Last week, we preached about the heavenly realms, trying to lay the foundation for what we want to talk about this morning.  As a reminder to those of you who were here, and to bring the rest of you up to speed, I want to review briefly what we talked about last week.  We talked about the fact that the spiritual realm is every bit as real as the earthly realm– those things we can see and touch around us.  We reminded you that we are engaged in a battle, whether you like it or not, for the souls of men, women, boys and girls.  We ended by declaring that the final battle has already been won by Christ.  We are on the winning side!  It doesn’t always feel like we are winning or on the winning side, but God uses every difficulty in our lives to reveal truth to us and work His grace more deeply into our lives.  We do not understand everything happening in our lives, but, in times like these, are called to trust that God is God, and He alone will work good for us, which means that we come to a deeper experience and knowledge of His love and grace for us, through every circumstance God allows into our lives.  One of the fascinating dynamics which is taking place is that there is a training class going on in the heavenly realms, as God reveals His perfect wisdom to the beings who are gathered there in audience of what is happening on the earth.  Please get the CD from the information desk if you missed last week’s sermon.

Today, I want to pick up where we left off last week.  In this sermon series, we are describing who we are to be as Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church.  God has a call on His church at Trinity, to be whole-hearted followers of Jesus, to be those who worship Him in Spirit and Truth, to be healed and delivered, equipped for every good work, and sent out to the nations with the gospel.  A central part of each of these 5 points of vision is prayer.  I said last week that the only way for this church to become the transforming agent in this culture which Christ has called us to be is to believe and practice prayer as we see it modeled for us in the book of Acts and other places.  And the only way we will begin to take on the role which God has given to us as a Kingdom of priests, is to believe what the Scripture teaches us about these very things!
With all this as background, let’s jump into today’s text, looking at how God has designed His people to use the spiritual authority He has given to them to engage in the battle in the heavenly realms as our general, Jesus, leads us.

I. Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father in a place of spiritual authority.

Paul is praying a powerful prayer in Ephesians 1, asking that these Christians would know– not simply know about, but experientially would know– the hope to which He has called us, the inheritance we have in Christ, and the power that is available for us who believe.  He stops on this last point and begins to describe the power that is available to you and to me.  This power raised Christ from the dead, and seated Christ in the heavenly realms at the right hand of the Father, far above all other things.  Here Paul lists some military ranks in the heavenly realms.  So, Christ is seated on the throne, at the place of greatest privilege and authority at the right hand of the Father. When you are seated in a position of authority, then what you say will take place, does in fact take place.  People in Paul’s day clearly understood this dynamic!  Do you remember the centurion who had a servant who was very close to him, and very sick, so he sent for Jesus to come and heal the young man.  Jesus agreed to come and pray for healing, but the centurion told Jesus, “you don’t need to come all the way to my house.  All you need to do is to speak the Word and it will happen.  I understand this, because when I give a soldier an order, I know that it will be carried out.  You have the authority to simply speak the Word and it will happen.”  Do you remember Jesus’ response to the centurion’s declaration?  He marveled at the faith of this man.  He commended him for his faith, because he understood the way God’s authority works.  Do you?

Faith is an inner conviction that what God says is true and will come to pass.  The Bible states that Jesus has a position of complete authority over any name that can be given in this age and in the future millennial Kingdom.  Jesus is head over all– which means He decides what is best and rules, just as the head rules the rest of the body.  Jesus rules all thing on behalf of the church– that is what the text tells us.  If Jesus says “Yes”, the answer is “Yes”, no matter what anyone else says!  If Jesus says “No”, the answer is “No” no matter what anyone else says!!  Are you with me on this?  I don’t need a poll to tell me the answer, and I don’t need to get the experts’ opinions, because Jesus is the “Yes  and Amen”!!  If everyone on earth disagreed with Jesus, Jesus would still be right and things would take place just as Jesus decided because of His position of authority over all things!  If this is true, and it is, what we need to both hear and embrace is anything Jesus wants to say to us!  Are you with me on this point?...  Jesus rules as the King of kings, and has ultimate authority over all things, which has been given to Him by His Father.

