The enemy’s greatest strategy is to distort our understanding of the gift of righteousness. Righteousness is not something we earn, but a gift given through Jesus Christ, and it is the foundation from which all of God’s blessings, victory, and answered prayers flow. Many believers live beneath their calling, not reigning in life, because they do not grasp the reality of this gift. The spiritual realm, referred to as “heavenly places,” is not a distant future or a physical location, but a present spiritual reality where God’s authority and power operate. In Christ, we are seated in these heavenly places, sharing in His authority, access, and rest.
Being seated with Christ means we have authority over all the power of the enemy, access to God’s wisdom, provision, and presence, and a position of rest—no longer striving for acceptance or favor, but reigning through the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. Spiritual warfare takes place in this realm, but we are positioned above all spiritual forces of wickedness. Our words, prayers, and declarations activate the blessings stored for us in heavenly places.
The devil is called the “enemy of all righteousness” because he knows that if he can undermine our sense of righteousness, he can keep us from reigning in life. Righteousness is the taproot of all God’s blessings: favor, healing, victory over sin, wisdom, spiritual growth, deliverance, peace, protection, boldness, and success. The breastplate of righteousness protects our spiritual and emotional “vital organs”—our heart, mind, and will—guarding us from condemnation, guilt, and shame. When we understand and receive this gift, we are empowered to live as kings and priests: building wealth (not just financially, but in influence and peace) and building the church.
Our identity as loved, washed, and anointed children of God is the key to reigning in life. The enemy’s main tactic is to keep us ignorant of this truth, chaining us to inferiority and self-condemnation. But as we renew our minds to the reality of our righteousness in Christ, we step into the fullness of God’s blessings and authority, living out our calling to rule and reign in every area of life.
Ephesians 2:4-7 (ESV) — > 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.
2. Romans 5:17 (ESV)
> For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
3. Ephesians 6:14 (ESV)
> Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness.
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