Chapter 11
Chariots of Fire
*1 Kings 6:8-17: Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, “I will set up my camp in such and such a place.” The man of God sent word to the king of Israel: “Beware of passing that place, because the Arameans are going down there.” So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places. This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Tell me! Which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?” “None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.” “Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked. “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
*One of the things that is amazing about this text is the whimsicalness of it. It all seems so surreal. There is Elisha, who the entire enemy army is now coming after, and his servant, there is the enemy army with their multitudes, and then there are chariots of fire… How do we even begin to consider such a text without just sitting back and being in awe of these angelic beings? It isn’t a new thought or idea: angels, demons, war in the heavens. We can see the prophets speaking of these beings, sometimes by referring to a king or pharaoh or ruler.
*What seems to be somewhat a minor topic within Scripture is very possibly one of the most important details of the faith. Within the bounds of theology, these principalities and powers are one of the most neglected of teachings. They are also one of the most crucial because of the vast expanse of questions that arise from them. What about the sovereignty of God? How much is under Satan’s control, and how much under God’s? How much power do they possess? What kind of power do they possess? These are all things that seem to beg for answers, and we just have not even considered the questions.
*One thing I ask is the power of good and evil. It always seems like people show forth how much power the devil has, and then make statements like, “With how many odds are stacked against God, it is surprising that anyone is saved.” It is a miracle that there has been any victory on the side of good at all.
*…What? How can it be that the God of all creation, who made the earth and all that is within it, that made stars and celestial beings, that created even Satan himself, is somehow unable to defeat this one juvenile? What happened to the words of Jesus on the cross: It is finished?
The Interconnectedness of All Creation
*Ephesians 1:3-13 - Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory.
*Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, gives us a bit of depth on the subject like nowhere else I find in Scripture. First, let us get an understanding of the backdrop. It is true that these verses don’t have a direct relation to the principalities and powers, but they do indeed have an indirect. Right in the start of this passage we are briefed that this whole statement is about spiritual blessings in Christ. His choosing us from before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless is a heavenly calling, and a spiritual blessing. This is kind of obvious. Yet, there is something behind the scenes. We are taught in the States an individualistic kind of mentality. Paul was writing to the Church. The word for spiritual is pneumatikos. This would be “pertaining to the spirit.” Where as pneuma is the spirit itself, this pneumatikos is that which pertains to the spiritual. As a whole Church, God is calling us into the “heavenly places” for “spiritual blessings.” The Greek term for heavenly is actually meaning outside this dimension and realm, whereas the other form translated heavenly would refer to stars and planets within this physical realm.
*The verse about being holy and blameless in His sight, being predestined since before the foundation of the world, and being adopted as His sons is about a unit. It is about the Church. More than just individuals or a group of individuals it is a collective unit all in one, and not separately. As the Church, we have been called to being holy and blameless in His sight. And this being holy and blameless in His sight is brought about by God in Christ to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head.
*What does that mean? There is congruence between the state of the Church and the consummation of all things. Everything in heaven and on earth will be brought under one Head, who is Christ Jesus, by the glory of the Church. It is in our reflection of the glory of God that brings all things in heaven (even the principalities and powers) and earth (including the animals, plants, and land and seas) together under the One Head.
*This is important. The glory of God within us actually affects the world around us. Whether we are “super-Christians” or not, whether we are the Pauls and John the Baptists or not, whether we are perfect or not, our very nature as being within God affects and propels the bringing together of all things into a redemption of all creation as God had set it up from the very foundations of the world.
*This is why Paul immediately says after this statemtent that he gives thanks to God for the report that he hears of the Ephesians (verse 15-16). They are a people who walk out that which has been preached from the beginning. They aren’t Christian in name, but in deed. Paul hears of their faith and their love, and instantly he rejoices. These two things are supreme enough to Paul to cause him to rejoice in the Church at Ephesus because it means that they are a Body of Believers who transform the world all around them.
*This Church is the kind of entity that will revolutionize and bring forth something so powerful into the world that it literally changes the very creation itself. How does this relate to demons and principalities and the Devil and etc? It relates perfectly. How is the creation redeemed? By breaking the power of Satan over the locality, and by ushering forth the power of God into the locality, the very land itself becomes sanctified and holy. That very bit of creation (the land, animals, plants, people, skies, angels and demons, and everything else that I can’t think of) is brought into realignment with God’s original purposes.
*“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way,” Ephesians 1:17-23.
