NOW POWER AND
AUTHORITY HAVE COME
By Dan Luehrs
"And she gave birth to
a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her
child was caught up to God and to His throne" (Revelation 12:5).
For some time now, the
Church as been with child. She is in great agony of soul. The baby she is
carrying is the power and authority of the glory of God, or the apostolic
anointing. Everything in the spirit must be birthed, just as it is in the
natural. Most praying people sense that something is about to break forth, and
many believe it is going to be another great awakening. This is true, but it
shall be much, much more! For this son shall rule the nations. Some would say
that this is Jesus who is born in this verse. But according to Revelation
2:26-27, it is the authority of the overcomers. Jesus said, "And he who
overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, TO HIM I WILL GIVE
AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS; AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON, AS THE
VESSELS OF THE POTTER ARE BROKEN TO PIECES,
as I also have received authority from My Father." Jesus is saying,
"Just as I received all authority from my Father, these shall have My
authority to do My works in the earth." "And Jesus came up and spoke
to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth"
(Matthew 28:18). This son will be caught up to the throne. The throne speaks of
the authority given to this people; we are to be sitting in heavenly places
with Him, now!
"And I heard a loud
voice in heaven, saying, "Now the
salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His
Christ have come..." (Revelation 12:10)
Notice, "now the
salvation have come!" I thought we had salvation? We do, but this is
talking about great deliverance power coming forth to set mankind free from the
power of sin, bringing restoration to the world. Peter and the writer of
Hebrews wrote about this full salvation. "Who are protected by the power
of God through faith for a salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Peter 1:5). "So Christ
also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin,
to those who eagerly await Him" (Hebrews 9:28). This time, His power is
going to be revealed through His body, the Church. Peter spoke on the day of
Pentecost and said:
"AND IT SHALL BE IN THE
LAST DAYS,' God says, 'THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT UPON ALL MANKIND;
AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE
VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS; EVEN UPON MY BONDSLAVES, BOTH MEN
AND WOMEN, I WILL IN THOSE DAYS POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT And they shall
prophesy. AND I WILL GRANT WONDERS IN
THE SKY ABOVE, AND SIGNS ON THE EARTH BENEATH, BLOOD, AND FIRE, AND VAPOR OF
SMOKE. THE SUN SHALL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS, AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE
THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME. AND IT SHALL BE, THAT
EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED" (Acts 2:17-21).
The power of the Holy Spirit
is going to be poured out before the Great Day of the Lord begins. What will
the outpouring look like? Prophecy, visions, and dreams. Is that it? No!
Greater wonders and signs shall be seen with fire, blood and vapor of smoke.
"AND IT SHALL BE, THAT EVERYONE WHO
CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED!" Many shall turn to the
Lord through these powerful ministers that the Lord is going to release.
SATAN IS CAST
DOWN
"And they overcame him
because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony,
and they did not love their life even to death" (Revelation 12:11).
They overcame Satan! Who is
"they?" The sons that were born to the woman in verse five that had
power and authority given to them, because Satan was cast down! "And they
(demonic powers) were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found
for them in heaven" (Revelation 12:8). Do you see here the Church has
risen to the rightful place of authority given her and the angels are helping
her rule in the heavenlies?
A GREAT SIGN
APPEARED
"And a great sign appeared
in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on
her head a crown of twelve stars" (Revelation 12:1).
This sounds very cosmic with
the sun, moon, and stars. In reality, it speaks of the awesomeness and the
destiny of the Church. I know that many teach that this woman is Israel, as I
once did also, until the Lord opened this verse unto me.
Notice that she is in
heaven, not the third heaven where God is, but the second heaven where she is
called to reign. How do I know that? In verse six she is driven into the
wilderness for preparation to be the city of God. Don't mix these up with the
newborn sons. These sons are the ones that have paid the price in the
wilderness for many years, as they were being prepared for their place of
authority. The whole Church should be walking in this power, but many would not
pay the price to follow the Lamb wherever He goes. But in time, God will get
the rest of the body prepared for the reign of Christ.
