Hi John,
I’ve heard you publicly pray, “we plead the blood” and, “we claim our position at the throne.” Could you please explain what is meant by these prayer phrases?

Thank you,
Eric 

  Hello Eric,

Thank you for your question. I used to wonder about this when I heard others use this terminology.

Satan primarily attacks through temptation and interference with ministry. In all this, he uses various kinds of deception (John 8:44) and disruption (Acts narrative). Praying publicly at the beginning of a service addresses interference with ministry.

Christ won the victory over Satan at the cross. The head of the serpent was “bruised” (Gen. 3:15). He was “judged” (John 16:11) and “cast out” (John 12:31-32). Through death, Jesus destroyed (lit. rendered ineffective) him who “had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14). And at the cross, Jesus disarmed “principalities and powers” and made a public spectacle of them “triumphing over them in it” (Col. 2:15).

The phrase plead the blood refers to that victory. In Revelation 12:11 the saints “overcame him [the devil] by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.” They verbalized the victory of Jesus over Satan through the shedding of His blood on the cross which paid the wages for man’s sins and legally regained the authority Adam lost in the Garden of Eden. This properly understood is “pleading the blood.”

Regarding claiming our position in Christ at the throne, when you believe in Jesus as Savior, you are baptized into or placed into Christ (Gal. 3:26-27). When you were placed into Christ, you were placed into His history. The emphasis biblically includes being placed into Christ’s death, burial and resurrection (Rom. 6:3-4) and Christ’s enthronement (Eph. 2:6).

God displayed His power “when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand [the throne/authority] in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come” (Eph. 1:20-21). But not just Christ, for the passage continues saying, “And you hath he quickened.” (Eph. 1:2). “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6).

You are in Christ! Not figuratively but literally. It’s just that it’s spiritual, not physical, but just as real as if it were. You are in Christ and Christ sits at the throne of power far above the enemy. In Christ you are as far above the enemy as Christ is! Jesus is the head. The authority is His. We then are the body, and we must exercise His authority.

Jesus said in a context of dealing with the devil, “Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house” (Matt. 12:29). Jesus also said, “Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound [lit. have been bound] in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed [lit. have been loosed] in heaven (Matt. 18:18). This is exercising throne seat authority over the enemy.

Christ won the victory over Satan at the cross. This will be fully manifested in the physical realm in the events of the book of Revelation. But in the spiritual realm (the heavenly places), Satan is at a disadvantage because there he is totally defeated! When we walk in the flesh, we foolishly place ourselves under a defeated foe, but when we walk in the Spirit, we can also war from the throne.

It is this truth of being in Christ on the throne that we can claim (take hold of by faith) and exercise Christ’s authority over the enemy in a given matter—in this case for protection in a church service so people are free to hear the Word without interference.

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