II. We are seated with Christ, in a place of spiritual authority.

There is some great theology in the next 7 verses which I am going to pass over because we don’t have time to unfold all of it.  Before we came to know Christ, we were dead in our sins.  No one who is dead is able to revive himself.  We were without hope apart from Christ.  When we were in a hopeless and dead place spiritually, God intervened by sending Christ.  Notice in these verses that God is the subject– God made us alive, raised us and seated us with Christ.  When we said “Yes” to Christ and asked Him to come into our lives to save us– God gave us the faith, the ability to even say “yes” in the first place– when that happened, we were made alive in Christ, we were raised with Him to live above our present day circumstances and above this fleshly body, and we were seated with Christ in the heavenly realms.  This is where we need to stop to reflect on the meaning of this passage.  Where is Christ seated?  He is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven, in a place far above all earthly and heavenly powers.  According to this text, we are seated with Christ– in a place of complete authority over any heavenly being.  This is crucial for us to believe and then to put into practice.  The demonic realm understands authority.  Do you remember the story when the sons of Sceva (Acts 19) tried to deliver a man full of demons?  The demons speak to these non-Christians who are using Jesus’ Name without knowing Jesus, and tell them– we know Jesus and we know Paul– in other words they have experienced the authority resident in these 2 people; but who are you?  And the demons jumped on these men and beat them to a pulp.

If you do not understand who you are and the position of authority you have been given, then you will not use it.  And if you do not use what Christ has given to you, He will not be able to bring His Kingdom to pass in the manner He desires to do so through His church.  We have to know who we are, church, and then to pray with that authority in faith, and watch to see how God works in our midst to build His Kingdom. 

God has placed us, individually and corporately, in a position of authority so that we would use this authority to bring His Kingdom.  Let’s say you are a manager in a company and 8 people work under you.  God has placed you where you are and so you know He desires to work through you to influence everyone who works under you.  You do this by praying over these employees and their families each day.  You tell them about your love for Jesus and desire for each of them to succeed in their place of employment.  You ask them how you might pray more effectively– specifically for their needs.  If something is out of order in their work, it is your responsibility to bring this back in proper order.  If God gives you insight into wrong attitudes in them, you begin to pray and ask God to give you wisdom about what you should do, and pray for the Lord to work in their hearts.  Anything which is under your sphere of influence should be given over to Jesus by faith, and as Jesus is invited into the center of that area, He will work in you and through you to transform that area into what He wants it to be!  It all begins with knowing who you are in Christ and using your God given authority to pray.

I heard a banker from Pittsburgh speak at a Marketplace Conference sponsored by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.  The goal of the conference was to teach and model for college seniors  and grad students what it would look like to live for Christ in the Marketplace and the incredible affect a business given over to Jesus could have.  This banker was a committed Christian, and began to pray about what Christ would have him do with the bank.  He became convinced that he was to invest in more minority owned businesses to help them begin to reclaim their own communities.  He would require things of those coming to him for loans which no other bank required– certain commitments of discipline and Bible study and excellent business plans; but also made loans to people who went through the process that other banks would never do.  There were not all success stories, but as he asked the Lord how he should respond to every request, the Lord gave him insight into what he should be doing.  He began to pray in faith for the redemption of certain areas of the city, and God used his bank as an answer to many of the prayers he prayed.  There was significant community transformation, largely do to his efforts.  This is one example of Kingdom prayers and choices, which we are all called to make. Kingdom influence begins as you go to your general, Jesus, and ask Him about His plans for your business or position.  As He begins to place things on your heart, you follow through obediently, watching to see how Jesus will transform your business, your home, or your church into what He desires for it to be.

III. We are called by God to use the spiritual authority Christ has given to us to bring His Kingdom on earth.  What does this look like?

In this last point, I want to give you some practical ways the truths we have talked about above need to be lived out.  If you live in a home– renting or owning it– then you have authority in that home according to the laws of our land.    If you knew someone was going to break into your home tonight and was going to injure your wife, or your kids or you, would you leave the doors unlocked and the light on for them?  I will tell you what, if someone is going to break into my home to harm my kids or my wife they better have a big weapon because I am coming down on them.  I will put up with a fair amount of personal abuse, but if you want to see the papa bear come out of me, try and touch my family.  I will not allow anyone to harm my family, if I have any ability to stop them.  How about you?  This truth applies to men and women, but it especially applies to men who are husbands and fathers– why do you allow Satan into your house to abuse your wife and kids?  If you do not use the authority Christ has given to you to use to build His Kingdom and to cover your family, then you are, in effect, allowing Satan to abuse your family.  The same thing is true of Christ’s church– think about this with me.  Does Jesus love His church?  Yes, He absolutely does!!   Do you believe Jesus wants for His church to be weak and powerless in this culture?    I, for one, do not believe that is God’s will for us!  What are we to do about the weakness of the church then?  We are to pray it into strength!!  We are to lift up the shield of faith over her, to pull out the sword of the Spirit which is God’s Word.  This was a short sword used in hand to hand combat.  This truth applies especially to the leadership of the church, but it effects us all, because we are all a part of this one body.  We are all given a measure of authority with which we are to pray for a breaking of every demonic thing we see happening in the family or the church.  How do we know what is demonic?  You look to see what lines up with the Word of God and what does not.  When you see something which does not, that is when we pull out the sword and begin to fight.  Letting someone else do it isn’t God’s option.  If the Lord shows you something, He wants you to be a part of the solution!         