The woman has a crown on her
head with twelve stars. The crown speaks of her authority in the spirit over
demonic powers and the twelve stars speaks of the government of God;
"twelve" is the number of God's government. The Church is called to
be the government of God in the earth. The red dragon, which is Satan, will try
his best to destroy her, as he did Moses and Jesus at their birth. It will be
to no avail, because God will protect them, as He did His Son.
We are to rejoice in the
fact that God has given us such power over the enemy! "For this reason,
rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them..." (Revelation 12:12).
Satan's days are numbered! Let this good news give you strength through your
trials and persecutions from the enemy. God
is preparing you to rule the nations.
THE TWO WOMEN
"And one of the seven
angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here,
I shall show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters"
(Revelation 17:1).
There are two women spoken
of in the book of Revelation that we must look at to understand our destiny. In
chapter 21 there is one woman who is a wife, that has prepared herself for her
husband. Then also there is one woman, in chapter 17, that is a harlot. This is
the false church pretends obedience to Jesus, but their heart is far from Him.
We must chose, which one we will be by our actions, word, mind set, and
attitudes.
Over and over God had called
His people, Israel, "harlots." The Lord said, "... But you are a
harlot with many lovers; Yet you turn to Me," declares the LORD"
(Jeremiah 3:1). These are very strong words, but these people had turned away
from the living God to serve idols made from their own hands of silver and
gold. Some would say that we don't bow down to idols made of gold today, but I
think our society is more idolatrous
today than any society before us! People do not live to seek and please
God. They live to see how much they can get from the world system, (money,
fame, cars, houses, and etc.) rather than God. We, too, can be a harlot if we
seek after this world system. Listen to the words of James, "You
adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility
toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself
an enemy of God" (James 4:4). We must get right with God if we do not want
to be judged with the world.
THE HARLOT IN
THE WILDERNESS
"And he carried me away
in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast,
full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was
clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and
pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean
things of her immorality" (Revelation 17:3-4).
The wilderness is a dry and
unproductive place in the natural, but in the spirit we grow strong. The woman
is there because of her disobedience to Jesus. Much like the children of
Israel, we all must be tested with the golden calf in this place. But we are
not to abide there forever. We need to learn how to trust God there and go on
into the Promised Land. This harlot was riding Satan; he was controlling her!
Satan made her rich because she was obeying him. When Satan tempted Jesus in
the wilderness, he was going to give Him all the riches of the world, if only
He would bow down and worship him. The harlot did worship Satan by living like
the world, rather than living like Jesus.
"Because you say,
"I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and
you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and
naked" (Revelation 3:17).
THE JUDGMENT
OF HARLOT
"And he said to me,
"The waters which you saw where the harlot sits, are peoples and
multitudes and nations and tongues. And the ten horns which you saw, and the
beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked, and
will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire" (Revelation 17:15-16).
God is going to have the
whole world turn against the harlot Church to purge her of her sinful ways. "For God has put it in their hearts to
execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom
to the beast, until the words of God should be fulfilled" (Revelation
17:17). This is exactly what I wrote about Revelation 11:2. "And leave out
the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been
given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for
forty-two months." Yet some would say that God would not do this to His
Church. Does God love the Church more than He loved Israel? No! If God so
disciplined Israel with Nebuchadnezzar, why would He not discipline the Church
with the world system? According to Revelation 17:15, the people of the world
are going to rise up against the Church. Look what God said to sinful Israel,
"And I shall give you over into the hand of those who are seeking your
life, yes, into the hand of those whom you dread, even into the hand of
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans"
(Jeremiah 22:25).
