God's work through Christ's atonement

Barrier 2: God's work through Christ's atonement

The Blood of Jesus

“Everyone born of God overcomes the world…Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God,” 1 John 5:4-5.
“They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death,” Revelation 12:11.
“I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it,” Matthew 16:18.
“There is no sorcery against Jacob, no divination against Israel. It will now be said of Jacob and of Israel, `See what God has done!'” Numbers 23:23.

Christ's atonement is the intermediary level God chooses to break occult spells from materializing in the earthly realm. Christ's atonement encompasses Jesus Christ's death, resurrection, ascension, and its effect on every person who has received him as Lord and Savior into his/her life.

At this level Christ's atonement is our protection from certain occult spells that are prevented or broken through Christ's atonement. For such it means that only those who have received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior are protected from particular occult spells from materializing. God uses Christ's atonement as the basis to intervene and prevent the spells from materializing.

By virtue of salvation through Christ a Christian is not deserving or having legal grounds for being under most major occult spells. This is the most important foundation in relation to what Christ obtained for us on the cross. We're free from Satan's power over our lives. Satan's hold over us was broken by Christ shedding his innocent blood for our sake.

“To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen,” Revelation 1:5-6.

Through the blood of Jesus we've been freed. He is our Passover Lamb. The scripture in Revelation 12:11 speaks of believers overcoming Satan by the blood of the Lamb. Our salvation paid for by the blood of Jesus overcomes Satan's works, including occult activities against us. Our Salvation is an automatic weapon in the spirit realm. It fires automatically at any instance of attack.

In the real sense, our salvation through Christ has qualified us for God‘s protection from Satan's attacks. The protection we receive in the spirit realm is God's angels. This can be compared to having body guards. Angels are God's body guards over us. They are not our body guards as some say it in a puffed up way. If they belonged to us we'd have the authority to issue commands to them. Instead they're under God's command.

Thus they are God's body guards over us and his entire creation. We're not even allowed to speak to them in the spirit realm, unless God allows them to manifest in the physical realm. They play many other roles besides being God's body guards over us. My other book on breaking curses has a whole chapter on the nature of God's angels.

A misinterpretation on Revelation 12:11has developed among some in the body of Christ. Some began to assume the verse implies we're to directly confront Satan in the spirit realm and invoke the blood of Jesus against him. With this understanding a whole list of other scriptures are taken out of context to justify that God gave us a mandate to bombard evil spirits in the spirit realm. It is claimed to be part of our spiritual warfare against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

With all the battles they faced the early church has no example of even one incident where they went on a mission to confront evil spirits in the spirit realm. They adhered to the principles of indirect confrontation which came through their salvation and their upright walk with God. Through their indirect confrontation using “weapons of righteousness” (2 Corinthians 6:7) they indirectly overcame works of Satan against them and against people they ministered to.

My book titled, Major Spiritual Warfare Principles: Biblical Do's and Don'ts of Warfare , has more info on this topic, including on Revelation 12:11.

Christ's work on the cross places a key covering on us. It is like being hidden from an enemy that wants to attack you. You're safe for as long as you remain in hiding or remain disguised from the enemy's recognition. The bible says, “…your life is now hidden with Christ in God,” Colossians 3:3.

Thus for any reader seeking protection from witchcraft and occult influences the solution is simple: you must receive salvation from God. It comes through accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. What does receiving salvation from God mean? Appendix 1 answers this question. It also has a prayer of salvation that you can use to receive salvation from God.

Barrier 3: God breaking spells through our obedience -Our testimony

“They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death,” Revelation 12:11.
“We will be ready to punish every act of disobedience once (when) your obedience is complete,” 2 Corinthians 10:6 (emphasis added).
“Submit to God and be at peace with him… You will pray to him, and he will hear you… He will deliver even the one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands ,” Job 22: 21,27,30 (emphasis added).
“…The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches,” Revelation 1:20.

Through our obedience to his will is the lowest level God chooses to break occult spells. However it is the biggest role we play in terms of doing our own part in facilitating God to break occult spells from materializing.

At this level our obedience to God's will is our protection from certain occult spells that are prevented or broken through it. For such matters it means that only those walking in our obedience to his will are protected from particular occult spells.

At this level it's our full responsibility of doing our part that determines whether or not God will intervene. It's strictly our business, as God's children, of doing our part and God expects us to be obedient enough to live up to it. If we do he rewards us for our input by granting us the needed protection. If we don't he's not held responsible for the consequences –we are.

Our obedience to God is our testimony or evidence in the court of heaven against Satan, our accuser. It is evidence that we're innocent. If you read the entire context of Revelation 12:11 you'll see that the confrontation between Satan and God's people is in the court of heaven. It reads:

“(verse 10) Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.(v.11) They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony ; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death,'” Revelation 12:10-11 (emphasis added).

Note that verse (v.10) talks about “the Accuser,” who is Satan, going before God and making accusations against us. The scripture says he does this “day and night” (v.10) trying to gain legal ground to attack us spiritually, physically, socially, materially and so on.

There are two primary pieces of evidence that God uses to determine whether or not Satan's accusations are valid. Revelation 12:11 says these two are 1) “the blood of the Lamb,” and 2) “the word of their testimony.” If these two pieces of evidence are present in our lives they act as our defense.

The blood of the Lamb is the blood of Jesus. He is our Passover Lamb. Our salvation paid for by the blood of Jesus overcomes Satan's works. This was covered in the previous section (Barrier 2: God's work through Christ's atonement -The Blood of Jesus).

The second piece of evidence is our testimony. Our testimony is God's word and our conduct of living upright lives. However, it is primarily our conduct of living upright lives. If it was primarily God's word then bible scholars and we ministers would be the only ones being able to win cases against Satan's accusations. Christians in places where the bible is suppressed and they literally live by the Holy Spirit's inspiration and leadings would be the worst victims of Satan. They'd easily lose their case since they don't have a testimony of intellectually knowing the scriptures.

This is certainly not to minimize the value of God's word in our lives. It's to point out that the bible is God's voice spoken to us. What follows after God has spoken to us through the scriptures is to obey and apply his word. It is the obedience and application of his word that forms the basis of our testimony. Reading it and understanding it won't be any good if we don't apply what it says.

The bible is God's will revealed to us. As we endeavor to learn more about God's revealed will to us our ultimate goal is to obey and apply his will in our lives. As we obey and apply God's word into our lives our obedience to his will becomes our testimony or evidence that we're living upright lives. The blood of Jesus that covers our sins and our testimony of living upright lives disqualify the accusations Satan makes against us.

We have access to heaven, God's kingdom, so we can always plead our side of the case against Satan, our Accuser. Our access to heaven is through prayer. Prayer takes us into spiritual realms where we've the privilege to approach God, our heavenly Father.

We do not know exactly what Satan is accusing us on before God. However what's important is that we have enough evidence to ensure God finds us innocent from Satan's accusations. This evidence is the blood of the Lamb and our testimony that overcomes Satan in the court of heaven.

The blood of the Lamb is a free gift we already have which God gave us after we received salvation. Our testimony is a set of endeavors for righteousness that show our own input in obeying God's will. Thus if ever Satan is found to win any case against any of us it means the case was lost on the grounds of having an insufficient testimony. It can never be lost on the grounds of not being under the blood of the Lamb - unless a person is not yet saved.

Next Part Our obedient lives close doorways