Psalm 115: 16
The heavens are the heavens of the Lord; but the earth He has given to the sons of men.
Luke 4: 5 – 6
And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.”
Here is the chain of title of the earth. God created it and it belonged to Him. Then He gave it to the sons of men. When Jesus came along the devil offered all the kingdoms of the earth and their glory to him. Apparently title had shifted to the devil. Notice Jesus did not debate the devil’s assertion of ownership and control. So how did it go from belonging to people to being in Satan’s possession? The devil tells us in verse 6 that it was handed over to him. By whom then? Well, it wasn’t God because He gave it to humanity.
In the Garden of Eden God gave authority over the earth and everything in it to the people He created. He gave them the responsibility for the earth and its well-being. The earth was created for humanity. It was created to be a home for us but Satan deceived God’s children and they fell. They listened to the word of Satan instead of the Word of God. When they did, the earth became a place of conflict. Their capitulation to the devil gave him authority in the earth.
But then good news came. His name is Jesus. He crushed sin, broke the chains of slavery and destroyed the works of the devil. He went into the pit itself and conquered death, hell and the grave and when he came out he had the keys. In Revelation 1: 18 Jesus revealed that he had the keys of death and Hades but that wasn’t all he won. He redeemed us, restoring us back to our proper place in the Lord. He won back our kingdom and our domain. We are now joint heirs with him but there is a caveat. We must claim our inheritance and enforce our rights. There are squatters on the land thanks to the time that it spent in wrongful hands. In addition, the devil is a deceiver. If you don’t run him off he won’t go and if you listen to him he will trick you, deceive you into believing a pack of lies. When you do that, you forsake your ancestral heritage. You effectively surrender yourself again to the yoke of slavery where Satan is your master.
Your only defense is the Word of God. Only when you know your legal rights and stand on them will the enemy, the undeserving squatters, leave your property. Look, you are royalty if you want to know the whole truth but if you go about wearing rags and acting like a peasant then all you will have is a peasant’s life. Our birthright, our binding contract and our weapon of enforcement are all encompassed humbly but powerfully in the camouflage of a book. But it isn’t only what is between the bindings that is so significant. It is the word who is alive, He that went to hell, defeated Satan and handed you the keys of victory. He is the living word. He was, is and always will be. You find him between the covers of the Bible and then he leaps off of the page in power and glory when you believe what you read there and trust him to be your king and lord.
