Condemnation is the word used in English. In the Greek the word can mean "self condemnation" which simply means counting oneself judged out, or beating oneself up.
Condemnation is a common problem to most Christians. All of us have battled and suffered because of it.
We all know somehow that we shouldn’t but we seemingly keep getting ambushed by this. The truth is that we don’t need to suffer at all because Jesus paid the price.
If you have surrendered your life to Jesus and asked Him to come in and live inside you, you are justified by His Presence and Life in you. He died in your place to cancel all that can accuse you. This transformation sets us up to live in His righteousness and in the peace and power of His Life.
The place of resting in Him that we discussed in the previous session allows His Life to flow through us, so that we are living as He did, attentive to what our Father is saying and doing, able to weave what our Father is doing into all that life on this planet is.
As He (Jesus) is, so are we in this world. 1 John 4:17
We need to take on board the size of this.
You didn’t get a little drop of Jesus when you received Him,
He came to live in you in all His size power and glory.
What stops Him flowing out through you is your perceived limitations. This is on a heart level not an intellectual one, although we can decide what we will believe and that affects our heart belief.
Our Father sees us as Jesus potential people walking about on this planet, and if we do too we will be far more ready to listen for information about what He is doing and talking to us about.
What does He look like? Revelation 1:13-16 Here is the present glorified risen Jesus.
Matthew 17:2,3 (Transfiguration on the mountain) Three disciples are given the ability to see in the spirit here, or they would not have been able to see Elijah and Moses. They see Jesus as He really was on earth. Does this look any different to the portrayal in Revelation? Not really, so He has always been this, - as He walked the earth as well, which gives us a pretty clear picture of the person who lives in our spirit. As He is, so are we – IN THIS WORLD!
Another view of Him is in Revelation 19:11-14 (the rider on the white horse)
The Jesus we see here speaks swords, which we do also. This picture speaks of His absolute authority in every realm. Just as He said in Matthew 28 “All authority in heaven and earth is given to Me. Therefore go.”
Our authority is expressed just as His, in the words we speak. What we speak out into the heavens, over the earth, over mankind and over each other carries authority when it is spoken from the heart and according to how we hear from our Father. This is authority that transforms, and gives angels the authority they need to assist us and mankind around us.
The good shepherd gives His life to the sheep. John 10:11 can be translated in two ways, both of them true.
The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep, or to the sheep.
All who Have surrendered to Jesus have this Life of His inside them ready to be lived in and from.
What that looks like, Jesus taught in John 15:5 – what happens when we graft in a branch from another vine is that we get the flavour of the branch with the life force and power of the main vine. In verses 7 and 8 we are told that the fruit of this vine is answered prayer and in verse 8 this fruit is so that our Father is glorified.
Jesus goes on to talk about the rule of Love, and that we are chosen by Him and ordained to go and bring forth this fruit.
Michael Arndt 31/3/2016
Part 2 The Heavenly Courtroom
The reason I am hammering at condemnation is that :
a) Its Satan’s favourite tool against the saints, so we need to get this under control in our personal lives and walk
b) Our Father is beginning to extend His arm to catch up His family into what He is doing. His arm will also compel the lost into the Kingdom and we need to be ready to help look after a few new saints, deal with the typical problems of growing belief and stimulate more spiritual growth
1Jn 3:1-21
(1) Behold what manner of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when He shall be revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
(3) And everyone who has this hope on him purifies himself, even as that One is pure. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was revealed that He might take away our sins, and in Him is no sin.
(6) Everyone who abides in Him does not sin. Everyone who sins has not seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as that One is righteous.
(8) He who practices sin is of the Devil, for the Devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was revealed, that He might undo the works of the Devil. Everyone who has been born of God does not commit sin, because His seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.
(10) In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the Devil: everyone not practicing righteousness is not of God, also he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; not as Cain who was of the evil one, and killed his brother. And for what did he kill him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's things were righteous.
(13) Do not marvel, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brothers. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Everyone hating his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has everlasting life abiding in him.
(16) By this we have known the love of God, because He laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother having need, and shuts up his bowels from him, how does the love of God dwell in him? My children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
(19) And in this we shall know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him, that if our heart accuses us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not accuse us, we have confidence toward God.
Condemnation is rooted in fear, and fear is defeated by our Father’s love. 1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in Love (Agape); but complete love (agape) casts out fear: ...”
Fear can only exist in the self part of us. It does not exist in the spirit part of us because that is where His Love lives. Anytime we connect with our spirit, we find that fear loses its impact and we step back into agreement with Jesus Life and Love on the inside which changes all our perspectives. Worship does this and there are other keys we can use to produce this shift at any stage of our day. This is walking in the light 1 John 1:7
His Love is the only complete love which provides righteousness for us when we least deserve it. When we allow ourselves to become certain of this, we can counter any accusation that comes.
