For us to take possession of Christ for our enjoyment, that is, for us to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land, we must fight against and defeat the satanic forces so that we may gain more Christ for the building up of the church.
Christ is our good land; He has been allotted to us by God to be our portion of enjoyment, and whenever we turn to our spirit and exercise our spirit, we enjoy the all-inclusive Christ.
However, there is a layer of devilish, demonic forces between us and the enjoyment of Christ as the good land, just as there were some pagan tribes that were in the good land and the people of Israel had to cast them out so that they may enter into its enjoyment.
For us to take possession of Christ as the all-inclusive good land, we need to fight the spiritual warfare to defeat the satanic forces and gain more Christ for the building of the Body of Christ.
God has qualified us for a share of the allotted portion of the saints in the light, and the land is before us, but for us to enter into the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ, we need to be rooted in Christ, grounded in Him, absorb His riches, let Him make His home in our heart, and allow Him to strengthen us into our inner man so that we may be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints the universally vast Christ.
On one hand we need to enjoy Christ and on the other we need to fight for our enjoyment of Christ.
We need to be today’s Joshua and Caleb, those who fight against and defeat the satanic forces so that we may gain more of the all-inclusive Christ as the good land for the building up of the church.
The spiritual warfare, however, is not the purpose – the goal and purpose of our fighting is that we would gain more of Christ so that the Body of Christ would be built up.
Our Christian life is a life of fighting the spiritual warfare, a life of standing with the Lord, standing on His word, and exercising our spirit to break through in the spiritual realm so that we may enter into the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land for the building up of the Body.
We need to be strengthened to be today’s Joshua and Caleb, the real overcomers, to defeat the satanic forces and reject the things that are against Christ and that substitute Christ in our life.
Being those who Defeat the Satanic Forces to Enter into the Enjoyment of Christ
Ephesians chapter 6 tells us of the spiritual warfare of the church and points out that the church is a corporate warrior putting on the whole armor of God. In the book of Joshua, however, we see the practical warfare, a practical illustration of the spiritual warfare spoken of in Eph. 6.
Behind the visible scene there’s an invisible warfare; between us as God’s people and the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land there’s a layer of devilish and demonic forces, which needs to be defeated if were to enter into the full enjoyment.
The spiritual warfare mentioned by Paul in Eph. 6 is expounded and explained in the book of Joshua, which helps us understand how this warfare is taking place.
After God moves in and through His people to rescue them from the usurpation of Pharaoh, He brought them through the wilderness, and now they are at the edge of the good land, being prepared, formed, trained, and equipped to enter into the good land and possess it.
However, this land is full of pagan tribes with their idols, so they need to fight the warfare and destroy these ones.
In Joshua 1 we see that everything is ready, just as in Ephesians 1, where we see that we were blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus, and the Triune God Himself is a blessing to us.
Then in Joshua 2 we see how there is the need of a proper person to help God’s people enter into the good land, Rahab, who also became an ancestor of Christ. In Eph. 2 we see that we were dead in sins and offenses, we were all like Rahab, but by faith in Christ and according to God’s mercy we were qualified to enter into the enjoyment of Christ as the good land.
In Eph. 6 we see the spiritual warfare, and in the book of Joshua we see how Joshua was leading God’s people, and how we as redeemed sinners become by faith proper persons to be the means for Christ to be brought forth, and we enter into the enjoyment of Christ as the good land.
Israel’s fighting against the inhabitants of the land portrays the invisible spiritual warfare that is taking place behind the visible scene on earth.
In the air there are spiritual forces, evil authorities, and there are things happening in the spiritual realm – invisible to our naked eye – which are very real and affecting us.
In Dan. 10:10-21 we see an example of this; he prayed and an angel came to him, saying that he was held in battle with the Prince of Persia, until Michael came to help him and he could come to deliver God’s answer.
As the Lord’s recovery is going on, we need to realize that there’s a spiritual warfare taking place in the spiritual realm. In addition to the war on the earth, there’s a war between God and Satan in the air.
We all need to know what the Lord’s recovery is, where is the Lord’s recovery, and what kind of persons we need to be to take the recovery on.
Today we are on a battlefield; we should be today’s Joshua and Caleb, fighting against Satan’s aerial forces so that we may gain more of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ!
We need to fight and defeat the satanic forces for the setting up and spreading of the kingdom of God so that Christ can come back to inherit the earth.
