Chapter 6

Divine Displacement, God’s Way

Chapter 6 Text

God conceived an eternal plan before the foundation of the world. Mankind, male and female, was made for authority. We were created and fashioned for dominion. We were given rulership of the earth. Through Adam’s choice to live by the wrong tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, rather than the Tree of Life, Satan staged a coup and man gave Satan a legal place in the earth and in his life. Through his rebellion, God’s enemy, Satan, brought all things into chaos. God quickly and decisively declared how this rebellion would be dealt with. Through the woman, the very one he had initially deceived, a Seed would come that would bring a death blow to his head, utterly destroying him. By the masterstroke of God, He would redeem and reconcile things back to His original purpose, thereby restoring mankind to His original purpose—again giving them the opportunity to choose to eat from the Tree of Life, through His Son Jesus Christ.

Power and Authority

In his book, Authority in Prayer, Dutch Sheets speaks about the issue of God’s governmental authority: “The question of who’s in control is a governmental issue. We often think of government only in its civil sense, but Webster’s defines govern as ‘to direct and control; to regulate by authority; to influence; to direct; to restrain; to steer or regulate the course of; to exercise authority; to maintain the superiority.’”1

Sheets defines power as the “strength or force needed to rule” and authority as “the ‘right’ to do so.”2 He goes on to say: “Satan didn’t gain any power at the fall and didn’t lose any at the cross. His power or ability didn’t change at either event; his authority, or the right to use that power, did. . . . Scripture nowhere says that Christ delivered us from or dealt with Satan’s power at Calvary. He dealt with Satan’s authority.”3 When Jesus rose victorious from the grave He had faced the opposition of “the powers of the air.” That means all principalities; every power, might, and dominion; every name that is named not only in this age, but also in the age that is to come. Every opposing force that stood against God’s purpose had been overthrown!

Yes, Eve was the first to be ensnared by Satan and the first to expose his true nature. She was also the subject of the first promise of deliverance. When things looked hopeless to the human mind, God had a way. “When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, make under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4, KJV). Through the Seed of the woman, “[sin and] death [would be] swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54). Through the Seed of the woman, God would “[disarm] principalities and powers, [making] a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15). Heaven and earth’s greatest victory would be realized out of the greatest point of defeat.

When Jesus, the perfect Seed, came forth through woman, and then the Seed went down into death, it looked as though Satan had won again. Acts 2:24, however, says, “[But] God raised Him up, liberating Him from the pangs of death, seeing that it was not possible for Him to continue to be controlled or retained by it” (AMP). It was not possible for the grave to hold Him. “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. . . . And I have the keys of Hades [hell] and of Death,” Jesus declared to John in Revelation 1:18. Jesus had come forth from death victoriously, bringing with Him the legal right for humanity to again exercise on earth the delegated dominion God had given them.

Jesus spoke powerful words to His seventy amazed followers who had been sent out two by two. After going from city to city, they said to Him, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” Jesus’ response was, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven! 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” (Luke 10:17–19). He personally witnessed Satan’s expulsion (being exiled) from heaven and we need to “see” Satan falling, as well. He has been stripped of his authority, and the authority that Adam had lost was being given back to mankind. As we are united with God, He is using us to deal with Satan’s rebellion today, just as was purposed from the very beginning of time.

Jesus was saying to the seventy that we are to trample the enemy and keep him on his belly, eating dust! Trample means “to have physical and mental ability.” The Holy Spirit has empowered us with physical and mental ability to deal with the enemy. A promise was given to David that the enemy would not be able to outwit him (see Psalm 89:22). We can be confident of that very thing, as well. The enemy cannot outwit us. We win!

It is important to note that when Jesus defeated Satan, He did not annihilate him. From humanity’s inception, God declared that part of taking dominion over the earth would be to subdue (war against and tread underfoot) any hostile force that would raise itself up against the plans and purposes of God. This is still the believer’s calling. Why did He permit Satan, whose head is already crushed, to remain on earth? God has left him here for us to demonstrate and enforce the victory of Christ. Jesus said: “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches’” (Revelation 3:21, 22). He set the pattern. As He overcame, we can also overcome! We are here to fulfill His eternal plan until He deals with Satan in the final days. Until that time we truly are “the enforcers.”

Satan is a defeated foe, but God is raising up a Church, a Bride “meet” (suitable) for her Bridegroom. This “raising up” entails a learning to war, an entering into battle to “possess the Kingdom” we have already been given, a growing to maturity as we walk in His authority. Satan has been left on earth that, through the conflict, the Church might be strengthened, not defeated; and he will remain only as long as he serves God’s purposes.

