Song 6:10 π Lk. 10:19-20 π 1 Cor. 15:26 π 2 Cor. 4:10 π Eph. 1:21-22 π Eph. 1:23 π Col. 1:13 π Col. 2:15 π Heb. 2:14 π Heb. 10:13 π 1 Jn. 5:18 π Rev. 2:7 π Rev. 2:11 π Rev. 2:17 π Rev. 2:26 π Rev. 3:5 π Rev. 3:12 π Rev. 3:21; 2nd π Rev. 5:6

We have traced the story of the translation of the soul out of the "power of darkness" into the Kingdom of the Son ( Col. 1:13 ), through the gate of death into resurrection life in union with the Risen Lord; heard the call to arms, and the putting on of the heavenly armour to meet the new tactics of the foe, when the believer emerges into the spiritual sphere; and considered some of the wiles of the devil suited to the Spirit-filled believer. Now in closing we must see the way of victory, and the place of authority over all the power of the enemy, which makes the redeemed one "terrible as an army with banners" ( Song 6:10; top ) to the foe.

When the believer emerges into the spirit-sphere, on the resurrection side of the Cross, he enters on conflict with the aerial hosts of darkness, who swarm in the region immediately surrounding our planet. Here he needs the whole armour of God to encase him, and protect him in his passage through the hosts of darkness to the place above the, where he sits with Christ in His place of victory "far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named," ( Eph. 1:21-22; top ), where Satan, and all his hosts are under his feet, and united to the Conqueror of Calvary he sits and reigns with Christ in spirit, as he will do visibly to the world in the day when Christ shall appear in glory, and His victorious ones shall reign with Him a thousand years.

The call from heaven by the victorious Lord to His redeemed ones is a call to overcome as He overcame, and a promise that they who thus overcome shall sit with Him on His throne, even as He sat down a Victor over sin and death and hell, on His Father's Throne. ( Rev. 3:21 ) The believer is to enter into the victory of the Victor of Calvary, where, through death, He destroyed him who had the power of death, that is the devil. ( Heb. 2:14 ) On Calvary's Cross, the God-man, beset with the powers and principalities of darkness, stripped them off, and triumphed over then in His death ( Col. 2:15 Waller) and ascending through their realm, He passed to the Throne, there to sit at the right hand of God expecting until His enemies become His footstool. ( Heb. 10:13 ) Stage after stage of the overcomer's progress from the Cross to the Trhone is shown in the messages to the seven churches, with the special rewards obtained at every stage. First after the emerging through the gate of the Cross comes 1) life in union with the Risen Lord ( Rev. 2:7 ); 2) victory over death in the path of tribulation ( Rev. 2:11 ); 3) a new nature and new character symbolized by the hidden manna and white stone ( Rev. 2:17 ); 4) authority over the nations, and the reigning life ( Rev. 2:26 ); 5) the clothing with Christ as in white garments ( Rev. 3:5 ); 6) the life within the veil ( Rev. 3:12 ); 7) and then the Throne-life of victory with Christ in God. ( Rev. 3:21; top )

What are now the practical conditions for realizing, and abiding in the place of victory "far above" all the principalities and powers? All conditions for knowing and retaining the place of power are wrapped up in the one word - Calvary.

The Cross on Calvary's hill was the Victor's Throne over all the principalities and powers of hell, for the God-man Who triumphed there. And in heaven again the Lamb slain is seen to be in the midst of the Throne. ( Rev. 5:6; top ) The altar and the Throne are one. Neither can be divided from the other. The believer can only know the Throne of victory by complete submergence into the death of Christ on the Cross.

Calvary has freed all things from the prince of this world - potentially. The triumphant Lord on the Throne now calls His church to enter into His death, and His life, and His Throne life of victory. Let the believer who has been translated out of the power of darkness into the Kingdom of the Son, now yield to the Holy Spirit to be drawn into the death of Christ, until in deepening conformity to His death he becomes assimilated to Him in vital union, even to oneness with His melted and broken heart. Let the yielding one cry to the Spirit day by day to make real in him the utmost victory of Calvary over sin, and self, and death, and hell, and he will then find the reigning life of Jesus manifested in him in every increasing power, over all things around him, whilst in union with the reigning Lord, he will find His ascension power drawing him ever more and more into the life hid with Christ in God.

