If you ask many Christians what Jesus did for them at the cross, they would probably answer, ‘He died for my sins’.

As true as that statement is, it doesn’t come close to covering the fullness of what Jesus accomplished for us through His death, burial and resurrection.

Thank God that He did die for my sins, but dying ‘for my sins’ was only part of what Jesus accomplished and if we limit His work to just that aspect, we will miss out on many of the amazing things He accomplished for us.

God wants us to receive and walk in ALL of what He has done for us, not just part of it

Jesus did so much for us, so let’s honour Him by receiving it all, rather than taking part of it and pushing the rest away!

Some Christians are struggling to get free from things, struggling to get answers to prayers in areas of their lives, and all the time they feel like God is holding back or holding out on them. They have the attitude, ‘I am waiting for God to do this or that for me’ (for example they say, ‘I am waiting for God to heal me)

The problem is not that God has not done it, or that we are ‘waiting’ for Him ’to do it’ but rather that we have not gotten the revelation of what He HAS done and not walked in the light of the truth.

John 8:32

:32 “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

There is freedom in truth. The freedom many people seek from things like sickness and suffering will be found as they come to a fuller understanding of the truth. The truth of what Jesus HAS accomplished for us.

The reality of this has not ‘sunk in’ to many people. We have not seen how powerful truth is and how powerful revelation of truth is. We have not grasped the reality of the fact that there is freedom in truth.

We somehow think that there is ‘more to it than that’. We think that we will see the truth, then we will have to sit and wait for God to fulfil it. That itself is an area we have not seen the truth in!

It is a truth that when we come to the place of seeing the truth for what it is, and seeing what Jesus has accomplished for us, we will walk free from many of the things we have been struggling with.

The primary reason that many are not walking in the fullness of what God has done for us In Christ is not that God is holding back or withholding, but rather that we need to learn to receive and walk in it on our end, and that is connected to seeing the truth of it.

Many are trying to get God TO DO what He has already DONE for us In Christ

The reason many Christians are not living and walking free from things that Jesus HAS already delivered them from, is that they have not seen it yet the way God has done it.

They are still waiting for God TO DO it, when the Bible reveals that it IS DONE In Christ.

If the Bible shows that God HAS done it, then that is the truth and if we are still trying to ‘get Him to do it’ then we are not seeing that truth for what it is! It is important that we see the truth ‘the way’ the Bible presents it. God chose to put some things in the specific tense He did, and we need to keep it in that tense.

See the reality of what HAS been accomplished for you, rather than trying to look to God to ‘still do it’. There is freedom is in the revelation of the truth of what HAS already been done for you in Christ.

This subject is a vast one in itself, and one which needs much more attention than it has been given in the church. In this article, we are going to take the time to look at one aspect of the truth of what Jesus has already accomplished for us and how we can walk in it.

Colossians 1:12-13

:12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
:14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

These verses are written to Christians, people who have believed on Jesus and received Him. Notice the tense that is being used.

Does it say that we are still waiting for these things to happen?
Does it say that when we receive Jesus we now have to look to Him ‘to deliver us’?

No, it does not say that, but that is how many Christians see it. Many Christians are walking around ‘waiting’ for God to deliver them, when this passage says He ‘has’ delivered us.

Notice verse 12, ‘…the Father who has qualified us…’

and verse 14, ‘in whom we have redemption.’

Is this telling you something God is ‘going to do’ for you, that you have to believe Him for and pray ‘to happen’,
or is stating something that we already have?

This says, He ’has’ and ‘we have’ it!

If we already have it, then it is ‘ours’, it is in our possession already.
The entire focus of these verses in Colossians is to show us something that God has already done for us (past tense) and that we already have. This is the truth, however despite that fact, many Christians are walking around acting and talking like they don’t have these things yet!

The problem is that instead of believing what God says, we are wanting to ‘see it’ with our physical eyes before we believe what God says is already true.

That is not how God operates. He wants us to believe it is so, because HE said it is, not because we can see it yet. When we believe what God says, the way He said it, we are on our way to walking in the fullness of it, then we WILL ‘see it’. But the believing it comes first with God.

John 20:24-29

:24 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.
:25 The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
:26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!”
:27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
:28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
:29 Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Here, Thomas took the attitude, ‘I will only believe what you are telling me about the resurrection when I see it’.

Was Jesus ‘impressed’ with Thomas’ attitude?
Did Jesus commend Him for taking that approach?

