Contending for What Jesus Already Redeemed

What to do in the Fog of War… contend, or rethink what we believe God is saying.

(Intro Video) There is often a gap between what we think God should do and what is actually happening. It’s a practical and theological wrestling match for all of us. These are brain teasers we all struggle with:

Jesus died for all mankind, yet not everyone is saved?

Jesus took stripes for our healing and healed all, yet illness is still common?

On the cross Jesus cast the devil out of heaven and defeated powers and principalities,
yet evil is still present in the earth?

Two verses sit next to each other in Scripture and hold a tension most leaders resolve too quickly in one direction or the other. Colossians 2:15 says Jesus already disarmed the powers and authorities at the cross — past tense, finished, public. Hebrews 2:8, describing that same total victory, adds one sentence that changes everything practically: “Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.” Legally won. Not yet everywhere applied. The gap between those two sentences is where sons and daughters actually work — finishing the work of warfare, bringing Heaven to Earth. Put simply: Father’s purpose is settled in Heaven, the manifestation on Earth is contested.

Instead of blaming yourself for the gaps (lack of faith, power, personal failure),
or blaming other people, circumstances, God, the devil, the dog, or bad luck,
use your weapons not of this world to implement what Jesus redeemed here on Earth.
It’s our job as sons and daughters.

Possessing Your Land – Contending for it on Earth

“…God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. In bringing many sons and daughters to glory…” (Heb 2:8, 10). The verdict is in; the application isn’t automatic. Sons and daughters are specifically named as the ones who bring the finished work into visible effect — “finish His work.” A legal win that nobody enforces changes nothing on the ground. Someone has to actually go stand in it, case by case, situation by situation.

This isn’t a new problem. Israel is the Old Testament version of the same structure: the land was already given by covenant before a single city was taken (Josh 1:3, “I have given you every place where you set your foot”), and they still had to march, fight, and possess it city by city. Already given, not yet possessed, is the shape of the whole story — not a contradiction in it. A son or daughter contending for what Jesus redeemed isn’t fighting for a verdict still in doubt; they’re the new landowner walking the property line, possessing an inheritance that’s already theirs by deed.

 

Two Ways to Get This Wrong

#1).  Presumption — treating the verdict as automatic, predestined (God’s responsibility)

This is the failure mode of quoting Colossians 2:15 and stopping there. If the powers are already disarmed, the thinking goes, there’s nothing left to do but declare it and move on. Scripture’s own case study for where that leads is the seven sons of Sceva (Acts 19) — invoking “Jesus, whom Paul preaches” with no actual word for that confrontation, and getting overpowered and run out of the house. Theology that’s true in general isn’t automatically a weapon in a specific situation. The verdict is finished; the application still has to be asked for, heard, and acted on.

 

#2).  Striving — treating the verdict as unsettled

The opposite failure looks more spiritual but costs just as much: fighting a case that’s already been won as if it’s still in question. If we encounter warfare believers occasionally presume this must not be the will of God. The fog is powered by anxiety and intellectual effort instead of a Living Word — re-litigating a settled verdict because the evidence in front of you (a stuck deal, a hostile market, a stalled hire) hasn’t caught up to it yet. The fix isn’t harder striving or a different path. It’s going back to the Courts of Heaven and demolishing the stronghold, because Jesus already did the disarming — our job is brining Father’s purpose to Earth, not compromising the direction.

 

The same root, two directions

Presumption and striving look like opposites, but they share a root: both locate the outcome in your own strength instead of Father’s. “It is not your personal optimism and shining personality that gains ground. It’s according to His power at work in us” (Eph 3:20). If it’s your power, then the result is always either your failure — something to blame yourself for — or your victory — something to quietly take credit for. Neither is sonship. “When you bear much fruit, it brings glory to my Father” (Jn 15:8). Fruit that glorifies Father is fruit everyone can see came from His power, not yours — which is exactly why presuming and striving both miss it: they’re both about you.

 

How to Contend in the Courts of Heaven

The practical answer sits between those two failures, in weapons not of this world: acknowledge the specific activity or accusation rather than arguing it (Mt 5:25), take it to the cross rather than defending yourself, ask what root opened the door in the first place and take the root to the cross, and then let Father show the decrees that replace it. Every step in that sequence assumes the same thing — that the outcome is already settled in Colossians 2:15, and the work is contending for the application on Earth, not negotiating whether it’s true or convincing God to do it.

