We Go to Disciple all the Nations having the Lord’s Authority to Bind and Loose

Because all authority in heaven and on earth was given to Christ in His resurrection, we can go with His authority to disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; we go with the Lord’s authority to bind the strong man and loose people to bring them into God’s kingdom. Amen!

Christ came as the first God-man to be the embodiment of the Triune God, and He humbled Himself to the uttermost, learning to obey God and be one with God in all things as a man.

Then, in His resurrection, He was made the Lord and Christ, and He was given all authority in heaven and on earth.

Hallelujah, now Jesus Christ, a Man (who is also God) is on the throne, and He has all the authority!

Because He has all authority, He commissions us, His disciples, to go and disciple all the nations.

The book of Matthew reveals Christ as the King-Savior; He was born as the Son of David to inherit his throne, and He was the heavenly King on earth to bring in God’s kingdom.

God desires to gain a kingdom, a realm in which He can rule and reign, and this kingdom is in man’s being.

The kingdom of God today is not outward, for us to see it and touch it; it is in our spirit and in our heart.

Christ as the heavenly King came to set up His kingdom on the earth.

He preached the gospel of the kingdom and asked people to repent for the kingdom of God.

Then, in His resurrection, He was given all authority in heaven and on earth, and now we as His disciples are commissioned by the Lord to go with His authority to disciple all the nations. Hallelujah!

First, we come under God’s rule by repentance and faith in Christ, and then, we bring others into the kingdom of God, being one with the One who has all authority in heaven and on earth. Praise the Lord!

Christ’s great commission in Matt. 28:18-19 is for us to go with His authority and disciple all the nations to make them citizens of the kingdom of God.

Christ is the King, He has a kingdom, and we are part of His kingdom.

He is our King-Savior, and together we are His kingdom.

He is the most wonderful One, and He brought us out of the kingdom of Satan and of darkness into the kingdom of God, which is full of love and light.

Today we live in the kingdom of God, and we enthrone the Lord in our being day by day, even moment by moment.

He is the Lord and King, and we are His kingdom. And we go with His authority to disciple all the nations! Amen!

Having the Lord’s Authority, we Go to Disciple all the Nations and Bring People into God’s Kingdom

After the Lord Jesus said that in His resurrection He has been given all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18), He charged His disciples to go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (v. 19).

Because Christ as the heavenly King has been given all authority in heaven and on earth, He sends His disciples to disciple all the nations.

We are the Lord’s disciples today, for we have been transferred out of darkness into light and out of the authority of Satan into the kingdom of God (Acts 26:18).

Having the Lord’s authority, we go to disciple all the nations and bring people into the kingdom of God.

We go with the Lord’s authority.

To disciple the nations is not just to preach the gospel and help them repent; it is to cause the heathen to become the kingdom people for God to have a kingdom, which is the church on the earth today.

The Lord didn’t charge His disciples to go and preach the gospel; in His resurrection, the Lord Jesus gave His authority to His disciples for them to go and disciple all the nations.

There is a difference between preaching the gospel and discipling the nations; to preach the gospel is to bring sinners to salvation, but to disciple the nations is to cause the Gentiles to become the kingdom people, part of the kingdom of God.

Having the Lord’s authority, we are charged by the Lord Jesus in His resurrection to go and disciple all the nations. Amen!

The word “therefore” indicates that the Lord’s commission is based on what He has previously said; we can go and disciple the nations because Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth.

We need to be those who go, and before we go, we need to be sent.

We cannot just go without being sent.

The heavenly King wants to send us; He has saved us, He made us His kingdom people, and now He sends us with His authority to disciple all the nations.

We go to preach the gospel and disciple the nations not because we are excited or stirred up, nor do we go because we are able, we are trained, and we know what to say.

Rather, we go because we first come to the Lord, enthrone Him in our being, and tell Him, Lord, here I am, send me!

There are many countries and places on the earth where the Lord is moving and where there’s a need for people to go and disciple the nations, but we first come to the Lord as the Head, the King, and we go by Him sending us.

The Lord Jesus came as a sent One; He was sent by the Father, and He had God’s authority.

