There are no “pacifists” in the military sense in God’s economy – with Satan you cannot make peace or shake hands. Satan is incorrigible, incurable, and he will never change.
Spiritual warfare is necessary, and spiritual warfare is a reality because Satan’s will is SET against God’s will! God has a will (see Eph. 1), but another being rose up and said, I WILL (Ezek. 14)!
God will never lower Himself to deal with a rebellious creature directly – He uses another creature, man, to deal with Satan.
We have been created in the image of God and with His likeness to express God and represent Him – we have the privilege to express God and defeat His enemy, to recover the whole earth back to God!
Our Will Being in Harmony with God’s Will
Since the source of the war in the universe is the clash of the two wills, the divine will and the satanic will, we as human beings need to take sides.
Our will needs to be recovered and subdued that it may be in harmony with God. As our will is attuned to God’s will and even is God’s will, we can stand with God for the execution of His will and for the defeating of the satanic will.
What a privilege, to execute God’s will on earth by being one with His will! We shouldn’t look at ourselves, we shouldn’t believe or be hindered by our stubbornness – the Lord Jesus is able to save us to the uttermost, to the full extent!
His salvation is reaching the level of our will to subdue, conquer, and defeat your will so that your will would be in harmony with His will to defeat the satanic will!
Once this happens, once the Lord’s salvation is spreading to our will to bring it in harmony with His will, we know God’s will and we want God’s will to be done! We then genuinely pray,
Lord, may Your will be done in my life! Whatever You want, Lord, as long as it is what You will, I say AMEN! I am happy for You to accomplish Your will in my life. I am here for You, and I have no other way to live but in Your perfect will!
It All Begins with A Decision
It all begins with a decision to align ourselves with God’s will and allow Him to operate in us to subdue our will and make it one with His will.
We are chosen and predestinated according to the good pleasure of God’s will, but we were damaged and became rebellious and disobedient to God. Now, in His organic salvation, the Lord wants to daily recover us and make us those who are one with Him in our whole being and especially in our will!
Don’t “promise the Lord” that you will do this or that – if you still promise Him things, this really shows you don’t know yourself. Just open to the Lord that He may work in you. Just take a decision,
Lord, I open to You! I choose Your will. Lord, work in me, and give me the experiences that I need that will cause my will to be subdued and brought into harmony with You!
And then, we just stand with the divine will and subdue the satanic will in Christ!
Spiritual Victory is Based on the Victory of Christ
If we realize that there’s a war in the universe and we give ourselves to the Lord to daily live in the divine history within the human history, we will also see that spiritual warfare is based on the victory of Christ (see Heb. 2:14; Col. 2:15; 1 John 3:8).
The starting point of the spiritual warfare is not our merit, our skills, or our ability to fight the enemy. The starting point of spiritual warfare is standing upon the victory of Christ.
Christ has already overcome, He is the Victor, and we stand upon His victory to exercise His victory over His enemy (S.S. 4:8; Rev. 3:21; 5:5-6). Here are some of the ways Christ has overcome – read these, read the verses, say Amen, believe them, and stand on Christ’s victory!
- Christ as the Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). He destroyed Satan’s work when He was on the earth and He is still doing this today.
- In His incarnation and human living, Christ defeated Satan during the temptation in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11). Christ defeated Satan as a MAN by standing on the word of God! Christ is the Victor!
- Through His death the Lord Jesus destroyed the devil who has the might of death; He abolished Satan, brought him to nought (Heb. 2:14). Hallelujah, Satan has been abolished and done away with! We stand on this accomplished fact! Christ is Victor!
- God openly shamed the evil angels, triumphing over them in the cross of Christ (Col. 2:15). Satan thought he nailed Jesus to the cross, but the Lord openly shamed him and his angels through His cross!
- In the Spirit as His divinity, Christ proclaimed, to the evil spirits in the abyss, His victory over Satan on the cross (1 Pet. 3:18-19). What did Christ proclaim? He proclaimed the victory achieved by God – through Christ’s death on the cross God destroyed Satan and his power of darkness!
- The resurrected Christ has the keys of death and of Hades (Rev. 1:18). Death is a collector and Hades is a keeper – but now, the keys of death and of Hades are in the hands of our Savior Lord Jesus, who died and was resurrected!
- In His ascension Christ led a train of vanquished foes; He rescued us from Satan’s captivity and took us to Himself (Eph. 4:8). This shows that Christ conquered and overcame Satan and took his captives as His captives – Satan is defeated, and we are now Christ’s captives!
- Christ is the Lion of the tribe of Judah and He is the Victor, the Ruler of the kings of the earth (Rev. 5:5-6; 1:5)! In God’s universal administration Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, is the Victor and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. As the Lion, He’s the fighter against the enemy; as the Lamb, He’s the Redeemer for us. Hallelujah for our Lion-Lamb!
Today we fight against God’s enemy with our will in harmony with God’s will by standing in Christ’s victory! We are not here fighting offensively but defensively – Christ already fought the battle and He has won the victory, now we simply maintain the Lord’s victory!
Hallelujah, Christ is Victor! We proclaim His victory, stand in His victory, and apply His victory over His enemy! This is what we were created for – to express the Lord we love and to destroy the enemy and recover the earth – and we will do it!
Lord, we praise You! Praise the Lord! We stand one with You, Lord, our will in full harmony with Your will. Your will be done on earth! We stand in Your victory and we apply Your victory to defeat the enemy and put him to open shame! Your will be done in all the major cities in Europe! Your kingdom come! Spread the gospel of the kingdom all throughout Europe to gain Your mighty ones!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from brother Ron Kangas’ speaking in this message and portions from The Glorious Church (by Watchman Nee, chs. 3-4), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of the Minor Prophets, week 6 (entitled, The Descent of the Mighty Ones).
- Hymns on this topic:
# Hallelujah, Christ the Victor / Triumphed on Mt. Calvary! / Hallelujah, resurrected, / He displays His victory!
# Hallelujah! Christ is Victor, / Tell with every breath, / That the Savior still is conqu’ror / Over sin and death.
# Victory through Christ’s resurrection / The victory is won! / Praise Him for what He has done / The victory is won! - Picture source: personal picture, London canal, Uxbridge.
No pacifists! Now that's the massage for us today! We have a tendency towards pacifism,its in our blood.Lord, get us fully involved in the "Boot camp of Life"
Amen! No compromise, no peace treaty, no politics, no pacifist, and no shaking hands. Satan will never change, and God's will will triumph! Our tendency toward pacifism is actually a tendency toward compromise!
But with God there's NO COMPROMISE. He wants ALL or NOTHING. From our side, He gains us and then – as we allow Him – He saturates our inward being with our mind, emotion, and will, with Himself, subduing us and bringing us into harmony with Himself!
I was really impressed how crucial our WILL is in this process….