Our Father established creation upon certain laws; hard and solid facts that hold creation in place, determined the terms of our relationship with Him, and decided how He will manifest Himself in our lives. Principles such as gravity function to keep planets in orbit around the sun and prevent us from flying off earth into space. Laws such as entropy ensure that order shall tend over time to become disordered - that explains the condition of my kitchen cabinets, and some mornings, the way my body feels.

Father set up the Kingdom of God with principles as well! Covenant is the legal and binding aspect of what we can expect is ours through this life-and-death agreement between God and man. We know that our blessed covenant through Jesus Christ supplies us with all we need: reconciliation with Abba Father and relationship with Him, with our beloved brother Jesus, and with our precious Comforter, Holy Spirit. Through this covenant relationship Abba promised to meet all our need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Everything is through Jesus, but it is ours because God promised. Our need includes: relationship, love, good health, water, food, shelter, and victory over the enemy - the accuser who desires to dis-fellowship us with the Father. He seeks to do that by enticing us into slavery to sin. But Jesus has set us free from bondage to sin as we continue in His word and do as He said

It is the precious, beyond-value-blood-of-Christ that paid for ALL our sin and iniquity (crooked bent toward evil). So every sin I committed in the past is forgiven because I have trusted in the blood of Christ for that cleansing. But, hallelujah, every sin I commit in the future is forgiven as well because of that same precious blood and my trust in its cleansing, freeing power. That doesn't mean I can dawdle off into the future committing sin thoughtlessly. Heavens no! I'm still held to conviction, confession, and repentance, turning back to God's way whenever I stumble. But the threat of my falling is no longer held over my head as some impending wall between the Father and me. It is not my righteous acts which make me righteous - oh no - it is the righteousness of Christ and my trusting completely upon what He accomplished in my place that brings me into right standing with God.

This is an unshakeable Kingdom truth. Nothing can change this fact. Now I can go boldly before the throne of grace confident in my relationship with Father. Now I can stand before Him without (running away) fear -- but instead in awe, trembling, and respectful fear of my Abba. Now when the Accuser of the Brethren stands before the throne with me in heavenly places and says, "She sinned and this gives me legal right to enter her life and require payment," I can address my Father with this Kingdom truth. "Yes, Lord, I have sinned. I have fallen short of Your glory, but Jesus paid for my debt. He paid for it at the cross and the debt is wiped out, nailed to the cross with Him. I am debt-free and I give Jesus praise for His courage and provision."

I can turn to the Accuser and declare this Kingdom truth to him. "Enemy, I plead the Blood of Jesus. The Blood paid for my debt and you can extract nothing more. Because of Jesus you no longer have authority in my life. You cannot take my health. You cannot take my finances. You cannot take my family members. You cannot take my relationship with Almighty God. I humble myself before Him, submit myself to Him, and resist you. You are already defeated! Not only has Jesus defeated you and have authority over you, but it is my covenant right to be free from your power."

Jesus gave us His authority on earth, to establish the Kingdom on earth. We are His ambassadors, representing His desires to all people. We can't do this very well if the enemy is constantly distracting us, making us pay a debt that is already paid-in-full. However, just like at court in the land, if we don't know our rights evil people can come against us and demand payment for that which is not rightfully theirs. This is because satan is behind their actions in the earthly realm just as he tries the same thing against us in the heavenly realm. We must know our legal, covenant-birthed rights in order to stand the Accuser down. Just as it is wisdom on earth to have a good attorney with you in court - it is part of the promise to Abraham that we, his descendants, have the Holy Spirit who acts as our Advocate (or Counselor) before Father and the accusations of satan.

We must take our covenant-held position against satan and maintain our God-given rights. He can only steal, kill, and destroy us if we don't fight back with the truth. We must enforce his defeated position until he is convinced we know the truth of the matter and are unwilling to surrender. That's victory! That's the victory Jesus won for us and why we can have peace in the face of all odds.

If that's too complicated, it's just this simple. Satan is whipped, but he's a liar and bully that will take what he can as long as we don't stand up against him. Sometimes we have to stand over and over, but he was already defeated by Jesus. We have to convince him we believe it! The confidence we have to stand against him is in Jesus' victory, not in ourselves. Not in how good we are, but in Jesus alone and how good He is. We have a covenant agreement to hold before the enemy as reminder and we have the blood of Christ as seal of the debt being paid-in-full. We need to look at that continually and not our own behavior when we stand against the enemy. That's our weapon - the Truth of God. This eliminates our fear of harm and defeat because satan must do what God says. Without faith it is impossible to please God and this is an exercise of our faith that God is testing to see bear fruit. When we grasp this and exercise it daily, we will see mighty things happen in our lives and the lives of those God allows us to enter for His purposes.

Hallelujah and praise Jehovah God Almighty, forevermore!

Scriptural references listed in order:

Hebrews 8:6; 12:22-24; Romans 5:10-11; 2Cor. 1:20-22; Philippians 4:19; Romans 8:2; 8:39; 3 John 1:2; 2Cor. 2:q4; Romans 8:2; 1 Peter 3:18; Col. 1:21-22; Romans 4:7-8; Col. 2:13-14; 1 John 2:12; 1 John 1:9; 2Cor. 7:9; Heb. 4:16; 10:19; Acts 9:31; Phil 2:12; Col. 2:14-15; Rev. 12:10; Eph. 4:32; 1 John 2:12; Heb. 10:19; 1 John 1:7; Col. 1:13; James 4:7; Col. 2:15; 1Cor. 15:27; Eph. 1:21; Luke 10:19; 2Cor 5:20; Romans 8:26; Eph 1:13; Phil 4:1; Eph 6:11-12