Last week, we learned about the Second Advent and what happens when Christ is matured in the Church. We also learned that when the Body of Jesus comes alive to the Bride of Christ, this is when we come into matured sons and daughters.
Let’s look at Revelation 12, in light of how we hold that place or the practice of holding the place. Revelation 12, is basically three parts of the same event. It is the church, in travail and prayer, birthing the mature
sons of God.
Whatever you pray for, you become. If you pray for nations, you may soon be in nations. If you pray for family, you soon may be in a family. What you pray for, you will also become.
When the church is in travail, Satan, the dragon, is ready to devour what’s to become of that prayer. And in many of our lives, we have seen that happen, because we just learned to pray. We may not necessarily know how to hold on to what we pray. However, there comes a time in history, and I believe we’re in that season, when the church begins to birth maturity. It is when we are not tossed to and fro, carried around, and everyone freaking out. It’s maturity.
The son that is born, even though Satan is there to devour it, cannot be devoured because he is caught up into heaven. This is scene I. Now, the same scene, but coming from heaven: You see Michael, the archangel, warring with Satan, the dragon and his angels. This battle is for position.
In the bible, we are taught that there are three heavens.
- The first heaven which is the natural heaven. This is the one we enjoy. We look into the sky and we see the stars andthe galaxy. It is the natural, physical heaven.
- The second heaven is the realm of the commerce. It’s where movement takes place in the spiritual world. It is where the principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places dwell.
- The third heaven. This is where God’s throne is. It is where God dwells and is seated at the right hand of God. This is where we have been given a place to sit with Christ in the heavenly places.
You can also look at this also just in the way we’re made up.
- We live inside a body. We have a We have a physical body. This would be like the first heaven.
- Our soul, mind, will, emotions, our whole intellect, our imagination is like the second heaven. It’s where all activity really transpires. It’s where commerce takes place – where ideas are formed, where torment is experienced. Our soul, the second heaven is where the war is.
- Our spirit is like the third heaven. This is where God dwells. This is where Christ dwells in our heart by faith. This is where we are born again.
When we look at where the war is, in the second heaven, Michael and his angels, we can see it globally, and beyond globally. We see it in the fullness of that drama. We can also apply this same principal which is true about our own walking-out a day and not losing our place. This is because it is about holding a place.
We were born again and now God says, “I want you to hold the place of My victory.” And we say, “Terrific. I do want to hold the place of Your victory.” But we don’t understand our adversary. We don’t know how he works, and therefore we get swallowed up many times. We learn as we go.
Dragon is the word for fascination. He is the beautiful one that mystifies, intrigues, seduces, captivates, and who captures the innocent and promises them prominence, but then ruins their lives in a multiplicity of ways. That’s the ancient dragon.
Then we see the serpent. The serpent is the deceiver. He is the subtle one who says, “Did God really say?” He brings the question or the doubt to consider it a second time. He says, “Maybe not, maybe God’s doing something other than what He really said. Maybe He really didn’t mean what He said”. He is a deceiver. He says things like, “This won’t hurt you” or “This won’t harm you”.
Then, the word devil is listed in one verse. This word is diablos. This is where we get the word for slander. He is a liar. He lies constantly to move us out of our place. We lose our balance. We don’t know what is true or not. This is because of the means in which he shames us, blames us and messes with our mind.
We then have the word Satan, which is the word for accuser. He accuses and holds people in a sense of, “I’ve got to defend myself – no that’s not who I really am – that’s not what’s really going on.” We get barraged, and we begin to be overwhelmed. This is meant to do three things:
Put us in a position of being accused. Then we are to accept the accusation, or enough people accept it, and then we become condemned. This is like one who is being charged with something and brought into a court. The other is to be convicted and now punished with a sentence—a punishment. That’s condemnation.
All of this is to separate us from God’s love—God’s love in Romans 8. God’s love is eternal and it has never been removed from us. We have been joined into Christ, into the love and glory that He enjoyed with Father before the foundation of the world. John 17.
We have been given an incredible immediate union through our new birth. It doesn’t get any better than when it was given, it just needs to mature. There is no qualifying needed. There is no waiting it out and there is no proving your self-worth to be loved. You are just loved. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16
Our enemy, this dragon, finds no place because the prayers of the church have finally brought the maturing of the church has come into agreement with what Jesus accomplished. Jesus has accomplished total victory! He already overcame the devil when He was born again in hell. When He was resurrected, He took, from Satan, the keys of hades, the keys of death. He stripped him of his authority. He took the principalities and powers and gathered them and made an open show of them in triumph. He did this!
