Isa Msg 52

Truth:
1. Col. 2:15 says that while Christ was hanging on the cross, the Father stripped off the rulers and authorities, the evil angelic powers.
2. When Greece under Alexander was fighting against Persia, the two princes also were fighting in the air.
3. Spoil signifies prey, and prey denotes captives taken in a war.
4. God the Father was the Great and also the Strong, and God the Son was the Fighter.
5. Christ vanquished and captured them through His death and resurrection and took them to the heavens in His ascension.
6. The Father acknowledged the Son's victory and divided to Him a portion of the spoil.
7. Neither the Father nor the Son received the ultimate benefit from such a demonstration. Eventually, the Body of Christ, the church, gained all the gifts, all the spoil.
8. The Father was pleased to receive such a gift, and He returned us to the Son, and the Son made us a gift through transformation with His resurrection life. Then He gave us as gifts to the church in our locality to do the work of the New Testament ministry, that is, to build up the Body of Christ.
9. According to Eph 1:7, we were redeemed into Christ not only as a person but also as a sphere and as an element.
10. Christ continues His ministry in the heavens. In executing such a ministry, He is the Lord in the heavens, the Christ, the Head, and the great High Priest.
11. The lampstands among which Christ is walking are not on the earth but in the heavens.
12. The old creation is like an egg, and the new creation is like a little hen.
13. The 4 stages of God's old creation are 1) the age before the law, from Adam to Moses; 2) the age of the law, from Moses to the first coming of Christ; 3) the age of grace, from Christ's first coming to His second coming; 4) the age of the kingdom, from Christ's second coming to the end of the thousand-year kingdom.

Life experience/Application:
1. We are all gifts given by Christ to the church. We too were once Satan's captives. Then Christ defeated Satan and captured us and brought us to the Father; and the Father gave us to the Son. The Son made us a gift by transforming us with His resurrection life.
2. Christ is the Leader to the unbelievers and the Savior to us, the believers.