Today we need to come to Him as the heavenly King and let Him send us so that we may go with the Lord’s authority and disciple all the nations.

None of us should be going out of ourselves, of our own initiative, and because of our own preference or desire; there is a King in the heavenly kingdom, and He has all the authority in heaven and on earth.

We come to the Lord, open to Him, and let Him send us.

When He sends us, He sends us with His authority, and we go to make heathen people into citizens of the kingdom of God.

We simply need to open to the Lord and tell Him, Lord, here I am; send me (Isa. 6:8)!

When we go, when He sends us and we go, we have the Lord’s authority, and we can make people into citizens of God’s kingdom.

We don’t go with our own authority or because of our own zeal for God.

We go with the Lord’s authority.

Because we have His authority, we can overcome any challenges, face any difficulties, and defeat any enemy, for the Lord’s authority is with us.

We go with the Lord’s authority not to convince others that God is good and they have to repent otherwise they go to hell; we go with His authority to disciple all the nations.

It is good to be before the Lord and prayerfully consider this matter today so that we may be the sent ones, the ones whom He sends to not just preach the gospel but even more, disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

As we go with the Lord’s authority, He speaks in our speaking, the enemy is bound, and the Lord has a way to bring others into His kingdom.

Lord Jesus, we praise You for having all authority in heaven and on earth! Hallelujah, Jesus Christ is Lord, and He has all the authority today! Amen, Lord, thank You for making us one spirit with You and for sending us with Your authority to disciple all the nations. Here we are, Lord, send us. We don’t want to go in our own name or because of our own zeal; we open to You and we let You send us. May You have a way to send us to disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We put ourselves aside with our desires, preferences, and thoughts, and we submit ourselves to You. Lord Jesus, You are our Lord. You are our King. You are the heavenly King of the heavenly kingdom, and we take You as our supreme authority. We are under Your throne. Send us, Lord, that we may go with the Lord’s authority and disciple all the nations! May our going be not just to preach the gospel to bring men to salvation but even more, to disciple others and bring them into God’s kingdom!

We have God’s Authority to Bind and Loose for Sinners to be Released from Satan’s Kingdom and Brought into God’s Kingdom

Preaching the gospel is a warfare, for it involves the delivering of people from under Satan’s usurpation to be brought into the kingdom of God.

Discipling all the nations involves spiritual warfare, and in spiritual warfare we are one with the Lord, sharing in His authority.

Because the Lord Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth, we are sent by Him with the Lord’s authority to go and disciple all the nations (Matt. 28:19).

In Matt. 16:19 the Lord told Peter that He has given him (and the church) the keys to the kingdom of the heavens so that whatever we bind on the earth shall have been bound in the heaven, and whatever we loose on the earth shall have been loosed in the heavens.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of David, the King, and we are one with Him.

He has given us the authority to bind and loose.

In order for us to enlarge God’s kingdom by going with the Lord’s authority to disciple all the nations, we need to exercise God’s authority.

First of all, we need to pray until we are one with the Lord.

Yes, we do have the Spirit in us essentially for our life today, but we need to be anointed with the Spirit economically, for power, so that we may bind and loose.

The church today represents the kingdom of God on the earth, and the church life is the kingdom of God in reality today.

The church has been given the authority to bind and loose on the earth what has been bound and loosed in the heavens so that the kingdom of God may come on the earth (Matt. 18:17-18).

We all can participate in the divine authority not in a presumptuous way or in an outward way for show but in spirit, one with the Lord as our sending King and one with the Body.

Because all authority has been given to the Lord Jesus, He sends us as His disciples to go and disciple all the nations.

He cast out demons by the Spirit of God to bring in the kingdom of God (Matt. 12:28-29), and now we have been given His authority to bind the strong man and plunder his house.

The world today has become a house for the strong man, Satan, who has usurped so many of the people created by God.

He holds them in his house to be his vessels and tools, so when we go to disciple all the nations, we first need to bind the strong man.

We all have to realize that for us to preach the gospel is not just for us to preach or teach; it is for us to fight the battle.