The world shall strip the
Church naked of all her worldly riches that she has sought after and thought
more important than God. Somehow worldly people will eat her flesh. Remember,
Satan has a right to eat our flesh when he sees ungodliness in us, for God gave
him the right to eat dust in the book of Genesis. We are made out of the dust
of the ground and everything not of God must go, (Satan cannot touch our spirit
man.) Satan shall burn her with fire, "tribulations!" Much of the
Church has done everything it can to try and stay out of the fire. But if you are going to follow God, He will
bring you into those fiery places, much like the three Hebrew children that
would not bow down and worship the King's idol. When they were thrown into the
fiery furnace they were not harmed, they were only freed up! The bonds on their
hands and feet fell off and they walked about freely in the midst of the fire.
If the fire that burns within you for God is hotter than Satan's fires, it
cannot harm you! We must not run from the hard places as they are meant to burn
out all the dross within us. If we run from the fires now, it will only make it
that much hotter later! He will have a Church without spot or wrinkle. Spots
are taken out with the washing of the water of the word when we are in
obedience to it. But, wrinkles are taken out with HEAT! So be encouraged, as
you are being pressed for your Wedding Day!
THE REWARD OF
THE RIGHTEOUS
"Blessed and holy is the one who has a
part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but
they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a
thousand years" (Revelation 20:6).
Yes, God is going to judge
the harlot Church, but He has a great reward for those who have served Him
faithfully in these times. “Blessed and
holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection!” Our desire is to
be a part of this first resurrection. Not all Christians will take part in this
first resurrection, only the overcomers, the bride, or the sons of God shall
reign with Jesus for one thousand years (See verse 4).
"The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years
were completed. This is the first resurrection" (Revelation 20:5).
When
these verses talk about people coming to life, it is life to be lived in the
body again, but without blood. Those in the third heaven will remain there
until the thousand years of Christ’s reign is over and the earth has been
restored to freedom once again.
Some teach that the great
White Throne Judgment of Revelation 20:12-15 is just for the wicked dead. If
you read it carefully, you will see that the Book of Life is at this judgment
and the names of people will be there that are saved from the second death.
Paul wrote of this first
resurrection in Philippians 3:11, “In order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." There
are two Greek words for resurrection in the New Testament, “anastasis" and
"exanastasis.”
"Anastasis" is
used in all places but one. In this verse, Paul uses the word
"exanastasis" for resurrection. It means “out of resurrection,” or as
John called it, the first resurrection.
Paul goes on to say,
"Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but
I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold
of by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12). He knew that there was a high calling
in Christ Jesus that he wanted to lay hold of. We must run toward this high calling of the first resurrection, or we
could miss it! This high calling is to be one with Him.
"In which you formerly
walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now
working in the sons of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:2).
Satan is not in hell or the lake of fire, yet. He is
now the prince of darkness over the earth. He controls the people and the world
system through his demonic reign in the second heaven. Remember, heaven does
not mean the place of God. It’s a place of authority and rule over the earth.
When Adam obeyed Satan, he gave him the right to rule over the whole earth.
Read these following verses to help you understand this:
"For our struggle is
not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against
the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians
6:12).
"And they may come to
their senses and escape from the snare
of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will" (2 Timothy
2:26).
"We know that we are of
God, and the whole world lies in the
power of the evil one" (1 John 5:19).
So we see that Satan is very
busy running things here. Many people think that they are in control of their
lives on earth, but they are not! If we are not serving the Lord Jesus with all
of our lives, we are serving Satan’s dark domain that will one day crumble to
the earth. "And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who
is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with
him" (Revelation 12:9). Please hear me in this: if you think things
are bad now on earth with violence and perversion, you haven't seen anything
yet! Wait until Satan and his demonic powers are cast out of the second heaven!
Their wrath will be hot and heavy.
God told Satan in Ezekiel
28:16-18, "… I have cast you as
profane from the mountain of God... I
cast you to the ground… And I have turned you to ashes on the earth…"
It is very clear that Satan had a very high place in the Kingdom of God and was
thrown down to the earth. The darkness of sin was thrown down with him, so then
spiritual darkness prevailed on the earth. Have you ever wondered why God said,
“Let there be light” twice in the book of Genesis, chapter one?