Not at all. Later, Thomas DID get to see Jesus, but Jesus told him off and called him, ‘unbelieving’ (verse 27) for taking the attitude that he had to ‘see it’ first.

God is looking for people who will have enough confidence in Him and His Word that they will see it in the Word and believe it is so, just because God said it is so.

That is a very important part of walking in the truth of it. When you see in God’s Word that God says He ‘has’ delivered you and you choose to take that as truth, and begin to believe and declare that He has delivered you, the reality of your deliverance will soon become visible in the physical realm.

But if you stubbornly reject what God has said and hold to your own idea about it, declaring that you are NOT delivered, because you have not yet ’seen it’ then you are contradicting God.

How can we expect God to move for us when we are pushing His Word away and rejecting what He says?

Not only must we believe God’s Word, but we must also believe it ‘the way He said it’!

God specifically chose to say it the way He said it, in the tense He said it. He declared it ‘as done’ not as something we are still waiting to ‘be done’

There are masses of Christians all over this planet who are still looking to God, ‘to do it’ for them.

Now let me ask you, why should God have to ‘redo’ what He has already done?

When did Jesus accomplish these things for us?

These things were part of what He did at the cross. He ‘did it’ then.

So if we are expecting Him to ‘redo’ them, then we re expecting Him to ‘go back to the cross’ and do it again! Even if He went back to the cross (He isn’t going to!) and REDID it, would we respond any differently to how we are responding now? No we wouldn’t.

No matter how many times Jesus went and ‘did it’ we would still be sitting around saying, ‘I am waiting for God to do it’ because instead of taking Him at His Word we would be looking to what our physical eyes tell us, relying on that as our source of truth instead of God’s Word.
The whole power of Jesus sacrifice on the cross is in that He only had to do it once.
That was enough ‘to do it’ all
It is not something He has to ‘redo’. Whenever a sinner needs to receive salvation, Jesus does not have to go back and die again in order to purchase it for them. No, He has done it, now it is just up to individuals to receive what He has done.

The same is true with any other part of what Jesus did. He has done it, it is accomplished.

What remains is for us to get the revelation from the Word of God of what He has done and receive it. But He doesn’t have to go back and ‘redo’ it every time we need to receive it!

The reality is that ‘it is done’. The work has been accomplished. God has done it and given us these things In Christ, and as we learn the truth of what He ‘has’ done and see what He ‘has’ given us, we can begin to realise, ‘It is mine, I have it’.

God HAS given it to me.
I am not waiting to get delivered, I AM delivered.
I am not waiting to be redeemed, I AM redeemed!

There is such power in this truth. Power to set people free from things they have struggled with for so long.

What has caused Christians to struggle is not that God is holding back, or that they are still waiting for God ‘to do’ something for them, but what has held them back is not seeing the truth that it is ‘already’ accomplished and given to us In Christ.

Let’s return to the passage in Colossians to begin to look at a specific aspect of what Jesus HAS done for us and what ‘is ours’ now already:

Colossians 1:12-13

:12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
:14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

According to this, if you have received Jesus, then God ‘has’ delivered you from the power of darkness.

The kingdom of darkness is the devil’s kingdom. According to the Bible it is a kingdom of death, oppression and suffering. Among other things, it includes sickness, poverty, defeat.

Darkness represents everything the devil is
and everything he stands for,
just like ‘light’ represents everything God is and everything God stands for

Darkness is the realm that man stepped into when he sinned and walked away from God.

All the pain and suffering on this planet has been caused by the fact that man stepped out of God’s realm of light and into the devil’s kingdom of darkness. Darkness and death are connected throughout the Bible (for example: Matthew 4:16; Luke 1:79 )

Does God say that when you become a Christian that you still have to believe Him to deliver you from the power of darkness, or that He has already done it?

As we have seen in this article so far, it is ‘already done’.
Let’s look more in depth at this phrase, ‘delivered us from the power of darkness’

1) Delivered

The Greek word translated here as ‘delivered’ is used throughout the New Testament and means to ‘rescue’ or ‘set free’. The English word ‘deliver’ literally means to release somebody: to free or save somebody from captivity, hardship, or evil

It may come as a shock to some people to realise it, but mankind has been a slave to death and darkness ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the book of Genesis. We like to think we are ‘our own boss’, but the truth is that mankind has lived in spiritual slavery for thousands of years.

Even people who have never been oppressed in the natural world by another person or country HAVE been raised as slaves to sin. This is a spiritual slavery that has governed humanity – in every nation, on every continent and in every period of human history.

