God’s desire is to make Himself the same as man is so that man may become the same as God is in life, nature, expression, and function, but not in the Godhead. This means that God wants man to rule with Him and through Him over all things.
We need to see that our position is with Christ in the heavenlies, far above all things, in ascension. This is our real position right now. If we see what our position is, we will realize that we can reign as God does over the world, sin, the flesh, ourselves, and all the circumstances we’re in.
First of all, we can reign because we are in ascension one with Christ, and we reign in Christ and with Christ. Secondly, we can reign over all things if we ourselves submit to God’s authority first.
The Lord Jesus was the first man who fully submitted to God’s authority, and He was given authority over all things. Only men under authority can have authority to rule. Only when we submit to God in our environment, no matter how unpleasant it is and how much suffering it brings us, that we can reign in life.
This means that in all our situations and all throughout the day we need to practice the restriction and limitation in the divine life. We may go through certain things that are not so pleasant or the Lord may allow us to be in a situation that causes us suffering and restriction.
All the time, we need to be those who constantly receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, and who practice reigning in life by allowing the divine life in us to restrict us, limit us, and rule in us.
Reigning in Life by Submitting to God’s Authority
When God created man, He gave man dominion over all creatures on the earth. Since man was under God’s authority, all the earth was under man’s dominion. But when man rebelled against God, being unwilling to submit to God’s authority, he lost the authority God gave him over all the earth.
Today all the creatures are in rebellion also since man is not under God’s authority, and even the tiniest mosquitoes and fleas shamelessly bite us and “suck our blood” – they are not under our authority anymore.
When the Lord Jesus came as God becoming flesh, He was the first man who fully submitted to God’s authority in all His living, speaking, and doing on earth. All His words, actions, move, and attitudes were in accordance to God’s will, and He humbled Himself to the uttermost, becoming obedient to God even unto the death of the cross (see Phil. 2:8).
When the Roman centurion met Him, he recognized that the Lord Jesus was a man under authority, and therefore He had authority to command sickness to go away (see Matt. 8:5-13). Because He fully submitted Himself to God’s authority, God highly exalted Him and caused Him to reign with Him on the throne!
For us to reign in life over ourselves, our flesh, our sinful nature, our inward problems, our environment, etc, we need to firstly submit to God’s authority, recognizing His sovereignty and accepting it. We need to allow the divine life in us to rule us.
We shouldn’t be so quick to respond and react – first, we need to touch the Lord. Our problems are not merely outward, in our behavior or attitude, but in our very being. We need to be reigned on before we can reign.
The Apostle Paul as Christ’s duplication was also under the ruling of the divine life: he was restricted in his travels and in his speaking, and he was governed by the inward parts of Christ in his rebuke of a believer – he practiced restriction and control (see 2 Cor. 2:12-14).
There is a great need for us as believers in Christ today to practice the restriction and limitation in the divine life, allowing God’s life to rule in us, restricting us both inwardly and outwardly, so that we may be qualified to reign for God.
Being Under the Rule of the Divine Life Inwardly that We may Reign in Life
Before David became the king, while he was persecuted and hunted down by Saul (the current king over Israel), he was seemingly outwardly a loser, but inwardly he was ruling. He ruled by being restricted, by accepting the environment that God has placed upon him through sufferings.
Outwardly, David was a loser; inwardly, he was a winner. Outwardly, David was a refugee; inwardly, he was a reigning one. He submitted himself to the environment arranged by God and the man God put in authority (no matter how wrong this one was), and he learned the lesson. Therefore, God entrusted him with the kingship, and in reality David was the first king of Israel (during Saul’s time there was still chaos).
The Lord may put us under some brothers or in certain circumstances which are restricting us, and we may complain….but if we accept that environment, even while we are in that situation we will reign in life.
Reigning in life is not something outward, over people and things, but inward: we are under the rule of the divine life inwardly, and this qualifies us to rule and reign with God.
Take the example of Joseph for instance: whether he was in the house of Potifar, in prison, or on the throne, he was ruling because he was under the inward ruling of God. We don’t reign over people or environments but it is inwardly that we reign by living a certain kind of life under the rule of the divine life.
When we submit ourselves to the environment that God has put us in and don’t complain but rather receive the abundance of grace, we will reign in life. Outwardly, we may be a loser – we lose privileges, freedom, and things, but inwardly we are a winner!
To reign is to conquer, subdue, and rule over Satan, the world, sin, the flesh, ourselves, and all the environmental circumstances through Him who loves us, Jesus Christ (see Rom. 8:35, 37). The greatest demon is not the one outside of us but the one inside of us, and as we reign over sin an death, we overthrow the legitimacy of Satan in us first and then in the world.
Reigning in Life being to Subdue All Kinds of Insubordination
There is so much insubordination in us – there’s serious rebellion not only in our thinking but in our attitude and in our being. To be insubordinate means that we don’t obey the Lord once (either when He tells us to do something or when through the environment He gently shows us to stop) and then again, and again….and there’s an attitude of insubordination in us.
As fallen human beings we are addicted to rebellion – it is engrained in our brain. But as believers in Christ, whenever we feel that we are about to rebel, we need to exercise our spirit. The Lord can change our brain pattern and our habitual attitude of rebellion through our cooperation with Him day by day.
When we exercise our spirit, our habit to rebel will be done away with and we will build up a new habit, the habit of submitting to God’s rule in us. In this way, we put to death the members of our body through the Spirit, and we will live (Rom. 8:13).
A reigning spirit must be strong and living, active and not passive, positive and not negative, diligent and not loose. If we have such a spirit, we will not only keep the position of order and submit to God’s authority, but we will also have strong faith to exercise God’s authority consistently in the position of ascension.
Instead of habitually being in sin and rebellion, we will bit by bit become those who are under God’s authority and in life, exercising God’s authority over anything negative in our being and ruling for God. It is in us that the Lord has to subdue any kind of insubordination, and then He can subdue any rebellion and insubordination on earth through us.
Lord Jesus, bring us into the experience of reigning in life. Lord, we want to enthrone You in the center of our being and allow Your divine life to rule in us. Even if we don’t understand, Lord, we would like to accept Your sovereign arrangement in our life. Make us those who submit ourselves to You in all our circumstances. May we not run from the limitations and restrictions You put on us through outward and inward things. Lord, bring us all the way through to reign with You! Rule in us and eliminate any insubordination so that You may fully bring us under Your authority!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration (besides the Word of God and my Christian experience): bro. Andrew Yu’s speaking in this message and portions from, The Experience of Life (see pp. 347-350), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Entering into the Fourth Stage of the Experience of Life to Arrive at a Full-Grown Man for the Fulfillment of God’s Purpose, week 4 / msg 4, The Fourth Stage of the Experience of Life (3) – Reigning in Life.
- Further reading: recommending Life-study of Romans (msgs. 46-47).
- Hymns on this topic:
# Today we must learn to submit to His throne, / How to have a strict life and His government own; / His authority then we’ll be able to share, / o’er the nations to rule with God’s Son as the heir.
# Submitted to God’s ruling, / All virtue thus will win; / Rebellion to His Headship / Is but the root of sin. / The evil aim of Satan- / God’s throne to overthrow; / Our aim and goal is ever / His rule to fully know.
# 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.
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