I write about growing in God's word, from basic gospel truths, to apologetics, devotionals, inspirational poems, and original praise music.
Author: arisewithhope
I love studying the Bible about topics that most Christians deal with, and sharing my findings. My hope is to inspire others with the good news of the Gospel and point others to the great and precious promises of Jesus.
1 Peter 1:1 To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia
1 Peter 1:2 According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
God The Father who has foreknowledge, initiated our relationship with God, even though we as Christians may experience being exiled, and some believers have been dispersed in different places.
God has kept believers in the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ.
God has set us apart in sanctification to himself to enable us to be obedient to Jesus.
God has set us on the pathway of sanctification and his presence keeping us on this pathway continues to enable us to be obedient.
God has also set us apart for the sprinkling of His blood.
These truths help us to know and remind us:
1) We need the sprinkling of his blood because we are sinners
2) God has provided the sprinkling of His blood
3) God has set us apart for this purpose
This sprinkling of Jesus’ blood not only cleanses us from our sins, but also provides the perfect righteousness of Christ inherent in the blood and associated with Jesus’ blood. And this perfect righteousness is what God supplies us and counts in our favor in our spiritual account which God keeps.
Review:
1) We are kept by God for obedience to Jesus because we have been sanctified. Because we have been set apart for obedience, God enables and provides for our obedience.
2) We are kept by God for the sprinkling of His blood, so we are to confess our sins, and let this be ongoing, because God knows we sin, and knows we need cleansing.
3) Because of being sanctified, and set apart for obedience to Jesus, and set apart for the sprinkling of His blood, and cleansing, this is where we receive in an ongoing manner, because the verb sprinkling is a present tense verb, the righteousness of Jesus Christ in an ongoing manner, so our spiritual account has righteousness in it in an ongoing manner because of what Christ has done on our behalf. LG
John 15:4 in the ESV says, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.”
Certainly, there are reasons God calls the believer to Himself for intimacy. As we live our daily lives, and think about our relationship with God, it seems apparent that people are designed by God for relational intimacy. We see intimacy within families, with friendships, with romance, with relationships in which one party must sacrifice or is called to serve others putting their own needs below the needs of those they serve. As a long-time church attender I have seen different aspects of intimacy with God play out in the lives and testimonies of those in attendance in several of the churches I have visited. One aspect of that intimacy with God that the Bible speaks of between the believer and Christ Himself stems directly from John 15:4 which is the Christian call to abide in Him.
What is the definition of abide? The word in the Greek for the word abide in John 15:4 is “meno”. The definition is “to stay, or remain”. The usage of this word in Biblical times was commonly “I remain, abide, stay, wait; I wait for, or I await.”
For a Christian who seems to think it is better that he busy himself or herself with church functions such as going to church potlucks or clean-ups, craft shows, or movie nights rather than waiting on or abiding in God we can challenge those temptations that are so common to us with the truth of John 15:4. I have personally observed the attendance at church potlucks, clean-ups, and craft shows among most churches are quite regularly higher than most of the same churches’ prayer meetings. Fellowshipping with other Christians is without a doubt of high importance for a believer, but if the whole of our free time after our families and jobs are only about giving time to church social events rather than spending time getting to know God, we have to ask ourselves, am I getting to know God, or only His people? The poignant reality of the definition of eternal life is found in John 17:3 NIV which says, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
A very basic reason Christ died on the cross is to help God’s people to know Christ and to know God. Isn’t this the reason The Father sent Christ to earth? Knowing God is the very definition of eternal life itself! This is what we will be doing and growing in for the whole of eternity. Intimacy with God and knowing God will unfold for us one day at a time, and we will be more and more filled with the knowledge of God day after day and it will never get old!
Now by personal experience I have observed that many of our church prayer meetings seem to be filled with respectable, pleasant and honorable Christians attending the prayer meeting to say thanks to God for quite a few things and then jumping right to the long prayer request list. But personally, if we can objectively think about this approach, if a wife or husband were to approach the spouse and say to them “thank you for this and that…and would you do the next 50 things that I and my friends would like to see you do?” And they make it a sure a regular habit to properly rush through the long prayer request list very much like a speed reader would do in order to be a good steward of their time and to not bore the people who are listening so they can cover the most bases and quickly get through the entire large dry sterile tasting mountain of prayer requests, adding a few thank yous here and there….One has to ask if we experience intimacy with God by speed-praying covering something like a long task list of needs, in order to make the most “progress” through our mountains of lists, have we left any room to LISTEN to God? Does anyone LISTEN to God anymore as we pray? Have we resigned our relational God who is the author and creator of relational intimacy to fulfill a mere role of butler and bellhop–errand boy and to the role of prayer request fulfillment technician or have we forgotten that our relational God who is the author and creator of every healthy intimate relationship possible is the God we are praying to? Do we put on the back burner the truth that His sheep hear His voice? Not just that He hears OUR voice?!
Now to the human familiar with earthly habits, one common way to get to know a person is to stay at their house talking with and observing the one you would like to get to know, and God interestingly offers the same kind of approach we earthlings can take with drawing near to our Heavenly Lord and obtain the results of a growing intimacy with Christ and with God.
Through observing church goers over the years, it has become apparent to me that intimacy with God is not found in the loudness of music, nor in the loudness of the praying. It is not found in rushing our prayers, or in rushing our preaching getting the most words in within the time limit because we have to end the church service on time, because the second service has GOT to start on time AND END on time! Intimacy with God is not found primarily in some kind of sense-oriented ecstatic experience, although God can draw his people near to Him and allow sense-oriented experiences of Him.
