? When you submit to a man’s authority, it is not to him as a person. He has no authority in himself as a person. The only authority he can move in is that which comes through his submission to the Lord who has delegated a commission of authority to him. When the Lord says, “Do this,” in submission he does it. However, he need never be defensive concerning another’s submission to his authority. It is not a matter of submission to him personally, but of submission to the Lord. A man’s submission is between him and the Lord. If he refuses to be submissive, it should not matter personally to the one in authority. He has no point to prove, because it is not his personal authority anyway. But if a man crosses the Word that God gives, he will find that Christ’s authority is being wielded.
When you submit to the authority of a true New Testament ministry, you are not submitting to man. It is Christ’s authority. Although the human vessel seems to be very obvious, as you submit he should do a quick sidestep and not accept your submission in a wrong way. You are not submissive to him as a man; you are submissive to the Christ who delegates and commissions authority. That is the attitude to have toward the elders and the pastors. Their personality traits should be of no concern. Where God has commissioned and delegated authority, it is very real.
In Ephesians 5:21 Paul tells us to submit ourselves to one another in the fear of the Lord. Sometimes it is very difficult to submit to ministries who have begun to govern areas in which you have had more experience. If God has them in a position of authority, then that is the way God wants it. They may make a lot of mistakes, but the Lord will refine the way they move. Just be thankful and submissive. Do not reach in and try to steady things, as Uzzah did when he tried to steady the ark of God and dropped dead (II Samuel 6:6–7). When less experienced brothers move in authority, everything may be shaken to such an extent that it appears to be toppling over. But that does not matter, because Christ has the rule and dominion; and whoever he wants to set in authority over His people is His business. Let us be submissive to whatever He wants.
In Christ you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority. Remember that as long as you feel adequate, you will be inadequate. As long as you feel complete, you will be incomplete. But the day that you claim that completeness that is in Him, you will be complete. The prelude to His completeness is the feeling of your own inadequacy and the refusal to do something to become adequate in yourself. Always seek to be adequate in what the Lord works and in His provision.
In Colossians 2:15 we read, When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. God did this when He triumphed over them through His Son. However there is another way to interpret this verse. The preceding verse speaks about the cross, telling how God took all the ordinances that were against us and nailed them to the cross. Verse 15 in the King James Version concludes, triumphing over them in it. The word it refers to the cross. Regardless of the interpretation, it is the work of the Father doing it. The better idea seems to be that the Father did this by nailing everything that was against you to the cross with Christ. The Father was pleased to triumph over all these things through His Son who was on the cross. If we have that concept of this Scripture, then we can begin to appreciate what the cross of Jesus Christ really means. It is our victory. Then when we go through an experience of the cross, we are coming into the victory of Jesus. We are coming out of the flesh, with its defeat, and into the Spirit, with His victory.
When you go through a real work of the cross, thank God for it. It is reason to jump up and down, to shout and praise God. It means that you are coming into the victory over the satanic principalities and powers, over your flesh, over everything within you that could respond or be defeated by the enemy. The work of the cross works a death, but it also brings you into the realm of total victory. The only death that you die is a sensitivity to Satan in the realm where God is trying to work. You die to that.
Do you wish you were dead? When you go through the cross experience, you are dying. You are dying to an area of sensitivity to the flesh and to Satan, and to the powers that he wields and the way he maneuvers. You will have no immunity as long as you are alive and sensitive to areas of oppression. The work of the cross causes you to die to oppression and makes you ready to enter into the exposure of life in Christ—the life that belongs to those who have died to the responses of this world.
When we have won the victory over the cross experience, then we can pursue Satan as he comes to assault us in all the different realms where he has had some control and oppression over our lives, even in realms of outside circumstances and finances. We can pursue him in the realm of our physical nature and gain the victory over all the oppressions and afflictions that he tries to bring to us. We can pursue him in the psychic realm of our soul, so that there is no emotional harassment in which he can overcome us. We can pursue him into a victory over every aspect of all the areas where he has had access to us, one after another.
We are not crucified because it is the will of Satan. We go through the work of the cross because we submit to it. When Christ went through His cross, He said, “No man takes My life from Me. I lay it down of Myself. And I have power to take it up again (John 10:18). Going through the work of the cross is a matter of dedication. This is the purpose for which we have come forth to this hour—that we lay our lives down. We let the grain of wheat fall on the ground and die, because we do not want to abide alone. We want to move into the realm of unlimited fruitfulness, and so we do this. Satan does not do this to us.
