What
if I were to tell you, in the midst of a world consumed with reports of the
latest terrorist acts and speculation about the next possible atrocity, that the
master terrorist of all terrorists had already been located and destroyed?
You would certainly think that was good news. You would wonder why they haven't
already reported it on the evening news.
Yet that is exactly what Hebrews tells us has already happened:
Forasmuch
then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he [Jesus] also himself
likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had
the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of
death were all their lifetime subject to bondage (Hebrews 2:14-15).
What
we have just read is the most important news any believer could possibly
receive. This report from God's Word says the master terrorist (the devil) has
been destroyed and the believer has been delivered from fear.
The world is preoccupied with fear because apart from the cross of Jesus and His
victory over death, no one can get rid of fear. However, the person who has
received the total deliverance from fear that salvation provides, never again
has to live in fear or allow it any place in his or her thinking.
But how did this great deliverance take place? And how do we personally live
totally delivered from fear.
To answer those questions we must first of all notice that we are talking about
a flesh and blood victory here. Through the body, man was made subject to fear
because of death. So Jesus became flesh and took on death in order to destroy
the devil—the one who was holding the power of death over us.
Jesus poured His blood out for us. He allowed His flesh to be stripped and
whipped for us. For what?
To defeat him who had the power of death. Pay attention to that verb
"had." It is past tense. The devil no longer has the power of death
over those who believe.
But notice, Jesus didn't just stop with victory over the devil. Jesus both
destroyed him who had the power of death, "and deliver(ed) them who
through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." That's
you and me.
Look closely at what it says Jesus' suffering and victory purchased for us. It
does not say that He gave us the power and the ability to cope with fear. Nor
does it say that He gave us the power and the ability to choose which fear was
good and which fear was bad.
No! It says He delivered us from fear.
And He did it at the same time He purchased our salvation. Every believer is
familiar with some of the victories that Jesus won at Calvary. We know on the
cross, He bore our sins and delivered us from continued subjection to sin. And
we know that in His suffering and death, Jesus "took our infirmities, and
bare our sicknesses" (Matthew 8:17; see also Isaiah 53:4-9).
What believers haven't yet fully applied in their lives is the truth that Jesus
also took the power of death away from the devil. He did it by destroying Satan
and pulling him down from his position of authority at the same time, in the
same act that delivered you and me from sin and sickness.
To
get a better understanding of how Jesus' victory affects us, let's look at
Romans 8:14-18:
For
as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have
not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the
Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then
heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with
him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of
this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us.
Here
we see that fear is a spirit. It is a spirit that enslaves every man and woman
until they make Jesus the Lord of their life. But once a person is born again,
the spirit of fear no longer has any power in their life—unless that believer
invites fear back in.
In fact, not only has the spirit of bondage been destroyed, but also another
spirit has been put in its place. Every born-again child of God has been given
the spirit of adoption. It is by that spirit, we cry "Abba," which is
the most intimate Hebrew term for "Father." In English, we could
translate it "My Dear Father," or "Daddy." This terminology
gives us an idea of how close God desires to be to us. But sadly, most
Christians don't enjoy that kind of relationship with their heavenly Father.
So how is it that we have been robbed of such a wonderful relationship with a
God Who works only through love and never through fear?
The answer is that we have misunderstood verses 17 and 18: "If so be that
we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that
the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed in us."
We have been taught that the things we are suffering may be part of God's will
for our lives instead of recognizing them for what they are—the acts and
deceptions of a desperate and defeated enemy.
In fact, the suffering referred to in those verses is not physical suffering at
all. We can see that in just the first few words: "If so be that we suffer
with him…." We don't suffer with Jesus on the cross. He suffered what He
did on the cross to deliver us from the things He suffered.
To
find out how believers do suffer with Jesus, look back again to Hebrews 2. There
we will see that Jesus endured two different types of suffering. The first of
these is described in verses 9-10:
But
we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of
death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste
death for every man. For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are
all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through sufferings.
Clearly,
Jesus being made "perfect through sufferings" refers to Jesus
suffering death so we could live. This suffering He endured in His body is not
something we can share with Him, but a suffering He endured so we would not have
to endure it.
If we do not share that type of suffering in the body with Jesus, then there
must be another type of suffering we do suffer with Him. The Word reveals what
that suffering is:
For
verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of
Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in
that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them
that are tempted (Hebrews 2:16-18).
The
last verse is our key to the only kind of suffering that God intends His
children to suffer with Jesus.
Jesus suffered being tempted. And because He did, He is able to "succour"
or "help" them that are tempted.
This verse describes a level of suffering that the Church has not majored on as
it should. But the problem is not new. Hundreds of years ago we began
de-emphasizing revealed knowledge that comes only by the Spirit and began giving
all of our attention to knowledge gained through the five physical senses—what
we can see, taste, smell, hear and feel.
For centuries, schools (especially those not based on the Bible) have focused
entirely on this sense knowledge approach, relying on information gained through
the physical "sense gates." They have programmed only that information
into the mental computer of the human mind, emotions and will.
The problem is, knowledge gained through the five physical senses is extremely
limited. And it is of a much lower authority than the understanding that comes
from the realm of the Spirit.
This creates a great challenge. You cannot come to know God through the five
physical senses. I'm not saying you cannot gather evidence of Him this way. But
you cannot come to know Him in any meaningful way with just the information you
gain through sense knowledge.
