Tony Evans - The Courtroom of The Kingdom
Many of us have been ripped off. The enemy has successfully stolen from us that which God has intended for us. Many of us are living lives under the cloud of spiritual theft. He perpetually has stolen our joy. He perpetually steals our relationships. He perpetually steals our mental and emotional wellbeing. He steals our progress in life. He steals the worst thing he could steal of all our hope. Our goal through this series is for you to reclaim your spiritual authority. For you to get back what is legitimately yours. For you to be able to ascertain, identify and recapture that which God has intended for you. But in order for that to happen, in order for me, you, and us because this speaks collectively as well, to no longer be ripped off in our homes, with our children, in our marriages, on our jobs, with our wellbeing physically and mentally.
In order for that ripping off not to continually occur, we are going to have to understand and enact God's perspective. There's one phrase that if you ever understand, this one phrase found in Daniel chapter 4 verse 26, it explains everything because the last phrase says, "I want you to recognize that it is heaven that rules". I love the way Psalm 103 verse 19 says that God is sovereign and his sovereignty rules over all. That God is in charge even when things are in disarray. When you understand that it changes your priority. We saw last time that Daniel prayed and the moment his prayer got to heaven, immediately was answered, but he found himself caught in a cosmic conflict and that cosmic conflict was seeking to not give him what God had for him.
That is the answer was being blocked. Because the moment you begin to operate and prioritize the spiritual, you will have inserted yourself in what I call the angelic conflict, the conflict in the spiritual realm that affects the physical realm in which we live. Daniel chapter 7 verse 9 says, "I was looking," Daniel says, "Until thrones were set up and the ancient of days took his seat. His vestiture was like white snow and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames. Its wheels were a burning fire. A river of fire was flowing, and coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands were attending him; and myriads upon myriads were standing before him. The court set, and the books were opened".
Don't miss this. The Ancient of Days, God Almighty comes into his throne. The throne is where the king rules. But we discover in verse 10 that the throne room, stay with me here, is also a courtroom. Because he says the court was seated, and the books were opened. God is sitting on a throne but the ruler is also the judge 'cause he is in a courtroom. In order for you to understand how the world works and how it affects your life, you must not only understand the rule of God, you must know how to operate in his court. In this courtroom, there are two sides and they are not going to agree which is why they're in court. All the judges doing is rendering a righteous judgment.
When you deal with earth, what's happening in your life, you wanna take it to court. Everybody knows the decision of the judge can change your life. It can change your life for bad, or it can change your life for good depending on what the judge decides. So I want you to look at your life, my life, our collective lives from the standpoint of a throne room that is serving double duty as a courtroom. Now, to take you a little bit further, this is gonna be somewhat didactic because you need to understand if you're gonna regain your spiritual authority, how to operate in court.
Staying in chapter 7 verse 25. "And he will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One. And he will intend to make alterations in times and in law court. And they will be given into his hand for a time, times and a half time. But the court will sit for judgment". That's what courts do. "And his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever. Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole earth will be given to the people of the saints of the highest one. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all the dominions will serve and obey him".
Here is a future picture of the antichrist. And the antichrist that which is against Christ, antichrist, is going to seek to rule. But the antichrist will be brought to court. And when the antichrist is brought to court, it says "The sovereignty and dominion," which is rule throne, "The sovereignty and dominion of God will override him". It says "In times, times and half a time," three and a half years, "The antichrist is going to seek to subvert the saints and the program of God". Now he's talking about the end times but according to 1 John chapter 4, the first 4 verses, many antichrist have already come. So what he's talking about that will happen is already operating in the world. That which is against Christ. Just like in this illustration, the goal of the antichrist will be to subvert the saints so that the program of God is not instituted, the many antichrist that operate now is trying to subvert the purposes of God for your life. And he does that by stealing what God has purpose for you.
Please note going back to verse 9 and 10 of chapter 7, he says, "When the folks were set, when everybody sat down, the books were open". We got a king sitting on a throne but a judge sitting on a bench and it's the same person, okay? 'Cause he's in charge. You've heard a judge say, "This is my court, I'm in charge here, but it's also my judgment". So God is in the judgment seat, he's also in the court, but the problem is, there is a complainant. There is somebody in that court that's trying to take something from you. Revelation chapter 12 verse 10 says that "Satan is the accuser of the brethren". This is a legal term.
