Through the Church God’s Multifarious Wisdom is made Known and the Enemy is Subdued!

God’s purpose in creating man in His image and according to His likeness is that man would express Him with His image and represent Him with His dominion.

Adam, the first man, failed to express and represent God, and because of Adam’s sin and failure we are all born in sin, under Satan’s usurpation. However, Christ Himself came as God incarnated in the flesh, and He expressed God in all His living and represented God with His authority by bringing in the kingdom of God (which is Himself).

Today the church is the continuation, reproduction, increase, and enlargement of Christ, and as such the church has the sonship to express God and through the church God’s multifarious wisdom is made known to His enemy to subdue him.

The church was predestinated by God for the sonship of God to express God corporately, and the church was destined to subdue the enemy by making God’s multifarious wisdom known through the church.

Praise the Lord, through the church God’s multifarious wisdom is made known right now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies, and the enemy is being subdued (Eph. 3:10)!

In a sense, God is not bothered by His enemy’s usurpation and troubling; because of Satan’s damage, God can manifest His wisdom through the church. Every damage from Satan is actually a good opportunity for God to display His wisdom.

The Lord Jesus told the Jewish religionists at His time, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19), indicating that even though Satan hated Him and wanted to destroy His physical body through the cross, the Lord took this opportunity to build up something that was even greater than what was destroyed: He built up the enlarged mystical body of Christ with millions of members!

Hallelujah! We should not be discouraged when we suffer a defeat; even our defeats are opportunities for God to show forth His wisdom, and eventually Satan will be defeated. The church can never be defeated, no matter how much the gates of Hades fight against it (Matt. 16:18).

Hallelujah, our destiny is victory and glory, and Satan’s destiny is shame, defeat, and eternal perdition!

Through the Church God’s Multifarious Wisdom is made Known and the Enemy is Subdued!

The church as the corporate new man fulfills God’s purpose in creating man. As seen in Gen. 1:26, God created man to have His image and express Him and to have His authority to represent Him by dealing with the enemy and recovering the earth.

The church was predestinated for the sonship of God to express God, and the church was destined to subdue the enemy by making God’s multifarious wisdom made known.

Yes, Satan is here, and he does his best to cause God trouble and to defeat us, but if there were not such an evil one in the universe, God’s wisdom would not need to be manifested. It is through all these troubles that Satan makes that God has the opportunity to show forth His wisdom.

Our prayer should be like Solomon’s,

Lord, give us wisdom and knowledge so that I might know how to go out and come in among Your people (2 Chron. 1:10). Lord, be all the riches of wisdom and knowledge to me for going out and coming in, for contacting all the brothers and the sisters of all ages (Col. 2:2-3). I need You as my wisdom and knowledge!

When we see things from God’s view according to the Bible we will realize that every damage from Satan and every defeat we suffer is a good opportunity for God to display His wisdom. If there were no troubles, God would not need to show His wisdom, but the more troubles there are, the more opportunities there are to display the Lord’s wisdom.

Be encouraged: even our troubles are opportunities for God to show forth His wisdom, and He will defeat the enemy through the church. Don’t be afraid of troubles or damage in the church, but go to the Lord and tell Him to come in and show forth His wisdom!

Eventually, the church will be glorious, and through the church God’s manifold wisdom will be manifested!

What God has been doing in the past generations, what He is doing today, and what He will be doing in the future is to fully accomplish His sonship in the church and to subdue the enemy through the church.

With regards to the sonship, we are all now in the process of growing in life unto maturity to become qualified to inherit God and express God corporately. With regards to subduing the enemy, we are now in a battle, fighting all the time.

Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose, but we should not be discouraged: even a defeat is for the purpose of a future victory! Eventually, Satan will be defeated and we will be victorious!

Don’t be sad when you see a situation of defeat in the church today; look to the Lord’s inward work to transform His saints and to His move among the churches, and be encouraged!

Praise You Lord for Your work within us to make us the universal display of Your multifarious wisdom to the enemy! Lord, we refuse to look at our defeats: we set our eyes on You, our Victorious Leader, and we join ourselves to You to share in Your victory! Lord, use all the troubles caused by Satan for more victories for Your kingdom. Come in, Lord, and display Your wisdom in and through the church. Cast out the serpent in us and from among us. Hallelujah, Christ is Victor! Praise the Lord, Satan has already been defeated!

In the Eyes of the Lord and in our Experience of Living the Church Life, Satan has Already been Defeated!

When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He testified, The ruler of this world is coming, and in Me he has nothing (John 14:30).

Hallelujah, in the Lord Jesus Satan had no ground, no chance, no hope, and no possibility in anything! When we are in our spirit, we are in Christ, and in us Satan has nothing!

