Hallelujah, God will not tolerate Satan’s rebellion forever – He will establish His kingdom on earth by dealing with Satan’s rebellion through the church!
The Lord Jesus came to establish the kingdom of God among men on earth, so there’s a spiritual warfare between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan, for Satan rebels against God’s authority.
The Lord Jesus came as the kingdom of God and as the King of the kingdom of God, and as a Man He was absolutely under the authority of God the Father. In Him Satan had nothing but rather, through Him Satan was defeated, destroyed, and judged.
When Christ came with the positive intention of establishing the kingdom of God, this stirred up the enemy. Whenever we preach the gospel of the kingdom where we live, in Europe, and unto the ends of the earth, the enemy is stirred up; by preaching the gospel and moving to a certain place for the Lord’s interest we invade that place for the kingdom of God.
God has called us to deliver others from out of the authority of darkness and bring them into the kingdom of God; we announce the gospel of the kingdom for people to be delivered out of the authority of Satan and be brought into God’s kingdom – and this terrifies the enemy.
In this universe there are two kingdoms – the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan; these two kingdoms are at war with one another, for Satan rebels against God’s kingdom, and God intends to bring in His kingdom on the earth.
Because of Satan’s craftiness, he came in first to deceive man and inject himself into man’s soul and body, transmuting them to be the self and the flesh, into which Satan himself is embodied. All humanity is fallen, for we have the satanic life in our flesh.
The entire human race is a kingdom not merely of the human life but even more of the satanic life.
This may give us a fresh view and concern for any gospel friends and people that we know and are not saved, realising that they are under the authority of darkness and need to be rescued and transferred into God’s kingdom.
Humanity as a whole has become the totality of the satanic life with all its activities; the whole world lies in the evil one, in his sphere of influence and under his usurpation.
The kingdom of darkness has Satan as its ruler; Satan is the ruler of this world and the ruler of the authority of the air, and he has his authority and his angels – who are his subordinates and rulers, authorities, and world-rulers of the darkness of this world. Oh Lord Jesus!
May we realise that there are these two kingdoms on earth – the kingdom of darkness with Satan as the ruler, and the kingdom of God in the light.
Spiritual Warfare is the Warfare between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan
Satan had a way to do whatever he wanted to do for many years, but one day God Himself became a man; because the Lord Jesus – the heavenly King – has come to establish the kingdom of God among men on earth, the two kingdoms are in a conflict.
Right now there’s a battle raging, and there’s the need for us, the heavenly people of the heavenly kingdom, to fight the battle (Eph. 6:12).
The battle is not fought by young believers but by those who are mature and transformed in the divine life, those who have gone through the experience of life stage by stage until they have dealt with Satan in their being and are one with the Body to fight Satan.
Spiritual warfare is the warfare between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan (Matt. 12:26, 28).
The purpose of spiritual warfare is to bring in the kingdom of God (Rev. 12:10). Satan has corrupted and usurped the earth and humanity, but the Lord Jesus wants to bring in the kingdom of God on the earth; for this, spiritual warfare is necessary.
As we live the Christian life and church life today in this age, we have the sense that we are close to the end of this age, and there’s an increasing longing in us for the Lord to come and establish His kingdom and rid the earth of all this chaos and degradation.
The time will come when our entire being can no longer withstand the increasing evil of this age, and we will cry out to the Lord that He would come in and vindicate His righteousness, His name.
Until then, we open to the Lord to be trained and be part of His army that will experientially become the fulfillment of Rom. 16:20, Now the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.
This is the purpose of warfare – to bring in the kingdom of God, and for us to do this, we need to be trained in how to deal with Satan’s kingdom.
Christ has already won the victory – He fought for victory and won the victory, and now we fight from victory and in victory, and we will fight more and more by praising our victorious Lord Jesus!
The kingdom of God is the exercise of the divine will and the overthrowing of the power of Satan by the power of God (see Matt. 6:10; 12:28). When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He was overthrowing the power of Satan by the power of God and He exercised the divine will on the earth.
Through His speaking, through the miracles He performed, and through His very being, He exercised the divine will and He overthrew the power of Satan by the power of God.
We as His church, His Body, His continuation, can also do this; the built-up church can do this. This is why the gates of Hades cannot prevail against the built-up church upon this rock!
Lord Jesus, we desire and yearn for the kingdom of God to come and His authority to be exercised on the earth. We give You the ground to grow in us, transform us, mature us, and train us to be Your army which will fight the battle together with You and in Your victory to bring in the kingdom of God. Lord, You must come and vindicate Your righteousness and Your name. We cry out to You, dear Lord: form the army that will fight to overthrow the power of Satan by the power of God, and bring in the kingdom of God on earth!
