If you keep your spiritual eyes open during certain seasons, you’ll see the Lord directing his messengers to remind his Bride of certain spiritual truths. I believe we’re in one of those seasons, and the message the Lord wants to remind us of is that we have spiritual authority through him.
In Part 1, we discussed Jesus’ authority. Today, in Part 2, we discuss the authority of spiritual powers in the Kingdom of Darkness.
Today’s primary verse is Ephesians 6:12
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
Before we can discuss this passage, we need to address what is possibly the most significant word in verse 12.
Q. Can you guess what it is?
I’ll give you a little space so you don’t accidentally see the answer before you’re ready.
The word I’m talking about is the first word in the sentence. Our friend once quoted someone who’d said, “When you see a “therefore” in the scriptures, you ask a simple question, What’s it there for?”
The same applies to the words “for” and “so.” When we see those words, it’s an indication to look back at what precedes the verse. In the case of Eph. 6:22, we’re told to “be strong in the Lord” and “put on the whole armor of God.”
Verse twelve reveals that we have spiritual enemies in heavenly places. Before we discuss this passage, I’d like to mention a few other writers who comment on spiritual warfare.
In 2 Corinthians 2:11, the Apostle Paul discusses forgiving others “so that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are familiar with his evil schemes.”
1 Cor. 7:5 the Apostle Paul is giving instructions to husbands and wives about physical intimacy. The NLT says it this way,
“Afterward…” That’s after a period of mutually agreed abstinence. “…you should come together again so that Satan won’t be able to tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”
In Ephesians 4:26, we find another interesting revelation from the Apostle Paul. The passage in the NLT says, in verses 26 and 27,
“And don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, v. 27, for anger gives a foothold to the devil.”
The Apostle Peter said in 1 Peter 5:8,
“Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. v9 Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith…”
When it comes right down to it, there are only two kingdoms on earth. The Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Darkness. Consider Colossians 1:13
“For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son,”
To take this idea a little further, let’s look at 1 John 1:5-7
v5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.
v6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.
v7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
Now let’s consider 2 Cor. 11:13-15
v13 These people are false apostles. They are deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ.
v14 But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
v15 So it is no wonder that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve.
I want to pause for a moment and talk about v14.
Every October you can open YouTube and find several prior witches and ex-warlocks who have turned to Jesus, giving their testimonies about their Occult experience and why we should avoid Halloween. I’ll let you judge whether you should trick-or-treat or whatever, but I want to point out something.
Most of these videos seem to have one thing in common. Most of these people started innocently practicing “white magic,” “wicca,” and other spiritual practices. They thought they were talking to their spirit guide and didn’t realize they were communicating with demons.
As the scriptures say, “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, and so do his messengers.”
Another common thread is that at some point when they wanted out, the “spirits” turned on them and began to torment them.
I want to share a personal encounter Lisa and I had before discussing Eph. 6:12.
In 2013, Lisa and I were in Germany, and we met a classmate at the school we had to attend. Within seconds of her coming into Lisa’s room, I heard the Lord say, “Ask her about the nightmares,” and that’s what I did.
To say she was shocked was an understatement. She asked how I knew about the nightmares, and I told her I didn’t, but God did, and he wanted to help her.
She went on to tell us that she was a former member of the Satanist cult and that she’d gotten pretty deep into rituals and such. At some point, she said, when she’d look in the mirror, she’d see a demon instead of her face. She decided to get out, and that’s when the torment started. Every night, she had terrible nightmares and hadn’t had a peaceful night’s rest in a long time.
Long story short, we prayed for her, God delivered her, and the next time we saw her, she hadn’t had any more nightmares.
Why were we able to break the authority that spirit had over her?
Consider: Ephesians 1:19-23
v19 I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power
v20 that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.
v21 Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come.
v22 God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church.
v23 And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.
The name of Jesus has more authority and power than any other name in the Heavens, the earth, or under the earth.
V23 says, “The church is his body…” and we’re not talking about a building or denomination.
If you ever encounter a person tormented by a spirit, you’ll know if you have authority or not pretty quickly. It doesn’t take holy water, a crucifix, some special incantation, shouting, running in circles, anointing with oil, or anything else other than the power in the name of Jesus Christ to drive a spirit out of a person.
Let’s circle back to Eph. 6:12, and as a reminder, it says,
For we do not wrestle:
– against flesh and blood,
– but against the rulers,
– against the authorities,
– against the cosmic powers over this present darkness,
– against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Let’s break down these four classes of powers in the Kingdom of Darkness:
Rulers: This word in the Greek is Arche. You may see it translated as principality.
– What I find interesting is that this is the title given to the angel Michael in Daniel 12:1.
– These “rulers” or “princes” can be in the Kingdom of Light or Darkness.
– The “prince of Persia” was a title given to a spiritual power in the Kingdom of Darkness, and the title is the same as the one belonging to the Archangel Michael.
Authorities: Exousia (Power or authority)
– The word carries with it the idea of one who has the right to have power over another.
– They would derive their power from another who is greater. In this instance, the Powers of Darkness derive their power from whatever authority Satan has.
World-rules of the darkness: kosmokrator (a world-ruler)
– This word is interesting because it seems to imply it’s dealing with Satan.
Spiritual forces of wickedness: Pneumatikos Poneria.
– This seems to be the lowest order of wicked spirits in the Kingdom of Darkness, or this could imply that this expression encapsulates the previous three forces. In other words, Rulers, Powers, and World-rulers of darkness are all spiritual forces of wickedness.
Regardless of their title, rank, or position, I want you to understand that the Apostle makes it clear that we have spiritual enemies in Heavenly places.
These powers do not rule from hell or hades, as some teach. We touched on this in Part 1 of this teaching. These powers rule from somewhere in the Heavenly realm—not the highest Heaven where GOD’s throne is, but they appear to rule in the air over countries, states, cities, towns, and homes depending on their rank.
Eph. 2:2 tells us where Satan dwells
“in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—”
Now let’s consider Colossians 1:13
“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,”
In closing, I want you to consider this:
Rom. 6:22 “But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.”
v23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now look at what Hebrews says in 2:14
Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death.
It appears that Satan had/has some sort of legal rights over humanity, but GOD, being rich and loving and merciful, sent his Son Jesus to pay the price of freeing those who believe in him by faith from the power of the Kingdom of Darkness. Through his Son, GOD has transferred your citizenship from Satan’s kingdom into the Kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have forgiveness, the pardoning of our sins.
This concludes Part 2 of our Spiritual Authority teaching. Later this week, in Part 3, we’ll discuss our authority through Christ over those spiritual powers.