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Spiritual Warfare - Lesson 9

The Two Kingdoms

In this lesson Dr. Breshears, digs into the dual kingdoms of light and darkness revealed in the New Testament, specifically Colossians. The passage emphasizes that believers are rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of the Son of God, where Jesus is the spiritual head. It underlines the idea that there are only two spiritual kingdoms: the kingdom of darkness, ruled by Satan, and the kingdom of light, ruled by Jesus. The lesson also highlights the role of God the Father in rescuing believers and replacing negative father figures with the image of the Heavenly Father. Understanding these truths is crucial for confronting demonic accusations and oppression.

Gerry Breshears
Spiritual Warfare
Lesson 9
Watching Now
The Two Kingdoms

I. Introduction

A. Background and Context

B. Emphasis on Colossians

C. The Role of Pagan Gods in Cities

D. Paul's Message to the People

E. Key Passage in Colossians

II. Understanding Two Spiritual Kingdoms

A. The Kingdom of Light

B. The Kingdom of Darkness

C. The Spiritual Head of Each Kingdom

III. The Role of the Father in Spiritual Warfare

A. Emphasizing the Father's Role

B. Replacing Negative Father Figures

IV. The Theology of Redemption

A. Differentiating Redemption from Earthly Concepts

B. Redemption as Rescue from Sin

V. The Seven Truths of Every Believer

A. Made Alive with Christ

B. Forgiveness of All Sins

C. Cancellation of Legal Indebtedness

D. Nailing the Charge to the Cross

E. Disarming the Powers and Authorities

F. Making a Public Spectacle of Defeated Powers

G. Triumphing at the Cross

VI. The Importance of Believing These Truths in Spiritual Warfare


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Transcript
  • Dr. Gerry Breshears discusses some of the main teachings of the Bible on Spiritual Warfare and then participates in a live question and answer.