There was no escape from hell for Jesus. He walked triumphantly, victoriously overcoming in confidence as He escorted captivity captive and ascended on high.
This is our Jesus! He is afraid of no one! We, however, are afraid of everyone. So, we’ve got a little growing up to go. Don’t freak out on me. You are afraid of everybody just like I am. We all say that we are not afraid…but, what are you trying to control? Whatever you are trying to control, that is what you’re afraid of.
Let’s not stop here. Keep going.
When this displacement takes place and he is cast down, Revelation 12:10 says, Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.
Something that was accomplished completely in Christ had now found its way of expression in the second heaven. Satan found himself thrown to the earth. There is this very simple statement found in Revelation 12:11: And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
The simple way for us to say this is: “Your blood is my answer to anything and everything and all charges. I say ‘the Blood.’ I don’t plead the fifth. I plead the Blood. “Your blood is my answer. Your word is my
future.”
The word of testimony is the logos. It is the complete sound of God in voice, thought and intent. The testimony of Jesus becomes my future. It is all that I discover of Him, all that I have seen, and all that I heart. This is where we are headed.” We should never look at our life and judge our life from where we are in reality. We are to judge our life from who we are. It doesn’t matter where we are because we are in Christ. If we are in Christ, then we have a future, a hope, promises and a beauty. This is all there and that’s the discovery. But, it is warred over! You see, if you overcome, that means there must be in a
battle. Therefore, I’m using the blood as an answer, a charge against the accuser.
I’m also using the Word as an answer, a charge against hopelessness, despair, impossibilities, and confusion. I’m saying, “No. I’ve got a future and a hope which is the Word of God, the promises of God.” And I love not my life unto death, simply means that “My life is in Your hands”. Whatever. I’m not going to fight for my own future.”
Life here is psuche, the soul realm. Again, because of the fear of death, Satan keeps us all captive. We are afraid of speaking, afraid of heights, afraid of talking. Fear of death keeps us in captivity. Jesus destroyed the power of death, so that we who were afraid of death would no longer have to be a slave to that fear. But, if that is true, we are going to be challenged. We are going to find ourselves scared. I don’t know about you, but I get scared daily. I have to collect myself back into the truth.
In this world, the second heaven, is like ISIS right now. It is the Islamic state of Iraq and Syria. ISIL, Islamic state of Iraq and the Levant. I don’t ever use that one because it is kind of a French/English providence that would take Iraq, Syria, part of Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, all of Israel and all the way to Cypress. But in any case, that’s illegal! But it’s happening! Welcome to your world.
This is what we are contending against but we are not talking about the war here. We are talking about the victory. The victory happens when we no longer yield to the accuser. We say, “Hey, you’re right, but who cares. Jesus’ blood cleanses me. I am forgiven. I am accepted. I am not going to argue with you – the blood of the Lamb is my only means of access and I’m enjoying it and I am not going another way to get in.” He answers, “You have no future.” I say, “The word of God is my future. Everything that God has ever said will come to pass and all the special promises that are mine. Jesus is my future. He’s my inheritance. He’s my testimony.”
We use our mouth, because your mouth is where our brain shuts down. Some of us wish somebody’s mouth would shut down. This is why. Somebody talks all the time, they never think. And somebody that thinks all the time doesn’t talk. You’ve got to talk to change your thoughts.
So, we say. We declare. We decree. We promise. We praise.
I don’t come to praise God because it’s the way I feel. It’s because it’s the way I WANT to feel. To have an experience with the word, you have to FEEL the word. You have to see the word. You have to imagine the word. It has to touch your emotions. It has to be an encounter. This whole union is an encounter. This is the real deal.
I have heard of President Obama. I saw his picture in the paper. I’ve read things he’s said. I’ve heard what other people say about him. I’ve read what other people say about him. But… I’ve never MET President Obama, therefore I do not KNOW President Obama.
Now, that’s how we as Christians often live. We live at a distance, when it was meant to meet Him. We get undone and so thankful. He touches us and He removes the shame off us. He lifts off the guilt, the pressure, the fear, and it all disappears. Then we say, “Aaahhh, I’m loved and I’m enjoyed!” It is so vibrant!