From Biblical and personal examples for the church attender, we can see that those with a developed intimacy with God can grow in intimacy with God by reading in His Word about His historical actions, what He defends and fights against, His ordinances and decrees, His ways of relating to His people, and other Biblical messages such as in the poetic scripture books, finding out the things that please Him. Another big part of getting to know God is to observe how God carries out His answers to our prayers, and by what we can see of his Sovereignty in the news, in secular history, and in how He handles as a Heavenly Father the lives and circumstances of our Christian brothers and sisters both peripheral and central to our daily lives.
Even beyond these ways that we can observe God objectively through his word and through looking for the things that please Him or anger Him in scripture and noting His responses to the circumstances of our Christian brothers and sisters around us, we must note God is also a personal God–for us. Although the world around us speaks of God objectively, I believe though the witness in scripture of the first institution of God which was put in place by Him of Adam and Eve, a husband and wife, and then the next institution of God put in place called the family, are without a doubt a clear testimony that God continues to speak to show us down through the millennia, that people can know Christ intimately and subjectively, the way family members are set up to know one another.
Without a doubt people are allowed to be in relationships with discernable individual experiences of one another and this speaks of how we can know God in subjective and individual ways. Life and intimacy exist among human beings the way that it does because we are made in the image of a God who lives within intimacy within the 3 persons of the Godhead all of which can be known by His people with the same manner of intimacy even if it is not the full or perfect level of intimacy experienced by the 3 persons of the Godhead. This is a much better intimacy we have been made in the image of God for only than by knowing this God by mere common convention ideology or seeing His ways from afar.
Personal experience or subjective encounters with what seems to be God should never be taken as grounds to set aside what can be known about God objectively through His written word.
In part 2 of this series, we will cover common responses of people in the church in New Testament times that stem from them having one or more encounters with God that they take to be a kind of conviction to give them grounds to set aside what can be known about God in His written word. And that is where the danger begins! This gives insight into the importance again of admonition Jesus gave of John 15:4 of “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.”
In the original Hebrew of the Old Testament, according to https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7349.htm the Hebrew word rachum appears 13 times. It is translated into English as the word compassionate. Out of those 13 times it appears, 11 of those times it is used alongside of the word gracious. In fact, in the other two original Hebrew scriptures in which the word rachum, or compassionate is used, (Deuteronomy 4:31 and Psalm 78:38) instead of using gracious alongside of compassionate, the writers of the scriptures were led by God to use phrases such as “He will not abandon you nor destroy you” in Deuteronomy 4:31 and “But He, being compassionate, forgave their wrongdoing and did not destroy them; and often He restrained His anger” in Psalm 78:38. These phrases alongside of compassionate have the meaning of “forgiveness and a restraining of anger”, and God “not destroying the people”, essentially those phrases too means the demonstration of forgiveness, or God ceasing from wrath. The meaning of the phrases are in line with “God showing mercy”, or in other words they are very close to the definition of grace. There is a tremendous amount of overlap between the definitions of grace and mercy and God restraining Himself from wrath.
Let’s observe how the Bible clearly puts God’s compassion and graciousness together, or God’s compassion and God restraining Himself from wrath together side by side in each and every one of the 13 verses below. In 11 of the 13 verses these words compassion and graciousness are so close together in each sentence that the closest adjective in each verse to the word compassion, is the adjective “gracious”. In the remaining 2 of the 13 verses (Deuteronomy 4:31 and Psalm 78:38) there are phrases which have the meaning of graciousness, such as “God is restraining himself from wrath” or declaring God’s choice to “not destroy them” or a declaration of his “forgiveness”, and these phrases are adjacent to the word compassionate:
Exodus 34:6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,
Deuteronomy 4:31 For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; He will not abandon you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.
2 Chronicles 30:9 For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your sons will find compassion in the presence of those who led them captive, and will return to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.”
Nehemiah 9:17 They refused to listen, and did not remember Your wondrous deeds which You performed among them; So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But You are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in mercy; and You did not abandon them.
Nehemiah 9:31 Nevertheless, in Your great compassion You did not make an end of them or abandon them, for You are a gracious and compassionate God.
Psalm 78:38 But He, being compassionate, forgave their wrongdoing and did not destroy them; and often He restrained His anger and did not stir up all His wrath.
Psalm 86:15 But You, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abundant in mercy and truth.
Psalm 103:8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy.
Psalm 111:4 He has caused His wonders to be remembered; The Lord is gracious and compassionate.
Psalm 112:4 Light shines in the darkness for the upright; He is gracious, compassionate, and righteous.
Psalm 145:8 The Lord is gracious and compassionate; Slow to anger and great in mercy.
Joel 2:13 And tear your heart and not merely your garments.” Now return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in mercy and relenting of catastrophe.
Jonah 4:2 Then he prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was this not what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore in anticipation of this I fled to Tarshish, since I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in mercy, and One who relents of disaster.
It is quite fitting to say that God’s graciousness is highlighted by His compassion and vice versa, and his graciousness and compassion complement each other like a strong hand would fit into a snug stretchable glove in a beautiful divine harmony. LG
Jesus asked his disciples one day in Luke 6:26 “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I say?” Now aside from this being a very direct question it was one that was intended to bring self-reflection to the disciples to help them evaluate whether or not they were just giving lip service to the Lord and falling short of living in obedience to the Lord they professed to follow. I wrote in another post earlier today that the Biblical definition of Lord in the Greek according to https://biblehub.com/greek/2962.htm is kýrios – “properly, a person exercising absolute ownership rights; lord (Lord). He to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has the power of deciding; master, lord; used… universally, of the possessor and disposer of a thing, the owner.” Thayer’s Greek Lexicon on the same webpage says, “this title is given to God, the ruler of the universe.” These qualities demand, but not just demand, they encourage, they promote, they spur us on toward loving Jesus in loving obedience.
