Jesus shares His authority with us not just to win battles against the enemy, but to spiritually govern the world with Him. Every community, region and nation is designed to prosper under the spiritual government of the body of Christ.

Ephesians 2:4-7

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

 In ancient times, villages and cities were governed by elders who would gather at the gates and govern together, making decisions on who and what could enter their domain. Like elders at the gates, we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This means that we have the authority to bind the powers of darkness and release the blessings of God in our communities.

An Army for a Government

As we have seen, God is raising up an army of believers who will displace the powers of darkness that currently possess the gates of our lands and reign over our communities. In their wake, a host of believers need to act as elders as possess the gates of their towns and cities.

The word elders speaks of mature believers that come together as a group. Like the small groups in the net or the units in the army, these groups of elders must come together in obedience to God’s design and truly love one another. As they obey God together, these elders will dominate the spiritual realm of their specific region, and so release the rule and reign of Christ’s love.

Natural Government

In recent times, the body of Christ has been so divided and distracted that we have not possessed the gates of our lands. Instead of personally taking up our role of spiritual governance, too many of us have fallen for the lie that all our nation needs is the right political party in power. We have then focused our energy on promoting the right party, and for many people, politics dominates their thinking and conversation far more than the King and His kingdom.

The enemy is moving in the political sphere to kill, steal and destroy, and we need righteous people to rise up in politics and stand against the destructive ideologies that the enemy is using to devastate our societies. This is an essential part of God’s strategy to establish His kingdom in our land and we need to support those believers who have been called and anointed to work in our natural government. However, we also need to accept that no human government alone can ever lead a nation to righteousness. The reason for this is that all the problems in society stem from the flesh nature in people working in partnership with demonic powers. Because love always sets people free, God Himself cannot force people to love. Instead He invites us to choose between life or death, love or selfishness. In the same way, no government can force people to embrace their design of love. On the contrary, worldly governments are based on legalism and control, and this gives them only three mechanisms to shape society: education, incentives, and the threat of punishment. Education and incentives are used by governments to get their citizens to willingly submit to their ideologies. To limit the destructive expressions of people’s flesh nature, governments use the threat of punishment. Wherever this threat is removed, we see the selfish nature unleashed and people start hoarding, stealing, abusing, and destroying one another. The painful truth is that no government can deliver people from their selfish nature or fill their hearts with love. And if a government cannot lead a single person into their design as an individual, we can be sure that they cannot lead a whole society into its corporate design.

The battle against the spiritual powers of darkness is the same. Most secular governments deny the spiritual dynamics of life and instead view every problem as a situation that can be solved with policy and money. By ignoring the forces of darkness, those in government are defenseless against their influence, regardless of which side of the political spectrum they fall. Unless they have a strong relationship with Jesus, they will almost certainly partner with these dark powers to shape the laws and culture of society. Our calling is to pray for all our leaders in government, that they would be set free from the influence of the enemy so they can embrace God’s love and calling for their lives.  

People only look to worldly governments to lead them because they can see no other solution. But if people understood the spiritual dynamics that are truly shaping our corporate lives, they would cry out for the body of Christ to take back the gates of the land. We alone have the power to displace the demonic principalities that are currently dominating our communities. And if we are to answer this cry, we must come together and act in corporate spiritual authority. Now is the time.

This article uses material from And He Will. Get your free copy and let the journey into love begin!