"We were born to rule--rule over creation, over darkness--to plunder hell and establish the rule of Jesus wherever we go by preaching the gospel of the Kingdom. ... [C]reation has been infected by darkness, namely, disease, sickness, afflicting spirits, poverty, natural disasters, demonic influence, etc. Our rule ... is focused on exposing and undoing the works of the devil. ...
"Jesus destroyed the power of sin, sickness, and poverty through His redemptive work on the cross. In Adam and Eve's commission to subdue the earth, they were without sickness, poverty, and sin. Now that we are restored to His original purpose, should we expect anything less?"
-- Bill Johnson, When Heaven Invades Earth (2013), pp. 33f.
What do you have that God hasn't given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?
You think you already have everything you need. You think you are already rich. You have begun to reign in God's kingdom without us!
I wish you really were reigning already, for then we would be reigning with you. Instead, I sometimes think God has put us apostles on display, like prisoners of war at the end of a victor's parade, condemned to die. We have become a spectacle to the entire world—to people and angels alike.
Our dedication to Christ makes us look like fools, but you claim to be so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are so powerful! You are honored, but we are ridiculed. Even now we go hungry and thirsty, and we don't have enough clothes to keep warm. We are often beaten and have no home. We work wearily with our own hands to earn our living. We bless those who curse us. We are patient with those who abuse us. We appeal gently when evil things are said about us. Yet we are treated like the world's garbage, like everybody's trash—right up to the present moment.
-- 1 Corinthians 4:7ff.