Romans 1:5 Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for the obedience of faith among all nations for His name, 6 among whom you also are called by Jesus Christ:
Romans 16:25-27 Now to Him who has power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret for long ages past, 26 but now is revealed by the prophetic Scriptures according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all the Gentiles for the obedience of faith, 27 to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
Matthew 7:24-29“Whoever hears these sayings of Mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on a rock. 25 And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house. And it did not fall, for it was founded a rock. 26 And every one who hears these sayings of Mine and does not do them will be likened to a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house. And it fell. And its fall was great.” 28 When Jesus finished these sayings, the people were astonished at His teaching, 29 for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
Reflection: How is Christ prompting you to obey Him? What areas of your life seem weak in comparison with the scripture you know? How would the Lord have you pray to strengthen the areas you experience weakness? What would the Lord have you to apply to your life to honor the admonitions we see for the Christ follower in the scripture? Is there a person in your life you can share your prayer concerns with and pursue seeking the Lord’s help in becoming a better follower and doer of the word? LG
The Biblical definition of Lord in the Greek according to https://biblehub.com/greek/2962.htm is kýrios – properly, a person exercising absolute ownership rights; lord (Lord). He to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has the power of deciding; master, lord; used… universally, of the possessor and disposer of a thing, the owner. Thayer’s Greek Lexicon on the same webpage says this title is given to God, the ruler of the universe.
True faith must have the right understanding of the identity of God and Jesus:
The Bible declares the Lord is God:
Exodus 15:2 TheLordis my strength and song, and He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him; my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.
Exodus 18:11 Now I know that theLordis greater than all gods, for in the matter in which they treated thepeople insolently, He was above them.”
Exodus 34:14 (for you shall not worship any other god, for theLord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),
Deuteronomy 3:24 “O LordGod, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness, and Your mighty hand, for what godisthere in heaven or in earth that can do according to Your works and according to Your might?
The next Bible verse tells us there is such a thing as “God of Gods” and “Lord of Lords” which is one person—the Lord your God— which we see from this Deuteronomy verse:
Deuteronomy 10:17 For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lordoflords, the great, the mighty, and the fearsome God who is unbiased and takes no bribe.
Evidence That Jesus is Lord:
The Bible declares Jesus is Lord in numerous scriptures, and that Jesus is the Lord of Lords. Many people wh lived in Jesus’ day gave Jesus the title “Lord” and Jesus never corrected them. Some of them are
Matthew 4:7 Jesus said to him, “It is also written, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ” Jesus spoke this to Satan who was trying to tempt Him.
Matthew 9:28 When He entered the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”
1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life, to which you are called and have professed a good profession before many witnesses. 13 I command you, in the sight of God, who gives life to all things, and in the sight of Christ Jesus, who testified a good confession before Pontius Pilate, 14 to keep this commandment without blemish, blameless until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which He, who is the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, will reveal at the proper time. 16 He alone has immortality, living in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen, nor can see. To Him be honor and everlasting power. Amen.
Luke 5:12 When He was in a certain city, a man full of leprosy, upon seeing Jesus, fell on his face and begged Him, “Lord, if You will, You can make me clean.”
The above scriptures show Jesus is Lord, and Because Jesus is Lord, Jesus is God because The Lord is God:
Now we are onto scriptures showing Jesus is the Lamb of God
John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the LambofGod, who takes away the sin of the world.
John 1:36 Looking upon Jesus as He walked, he said, “Look, the LambofGod!”
1 Peter 1:18-20 For you know that you were not redeemed from your vain way of life inherited from your fathers with perishable things, like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.20 He was foreordained before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for you.
The Lamb of God is Jesus, so the next verse tells us Jesus (the Lamb of God) is the Lord of lords and King of kings
Revelation 17:14 These will wage war with the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings. Those who are with Him are called and chosen and faithful.”
The next following verses tell us Jesus the Lamb has qualities only God possesses:
Revelation 5:12 saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!”
Revelation 5:13 Then I heard every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that are in them, saying: “To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and power, forever and ever!”
Revelation 7:10 They cried out with a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Revelation 7:17 for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and ‘He will lead them to springs of living water.’ ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”
Revelation 13:8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, all whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world.
Revelation 14:4 These are those who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, as first fruits to God and to the Lamb.
Revelation 21:23 The city has no need of sun or moon to shine in it, for the glory ofGod is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
Because of discovering the overlap with these Biblical titles for Jesus, we become better equipped for the posture we must take as Christians in response to the revealing of these aspects of the person of Jesus.
Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, may our posture toward you in prayer, worship and everyday life reflect the knowledge that you are Lord, you are God, and that you are the Lamb of God who takes away our sin. May the outworking of our faith in this life honor you as Lord, Savior, and God, and when we fall short of your glory, may the touch of the Lamb strengthen us as we think about how familiar you were with human frailty and how familiar you are with our griefs. May our fellowship with you be one of humility because of your example as we see your approach toward us is that of a humble Lamb. As we encounter people of other faiths who may have been taught errors instead of facts about you Jesus, Lord may we follow your gentle approach and example that you have shown to us, and may you prepare us with truth to share in ways that can bring them real hope and the true sense of your grace, because it was you who demonstrated the laying down of your life for the sins of the world, the ultimate humility and graciousness. May more and more people through taking in of the scriptures such as the ones listed above dear Lord become aware that salvation came from you in these aspects as you filled these titles and qualities you lived out in your life on earth and on the cross and currently possess in heaven. For you said Jesus, as the Lamb who died on the cross for us, the words “It is finished”. These words showed you opened the way of salvation for the world in need of it to come simply through faith, because you were slain on the cross for our sins and did this as Lord, as God, and true salvation can only come through God, not as a work of a man. Lord Jesus you fulfilled the role of the Lamb of God that was slain from the foundation of the world and now are present in heaven as Lord, God, and Lamb of God. May these truths ever inform our walk of faith with you, our prayer, in our devotion, and in our sharing this hope of salvation with others. LG
According to https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/benevolent, gives 3 main descriptions for a benevolent person. First, it describes benevolence as “marked by or disposed to doing good”, such as “a benevolent donor”. 2 “organized for the purpose of doing good” such as a “benevolent society”. And 3, “marked by or suggestive of goodwill”, such as benevolent smiles.