God will Establish His Kingdom by Dealing with Satan’s Rebellion through the Church
In this universe there are two great principles: God’s authority and Satan’s rebellion; the unique controversy between God and Satan concerns authority and rebellion (Acts 26:18; Col. 1:13).
Satan rebelled against God; rebellion is the denial of God’s authority and the rejection of God’s rule (Isa. 14:12-14; Ezek. 28:2-19).
Many have followed Satan to proclaim they are the Messiah and deny the Lord Jesus, and many in principle try to replace Christ and make themselves as the head of the church.
There’s absolute denial – even openly, explicitly, defiantly, of God’s authority; this is the world we live in, and rebellion is in every aspect of it. Rebellion is the rejection of God’s rule.
As believers in Christ we are a small minority thanking the Lord for His mercy for delivering us from the principle of rebellion and placing us under the authority of the kingdom of Son of God’s love.
Although Satan rebelled against God’s authority, and although man violates His authority by rebelling against Him, God will not let this rebellion continue; He will establish His kingdom on the earth (Rev. 11:15) by dealing with Satan’s rebellion through the church.
In every country there’s rebellion – from the citizens of that country to their leaders, but we need to stand with the Lord and pray that He will intervene and establish His kingdom on earth, dealing with rebellion!
The kingdom of God is the power to subdue rebellion (see Mark 4:35-41).
As an illustration of dealing with rebellion and how impotent we are to do this, let’s look at an adult parent who tries to deal with a strong willed 3-4 year old child; though the parent is an adult and has a strong will, the will of the child is many times stronger.
If we cannot subdue a strong will in a person, how much more powerless we are to try to subdue the rebellious will of the enemy!
But the kingdom of God is the power to subdue rebellion – not just to defeat it but to subdue it! To defeat is to be put down momentarily, but to be subdued is to be inwardly defeated and subdued, and there’s no resistance of any kind.
There has to be a point in our life with the Lord that we are subdued with respect to God’s will, because what He wills and what He allows to happen can be inexplicable things. We are here not only to see the enemy defeated but also subdued.
The Lord Jesus as God incarnated came to establish the kingdom of God; He lived in the kingdom of God by being inwardly subdued and submissive to God the Father, and He brought in the kingdom of God.
Christ came to establish a realm in which God can carry out His purpose through the exercise of His authority (John 1:1, 14; 3:3, 5; 18:36).
God will not tolerate rebellion; He may allow Satan’s rebellion and man’s rebellion today, but He will come to bring in His kingdom and establish His authority on the earth.
The Lord Jesus took the lead to submit to God’s authority absolutely, so He could bring in the kingdom of God; now we, as believers in Christ, also cooperate with the Lord to bring in the kingdom by inwardly being subdued under His authority and having all rebellion dealt with.
Lord Jesus, we stand one with You on earth for any rebellion in our being and in our environment to be subdued and dealt with. We submit to Your authority, Lord, and we take You as our Lord and King. We yearn for the kingdom of God to be brought in so that Satan’s rebellion and man’s rebellion would be dealt with and subdued. Amen, Lord, for the sake of Your move on earth, establish Your kingdom in our country! We pray and fight for Your kingdom to come and for Your will to be done where You have placed us. Amen, Lord Jesus, for the sake of Your move and Your kingdom, we as the church agree that You intervene and not allow rebellion to continue!
This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Dumnezeu Își va întemeia împărăția tratând răzvrătirea lui Satan prin biserică.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1957, vol. 2, “What the Kingdom Is to the Believers,” chs. 3, 6-7, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Development of the Kingdom of God in the Church Life and the Christian Life (2019 spring ITERO), week 6, The Conflict of the Two Kingdoms and the Work and Responsibility of the Church.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Lo, the conflict of the ages / Is upon us today, / And the forces of rebellion / Are in total array. / The humanity of Jesus / Now the saints must possess, / His true image and dominion / On the earth to express. (Hymns #1172)
# From the beachhead in our spirit / To our mind, emotion, will. / Christ will spread through all our being / And our vessel wholly fill. / He will cast out all rebellion, / Change our darkness into light. / Satan’s kingdom will be swallowed, / And Christ will reign with might. / This is the Lord’s recovery, / This is His very best! / Brothers, give the Lord the ground in you / Till His kingdom’s manifest. (Hymns #1297)
# Conflict today is fierce, / The strength of Satan more; / The cry of battle calling now / Is louder than before. / The rebel voice of hell / E’en stronger now becomes; / But list, the midnight cry resounds, / Behold, I quickly come! (Hymns #893)
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