«　WEEK 2　DAY 4　»

　　Eph. 1:20-22 Which He caused to operate in Christ in raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenlies, far above all rule and authority and power and lordship and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come; and He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church.

　　Fourth, [in order to withstand Satan], we must believe that the ascension of the Lord has put Him far above the power of Satan [Eph. 1:20-22]… The Lord Jesus is already seated in the heavenlies and is far above all the power of Satan. Ephesians 2:6 says, “And raised us up together with Him and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.” This is our position, the position of a Christian. The Lord Jesus is resurrected; He is seated in the heavenlies far above all the power of Satan. We are raised up together with Christ and are seated together with Him in the heavenlies, far above all the power of Satan. (CWWN, vol. 50, “Messages for Building Up New Believers (3),” p. 740)

　　Ephesians 2 shows us that we are seated together with the Lord in the heavenlies. Chapter 6 shows us that we need to stand firm [vv. 11, 13]… To sit means to rest. It means that the Lord has overcome and that we can now rest in His victory… To stand means that spiritual warfare is not a matter of assault but of defense… Because the Lord has overcome completely, we have no need to attack again. The victory of the cross is complete, and there is no further need to attack. Here we see two attitudes: One is to sit, and the other is to stand. To sit is to rest in the Lord’s victory, while to stand is to withstand Satan and to stop him from taking away our victory.

　　Christian warfare is a matter of warding off defeat; it is not a matter of fighting for victory. We have already overcome. We fight from the position of victory, and we fight to maintain our victory… We fight from victory; victory is something that is in our hands. The warfare spoken of in Ephesians is the warfare of the overcomers. We do not become overcomers through fighting. We need to distinguish between these two things.

　　How does Satan tempt us? He causes us to forget our own position and our victory. He blinds our eyes to our own victory. If we give in to his tactics, we will feel that victory is far away and beyond our reach. We must remember that the victory of the Lord is complete… Once we believe, we overcome. Satan is defeated, and we have overcome in Christ. Satan wants to steal away the victory which we have gained. His work is to taunt us to secretly find out if we still have the faith. If we do not know that victory is already ours, we will fail. But if we know our victory, his work will fail.

　　Therefore, we counter the work of Satan with the work of the Lord Jesus. We withstand Satan through the Lord’s manifestation, death, resurrection, and ascension. We are standing today upon the accomplished work of the Lord. We do not need to try to overcome in any way when Satan attacks us. Once we have the slightest thought of trying to overcome, we have failed, because our position is wrong. How great is the difference between a person who tries to overcome and one who withstands by knowing that he has already overcome. To withstand the devil means that we withstand him by the victory of Christ.

　　This matter indeed needs revelation. We need to see the manifestation of the Lord. We need to see His death, resurrection, and ascension. We need to know all these things. As Christians, we must learn to withstand the devil… May God be gracious to us so that we may all have such a faith. May we have faith toward the four things the Lord has accomplished for us, and may we exercise strong faith to withstand Satan and reject his work upon us. (CWWN, vol. 50, “Messages for Building Up New Believers (3),” pp. 740-742)

　　Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 43, ch. 74; CWWN, vol. 27, “The Normal Christian Faith,” chs. 13-14