Sin and death is an oppressive master, and it brings with it suffering, sickness, poverty, pain etc. All the things that most human beings take for granted as ‘normal’ to life! They are not normal, they are the symptoms of spiritual slavery to sin.

God is not the one who put man into slavery to sin and death. Man did it through his own choices (and has blamed God ever since!).

God never created man to be a slave to sin and death. He told Adam and Eve to NOT sin.

They thought God was trying to be nasty and withhold things from them, they had no idea that God was trying to protect them from enslaving themselves to the cruelty and suffering of sin. But Adam and Eve decided they knew better and they chose the path of sin, and every human being since then has sinned and yielded to the slavery of sin.

Romans 5:17

:17 For if by the one man’s offence death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)

According to this, death ‘reigned’ because of the sin of Adam.
‘To reign’ means to rule or to be in authority
So death was in authority on this planet over mankind. We were ruled by death. It was an oppressive spiritual force that controlled and ruled mankind. No matter how much we tried to get away from it, it was able to hold on to us and keep oppressing us. Nothing we could do could get us away from it, since it was ruling over us.

That is why there has been so much pain and suffering! That is why there has been sickness and death. Not because of God, not because God wanted it here or put it here, but because man opened the door to death and allowed it to get in spiritual authority over humanity and over this planet.

That was NEVER how God intended it to be and as a result, God set a plan in motion to reverse what man had done. That plan was accomplished through Jesus Christ. Jesus did FOR US what we could not do for ourselves.

According to the verse we are studying in Colossians, when we receive Jesus we receive ‘deliverance’ from the power of darkness

As we have said, to be ‘delivered’ means to set free from or rescue. So Jesus set us free from the reign of darkness and death. It is a fact, it is done, not something that He is still ‘going to do’.

If you have received Jesus, then you ‘have been’ delivered.

Romans 8:2

:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

Here in Romans we see the same thing. What God has done for me In Christ, ‘has made me free…’

In Christ, we are no longer under the spiritual rule and slavery of sin and death. That oppressive rule which brought with it sickness, pain, suffering etc.

I was a prisoner, but now I am free, and I am now under a new law, a new reign: the reign of life. Whereas I was once ruled by death, now In Christ I am set free from that, and I am now ruled by life.

Jesus said it this way:

Luke 4:18

:18 “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed

Liberty to the captives is deliverance, freedom. This is not just talking about freedom from a natural oppressor, but from spiritual slavery and oppression to death. This IS GOSPEL truth

2) The power of darkness

What specifically does Colossians 1 tells us that we are ‘delivered’ from?

Colossians 1:13

:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,

What are we delivered or released from?
We are delivered from the POWER of darkness.

There are some awesome truths that we can see in this phrase, ‘the power of darkness’

Different translations of this verse say the following:

Young’s Literal Translation speaks of ‘…the authority of the darkness…’
Conybeare – ‘…the dominion of…’
TCNT – ‘…the tyranny of…’
Berkley’s says, ‘…the CONTROL of…’

The original Greek word used for ‘power’ in this verse is:
‘exousia’ which means: – ‘the Authority / Jurisdiction / RIGHT TO RULE OVER’
The power of darkness here speaks of the area that darkness has jurisdiction over, what darkness has ‘the right to rule’.

What is jurisdiction?

Jurisdiction speaks of the area that a person has authority over.

A policeman in from one country cannot go to another country and try to exercise his authority there because he has no RIGHT or Jurisdiction there. Just because a person is a policeman in one country does not mean he has unlimited authority everywhere. He only has authority where he has jurisdiction. That jurisdiction places limitations upon his authority.

So a policeman from England cannot go and fine people in France for driving on the Right hand side of the road – they are not under English law! So he ‘has no right’ there.
There was a time when we were under the jurisdiction of darkness. Before Christ, darkness had the right to rule us. It had ‘the right’ to oppress and bring sickness, suffering and death, because it was in charge. Death and darkness ruled, and we were it’s subjects.

So we were under it’s oppressive rule.

However, Jesus ‘delivered us’. He set us free from the jurisdiction of darkness. He moved us out of the range of darkness’s jurisdiction.

Now that I am In Christ, death and darkness has no jurisdiction over me. They have no ‘right’ to rule me. In other words, we have been set free from the devils RIGHT to rule over us!

Satan has no right as far as we are concerned. His jurisdiction in our lives has finished once we are In Christ. The devil’s rule is a controlling, oppressive, tyrannical system. It is represented by the oppression he brings into lives.