This past year, my daughter, Megan was praying for and seeking a roommate for her sophomore year.  For a variety of reasons outside of her control, mainly because she was low on  the priority list because of her sophomore status, she was left without a roommate.  She would call home, telling us about an option she was exploring, but in my spirit, as I prayed over these things, I did not feel good about them.  This went on for a couple of weeks, and at some point along the way, as Ann and I prayed together for her, we came to a place of great peace, that the Lord had worked out a perfect rooming situation for her.  I didn’t know what it was, and there were only a few days left before she would have to take whoever they placed in her room.  2 days before the final day, Megan called home excited that she believed the Lord had given her a roommate who would fit with her very well.  As she shared about what happened, Ann and I knew that this was an answer to the prayers she and we prayed.

A year ago, there was an article in a Christian magazine about a pastor and his wife who had been fasting and praying for months for their daughter, who had rebelled and made many bad choices and was headed towards prostitution.  After many months of fasting, praying and seeking the Lord, God intervened and she called home and asked if she could return home.  They jumped in the car and went to get her, because they knew that this was God’s work in her.  After spending some time to recover and heal and mature, she got involved with youth ministry and God has used her in a powerful way.  These parents used their authority to reclaim their daughter.  God answered their prayers.  God works in His own marvelous and mysterious way and timing, but never give up the place of authority the Lord has given to you, no matter how old your children are.  If there is a trial in their life, join them on your knees and seek the Lord and His solution, His healing, His restoration, His work to change a heart.

James has called on parents of teens to fast and pray for forty days with him for our kids.  There are concerns with parents– this is probably not anything new, because every parent here has had concerns about your teens at some point– and James has correctly called on us to pray and to fast, which simply bring a deeper spiritual sensitivity to us, and then we live according to what we sense the Lord saying to us.  My conviction in families where the husband and wife are together is that husbands should lead in prayer, should take the initiative to lead their wives and kids, and to cover their families every day.  Wives aren’t to take the husband’s role, but neither should you sit back and wait if your husband isn’t stepping up to the plate.  You should pray in faith for your husband to take his God given role, and you should be praying in faith over your kids yourself while the Lord is at work in his heart.  If you are a single parent, you still have that place of spiritual authority we have talked about in these passages. Use it!

I was speaking with a man a week ago who was commenting about the consistent prayers and reading of the Word of God which marked the mother of his wife.  Her consistency in the Word and prayer had made a deep impact on this man.  He muttered something about wishing we were more like that today.  Why not?  What prevents us from being like this?  This is a choice we must make for the sake of our families and the sake of Christ’s church.  If a husband and wife agree together that they will pray each night over their home and children– no matter how old the children are– and ask the Lord to show them how to pray and show them what His will is for them, then God will move in mighty ways in our families.  Maybe you are here this morning thinking– it is too late for me because I am already divorced.  You still have a place of authority over your kids.  No matter what your spouse is doing, which you cannot control, you can decide this morning that you are going to go back up on the wall as a watchman– the place where watchmen stood all night to watch for the enemies attack– and you can decide that you are going to re-take your God given role and choose to set aside other things so that Satan no longer has a foothold in your life or family.  If you do this, then God will work.  I don’t know how or what, but remember when Jesus sent his disciples out with the gospel in Luke 10.  When they returned and marveled at the way demons submitted to them in Jesus’ Name, Jesus told them, “I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven.”  When the disciples spoke, prayed and acted in Jesus’ Name, which means Jesus’ authority, Satan was knocked out of his place of influence everywhere the disciples went.  This is what God desires to do today through His church!  Everywhere we go, we carry the Name, meaning the authority of Jesus Christ.  We pray into being the will of God as best as we can discern it, and watch to see how God will use us to work out the answer to our own prayers.