Romans 13:1 tells us that “all authority is from God.” That is, all earthly authority is subordinate to the Creator who is the Owner and King of the universe. While much of the authority of men is misused for personal gain, that is a separate issue. History is full of examples of abuse and misuse of authority.

The abuse of authority is actually the basis of the idea of antichrist in Scripture. The Greek term anti means “in place of,” as we see in Matt. 2:22, where “Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of [anti] his father Herod.”

To rule “in place of” is not necessarily an abuse of power. It depends on how the person acquired that position of authority. When Herod died, his son took his place.

However, when applied to Christ and anti-Christ, it usually comes down to a discussion of the abuse of power, because such is the nature of the flesh. Usually, antichrist indicates an attempt to usurp the throne rights of Christ.

Biblical examples are numerous. Christ (under the OT name of Yahweh) ruled on the throne of Israel. During the time of the Judges, there was no earthly throne, so Christ ruled Israel directly. When the nation refused to obey His laws, He judged the nation through various captivities. In fact, the people ended up spending 111 years in captivity prior to the coronation of King Saul. This was a third of their time in the land of Canaan.

They finally got tired of Christ’s rule, because they wanted to avoid judgment (captivity) when they sinned and worshiped false gods. So they demanded a man to rule over them, one who was more like them, and one who understood their desires better. This was how Israel’s visible, earthly throne came into existence.

The kings of Israel were supposed to rule “in place of” Christ. That is, they were to keep in mind that the throne was not their own, nor was their authority independent of Christ. They were to rule “under God,” not as if they were gods in themselves. Saul’s anointing was legitimate, and his coronation was authorized by God (1 Sam. 8:22). This new arrangement would have worked fine, if Saul had not usurped to himself the right to rule as he pleased. Instead of exercising authority under God, he usurped the power of God, and in this way he became an antichrist.

The spirit of antichrist is the abuse of authority. It is ruling as if the king’s will was the ultimate power, rather than ruling as a steward in the throne of Christ. If Saul had exercised authority to establish the will of Christ, the monarchy would have worked just fine (1 Sam. 12:14).

After the death of Saul, David came to occupy the throne of Christ in Israel. He too ruled “in place of” Christ, but with an entirely different attitude. Whereas Saul usurped power, David sought to rule by the mind of Christ. Hence, David functioned as a type of Christ, whereas Saul was merely a prophetic type of the church under Pentecost.

When David died, his son Adonijah attempted to usurp the throne for himself, knowing that David had ordained Solomon for the throne. Adonijah was motivated by the spirit of antichrist in the negative sense, whereas Solomon acquired the throne legitimately and was then supposed to rule “in place of” Christ. At first he did well, but later, he ruled as a classic antichrist, disregarding the will of Christ.

All of this shows that God is the King, and the King is the one who makes the laws that are to be obeyed by the citizens of the Kingdom. All authority that He appoints is expected to rule “under God.” No lesser authority has been given the right to make his own laws or to establish his own will or to do his own pleasure.

Insofar as the Church casts out the Law of God, to that degree it functions by the spirit of antichrist, rather than by the Holy Spirit. Jesus Himself came not to do His own will but to do the will of the Father who sent Him and gave Him the throne (John 5:19).

The Supreme Court in Heaven

The fifth chapter of Numbers gives two statutes telling us what to do when some sin (crime) cannot be resolved in a court of law. There are always cases of unsolved crime, as well as cases where witnesses lie or where judges are mistaken or corrupt in their judgment.

What should be done in such cases? The general rule is this: Whenever justice is not done or is not possible, one can always appeal to the Supreme Court in heaven.

In Numbers 5:5-8 we are given a hypothetical case where a man has committed theft and managed to get away with it. If he later repents, what should he do?

⁷ Then he shall confess his sins which he has committed, and he shall make restitution in full for his wrong, and add to it one-fifth of it, and give it to him whom he has wronged.

In other words, instead of paying double restitution, he is rewarded for his repentance by paying only one-fifth, or twenty percent. But if the thief is caught before he repents, he must pay at least double (Ex. 22:4).

The second example given is where a man suspects that his wife has been unfaithful to him, but cannot prove it (Num. 5:11-31). When there are no witnesses or evidence to convict her of sin (Deut. 20:15), and yet her husband is convinced that she is guilty, what remedy is there for him in a court of law?

Since one cannot accuse anyone of sin without witnesses to substantiate the case, he was to take her to the priest who represented God in the Supreme Court (5:15). The priest (judge) was to take some holy water and “take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water” (5:17).

The woman was to swear an oath in court before God that she was innocent and then drink from this water. The priest was then to write the “curse” or judgment for adultery on paper, blot it out with some of the holy water. In this manner, the case was referred to the Supreme Court of God and left to Him to judge.

If God made the woman childless, then she was guilty, and if not, she was innocent.

