The church life goes back to the beginning for the fulfillment of God's purpose (9:1-2, 6-7). In the beginning was the expression of God and the representation of God (1:26). God created man in His own image that he might express Him, and He committed man with His dominion that he might represent Him. Man failed God in both of these. So, God saved eight people through water and brought them in resurrection into a new age. Then God restated His goal to resurrected mankind. This is the church life. In the church life, we have been brought back to God's original goal, which is that man express and represent Him. Now, in the church life, we express God and represent Him.
The church even can and must exercise its heavenly authority to overrule the present world situation. We must tell the Lord, "Lord, we don't agree with the situation in today's world. It must be for Your interests." We must exercise our spirit and make such declarations to the whole universe. The church has the right to do this. Sorry to say, most Christians have lost sight of this. They do not realize that the church has such a right.
We are a resurrected people, a people who have been brought back from the fall to the beginning. We were fallen in Adam, but we have been recovered in Christ. In Christ, we have been brought back to the beginning for the expression and representation of God. In the church life, we have the life to express God. We may tell people, "Do you want to see God? Do you want to know God? Come to the church and you will see Him. In the church you will see God's expression." Furthermore, the church has been authorized to represent God in this age on earth. We are ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20). Do not pray to the Lord, who has the authority and the sovereignty over the whole universe, in a pitiful, begging way. Since we have authority, we should pray to exercise and declare this authority. By prayer, we should express our attitude, saying, "We do not agree with the evil things that are happening in this country." The Lord will honor this kind of prayer because we in the church life are representatives of God.
Genesis 1:26 says that man was made in God's image. Colossians 3:10 tells us that the church is the new man created according to the image of God. This means that the church life replaces the fallen Adam. Adam lost his post, and the church has been put into it. Now the church is Adam's replacement to exercise divine authority over all things. After the flood, God told Noah that all living things were under him (9:2). Not only at the time of creation, but also at the time of resurrection, all living things were destined to be under man's authority. They were not destined to be under the authority of the fallen man, but under the authority of the resurrected man. In the church life, we are such a resurrected man. Are you a fallen man or a resurrected man in the church life? We all must rise up and tell the enemy that we disagree with his evil deeds and that he must stay away from us. Many times it is necessary that we pray in such a way. We should pray in this way in the church prayer meetings. Sometime the "ravens" not only eat the carcasses, but return to disturb the church life. Thus, we must exercise authority and tell the enemy that we do not agree with such disturbances and will not allow them to happen. We have the right to say this because we have been positioned to represent God. We have been placed into man's original post. This is the church life. We not only live, but we also rule. A church in a particular locality should rule over that locality. If the church is proper and in its rightful position, it has the authority to rule over every situation.