We need to learn of Joshua and Caleb how to properly represent God’s interest in this age to fight down the enemies so that Christ may be gained by His people, and He would be increased in His pursuers for the building up of His habitation and His city for His expression and representation.
Lord Jesus, make us those who fight the spiritual warfare one with You to defeat the satanic forces so that both us and the saints would enter into the enjoyment of Christ as the all-inclusive good land for the building up of the church! Lord, may we see that in the Lord’s recovery today we are on a battlefield. Make us the Joshua and Caleb’s of today, those who fight against Satan’s aerial forces so that we can gain more of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ! Amen, Lord, we want that the kingdom of God would be spread so that You can return to the earth!
Fighting the Spiritual Warfare to Defeat Satan and Gain Christ for the Building up of the Church
In Eph. 2 we see that the “heavenlies” have different layers: Christ Himself is in the highest layer, the third heaven, and He is everything to us as our good land (Eph. 1:3; Deut. 8:7-10), and the air is where Satan as the ruler of the authority of the air is frustrating us (Eph. 2:2).
There’s the highest layer where Christ is our good land, and there’s the lower layer of the heavenlies – the air, where Satan as the ruler of the authority of the air is frustrating the people on earth from contacting God and receiving Christ.
This lower layer of heavenlies is typified by the Canaanites, who were frustrating Israel from entering into the good land.
We need to realize that the various tribes that occupied the land of Canaan signify the different aspects of our natural life.
For example, the gods (idols) of the pagan tribes (Exo. 23:24) with the demons behind them (see 1 Cor. 10:20) represent the spiritual forces of evil (Eph. 6:12). Behind our natural life are the forces of evil (see Matt. 16:23) who utilize, manipulate, and direct the aspects of our natural life to frustrate us from taking possession of the all-inclusive Christ and from enjoying His riches.
Our natural life, though not outwardly evil or sinful, causes us to sin continually before God; those who live according to the natural life are sinning continually, whether they do good or evil.
Therefore, because the natural life frustrates us from possessing Christ and enjoying Him, we must hate it (Luke 14:26) and, as we grow in Christ, we must be willing to drive it out completely.
In Eph. 1 (which is typified by Joshua 1) we see that every blessing is in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, waiting for us as God’s chosen, redeemed, and perfected people to enjoy and take as our inheritance.
We have been chosen by God to partake of His holy nature and we have been predestinated by Him to have His life so that we may be His sons (Eph. 1:4-5). Christ’s redemption has brought us into Christ; He is the realm in which and the element by which we can be made God’s inheritance.
Praise the Lord, we have been redeemed and we were put into Christ, and now we are being daily reconstituted and transformed by His element to be made into a treasure for God’s inheritance.
We enjoy Christ as our inheritance and we become God’s inheritance. As this enjoyment takes place, there’s a spiritual warfare going on.
For us to take possession of Christ for our enjoyment of the good land, we must fight against and defeat the satanic forces, so that we may gain more of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ (see Eph. 3:8; 4:16; 2:21-22).
We need to fight the spiritual warfare so that we may gain Christ; the reason for subduing the spiritual forces in the air is so that we may gain more Christ for the building up of the church.
Lord Jesus, make us those who are prepared, equipped, and ready to fight the spiritual warfare to defeat the satanic forces and gain Christ for the building up of the church. Lord, we want to take possession of the all-inclusive Christ for our enjoyment in our daily living. Grow in us, Lord, and bring us to the point where we are willing to be one with You to drive out the many aspects of our natural life. Amen, Lord, we want to gain You more and we want to fight for our enjoyment of Christ! May the enemy be subdued, cast out, and driven out from our being and the church, and may we and all the saints enter into the full enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by James Lee for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Joshua, pp. 60-61 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Spiritual Warfare of the Church as the New Man (2018 Memorial Day Conference), week 5, The Formation of a Corporate Joshua to Possess the Good Land by Defeating the Satanic Forces.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Trials more bitter grow, / The fighting doth enlarge; / Hell’s forces rally all their pow’rs / And gather for the charge. / Yet while we wait and watch / And feel the war severe, / We hear the joyful song ring out, / Jesus, the Lord is near! (Hymns #893)
# Go to collect materials for the House, / Go to deliver people from the world, / From all Satanic darkness and deceit, / From the allurements Satan has unfurled. (Hymns #923)
# See our portion so available to take, / To be walked in and experienced in full. / Apprehending the unsearchable extent of this good land, / When we corporately enjoy Him with the saints. (Song on, What a Christ We Have)
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