This union is what we are being warred over. That oneness of love is being contended after. We have to use going to be afraid.”
- The blood, as the reason we are being loved so much,
- His word is my future, so I’m not going to worry so much.
- My life is in His hands, so I’m not
When we begin to hold that place, and the corporate body is growing up and holding that place, we understand that it is not about me, it’s about Jesus. It’s not about what I did; it is about what He did. It’s not about what I’m doing. It is what He has done. I’m not trying to observe to do. I am beholding and becoming. I believe, I receive.
But Satan knows this, so he keeps us off balance. He is warring. He holds his place in the second heaven… and finally he loses his place. Salvation comes, the accuser is cast down, and the earth is in turmoil. But it is rejoicing time for those who are dwelling in heaven.
2 Corinthians 10.
The world, that is attacking us, is so subtly clothed in religion, performance based, works based stuff, is just junk. It just takes each of us, a vibrant son of God and causes us to get off on…
A genealogy trail or
Off on a doctrine of word or
Wondering about this or
Fighting for that or
Trying to get the rock planet to look better.
We have been given an invitation to sit in the glory realm of heaven, to walk in the midst of God and say, “Oh my Dad. I can’t believe what You did, but I am now believing. I want to receive more of who You are. I love You. I adore You, and I worship You.”
Once you’re there, you don’t want to leave. To get there can be very difficult. What hell doesn’t want is for you to live there. So, hell is fighting us and getting us out of balance.
Paul said this in 2 Corinthians 10:1 Now I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you.
This is just a picture worth stepping into. Meek and gentle Christ. He doesn’t have to prove anything. He rules the world. He can be meek and gentle. Nobody says anything to what He says. He has such authority.
So I’m appealing to you by the meekness and the gentleness. I’m not using force and control and shame and guilt. I’m just calling you into this place which he’s been doing in the chapters previous. …who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you (because these are letters that are being received):
2 But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
We are talking about basic training of the war, the basic practicum of working this out inside our little second heaven, inside our soul.
First off, we are not trying to physically change anything to feel better about everything. We are not worrying out here in the external.It is here in the internal. What this is, is strongholds.
You will see that there are three thoughts:
- A stronghold,
- An argument
- A thought.
It starts off with pulling down strongholds, casting down imaginations, arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Bringing every thought captive.
Basically, what happens in life is this: Thoughts are introduced. They can come through trauma. They can come through people’s voices. They can come through people accusing you, calling you names. It can come through experience in the way that you then interpret the experience. But they are thoughts.
Thoughts that continue to build, they formulate around each other and become an argument.
An argument is not like an argumentative person. It means it’s like it’s a reasoning factor. I reason this way. Because of this thought and that thought, I come to this conclusion.
This conclusion is, “Every time I’m about to go forward, I go backward because of my experiences. I want to believe God for healing, but my past experience of teaching doesn’t allow me to open to consider the thought of healings”. It is an argument. It holds a place. An argument builds, arguments upon arguments, experience upon experience, and trauma upon trauma. It builds a stronghold.
A stronghold is a fortress. It becomes hard to penetrate because it becomes our demeanor. It becomes our thought life. It becomes just who we are. We wear it, we carry it. We are mobile carrying strongholds.
Why? Because Satan wants to rule you and me, even though we are purchased and loved unconditionally by God. He has to do it in the soul. He has to do it in the second heaven. He has to illegally insert through fear and intimidation and manipulation just like ISIS has done. (They come in and off with your head if you don’t believe in us.) It’s just the devil. He’s like that. He pushes. He pressures. And he touches our emotions.
So, for us to enter into the meekness and gentleness of Christ, we have to take some intentional meditation, and prayer pursuit to say, “I want to experience Your meekness Jesus. What is Your meekness? I want to feel Your meekness”.
- I use my intellect.
- I study the scripture,
- I open my heart in prayer.
- I enter through the blood,
- I step into the Presence until meekness starts to come inside of me.
- I feel.
