Satan | Hi, I'm Jonathan 'J5' Harris.

Christ as life can meet your need

We want to see again from the gospel of John how Christ as life meets the need of every man’s case. No matter what your case is, Christ as life can meet your need. There are 9 cases in John chapters 3-11 which unveil this in a full way. In John chapters 3-7, what we’ve seen is that Christ want to be man’s life and life supply. In John 3, Christ as life regenerates man. In John 4, Christ as life satisfies man and heals man from all the sickness of sin. In John 5, Christ as life enlivens man. In John 6, Christ as life feeds man with Himself as man’s spiritual food to be man’s spiritual sustenance. And in John 7, Christ as life quenches the thirst of man to be man’s satisfaction.

Now we come to another section…John chapters 8-11. What we see in this particular section is that Christ as life delivers us from three negative things. When Christ as life comes into us, He delivers us from sin, blindness and death. In this particular chapter (John 8) what we want to see is that Christ as life sets us free from the bondage of sin.

Let us see how the Lord as life to us has dealt with our first negative thing…that is sin. To see this, the first point we have to take care of is religion as represented by the temple of law. Of law keeping. Of good work doing. Such a religion is versus the Great I AM. This chapter mainly takes away the veil to show us right there on this earth among the human kind are two things. One is a religion. The other is a living Person.

The religion was one that was so good…so high…so super. Not a kind of hidden religion. Not a kind of religion of superstition. No, but a typical genuine super religion on the top helping people to worship God…helping people to know God in the outward way of letters and helping people to try the best to keep the law of God to please God and also helping people to behave themselves to make themselves perfect.

This is the top invention in human culture. But God’s elect…God’s chosen people…they got the wrong concept. They didn’t pay the full attention to the focus. That is God Himself in the person of the Son. And also as the person of the Spirit. To get into man as man’s life and as man’s everything. They missed this mark. They try their best to collect all the regulations and laws…good points…and put them together to make a religion. So by that time in chapter 8, two things were on the earth. Religion existing there…a living person standing there.

This is the portrait. The religion of law…not of superstition…not of nonsense talk…like buddhism. But such a wonderful, typical, genuine, top religion of the law. In every aspect it is good. But only in one aspect is very very poor. That is it is versus the Great I AM. Religion is good but it cannot give you life. Religion is on the top, but it cannot help you a bit because you are a dead person.

A dead person needs not something good…but something as life. Only life can help a dead person. Now the Lord Jesus is here. Who is He? He is the I AM. He is the very Jehovah. God…Elohim…is the title for His creation in chapter 1 of Genesis. After the creation…right in chapter 2…when God was trying to get into relationship with man, God’s other name…Jehovah…was brought in. Jehovah was the name of God in relation with mankind. And this very Jehovah that day was there…standing there in the form of a little man.

The religionist in that day, they missed the mark just because they despised this little Jesus. So they missed the mark yet He was the great I AM. This great I AM who is God Himself in relation with man became the Son of Man. This is quite meaningful. Yes, to become the Son of Man is to humble Himself…to bring Him down to a lower standard. But this is more than needed. Because all the negative problems are now just in man. Sin is in man. The serpent is in man.

Now man is the vey focus of all the problems. So if He is going to solve all the basic problems of man…surely He has to become a man. Satan was not afraid that the Lord Jesus was the Son of God. Satan was not afraid of that. Satan was afraid of the Lord Jesus being a man…being the Son of Man.

Man is the focus of every problem in the universe. When man fell, Satan as sin entered into man to corrupt man…to pollute man. So in Romans 7 what we see is that sin dwells in man in a personified way. Sin lords it over man. Sin forces man to do things that he doesn’t want to do. Because the element of Satan as sin is in man, what the devil fears the most is God becoming a man.

God became a man to destroy the devil. In 1 John 4, what we see is that the evil spirits they will not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, because they know that when God becomes a man, they are defeated. God became a man and He went to the cross and He took away the sin of the world which was in man and He destroyed the devil on the cross…who had come into man as the element of sin to spoil and corrupt man.

