Greetings;
In the process of overcoming is the testimony of standing. When we stand, we overcome! True standing is found in Christ and standing is for a purpose. God wants us to stand! We don’t just stand to defeat our enemies. Our standing defeats our enemies and dispossess them from the territory of our inheritance. As leaders, we must set an example of standing in Christ and we must equip others to do the same. Fathers in the faith empower young men and young women to overcome in the faith!
To stand is to possess the ground upon which we tread! God told Abraham to arise and walk through the land and God would give it to him as his inheritance (Gen. 13:17). He told Moses that every place the soles of his feet would tread would be his inheritance (Deut. 11:24). He also told Joshua that every place that the sole of his feet would tread would be given to him (Josh. 1:3). Standing is a posture of inheritance. Standing is a posture of possessing the earth.
Jesus came to this world to establish the inheritance of mankind in the glory of Christ. That inheritance is one of knowing the power of God’s peace and grace among men. It is a body of humanity that knows the testimony of living in God’s house and the testimony of God living in theirs. They are one with God and God is one with them and they bring His kingdom and will into all that they possess. The key to the testimonies of Abraham, Moses, and Joshua was found in the fact that God would be with them. There would be a manifested evidence of God loving them and them loving God. God would be with them and they would be with God. This is the power that would dispossess their enemies in the land of their inheritance. It wasn’t merely an act of obedience in entering the land. The testimony of inheritance would be revealed by them being carriers of the testimony of God in the land that they stood upon to possess.
When King David was old he made a simple, yet powerful prophetic act and he declared a profound prophetic statement.
1 Chronicles 28:2 Then King David rose to his feet and said, “Hear me, my brethren and my people: I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and for the footstool of our God, and had made preparations to build it.”
King David wasn’t looking to establish a place where men could rest. He was looking to the day when God would rest among men in the earth. He was looking for the day when the manifest presence of God would rest in the hearts of men and the enemies of God would be made God’s footstool. He was prophetically professing the love of God among men and the destruction of the enemy because of God’s love made known to men. He was proclaiming the testimony and power of God’s grace in the earth.
Jesus has been exalted to the right hand of God the Father in heaven and He is waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool. This will be made known by the power of God’s love among men. It is a testimony of God’s peace and grace. Peace is the place where there is no gap between men and God. They have been given access to His house. The blood of Jesus has justified all men to live. Grace is the evidence that God lives among men. It is by the power of God’s grace that men reign in life. Peace is the evidence that men live in God’s house and grace is the evidence that God lives in the house of men. The enemies of God are not subdued because men are strong. The enemies are subdued because God is manifest in man’s house.
Hebrews 10:12,13 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.
The apostle Paul understood the power of being God’s place of habitation upon the earth. He prayed that the hearts of God’s people would see by revelation who they really are. He prayed that the church would know that they have a part in Christ’s calling, each member is an expression of His inheritance in the earth, and they are filled with His power to reveal His will and kingdom in the earth. That power is the power of God’s grace that subdues the enemies of God by the power of Christ’s love and life in all things.
Ephesians 1:20-23 …which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His 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 age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
The body of Christ is the place of the fullness of Christ. We are not the fullness of Christ individually, but corporately we reveal the fullness of His glory. It is by the corporate standing of Christ that the enemies of God are subdued. We are NOT to live our lives beneath the powers of our enemies. We have been given a place of authority and the life that comes from that authority. We are above all principality, power, might, dominion, and all names. The power of our standing is found in being the fullness of Christ. We are carriers of God’s presence in the earth. We are clothed in God’s grace. Grace is the manifest presence of God in our lives! It is not a skill learned by human reasoning, it is an overwhelming testimony of God’s love made known in our lives.
Psalms 60:12 & Psalms 108:13 Through God we will do valiantly, for it is He who shall tread down our enemies.
Zechariah 10:5 They shall be like mighty men, who tread down their enemies…
It was when the feet of the priests stepped into the waters of the Jordan that the waters ceased to flow and a path was made to enter into the promised land to dispossess the enemy and lay hold of their inheritance. The power that caused this to be was not the strength of the priest’s standing, it was in the fact that the ark of God’s presence was upon their shoulders. They were carries of God’s presence. There was a place where God’s presence could rest. It was a type and shadow of the power of grace. Grace is the evidence of God in our lives. It is the power of God that subdues the enemies of our lives. To be clothed in God’s presence is to be clothed in the power of God’s grace.
Joshua 3:13 “And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap.”
Let us all live in the power of God’s grace. God’s grace is the testimony of His presence in our lives. We are carries of God and where the soles of our feet walk it will be a testimony of God’s inheritance in the earth. We walk in the hope of His calling and that calling is to reconcile men to God and to destroy the works of the devil by the power of God’s grace. It is a testimony of God’s love for man and man’s love for God in all things. Seeing the answers of God in our lives doesn’t empower us to stand, standing in Christ empowers us to see God’s answers revealed.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
