I attended the Ascend the Summit Leadership Intensive led by Barry Maracle this weekend in Ottowa, Canada. It was a powerful time of worship, fellowship, teaching, and encouragement among leaders in the Body of Christ. We began Saturday morning with a time of corporate prayer, which consisted of the group of about 80 to 100 believers all praying in tongues for 10-15 minutes and then sharing what the Lord spoke to us and/or showed us. During that time I had an encounter with the Lord that impacted me deeply and that I want to share with you.
Right as we began praying in the spirit, I opened my heart with expectation to perceive whatever the Lord wanted to show me during that time of prayer. Immediately I had a vision of angels opening the main double doors of the room we were in from the outside. They began marching into the room in two columns, splitting off to the right and to the left immediately as they entered. They were each carrying a tower shield, and as they filed into the room they began to line the walls facing inward in what appeared to be a type of protective honor guard. After the entire room was surrounded by an angel army, I saw Jesus walk in, flanked by another unidentified spirit to His left rear. Jesus looked very different than I normally see Him because when He comes to me He is generally wearing a robe of some kind but is dressed what I would call more casually. This time, however, He was wearing armor and carried Himself very differently. He walked into the room and then walked to the front of the room, then turned and took a seat on a golden throne on a small dais that had appeared there.
After Jesus sat down, I saw what I can only describe as enemies that were brought before Him by other angels in attendance there. They were brought cowering in a heap in front of Him, and then He passed judgment upon them right then and there. But what struck me wasn’t that Jesus was there in power or in victory, but that the enemies before Him were ours—mine and everyone else in the room. And it wasn’t that I could see specific people that I recognized, because the truth is that I have no enemies as far as people are concerned—or at least none that I consider enemies, even if someone else might choose to consider themselves that way toward me. What I was seeing was spirits that have arrayed themselves against us, and they were on the floor in front of Jesus, captured, powerless, and fully defeated. In that moment a song lyric ran through my mind from a song called “Defender”, which goes “You go before I know that you’ve even gone to win my war. You come back with the head of my enemies, you come back and you call it my victory.”
I have never before had Jesus reveal Himself to me in this manner, but it was powerful and impactful—because what I was seeing was Jesus having in front of Him every enemy, every spiritual force of darkness that had arrayed itself against us, as captured and conquered foes. We had only just begun to pray, so it clearly was not a result of hours of intercession or some other spiritual work that any of us in the room had done. It was because Jesus has already conquered every foe that we could ever face, and He was showing this to me in that moment by revelation.
Now, one can easily make this same argument theologically, as the Bible directly states as much, saying things like “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” (Colossians 2:15). What made this encounter so powerful wasn’t because it was theologically accurate, although it was that too. What made it powerful for me in that moment was the effect it had on my heart and mindset. You see, it’s not that I didn’t already know or was unfamiliar with the concept of Jesus as a conqueror and overcoming king. Revelation 19:16 shows us a picture of Jesus riding in victory on a white horse with his position of King of King and Lord of Lords tattooed on his thigh as the Angelic Host absolutely dominate in front of Him. What made it impactful was that in that moment, it went from being a mental concept to an understanding that went beyond simple knowledge.
Every enemy we will ever face, every problem that rises up in front of us, Jesus has already overcome it. That doesn’t change the fact that sometimes there is still a process for us to walk out to apprehend the manifestation of that victory and to enforce it in the earth realm. However, what it does mean is that we have zero reason to do battle in the heavens, to war against cosmic forces of darkness and fallen elohim as though they are somehow equal with us. It means that we, coming from a position of complete and total victory that Jesus has already apprehended on our behalf, simply crush the enemy under our feet. We don’t need to toil in war trying to fight a battle where victory has already been determined on our behalf and upon which judgment has already been passed upon our enemies. It means we are not coming up against problems with the mindset of trying to deal with them as though there is any chance we could ever be overwhelmed under them. No, it is impossible for us to be overwhelmed by an enemy that was already defeated, captured, and paraded in front of us. It is entirely possible for us to have to deal with spiritual enemies and enforce God’s government and dominion upon them. But it is impossible for us to need to defeat them in some sort of equal combat because nothing about the situation is equal. We are not dealing with them on a level playing field. We aren’t coming at problems with any sort of fairness but rather from a position of total dominance. When difficult circumstances arise it can be easy to feel like a victim. It can be easy to feel like we are being crushed by the weight of problems. But Jesus has already overcome every enemy we would ever face, has already conquered them, captured them, and passed judgment upon them in front of us. All we have to do is change our mindset to understand and perceive the victory that we already have and then from that position of complete and total domination, enforce that in the present.
Now, to some, this might sound like double-speak—that Jesus already defeated every enemy and yet we still need to enforce it somehow. The key is in perspective. If I believe I have to fight a battle in order to win, then I will walk onto the battlefield to fight on equal terms. But nothing about any situation we will ever face is on equal terms unless we foolishly choose for it to be that way. We don’t deal with problems as equals. We deal with problems as royalty, and even as problems rise up in front of us we see Jesus, our elder brother, returning from the battlefield having already done the heavy lifting, and having brought the opposition in front of us where we can now deal with them from a position of power and authority. You see, while it might not feel like this perspective changes much about how we deal with problems, the truth is it changes everything. Our perspective becomes our reality, and when we choose Heaven’s position on a matter and we come into agreement with Heaven’s plan we can more easily see it manifest in the earth according to that divine blueprint. Our perspective determines our experience. Whether we get to experience Heaven’s reality is based on what we believe about Him and therefore what we apprehend in a moment, but Jesus is already the conquering King and nothing will ever change that.
