Series: The Discipline of Sonship; The Prophetic Voice

Sun AM 22 October – Kobus Swart

Mal. 4:5-6; 1 Kings 17:1-14; 1 Kings 18:1-45; James 5:17; Matt. 11:14; Matt. 17:12; Matt. 21:13; Luke 1:17; Eph. 4:11-13; Phil. 3:17; John 1:19-23

The world is in chaos more than ever before. It is my conviction that what is required in this hour is the ministry of Elijah – not as a single “superman”, but an Elijah-company that will move in the spirit and power of Elijah. This is what God is busy forming and shaping, and it is not an easy process (Mal. 4:5).

Let’s first look at Elijah in the Old Testament. The first verse of 1 Kings 17 is interesting; Elijah appears from nowhere. At that time, Ahab was the king of Israel, and during his reign, idolatry took over. The altar of Baal was erected and people worshipped him. Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, had thrown down all of God’s altars. She slew all the prophets of God and replaced them with other gods and other prophets. This was the condition of Israel when God commissioned Elijah to go and face the king. This is what he said: “…As the LORD, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word” (1 Kings 17:1). This is a mighty statement to make in front of a king. Although he was standing in front of the king, in his heart he was only aware of one thing: as always, he was standing before the LORD! He got the king’s attention.

This is where God has put the Church now – maybe not the whole Church, but at least a representative group, is going through a preparation phase. People pray for other ways in which God is going to intervene, but God is waiting for us because He wants to do it through his Church.

Elijah went through a very thorough preparation before the final confrontation with Ahab. God gave Elijah this instruction: “Go away from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan” (1 Kings 17:2-3). We must not see Elijah as a “superman” of sorts. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months (James 5:17). There was prayer behind his statement to the king. He was a man like us, but he was a man of prayer. Jesus said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer” (Matt. 21:13). Elijah spoke to Ahab face to face – this must have taken a lot of moral strength, but there was a humility in Elijah that we must not miss. He was not arrogant. What was the source of his strength? He knew that God was alive (1 Kings 17:1). He was positioned correctly. He was conscious of a higher presence. So God told Elijah to go to Cherith. The name ‘Cherith’ means ‘cut off, cut down’. God was busy with Elijah. There, during the drought, he was fed by ravens, and he had the brook Cherith, a little stream of water (1 Kings. 17:4-6). Was God busy purifying the motives of Elijah? Is God presently purifying the motives of His Church? Was it to show Elijah that he depended totally on God? How many of you have reached a place where your total dependence is on God? Every saint, every Christian, every believer that God is preparing to be part of the Elijah company, everyone who would yield great power with men, must win it in some hidden “Cherith” first. Do not look at ‘Cherith’ as a physical get-away. You can go through a ‘Cherith’ experience even in a crowd. Cut off, cut down, being tested to the uttermost, until you trust God. Then the brook dried up (1 Kings 17:7). I do not know how long Elijah sat there, but suddenly the water stopped flowing. God got his attention. Often, we find ourselves sitting by a drying brook of Cherith. The first question in our minds will be, “Has God forgotten about me?” It seems almost inevitable that we have to go that route, and hit the bottom, in order to build that trust and boldness that we find in Elijah. Then the Word of the Lord came to him (1 Kings 17:8). The Word of God will find us! God wants us to trust Him, not His gifts. Many people have turned God into something like an ATM machine. Do not serve God for His gifts; serve Him for who He is.

So the word of God caught up with Elijah and gave him the next instruction: he was instructed to go to Zarephath. (1 Kings 17:8-9). ‘Zarephath’ also has a meaning: “to refine, to test, a smelting furnace”. That is where God sent him, and he had to walk about 140km to get there! God’s plans and His demands are for explicit obedience. But here is some comfort and reassurance: when God puts you through a test like that when He puts you through the furnace, He will also supply your needs. In this case, God supplied a widow and her son. She was busy making food for the last time because her foodstuff had run out (1 Kings 17:10-14). The drought went on for three years and six months. During this period, God was busy preparing Elijah to break the drought. Zarephath is the place where God empties us of our self-will, our self-sufficiency, our self-dependence. Then, the Spirit of God fills the emptiness.

