The payment must be made

May 22, 2004

Personal Narrations

Joel Akin

Calgary, Alberta

One of the things God showed me is that there are always payments to be made and prices to be paid. Adam and Eve were granted dominion over all of nature and creation. As God put it they inherited the keys or should I say granted the keys. Like a father who buys a Porsche for his son so God created everything in the universe and then handed it to his children. In this case Adam and Eve. With that inheritance came everything though in the beginning God placed what I can only describe as certain limits on mankind. Or at least the Bible does not mention such things as access to the stars and planets at this time. But I really believe those were also in mankind's dominion. As you know there were two trees. One which lead to death and one which provided life. Those two trees were choices that mankind had to make. I wondered tonight what would have happened if Satan had never fell.

Would God still have created mankind? And would God have needed to place the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden? Whatever the reason Satan knew that the only way to obtain the keys to the kingdom was to pay a price. In this case he offered knowledge of good and evil. Who knows if Adam and Eve fully understood the consequences of their decision. What we do know is that they had to decide if they were willing to sell their birthright for a worthless bill of goods. As God indicated to me it is not the offer nor even the consideration which is the sin. It is the acceptance and agreement. At the point they partook of the fruit they literally chose to give up their dominion over nature and their fellowship with God. In so doing they forsook the opportunity for life. When they partook they handed the keys over to a new owner. Just as God was the very essence of life so Satan's nature was that of death.. And now that mankind had sold the 'cow' for some magic beans, as I like to put it, so they came under the authority and power of death and sin.

Because of the new owners twisted nature, nature became corrupted and death, hell and the grave became its new owners. And thus our very DNA became twisted and corrupted and death came into its essence and death became its offspring. But this curse went even deeper until the very soul came under the authority of death. Not only was mankind in bondage to a physical death but when their body died death came and took their soul captive as well. So even the righteous had no recourse but to be taken to Paradise but not heaven. God may have had visiting rights in sheol but no legal rights to release them from this bondage. Death had final say and death took all of mankind into his bosom. Which is one reason there was such a roar over Moses' body. Because God wanted him and his body and Satan did not like to relinquish any whether in body or soul.

So now this brings us to the purpose of Christ. What is so ironic is Satan did not really understand the purpose of Christ's coming. He truly believed that Christ was going to set up His kingdom here on earth. Christ had already proved his authority over Satan and in the case of Lazarus had proven He had authority over death. Though He had but 12 proven disciples they too were showing their authority over Satan. Such a man, if allowed to continue, would surely create such a kingdom that Satan could not counter. And so Satan did what was in his very nature. He underestimated God and fell right into Gods plan and set about to put Christ to death. What is so ironic is if Satan had known what he was doing he would never have crucified Christ.

Lets look for a moment at what we have until Christ's death. We have a system that is not working. A system based on blood sacrifice of animals. But this system is nearly impossible for anyone to keep. There are so many rules and regulations that only the most perfect of men could keep it. And those who did so based their sacrifice on fear. Even Job mentioned this when he set up sacrificing for his children because he feared they may have cursed God in their hearts.

In addition mankind could not really come near God because of their sin. And God could not come nigh man because they also were under the curse. So God had to provide a perfect, righteous, and holy sacrifice once and for all. But because life was in the blood, the blood had to be shed not just for mankind but also to remove the curse on nature and all of creation. But yet again there was a difficulty. As God could not take back dominion until he paid the price. And that price had to be willingly accepted by Satan. Now of course Satan cheated mankind out of his dominion so in a way God cheated Satan by not telling him what He was up to. For when Satan had Christ put to death the very price was paid by the life which was in His blood. But not only that but because Christ submitted himself to death he was then able to gain access to hell and the grave.

I can just imagine how it must have been when Christ awoke because He not only was able to point out that the price for mankind was paid but Satan had to return to Him the keys not just to the dominion of all mankind and creation but the very keys to hell and the grave. So death which had held the righteous captive now had to bow to Christ and Christ then took the captives and gave them freedom. Now there is more to this but I am simplifying it.

So I have wondered why then Satan still has so many in dominion. If Christ came to bring us life and more abundant life then why are so many billions still under bondage.

As God showed me and has been teaching me 'first in the spiritual then in the natural.'

When mankind sold their birthright they inherited the wind or in this case death and Satan became their father and lord. A terrible thing to say but true. As God has been showing me the very first step for mankind to have life and a return to fellowship with Him have been restored through Christ. But mankind still has to chose who they will serve. And because they are born, still under the curse, that choice has been made for them. God asked me a critical question. Why does Satan emphasize the natural man and the flesh so much? And the answer is because he does not want men to understand their spiritual nature. As long as he can get us to focus on our flesh so he can prevent us from learning the truth about life.

But in some case Satan seriously underestimates the power of God and continues to fall under Gods power. I hate to use myself as an illustration but God showed me this so I guess its okay. Satan did everything he could to destroy me and to get me to chose death. That is true. Where Satan went wrong is that he did not believe that I would overcome and chose life. And as I continued to develop in my relationship with God I chose more life and more until I had overcome Satan himself. Now that can only come about by putting on the mind of Christ.

But that is not just the key for myself but for all mankind. By choosing to put aside the flesh they are granted life but first in the spiritual. That is the key to overcoming this world. You can argue all you want about different methods of overcoming but the moment you fight in the natural you lose. Because this battle is not fought with hands you can see but the hands of faith which you cannot see. So the men who fight with natural hands against spiritual powers are destined to fight a losing battle.

So how do we overcome in the natural? Only by overcoming first in the spiritual. For everything there is a price to be paid. One cannot overcome spiritually until they pay the price. What is that price? Allowing God to put our flesh to death, reduce the natural man to submission and raising up the spiritman within us. And the spiritman cannot rise up until we have put on the mind of Christ.

So it becomes a vicious circle where the Christian realm fights with natural hands that which they cannot see. And Satan pushes the natural man to keep fighting until the Christian becomes bewildered and lost.

Ask any Christian how they obtain this authority and you'll get a dozen replies. I know as I was raised in the church all my life. No one knows anymore and does not know how to fight.

Yet to begin to see results in the natural we must first fight and overcome in the spiritual. And as long as we ignore this fact and fight in the natural realm our prayers and efforts will be ineffective.