SPIRITUAL WARFARE AND AUTHORITY
Luke 10:17-20: 17 Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.”
18 And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. 20 Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”
God will not have His power and glory – that manifests through people to deliver and save – cheapened, commercialised, brought into the gutter; the focus in ministry must always be on God’s grace to save and deliver rather than on results.
The Jesus disciple is sent by the Spirit of The Lord to encounter and defeat the enemy, rejoicing in his/her salvation and walking under God given authority, firstly thru’ prayer and intercession followed on by practical ministry (reaping).
Hindering spiritual powers and principalities are first to be dealt with through spiritual warfare. Prayer and intercession in the Spirit (tongues) paralyses the enemy and tramples those serpents and scorpions under foot.
Many through the centuries have sown, even the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has sown, He did that at the cross, we are to enter into their labours as reapers now at the End of the Age.
John 4:34-40 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! 36 And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”
SEPARATION AND DISCERNMENT
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. 2Corinthians 6:17
In today’s standards of success there is more entertainment than discernment and true spirituality. Worldliness is the biggest hindrance in this area to Christians. It’s not necessarily sin or flagrant sin, but it’s a trap of desiring results – seeing something. The Jesus disciple seeks only the approval of God and is drawn away from the Spirit Of This Age and it’s distractions to hear the Shepherds voice alone.