Merriam-Webster.com goes on to say about the history of the word, it is as follows—”Benevolent has a good history. One who is benevolent genuinely wishes other people well, a meaning reflected clearly in the word’s Latin roots: benevolent comes from bene, meaning “good,” and velle, meaning “to wish.”” A benevolent person is one who wishes a person well. It is reminiscent of the greeting of John to Gaius in 3rd John 1:2 which reads, “Dear friend, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul.”
It also reflects the goodwill of God toward mankind in Luke 2:14 which is what the angels were announcing at Jesus Birth, which is “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” God’s good will was proclaimed at the very start of God’s plan of redemption. It shows nothing less than God’s own good will. Right at the very start of Jesus’s life on earth, God announced His benevolence to be heard about and to be sung about by angels and proclaimed all across the earth toward people.
Additional scriptures that support the idea of God’s benevolence or support the truth that God takes pleasure in showing His goodwill toward people are Ephesians 1:5, which reads, “He predestined us to adoption as sons to Himself through Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of His will.” Also, as God is all wise, we see wisdom speaking in Proverbs 8:31, telling how it had been “Rejoicing in the world, His earth, And having my delight in the sons of mankind.” And Philippians 2:13 speaks of God’s good pleasure again which reads, “For God is the One working in you, both to will and to do His good pleasure.” LG
Aseity—from the website https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ aseity is “the quality or state of being self-derived or self-originated specifically: the absolute self-sufficiency, independence, and autonomy of God. A couple scripture passages that show God’s aseity are Isaiah 45:21 Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; (this shows God’s independence and autonomy) and Isaiah 43:10, ““You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.”(this shows his absolute self-sufficiency) From Dictionary.com “An aseity is the existence of something that has no source outside of itself or that has always existed with no creation.” Or in other words, God is God all by Himself. He perfectly fills the role with no equal and with no one needing to help him be God. Although ministering to God (for example as Samuel did) and fellowshipping with God may seem to have some overlap in meaning, they are different from the idea of “helping” God exist as God because to help God be God is an oxymoron. While I believe God can take pleasure in us, and when a believer participates in fellowshipping with God and/or ministering to God, those things are the result of his people having been made a part of His kingdom but somehow those functions don’t add to God’s personal God-ness, although those functions serve to glorify His kingdom and rule. Acts 7:49-50 shows the self-sufficiency and autonomy of God, a quality of vital importance to keep in mind as we relate to him. It reads, “‘Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the Lord, or what is the place of My rest? Has not My hand made all these things?’”
Over the next several weeks I hope to cover much more, as I add to this list of God’s attributes. LG
Kenneth Hagin the popular televangelist from the 1950’s to the 1990’s wrote several influential false teaching books, and we will continue looking at some of these false teachings. Romans 16:17 KJV says “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.”, so, we are going to mark them today in order to avoid them.
We will look at 4 of the false claims Hagin makes in Chapter 3 of “The Believer’s Authority” with some screenshots of the Kindle version.
They are:
False Claim # 1, Hagin says believers sit on the throne of Christ in heaven with him, during his/her life on earth, before the end of their life and before they are taken to heaven.
False Claim # 2 Believers share the equal authority of Christ’s throne with Him.
False Claim # 3 The authority of Christ’s throne is at the believer’s disposal and we should use it.
And False Claim # 4, Hagin goes one more step and says because all things are under Christ’s feet who is on the throne/ and believers ARE Christ and on His throne with Him/all things have been put under the believer’s feet
1. Hagin says believers sit on the throne of Christ in heaven with him in their life on earth. Revelation 3:21 appears to be a reward for Christians at the END OF THEIR LIFE. We do not do this during our earthly life –we are merely seated in the heavenly realms with Him. There are perhaps vast multitudes of seats in heaven—we could imagine there are enough seats in heaven for each of God’s people to have at least one place to sit. Daniel 7:27 reads “But the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under all the heavens will be given to the people, to the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an eternal kingdom, and all dominions will worship and obey him.” The timing when the kingdom, and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom will be given to the saints of the most high seems to be when all dominions will worship and obey him–as it says in the verse–in the age to come. Not everyone in all dominions are serving him at this time, worshipping him, and obeying him now–so we know the timing of this is the future time, most likely the age to come.
Here’s the screenshot from Hagin’s book, “The Believer’s Authority, Chapter 3, entitled “Seated With Christ” Pay attention to the yellow highlighting:
Hagin says we are sharing Christ’s throne because we are seated on Christ’s throne. However the Bible says Christians ARE seated with Christ in the heavenly realms, but not on His THRONE! When we on earth are seated WITH someone in a restaurant, we are usually at the same table as they are–but not ON THEIR CHAIR. When we are seated WITH someone an a sofa, we are on the same sofa, but NOT ON THE SAME CUSHION.
So Hagin says that because we sit together with Christ, we must of course sit on Christ’s throne with Him! But the logic doesn’t follow!