We must learn to live on the Word of God. For almost three and a half years, Elijah lived with this woman and her son, and then the next instruction came, “Go show yourself to Ahab!” (1 Kings 18:1-2). By now, of course, Ahab, and the nation were panicking because of the drought. When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is this you, you troubler of Israel?” He said, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have because you have forsaken the commandments of the LORD and you have followed the Baals. Now then send and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel, together with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table” (1 Kings 18:16-19). Amazingly, the whole nation gathered. Can you imagine the authority that would be required for a nation to listen? Then came Elijah’s test: So Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one ox for yourselves and prepare it first for you are many, and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it” (1 Kings 18:25). He gave them an opportunity to call on their god to start the fire to burn the sacrifice. They began to cut themselves because obviously their God did not have the power, and nothing happened (1 Kings 18:28).

By then Elijah had the people’s attention. Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD which had been torn down (1 Kings 18:30). This was boldness, but he was prepared. If you only do the will of God, and the will of God works through you, there is a boldness second to none. Elijah had it, he was prepared; he was ready. Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, “Israel shall be your name.” So with the stones, he built an altar in the name of the LORD, and he made a trench around the altar, large enough to hold two measures of seed. Then he arranged the wood and cut the ox in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, “Fill four pitchers with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” And he said, “Do it a second time,” and they did it a second time. And he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time. The water flowed around the altar and he also filled the trench with water (1 Kings 18:31-35). Why did he do this? To prove that nobody would do anything fake on the human level. No human manipulation! He created an environment where the one and only God would do it. It was at the time of the evening sacrifice. He said 1) Let it be known that you are God in Israel 2) that I am Your servant 3) That I have all these things at Thy Word. That is critically important. These three ingredients should back up that kind of demonstration of power (1 Kings. 18:36-38). Is this not the kind of thing that will get the attention of nations? Not church programs! God’s people, an Elijah-company, must be prepared, will be prepared and is being prepared for this final demonstration.

So what happened next? Elijah slew all of the false prophets! (1 Kings 18:40). Now Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of the roar of a heavy shower” (1 Kings 18:41). In the natural, there was no sound, no cloud, nothing; but in the spirit, he could hear the sound of a heavy shower. So Ahab went up to eat and drink. But Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, and he crouched down on the earth and put his face between his knees. He said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked and said, “There is nothing.” And he said, “Go back” seven times (1 Kings 18:42-43). Sunshine, blue skies – the drought continued. By the third time, anyone who had not been sent by God would be thinking, “I’ve made a mistake, this is not going to work”. But not Elijah; He sent his servant seven times. It came about at the seventh time, that he said, “Behold, a cloud as small as a man’s hand is coming up from the sea.” And he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot and go down, so that the heavy shower does not stop you'” (1 Kings 18:44). This was all the prophet Elijah needed. In a little while, the sky grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy shower. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. Then the hand of the LORD was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and outran Ahab to Jezreel (1 Kings 18:45). This skinny prophet of God outran Ahab!

Back to Malachi 4:5-6: “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD” (Mal. 4:5). What will he do? “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse” (Mal. 4:6). This is very important. Elijah has a commission. When John the Baptist was born, Jesus was quick to say that this prophecy about Elijah was fulfilled in John the Baptist (Matt. 11:14, Matt. 17:12; Luke 1:17). Elijah was a man of miraculous powers, but John never performed any signs! (Jn 10:41). Was John the Baptist the fulfilment of the Elijah that would come according to Malachi 4? What was the real purpose of the coming of Elijah in the person of John the Baptist? Coming in the spirit and power of Elijah must be referring to something else. This grace that John the Baptist carried refers to an anointing which is needed in every generation. It is not a once-only fulfilment in John the Baptist. He is needed in successive generations, and specifically, before the final “great and terrible day of the Lord“. He must come to bring families together, fathers to their children and children to their fathers – to make ready the way of the Lord, to make His paths straight! (Matt 3:3)

The Church has always been called to be a family. It is not a congregational list. This scripture in Malachi is talking about a relational restoration to prepare God’s people for their works of service (Eph. 4:11-13). This is our work of service; this is the anointing that rested upon Elijah; apostolic and prophetic grace rested on Elijah. More than any other apostle in the Bible, Paul modelled the relationship between a father and a son. The Church on earth must come to the place of not only being a restored apostolic life but a fully mature life. This is where things are getting stuck at the moment. It has to go beyond an apostolic people and come to the FULL STATURE of Christ. Paul, says, “Brethren, join in following my example and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us” (Phil. 3:17).

