The Son of God fights the cosmic battle in the heavenly realms...

Lord Jesus, we extol your name! For God exalted you to the highest place and gave you the name that is above every name. That at your name - Jesus - every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that you, Jesus Christ, are Lord. To the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-10)

We bow before you as we read your Word. May we worship you as we see your authority over heaven and earth and under the earth in this passage. Amen.

Scripture Reading - Mark 3:7-19 (ESV)

     Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.
     And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Lord Jesus, we confess that you are the Son of God, the one who has power to heal and authority over Satan and his minions. It is by your Spirit in us that we have authority in the heavenly realms to fight against Satan's schemes.

Please cleanse us from our material mindset, our lack of vision for the spiritual world and the battle raging in the heavenly realms. We confess our unfitness to persevere in the battle, neglecting the training necessary by your power and authority to cast out  unclean spirits in our homes, at our places of work, and in the Church.

Sovereign King, as your royal priesthood we do not battle against flesh and blood but against the prince of the power of the air - against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 1:21, Ephesians 6:12). May we be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God so that through your body - the church - the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places (Ephesians 3:10). Help us to faithfully put on the armor of God today as we fight this cosmic battle (Ephesians 6:13-18). Amen.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.