Remember that there were twelve legions of angels that could have torn Christ from the cross and killed the entire Roman government (Matthew 26:53). In one blow they could have gone through the land and left a trail of blood in every place. But Jesus said, “I lay My life down.” When Judas came with a band of soldiers and chief priests and Pharisees to capture Jesus, and He said, “I am He,” they fell back on the ground. That happened as just a little token to show that although they were able to take Him and crucify Him, they were only doing what God had predetermined should be done. Neither Pilate nor anyone else had the power to take His life. Jesus had all the authority, and He laid His life down in order that He could win. When He was being crucified He had the dominion over all authority. All rule was right there. It is your voluntary submission to death that positions you in the realm of His perfect victory. Your submitting is the only way you can win.
When Satan came against Christ in the wilderness, he tempted Christ, who was hungry, to turn stones into bread. He tried to get Him to move in the authority that He had, so that He would deliver Himself from the course that God had ordered. Christ won that victory over any temptation to ever deliver Himself. He would not deliver Himself from the cross or from anything else. In facing the crucifixion, He prayed a simple prayer: “Father, deliver Me; yet not My will, but Thine be done.” He never was going to make a decision Himself that would use His authority and power to create a miracle or to do anything to deliver Himself out of the course that the Father had ordered for Him. What a lesson this is for us when we sometimes wiggle and squirm, trying to get out of the course that God has ordered, and we say, “This is disaster!” If it is ordered of the Lord, it is not disaster. It is the Kingdom.
Technically, everything belongs to the Father, and the Father has committed it to the Son. Then what right did Satan have to say to Christ when he tempted Him, “I will give You all the kingdoms of the world if You will worship me.” Satan’s claims can be illustrated by the story of the evil villain who appears with the mortgage papers and claims the old homestead which is his by default. God committed creation to Adam and Eve; but by default, through man’s sin, all creation was subjected to futility, waiting for the mortgage lifter to come. Christ came to pay off the mortgage with His death and thus free all creation.
Satan only has squatter’s rights. He is the usurper. He has moved into a place to which he has no legal access. But all laws, even on the human plane, maintain that if you squat so many years on an area, it is recognized as yours. That is why some of the early Western ranchers would threaten to kill squatters; if they were allowed to stay long enough, they would have legal rights to the land. In the same way, if the public uses a road for a certain length of time, it becomes public domain.
When you are going through the cross experience, and people begin to hoot and holler at you, it is difficult to withstand the temptation to deliver yourself and go down and really show them that it is not fair, that it is not right. When you are dying, that is the time that men will revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely. Jesus says that then you are to rejoice and be exceedingly glad, because you are right on course. That is what happened to the great prophets of God who were before you (Matthew 5:10–12). The spirit of independence and the spirit of isolation will work against you. Self-preservation will rise up, saying, “Save yourself! Save yourself!” Then you must use your authority and your will and set self to die. That death wish, coming from the new creation, must be as great as your desire to be risen with Christ and to seek the things that are above.
If Satan can prolong the process of death interminably, we will never reach a state of resurrected life, because we have to die before we can be resurrected. Unless a grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it abides alone. So if Satan keeps you dying, dying, dying a little bit every day, he is very happy while you are very miserable; and resurrection never occurs.
In I Corinthians 15:31 Paul said, “I die daily.” This has often been misinterpreted. Paul was saying, “After the manner of men I die daily.” He was speaking about facing persecution. In other words, every day he faced that which should have killed him physically. He was not talking about a spiritual death; he was talking about how he lived in continual jeopardy, that he died every day in the threat of it. There has to be a possibility of reaching into an experience that does not have to be repeated every day. When your Goliath falls, the best thing to do is to chop off his head, as David did. Then you will know for sure that he is dead, and you will not have to go through the same experience again.
Be encouraged to die, because there is a rest that you get when the end of the fleshly struggle comes. You have a lot less to prove. You can never become something else until you stop being what you are. The people of God will never be sons until they stop being children. There is something in a child that grows into sonship, and in that you can rejoice. You can say, like Paul, “Once I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things.” Why do you put away the childish things? Something in you dies to them. You have to die to childish interests. Something of the child dies. You do not kill the child in order to get a mature son; but in a real sense, something actually dies. The son stops playing with blocks. He stops his irresponsible compulsion just to play and have fun, and he enters into the disciplines of facing another world. He lives in another world. Many times he does not even want to look back at the old life. So in a sense he dies. And that is what you must go through. You must die so that you can become alive.