God is a spirit. To worship, or know, Him you must come to Him through the
spirit by means of His Word. You can't make a connection with faith or learn
anything about real truth by limiting yourself to the five physical senses. All
you can find out are facts.
The knowledge we've neglected to pursue—spiritual knowledge—has a much
higher authority than the five natural, physical senses. This is knowledge
gained by the Holy Spirit, by the Word of God through revelation. It is God
revealing Himself in His Word to your spirit—God's way of revealing to you the
key issues of life.
In contrast to the limited nature of sense knowledge, this revealed knowledge is
knowledge that is unlimited. And unlimited knowledge is exact knowledge. It
bypasses the five physical senses.
We have a clear Bible example of the existence and importance of this type of
knowledge in a statement Jesus made to His disciple Peter. He had just asked His
disciples, "Who do men say that I am?" Some answered with the various
opinions they had heard from people in everyday conversation.
But when Jesus asked, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter answered,
"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!"
Jesus' response to Peter was:
Blessed
art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood [or the five physical senses] hath
not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto
thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:17-18).
When Jesus said "on this rock," He wasn't referring to Peter being that rock. He was talking about the heavenly, revealed knowledge of who Jesus is, what He is, where He is, our place in Him, what He's done for us, what He is doing for us, and what He will do for us in our future throughout eternity. He said, "Now on this rock I will build my Church."
In times
past, the Church hasn't built itself up on that revelation knowledge. For
centuries, following the lead of the world, the Church rejected revealed
knowledge and built herself up on sense knowledge.
Because sense knowledge has no answer for spiritual problems, the Church has
made excuses: "Well, I just guess God doesn't do this any more." Or,
"I guess God must have allowed this to teach us something."
When all the time, the spiritual answers have been right there in the Word of
God, in the Spirit of God Himself, in Christ Jesus and in us!
In effect, we trapped the spirit man inside the flesh, and developed the mind at
the expense of the heart, or spirit.
Remember,
we just read that our Champion, our Commander in this war on fear, was made
perfect—or mature—by suffering temptation. Before He took on a
flesh-blood-and-bone body and came to earth, Jesus never had to resist anything
that had to do with the flesh. But when He came to earth, Jesus had to face
Satan just like you and I have to.
His suffering was that He resisted the pressure and the temptation to sin and
break fellowship with God. Jesus resisted by standing in faith on God's Word and
choosing to speak and do only what He heard and saw His Father say and do.
Remember how the devil tried to tempt Him in the wilderness: "Command that
these stones be made bread…Cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give
his angels charge concerning thee…All these things I will give thee, if thou
wilt fall down and worship me" (Matthew 4:1-10).
Hebrews 4:15 says Jesus was tempted in every way that we are—yet He did not
sin. He faced Satan exactly like we face him. His suffering was in that He
resisted the same temptations we face, and more, in His life on earth.
The supreme challenge for Jesus came in the Garden of Gethsemane as He prepared
to face His death. There, He was tempted to be out of the will of God. God
willed one thing, and Jesus another: "O my Father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt"
(Matthew 26:39).
How severe was His suffering to stay true to what God said instead of what His
senses screamed?
The Gospel of Luke answers that question: "And being in an agony he prayed
more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down
to the ground" (Luke 22:44).
Jesus believed and stood and trusted God until blood came out the pores of His
skin!
This is the suffering we inherited from our Lord and Savior—resisting
temptation by standing on God's revealed will instead of on what our senses are
demanding.
Jesus delivered us from sin, sickness, demons, fear and all the things that go
with fear: doubt, unbelief and worry. Our suffering is to stay on the Word of
God and to resist those things we've been delivered from, even when our minds
and bodies are screaming otherwise.
The
opportunity to sin and to be sick, defeated and afraid is always before us. What
we haven't understood is that we don't have to take the opportunity.
The Church has taught for a long time, "Well, everybody is going to be
sick." We've been programmed to think, Well, I'm just lying here in this
bed suffering this disease for Jesus. No, you're not. You're just lying
there sick. God's not getting any glory out of it—no one is.
What is happening though, is that your health is being stolen. Your money's
being stolen. Your family's having a loved one stolen from them. You're not
being made a better wife or a better husband. You're no benefit to your family,
your job, your Church or your community.
But something totally different happens when you begin to rise up out of that
bed and say, "I refuse sickness! I refuse sin! I refuse fear! In the Name
of Jesus, according to 2 Timothy 1:7, I have not been given a spirit of fear. I
have been given the spirit of power, the spirit of love, the spirit of a sound
mind. And I rebuke you, Satan."
Can you see the difference?
That's a form of suffering on a higher level than the natural, physical, sense
realm.
You suffer when you do what it takes to resist the symptom in your body that is
demanding your attention. You suffer when you take a stand in faith regardless
of what your relatives and friends say. And you suffer when you choose to
believe the Word instead of what the world thinks.
When you move beyond sense knowledge and take your stand on what God has said,
you always win. Satan has no defense against it.
That's when you go from suffering to joy, from pressure to deliverance. And it
all begins when you quit treating fear as a member of the family and start
walking free from all bondage. Free—as one who has been adopted by blood into
the family of God.
<Reprinted with permission of Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Locked Bag 2600, Mansfield Delivery Center, QLD 4122, Australia, Believer’s Voice of Victory, May ©2002>