  • Discover Dr. Breshears' journey from science to spiritual warfare, debunking scientific explanations for demons. Unveil a seminary student's anxiety battle, uncover curses, theological misconceptions, and inner demonic voices. Prepare for a course on spiritual warfare and staying loyal to God.
  • Gain insights into worldviews within Christianity, including polytheism, American monotheism, and Christian monotheism. Explore the nature of spiritual beings and idols.
  • Gain insight into powerful spiritual beings tied to nations in the Bible. Warning against intermarriage and foreign gods emphasized.
  • You'll gain insight into spiritual warfare through Genesis 11, where human defiance led to the scattering of nations and involvement of angelic beings.
  • You will gain insight into a distinct biblical interpretation that views the universe's creation as an act of shaping Eden within a pre-existing cosmic war, and the role of humans in this ongoing battle by cultivating goodness and order to combat evil and chaos.
  • In this lesson, the story of Adam and Eve is analyzed within the context of spiritual warfare, highlighting the serpent's strategy to question God's goodness and encourage independence, while God responds with a call to confession and hints at a future Messiah's role in redemption.
  • This lesson offers an insightful interpretation of Genesis 6:1-4, presenting the "Sons of God" as angelic beings who sinned by marrying humans, leading to the Nephilim, linking this perspective to New Testament passages and the symbolism of baptism as a victory declaration against evil forces, deepening your understanding of the nuanced interpretation of these biblical passages and their importance in Christianity.
  • The passages reviewed in this lesson reveal a unique portrayal of God's actions, using unconventional methods. Challenge common interpretations, caution against single-verse doctrines. Embrace the mystery of God's ways, avoiding rigid interpretations when context is unclear.
  • This lesson reviews a passage in Colossians, offering insights into spiritual warfare and the dichotomy between the kingdoms of light and darkness, emphasizing believers' rescue from darkness into the kingdom of the Son of God, forgiveness of sins, and the essential elements of faith, all of which are vital for confronting demonic accusations and oppression.
  • Learn the core of Ephesians: spiritual warfare, dedication to God vs. Satan, moral maturity, and becoming Christ's partner. Emphasizes unity, living in light, using God's Word, and the power of prayer in this battle.
  • Learn to resist the temptations of the world and the devil by humbling yourself, casting anxiety on God, being self-controlled, alert, and standing firm in faith as taught in James and 1 Peter, emphasizing the importance of using your strengths for God's kingdom and opposing pressures and distortions from the enemy to avoid being devoured.
  • This lesson highlights the significance of facing spiritual forces in Jesus' name, stressing that authority alone isn't enough. Faith, confidence, and prayer-driven competence are vital for effective spiritual warfare. It inspires you to confront spiritual battles like Jesus did, with authority and unwavering faith.
  • This lesson delves into a biblical narrative highlighting Jesus' authority over evil spirits. It emphasizes the transformative power of His deliverance and the profound change it can bring to those tormented by demonic influence.
  • This lesson provides deep insights into Satan's fall in the Bible, covering Old Testament passages (Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28) linked to it, addressing their ambiguity. It also discusses withholding Satan's name due to his evil nature and how Jesus broke his authority in the New Testament, though he remains a threat to believers.
  • This lesson delves into the intricate dynamics between believers, demons, and the world in the biblical context. You'll uncover Satan's mysterious role in Judas's betrayal of Jesus, posing questions about the motivations and divine alignment in this pivotal event.
  • This lesson equips you with the knowledge of how Jesus confronted temptation and spiritual warfare, emphasizing three essential steps: quoting Scripture to the devil, commanding the devil to leave in Jesus' name, and shifting your focus from demonic attack to Jesus' provision.
  • This lesson explores 3 Deliverance Ministry models: 1) Classic - resist Satan's temptations, 2) Power Encounter - deal with sin before casting out demons, 3) Truth Encounter - dispel lies, reclaim identity in Christ. Dr. Breshears prefers the Truth Encounter model while allowing for diverse biblical approaches.
  • This lesson provides comprehensive insights on dealing with the demonic from a biblical perspective, emphasizing the triumph of Jesus over Satan, the ongoing spiritual battles, the importance of faith in the midst of adversity, and the need to follow biblical patterns while avoiding unnecessary fascination with evil and excessive fearfulness.
  • This lesson explores demons and Satan's impact on believers, emphasizing that even righteous individuals can face their influence. It reveals how deception, curses, and accusations can create strongholds in belief systems, perpetuated by Satan. Demons exploit weaknesses, desires, and ignorance, leading to destructive behaviors. The lesson ends with the assurance that believers are never abandoned by the Holy Spirit.
  • From this lesson, you will gain insight into the Dr. Breshear's approach to identifying potential demonic influence in people's lives, focusing on areas like accusing voices, oppressive presence, and occult involvement. He emphasizes the importance of assessing these influences when individuals face issues like anxiety, addiction, or persistent problems. By probing into their experiences and thoughts, the goal is to recognize and address these negative influences, ultimately seeking to remove them from the person's life.
  • This lesson provides insights into assessing potential demonic influence in individuals' lives, offering strategies to distinguish personal issues from demonic influences and empower individuals to confront and overcome such challenges with the authority of Jesus Christ.
  • From this lesson, you will gain insight into the controversial topic of demonic influence and possession within Christianity. The lesson explores the various meanings of "possessed" and the debate surrounding whether a Christian can be dominated or influenced by a demon. It emphasizes that while ownership by a demon is generally denied, the extent of demonic influence remains debated.
  • You will learn a comprehensive approach to address demons in a pastoral setting, emphasizing individual empowerment, cooperation, and the transformative potential of confronting these malevolent forces to achieve freedom and healing.
  • This lesson delves into spiritual warfare, discussing curses, demonic attacks, and their real-life impact. It highlights curses arising from disobedience, similar to God's curse in the Bible. Instances like a cursed object in Africa demonstrate their harm. The lesson promotes rejecting curses and dedicating spaces to God while emphasizing that curses have power only when received, suggesting turning to Jesus for protection and deliverance.
  • This lesson explores demon nature, influence, and approach. It dispels the myth of immunity in the US, highlighting demons' subtle tactics. Demons' origin is unclear, and prayer and fasting aren't mandatory. Living as children of light and invoking Jesus' name is key. Mind-reading by demons is uncertain, but they exploit confessed sin. Whether they can inhabit believers is unanswered, but they influence through deception. Demons may dwell in specific places and require confronting with Jesus' authority. Believers engage in spiritual warfare to deliver the oppressed, empowered by Jesus.

There is an ongoing battle between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. Followers of Jesus, who are in the kingdom of light, have been given authority by God to command demons. By studying Jesus' life and other passages in scripture, we can gain insights into how to respond to the influence of demons effectively.

 

Spiritual Warfare
Dr. Gerry Breshears
th251-09
The Two Kingdoms
Lesson Transcription

 

It's time for to move into some really crucial verses in the New Testament to understand how this whole spiritual warfare thing works. I want to begin in the Book of Colossians. We'll get to Ephesians in a bit, but I actually think some of our foundational materials are in Colossians. Both of them have a lot to say because Ephesus is over on the coast. Colossae is inland away from Ephesus.