Satan, the strong man, holds captive those who are under his usurpation, and for us to deliver them from Satan’s blinding work and usurpation, we need to exercise the Lord’s authority.

We need to stand in the Body, one with our victorious and ascended Head, and bind the enemy, loose the ones usurped by him, and release them to be in the kingdom of God.

We never know who will we encounter when we go to disciple the nations; however, if we pray much together, exercising our spirit and being filled in spirit, we will have God’s authority to bind the enemy and loose those usurped by him to bring them into God’s kingdom.

We believers in Christ have God’s authority to go and disciple the nations by making the heathen the kingdom people for the establishing of God’s kingdom on the earth, which is the church today.

We are not here to merely evangelize the world and win some souls; we are here to disciple all the nations for the kingdom of God. There is a kingdom at stake, for God desires to gain His kingdom on the earth.

We are daily being discipled by the Lord to be those who go with the Lord’s authority and enlarge the kingdom of God.

We need to be with the Lord day by day, be discipled by Him in all things, and speak one spirit with Him to release others from Satan’s usurpation and bring them into God’s kingdom.

Satan may be very powerful, even more powerful than us, but we have the Lord’s authority.

Just as a powerful car needs to stop when a policeman wearing the uniform tells it to, so the enemy is being bound and many are released from his usurpation because we have the Lord’s authority today.

Lord Jesus, we come to You and we want to be with You so that we may be discipled by You today. Make us Your disciples. We open to You in all things and concerning all things. May we be the Lord’s disciples who know the Lord, are filled with the Lord, and are one with the Lord. Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit to touch You and to be filled with You. Fill us today. Fill us with Yourself. Fill us with the Spirit. We stand one with You on the earth to bind the strong man and release those held captive by him. We stand one with You and in the Body to exercise the Lord’s authority to bind and loose as we go to disciple all the nations! Amen, Lord Jesus, cause us to see that our preaching the gospel and discipling the nations is a battle and we have the Lord’s authority! Hallelujah, though the enemy is very powerful, we have God’s authority to deal with him and cause him to suffer loss! Praise the Lord, we are one with the One who has all authority in heaven and on earth!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1965, vol. 1, “Preaching the Gospel in the Way of Life,” ch. 3, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2024 July Semiannual Training), week 3, Discipling All the Nations by Baptizing Them into the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – We must go to disciple all the nations, a portion from, Lesson Book, Level 5: The Church—The Vision and Building Up of the Church, Chapter 23, by Witness Lee.
  – Are You a Normal Believer, Coming and Going? More via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Commissioned from the mountain, a portion from, Christ versus Religion, Chapter 9, by Witness Lee.
  – Why We Witness for Christ and 6 Practical Points on How to Do It, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – The word of righteousness: the economy of God and the consummation of the age, article in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Bind and loose, a portion from, The Kingdom, Chapter 14, by Witness Lee.
  – A Christian’s Attitude toward Government and Politics, via, Shepherding Words.
  – The Kingdom’s Inward Reality Becomes Manifest, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – Spiritual Authority and Its Misuse, via, Shepherding Words.
  – The meaning of migration, outline via, GTCA.
  – The Principle of Prayer, via, Living to Him.
  – Three great principles, a portion from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 2) Vol. 22: The Assembly Life & The Prayer Ministry of the Church, Chapter 9, by Watchman Nee.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – What shall we do? / We should go and tell the world of this. / What shall we do? / We should go and tell the world of this. / Disciple all— / This is our call. / Let us go and spread the news abroad to every land. (Hymns #1293 stanza 5)
  – Come let us speak till the kingdom of the Lord comes down. / Yes, let us speak till the kingdom of the Lord comes down. / Why hold your peace? / The Word release. / Let us speak until the kingdom of the Lord comes down. (Hymns #1294 stanza 1)
  – Teach us to pray that we may cause / The enemy to flee, / That we his evil pow’r may bind, / His prisoners to free. / Teach us to pray and firmly stand / Upon the battleground, / To fight and break the stronghold down, / The enemy confound. (Hymns #767 stanzas 1-2)