We have heard the term being seated with Christ, but what does that mean, and how can knowing the truth of those words make a difference in my everyday life? An article in a San Francisco newspaper reported that a young man who once found a $5 bill on the street resolved that from that time on, he would never lift his eyes while walking. The paper went on to say that over the years, he accumulated, among other things, 29,516 buttons, 54,172 pins, 12 cents a bent back, and a miserly disposition. But he also lost something—the glory of sunlight, the radiance of the stars, the smiles of friends, and the freshness of blue skies. I’m afraid that some Christians are like that man. While they may not walk around staring at the sidewalk, they are so engrossed with the things of this life that they give little attention to spiritual and eternal values. Perhaps they’ve gotten a taste of some fleeting pleasure offered by the world, and they’ve been spending all their time pursuing it. But that is dangerous. When God’s children, who are “seated with Christ in the heavenlies,” give their affection and attention to a world that is passing away, they lose the upward look. Their perspective becomes distorted, and they fail to bask in heaven’s sunlight. Taken up with the baubles of this world, they become defeated, delinquent Christians: buttons, pins, and pennies, but no treasures laid up in heaven. The apostle Paul said, “If ye, then, be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above” (Col. 3:1). To live for the things of this world is to miss life’s best. Let’s set our sights on the heights!¹ The heights, the high position, seated with Christ, and the power and authority resident in that fact. That’s our focus today on this week’s Light On Life.

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#S3-020: How Jesus Destroyed Demons in One on One Encounters [Podcast]

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You can view a basic transcript of this podcast at the bottom of this section.

Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This weeks call is:

Tune into the inner promptings of your heart. Talk to God about your inward conscience. Ask Him questions. Pray about what you are sensing. Above all, do not turn a deaf ear to what you have down on the inside of your heart.

Join the Conversation

Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony. Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11).
This week’s question is:

Question: What have you learned about the subject of authority besides what you’ve heard or read here? Would you please leave your comments in the comments section below?

Episode Resources

You can find more information on the subject of the Spirit-Led Life by clicking on the links above.

1. #S1-001: Does the Holy Spirit Speak Today?[Podcact]
2. #S1-002: Being Led by Peace Conscience and the Inward Witness

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 37 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on Stitcher Radio and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com.

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Podcast Notes

The Great Need For Accessing Our Seated Position with Christ

Ephesians 2:6–8 (ESV) – 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

• There is a great need in the church for understanding and using the authority that Jesus left the church.
• Now, I make that statement to you, but your response to that statement should be a question — why?
• Biblical authority is rooted in this singular fact – that you and I are not alone on planet earth!
• We have company — the wrong kind of company.
• In Eden, the most perfect place on the planet, Adam found that he was not alone.

Genesis 3:1 (NLT) — 1 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”

• My brother and sister, devils, demons, and evil spirits are real.
• Don’t listen to the media.
• They try to minimize, make fun of, and mock the one that says they believe the Bible is true in this area.
• They take pictures of a being in a red suit and pitchfork and turn the Bible facts into a fairy tale.
• Satan is not an abstract idea or a figment of your imagination.
• He is not drinking beer and throwing parties in hell.
• And with that thought, here is the illustration of the day.

One morning, a 4-year-old named Kevin, and his grandpa went out to buy donuts. On the way, Grandpa turned to Kevin and asked, “Which way is heaven?” Kevin pointed to the sky. “Which way is hell?” Kevin pointed towards the floor of the truck. Grandpa continued, “And where are you going?” “Dunkin’ Donuts,” Kevin replied.