Ephesians 2:6 says believers have been seated in the heavenly realms with Christ, but a realm is not the throne of Christ! If God wanted to say that believers are seated on the throne of Christ with Him He could have said that in the word, because God knows the difference between the word “realm” and the word “throne”. But the word says we are in the heavenly realms WITH Christ. And a heavenly PLACE or heavenly REALM and Christ’s THRONE are NOT THE SAME THING are they?
False Claim # 2 Believers share the authority of Christ’s throne with Him
But the Bible says it is GOD ALONE who possesses the full authority of his throne. As Christians we have a MEASURE of Christ’s authority. I believe Christians are charged to be faithful in this life in living for Christ, which if we are faithful with little we will become faithful with much. But only Christ can rightly manage his throne authority in a perfectly Godly way 100% of the time.
Here is another screenshot of Hagin’s book from Chapter 3 showing another quote about who Hagin believes gets to possess Christ’s full throne authority:
So, Colossians 1:13 is true which reads (God/Christ) “who did rescue us out of the authority of the darkness, and did translate [us] into the reign of the Son of His love” and, this authority was exercised by God. Although Hagin believes the above screenshot is true, that believers share the full authority of Christ’s throne because what was conferred upon the head is automatically conferred upon the body. But our physical bodies cannot operate without the head-the same is true for us spiritually–the believer cannot operate the authority given to us by God without Christ. The truth is believers DO NOT SHARE all the authority of Jesus’ throne—because we don’t fully know how the throne of Christ operates with full authority, so we have only some authority. We have been given authority to become children of God, to submit to God and resist the devil, and he will flee, and authority to not to have to give the devil a foothold. Other types of authority mentioned in the New Testament include the believer having authority over his/her body in a marriage relationship which is not really relevant to the study of “The Believer’s Authority” and other kinds of authority in relationships such as “building people up and not tearing them down”.
Logically speaking, Christ has also given us the necessary measure of authority to fulfill our calling, but we still need God’s help and direction and power with this, often on a daily basis and not everyone has an equal calling or equal gifting. Christians today do not have the same calling as any of the original 12 apostles did, so, logically, because we don’t have equal callings, we don’t have equal power or authority on the earth as the original 12 apostles did. We therefore certainly do not have the same power, authority and dominion as Christ! (this argument is based on looking at calling/ministry alone, comparing the callings of modern day Christians to Jesus’s ministry, aside from the obvious fact that He is God, and we are not!) There has got to be countless things Christ orchestrates from His Throne that the Christian has no knowledge of, even on a day to day basis, and that we have no direct participation in. So, to say we share the full authority of the throne of Christ is definitely Not True!
False Claim # 3 The authority of Christ’s throne is at the believer’s disposal (because we are seated on Christ’s throne) and we should learn how to use it to be victorious:
Here’s the next 3 screenshots of Hagin’s book:
He writes “if the church ever gets the revelation that we are the body of Christ, we’ll rise up and do the works of Christ.” First of all, When the Bible talks of the believer being the body of Christ, it is speaking figuratively. Christ called himself “the door” but he didn’t swing on hinges. He called himself the “bread of life” but he didn’t let his flesh get eaten by people. He called himself “The Good Shepherd” but he didn’t demand that his followers get down on all 4’s and eat grass and say “baaaa”. There is figurative language throughout the Old and New Testament, and Hagin seems oblivious to this. The body of Christ is simply “a group of followers of Christ”. So, everything that was conferred upon Christ is not directly conferred upon the followers of Christ. Christ was a martyr, and not every Christian is called to be a martyr. Christ said of his life in John 10:18 “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it back. This commandment I received from My Father.” We as Christians need to be submitted to God and submitted to his authority and not be committed to the idea of wielding our “authority” around in the way Hagin advises. Under Christ’s authority is the safest place to be. And not assuming more than that.
There are many things Christ did that the believer is not called to do, such as travel to each of the exact cities Jesus visited, and to have the exact conversations Jesus had directly quoted from the Bible. We need to be wary of Hagin’s idea that “…the authority that belongs to Christ also belongs to individual members of the body of Christ and is available to us….” and that the authority is at the believer’s disposal. There were many things that Christ did alone as Messiah that only needed to be done by HIM. Things like His dying on the cross, things like he being whipped with a cat-o-nine tails, having to know every scripture with perfection that Christ did because He knows ALL things, plus to know the hearts of all people, and being able to answer prayer. But, because according to Hagin, we are not doing enough miracles, and not getting our lives revolutionized by that authority, because we just don’t know the things about spiritual authority like Hagin does because Hagin says that authority that belongs to Christ belongs to us, and that authority is at our disposal, Hagin says!
False Claim # 4, Hagin goes one more step and says “the believer is called righteousness”, “the believer is called light”, and “the believer is called “Christ””, and “all things have been put under our feet”( the believer’s feet). But the Bible says it is not the believer that maintains this authority because in Romans 16:20, it says “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” The Bible declares this responsibility is God’s, and that this is a free blessing of the crushing of Satan by God that God will do for the believer. Absent from the passage or even surrounding passages are any references that require the believer wielding the authority Hagin says belongs to the believer such as rebuking Satan or his demons, binding, or casting out Satan, or shouting at the devil. Hagin seems to point to these practices throughout his book as some main ways the believer is to exercise his/her authority. Hagin puts this job of doing spiritual warfare unto the shoulders of the believer. To contrast and compare, the New Testament talking about fighting the devil or demons simply tells the believer to submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee. And for the believer to stand for God with the armor of God on, and to stand up under temptation because we have been set free from the bondage of sin.