How did John the Baptist describe himself? “I am a VOICE of one crying in the wilderness, ‘make straight the way of the Lord’!”  What was his first message? “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”(Matt 3:2). The Elijah company that God is raising up must become this VOICE in the earth. (John 1:20-23). What is required? Not an institution, not an organisation, nor a wonderful building, but a voice carrying authority in the heavenlies; a voice that can shut and/or open the heavens when necessary! The voice that will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children with their fathers before God comes and smites the land with a curse!

Elijah was a man like us, but he knew how to pray!  Are we faithful in our prayer life? True prayer is a connection with God through His Holy Spirit. Time alone with God, time in the Word is very necessary. In this hustle-bustle, this situation that the world finds itself in, it is required for the true Church, those whom God is busy forming into an Elijah-company, to spend time with God and His Word. Go through the tests, go through your brook of Cherith, go through Zarephath, go through the smelter’s fire and come out with divine authority – ready to be that VOICE!

Series: The Discipline of Sonship; Trials and Tribulations

Sun am 15 October 2017 – Kobus Swart

Job 23:10; Ps. 119:71; Rev. 2:10; Luke 22:31-32; Gen.50:20; 2 Cor.12:7-10; Acts 14:22; 1 Cor. 5:1-2, 5; 1 John. 4:4; 1 Tim. 1:19-20; Job.42: 10-13 &16; Eph.2:10

In today’s world, it is important to understand the purpose of trials and afflictions. Affliction involves pain, inner pain, testing and trials; but there is a purpose, and if we can be sensitive to the divine purpose, we can make it work for our good. There are always people who are going through difficult times, but we should not miss the purpose of God in difficult times, whether it is physically, emotionally, financially. We serve a sovereign God, He has not lost control. It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes (Ps. 119:71). This is not the kind of message that the average Christian likes: Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days.  Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life (Rev. 2:10). Do not see this as a physical prison, but we are talking now to overcomers!

Let us look at some examples. “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31-32). Satan needs permission from God before he can come and interfere with your life. Who is the best person to strengthen a brother? The one who has gone through similar trials himself! Satan’s attacks in your life prove that you have an important part to play in the plan of God. So actually, it is not a bad thing to go through testing because it proves something; God has a plan for you. Always remember who is in control! Satan needed God’s permission to test Job. Satan tried to manipulate God to bring bad experiences to Job, but God gave him permission to do it. But God also set boundaries.

At the end of everything Joseph has gone through, despite the wonderful prophecies and dreams, He finally said to his brothers who sold him: As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good (Gen. 50:20). Good things will come out of the difficult times you and I are going through if we can keep the faith.

The following verses are talking about Paul, the greatest apostle that ever lived, few could rival his achievements. Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!  Concerning this, I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.  And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Cor. 12:7-10).  Through the terrible afflictions Paul endured he came with this revelation, Through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). God is preparing a kingdom people. To be part of a kingdom people you will go through many tribulations. It will differ from person to person but you are going to be tried and tested. This is not a popular message, but I trust I am talking to people who are in the process of entering the kingdom of God fully.

This is authentic apostolic authority: It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst…. I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus (1 Cor. 5:1-2 & 5). This was not to put him in hell to burn for eternity, but there is a positive motive. Hold this man’s conduct up to public scrutiny. Let him defend it if he can! But if he can’t, then out with him! It will be totally devastating to him, of course, and embarrassing to you. But better devastation and embarrassment than damnation. You want him on his feet and forgiven before the Master on the Day of Judgment (Vs. 5 – Msg). Paul did not put him into damnation forever but it was the dealings of God. Satan was allowed to do the job. Satan’s attack can be a wakeup call. Instead of rebuking the devil, listen! What is God saying here? Why does He allow this? Is there a message? Some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.  Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme (1 Tim. 1:19). Some of us are awakened by a tap on the shoulder while others need to be hit pretty hard on the head. And that is when Satan gets the call: “You do it”.