• Now, that’s a cute illustration, but you know what, that’s exactly what some people do when confronted with a spiritual question; they sidestep it.
• The devil is a real being.
• Just ask the seven sons of Sceva starting in Acts 19:13.
• They found out real quick that the devil was real.
• They tried to use the Name of Jesus like Paul did to cast the devil out of a possessed man.
• But, when they tried it, the spirit replied, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul. But who are you?”
• And that spirit, using that man’s body, jumped on them and attacked them with such violence that they fled from the house, naked and badly injured.
• If you don’t believe that the devil is real, ask the madman of Gadara in Mark chapter five.
• He was so out of it because of the demon in him that they tried to chain and shackle him.
• He got free because of the authority that is resident in Jesus.
• Demons influence people – mostly, they don’t even know it.
• What causes a man like Hitler to do the atrocities that he did?
• A mother strangles her child to death, and she says, “A voice told me to do it.”
• Many years ago in New York, the son of Sam killed people because a dog, a Labrador retriever, talked to him.
• Son of Sam killed 6 people and wounded 7 others and was responsible for over 1400 arson attacks.
• They sentenced him to 365 years in jail.
• In 1987, though, he gave his heart to God and was actively involved in prison ministry to this day.
• Sometimes this whole thing about devils gets a little closer to home.
• Before Sharon and I got married, she talked to me about how she was being choked in her bed by a demon.
• There were demons in her house – you see, this stuff is real.
• Mark this down and don’t forget it; Hollywood and the movie industry do not know anything about devils.
• After we got married, the demons that were in her home tried to get into our home.
• Sharon called me and told me.
• We exercised authority because we are seated with Christ; we stepped up and took our seat.
• We told those demons, ‘No, in Jesus’ Name.’
• From that day to this, there was a no trespassing sign on our house.
• On yet another day in Oklahoma, a tornado landed in our next-door neighbor’s backyard.
• Sharon saw the winds, she hollered, and we spoke to that tornado in Jesus’ Name, and it jumped right out of our yard and on out of the neighborhood.
• You are seated with Christ in heavenly places.
• My dad had cancer, and when they found it, it was stage 4 cancer – I spoke to that – No – he is not a believer I will not let him die.
• He didn’t die – for nine years, he lived until we let him go.
• That’s authority.
• What does all of that have to do with being seated with Christ?
• To answer that, we must understand what a positional truth is.

Seated with Christ – Positional Truths: What Are They?

• One way, not the only way to illustrate what being seated with Christ means and understanding its positional aspect, is to ask this question.
• And with that thought, here is the Question of the Day.
• To illustrate a positional truth, let me ask you this question: where are you seated physically right now?
• The answer would be some physical seat in some earthly location.
• You can feel, you can touch it; it’s in the ‘here and now.’
• A great friend of our family how has gone home to be with the Lord used to tell us that when she went to buy a couch for her house, it would have to pass the ‘toosh test’ – you know that padded section that you sit on.
• So, in the natural we are here; we are on earth.
• But at the same time that we are here, sitting in an earth-bound chair, in the spirit realm, we are not only here, but we are seated in a different chair.
• You are seated with Jesus in heavenly places.
• God the Father does not look down from His throne in heaven to see you.
• He does not peer over the banisters of heaven as people call them to find you.
• No, He looks directly to His right to see you because that is where Jesus is.

Mark 16:19 (ESV) — 19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

• Jesus is seated at His right hand, and you are sitting there with Him.
• That’s what Ephesians 2:6 says.
• So, this scenario in the realm of theology is called a positional truth.
• Temporal truth is the theological term for our life here on planet earth.
• But, the term ‘temporal truth’ doesn’t speak to me – it seems complicated and hard to remember.
• So I changed the theological term ‘temporal,’ and I did it for my own benefit – so it fits better in my head.
• I changed it to ‘Here and Now’ truth.
• Temporal truth is here and now – it’s today – it’s physical life – it’s temporary – it’s subject to change – that’s what temporal means.
• Now, ask yourself the question again – where are you?
• The answer? You’re in the ‘Here and Now’?
• So, understand the difference between positional truth and ‘here and now’ truth.
• Positional truths are ‘true’ whether you ever act on them or not — whether you ever take advantage of the benefits or not, it’s still yours.
• It’s still true.
• Positional truths are true as God sees them or as God has LEGALLY established them.
• Now, let’s take about temporal truths or here-and-now realities.
• ‘Here and Now’ Truths are truths as planet earth sees it.
• They are truths as the world sees them.
• Some earthly truths are, in fact, true because they are based in God.
• People insist that the truth is not the truth because its foundation is not in God – they are men’s ideas – man’s thinking.
• Should you choose to accept it, your mission is to pull on God’s positional truths until it changes things in the ‘here-and-now.’
• It is vital to understand the difference between these two.
• Satan can take advantage of you if you don’t understand the difference.
• He will lord it over you if you don’t access your positionally seating with Christ.
• The seat of authority is the seat of Christ.
• Jesus defeated the enemy and then sat down.

