By Ryan Shaw
Many go through life and ministry without regularly utilizing the authority Jesus has freely purchased for us. Instead we endure through often painful personal situations which may have been minimized had we taken a stand against the onslaught of spiritual darkness, using Jesus’ authority.
We do this by resisting the powers and principalities coming against us through the use of Jesus’ name, backed by all the authority of the government of heaven. This is not done as a mere “formula” but with the understanding of the authority standing behind that holy name.
The apostle James tells us in James 4:7, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Resisting requires action on our part and is not passive. Too many believers are passive when it comes to demonic oppression.
In Ephesians 6:11 Paul reminds us, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places.”
Paul shares the powerful revelation that, yes, there are spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. These have real power to make life difficult for the people of God through a host of schemes and pointed attacks meant to bring real harm to our relationships, bodies, emotions, thoughts, finances, ministries, families and more.
Yet, now as born-again believers in Jesus, God has: “raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6).”
What does this concept of being seated in heavenly places mean? It refers to the fact that through Jesus’ redeeming love and our receiving of it by faith, we have been granted eternal access to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16).
The way has been thrown open for every believer to personally wield the authority Jesus has provided over every demonic influence interfering in our lives and ministries.
Because of Jesus’ work and the fact that He presently is seated at the right hand of God, we now figuratively sit together (not physically) with Jesus Himself in the heavenly realm. We thus possess greater authority (through Jesus) then the powers and principalities interfering in our lives.
Through His death and resurrection Jesus has provided all the authority necessary to accomplish His command of the great commission. This authority is used through the predominant means of persevering and prevailing prayer.
We align ourselves with His heart. Where we discern there may be demonic influence antagonizing a given situation, whether personally or in another person’s life, we proactively resist that demonic influence through the name of Jesus.
Such spiritual authority is available for every believer, no matter how mature one is in their faith, how trained one is in the Bible, how old one is or how loud or soft a believer prays.
It is not contingent on an individual but is based solely on the facts of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The contingent upon us is the necessity to activate our will and take a stand in the resisting process. We do this through declaring the enemy must leave whatever specific area of our life he is meddling in through Jesus’ name and authority.