But we need to remember this: You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). The Bible says we should give the devil no room! Even though Satan has frightful powers we know that it can only be exercised under God’s permission. Satan is simply not free to wreak havoc in people’s lives at will. God’s Spirit which is in you is greater than the devil who is in the world!

What was the final outcome of the horrible history of Job? God restored his fortunes double! When? When he prayed for his friends; the friends who had condemned him (Job. 42:10-13 &16). So be encouraged! Satan’s attacks will only strengthen your faith and will refine it and take it to higher levels. Focus on God’s goodness and His grace upon your life and His plan for your life! God has a plan for each one of us (Eph.2:10). There is a master plan for every one of us but the problem is when we disconnect from that plan and we begin to wander aimlessly.

Things in the world are going to get worse before they get better. Creation is groaning. People do not have a purpose to live for. I pray, and this is my heart’s yearning that the Church of Jesus-Christ will wake up and become one! The voice of the Church must be heard in the world. We must move in authority from above to stop the evil trends in the world because this earth belongs to God. Do not give the earth away! It belongs to the Lord and He has given us the mandate in Genesis 1, the power to rule and multiply in this earth. God wants to restore His original mandate through the corporate Son.

Series: The Discipline of Sonship

Sun am 1 October 2017– Kobus Swart

Job 1:6-12, 20-22; Job 2:1-10; Job 4:7-8; Job 19:25-26; Job 23:10; Job 32:1; Job 42:2; Rom. 8:28; Rom. 16:20; 1 John 3:8, 21; Heb. 5:8; Heb. 10:26; John 8:44; John 16:11; Isa. 31:2; Isa. 45:7; Isa. 47:11; Isa. 48:10; Isa. 54:16; Amos 3:6-8; Col. 1:16-17; (Matt. 4:1, 3); 1 Pet. 2:5; Psa. 119:71; Rev. 2:10; Rev. 12:10, 12;

Do we truly believe that God, who created the heavens and the earth, has been in control, and is still in control of everything? Sometimes we are challenged, and we begin to doubt that and wonder if something else is taking control. There are times in our lives when God allows (and sometimes even initiates) the enemy to test us; but whenever He does, God himself sets his boundaries and limits his powers. Do we believe that? God is still in power! He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. Whatever happens, even if you feel that it cannot possibly be from God, trust that He is still in control.

The story of Job is familiar to all of us. It seems like it was a natural occurrence for Satan to appear amongst the sons of God, so he showed up. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. The LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it”. Satan did not mention Job. The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant, Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil”. Then Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.” Then the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.” So Satan departed from the presence of the LORD (Job 1:1-12). Between the lines, Satan was hoping that God would say, “OK, I am going to really test him”. Satan wanted God to do it. But God said, “Ok, I will give you permission. You do it, but I have a boundary, I am going to limit what you want to do”.

Job was a very wealthy man; everything was going well in his life. And then Satan did what he had to do. Then the messengers started coming in, telling Job all the disasters that had hit him and his family. Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped. He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.” Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God (Job 1:20-22). Satan was not happy. Again, he challenged God to do it. (Job 2:1-10).

When things like this happen in the life of a believer, there is always a possibility that some good Christian friend will come alongside you, and begin to ask certain questions, and blaming you. Remember now, whoever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright destroyed? According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble harvest it (Job 4:7-8). They were blaming Job. Most, if not all of us, at some stage in our life, have done something that we should not have, and not long after, you begin to harvest what you have sown. It is unavoidable. You cannot blame God or the devil. For if we go on sinning wilfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins (Heb. 10:26). That is a hard Scripture, but we must bring all of this into the equation. Unless the Lord himself convicts you of sin, sufferers should pay no attention to religious comforters and accusers. If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God (1 John 3:21).

When you go through shakings and God allows this and that to happen using the enemy, we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28). To those who are connected to His purpose in their lives, God will then make all things work together for good. Something deep in his heart made Job respond the way that he did. He did not become negative, he did not blame God. Although his pain was very great, he did not sin with his lips; he fell on his face and he worshipped God. How many of us would go through testing like that and respond like Job? As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God (Job 19:25-26). I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted (Job 42:2). Job was a perfect man; he understood the nature of God.