For abiding in the place of victory, Calvary again is the key. All the powers of hell will be directed towards drawing the soul out of its hiding place in Christ on the Cross, and the Throne. Hence the endeavours of the Adversary to arouse the workings of the life of nature in the believer, or others around him. The death with Christ separates from the sphere of earth, and the life union with Christ draws the soul into the supernatural sphere of the Spirit. Victory over sin is now a settled matter in the walk of the believer, who has followed his Lord thus far, and it is now the realm of the life of nature which offers the opportunity to the adversary for his devices, for the soulish life which flows in us from the first Adam is a poisoned life, and is the ground for the devil's workings.

The Cross of Calvary is the one safeguard, and "shutter," so to speak, between the believer united to Christ, and the life of earth. The severing power of the death of Christ is a continuous necessity if the soul is to abide with Christ in God. "Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus," ( 2 Cor. 4:10; top ), severs the believer every moment from all that Christ died to free him from. The Cross severs from the bonds of sin, and the desire for sin; it severs from the world, and from the power of the devil, and it severs from the life of the first Adam, which is the material for the devil to attack, and work upon.

The abiding in the severing death of the Cross every moment is therefore the supreme necessity for the soul who desires victory. And, be it remembered, the severing of the Cross is not an actual experience, unless the will of the believer desires, and consents to the actual separation in fact and practice. The Cross only severs what we consent to part from. Here lies the fight of the Adversary, who seeks to throw upon the redeemed one apparent desires for things in the life of nature, to cause him to descend from the plane of the Spirit, and of victory. But Calvary is victory. Hidden from the foe in the death of Him Who conquered the devil by death, the believer is in safe hiding, and as he abides, he is led on day by day into the fellowship with the Lamb slain, Who is in the midst of the Throne of God. Here Satan is under the feet of the Victorious Lord, Who now sends forth His freed ones to loose other captives from their bonds. Now encased in Christ, and the Living Lord wielding His authority in him, the believer will prove that the Lord's words are true. "The spirits are subject to you..." "Behold, I have given you authority to trample..." yea, authority "over all the power (or authority) of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you." ( Lk. 10:19-20 ) Here "he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him." ( 1 Jn. 5:18; top )

These are the overcomers who know the victory of Calvary, and this is the primary purpose of God in the "Revival" which we long for throughout the Church of Christ - the preparation of "overcomers" who in due time will share the throne of the Ascended Lord. "When the image of Christ is manifested in a comply of 'overcomers,'" says Pastor Stockmayer, "then the devil is cast down out of the heavenly placesto the earth, for the devil and his angels are still there," and the overcomers must break their way "through these hostile Satanic forces to the heart of Jesus." "There are overcomers," again he says, who are "pioneers, for they break the way," and, "if the Church as a whole will not awake, the Lord will succeed in reaching some with whom He will make a way through for the remainder." "Victory over death" also "forms the last link in the chain of the victory which the Holy Spirit gains." "The last enemy which shall be destroyed is death." ( 1 Cor. 15:26 ) Oh child of God, do you understand what you read? Will you not be among the pioneer overcomers who will break a way through for the weaker ones, by now yielding yourself to the Spirit of God to be made conformable to the death of your Lord, in brokenness and humiliation, so you shall be joined to Him in one spirit, and with Him be enthroned in the heavens to triumph with Him, and in Him over all things on earth, overcoming as He overcame, so that you may now reign in life by Him, and with Him in the Millennial reign which already is upon the horizon, and for which the Spirit of God is already quickly preparing the Church, which is His Body - the fullness of Him that fills all in all. ( Eph. 1:23; top )

Amen and Amen.

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