In this universe there are two kingdoms – the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan, and there’s a warfare between these two kingdoms; Satan is the ruler of this world, but we cooperate with God for His kingdom to come!
This week in our deeper study of the development of the kingdom of God in the Christian life and the church life we come to the matter of, The Conflict of the Two Kingdoms and the Work and Responsibility of the Church.
As believers in Christ, we are part of the kingdom of God, and we need to be increasingly under the Lord’s direct rule as the kingdom, so that there will be an increasingly developing realm within us over which God can rule in His divine life.
For this we need to send roots deep down, spending much time personally with the Lord to seek Him in secret, and we also need to live the kingdom life in the church life today.
As far as it depends on us, we must be at peace with all men and with all members of the Body, remaining in the oneness, and as we come to the Lord’s Table with Christ as our peace offering, we forgive everyone we are aware of, and we seek to be forgiven.
Furthermore, we need to use the keys of the kingdom to lock up the gates of Hades; we need to exercise to deny the self, take up our cross, and lose our soul-life.
This prepares us to be engaged in a spiritual warfare, for we realise that in this universe there are two kingdoms at war with one another – the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan.
Because Satan is crafty and deceitful, he injected himself into man right from the beginning, and he has corrupted and ruined the man created by God in His image.
Now all who are born in humanity are born in the kingdom of Satan, and the Lord can reach them through the church with the preaching of the gospel to invite them to receive the life of God and be reborn into the kingdom of God.
Hallelujah, we as believers in Christ are citizens of the kingdom of God, and we enjoy the lovely and loving rule of God within us, for we cooperate with the Lord as the kingdom spreading from our spirit to our mind, emotion, and will, until it will occupy our entire inner being to saturate us with God.
In this article we want to see the two kingdoms in the universe, how they are at war with one another, how Satan is the ruler of this world, and how we can cooperate with God to be in the kingdom of God today.
In the Universe there are Two Kingdoms – the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan
A kingdom is a totality of a certain life; in this universe there are two kingdoms – the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan (see Matt. 6:10, 33; 12:26, 28).
God has His life, out of which the kingdom of God comes into existence (see Eph. 4:18; Matt. 12:28). When someone repents and believes into the Lord Jesus, he not only receives the divine life but he is also made part of God’s kingdom.
In Rev. 1:6 we are told that the Lord has made us a kingdom; we not only have been born of God to enter into the kingdom as the realm of the divine species, but we have been made a kingdom.
The Lord has purchased us from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation by His blood, and has made us a kingdom (Rev. 5:10). We believers in Christ are not only in the kingdom of God – we are the kingdom of God, and we have been made a kingdom.
The kingdom of God is the totality of God’s life. Since the kingdom of God is God with His life, this means that the constituting element of this kingdom is the life of God.
According to Luke 17:21, the kingdom of God is Christ Himself. We have been made a kingdom, the kingdom is the kingdom of God, which is God Himself as life and Christ as the person, so this means that all those in this kingdom are made God in life, nature, constitution, expression, and function, but never as an object of worship, that is, never entering the Godhead.
In the kingdom of God Christ is constituting us to be all and in all (Col. 3:11); He is making His home in our heart (Eph. 3:16), He lives in us (Gal. 2:20), and He is being formed in us (Gal. 4:19).
On the positive side, this kingdom has God with His life, and the same principle applies negatively to Satan’s kingdom. Satan has his evil life, out of which the kingdom of Satan comes into being (John 8:44; Matt. 12:26).
The enemy has formed the world system to imprison everyone, and he has brought forth a kingdom with humanity by satanifying the human race.
In John 8:44 the Lord said that “you are of your father, the devil”; there is no truth in the devil, he sinned from the beginning, he’s the father of lies, he speaks of his own things – he’s the source of evil, lies, sin, and death.
Satan came and injected this poisonous element into humanity, causing the entire human race to become a major part of his kingdom.
On one hand the angels that joined him in the rebellion are part of his kingdom, and so are the spirits from the pre-adamic race that became the demons; Satan is the ruler of this world today.