Something you may not know about Job is that he was righteous in his own eyes (Job 32:1). Although he was wealthy in temporal things, rich in spiritual things, and proclaimed perfect by the Lord himself, he had not yet been tried by fire as the sons of God will be. He was yet untried, untested and unproven. In the midst of Job’s ordeal of affliction and suffering, the Spirit of prophecy came upon him, and he spoke concerning the purposes of God: But He knows the way I take; when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold (Job 23:10). As in schools, you do not pass before being tested. How did God do this? He used Satan. Remember, satan has no power except that which God allows him to have. In our religious church history, there was a certain picture painted of satan; who he is and where he comes from. I believe God is busy correcting that theology.

God said, I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things (Isa. 45:7 – KJV). ‘Evil’ here means ‘calamity, distress, adversity, misery’. This is confirmed in three more Scriptures: Isa. 31:2, Isa. 47:11 and Amos 3:6-8. Col. 1:16-17 says, For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities –all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, plus what we have just read. Jesus Himself said about satan: He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). The devil sinned from the beginning. From his very beginning, Satan was evil (1 John 3:8). Behold, I Myself have created the smith who blows the fire of coals and brings out a weapon for its work; And I have created the destroyer to ruin (Isa. 54:16). What this boils down to is that God created an instrument that was capable of performing this essential action in the lives of men. In satan God literally created a chastening rod. There is purpose in affliction; there is purpose in trials! Sometimes we do not learn and so we repeat our mistakes, and we pay the price. There is purpose in temptation. How will you know if you are an overcomer or not until you have been tested? Job had been a perfect man…up until that point. Wealthy, blessed in everything, but was unproven, untested. There is purpose in suffering, purpose in sorrow, and purpose in pain.

If you do not learn, you will pay the price. Some people only learn the hard way. They have to repeat their mistakes until they wake up and realise they are being tested! You cannot be an overcomer unless you overcome something! There is purpose in light and darkness. There is purpose in good and there is purpose in evil. There is purpose in adversity, and in the adversary who brings it, and therefore there is purpose in the existence of Satan. God had him there for a purpose, up to a point. His time is short; but until then we will be tried and we will be tested.

Even Jesus, the Son of God, came out of the waters of baptism, 30 years old, and the next moment, the Holy Spirit drove Him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matt. 4:1). Do not give the devil the blame. He was driven into the wilderness by the Spirit of God. When the tempter came to him, his first question was, “If you are the Son of God…” (Matt. 4:3). We are talking about the tests and trials of the sons of God to qualify to be part of the corporate Son who will put God on display in this world.

Jesus personally chose all his disciples, which included Judas Iscariot. “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?” (Jn 6:70) God needed a Judas to betray Him.

We know nothing about Jesus for the first 18 years of His life. We saw Him at the age of 12 and then at the age of 30, but we have this Scripture: Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered (Heb. 5:8).

We are living stones that will be built into the temple of God (1 Pet. 2:5). Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction (Isa. 48:10). That is where the living stones are made. David said, It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes (Psa. 119:71).

Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life’ (Rev. 2:10). Do not see ‘prison’ in a literal sense here; it could be a prison in an abstract sense. You will know when you are in a ‘prison’.

Here is the good news: Jesus came with a purpose. After the death and resurrection of Jesus, the ruler of this world was put under judgement (John 16:11). Understand the word ‘judgement’; it means that he is still alive, but there is a judgement hanging over his head. He is still the father of lies (John 8:44), the accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10). He still moves around among the body of Christ. Many Christians give him substance by believing and confessing that he is powerful. However, his time is short! For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time (Rev. 12:12). So how will this function of the devil come to an end? He was put under judgement, Jesus overcame him. How will his existence come to an end?  The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet! (Rom. 16:20). Who will bring the final end to Satan? The Church of Jesus Christ, the overcomers! The sons of God that have been tested and proven through fire and came through victoriously, will crush Satan under our feet. Satan will not go a millimetre beyond the boundaries that God has set for him. He has no right to go beyond where God allows him to go. We draw the line for Satan; he will not go further! You must stand firm. This is the Church that Jesus is looking for, the overcoming Church. Do not give the enemy more room than what God gives him to test us.

We declare that we are submitted to the King of kings, who created the heavens and the earth. God is in charge, not the devil! Give him no room.