This is how I can have new feelings. But to get rid of old feelings, I have to do the opposite. I have to get words to explain my feelings. “I feel when I worship, so far away.” “I feel during Christmas just a sadness but I don’t understand why. I feel overwhelmed. That’s just the beginning. I’m telling everyone to come into the Presence through what Jesus accomplished – His blood, His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, intercession. Join in worship with this. Then… tell God how you’re doing. Open your heart in truth and approach Him with a true heart because you’ve got to get language. Don’t be embarrassed by how you feel. Communicate.
Those in a marriage might not want the other party to know that they are going through something. So they keep closing themselves up. We must be opened up and then we can become one and it brings life.
So, we tell God how you’re doing, because that’s how we get language for it. And we will find that if we are dealing with an emotion, it has lost its words because it’s just an emotion. This emotion is creating motion and it is creating movement. We don’t even understand why we do what we do. We don’t even know why we feel what we feel. We don’t even know why we respond the way we respond. We don’t even know how that thing comes up and takes over in us. That is to be dismantled through language.
Jesus is language, He’s the word. So, we talk. “I feel this. I feel that.” It is basic. Don’t accuse. Just explain everything in feeling. This is basic marriage counseling. Never say to your wife, “You always do that.” Or, “What you did was wrong.” You say, “When you do this, I feel like…”
There is no accusation now in heaven. Nobody can accuse you, because God justified you. Romans 8. No one can condemn you because Christ already paid the price of your condemnation and went to hell, was raised from the dead,was seated at the Father, making intercession. Romans 8.
So we have to unpack things without letting the violence of the emotion take over. If you need to scream, get a pillow and scream. Or go to the ocean. It’s a really wonderful place. I love it there. Get out in the waves and yell.
To be honest with you (and this is a side bar) all of this commerce is like electricity. It builds in the air and gets static electricity. You touch something and zap. That is what we call power.
Powers will move through your soul and after a while you have to discharge it. First and foremost, the best discharge is worship. “We, give it all back to You, the good, bad and ugly. Just release it.” Sometimes it is a travail, a groan. You have no voice, no words for it. Sometimes you just worship. You whisper. Sometimes it is tears. Sometimes it’s laughter. Release. Release. Sometimes it’s language. “I believe. I understand what’s happening.”
Catch this…I want you to know that there are weapons that God has given us for this war and they’re here to pull down those strongholds. They are here to cast down imaginations. Basically what that means is to destroy them. Demolition. Get some imagery! Blown up! Gone. Scattered. Shattered. You say, “Well, that could take a long time.” “Sure it could, but it could take no time.” Get a picture of a man carrying 10,000 demons, living in the tombs, cutting himself with rocks, screaming in travail, being bound in chains so they could control him and he breaks the chains because of the power of hell. This man totally controlled by hell. Meets Jesus. Jesus casts those demons out. When the town shows up, he is seated in rest. He is fully clothed (which now he’s covered). He is in his right mind. Jesus!
I want to encounter THAT Jesus! I don’t need the 10 year Jesus plan. I want immediately the devil was cast out. Immediately he was in his right mind. Immediately He got up and followed Him. I need the immediate Jesus. And that is there for us, not a long, long time.
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself.
Do you see what we are talking about in the second heaven? I’m trying to take a place that isn’t mine. I’m trying to take over somebody’s land that isn’t mine. I’m trying to influence somebody that I shouldn’t be, I’m trying to control something. …. every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God…
That word knowledge – all of the other Greek words are just really appropriate English translation, but this one isn’t knowledge like knowledge of President Obama. It is the knowing God. It is better said, it is.casting down every high thing that exalts itself against knowing God.
Check yourself when you go to pray. You go to pray, the flood of the thoughts, the emotions, the feelings that say, “You can’t be here. Why are you here? What’s the use of you being here. It doesn’t matter…” Whatever it is. That’s something rising up. Why? It doesn’t want you to have a connection. It’s doesn’t want you to enjoy your union. It wants to interrupt – put space between you, which is where we get the Greek word ‘separate’. It wants to separate you from love. It would be as if we were all gathered and having a lot of fun and somebody meets you at the door and says, “Oh you can’t come in this room, you have to go over there.” And you’re sitting there while hearing all of this fun, laughter and joy. You can’t come in because there’s a room between you and the fun.
A lot of us feel that way. If we would take a moment, a lot of us live feeling that way. We feel like we’re not a part of something, we’re disconnected. That’s rejection. We feel like we’re always sad even though everybody’s happy. We don’t understand where these things are from. We live with them but have to understand that it is being imposed upon you. It’s being forced upon you. It’s not you. You are loved.