Now we'll get into this more down the line, but it says he accuses us day and night. In our time together over these weeks, you're gonna look at some specific scenarios. Peter, Joshua, we're gonna look at Job where Satan is accusing them. Well this is a legal term. Let me give you another one; 1 Peter 5:8. 1 Peter 5:8 says that "Your adversary, the devil is looking for those he can destroy". 1 Peter 5:8. The word adversary means a complainant in a lawsuit. So the way Satan robs you is by taking you to court. He takes you to court and the grounds by which he can take you to court is he has something to accuse you about.
Let's pretend we're in a court. Satan comes into the courtroom and says, "Your Honor". Because he has to submit to God. "Your Honor, you can't fulfill your purpose in his life or their lives, in their family, in their church, in their community". Because remember we saw one of the angels was the prince of Persia. So he was over the whole town. He was over a nation. So just so you know, Dallas has demons, Texas has demons, America has demons. Because they are situated not only over individual lives, but over individual environments. So when you go home today, there is a demon centered around your house to make sure you and your wife don't get along, to make sure you and your kids don't get along. He is situated in order to create a legal case he can take to court. He wants to take it to court. When you read your Bible, you'll find a great deal of legalese. You'll find judges, and judgments, and laws, and lawsuits. You'll find all the benches, you'll find all of that in the Bible because God operates his kingdom legally.
There are legal and there's a word for that. There's a legal governance and the goal of this legal program is to institute God's plan. The goal of Satan is to take you to court and to appeal to the judge as to why you should not get that answer to that prayer. Why you should not get that deliverance from that dilemma. He will charge you as an adversary with a lawsuit and accuse you before the judge. Now please notice it says in verse 10, that the books were open. Well, let me tell you about your book. Psalm 139 verse 16. "Your eyes have seen my unformed substance and in your book were all written the days that were ordained for me". So in your book are my days, "Whereas yet there was not one of them". So I don't have a day yet but you planned out my day, and not only have you planned out my day, you wrote down the plan. In the book of Hebrews he's calling us to understand what God is about.
Verse 5 he says, "Therefore when he comes into the world," he says, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, 'Behold I have come in the scroll of the book it is written of me to do your will oh God". So here it is. That's Jesus talking there. Jesus says I have a book too. I have a book. The God man when he came to Earth had to get a human book. And in Jesus's book was lined out his life and the contents of the book was to do thy will, oh God. So just like his book, your book is to fulfill God's purpose for your life. Your book is his purpose, his will, his plan.
Now, as Jesus lived his life, what did Satan try to do? He tried to erase stuff out of Jesus's book. He did it at his birth by trying to keep him from being born or killing him at a young age. He did it in the temptation in the wilderness to get him to disobey the Word of God. He did it by getting the enemies to rise up to kill him before the time. They even tried to get him by trying to make him king which was a position that was not in the will of God. It was a job description that paid a high salary that wasn't in the will of God. So if I couldn't break him, I raised him up to get him out of the will of God. And then of course in the garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus was there and sweat is coming down as of blood, he had to make the decision of a lifetime. "Not my will, but thy will be done".
So Satan spent all of his time seeking to take away from Jesus the plan God purposed for his birth. The goal of Satan for you and me is to take away from our lives the purpose for which we were created in the first place.
Now you know, if he came attack trying to steal Jesus's purpose, Jesus's plan, Jesus's goal, Mr. Big Stuff, who do you think you are? So he accuses the brethren day and night in order to bring up a case against you. So when you go to God and you go to God to fix it, you go to God to reverse it. You go to God to heal it, you go to God to change it, the prosecuting attorney stands up. "Just a minute your Honor, just one minute. You can't give him, you can't give her what she just asked for cause I got a case here. Let me tell you what they did yesterday. Let me tell you what they did the day before. In fact, let me tell you what they're thinking there in church. I got a case against them. So you can't, you can't give them what they asked for 'cause I have a case against them".
Now I'm gonna get a little ahead of myself but whenever somebody has a case against you, you better have a good lawyer on your side. You better have a defense attorney who knows what they are doing. I don't wanna go too far too fast, but I do know a good lawyer, he's called Jesus Christ the righteous. We have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ, the righteous and an advocate is a lawyer. So he's speaking in court terms. Where when you go to God you don't only go there relationally, you go there legally.