Hebrews 10:12–13 (ESV) — 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

• One tactic of the enemy is to bring confusion about your positional authority.
• He does that so; you won’t use your authority because he knows if you do, if you say, ‘Satan in the Name of Jesus stop – it’s all over.
• Sometimes it goes like this – a negative situation arises in your life – and then a thought comes, or a feeling arises. It speaks to your mind something like this: “if I really had authority, this negative situation wouldn’t be happening.”
• Mark it down; when this happens, he almost invariably is trying to cloud God’s positional truths by making the ‘here-and-now’ so big that you forget about where you are seated.
• This is Satan’s way because he has no ability to change or alter Jesus’ victory.
• He can’t change positional truth.
• The victory via the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus cannot be altered.
• You’re forever seated with Christ.
• John said,

Revelation 1:17–18 (ESV) — 17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

• Jesus has the keys and there is nothing the enemy can do.
• Positional truth is solely a God area.
• The enemy only has access to ‘here-and-now’ – to the natural.
• So, he throws natural smoke bombs trying to cloud your vision of your future.
• But, it’s all smoke.
• If you learn to step back and look at what’s happening and ask yourself, ‘what’s the real truth here?’ — then you will be the one with the advantage.
• What is the real truth when the enemy is attacking you with sickness and disease– the real truth is you’re seated with Jesus in heavenly places – and by His stripes, you are healed.
• I then pull on that positional truth, use my authority and take my healing in Jesus’ Name, and by pulling on that, it changes what’s going on in the ‘here-and-now.’
• Learn to act first from the positional side – not from the here and now side.
• As far as God is concerned, you are seated with Jesus; that means where Jesus sits – you sit.
• Let’s read some more in Ephesians.

Ephesians 1:16–23 (ESV) — 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

• Jesus sits far above all devils and demons and evil spirits.
• And guess what?
• You are seated there with Him, so step up and take your seat.

Seated with Christ: Authority in the Old Testament

• There is something that bothered me for many years, and I didn’t understand it.
• Demons were around in the Old Testament, but you don’t really see them mentioned much.
• Did you ever wonder why?
• As you read the Old Testament, you don’t see Satan mentioned much.
• You find him in Genesis 3, in the garden.
• He is mentioned in the first two chapters of Job.
• Zechariah 3:1–7 has a reference.
• 1 Chronicles 21:1–22:1, you see his name there.
• Then you have Isaiah 14:12–17 and Ezekiel 28:11–19.
• And, that’s it — 4000 years of Biblical history, and he is only mentioned a handful of times.
• But as soon as Jesus comes on the scene, you see demons being cast out – you see demons mentioned in connection with sickness.
• I mean, it’s like they are mentioned all over the place.
• So the question is, why?
• Why does it seem like a curtain all of a sudden is pulled back in the New Testament, and we see demons being mentioned and manhandled by Jesus, and you see no evidence of this phenomenon in the Old Testament?
• At first, I thought maybe it was a matter of revelation – in other words, God just decided to pull the curtain back at this particular time.
• But, the evidence suggests otherwise – that Old Testament people knew of the existence of demons.

Matthew 12:22–26 (ESV) — 22 Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw. 23 And all the people were amazed, and said, “Can this be the Son of David?” 24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” 25 Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. 26 And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?