In Revelation 12:10 we see satan called the accuser of the brethren who accuses us before God day and night. The word accuser here in the Hebrew means complainant at law. How does that work?
God is a God of Justice
Everything our Dad is, He is infinitely. He requires Justice because He is infinitely Just. The enemy uses this quality of His to bring accusations against man, knowing that many men do not understand the weight of accusations that make them feel lethargic and disempowered, let alone understand that they have freedom in Jesus having paid the price. God's just nature hears the accusation and requires an answer, which sadly many do not give in their ignorance, and remain in their condemnation.
Before Jesus resurrection
In Job 1 we see that there are gatherings of the “sons of God”, among whom Satan can mingle in their gatherings before God. (this expression "sons of God" may not mean literal sons as the expression is wide in its application and can mean Angels and other created races, subjects or nations), forming the Court of Heaven on a regular basis set somewhere in creation.
After Jesus Resurrection
However that was in Job’s time, before God dwelled in man as He does now. Now since the resurrection of Jesus, God dwells in us, so satan does not have to wait for the gatherings, he can accuse here on earth and do it constantly. What I understand is that the courts of heaven are operating here and we have satan who prosecutes us all the time. When we understand that we are then in the place of a defence attorney, it makes it a very simple matter to rebuff every accusation, even when there are mistakes forming grounds for accusation.
It is important to realise that our true position is not under the law of sin and death, but under the law of spirit and life in Jesus Christ. When we receive Him as Lord and saviour, a transaction takes place inside us, making mistakes that were sin and producing death, into a Family discipline matter. Holy Spirit now deals with us accordingly and will show us what we should do about our mistakes. Mostly we say sorry to our Dad and receive His forgiveness already paid for. He will show what we need to do about it and it always includes forgiving ourselves so we don’t get caught in condemnation traps. (Don’t allow satan to take you on “witch hunts” through your past.)
You exist seated in the throne in Jesus Christ and here on earth.
John 3:13, Ephesians 2:6. You have the rights to dual existence and are able to operate in both places in the spirit. That brings the courts of heaven wherever you are and this is part of the battle you are in.
Accusations form burdens that rest on us in the spirit and we feel much lighter and clearer when they are dealt with and gone.
This all intersects with our thoughts. Your own mind is where the battle is and where it is won. The moment you speak out that the price is paid in full in the person of Jesus Christ, the accusation loses its legs and slithers out of the room. You do this for yourself and you do it for others as you pray for them understanding prophetically that there are accusations burdening them.
How does this work?
My experience with this is to find myself in prayer for someone and seeing into the spirit. I am behind the person who is standing in front of me facing the throne, which is large and in front of them. I am both standing with them and in the throne. Hard to explain except that in the spiritual realm we can do that. It is our dual existence of both here on earth and in the throne in Jesus at the same time.
I usually see the burden of accusation piled up on the person’s shoulders weighing them down. I usually see the accusing demon standing to the right of the person about 10 feet or 3 meters away, facing the throne and accusing, demanding that they pay for their sin.
I know each time in my knower that the sin they are accused of has been brought upon them by traps this demon has laid for them and is responsible for. As intercessor for this person I find myself in two roles, firstly the fact that it is paid for - pointing to the atonement through Jesus (I am usually praying for a Christian), and the second role is to point out the justice of the situation and the responsibility of the demon in laying the traps and beguiling the person into the situation/accusation(s).
Justice is satisfied in the atonement immediately and the weight of accusation is removed from the person. Each time I then state the truth about the demon accusing, there is an immediate fleeing “stage right” of the demon and the spiritual “air” clears.
Applications
When I next talk to that person there is usually a freedom they experienced around the time I was praying and I can tell them why and how to stop being given the “run around” by demons. In other words discipling can come out of this.
I don’t know how to provoke this experience. I just find myself there. There are principles to take out of this that apply in all prayer and in the ways we live and hold authority. It can boil down to this. Either we believe in who we are and carry that in Grace and Mercy, or we don’t.
It is difficult to hold one’s own place in the spirit if we are not fully convinced by revelation of the price being paid for us, - for all of those who have surrendered their lives to Jesus and invited Him to be their Lord.
It is difficult to operate as a courtly representative if we do not know by personal experience and revelation how our Dad loves us, and loves all those who are His. The deeper our revelation of His Love for us, the better we represent Him, ourselves and others in the spiritual and the natural realms.
(I have not dealt with how to pray in this manner for non Christians and for Cities, areas, territories and Nations. I do so by listening to what Dad thinks about and has in His heart, then applying Mercy and His desired outcomes in each. This sounds simple until you hear His heart in this place of prayer. I wish you depth of revelation, knowing and understanding on this journey.)
Michael Arndt 6/4/2016