In the Middle Ages, the judges in Europe often did something similar, but they did it incorrectly. They would burn people at the stake or throw them into the river bound and weighted down—and if God saved them, then they were presumed innocent. In other words, God had to prove them innocent by intervening directly, whereas in the biblical system, God’s intervention proved guilt.

This was called “Trial by Ordeal.” Needless to say, many innocent people were executed in this manner, because the judges, in effect, tried to force God to prove the accused people innocent, rather than presuming they were innocent unless God proved them guilty. The Protestant Reformation and the printing press made the Scriptures available in small books, and when scholars studied the Law of God, they discovered that men were presumed innocent until proven guilty. Trial by Ordeal, as practiced in the Church until recently, was a perversion of the biblical judicial system.

We owe our understanding of presumed innocence to God’s Law. The laws in Numbers 5 also give us examples of how the Supreme Court of Heaven is the highest court in the Kingdom of God, for it recognizes that all authority is under God and that God is the Lawgiver. Man’s laws must conform to God’s Law, or they will prove harmful.

Earthly Judges

When Paul speaks of the believers being called to judge the world and even to judge angels (1 Cor. 5:1-3), we must understand the spirit of antichrist in order to avoid judging in a way that is contrary to the will of God.

Every biblical judge must understand the mind of Christ and know His Law in order to judge by the Spirit of Christ rather than by the spirit of antichrist. To know the will of God is foundational to such authority. So it comes down to that mother-of-all-questions, “How do we know the will of God?”

The simple answer is this: learn the Scriptures and learn to hear His voice so that the Holy Spirit may guide you into a proper understanding of the mind of Christ. That way you will know the divine intent of the Law, as well as its letter, and you will be able to apply it according to His will and purpose.

I have found over the years that God trains us as judges by having us actually do the job of judging. Judging does not necessarily mean “condemning,” although there is a place for that as well. Yet it has more to do with restoring the lawful order, redeeming the earth, and setting various matters aright by decree.

We do not always see immediate results. In fact, usually the results come much later, because God seems to have a lot of time at His disposal. This makes such decrees appear ineffectual, and many think they are a waste of time. It seems that the decrees of healing carry the most immediate results, though not always. Hence, a decree that a man is healed often sees immediate results. Such decrees from one endowed with the gift of healing is actually a decree from a biblical judge, who has ruled against the disease and against death and who has decreed life to the sick and the dying.

All of the administrations of the Spirit are authorities that God has dispensed according to His will, and each functions with its own particular gifting, or empowerment that goes with each administration. Each is called to pass judgment and restore the lawful order in his own area.

What if a Judge does not know His Will?

It is often the case that we, as lower-court judges, do not know the will of God in a particular matter. If we cannot find a law or precedent pertaining to a particular case, it may be that we lack understanding and wisdom in the Law’s interpretation or application. Or it may be that the Law gives insufficient details on a particular issue.

For example, Moses was told that all Israelites must observe the Passover. He was also told that if a man touched a dead man’s body, he was unclean for seven days and could not come before God in the sanctuary, nor could he keep the Passover during that time. Well, inevitably, a case came up where a man buried his father just before the Passover, and so he was unable to observe Passover.

Up to that point, the Law had not given a ruling on such a situation. So Moses had to go to God and obtain a Supreme Court ruling on the matter. This ruling is given in Numbers 9:9-14. This was how God established the Second Passover a month after the regular Passover.

Occasionally, I have run into a similar problem and have had to pray for wisdom and understanding. In my early years, God usually pointed me to the Law and showed me the particular law that I had not understood properly. This was God’s way of teaching me the Law from His point of view, whereas in previous years I had studied it from my own earthly viewpoint.

In those years I was reminded of a verse that impressed me when I was about twelve. It was Deut. 1:16, 17,

¹⁶ Then I charged your judges at that time, saying, “Hear the cases between your fellow countrymen, and judge righteously between a man and his fellow countrymen, or the alien who is with him. ¹⁷ You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not fear man, for the judgment is God’s. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.”

I recall being in a meeting when I was twelve years old, and they asked for testimonies or perhaps a “favorite verse.” This was my choice. I read it and said, “There are many times that we do not know what to do. We are to bring it to Christ, just as the judges were to bring the case to Moses.”

I don’t remember much about it any more, but I do remember the look of astonishment on my dad’s face. Little did I know that twenty years later (1982) the Lord would bring me into the wilderness for more in-depth training in the school of judges.

Even modern judges in the world system must check their laws books on many cases before them. We all learn by experience. We learn when we encounter different situations and must find answers in Scripture and prayer.

Real Spiritual Authority

The Bible is full of examples showing the reality of spiritual authority. Unfortunately, many find it hard to comprehend that these are examples—not exceptions. The Bible is a living book, not a book of dead saints. It shows us a new way of life, a new way of thinking, a way to come into alignment with the mind of God and to change the world around us. Yet some look at the miracles in the Bible and sigh, saying, “I sure wish I had lived in those days.” Wait a minute! The miracles seen in the OT were done by the power of God manifested in the Passover Age. In the book of Acts (and up to the present) we have seen greater miracles in the Pentecostal Age. We are now coming into the Tabernacles Age, where we ought to see even greater miracles.