"Then God said,
"Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw that the light
was good; and God separated the light from the darkness" (Genesis 1:3-4).
"Then God said,
"Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day
from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and
years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light
on the earth"; and it was so" (Genesis 1:15).
When Satan was cast to the earth
there was only spiritual darkness here. Lies and deception reigned. The truth
of God’s word did not prevail on the earth at this time. Only after God spoke,
“Let there be light,” did spiritual light come forth on the earth. Just as man
could not have survived on earth without the natural sunlight, he could not
live on earth in such spiritual darkness either. This is why Adam had a choice
to obey or disobey, because there was the light of God’s word on earth. Just
like Noah, Abraham, and David, we have this same choice of obeying light or
darkness each day we live. This is why the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians
4:6, "For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is
the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Christ." The light of God’s word has shone in
our hearts and we have no excuse for obeying darkness any longer.
Satan will soon be cast to
the earth and gross (thick) darkness will cover the earth, as it did when Satan
was first cast down, to fulfill Isaiah, chapter 60:2. “Darkness will cover the
earth and deep darkness the people.”
No wonder Jesus said in Matthew 24:12, "And because lawlessness (darkness)
is increased, most people's love will grow cold." We must stay continually spend time with Jesus and be filled with the
oil of the Holy Spirit and keep our lamps burning brightly in the time of this
great darkness on the earth.
"And unless those days
had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect (chosen ones) those days shall be cut
short. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great
signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if
possible, even the elect" (Matthew 24:22-24).
Now there remains a question
that must be answered: "If Satan is thrown down from the second heaven,
who will reign in his place? The overcomers will! "And he who overcomes,
and he who keeps My deeds until the end,
TO HIM I WILL GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS" (Revelation 2:26).
Notice that it does not say that we will reign “ON” the earth but that we will reign OVER the earth, as Satan does right now. This is where the real
authority is! Revelation 5:10 uses the word, will reign “upon” the earth. "And Thou hast made them to be a kingdom
(kings, KJV) and priests to our God; and they will upon the earth" When you look this up in the Greek, it clearly
says to reign “over” the earth.
Right now, darkness rules
everywhere. Very soon God's light will shine through His people as He first designed
it to be. Satan is blinding the world to the truth of God's word through his
lies and deceptions, so that they might not see the glory of Christ. "In
whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of
Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them" (2
Corinthians 4:4 KJV). You cannot see the ozone layer that covers the earth, but
it is there. So it is with the realm of darkness that covers the earth. We
can’t see it, but it is there. We most definitely can see the working of evil
across our world.
Satan is trying his very
best to keep the light out. But with every person getting saved and serving
Jesus in righteousness, the light of God gets brighter and brighter upon the
earth, until the full day of Christ’s light. Then, we will reign with Him
forever and ever. Hallelujah!
"And when the thousand
years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out
to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and
Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand
of the seashore. And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and
surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from
heaven and devoured them" (Revelation 20:7-9).
These verses have always
troubled me somewhat. How could all these people turn on Jesus after seeing Him
and the glorified saints after a thousand years of peace? Could it be that during
the millennial reign of Christ the Church is ruling with Jesus in the heavens
where Satan was? If this is where true authority is in the heavenlies, and it
is, then this could be a very real possibility. How else could they turn on the
Lord like this if they have seen Him and knew of the wrath of God to follow
such actions?
In Ephesians 2:2 Satan is
called, “The prince of the power of the
"air",” the place where he has dominion. But in 1 Thessalonians
4:17 it says of us, "Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the "air," and thus we shall always be with the Lord."
Do you see where we will always be with the Lord? In the "air," or
the heavenly realm of authority.
My belief is that, all things
will be restored on the earth as they were before the fall. We know that there
is a second and third heaven. The second realm is where Satan is prince and the
third one is where Jesus is King of kings. That leaves us with the first realm,
which we know little of. But it, too, must be restored to its rightful place
during the millennial reign of Christ.
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