Practically, this means ascending before you descend. Don’t wait at ground level for the breakthrough to arrive on its own; go up first — into the Council, into the Courts — and see what’s already true there. Then contend for it on Earth. That’s the difference between a business leader who prays in general and one who actually contends: the first recites positional, intellectual truth and hopes it transfers; the second goes and gets the present Living Word for the specific stronghold, then contends for a verdict on Earth instead of arguing a generic case that was never actually in doubt.

Courage for this comes from the same place Paul names his own unfinished pursuit of what already had hold of him: “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me… I press toward the goal to win the prize” (Phil 3:12–14). Paul isn’t chasing an uncertain outcome. He’s pursuing, with real effort, something that already has him — the same already/not-yet posture Hebrews 2:8 describes, lived out as a daily pursuit rather than a one-time declaration.

Jesus already won. That’s not the question.

The question Hebrews 2:8 leaves open is whether it’s visible yet — in this deal, this team, this market — and that’s the part sons and daughters are specifically invited into. Not doubting what’s finished, and not assuming finished means automatic. Sons and daughters contend for what’s already redeemed so that it happens on Earth. Their faith comes from ascending to Heaven and witnessing those realities first-hand. Their skill in warfare comes from using weapons not of this world in the Courts of Heaven.

Scripture doesn’t treat positional truth and active pursuit as opposites. Hebrews 4:16 says “let us approach the throne of grace with confidence” — an active verb, aimed at access that’s already secured. James 4:8: “draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” Both commands assume the same thing: what’s already true is exactly what you’re invited to keep walking into. Contending isn’t the opposite of resting in what’s finished. It’s the redeemed form of Sons actually inheriting it.

 

Build the Culture That Can Contend

None of this stays personal for long if you lead a team. A leader can grasp contending in Spiritual Warfare in our own walk and still run an organization where nobody else has it — people who either presume the business will sort itself out because “God said so,” or strive themselves into burnout trying to manufacture outcomes God already secured. We’re mentoring mighty men and women into what God can do through them, not just what they can do in their own strength. Business is the prefect place for discipling sons and daughters to hear Living Words and use their weapons of warfare.

The job isn’t just to contend well yourself. It’s to create the culture where people are clear on Father’s purpose so that: 1) they see and co-labor with Father’s purpose, and 2) they contend in spiritual warfare for what the enemy is clearly blocking. The culture goal is an Ecclesia clear on what’s already true in Heaven and equipped with the weapons to go after what isn’t yet visible on Earth.

 

See also — A Theology for Sonship

This blog was inspired by a Council Session — 2026-10-08 Council – From Fog to Clarity and Contending

 

 

 

Appendix: Where Does the Bible Confirm That Sons Finish What Jesus Started?

Several threads, beyond Hebrews 2:8:

Acts 1:1 — the pattern set up explicitly. Luke opens his second volume: “In my former book I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach” (Acts 1:1). “Began” is the loaded word — it frames the entire book of Acts, and by extension the Ecclesia, as the continuation of what Jesus started, not a separate project.

John 14:12 — Jesus names it directly. “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” This is Jesus himself saying the work continues past him, through Father’s Sons and Daughters, His Brothers and Sisters (Heb 2:11-13).

John 20:21-23 — commissioned with His own sending and His own authority. “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” He then breathes on them — a deliberate echo of Genesis 2:7 — and gives them authority to forgive or retain sins. Sent with His authority to extend what He did.

Matthew 16:19 / 18:18 — binding and loosing. “whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven..” Delegated authority to apply, in specific situations, what’s already settled in heaven — functionally the same shape as the Col 2:15 / Heb 2:8 pairing.

Romans 16:20 — under your feet, not just His. “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” Paul extends the Genesis 3:15 victory language to the Roman believers themselves, not only to Christ.

Ephesians 1:22-23 — the church as the fullness that fills. “God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” The church is described as the thing presently doing the filling — present tense, ongoing, not yet complete.

Ephesians 2:10 — the works were pre-assigned. “We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” The works exist in advance; someone still has to walk into them.

2 Corinthians 5:18-20 — ambassadors, not spectators. “God… gave us the ministry of reconciliation… we are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” The reconciling act is finished at the cross; the appeal is still being made, through people, now.

1 Corinthians 15:24-26 — the end-state is explicitly future, the process explicitly ongoing. “Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power… For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” Same already/not-yet shape as Hebrews 2:8, stated even more plainly — the destroying is still happening, present tense, building toward a future handover.

Taken together, these aren’t isolated proof-texts — they’re the same structure repeating: the legal/positional victory is Christ’s alone and already finished, but Scripture consistently describes sons and daughters as the ones who walk it into visibility, case by case, until it’s fully seen. That’s the biblical basis under the Hebrews 2:8 framing you already have in the Council session, not a departure from it.