On the positive side, what we need to see is why God became a man. Why did He become a man? It was so that He could accomplish His eternal intention and His heart’s desire. The Bible unveils to us that God’s hearts desire is that He wants to be united with man, mingled with man and incorporated with man so that He can live in man and that man can live in Him…so that man can be His eternal expression in this universe.

the authority of darkness

Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::

The Lord Jesus declared in John chapter 8, “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” What is it to walk in darkness? We all likely have our own set of mental images that are initiated by such a question. But the darkness that may be blinding us today may not be so obviously evil or sinister as you might think.

Colossians reveals that anything…even any GOOD thing…that occupies us that is not Christ Himself is likely an instrument of the authority of darkness. I think what’s interesting about the authority of darkness mentioned in Colossians are the kind of things that Paul specifically referred to as being components of this darkness. Because they are things that are not that obvious in terms of being related to darkness.

We need a renewed understanding of this expression, “the authority of darkness”…as employed by Paul in Colossians. Of course the authority of darkness is the realm where Satan rules, and all manner of evil things are involved in the satanic realm. So there is no question that the authority of darkness has to do with the rule of Satan and is related to the kingdom of Satan.

Our problem is that we may assume that in Colossians the expression “the authority of darkness” refers only to obviously evil things…demonic, satanic, devilish things that would subjugate and imprison us. But this is too narrow an understanding. And actually, if we bring in this narrow understanding to Colossians, we will miss the point. And I mean really miss the whole point that is being made here.

Colossians is a book that reveals in the highest way the all-inclusiveness of Christ. The centrality and universality of Christ in God’s economy. This is the foundational thought. More particularly, Colossians reveals that in God’s economy, Christ is the reality of every positive thing. Christ is all things. The authority of darkness then…in its particular application in this epistle…refers to anything that is not Christ and that controls our being…instead of God’s direct rule in Christ.

Authority has to do with control, and to be under the authority or darkness is to be controlled by darkness. According to the context of the book of Colossians, what are some of the aspects of this authority of darkness? Philosophy is one. Asceticism is another one. A certain kind of self-imposed humility is yet another. There’s a form of religious mysticism that was advocated here.

Then speaking more broadly…any element of culture that infiltrates the church and replaces Christ is an aspect of the authority of darkness. If we go even deeper, we may say according to the revelation in the Word that any control that has its source in the self is the authority of darkness controlling us. The self replaces Christ. That’s why the Lord said if we would follow Him we have to deny the self.

Yes the authority of darkness refers to the satanic realm of darkness. In Colossians, the authority of darkness refers particularly to those things of religion, culture, and philosophy that have invaded our christian life and church life that replace Christ and that exercise control over our being instead of Christ.

Therefore, to be delivered by God in His full salvation out of the authority of darkness is to be delivered not only from sin and evil and hateful things…immoral things. It is to be delivered also from anything…no matter how good it may appear that replaces Christ and rules over us instead of Christ. This is a real light. Strangely, to see what darkness is here involves a real light. And we desire very much on the Lord’s behalf that all of God’s children would be delivered as we look to the Lord to be delivered from anything and everything of philosophy, religion and culture that replaces Christ and that rules us and controls us instead of Christ.

According to the revelation in Colossians, we should be ruled, controlled, governed, and directed by the one whom Paul calls “the Son of God’s love.” In a realm of light. And in this realm we enjoy not only the grace of God but also the all inclusiveness of Christ. A Christ who is everything and a Christ who is our life. And it is with this in view that we need to consider as our dear brother has helped us to see that the authority of darkness includes philosophy, religion, culture, and at the deepest level anything that has its source in the self.

In short…anything that replaces Christ. Any part of our being that is occupied by something other than Christ is under the authority of darkness. So we need the Christ who is everything in Himself and in God’s economy to become everything not only to us…but in us. And only when that has happened will we have been fully delivered experientially from the authority of darkness.