To continue with #4 which is Hagin’s thought that the believer is equal to Christ, notice how Hagin seems to enjoy putting the believer almost as a replacement for Christ. Pay attention to the highlighted areas of this next screenshot of the book:
Let’s think through this. It does not follow that believers are Christ, just because the Bible is talking about Christ in the text before in 2nd Corinthians 6:14-15. The Bible is COMPARING the believer TO CHRIST and the unbeliever to Belial.—We certainly are not pure light at this point. There are other substances in us, so how does it follow that we are pure Christ? We are not pure righteousness, because the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, and counted in our favor even though we may have some actions which are not pure righteousness–we are in the sanctification process-not perfect yet! So how does it follow the believer is pure Christ?? Hagin’s reasoning doesn’t follow.
Are all things put under our feet? I think this will happen when the Lord takes us to heaven. Revelation 3:21 says “To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” and in Matthew 19:28 it reads, “Truly I tell you, in the new world, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” What is the timing of Revelation 3:21? When Christ says He will give the right for the believer to sit on his throne, He seems to be talking about what will happen to the believer in the life to come as a reward for following Christ. Matthew 19:28 was written specifically for the apostles.
The kind of victory that Hagin seems to talk about in his book “The Believer’s Authority” seems to say the Christian should never be sick, never be poor, and never be worried or anxious about anything, or having an occasional item stolen, and if you are, your not doing enough with your authority. He says the Christian must realize they are on the throne with Jesus right now. But sitting on the throne with Jesus seems to be in the future kingdom of God. Many of the troubles in life I have listed a few sentences ago are simply due to the fact that we live in a fallen world, and are not the direct result of the believer not using his “authority.” Jesus walked in perfect authority on the earth and the Bible says Judas stole finances from the ministry Jesus had complete authority over. So, is Hagin saying Jesus needed to use his authority more effectively because he was letting the enemy steal his finances? If so, Hagin is saying his personal use of authority is better than Jesus’ use of authority. Let’s look at the example Hagin uses of using “authority” to get his stolen pants back.
In the above screenshot, Hagin says he had 2 pairs of pants stolen and they were the only 2 pairs of pants good enough for him to preach in. Hagin gives this example of using his authority to be a template of what our lives as Christians should look like. Hagin says he was dealing with the spirit and not the person, but Hagin DID pray the person would be miserable so much that he would bring them back. He forgot to mention that! He attributes the success was because he told the evil spirit to stop stealing. Hagin seems to say Christians should never have any problems with being the victims of theft because Christians have authority over the demons that cause people to steal. Perhaps the Lord truly caused the person to bring back the 2 pairs of pants, but maybe God was answering Hagin’s prayer that the person would become miserable enough to bring them back, and it was because Hagin was dealing with the person, and might have not had anything to do with Hagin telling the evil spirit to “Stop the action”. The demon had already stopped the action by then anyhow. To be accurate, maybe Hagin should have told the demon to “reverse the action” if he was going to say it was his use of authority over the devil that got his pants back.
But if this is the template for Christian to follow and if it is to be the normal Christian life, there are no examples of this kind of freedom from trials for the Christian in the Bible after the apostles ministered. Even Jesus didn’t use some of these practices. We don’t see Paul demanding the devil to leave the people who were stoning him to stop, nor did Paul demand the demons holding him prisoner in Rome to stop, nor for the devil to “get his hands off his money”. We don’t see Jesus claiming Judas as his own follower or for people to truly become born again. He invited people “to come” to Him. They had to admit somewhere within that time that they were weary and heavy laden, because that is who Jesus called. No where in the New Testament (or OT) do the disciples take advantage of “claiming people for the kingdom” that Hagin speaks of in order to “do something about the salvation” of his brother.
First of all there is nothing wrong with praying “God save this person” and nothing wrong with fasting! Strangely, God seems to have “appointed” Hagin to “have an easier quick-fix” to his brother’s salvation! –To claim his brother’s salvation, and to demand your rights! –A whole lot can be said about this. Salvation BELONGS to God, and to whom God gives it. We are to ASK. There is nothing wrong with asking of fasting. Hagin makes these sound powerless. Quote “I was prone to slip back into praying this way…” but there was nothing wrong with praying “God save my brother” or to fast for their salvation. Nowhere in any place in the Bible does God tell the Minister to “claim” people for salvation. In Joshua’s day he said “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” The word seems to show us that Joshua was saying he was going to lead a people that were going to serve the Lord, and that was the direction Joshua was going, and if they wanted to follow, they had to make a choice to conform to that way of life. Joshua wasn’t “creating salvation” by his words. He left up the actual choice of the people to God’s Sovereign work in their lives.
I believe many of our Christian spiritual battles are won with a good understanding of the subjects of doctrine represented in the pieces of the armor of God. (Salvation, righteousness, truth, peace, faith in God and in Christ, and a good understanding of the Word). But the New Testament does not emphasize that Christians should never be sick, have trouble with finances, or have other types of problems like fear, anxiety, or being robbed occasionally that Hagin singles out as resulting from not walking in “the authority of the believer”. What about the authority Paul walked in? Paul could heal people and rebuke demons and command people to be made well, but why didn’t he command the evil spirits that controlled the man who was involved in sexual immorality in 1 Corinthians 5:1-11 who had sexual relations with his father’s wife to stop this action? I am not saying we never need to resist the devil, but by Hagin’s example to tell the demon which caused the person to steal to “stop this action” Hagin is telling us that commanding demons seems to be the sole RIGHT WAY to find victory or to use our authority as believers. But is this truly how believers should use their authority? Or is it a better idea to ask the Lord to touch their heart and give them a change of heart? Paul recommended the people of Corinth deal in love and forgiveness with the person in 1 Corinthians 5.