Christ was manifested to destroy the works of the devil, and through the cross He destroyed the devil through His death (1 John 3:8; Heb. 2:14). Now the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly (Rom. 16:20).

In the eyes of the Lord and in our experience of living the church life, Satan has already been defeated! This is what the Bible says and this is what we believe!

Our Bible is a “book of victory”, not a “book of defeat”. In the Lord’s eyes, Satan has already been defeated, and this is a fact; today we are in the accomplishing of this fact, and there will be a day when we will sing Hallelujah, Praise the Lord, Satan is defeated!

How we need a vision of how much the Lord is using His church to defeat His enemy and to subdue and recover the whole earth for God as the kingdom of God! If we see this, we will not be sorrowful but always happy and praising the Lord, realizing that even a defeat is for the preparation of a further victory!

We may be defeated today, but Satan will be destroyed under the feet of the church! Look at the last book in the Bible, the book of Revelation: it is a book of victory, showing how Satan and every negative thing has been defeated! Here are some verses showing this:

• Rev. 5:1-14 Christ is the Lion of the tribe of Judah has overcome and defeated Satan, the enemy of God, and as the Redeeming Lamb He took away the sin of the fallen man. By so doing, He removed the hindrances to the fulfillment of God’s purpose; He is worthy to open the scroll concerning of God’s economy! Christ overcame Satan!
• Rev. 11:15 The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever! We know our ending – it is marvelous! Any present defeat is a preparation for a further victory! The earth is the Lord’s!
• Rev. 12:9-11 The accuser of the brothers has been cast down! And the brothers overcame! As long as we do not love our soul life, the victory is won! Satan has already been cast down!
• Rev. 14:8 Babylon the great is fallen! This is the fall of the religious Babylon at the beginning of the great tribulation, and the material Babylon is fallen at the end of the great tribulation (Rev. 18:2). After the destruction of Babylon, there is praise in heaven! Amen, Hallelujah!
• Rev. 19:1-7 Let us rejoice and exult, and let us give the glory to Him! Don’t wait until then to rejoice: let us rejoice and exult now, for the marriage of the Lamb HAS come and his wife has made herself ready!
• Rev. 20:10, 14 John saw that the deceiving devil was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, and death and Hades were also cast into the lake of fire. There is no time element with God. These already happened! Therefore we must praise and rejoice because we have seen the victory!!!
• Rev. 21:2 John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. The New Jerusalem is ready, prepared, and victorious!
• In John 19:30 when the Lord Jesus was dying on the cross, He said, it is finished! – He finished the all-inclusive work of redemption. In Rev. 21:6 it says, They have come to pass – all of God’s economy has been accomplished: God is expressed through a corporate man and Satan has been defeated! Revelation is a book of praise because it is a book of victory!
• Rev. 22:20 Yes, I come quickly. Amen, come Lord Jesus! We should pray read the Lord’s words back to Him, making His word our prayer!

The entire Bible concludes with the Lord’s coming expressed as a prayer. We should realize that the sevenfold Spirit is operating in the local churches, we should enjoy the Lord and grow in life in all the local churches, and we should realize that we have such a wonderful Christ, and then we will praise Him by saying, O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!

When we praise the Lord for His victory, everything will be under our feet, and we will enjoy the victory found in the book of Revelation – which is a fact slowly but surely becoming our reality!

Lord Jesus, we praise You as the Lion of the tribe of Judah: You have overcome and defeated Satan! The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ! The accuser of the brothers has been cast down! Babylon the great has fallen! Hallelujah, we rejoice and exult, giving You all the glory! Satan has been cast into the lake of fire, and Hades and death are destroyed! The New Jerusalem is coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband! Hallelujah, praise the Lord, it all has been done! Amen, Lord, come quickly! O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, “The Vision, Practice, and Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ” (chs. 1, 3, by Witness Lee), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Vision, Practice, and Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, week 2 / msg 2, God’s Purpose for the Church (2) – To Subdue God’s Enemy by Displaying His Multifarious Wisdom through the Church.
• Picture credit for Romans 16:20 and more spiritual quotes via, Christian Pictures Blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # ’Tis the local church proclaiming, / Jesus is Lord! / All the saints with joy are naming / Jesus as Lord. / All His work He has completed, / Satan and his hosts defeated; / On the throne of glory seated, / Jesus is Lord! (Hymns #1096)
  # All day long sing hallelujahs / In the train of vanquished foes; / Through our praise we never leave, / Seated with Him at the throne. / Never let the lies deceive you; / Christ has shut the serpent’s mouth; / Claim the fact that we have seen him / In the lake of fire now. (Song on Praising the Lord for Victory)
  # I dare not be defeated / Since Christ, my conquering King / Has called me to the battle / Which He did surely win. / Come, Lord, and give me courage, / Thy conquering Spirit give, / Make me an overcomer, / In power within me live. (Hymns #877)