But we believe such a time is coming, and we look to the Lord that He will bless this faithful word concerning the authority of darkness verses the all-inclusive Christ. And that God’s people…especially the seeking ones among God’s people will really be enlightened and delivered and begin to explore the Christ who is the centrality and universality of God’s economy…that is the Christ of Colossians.

Some may read Colossians and have little interest in some of the marvelous utterances that Paul uses to unveil Christ, but when they get to the chapters about wives submitting to their husbands and husbands loving their wives…slaves obeying their masters…parents taking care of their children…they appreciate this. That appreciation is an appreciation in darkness. That kind of thought is already in the minds of the readers.And so that’s what they respond to in the text.

The Bible is light, but we may not be in light when we read the Bible. We ourselves may be in darkness. We may be veiled. We may be blind. In fact that is the general condition. And so the more we read, the more blind we become. Because we read in darkness and we read and try to understand in our pitiful blindness instead of repenting before the Lord…turning our heart to the Lord…emptying out our spirit…being poor in spirit…and contacting the Spirit of the Word and seeing Christ in the Word.

We want to speak faithfully, honestly and even frankly about this matter. But we don’t care to argue…to dispute. What’s the benefit? If one is in darkness and someone else is in light what is the point of dispute. What is needed is for the light to shine upon the one in darkness.

When Saul of Tarsus was persecuting the believers…destroying the churches…who could reason with him? Who could argue with him? What would be the point? God did not take that approach. The Lord shined on him and shattered his reasoning and showed him he really was blind and he became physically blind for a period of time. But then he really saw Christ.

This is where we are today. And if we receive mercy from the Lord, if we would not go around saying “how clear we are”…”how much we see.” Rather, if we would be like blind Bartimaeus saying “Lord, that I may receive my sight.” Then we’ll begin to appreciate not ethical expressions (or what we would take as ethical expressions in Colossians)…rather we would appreciate Christ.

To what extent do christians today really care for Christ? What do christians care about? What do they talk about? What do they argue about? What do they promote? All manner of things. Where is the Christ unveiled in Colossians? Where is this Christ proclaimed? Where is He experienced? Where is He expressed?

So this Christ is in Colossians, but the authority of darkness must be smashed in our being. Then the Christ in Colossians will become the Christ in our experience. There is no word to describe how precious…even how life changing this is.

the four laws

Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::

Romans chapters 7 and 8 are (in my opinion) the most crucial chapters to every Christian in understanding how to live a vital Christian life. Paul was speaking frankly concerning his experience…what he was doing…what he could do and what he couldn’t do. If ever there was a man that could be good…that was equipped to be good…to fulfill the law and be obedient…this would have been Paul.

And yet, he met with such experience that he ended up crying “Oh wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from the body of this death!” And I think many many believers identify with that. We feel that we have tried…that we have worked…tried “plan A” and then “plan B.” And we go from plan to plan…thinking that something is going to finally make this Christian life vital and real to all of us. And some things help a little bit and then it seems like somehow the thing gets shorted out and sometimes disastrously so…and yet many times we get up and start again.

We have come to the most deep, most meaningful, crucial point. In all these verses, I would say three crucial words are repeatedly mentioned. (1) the word law. (2) the word life. (3) and death. Law, life and death. We all have to realize…even scientifically speaking…these three things are the hardest thing for the scientists to explain. Who could define life? Could you? Could you tell me in any university…any kind of prominent famous professor that could explain to you what is life? Not only life…even this ugly thing…death…is a hard thing to explain.

You may think death is somewhat too abstract, but in the Bible, death is very concrete. Why? Revelation 20 says death eventually will be cast into the lake of fire. The first thing which will be cast into the lake of fire is Satan. And following him you have Hades. And this proves how Satan is a solid person and how Hades is a solid place. This matter of death should be also something solid.