But in both cases we have cities that are ruled by the worship of pagan gods. Ephesus is Artemis whose temple is one of the major religious centers, the Greco-Roman world. Colossae is a smaller town, kind of off the pike a little bit, but deals with some of the same issues there. And Paul does that same kind of thing where he talks about, " You are the message of God come to you and through your goodness, the message is going to the entire world", very commendatory to them and he prays for them just like he does to the people in Ephesus.

But I want to look down here in verse 12, 12 through 14 is just a really, really critical passage in understanding how things work out. Colossians 1:12, "Giving joyful thanks to the father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light, for he has rescued us in the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." That is a packed passage and really, really helpful in understanding stuff.

In the third part of the course, I'm going to talk about the how-to's. I'll come back and redo this passage and show you how I use it. At this point, I want to talk about the theology of it though. What is it teaching? He's teaching here, first of all, that there are two different kingdoms herein. The two kingdoms. Did you read through it? "Giving joyful thanks to the Father who is qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light." So that's one kingdom. Kingdom of light, for his rescue, just the demeanor of darkness and brought him into the kingdom of the son he loves.

So you got two descriptions of the same kingdom, kingdom of light, kingdom of son loves. And so that's kingdom one. And the obvious a question with an obvious answer is, who is the spiritual head of this kingdom of light? And the answer is, and you all answer quickly, "Jesus." And you'd be right. The son he loves. Now there's other names for it. There are a number of other names for it in scripture, but here it's the kingdom of the son. So it's the kingdom of Jesus, kingdom of light. That's one kingdom. So you got light here. What's the other kingdom in this passage? Can you find it?

No, there isn't another. There isn't the word kingdom doesn't appear. There again, it's kingdom of light, kingdom of the son he loves. What's the other kingdom? See, it doesn't use the word kingdom. It uses the king. He uses the term dominion. Dominion, synonym. And I think Paul uses a different term to describe it, other than kingdom. Just to make a point that these are different. So kingdom is just the very standard kingdom word, basileia. But dominion's very, it's a different term, exousia, which has to do with authority. I mean they're very similar words are almost synonymous.

But dominion, I think he's making the point. It's different. And the kingdom of light spiritual head is Jesus, dominion of darkness. Doesn't say here, but who's the spiritual head of the dominion of darkness? Jesus and Satan. Yeah. So those are the two spiritual families, two spiritual kingdoms. And there's one or the other. And the thing is, how do these relate? Qualified to share in the inheritance of his holy people and the inheritance of the holy people is in the kingdom of light. But this next phrase for he, who's the he? Jesus. Wrong answer. Who is the He? Read it closely. Father. It's the Father. See everybody answered to Jesus here

In one level that's certainly true. But another, the rescuer here is Father.

And I think that's intentional, especially in today's world where so many people wrestling with bad father figures. And we tend to picture of our father and I had a good father, and I tend to export that picture up to God. But my adopted daughter had about as bad a father as you could possibly have. And she tends to export that picture up to God too. We all tend to do that.

I think he used the word Father here that shows us there is a perfectly good father. And part of spiritual warfare is replacing my picture of my bad dad, if that's the case with the picture of the heavenly Father. For Father has rescued us, we think of rescue, you think of people trapped and kidnapped or people that have been trapped in by a earthquake or something like that. Rescued. He rescued. And again, when I pushed this past, present or future, past, present or future.

I know Mrs. Johnson lives in my head, my ninth grade grammar Nazi English teacher. I tried to exercise her spirit from my mind regularly. I can get rid of demons. I cannot get rid of Mrs. Johnson. Past, present, or future rescue. Yeah, it's past rescued command factor. Promise. It's a fact. So past fact. And then as I press this past fact used to be true or past facts still true. Still true. It's still true. So rescue done and still true. You can go back to Greek tenses if you want, but check with some guy named Bill Mounts before you do it, make sure you do it right. He rescued us from the mean and darkness and brought us, or transferred us into the can son he loves. So you were darkness, you are now light. Sorry, light darkness. Got to keep my hand straight. You were darkness, but rescued by father into the kingdom of light.

And what this is saying, there are two kingdoms, only two that count at this level. Now you get down leveled in, there are many kingdoms, but this level, there's either the kingdom of darkness, Satan, kingdom of light, Jesus. And your 100% in dominion of darkness as far as membership is concerned or kingdom of light. You're not halfway in between. Now you can live like darkness in the light. You can live a sinful lifestyle in the Holy Kingdom. Yes, but you're in dominion of darkness. Father rescued you, brought you into kingdom of light. That's what this is saying. And you have two responses coming out of this. Verse 13, "In whom that is in the sun. We have redemption or freedom and the forgiveness of sins." Now, when you think redemption, don't think redeeming points at your fast food store or something like that.