*Does this passage now make more sense? Why is Paul praying for them to receive these things? He is praying for them to receive these things because everything is affected by everything else. Our spirituality actually affects all of creation, whether we are aware of it or not. The condition of our lives will actually affect the condition of our brother or sister. The principalities and powers will actually affect our abilities in prayer, fasting, hearing the voice of God, wisdom, and etc. When the principalities and powers are the lords of this world, and when they are ruling and reigning in certain localities, then the Church within that locality is affected by their government. Yet, when we have been brought into a realm of spirituality that we are a glory on the earth, then we have the same authority and power and dominion as Christ Himself.
*This prayer is practical. It is so apostolic. Men and women who are within a Body that has this kind of authenticity have together been brought down into death with Christ to be raised from that death and seated with Him in heavenly places far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in this present age, but also in the age to come. Our authority and power, through the blood of Jesus Christ, literally will enable heaven on earth, here and now. Satan’s reign on this earth is over. When the people of God start living like the people of God, then a shift in the heavenly government takes place. We uproot the demonic forces in this world by our presence. This is why our workplace can seem more like a battle zone than a job. You are there. Satan is there. Now there is also spiritual warfare. We are interconnected to everything and everyone else. There cannot be a disconnection.
*We read elsewhere that the reason to sexual impurity is actually a disconnection to the world as God made it. We lust and hunger for connection. We desire to be connected with all things. Yet, if we don’t know God, then how can we be connected? All that we know and do is taught to us by the principalities and powers of the air. They’re whole purpose is to divide. So we start turning to sex and drugs and booze and television and Facebook and smart phones. These things give us a feeling of connection, but they are superficial fixes.
Satan’s Power and Rule
*Ephesians 2 - As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)-- remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
*Jesus once took His disciples to Caesarea Philippi. He told Simon that his name shall now be Peter, and on that rock the gates of hell will not prevail. If you know your ancient culture, you would know that there are a lot of things going on in the background. Since they were at Carsarea Philippi, we know that the gates of hell would actually have been a massive cave in the ground that emitted gasses. The locals believed that these gasses were actually demons and spirits from the other realm, and thus the place was given the title “The Gates of Hell.”
*So, we have a lot of things (including the culture and the god of the Philippians) that go into this text, but beyond these things, Jesus actually declares that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against His Church. Now, when we get to Ephesians chapter 2, we can see a direct statement about the “ruler of the kingdom of the air.” This mystic kind of wording seems to be a baffling and puzzling text. There are too many things that are left open to guess at.
*One of the many questions would be about the air. This is the most obvious one. What does it mean that Satan is the ruler of the kingdom of the air? What is the kingdom of the air? I have my own opinion that when Satan was kicked out of heaven, he has now made his dominion in our atmosphere, and depending on the different localities and nations, his rule and reign have different characteristics. The Greek word for air is aer, which is pretty much as simple as it comes. The translation is as literal as it can be. It means the sky, or air, or atmosphere.
*It is my understanding that different cultures, nations, localities (such as cities), and institutions have entangled themselves within the teaching and precepts of these demonic forces. Depending upon where you go, you will find different characteristics. For example, we see in Haiti that Voodoo is practiced excessively. Yet, in Britain, atheism is the religion of the nation. There are two completely different worldviews, and completely different mindsets, yet they are both from the same source. They both believe the deception of Satan. One has adopted that there is no God, the other has taken the power and feelings and senses that are from demonic forces and used that as a religion. These two different nations have two different bondage, and the “air” over these nations gives different vibes and senses and feelings. To the spiritually discerning soul, you can actually feel the shift in the atmosphere when you fly over a certain locality or cross a border into another state or nation. The world even has a phrase for it: in the air. The world uses this phrase, even within song lyrics.
*So this atmospheric change is noticeable to those who are even dead in their sins. Those who have no spirituality, supposedly, are able to understand this monumental truth. Yet, the majority of the Church in the Western World has completely misunderstood and neglected this one great reality. It is noted that demons and such exist. But that they actually have a rule and an authority is out of the question. The very word that is used by Paul in Greek actually means a taking over, or a giving himself dominion. Satan isn’t the king, otherwise the word wouldn’t have been exousia, it would have been basileia. Paul actually takes the word for dominion, or rule, and puts it as the word for kingdom. So, Satan has dominion over the air, and has established his kingdom in the sky, and even those of the world can sense this, yet he has somehow deceived us into thinking that he is indeed king, or ruler.