The Devil controls people through sickness, lack, depression,
but In Christ we are NO LONGER under that system of control!
He has NO RIGHT!

In fact, In Christ, we are now the ones with rights! The devil has no right, we have rights! It is important that we let these truths sink in and become REAL to us!

Let the reality of this statement ‘sink in as you read it:

The devil has ‘no rights’ over me. I am out of his jurisdiction, so he has no right to rule any area of my life. I AM delivered from him

One area the devil ‘rules over’ people:

Acts 10:38

:38 “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

The word ‘oppressed’ here means ‘to exercise dominion over’. In other words to rule over, or to exercise authority over.

Who does this verse says does the oppressing?

‘oppressed by the devil’
God is not the oppressor!

The devil uses sickness to rule over people. It is one of the ways he takes authority over people. They become subject to that condition. Sickness is part of the rule of darkness and death.

Now remember, we as Christians are delivered from the devil’s right to rule us! He has no right to rule me!

That includes through sickness. He has no right to exercise authority over me in the realm of sickness. He has no right to rule me or to bring me under his power using sickness in my body. I have been delivered from his right to do that to me!

Anytime you face something, you need to ask yourself:
‘Is this thing of God / the devil?’
And – ‘Does it have the RIGHT to be in my life?’
If it is of the devil, it has NO RIGHT!!!!

The problem is we are often confused over what GOD is doing and what the devil is doing. For thousands of years people have blamed God for what the devil I behind!

The devil has gotten us to accept things that HE does, because we think GOD is doing them!

The fact is darkness is the devil’s realm, not God’s. Anything that is of darkness and death is not of God but of the devil, and In Christ we have been delivered from it’s power in our lives. We have been set free from it’s right to rule us.

You must allow these truths to sink in and become real, and then begin to declare out of your mouth that you are delivered and that darkness has no right to rule you. You do not have to accept something from the devil that God says has no right to be in your life!
Too often we tolerate and allow things to stay, things in our lives that we have been released from!

If I am free from it, then why is it still in my life?

Really this is the major thing people struggle with. They think that things are going to ‘automatically’ leave them just ‘because’, and if it doesn’t ‘just automatically’ leave, then maybe God doesn’t want it to go.

That kind of thinking is wrong and unscriptural.

Since we ARE delivered from these things, why are so many not living free?

Why are so many Christians still under the oppression of death as death rules them through sickness etc?

Firstly, we have to:

1) see the truth that we are free – get the revelation
2) believe it and begin to declare that it is so in our lives!

We have covered this part above, in the earlier part of this article, now we need to understand this truth as well:

Just because you are legally free from the devil, does not mean he will not TRY to oppress you!

Even thought we are legally free and the devil has no rights in our lives, does not mean that he will not still try and take over! The devil is a rebel – you are legally free from him, but he will still try to undermine your rights and push you around – he will try to bring you under his control, even though he has no right to.

The devil has ‘no right’ to be in your life, but he will still try to if you allow him

He is an outlaw who will try to continue his rule in your life, even though he has no right to. The devil’s rights have been removed, but he still tries to have his way in your life anyway.

This is where many miss it when thing go wrong, or when the devil does things in their lives. They wonder ‘Why is this happening to me, I thought I was delivered In Christ’

You are! But that doesn’t mean the devil is just going to lie back and let you live free.
That is why God has also shown us what to do to get him to leave
God did not say that just because the devil has no right to be there, that he will now just ‘go away’, instead God said that there is something you need to do.

If you allow him to keep ruling over you, the devil will happily stay, even though he has no right to.

But YOU DON’T HAVE TO LET HIM

James 4:7

:7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

James 4:7 commands us to RESIST the devil.

Why would we need to resist him if he was not TRYING to do something?

This is where, if you will keep reading, you will see some things that will help you LIVE free from darkness and the devil’s rule.

Notice that ‘YOU’ are the understood subject here. YOU resist the devil and he will flee. It does not say that God has to resist him for you.

Since the devil ‘has no right’ to be in your life now, you ‘have the right’ to tell him to leave when he tries to persist and stay around. He has no right to be in your life, but if you don’t tell him to leave, he will happily stay.

‘resist him’

Many people really do not know what the Bible means when it says ‘resist the devil’!
The Greek Word translated ‘resist’ here means, ‘oppose, resist, withstand’

The English word ‘resist’ means,

‘refuse to give in to something: to refuse to accept or comply with something (resisted all attempts to force them out of their homes )

It also means, ‘to withstand the action of, to prevent from reaching, to strive against, OFFER OPPOSITION, Refuse to comply!