From the very beginning of the Bible we see these two kingdoms – the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan – as the two trees in Gen. 2:9, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
These two trees are signs of God and Satan, and they are two sources, which develop into two kingdoms – the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. May we see these two kingdoms and may we open to the Lord and tell Him,
Dear Lord Jesus, thank You for transferring us out of the authority of the kingdom of Satan and into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. Hallelujah, we are now citizens of the kingdom of God, those who have the divine life and have been made a kingdom to God. Lord, cause us to see the two kingdoms – the kingdom of god and the kingdom of Satan, and cause us to be those who live in the kingdom of God today. Deliver us from anything of Satan’s kingdom and bring our whole being fully into the kingdom of God, so that we may live in the kingdom of God for the fulfillment of God’s desire!
Satan is the Ruler of this World, but we Cooperate with God for His Kingdom to come
The entire human race is a kingdom not merely of the human life but even more of the satanic life (see Matt. 13:38; John 8:44; Acts 13:10; 1 John 3:10).
All the seven plus billion people on earth today are part of the kingdom of Satan, and due to the fall of man, all men are born in sin, part of the satanic kingdom.
Because of man’s fall, humanity has become the totality of the satanic life with all its activities (John 5:19).
Satan injected himself into man and came into man’s body and soul, corrupting him, saturating him, poisoning him, so that he may take full possession of him. So man became corrupted and darkened, under the authority of Satan.
Man has become a citizen in Satan’s kingdom, subject to the rule of Satan. Oh Lord Jesus!
But one day, God came to be a man, and in this wonderful One, Jesus Christ, the ruler of this world had nothing. He lived the kingdom of God, He sowed the kingdom of God, and He brought the kingdom of God to earth.
Praise the Lord, there was such a One! Satan, the god of this age, is the ruler of this world and the ruler of the authority of the air (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:2), but in Christ he had nothing!
Even more, Christ came to judge this one, and He came to install His kingdom on the earth, so that whoever receives Him will not perish but have eternal life, the divine life of God.
When we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, He comes into us as life, and from that point on, God grows within us; the more He grows, the more He spreads, and the more ground He occupies within us.
The more we give Him ground in our being, the more He reigns in us; God’s kingdom is the divine reign through the inward growth of life.
As we cooperate with God for Him to grow in us, as we grow in the divine life, the kingdom of God spreads in us, occupies ground in us, and the Lord reigns over our whole being.
We are acutely aware of the other kingdom, the kingdom of Satan, but we want to remain, live, and have our whole being in the kingdom of God!
Yes, Satan is the ruler of this world (John 12:31), and the whole world lies in the evil one, but we want to cooperate with the Lord for His kingdom.
Satan has his authority and his angels, who are his subordinates as rulers, authorities, and world-rulers of the darkness of this world (see Acts 26:18; Matt. 25:41; Eph. 6:12), and especially as we read or watch the news, we will see how his works are being intensified in society.
The enemy is engaging his subordinates to block the word and will of God from the third heavens to reach the earth, and also to carry out his evil intentions.
Satan has his kingdom, the authority of darkness (Col. 1:13); therefore, on earth there are two kingdoms – the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan, that is, the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of God in the light, and these two kingdoms are now confronting each other on earth.
Satan takes the human body as his dwelling place, but praise the Lord, the human spirit is reserved for God to dwell!
In His sovereignty God has preserved our human spirit as His dwelling place; even though the human spirit has been influenced by the evil body and the corrupt mentality to the point that it has been deadened, there’s no hint in the Bible that Satan has ever entered into the human spirit.
The Lord Jesus is with our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22), and from our spirit He spreads and grows in us with our cooperation, taking possession of more and more ground in our being. Oh, may we give Him more ground in us, so that He may reign in our being!
Lord Jesus, thank You for coming into our spirit to regenerate us and spread in us to bring the kingdom of God in us! Amen, Lord, we want to cooperate with You for Your kingdom to spread, increase, and come in reality in us and through us in the church life. Spread in us, Lord. Grow in us, gain more ground in us, and cause enemy to suffer defeat by You taking possession of all our inner being. Yes, Lord, we agree: may You actually reign within us, so that we may live and be in the kingdom of God today!
This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Satan este stăpânitorul acestei lumi, dar noi cooperăm cu Dumnezeu pentru venirea împărăției Sale.
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, 1972, vol. 2, “The Kingdom,” chs. 8-9, 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:
# To Satan it does not give ground, / Nor to the world, or self, or sin, / But seeks beneath the heaven’s rule / God’s full authority to win. (Hymns #944)
# 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. (Hymns #941)
# Kingdom of Christ, for thy coming we pray, / Hasten, O Father, the dawn of the day / When this new song Thy creation shall sing, / Satan is vanquished and Jesus is King. (Hymns #151)
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