Then, of course we all know the matter of law is a profound thing. The thing that surprises me is that 2,000 years ago, Paul the apostle understood the matter of law. If you look into it, firstly it denotes the ten commandments of God. The law of God. But Paul says in my mind there is a law. What is this? And he says also there is the law of sin and of death. What is this? Not only so, you also have the law of the Spirit of life. The law and life are good enough for us to be troubled. Now he put also the Spirit. The law of the Spirit of life. What is this?

The first time through Romans on the life-study of the Bible, we touched these four laws that are mentioned in chapters 7 and 8. To really understand this portion of scripture, we need to be clear that there are two different types or kinds of law. We have to underline that to get into the experience that Paul got into, we need to have the understanding that he had. And this is why I appreciate brother Lee and brother Nee getting into this in a spiritually scientific (if one can say that) method of looking at the laws that are operating. And Paul used the word laws.

Certainly, the first time the law is mentioned it refers to the law of God. That is an objective written standard that God spoke to the children of Israel for their behavior on this earth. That is the law outside of ourselves. Then Paul comes to the law of doing good in my mind. And that refers to an innate law or innate ability or capacity…desire that man wants to do good. And we do. We are created in God’s image and we are created that way to be those kind of beings. So there is something in our mind…a law…a propensity…e.g. the dogs bark, the fish swim, the birds fly. Every life has a law, and part of the human life is wanting to do good.

Then there is the law of sin in our members, and this law is the other side of doing good. This law comes from man’s fall where Satan tempted man to partake of the knowledge of good and evil. And by that partaking, man not only disobeyed but partook of something that brought another law into his members…into his flesh of his body, and that is the desire to do evil.

The fourth law that we have looked at in Romans 7 and 8 is the law of the Spirit of life. And this is another law that is within us. It’s another innate ability within us that comes from regeneration. That comes from God Himself dwelling inside of us as the Spirit of life. When this operates, this law sets us free from the law of sin and death. We don’t wrestle with that problem of good and evil. We just go to the law of the Spirit of life which is resurrection life…which takes us into the realm of God and of enjoying God…instead of being occupied with the matters of good and evil.

So we have talked about these four laws. The law of God outside of us. And then inside of us three…the law of good in our mind to do good. The law of evil in our members to do evil. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus in our spirit to bring us into the realm of God Himself.

There’s something in us that makes us passive and weak to the things of God

Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::

Today in Romans chapter 8, we’re going to talk about being free from sin and death.

Romans 8 is a chapter of experience, and the death here is NOT the physical death to which we are subject in the old creation. So when we talk about being freed from death, we’re not talking about some kind of miraculous cure for our mortality. Or some premature deliverance from the power of death in a physical way.

Death in Romans 8 is a terrifying and powerful spiritual source and force that has its source in Satan, the origin of death. In Hebrews 2, Paul talks about the Devil…the one who has the might of death. The death in Romans 7 and 8 is that issue of sin in the flesh which weighs upon us and weakens us and darkens us and eventually deadens us…especially as we endeavor to pursue the Lord.

Sin with its law incites us in the flesh to do things contrary to God. But death works to weaken us when we are interested or burdened in carrying out something in the Lord and for the Lord.

There’s something in us that makes us passive and weak to the things of God. We need to call it by its right name; it’s death, and God and His organic salvation has a way of deliverance from it…a way to overcome it…in Christ as our resurrection life. So we need to pay attention to this. It has a lot to do with our daily experience of Christ in Spirit.

Saints, the Bible reveals to us three (3) big enemies to our Christian life…sin, Satan and death.

Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::

Saints, the Bible reveals to us three (3) big enemies to our Christian life…sin, Satan and death. And all of these 3 take advantage of our fallen flesh to frustrate us, but God’s approach to our flesh may surprise you. Check out today’s podcast on the book of Romans for insight into our experience of dealing with the flesh and the secret of how to reign in life over these 3 enemies.