I like the last 2 of those definitions! You have to offer opposition and to refuse to comply with what the devil is trying to do. That means if he is trying to control you with sickness, you oppose his work in your life. You refuse to comply, and you begin to get in healing scriptures and speak healing.

Resist is not a passive word

I will say it again! ‘Resist’ is NOT a passive Word. It is an active word – it implies action – doing something. This is where many people miss it.

They don’t understand what resisting the devil means. Many think that it means screaming, ‘Devil I resist you…!!’ – that may be part of it, but there is more!

Offering resistance has to do with standing against what he’s trying to do in your life, actively opposing him, the way God told us to in His Word
To resist someone means to actively oppose what they are trying to do!

To NOT allow it!
You are to actively oppose what the devil is trying to do in your life. He has no right!, but he will try to anyway! If you do nothing, he will prevail! You MUST offer active opposition to him!

If someone tries to push me, I am not resisting if I do nothing! If I just stand there and cry about being pushed, then I am not offering any resistance. I am only resisting when I stand my ground and don’t’ allow them to push me! I resist by digging my feet in and standing my ground, not allowing the person to push me.

How long do I ‘resist’ a person who is trying to push me? The answer is, ‘as long as they are pushing me’!

Many people think resisting the devil is a quick prayer, then forgetting about it. They throw up a quick prayer, then just lie back and cry because they are being pushed around!

Where is the resistance in that?

You resist the devil by speaking God’s Word over the situation, rather than allowing what the devil is trying to do to prevail.

To resist, you must make a conscious decision in each circumstance you face whether you are prepared to accept that thing or not! Whether it has a right to stay or not. That is an important key.
Ask yourself does this ‘thing’ have the RIGHT to stay in my life?

If it is of the devil, then it ‘has no right’
Since the devil has no right, then I have the right to be free from whatever it is he is bringing into my life. Now I must oppose him and not allow him to prevail.

Once you have that sorted, you begin to apply resistance to the situation, by believing, speaking and standing on the Word of God – As long as resistance is necessary to change the circumstances!

You have the right to be free. The Word is your freedom in ANY and EVERY circumstance! As you speak it, it will work – but don’t stop speaking the Word!

People say – how long must I resist? Well the answer is simple – as long as you have to!
Resistance is something you do as long as the pressure is being applied to you, and is not simply saying once or twice, ‘devil I resist you’
As long as the devil is pushing, you offer resistance, until you see your breakthrough.

We are the GUARUNTEED winners of every conflict with darkness, as long as we stand our ground, and do it the way God has told us to.

Ephesians 6:10

:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
:11 Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

The word translated ‘stand against’ here is the root word for the one that is used in James 4:7 translated ‘resist’. It is speaking of the same thing.

‘stand against’ speaks of ACTIVE resistance. We are not ‘fighting’ the devil, we are ‘resisting him.

Too often we are too passive in our resistance, that is why we are overcome!

You cannot just be passive when it comes to God’s Word and receiving your victory.
Faith is not a passive force.
You are to actively speak your deliverance
Actively use the Name of Jesus
Actively speak words of faith from God’s Word that oppose what the devil is doing in your life!
When the devil brings sickness, resist him by actively speaking the Word of God on healing.

Ephesians 6:12-18 goes on to list what we call ‘the armour of God’

A soldier can have all his armour on but if he just ‘stands there’ and doesn’t offer active resistance he will be overcome.

What does he do? – he raises his shield and strikes with his sword!

Notice – all the ‘doing words’ (actions) in Ephesians 6:12-18
They are not passive things!

Faith is not a passive force. If you are NOT actively doing something with your faith to stand against the devil, then you are not resisting him and you will be overcome!

You have to resist sickness with the Word
You have to resist poverty with the Word
Resist oppression, attack, discouragement, depression
Don’t just lie there and accept it

The problem is the devil has convinced people that God is doing these things to them and as a result they are not ‘resisting them’. By not resisting them, people are not doing what the Bible tells us to do to get rid of them and they are remaining in people’s lives.
Freedom is your right but the devil wants to take your rights away!

FIGHT for your rights!
I trust that as you have read this article, the truth has dawned on you. I encourage you to reread it, meditate upon the truths we look at here and let them sink into your heart. Then act on them.

Do not just lie back and allow the devil to bring his oppression into your life. You have the right to be free and he has no right to oppress you. His jurisdiction in your life is over, now stand up for what is yours ‘In Christ’ and begin to lay hold of it all.