Now, there is a biblical word for this legal connection. It's found throughout the book of Daniel but it's found throughout the Bible, and that is the word covenant. That when God was giving his law in Exodus chapter 19, he was giving the law for the nation. How the nation would run, how the nation would operate, how the laws would be executed. And he comes and he says now in verse 5, "Now then if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priest and a holy nation. These are the words you shall speak to the sons of Israel".
Covenant is a divinely created relational bond and it is legal by nature, okay. God runs his kingdom, his rule, his throne covenantally. That is, he has a legal document. Well, God has a covenant. He has a divinely created bond. The key you need to know about a covenant, it has five ingredients but the key right now you need to know, is that they are legal in nature. A covenant demands a relationship. A covenant is a divinely created relational bond that is legal in nature but it's tied to relationships. A lot of folk be calling on heaven but God is looking for standards. He wants to know, do you have a legitimate basis for laying claim for me to hear this case.
So what Satan does, is he brings accusation, our adversary. The Greek word means a litigant in a lawsuit. He brings legal case against us, so the question on the floor is, will the judge hear the case? And whether the judge hears the case, is do you have standing? Daniel has standing 'cause God says, "You are highly esteemed up in here, up in here. We view you highly up here. And therefore I will hear your case". See, God knows for some of us, we'll ask the supreme heaven to hear our case but God looks at no commitment, no faithfulness, no dedication. He said, "Y'all don't have no standing up here. If I answer you, all the enemy gonna do is come back tomorrow with something else, and come back the next day with something else, 'cause y'all are not sure, you have no standing up here".
See, you wanna be positioned when you want God to give you back what the enemy has stolen from you. You want standing because once you have standing they'll listen to the merits of the case. They'll listen to the merits of the case. See, we want God to hear the merits when we have an established standing. And that is why we must pursue a relationship with the Lord, not just the blessings from the Lord. And so I want you now to think of the battle you are in to reclaim what has been stolen from you, a decision has to be made in court. And if you can't litigate it properly in court, then you will not have the authority to get back what the enemy has stolen.
So when we go through this process, we gonna try to turn everybody in here into a litigating attorney so that you know how to go take your case to court. So that you can exercise spiritual authority, watch this, over whatever has been written in your book. See now 'cause I don't wanna, 'cause there's another extreme out there where people think that they can get whatever they ask for whenever they ask for, no, you can get your book. Whatever's in your book that's what you can get, okay. So if it ain't in your book, don't even go to court. Don't even go to court 'cause they'll say "You don't have standing, that ain't in your book. I never planned for you to have that. I never planned for you to get that. I never planned for you to go there. So don't even bring that case up into the...case dismissed". But if it's in your book, and the enemy has stolen it in court, God allows appeals.
Now for all you lawyers, see, I may not know what I'm talking about but it sound good. There are people here today who I know need a verdict from heaven. You need heaven to intercede and change something. He has robbed years from your life, dignity from your person, hope for your future, your ability to function in an orderly way, he has messed with your mind, he has stolen from you, and the problem is, you got a prosecuting attorney in court and you haven't even shown up. You haven't even shown up. Where is the defendant? Haven't shown up. But it says that when the antichrist came and tried to take the saints down, it says that the ruler of the kingdom stood up and shut him down.
I wonder if anybody in here today needs God to shut the devil down. Need to shut him down 'cause he got too much say so. You need to shut him down 'cause you need somebody on your side that says, "I object your honor, I object". Well, if you're tired of being robbed of your spiritual authority, of what is legitimately in your book, that is God's will for your life. 'Cause you know one of Satan's goal is to take your life before the time. It's time for you, me, our families and our church to go to court to go to that court, the heavenly court.
I'm expecting some testimonies of some people who say, "Guess what God gave me back, guess what God gave me back, guess what God gave me back. Devil took it but God gave me back. The devil took my dignity, I got my dignity back. He took my decency, I got my decency back. Took my joy, I got my joy back. Took my marriage, I got my marriage back. Took my kids, I got my kids back. Took my job, I got my job back. Took my finances, I got my finances back. Took my future, I got my future back. Took my joy, I got my joy back. Took my friends, I got my friends back. Took my life and I got my life back". Time to reclaim what the devil has stolen from you.