Authority and Power, Part 2

As we said yesterday, God created the earth, created mankind and delegated authority to us to rule and reign in this earth, taking dominion and authority over the world system. Satan, God’s enemy, came to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and tempted them to listen to him and thus give their authority over to him by obeying what he said and doubting what God had spoken to them. They had been given free choice to make decisions concerning what they would believe. They believed satan’s lie; they were deceived and lost their position of authority.

Now satan is the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4) because Adam gave his authority, dominion (given by God) over to satan by believing him and obeying the devil’s voice. The devil and his demons have a right to be here in this world, operating this world system. They have the right to exist here because of Adam’s treason until they are cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10).

But we as God’s children don’t have to be under the authority of satan or his demonic realm. We have authority over them. Jesus came to this earth to take back what the devil had stolen from mankind. With His death on the cross and His shedding of His blood and taking our place as our substitute, Jesus purchased for all eternity our place in the Father’s household. That position has been restored to mankind. Along with the position comes rights of the household and authority as Father’s child. God through Jesus turned all He did over to the Church, the Body of Christ----dominion, authority, rule, reign, ALL THINGS (Ephesians 1:22) God has already done it----past tense----done deal. God did all this for you----His Church, His Body, the Body of Christ.

Jesus came to this earth for one purpose; God wanted His family back. A thief called satan came and kidnapped Father’s family of mankind and was exercising the strong whip over them.

Jesus took on flesh and blood to become like us so that He could defeat satan forever for us and take back the authority we had forfeited in the Garden of Eden. Oh, Hallelujah! There was another garden called the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus came head to head with satan and committed Himself to the Father to take our place and suffer for us in our stead the penalty of death for sin. He became sin so that we could become righteous. He did not sin. He became sin and conquered death, hell and the grave forever. He stripped satan and all his demonic realm of their authority and now stands ready to offer that dominion once again to each person who chooses Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. There are rights in this Kingdom while we are here on this earth. It is our choice (just as Adam and Eve made their choice) to choose the loving life of Christ or the hard fist of satan and his rule.