Destined for the Throne
Paul Billheimer
A Review by Dr. Don Davis
The power of the Christian vision is rooted in our understanding and grasp of the meaning of Christ’s victory for his people, and how that victory is being exemplified and conducted in their warfare and wanderings in the world today.
In a classic devotional and theological text, Paul Billheimer’s Destined for the Throne, interprets and fills out our understanding of Christ’s victory over Satan with a focus on the role of the Church, his deputy and agent to declare and embody the victory of Christ in the world. With his unique and powerful understanding of the Church’s authority to advance Christ’s kingdom through prayer and praise, Billheimer helps us to understand the extraordinary depth of Jesus’ work on the Cross, and how that work is meant to both influence and enrich the life of the people of God.
In a real sense, Billheimer’s pleas for prayer and praise are not elements of a lately-fashioned plea for more discipline in our personal lives, or the kind of health-wealth confessional theology that recently has become so popular in many circles. Rather, he offers a biblical cosmology which argues that from all eternity God is unfolding his purpose, which is nothing less than the calling out and preparation of a people, a companion and bride for his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. This people is identified from the Scriptures as the Bride of Christ, the Church, which God has destined to share the throne with the King himself, the conquering Lord and King of the universe. As she is so destined and privileged to judge the world, reign with Christ, and serve as his consort, so she must be trained, equipped, and prepared for this dignified and mind-boggling role, which is nothing less than sharing the throne with her Lord, Christ Jesus.
Since God’s desire is to conform his people to the Conqueror himself, so she must therefore learn through the thorny, perilous, and demanding role of spiritual warfare what it means to conquer, to engage the enemy and win through the appropriation of Christ’s own authority won on the Cross. In order to prepare her for the glories of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and her destiny as reigning partner with Christ, she must learn the techniques of spiritual battle, to overcome, to conquer, and to defeat the enemy. And what is the primary means of this warfare, according to Billheimer? Believing prayer that is activated by a faith grounded in unbroken, constant, and triumphant praise. Through prayer and praise the Church receives “on-the-job” and “on-the-battlefield” training, learning what it means to exercise the authority of Christ in a way that both overcomes Satan and his hostile forces that oppose God, but also prepares her for the ultimate role she is to play in the restored creation–to reign with Christ on the throne. Amazingly, prayer and praise are God’s cosmic training tools to prepare a redeemed humanity for her reign in the future, and her impact in the affairs of the world today.
This book is for anyone who is interested in learning how God is enabling the Church through history to overcome Satan, and how he entered the domain of history in the person of his Son Jesus, who defeated the enemy. Now he has conferred his divine power upon people to exercise his authority in the world, to advance the Kingdom, and to glorify God today. Through prayer and praise, we serve with the power of attorney of the Kingdom of God, and function as the very deputies of the Lord here on earth. This book will encourage us, as heirs of the promise through faith in Christ, to develop a disciplined, well-organized, and fervent prayer and praise ministry, all for the sake of impacting our worlds with the victory that Christ won at Calvary for us.
Without doubt, Destined for the Throne, is sweeping in presentation and intense in its argument of God’s total purpose for his people in the world, and how believers can prepare themselves for the throne to come. A marvelous challenge to all of us to take prayer and praise seriously, those actions where God works to train his people for war–and for victory.
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