I believe we should be responsible and faithful as Christians on the earth, fulfilling our calling and walking in as much submission to Christ and in as much victory as we can by grace through faith. I am not opposed to miracles, but we need to seek them only in a Biblical way. What is the picture of the Christian’s authority? I believe we still need to look to Christ, instead of trying to directly “do warfare against the devil” because we think we have the authority of Christ’s throne! Do we yell at demons when we are sick, because we think a Christian “doesn’t have to put up with that” or yell at demons when something difficult is happening to us like low finances because a Christian “doesn’t have to put up with that? Why do we not see examples of the disciples yelling at the devil when hardship came their way?
We all as Christians have proof individually that we are not in possession of the full authority of Christ’s throne because we sometimes get irritated if our car stalls out! We all have days when we have a backache or a headache! We have other aches and pains and colds and viruses! Have you had any vegetables that you had to clean out of your fridge in the last week because they got old and spoiled? Then, guess what!? All things have NOT been put under our feet. This belongs only to Jesus who reigns now in heaven. It is much more than just demons and devils that are put under Jesus’s feet! It is still possible that the God of peace could soon crush Satan underneath the feet of the believer whenever God may want to do that. But when God puts Satan under our feet, there is more that is under the feet of Christ when it says “all things are under Christ’s feet”. Satan is not ALL things! All things have been put under Christ’s feet in heaven. But there are things under Christ’s feet, simply because He is God, and He reigns in heaven and he overcame perfectly. So I don’t thing the goal of the Christian should be to seek perfect throne identity with Christ desiring that all things be placed under our feet as believers, except to submit to following Christ, and to be responsible with all the responsibilities he has entrusted to us, but in a Biblical way.
Christians are LIKE Christ but we ARE NOT Christ! We are not the Sovereign Creator. People don’t know how to make the earth turn on its axis. We don’t know how to make the clouds pour out rain. We don’t know how to put all the molecules in the right position for produce to grow and feed nations full of people. Or give life in the womb. God ALONE does, just to name a few things God can do that his people cannot do. So, all things have been placed under Jesus feet, the Lord of all creation. We are mere creatures. The authority Christians have been given to exercise on earth fits the role of people who are redeemed, We have a lesser authority than the perfect Son of God, Christians are saved from sin, who walk in a deep love for the Lord and worship Him in Spirit and Truth are those who STILL need a Savior who will operate in his distributed authority as an act of grace in our lives, because God is a good God. At the right time He Himself will soon Crush Satan underneath our feet.
The last point under the Seated With Christ heading, is that Hagin says “We are Christ”. Again, see the highlighted areas:
This friends, is demoting Christ, and elevating man…So much so that we are equal to one another. Hagin could have said “we are like Christ, or we are little Christs, (Christians) or we are united with Christ, or we belong to Christ.” The truth is Christians STILL NEED CHRIST and are dependent on Him. But to say we ARE Christ is borderline blasphemy. Hagin says this is why we have all the authority of Christ’s THRONE.
To wrap it up, Hagin has a lot of really bad false teaching and we need to mark and avoid him! While we do have some authority like the authority to become the children of God, and to submit to God, live for God, resist the devil, and he will flee, and the authority to stand against the devil and his temptations, we DO NOT HAVE ALL the authority of Christ’s throne to use at our disposal on earth is because people on the earth may only know bits and pieces of God’s will.
The Bible says we know only in part (1 Corinthians 13:9) so why would a responsible trustworthy God give the unlimited authority of Christ’s throne to his fallible children to carry out any kind of miracle they feel like doing or give them unlimited power to get each and every one of our prayers answered, to get every single sick person healed by commanding them to be healed exactly the way we want them to see this happen if we only knew bits and pieces of God’s will? If fallible people were in charge of the power of God we would leave gaping holes in the answers to prayer that should come forth, because God answers prayers in huge ways that have ripple effects, and God can see everything, and can answer everything, knows everything about everyone, and God is not selfish, and Christians sometimes struggle with that. The result would be a lot of things other than God’s will or we’d get possibly many answers falling short of God’s will that would be done on a regular basis at this point in history.
We still need a Savior–the Lord Jesus Christ! If you are like me and have put your trust in Jesus Christ to save you, we still need to practice putting off the sinful nature. This is only possible because Jesus Christ died on the cross, and put sin to death. Christ also was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven. Christ is our perfect example, and we are to continue following Him. Compared to Christ we are sinful but Christ has no sin and as God He is all-knowing and answers prayer perfectly, with his divine goodness. Born again people are told, to pray, or ASK and let our requests be made known to God. We don’t have the authority to command healing to come, or to command our prayers to come to pass. We submit to God and ASK. He alone has full authority to cause his will to come to pass and answer us because that is what His throne represents.
I hope this has been helpful. If you enjoyed it, please subscribe to this blog, and like it to let others know about it. And keep your eyes on Jesus and keep growing in the word! LG
I was researching the deity of Christ today and quickly found Biblical proof that Jesus is God from Colossians 1:16. I looked up that verse in the Greek on Biblehub.com.
I wanted to see what the Greek said about the preeminence of Jesus because He created all things we see. Here is the link for Colossians 1:16 in the Greek: https://biblehub.com/text/colossians/1-16.htm
When you go to that link, and click on the Strong’s number for the phrase “were created” it takes you to another page (https://biblehub.com/greek/2936.htm) with the meaning of that in the Greek. the Greek word is ktizó. The definition follows under the heading of Strong’s Concordance on that page:
“ktizó: to build, create
Original Word: κτίζω Part of Speech: Verb Transliteration: ktizó Phonetic Spelling: (ktid’-zo) Definition: to build, create Usage: I create, form, shape, make, always of God.