I mean, I love, love, love redeeming miles on my airline. I am going to head off shortly after taping this. I'm going to go with Sherry and Cindy, our daughter, and we're going to use redeemed miles to go to Arizona and visit Bearizona. And I'll give you a report, but I won't. But I could give you, Cindy found Bearizona, she loves bears in wild animal parks. And we're going to Bearizona, in Arizona. And I redeemed miles to do it. And that really makes me feel good. I fly too much. And if I get a nice benefit from this is a good thing. That is not the picture of redemption here. This is not redeeming miles.

,Redemption here is Exodus where God rescues his people out of the clutches of Pharaoh, beats him up, beats pharaoh up, and eventually kills him, and takes his people back to the promised land. There's a lot more to story of course, but that's redemption here.

This redemption is being rescued, which is what he used up above. We have redemption, we have freedom from tyranny and we have forgiveness of sins. And that's what it's talking about. Crucial, crucial verse. He has rescued us, pass back, done from dominion of darkness, brought us into the king, the son he loves. And over here we have freedom from the tyranny of the evil one and we have forgiveness of sins. That's really true. And that's what a heart of this warfare is about, is rescuing people out of sin and darkness, condemnation, bring them into freedom, and light, and justification. Chronicle lesson here from Colossians chapter one. "And we give joyful thanks to the Father for the beautiful thing he has done in rescuing us from darkness and bringing us into light." And he goes on a little bit after this. "The son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation."

This is not talking about the firstborn. Firstborn created one, it could be read, but the NIV translate to meaning the firstborn over all creation. "For in him the son, all things were created. Heaven, earth, visible, invisible thrones, powers, rulers, authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. He's before all things and him, all things hold together." Now, what he's saying here specifically is all the angelic powers, all the gods, the spiritual beings were created, created by the Son. In him, all things were created.

So this is saying that even the rebellious sons of God, Moloch, Chemosh, Baal, Astarte, Asherah, Artemis, ISIS, all those gods were created by God even though they've rebelled against God as I'm understanding it. And he's the one who is above all of them. But a key thing here is that the throne's powers, rulers, authorities are demonic powers. And then on earth you have their earthly representatives because a pharaoh can be a representative. The gods of Egypt, a god of Rome, could be the representative of Jupiter or Apollo or something like that.

So the outcome of that is that in everything he might have supremacy. Colossians one, if you keep going, you'll end up in shocking news. You end up in Colossians two. Isn't that brilliant? Isn't that brilliant? It's worth every penny you pay to take this course. This is funded by gifts of people like you and me. So throw in a little cash for you at it. I suggest, and no, I'm not on the board of Bible project or the Bible biblical training. Chapter two verse 13, talks about you were dead. And remembering what does dead mean, doesn't mean that my body is separated from my spirit, it means I'm separated from God and helplessly to redo that you are dead in your sins, in the uncircumcision, your flesh. That's the beginning point. Dead, separated from God, driven out of the garden, unable to get back in on our own way. We have to come in God's way.

But then God gives us seven things that are true of every single human being. Sorry. Every single believer in Jesus. And these seven things are foundational for bringing truth against the lies of the enemy. So biblical theology, first of all, God made you alive with Christ. That's the first big lesson. Dead separated from God, unable to repair the broken relationship. God made you alive. So he's done the work. I am alive. I am in Christ. That relationship has been restored. He is my heavenly Father. Now I am in the family. I've got some growing to do in the family, but I am alive in Christ.

And one of the things that Satan will go after all the time is, "There's no way you could be a Christian, you suck." God, I mean the accusation's powerful. We look and say, "Yeah, you're probably right", but you are alive. You're made alive with Christ, number one.

Number two, can you find it? Can you read it? Hey, you can't. It's not that hard. What is number two? Yeah, come on, do your homework. It's not that hard. God made us alive with Christ. What's the next statement? He forgave us, past tense. What? Our sins. All our sins. Now if I wanted play with you, if this is alive, I'd love to play with you and I'd give you a false understanding. He forgave us all the sins we've confessed appealing to 1 John 1:9. And I'm shocked how many seminary students will agree with it.

Yep, yep. He forgives all the sins. You confess, then I make him read it again. This says, he forgave all our sins. And these are the condemning sins that make us dead. He has forgiven them all. So we come into the kingdom of the son of his love. This is coming into the family. It doesn't mean we've cleared up all the relational issues, we need to talk about and make them right, but as far as being in the family all forgiven, there is therefore now no condemnation. And again, you go after this big time. You didn't want this one's too much. Even God can't forgive this. No. He forgave all our sins, as far as coming into the kingdom is concerned. Number two, what's number three Verb. God made us alive, forgave us all our sins.

