God has given us His armor and His weapons to wage spiritual warfare. Why has He done this? So that we can win!

Included in this armament is the authority the Body of Christ has. When you know why you have authority over Satan, you will be confident to use that authority. It covers the whole rank and file of Satan's operations from the lowest principalities to the highest wicked spirits in heavenly places. Not one area of human existence is left uncovered by the blood of Jesus.

God gave the earth to man. He made Adam in His image and gave him dominion (Gen. 1:28). God said, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion." Adam was God's under-ruler with authority over all of creation. In reflecting on this awesome reality, the Psalmist David wrote: "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visits him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels."

God gave man His Word and His authority. Adam was a free moral agent who determined his own destiny. Adam chose to disobey God's Word. He committed high treason and turned his authority over to Satan. He willfully bowed his knee to a fallen angel. God was obligated to His own Word to Adam. He had to honor his choice. Against God's will, Satan became the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4).

Adam made his choice. The consequences of it affected the entire human race. Man lost the life and nature of God. He lost his authority over Satan. The nature of spiritual death was lodged in his spirit (Rom. 5:12). The nature of Satan had passed on to every member of the human race since Adam. Satan became the illegitimate stepfather of mankind. Man was no longer in the family of God.

To redeem mankind, God had to destroy the union between man and the devil. In Genesis 3:15, God prophesied the coming of a Messiah Who would annihilate the devil. Jesus came to the earth for one reason: to destroy the works of the devil and recapture man's authority (1 John 3:8).

Before the Redeemer came, God dealt with man through the Abrahamic covenant. This contract enabled Abraham and his descendants to live in the blessings until Jesus, the spotless Son of God, poured out His blood (Gen. 17; Gal. 3:16-17). (Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.) Abraham's responsibility was to live perfect and upright before God. He was not able to do so because of spiritual death. God made provision for his failures with the blood of bulls and goats. The blood of these old covenant sacrifices only covered sin (read Heb. 9 and 10). It could not do away with the sin nature.

The Word that God had spoken (Gen. 3:15) became flesh and dwelt among men (John 1:14). Jesus was born of a virgin. God was His Father, giving Him the nature of God in His Spirit. Jesus fulfilled the Abrahamic covenant. He walked perfect and upright in the sight of God as a man. Man was the key figure in the fall and man had to be the key to redemption. Jesus passed the test that Adam failed!

Second Corinthians 5:21 says, "For God hath made Jesus to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Jesus never committed sin. He became sin for us.

Since Jesus was made to be our sin, He had to pay the penalty for sin. He had to die spiritually and physically, which took Him into the regions of the damned. He went in our place. In Isaiah 53, you find that it pleased God to lay upon Him all of our punishment - sin, sickness, poverty, the entire curse (Deut. 28:16-68).

The Cross was a mystery to Satan. The Word tells us that if he had known what was happening, he would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:7-8).

Jesus went into hell to free mankind from the penalty of Adam's high treason. Isaiah 53:9 says, "And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death." The Hebrew word for "death" is literally plural. Jesus died two deaths. He died physically and spiritually. When He was made to be sin, He was separated from God. Thus He cried with a loud voice while hanging on the Cross, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46).

Jesus fulfilled the Abrahamic covenant. He bore our disobedience and became the last sacrifice to be offered. His blood did not merely cover sin. It did away with the handwriting of the ordinances that were against us (Col. 2:14). Jesus spent three horrible days and nights in the bowels of this earth repurchasing man's rights and authority by paying the price for man's sin. He took our place.

Jesus defeated Satan and his cohorts in his own domain! God quickened Him with eternal life. "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." (Rom. 6:4) The power in that life catapulted Him through three realms: "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth" (Phil. 2:10). Nothing could stop the plan of redemption.

Jesus identified with the human race and became our total substitute. He paid an awesome price for our redemption. When we identify with His death, burial, and resurrection, we become born-again sons of God.

"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. 10:9-10).

Jesus is now seated at the right hand of the Father expecting His enemies to be made His footstool. Jesus is the Head and we are His Body. The feet are on the body. He is expecting His enemies to be put under our feet. Authority over the devil has been given into the hands of the Body of Christ. That authority carries command in the world of the spirit. It is backed by the whole plan of redemption!

Put yourself in Satan's position and see this from his viewpoint. If you were Satan, what would you think? Standing before you is a soldier, clad in a complete suit of God's armor - the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the girdle of truth, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit. This soldier is speaking God's Word with authority. With the face mask pulled down, you could not tell the difference between him and Jesus. If you were Satan, wouldn't you give careful consideration before you jumped into combat with him? This same image has already eternally wounded him in defeat once.

The only way a believer will tip off Satan is by lifting his faceplate through unbelief. As long as he acts and lives by faith, Satan will be unable to defeat him. The Wuest's Expanded Translation of James 4:7-8 says, "Be subject with implicit obedience to God at once and once for all. Stand immovable against the onset of the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you."

You have been given the whole armor of God. Your responsibility is to pick it up, put it on, and wear it in faith. You have the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. You have the authority in the realm of the spirit. You have been fully equipped with weapons that guarantee results in prayer. You can expect results every time you pray!

Excerpt permission granted by
Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka:  Kenneth Copeland Ministries