R U A PRISONER OF WAR?

Probably one of the most important letters in the New Testament is the one written to the church at Colossae. In it we read that Jesus is the head over EVERY power and authority and that he triumphed over ALL the powers and authorities on the cross, making a public spectacle of them.

Sounds pretty conclusive to me. It is telling us that there is no greater power in heaven or on earth than Jesus.

That being the case, why is it that we live as though we are in Satan’s prison camp and we can only do what he allows us to do whilst he goes on a rampage destroying, stealing and killing?

Ed Silvoso, in his book “That None Should Perish” says this…

“We have turned the battle field we were supposed to occupy victoriously into a massive POW camp. We have become content with surviving rather than overcoming. We have believed the lie that we are not to engage the enemy.”

The western church generally has disengaged itself from the battle, preferring to let the world go by whilst Satan triumphs. Some churches don’t even believe that he exists. Whoopee Doo he must be saying.

When was the last time your church had a counsel of war to find out the battle plan from God? Without this you might as well pack up and go home…to your POW camp.

If Jesus is the head over ALL the powers and authority and he triumphed over them on the cross, what is there to be afraid of? Our boss is the big one. Any other boss has to kow tow to him whether they like it or not.

The problem seems to be that us, his army, prefers POW life to active service in his army. We would rather be subservient to Satan’s jackboot brigade that to be subservient to the one who is the most powerful person who has every lived, died and lived again.

Living in the shadow of the cross and in the power of the Holy Spirit is an abundant life. Living in Satan’s POW camp is miserly and debilitating. The fact that we do shows that we don’t believe that Jesus is unbeatable.

The letter to the Colossians tells us that Jesus has rescued us from the dominion of darkness. Not he is going to, it is already done so we need to start acting as thought this has happened and instead of moping around in Satan’s POW camp we need to put on the armour of God and go out there and…fight!!

Do you think that when the allied army defeated Hitler they said to him “I say old chap, would you mind awfully not fighting any more and let us take over?”

No, of course not. They ground him into the dust and he had no choice. Jesus did the same with Satan, so we are the victors and have won the war vicariously through Christ. Because of this fact we have the RIGHT to take Satan on and put him in his place.

One of the best ways to do that is prayer. In the Colossian letter Paul tells the saints to “devote themselves to prayer.” The word ‘devote’ means to be earnest towards prayer; to persevere in prayer; to be constantly diligent in prayer’ to attend assiduously to prayer; to give oneself continuously to prayer.

Is that you and your church? If not why not?