Now the King and his men went to Jerusalem against the jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, and they said to David, you shall not come in here, but the bind and the lame shall turn you away: thinking David cannot enter here.

Nevertheless, David captured the stronghold of Zion that is the city of David. Samuel 5-6,7

When he had disarmed the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through him. Colossians 2-15

Man lost something through the fall of Adam; the bible isn’t clear on exactly what we lost, some writers speak of some kind of spiritual state that once was common before the transgression of Adam.

Somehow through the fall, man came under the dominion of the principalities and powers of this present darkness.

This realm was taken over by the fallen evil forces of this dark world, it became known as mystery Babylon, this mystical city is still a present reality now, and has much influence in this fallen dark world, many write on these things, but I haven’t found much that I felt was very sound, the only person that I feel had any real insight into this mystery was the late Jessie-Penn-Lewis, the book war on the saints is considered a classic.

I don’t believe that the Lord has given that much insight to the church regarding this reality yet, but I do believe as we approach the close of this present evil age, God will give more light as the church needs it.

What the Lord did at the cross is he captured the spiritual city of Babylon, and laid the foundation of his heavenly city the new Jerusalem, right in the midst of his great eternal enemies.

The bible says that he’s ruling and reining now in the midst of his enemies, its like a stronger force overtaking a weaker one, they are still here, but they are under his great sovereign rule.

One of the reasons that the Lord left them here is that now he uses their evil to mature his saints.

Yes these forces are evil, vicious, wicked, full of hate, but they are under his heavenly leash, they are given much liberty with the wicked, and they do tempt his saints greatly, but we must know that he is absolute Lord of all.

Sometimes it seems that the Lord gives them way to much liberty toward us, but God knows how much we are able to endure.

The Lord will leave these forces here until the church; the eternal city, comes to maturity.

When the church is complete, then the Lord will remove their place from the heavenly realms of authority, and the church will be ready to govern throughout the ages to come.

But now we as the people of the Lord are in this great ageless battle of evil and good, light and darkness.

Don’t mistake this fact, they are under his great sovereignty, but they are still full of hatred toward Gods chosen ones.

These evil fallen beings are very intelligent; they could destroy us with evil very quickly, if the Lord was not our defender.

The Lord allows these beings to attack us often, many times working through the wicked of this world, and sometimes ones who are very close to us.

Know this, they can not destroy us, we must endure their assaults for the season given them, but if we hang on and not react to the events around us, we always come through into newness of victory.

This will continue to be the churches lot in this present age.

I have read of many mature saints as they near the end of their earthly life, they come under the most severe assaults.

The assault on A B Simpson was so severe that he thought that he was lost, many of his brethren had to pray him through to the other side.