• So, you see, Matthew records that this blind and mute man was demon-oppressed.
• The Pharisees accused Jesus of working with the prince of demons.
• So, they knew about demons.
• Do you remember when Jesus came down from the Mount of Transfiguration?
• A man met him whose son had a demon.
• Listen to his testimony.

Mark 9:17 (ESV) — 17 And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute.

• So this man knew that he had an enemy and that it was attacking his boy.
• We already mentioned the Madman of Gadara.
• His case was public knowledge but they couldn’t help the man.
• The best they could do in the natural was chain him up.
• Now couple this with the anointing that rested upon Jesus.
• John 3:34 says He had this anointing without measure.
• So it seems that these demons sensing the strength and power of that Holy Spirit of God that rested upon Jesus, just began going nuts when they came into contact with Him.
• If that’s so, we are at a disadvantage when dealing with demons because individually, we do not have the Spirit without measure; we have the Spirit by measure.
• So this train of thought and the questions generated by it, I left just sitting on the back burner – stewing.
• Do you understand that expression?
• Right, you are not always going to understand everything.
• Sometimes it’s just wise to let the questions sit and pray about them and visit them every once in a while in thought life.
• But in this case, one day, the light came on.
• God gave man dominion – you read about it in Genesis 1:28

Genesis 1:28 (ESV) — 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

• Adam gave away his authority in the garden of Eden.
• There was no authority on the earth to deal with demons; Adam gave it away.

Luke 4:4–6 (ESV) — 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’ ” 5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.

• Adam gave away the whole candy store.
• All of the heinous modern-day examples we gave you in sharing that ‘we are not alone on planet earth’ were situations that also occurred in the Old Testament.
• There were wars that Israel fought that were motivated by demons.
• Demons were behind the Canaanite religions that caused Israel to sin.
• Evil Spirits were behind the oppression of Pharaoh that Israel experienced in Egypt.
• Demons were behind the slaughter of the children by Herod.
• But no one could deal with any of that because there was no authority on the earth.
• The only authority available in the Old Testament was the Lord’s own personal authority.

Zechariah 3:1–3 (ESV) — 1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” 3 Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments.

Seated with Christ: God the Father Exercised His Authority in the Old Testament

Psalm 9:5 (ESV) — 5 You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish; you have blotted out their name forever and ever.

Psalm 119:21 (ESV) — 21 You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones, who wander from your commandments.

Psalm 80:16 (ESV) — 16 They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down; may they perish at the rebuke of your face!

Psalm 76:6 (ESV) — 6 At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both rider and horse lay stunned.

Psalm 106:9 (ESV) — 9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry, and he led them through the deep as through a desert.

Psalm 18:15 (ESV) — 15 Then the channels of the sea were seen, and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

Isaiah 17:13 (ESV) — 13 The nations roar like the roaring of many waters, but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind and whirling dust before the storm.

Jude 9 (ESV) — 9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”

• That’s a lot of verses, but it proves the point.
• There was authority being exercised in the Old Testament, but it wasn’t man exercising it; it was God.
• God exercised His authority at certain points in Old Testament history because the man God created and gave dominion to could not exercise any. After all, Adam, our representative, gave it away.
• But, Jesus got back Adam’s lost authority, and now the Father doesn’t have to rebuke the work of Satan in the earth.
• And all you have to do is recognize that you are seated with Jesus in heavenly places and use the name of Jesus.
• I will close with this one illustration that shows this point.
• Early on, I had to ride a bus, and the only seat left was in the back with a group of people I was unsure about.
• I got into a bit of fear there.
• So, I said to the Lord, ‘Father, I rebuke the spirit of fear in Jesus’ Name.’
• The Spirit of God immediately spoke up on the inside of me and said, ‘What are you telling me for?’
• Did you get that?
• You are the one that is seated with Christ — you have the authority — speak directly to him.
• You don’t have to pray about devils; just rebuke them, and they will run.
• You guys have a great God week in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

#S2-043: How to Stop Satan from Pushing You Around [Podcast]

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