Let us not look for the “good old days” of yesterday. Let us prepare for the good days that are now here, and the better days yet to come.

We are not here to hunker down and wait for Jesus to come and save us from certain death at the hands of the Antichrist. We are here to declare victory in the name of Jesus Christ and to lay claim to the earth for the Kingdom of God.

Prayer Campaigns

Back in the 1980’s, as I was learning about spiritual warfare through the Net of Prayer, we were still in the Age of Pentecost, for that Age did not end until 1993 (the 40^th Jubilee of the Church since 33 A.D.). Putting it another way, we were still in the last days of the rule of King Saul, who was the type of the church under Pentecost.

Spiritual warfare was difficult in those days, because we were as David’s band of men who were outlaws in the Kingdom of Saul. Like David, we were fighting battles that Saul should have been fighting, but we found that we had to fight the enemy in front and defend ourselves from Saul’s army in our rear.

Furthermore, we discovered that while we could win every battle, we could never win the war, because we did not yet have the full authority of David’s throne. As little Davids, we were anointed, but still in training for the throne. Like David, we were being trained by Saul.

In 1993 everything began to change. Prophetic “Saul” died on May 30, 1993 (Pentecost that year). Six months later, we were called into a whole new realm of spiritual warfare that was based upon a whole new paradigm. Just as David was crowned king of Judah after the death of Saul, so also were the overcomers given the authority of the throne of David.

This authority was yet limited, even as it was limited with David himself for the first 7½ years (2 Sam. 5:3-5). Even so, it was enough to begin the Jubilee Prayer Campaign in November of 1993. To complete the work, however, would require greater authority after 7½ years, as when David was crowned king over all Israel.

This greater authority was given Nov. 30, 2000, and within two months He began to teach us to utilize that new authority. Thus, we began a new round of spiritual warfare on January 29, 2001, which continued (off and on) for many months.

That was ten years ago now—the Hezekiah Factor—and so perhaps we will see another upgrade in our authority to take this conflict with Babylon to a new level.

God has done something noticeable every ten years since 1971. Every ten years He has brought us into a new level of experience with Him. From 1971-1991 most of it involved training in hearing His voice and knowing His will. Without that training, it would be virtually impossible to judge the earth according to the mind of Christ.

I and others received this training during those final 12 years of the reign of “Saul,” even as David did. This was from 1981-1993. In 1991 God began to give incremental increases in authority to deal with the problem of Mystery Babylon. This made possible our prayer campaign in November 1993. The next major increase in spiritual authority occurred in November 2000, making it possible to win the prayer battles of 2001.

So I have expectations for 2011. Though it is hard to know how this will actually play out in the years to come, the patterns tell us that something big is around the corner. It appears that we are about to enter the final round of battles in the overthrow of this Babylonian system. At the same time we expect to see a great increase in the Kingdom of God, which will not only crush the image on its feet, but will also replace it as a world power.

The Power of Decree

Much of our spiritual training in life is designed to bring us to the place where we function as God’s judges. In biblical days, the judges were the priests, and they were called to render verdicts according to the Law of God. Their decrees in the Court of Law gave “voice” to the verdict of God. God made it clear that when the judges rendered their verdicts and decrees in a Court of Law, “the judgment is God’s” (Deut. 1:17).

This presumed, of course, that they based their judgment upon God’s Law and had obtained the mind of God in the matter. The same holds true for us today. Men can decree all day long, but if their decrees are not in accordance with the mind of God and led by the Spirit, their decrees become curses, rather than blessings upon the land.

To know the mind of Christ is vital to any who are called to exercise spiritual authority in any area. One must have some comprehension of the divine plan. I knew a man in the past who tried to decree that all of God’s enemies would be slain, and the Kingdom of God should be fully instituted immediately. Obviously, this did not happen, because one cannot decree successfully unless it is an earthly expression of the divine will and plan.

We would all love to have the authority to empty the hospitals and overthrow all organized crime. While this is certainly the WILL of God, one must also consider the divine PLAN. The plan includes the concept of Time. In other words, if we receive the unction of the Spirit to empty the hospitals by healing every patient, this would probably involve a time of spiritual preparation.

It is not enough to know the will of God. One must also know when to implement it. Timing is important, because time is the link between the will and the plan.

It is the will of God that His Kingdom should reign in the whole earth, and that all things should be “under His feet.” However, as Paul writes in Heb. 2:8, we do not yet see all things put under Him. Why? Because time must be factored into His will in order to synchronize it with His plan.

Being God’s judge is a way of life. It is the natural result of being led by the Spirit. Its ultimate goal is to reconcile the earthly with the heavenly and to establish the rule of Christ throughout the whole earth.