in His ascension Christ led us in a train of vanquished foes and made us gifts to the Body of Christ!

There are some window-words in the book of Isaiah through which we can see much more, with the help of the entire Bible, than what Isaiah wrote about these matters. Such words are, as we saw before, SEED, EXTENSION, and, as Isaiah 53:12 reveals, SPOIL. Here is what this verse says,

Therefore I will divide to Him a portion with the Great, And He will divide the spoil with the Strong; Because He poured out His life unto death And was numbered with the transgressors, Yet He alone bore the sin of many And interceded for the transgressors.

The word SPOIL here indicates that there was a war, someone won that war, and there were spoils to be divided and enjoyed. God has an enemy – Satan – and this enemy has usurped man and took man captive. All men born in Adam – all the mankind – is a “captive of Satan”, since we all are born with the flesh, where Satan dwells.

But there was ONE in whom Satan had no way, no hope, no ground for anything – the Lord Jesus Christ! This perfect God-man lived on earth for 33 1/2 years, then was put to death on the cross. When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, the whole universe was watching: the cross became the centre of the universe! God was there, Christ was there, Satan and his angels were there, we were there, man was there!

Through His death on the cross, Christ defeated Satan and his powers – He destroyed the One who has the power of death (Heb. 2:14) and He walked out of death in victory(Acts 2:24). It was impossible for death to hold Him! He just walked out in resurrection! Now death has been defeated – the resurrected Christ has the keys of death! In His death, Christ nailed all the negative things in the universe to the cross, and He defeated Satan and all his armies!

He judged Satan, sin, the world, and even death! Outwardly it looked as if Christ was defeated and killed on the cross; behind the scenes – as revealed in Col. 2:15 – Christ won a tremendous victory! Jesus destroyed the devil! He stripped off the enemy and all the evil powers who were clinging on to Him – He has won the victory! Now we proclaim this victory over Satan, and God will soon crush Satan under feet!

After His resurrection, Christ entered into His ascension – in Christ’s ascension there was a demonstration of Christ’s victory by the sharing of the captives, the spoil, the prey, taken in Christ’s victory! When He conquered the devil, Satan, Christ took a great spoil – He took captive all those taken captives by Satan. He defeated Satan and took all his possessions as His captives!

God the Father was the Great and also the Strong, and God the Son was the Fighter – He fought the battle, and by winning that battle He captured all Satan’s captives. All men – beginning from Adam and including us – were captured by Satan. But here’s what Eph. 4:8 says,

… Having ascended to the height, He led captive those taken captive and gave gifts to men.

Praise the Lord, we were taken captive by Christ and led by Him as “a train of vanquished foes”, we were presented to the Father – and the Father gave us to Christ! Christ then gave us as gifts to the Body of Christ (“He gave gifts to men”)! We were in slavery to Satan under sin and death – then Christ through His death and resurrection defeated Satan, and He captured all the captives under Satan’s hand and made them / us His captives!

In ascension He led a triumphal procession, a train of vanquished foes, and gave us as gifts to His Body! Now as the Body of Christ and in the Body of Christ we execute the defeating of the enemy Satan – by standing in Christ’s victory! We don’t fight “for victory”, rather, we fight “from victory”, from the position of ascension! Christ is the triumphant Victor, and we are one with Him in His ascension! Praise Him for His wonderful ascension!

[sharing inspired by the life-study of Isaiah as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on the Crystallization-study of Isaiah(2)]

Praise You Lord for Your ascension! We were Satan’s captives, but You have defeated him! Now we are Your captives, part of Your triumphant procession! We are now one with You in Your victory! We are gifts given by the resurrected and ascended Christ to the Body of Christ! Hallelujah, we now are one with You in executing the judgement upon the defeated Satan! Lord, bring us into a fresh seeing of what we are because of You and in You! Uplift our speaking of the gospel and our speaking of the truth – bring us fully in the position of ascension! Wow, Lord, Amen!