HELPS Word-studies
2936ktízō – properly, create, which applies only to God who alone can make what was “not there before” (Latin, ex nihilo, out of nothing, J.Thayer); figuratively to begin (“found”), especially what is habitable or useful.
So, before we read any of this, anyone who is paying attention should be able to tell the subject of Colossians 1:16 is speaking of Jesus. We know this from verse 15 right before this which begins with “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” The Son is the subject there, and the same subject continues in verse 16 as Jesus, because the last subject mentioned in verse 16 is “the firstborn of all creation”. A rule of grammar is that if you can’t tell what the subject is referring to, you go back to the last subject previously mentioned to keep the correct one front and center. We know creation from verse 15 is not the subject of verse 15, it is the direct object, so it is not the subject of 16 for that matter. Col 1:16 reads, “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.”
Here, there is no mention of God the Father or God the Holy Spirit doing any creating, but Jesus did the creating. Since Jesus is spoken of many times in the Bible as the firstborn, we can be even more convinced the subject of verse 16 is Jesus, who is carried out the action of creating. After reading the definition above in the Greek for verse 1:16 “were created” we find it is a type of creation which applies only to God, which is “Latin, ex nihilo, out of nothing”. So the person doing the creating in verse 16 is speaking of Jesus. And because Jesus in verse 16 is doing something only God can do, as the Greek tells us, we therefore know quite simply, Jesus is God! LG
Many Word of Faith teachers such as Kenneth Hagin, Copeland, and countless others in today’s Name It and Claim It and New Apostolic Reformation Movements say that it was Adam who forfeited the title deed of the earth to Satan after he sinned. The reason this is impossible is because Adam was never given the title deed of the earth by God to begin with. God gave Adam RESPONSIBILITY over the earth, but Adam never OWNED the earth. There was no exchange of a title deed involved. There was no verbal word from God ever telling Adam “Adam, I am making you now the owner of the earth.”
God promised Abraham and his descendants the property of Israel in Genesis 15:7. How? GOD STILL OWNED the earth at that time as he does today. Even after Adam sinned and Abraham came along God still had full dominion and ownership of the earth. It is a logical fallacy to think that Satan was in possession of the earth after Adam sinned in Genesis 3, and hundreds of years later when Abraham comes along, that God could make a promise to give the land of Israel to Abraham if Satan had the title deed to the earth.
Genesis 15:7, and 18-21 reads “And He said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.”… “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying to your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: 19 the land of the Kenite, the Kenizzite, the Kadmonite, 20 the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Girgashite, and the Jebusite.”
Regarding Adam’s stewardship and the responsibility God gave him, Genesis 1:26 reads, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” To have dominion over the plant and animal kingdoms and over all the earth is not the same thing as owning the entire earth. The Greek word in Genesis 1:26 for the word dominion, has the meaning of “to have dominion, rule, dominate”. A king can do it, or a teacher in a classroom can do it. There are different levels of dominion. God did not give Adam or Eve dominion over people. God still had ultimate dominion over all the earth, plant, and animal kingdoms and over the entire human race because when Adam and Eve sinned in Genesis 3, why did Adam and Eve hide from God?
If Adam was in charge of the earth more than God, couldn’t Adam just block God from the earth? NO, because God had full access to the earth even as He does today. Adam and Eve were subject to God. All of us are subject to God today. When Adam and Eve sinned, they knew they messed up, and they had to answer to God for their sin, and their stewardship and that is why they hid themselves. Genesis 3:8-9 says “Now they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
Was there a title deed and did it transfer owners or something else? A title deed of the earth would mean a person to whom it belonged would be recognized or declared as the owner of the earth or possessor of the earth. God declares himself possessor of the earth in Genesis 14:19. “Genesis 14:19 states. “And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth;…” According to Biblehub.com, it gives us the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon. This speaks of the word possessor in Gen 14:19 of God as the “possessor …as originating, creating…” heaven and earth, which is very straightforward. God called himself the possessor of the earth even after Adam’s sin. So, the “title deed” or ownership or rulership of the earth did not go to Satan.
Now concerning the scripture that speaks of Satan as God of this world, we get 2 Corinthians 4:4. In the King James Version it reads, “in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they will not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” That word “world” in the Greek is “aiōnos”. It means “a space of time, an age”. “…an age, a cycle (of time), especially of the present age as contrasted with the future age…”. So, 2nd Corinthians 4:4 in the Greek means Satan is “god” of this age. He is not God of this world, but simply of “this space of time or age”.
God is possessor or heaven and earth, (Gen 14:19) and over the Kingdom of Light (1 John 1:5, Rev. 22:5, Acts 26:18, Eph. 5:8, Col 1:13, Rev 21:23).
1 John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
Rev 22:5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
Acts 26:18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
Eph 5:8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
Col 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
Rev 21:23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
Furthermore, if you need evidence that God is in control in heaven and on earth, here are three additional scriptures to stand for themselves:
Psalm 115:3 But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.
Psalm 135:6 Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all the ocean depths.
John 1:5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Satan is over the kingdom of darkness, but God’s kingdom is over Satan’s Kingdom, because God kicked Satan out of heaven and He triumphed over Satan through the cross of Christ when Christ paid for the sins of the world to be forgiven. It will soon come to pass what is written in Revelation 11:15, which reads, “Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” The word “world” in the Greek means “the world, universe; worldly affairs; the inhabitants of the world…”. Because He will reign forever and ever, Satan’s time of rule of this age will soon be over. LG
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