A Great Awakening

Women are Satan’s enemy in a very profound and real way. For this reason, God has been awakening women to the crucial role we play in His overall plan in the earth to see the Church come into the fullness of His purpose. It is also why the enemy tries to keep women in what he thinks of as “their place,” to silence us, to make us unsure of who we are and why we are here. He does not want us to discover and fulfill our true purpose. He fears the female gender and understands that our strength will be his undoing. An even greater fear is that the Church will discover the combined strength of the genders merging their anointings together as God purposed from the beginning, thereby moving in a united way to expose and conquer his evil doings and enforcing the ultimate victory Christ died to give us. All power has been given unto us!

We are living in a day of increased revelation. It is a time when God is bringing us into significant alignment with heaven. He will have a Body that truly displays His light and glory in the earth, as spoken of in Isaiah 60. He is redeeming and restoring all things unto Himself.

Today is a new day and we are seeing His work of restoration all around us. He is restoring His Body. God is lifting up the heads and arms of women around the world in extraordinary ways. He has been gathering a powerful prayer force in the earth that has been awakened to its divine purpose. He is causing us to be raised up in strength, health, vitality, and wholeness! He is bringing us into a greater understanding of why He created us and who He has called us be. He is awakening us to the great sense of destiny that is ours and leading us into the fulfillment of the purposes for which He created us—dealing with the ancient curse.

Women, in a very real way, are at the sharp end of the fight with the enemy. The ancient curse was spoken to Satan regarding the woman following her exposure of him. It is time for women to understand and walk in the strength of that call. The greatest victory will be when men “see” the strength and purpose of our place and we begin to walk together as purposed from the beginning.

Acts 3:21 says that the heavens will actually hold Jesus back until all things have been restored. That does not mean that all the ills of mankind will be restored. What He will restore will be His ancient purposes. The initial structure He chose and set in place. From the beginning, He told us what dominion would look like. It wasn’t male dominated; it wasn’t female dominated. It was the two genders, male and female, walking together in the power and strength of God’s original design and purpose.

Heaven to Earth

God wants us to live heaven to earth, not earth to heaven. He wants to change your address so that you live life from a different place, a different perspective. He can reveal Himself in a glorious way in the midst of any circumstances. Graham Cooke puts it this way in his book, Qualities of a Spiritual Warrior: “Spiritual warriors know that every situation has been designed for us to discover God’s Presence and find appropriate access, using our circumstances. . . . Warriors are responsive towards God, not reactive to their circumstances. . . . Warriors see everything as an opportunity to grow, to learn, and to increase faith.”4 I have also heard Graham say that warriors “have taken their own internal territory.” What an exciting way to live! We get to choose how we will live! Will we live by our circumstances or by the Word of God?

When a difficult situation recently occurred in my own life, I so clearly sensed Him saying to me, “Let not your heart be troubled. Believe!” There was such an incredible sense of peace in the midst of the storm. I didn’t work at it or try to rev it up. It came out of a living relationship with an all-sufficient God. Remember what Jesus said to Thomas: “Don’t be unbelieving. Believe.” Peace is a strong weapon of warfare. Peace indicates where the focus of our hearts and minds is and where our trust is. That is why Isaiah stated: “The steadfast of mind Thou wilt keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in Thee” (Isaiah 26:3, NASB). God wants us to have both inward peace and outward peace—peace in the midst of any event or circumstance because He is utterly trustworthy. This truly is living from the Tree of Life, the life of Jesus. This is overcoming life.

I want to encourage you to look at your life from a heavenly perspective. The difficulties you are encountering are intended for a divine purpose: God is increasing your authority. He is strengthening you, sharpening you, preparing you for greater purpose than you have ever known.

God is stretching many of us right now. We feel pressure on every side, and the reason for this is that God wants us to rise in the authority He has given us. He is bringing forth pure gold in our lives out of the pressures we now face. He is strengthening us on the inside so we can know Him better and represent Him more accurately in the world, in the midst of the difficult days in which we live.

I cannot encourage you strongly enough to press through the barriers and opposition currently before you. Whether it’s more bills than money at the end of the month, a crisis of health or well-being, or a life that has become dull and difficult, you must press through. We must press through for each other. Let me explain. The Body of Christ is made up of individual people, yet as His Body we are a corporate entity. The Body of Christ is only as strong as each individual member. He is bringing us corporately into a greater place of victory and authority. All of us must rule over our enemies individually so we can experience victory corporately, as God’s people.

Revelation 12 speaks about the posture of the Church in this way: “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death” (v. 11). He has given us the power to overcome. Overcomers are not a “special class” of people; they are those who conform to the original plan of God.

Summary

• Jesus did not strip Satan of his power at the cross; He dealt with his authority.
• When Jesus died, the enemy appeared to have gained the right to rule on earth. When Jesus rose from the dead with the keys of death and hell, He returned to humanity our God-given right to rule over the enemy on earth.
• Satan is defeated, but God allows him to continue to operate on earth because He is raising up a Church, a Bride suitable for her Bridegroom.
• God is awakening the Church to many things in this hour and leading us into the fulfillment of the purposes for which He created us: dealing with the ancient curse.
• View your life and your circumstances from a heavenly perspective.