*Yet, this brings into question a few things. What is the power of Satan? Let us start here. Satan is actually the Hebrew word for deceiver or accuser. The most recognizable and memorable place we find this word is in Job when Satan goes to God and tries to condemn Job. This is the second instance that the word is used, and it actually means deceiver. It is the first time, if we go according to date that the books were written. Doesn’t that just bring the text alive in a slightly new way? The word Satan only finds itself in two other books of the Old Testament. Job uses this word for the devil more than anyone else, and indeed gives the devil this name for the very reason that he mentions him. The devil is trying to deceive God. In 1 Chronicles 21, Satan deceives David. In Zechariah 3, Satan accuses, and thus tries to deceive God again, and God then rebukes him.
*Satan’s rule and authority is only given by deception. The nations are only too glad to be in a deceived state, however. They don’t want to know the plans and purposes of God, because they want their own plans and purposes. In this, they adopt the ways of the kingdom of the air, and reject the ways of God. Remember that there were two trees in the garden, and there are still two trees, two paths, two ways, two systems.
*These two cannot be mixed. The government of Satan is based solely upon deception, but employs violence, hatred, intimidation, lust, etc. This is why Paul later says in Ephesians 2:14 that Christ is our peace, and he has destroyed the barrier of hostility between Jew and Gentile. Christ, our Lord, has brought about, by His blood, a working system of God on the earth. It is by His blood that Jew and Gentile are brought together in peace and harmony. It isn’t a false peace where they get along with one another, but when the time comes that they are hard pressed against one another they crumble under the weight of stress and retaliate. This is a peace that passes understanding. When there should be a war and feuding during times of struggle, there is nothing within either Jew or Gentile that would desire to feud against their brother.
*I’m getting ahead of myself. So, this kingdom of the air, according to verse 2, is actually the very thing that the people of this world, and the nations of this world, are a part of and graciously gravitate towards and adopt as their own wisdom and kingdom. We also see from verse 3 that the sinful nature and the flesh is actually a synonym for this wisdom and kingdom. The principles that it has been set up upon (greed, hate, bitterness, me first, disputes, racism, division and strife, and all the other fruits of the flesh) are the same principles and guidelines for the kingdom of darkness.
*This shouldn’t be anything new. Yet, it is this that leads Paul from speaking about the sons of disobedience and the kingdom of darkness, and he goes straight to speaking of the unity between Jew and Gentile. Because God has saved us, and because it is not of our work, and because we have been adopted (both Jew and Gentile) into this new way of life, we have all become one. We have been brought under the one Head. All things are new. Nothing can be the same. We cannot continue to employ these old ways and old habits. There is something different now. That something different is that the air about us has changed. The very nature and make-up of who we are is now different. We are no longer sinners. We are no longer objects of wrath. Because we are no longer of the darkened kingdom, but have been brought into this marvelous light, we are now free.
*The paradox of it all seems to be that un-lawlessness is bondage, where as upholding the law is freedom. This bringing together of all races, all people, all kindred, all families of the earth, everything under one Head is the cosmic redemption of the cross. Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection was actually something so massive and so cosmic that the very nature of this world has never been the same since (Check out a cool book by Thomas Cahill called Desire of the Everlasting Hills to learn more). The reenacting of this cross through His body is equally as redeeming. By us suffering together to be an apostolic entity in the world, a people who are one on more than a superficial basis, is actually redemption and a revitalization of the entire cosmos.
*The keys to the Kingdom have been placed in our hands. We have the authority and the power to release the glory of God into the earth in such a way as to vanquish the devil and his kingdom and his rule and his reign. This is why the disciple Thomas could go into the Las Vegas of Rome and by the time they could hunt him down to crucify him, he and his family had transformed the entire city into a Christian safe-city. Think about that. Within weeks, one man and his family, by the power of God, transformed an entire city. Not just a city, though. They transformed the “Las Vegas” of Rome (for more insight, check out the sermon “Be Covered in the Dust of Your Rabbi” by Rob Bell).
*It is taught by Paul that love conquers evil. Good will inevitably win. It is in our love for one another, and our willingness to humble ourselves toward one another, that defeats the principalities and powers. We can break the cycle. We can alter the air. We can take a city that is bent on darkness, and expose it with light. We can emit enough light in our lives to actually expel Satan from nations. The reason we don’t see this is two-fold: our ignorance, and our unwillingness.
