Jim Van Gelderen: This is Jim Van Gelderen, and I am podcasting from Gainesville, Georgia. I am parked here at North Gainesville Baptist Church, where Pastor Marty Moon is the pastor. A few days ago, we were scheduled to be in another church with a Christian school in northern Florida, north of here, but that ended up canceling. Our team went various ways, and I ended up here at North Gainesville Baptist Church.

One of the reasons I am here is because I know Marty and have known him for a while. I met Marty years ago. He came as a teenager to a youth activity where I was preaching. It was an unusual situation because I was scheduled to preach at something called a Farm Fest, and hundreds of teens were supposed to be there. It ended up canceling because of inclement weather. The youth pastor of this church found out about it, contacted me, and asked if I could come and preach at his evangelistic youth activity that night since I would not be at the Farm Fest. Of course, I agreed to do so.

I preached that night on the Great White Throne Judgment, and Marty Moon was there. He was just a teenager at the time, and it was his first time in that church. He was actually invited by some young lady in the youth group. He came, heard the gospel, and got saved. A few months after that, under evangelist Jerry Sivinski, he sensed that God was calling him to preach. He prepared for the ministry and has now, for several years, been here at this church in Gainesville, Georgia. Before that, he was down in Bonita Springs, Florida, and was a youth pastor. So we did the War of Special Forces with him several times over the years.

I am glad you have listened, or are listening, to the podcast. I want to probably start a series here today. I want to deal with the believer’s authority. Several years ago, I read a book called The Authority of the Believer, and it got me thinking about this. Since then, I have really thought more about it and studied out some verses in Scripture. Recently, I read another book on the same topic that was written just a few years ago, and it got me thinking about the importance of understanding our authority in Christ.

It is a very important subject, and you need to get it right because not everybody does get it right. Truth is important. We are in a battle against an enemy. Every young person, every adult, anybody who is a Christian knows we have an enemy. We of course have the world, the flesh, and the devil, but I am speaking of the devil. Satan is definitely our adversary.

There is truth that we need to understand in our battle against the enemy. If you do not understand it, you will find yourself defeated and not know what to do when Satan comes along and you sense the hiss of the serpent. You will wonder, “What am I supposed to do?” I want to start talking about our position. It is tonight while I am giving the podcast, but it might not be night when you are listening to it. I want you to understand what happened when you got saved.

The book of Ephesians tells us that when you got saved, something happened. If you know anything about Romans 6, you understand that when you got saved, you were put into Christ, so His history has become your history. In Romans 6, we often talk about our identification with His crucifixion and His death: we are dead to sin. We talk about identification with His resurrection: we are alive unto God.

Sometimes we forget about Ephesians chapters 1 and 2, which deal with the truth that we are also identified with His ascension. Ephesians 2:6 puts it this way: “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” If you are a saved teenager, you are right now in Jesus Christ in heavenly places, seated at the right hand.

There is something you need to know about that position. A few verses earlier, in chapter 1, it says, “Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.”

That passage tells us that Jesus Christ right now is seated at the right hand, far above the enemy, far above the enemy’s hosts— all principality and power. If you understand Ephesians 2:6, when it says you have been raised up together with Him, could we say this? Satan is under our feet because he is under Jesus’ feet, and we are in Jesus. So he is under our feet. We are in a place of ascendancy over the enemy. That is a very important understanding.

One of the songs my brother John wrote, “Jesus Exalted,” talks about warring from the throne to put evil to flight. That is the idea: we are in the throne room, far above the enemy.

Not only that, the book of Colossians tells us that our identification with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ also means that we are identified with a victory that He has won. In other words, when Jesus said, “It is finished,” one thing that was finished was Satan’s design and ultimate attempt to have victory. Obviously, he is defeated, and it is just a matter of time before that defeat will be fully manifest. But he knows he is defeated.

In Colossians 2:14–15, we read, “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” The “it” is talking about the cross. In other words, when you were put into Jesus, you were put into One who is victorious. Jesus has already defeated Satan at the cross.

May I say, teenager, you do not have to pray and ask God to defeat Satan. He already is defeated. You need to ask God to manifest the defeat of Satan. He is already defeated. When Jesus said, “It is finished,” His work was done, and Satan’s battle against the Lord Jesus Christ was done too. He was defeated at that point, and he has been triumphed over in the cross. We thank the Lord for that victory.

I do not understand it all. Sometimes, in articulating it, you want to make sure it is clear: it is a victory that has clearly been won, but it needs to be manifested as we claim that victory. It will be fully manifested in time, but it needs to be manifested in our lives as we claim the victory that Jesus won.

These are the truths. It is kind of like Romans 6 when it talks about you needing to know something. You need to know that you are in Christ, far above all principalities and powers. You need to know that you are in Christ and that He has triumphed over Satan. He has spoiled principalities and powers.

One other thought I want to give you here, an understanding of who you are in this battle against the enemy. We will refer back to this in our next podcast. We will probably have two or three podcasts dealing with this.

When Jesus gave the Great Commission, He said something amazing: “All power in heaven and earth is given unto me.” That power is the word—there are several words for “power” in the New Testament. This is power in the sense of authority. It is authoritative power.

Authority has power over us. It would be the power of a policeman when he says, “You need to do this,” or when you need to stop at an intersection where he is directing traffic. He is exercising authority that has been invested in him. I will use that illustration as time goes on. Jesus has all authority in heaven and earth.

Can I say this carefully? Jesus can boss the devil around. Here is the thing I want you to understand about this authority: Jesus delegates it to us, and He wants us to use His authority. This is going to set up the next podcast, so I do not want you to miss the next podcast. I am going to close with a verse, and we will probably start with it next time, in James 4:7: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

You cannot exercise Jesus’ authority without being under it. When you are truly, totally surrendered to what Jesus wants, you can exercise your authority against what Satan wants. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Friends, this is something God wants us to do. He wants us to be submitted to His authority so we can exercise His authority against the enemy. Satan has got to go.

Understand who you are in Christ. You are seated far above the enemy. You are in the One who is victorious over the enemy, and you are under the One who has all authority. When you submit to Him, you are in a place where you can, under His authority, exercise His authority. We are going to talk about all of that in the next one.

Once you know the truth, your next key is appropriation, and then action based on your appropriation. We will talk about that next time. Do not miss the next podcast. You do not have to be defeated by the enemy. We are already in the victorious One, and He wants us to live in that victory and claim that victory.

God bless you, young people. Remember to continue to be totally surrendered. That is the key in this battle, and then depend on who we are in Jesus Christ.