Number three verb is what? Yeah, it's right there. Canceled. Don't skip past those verbs. Canceled. He having forgiven, God canceled the charge of legal indebtedness. What's that? Genesis 2:17 In the day you eat of the tree of knowing good, bad, you will surely die. He's canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, that stood against us and condemned us. That charge, which is absolutely legitimate and the accusing voice will do it. You got to pay. No, he's canceled it. It's canceled as far as being in the kingdom is concerned. Now relation to those work to be done. But it being in the kingdom, being in light, it's done, done, done, done. He canceled the charge that stood against us and condemned us. We're not under condemnation. That's the third verb.

What's the fourth verb? Taking it away. What do you take away? The charge against me. And then you've got a participle to describe what he did with it. He nailed it to the cross. And in my picture, I think of Jesus on the cross with my sin tattooed on his chest as he's dying on the cross, as paying the penalty for my sin. Canceled the charge. Charge is legit, it's not that the charges, and it's not that I didn't do it, I did, but it's canceled because of the cross.

Number four verb, can you do them backward? What's number four? Canceled. Number three is what? Forgave. Number three is what? It's hard to do it backward. Is it taken away. Number two is what? Forgive. Forgave number one is made alive. Yeah. So he is taken away, canceled, forgiven, alive, going backward.

Number five, verse 15, now he's disarmed. And who is disarmed? Who is disarmed? And who are the powers and authorities? Back to chapter one, who are the powers and authorities? I don't think he's saying that the charge that comes from Caesar, I don't think that he's talking about here. He didn't disarm Caesar. He did disarm Satan and the dark forces. This is talking about a darkness light thing. So he disarmed the spiritual powers and authorities.

Now in a certain sense, he disarmed the governmental powers and authorities, because all they can do is torture and kill us. But I don't think that's what he's talking about here. He has disarmed the powers and authorities, meaning the demonic beings have been disarmed. And what is it that disarmed them fundamentally is because the forgiveness of sin. The soul. That sin that shall die, that has been canceled, and we're not under it because that sin has been taken away. The charge has been nailed to the cross. And that disarms the powers and authorities. The hold they have on us is the sin that we have fundamentally, the sin that we've done. And if that has been canceled, then they're disarmed. Now that's hard to believe when you've got a demon screaming at you, accusing you of stuff that you've actually done. That's why this is so critically important. That's number five.

What's number six? It's a public spectacle. And this is one of those words that with the word background is pretty fun, because the picture here is the conquering general coming into his city, dragging behind him the conquered generals of the opposing army. So the triumphal procession here, the public spectacle, is to bring the conquered powers on a rope behind you on your horse. And we have pictures of that from the ancient world, exactly that thing. And we talk about the public spectacle. He made a public spectacle. He opposed them. He exposes them for their weakness and for their lostness.

So what he's doing in effect is showing who the demons really are, exposing their weakness, really compared to his victory on the cross. So the public spectacle is their defeated powers being pulled behind Jesus on his horse picture.

And number seven, the verb is triumphing. And that's where the triumph is at the cross, where this is all taken care of.

So seven things that are true of every single human being. If you're come from darkness to light, and I just can't tell you how important this is when you're dealing in demonic accusation. Demonic oppression, what are you end up calling it? Because they're the masters of authority. They're the master of condemnation. They're the master of accusation. And when you bring these seven back against them, and I'll tell you how I do that in the final section of the course. You're alive, all sin is forgiven, astounding, all sin is forgiven, charge canceled, nailed to the cross.

You put in this fifth one, triumphs, disarmed disarmed. All their weapons, their effectiveness has been lost. The thing is, they're lost, if we believe this truth, if we believe they're a lie, then the charge has power. Public spectacle, triumph at the cross. That's true of every single one of us in the kingdom of light.

And from the biblical theology perspective, I can't stress enough the importance of these two passages. These are not the only places that say it. You were darkness, you are light, you are under Sata,. You're no longer under Satan, you're under Jesus. He's the spiritual authority of your life. You are redeemed, brought out of the place of bondage, into the place of freedom, forgiven. And the seven here alive, forgiven. It's such a powerful, powerful passage. Canceled, taken away, disarmed, exposed. They are exposed, triumphed at the cross. Hugely powerful. Hugely powerful because it's true. That's the heart of what we're talking about here in this picture. The warfare of the kingdoms.