So, we begin by saying, “I am loved! I can’t help it. God just loves me! He likes me and He favors me and the word of God is for me and I’m not going to lose my place because God has established my place.”
We use our mouth to agree with God. But we also use our mouth to expose what is going on. We all have to do this.
I wish I could just push God on me and that would be it. But, sometimes we just have to disengage with what’s going on. Especially as we are maturing. “Why are you so mad at somebody?” “Well, they did me wrong.” “Well, what did they do?” “Well, they didn’t acknowledge me.” “Well, why is that wrong?” “After all I did for them, they didn’t even recognize what I did for them.” “Why does that bother you?”
…Oh, no….There is God intruding in my life. “Because it makes me feel like nothing, I do matters, and no one ever recognizes my contribution. It makes me feel like I don’t belong. It makes me feel…” “So what are you doing now with your anger?” “I want to control. I want to make sure people don’t do that to me.” “But that’s not how I freed the world. I freed the world by the cross, not control. Why don’t we release? Why don’t we forgive? Why don’t we let that thing be dismantled and cast down and broken apart and re-engage? I love you. I’m there.” “Yeh, but I worked in the church all these years and didn’t get any recognition and that sinful, backsliding brother of mine shows up one day and everybody’s bringing him up to the front and applauding him.”
It took me a long time to understand that God cannot love sacrifice because then He would reward a servant mind. So if He rewards a servant mind, He would feed your fear and you would become a better worker. He doesn’t want a better worker, He wants a lover. And a lover is not a lover if they are afraid of being displaced.
The dismantling can feel like its piece-meal, but then one day – boom! It just crumbles. And never again do you have to face that with the same sense of dread.
It says here that they had a readiness to revenge the disobedience whenever the obedience was fulfilled. It says to bring all thoughts to obedience to Christ. All that literally means is that obedience is hearing under…hearing under someone. So, when I learn to hear under Jesus I say, “I’m in this situation and my life is crumbling apart and I don’t know what to do –“ I need to hear under the word of God again. I need to come back to how I should be feeling.
I’m glad for the bible because it tells me how to feel. It tells me how to think. It tells me how to respond. But I don’t do it to prove, attain or become. I do it more like, “Well, this is my testimony in the midst of this war.
The blood is my answer and my future is in His hands.
So, we are just going to disengage from the struggle and reengage with union. If you check yourself this week, be aware of love. Let love touch you. Let God’s love touch you, When love touches you, hold that love and watch as circumstances in the day come, they challenged your being loved. “If I was loved, I wouldn’t be here. If I was loved, this wouldn’t be happening. This makes me feel unloved. This makes me
feel uncovered, unprotected.”
Now, rather than crumbling, trust me – I am an expert crumbler. What do you do when you are in the Presence and you come out of that? When you are in life’s circumstance and abiding is breaking – what do you do?” And there are many things you can do, but one thing you can do is you take a moment’s pause and re-connect. What do you do when your internet connection doesn’t work, when it drops you on a website? You [freak out] and say “Oh God! He doesn’t love me? I lost my page! No, you just wait a moment and click again.
You are greatly loved! You are highly favored! You are sought after! You are privileged and blessed and you have nothing in this earth you have to attain to enjoy that. Anything that you feel that you have to attain or to enjoy is a lie. If you attain it, you won’t get it. You will be mad at your Dad because He didn’t give you a goat. He cannot reward a servant mindset…Or He will have a bunch of servants. No one wants to marry their maid. Let’s practice this week.
Upcoming Events
Wednesday, December 17, 2014 at 7pm: It is our Christmas Party worship, carols, and songs of laughter will fill our hearts. Yes, we are doing the 12 Days of Christmas! Then a time together around lite snacks and deserts! All this from 7-8:45 pm.
Sunday, December 21, 2014, 9am: Brian Rogers will be sharing on “The Grace of Jesus”.
Sunday, 10:20am: Join us in Praying for the Nations. A time of declarations and petitions for the Kingdom of God in all Nations.
Sunday, 11 am: I will be sharing “The Awakening of the Church.” How the battle in heaven yields to the victory of Christ and how we carry His glory on earth. We are becoming His glorious victorious bride-the Second Advent is in full motion.