*We want the convenience of a nice Sunday service. We don’t want to have to be one with each other. We don’t want to have to accept the brethren down the street. We don’t want to give ourselves to one Body. We want our individual lives, our individual churches, our individuality, and we are unwilling to bend the knee in any way, shape, or form. This causes the struggle we see today. There is the possibility of freedom to all nations, but we are simply unwilling to conform to the image of God in true community.
*In the end, I suppose that God will work out an end-time strategem. He will bring all His people together as one, just as He is one. In the bringing together of His saints, we will war against the principalities and powers on a scale that we have never experienced personally before. It will be in this that we will discover that no matter who might say it, and no matter how illogical the opposite might be, the odds are not stacked against God. Love Wins.
The Mystery of the Christ, and the Eternal Purposes of the Church
*Ephesians 3 - For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles-- Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory. For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
*For the most part, I’ve already spoken on much of the things mentioned in this chapter. What could easily be a book itself I’m reducing into a chapter. The first 7 or 8 verses are speaking of what I have laid out in chapter 7 of this book. There is a collaboration of thoughts within the book of Ephesians that seems to stretch from one end of our theological understanding to the other, and then state that the two opposite sides of our understanding are essential to one another. This chapter in Ephesians brings together the mystery of Israel and the Church (their eschatological callings and their being one together under the same Head) and the mystery of the rulers of darkness. It seems to flow from one to the other without hesitation.
*Why?
*It is staggering that John, the revelator, also speaks in this way. In his first epistle, he seems to bring a form of speaking that intertwines the beginning of the world, light and darkness, fellowship, truth, and apostolic proclamation all into the same breath. With the same kind of elegance, Paul intertwines these two realities. There is something here that is so central to the heart of God that if we miss it, we miss the faith completely. We can no longer call ourselves Christians if we have not the understanding of these two great truths and their tying together. I would even submit that unless we see that all truths tie together, we would miss the whole picture. It would all look wrong from everywhere we stood.
*I would go as far as saying that these are not two truths, but one. You cannot speak of the one without the other. Both seem to stress things that have very little, if anything, to do with us. It would seem that both would stress that we give ourselves for something that has absolutely no immediate benefit or pay-off. And yet we see in verse 8 that it was for these things that God had created the entire world. It was for this that God has His Church here on this earth: so that we might make a visible demonstration of the wisdom of God to the principalities and powers of the air.
*The demonic forces are fueled by violence, threat and intimidation, malice, independence, and such. We, as the Church, ought to be fueled by foolishness, weakness, and humility. Do you see the utter contrast? Whether we speak of our relation to the Jew, or we speak of our relation to the principalities and powers of the air, both seem to point to the same thing. They are both polar opposite. On one side you have the wisdom of the world and all of its intellect, virtue, goodness, and heroism. On the other side you have the Church with foolishness, weakness, no rights to itself, and meekness.
*This is pivitol. It can’t be stressed enough. How do we confound the wise? How do we make manifest the wisdom of God to the principalities and powers of the air? It is by living this out. Not individually. The world wants us to live it individually. A synonym for individual, in this sense, is isolated. If we can perfect this kind of action and serving and living out of the wisdom of God as an individual, then we are to be lauded and applauded. But what does it say? “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”
*How do we defeat the powers? How do we defeat humanism? How do we confound the wise with foolishness? How do we break the bonds of their strength through weakness? How do we do it? We do it together. We actually live in love together. We actually show forth one-ness (echad-ness). We actually display our foolishness and weakness to the death. When we are being severly hated and beaten and tortured, all that can seem to gush forth from our hearts are the words, “Lord, forgiven them this sin, for they know not what they do.”
*How can we come to that kind of a place, unless it is by the daily intensity of our lives being intertwined together and being one? How can we experience the kind of love that causes us to bless those who curse us and pray for those who persecute us? All of our humanity and self-dignity needs to be purged out. We need to be purified to the uttermost through an intense struggle together.
*We’re people. We’re going to butt heads. Things are going to arise. There will be arguments. People will get angry and upset. Yet the glory that comes from our despising our brothers and sisters at the first far exceeds that which we can think or dream. We think that the Shekinah glory of God is some sort of awesome cloud coming down from heaven and a voice speaking forth from it. We think that the power of God is people being overwhelmed and falling to the ground. We think that true glory is power.
*The true glory of God