An Excerpt from We’re the “sons of God” . . . So What?, David C. Alves, (New York/Bloomington: iUniverse, 2009), 81-82.

We are seated with Christ—now—in authority over the enemy. But we

can only reign with Christ if we have learned seven lessons.

1. Christ must be our all. We must have made that decision first.

Apart from Christ, we can do nothing. He is our all. We have nothing

outside of him.

2. We must learn obedience (Tit. 3.1). To obey is better than

sacrifice. As a result of his Lordship, we must learn to recognize and

submit to Christ and then to his legitimate, godly authority in and

through others in the body. We must also be found faithful with the

little things. To be found faithful to a trust, no matter how small, moves

God to grant us greater trust. Our assignments escalate in keeping with

our stewardship.

3. We must keep the command to “love one another.” Our delegated

authority is legitimized in the love of the Father. It is proved in the

sacrificial love of others. We must rule out of that love.

4. We must be holy even as God is holy. We are called to live up

to the calling for which we were taken hold—to reign with Christ,

beginning here and now. This is the necessary preparation for the next

step.

5. We must fix our focus on Christ and his throne (Col. 3.1–2) if

we are to receive ours.

6. We must suffer with him.

7. We must endure and overcome through him.

We are seated with Christ in the heavenlies, but reigning here over

the powers that maintain their right to rule over and above Christ’s

claim to their authority.

Perhaps all this is practice for the new heavens and new earth. For

we will reign with him there, seated upon our thrones, which derive

their authority from his (Rev. 3.21 cf. 20.4; 2.26–27; John 12:26; 2

Tim.2:12; Rev. 12.5; 22.4 [his character will be ours]; Dan. 7.22,
27).