Hello, and welcome to the final article in the understanding celestial power series. If you haven’t already taken a look at the first two articles prior to this, I strongly urge you to have a look before proceeding with this article. If you have taken a look, then by all means welcome.

Let’s dive right in!

The final two power words are a little more difficult to tell apart as they are both used to mean the same thing i.e., physical strength.

However, as we will discover in the next few pages, they actually are a little bit more different than they are made out to be.

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power (Kratos) of his might (Ischus).” – Ephesians 6:10

The two words appear in that verse both seemingly referring to the same thing. However, what Paul was trying to put across isn’t necessarily as many might assume. Here’s a typical example of what the Apostle was trying to say:

Many people growing up had experiences and or encounters with bullies and so many avenues of thought were explored in seeking the best possible way to eliminate the possibility of ever being bullied again. So, many may have implored different strategies, but let’s take the example of a young man who decides to have his father walk him to and from school every day.

What that means is that whenever the bully showed up to harass the young man, his father would always be around to teach this bully a lesson and protect his son from the threats of the bully because theoretically, the young man would be larger in size and greater in strength than the bully by virtue of his father’s presence. Meaning in that case, the young man is taking advantage of his father’s strength.

Similarly, in that verse above, Paul is telling us to take advantage of our father’s strength. Classically, that should mean that the world to us—and it does to me personally—though, right now, that’s beside the point I’m trying to teach because even though we have discovered case where these two words “Ischus” and “Kratos” may be used and that they may be used to mean relatively the same thing, our goal is to tell them apart and have a clear understanding of each of them as they appear in the scriptures.

Since we’ve looked at both these words used to mean relatively the same thing, let’s explore areas where they have been used individually from the other.

KRATOS

Kratos is mostly used in the Bible to describe a form of power driven by a strong spiritual influence that outwardly manifest in the physical realm as either a wind or a strong influence (either physical, mental, emotional, etc.)

“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power (Greek: “Kratos” meaning “force”) of death, that is, the devil”—Hebrews 2:14

Did you notice he refers to death as a force? But more on this in a later article series titled “Understanding Celestial Life”.

Kratos is a kind of celestial power that’s characterized by a strong force of influence. In short, Kratos is a force or influence that drives circumstances, and moves or creates physical and mental constraints—driving them to a predetermined outcome or destination.

Take gravity for instance: gravity is a force that affects anything made up of physical matter (take note: physical matter). So, gravity is a physical force. Likewise, with Kratos being a spiritual force.

Now, we’re going to dive into something just a little more complex in just a moment so be ready to take in a whole lot of new concepts all at once.

As we have it throughout the Bible from Genesis all the way until Revelations, Death is repeatedly described to us as an angelic personality rather than a force or influence of nature, right? Yet, in the scripture above, death is defined as a “power” or a “Kratos” or as we now have it, as a “force or influence”. So why is that?

In the very first verse of the very first chapter of the very first book of the Bible, the following words are uttered:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…”—Genesis 1:1

The reason I’m bringing this scripture up is to try as best as I can to define the relationship between heaven and earth and the key roles that they play to the existence of each other. For the Bible to have expressed that God created the heavens means that heaven isn’t the realm that God lives in. Now, I understand that’s a massive statement that I’ve made right there but for the sake of time and maintaining a unified train of thought, I won’t explain that in detail in this article simply because I go over it vividly in my later article series on the Celestial Plane.

I would to explain more on the subject of heaven and earth and how they relate to one another but there’s a reason I’ve reserved it for the coming article series and it’s only because it’s a lengthy topic of discussion: it’s way too complex for this level of understanding and as I said in earlier articles, I’d rather guide you through knowledge in a gradual succession rather than just hitting you with different levels of knowledge all at once and expect you to understand.

At any rate, looking at any spiritual being from an earthly or physical perspective illustrates to us that all of them are physical personalities that we can physically interact with. That is to say that when you look at yourself, you see a physical body with a brain and a conscious that thinks and feels and all that. But that’s not the truth at all: when you look at yourself from a spiritual or celestial standpoint, you come to understand that you are a spiritual being and that all spiritual beings actually exude in this physical realm a unique force or influence.

For instance (and perhaps most obvious of all), the Holy Spirit, Himself. Most ministries teach that the Holy Spirit is the power of God and in many cases that is true. Observe all recorded manifestations of the power of God in the Bible (we will take a look at a few accounts in this very same chapter in a moment), nearly each time, the Holy Spirit manifests Himself as a force or strong influence or an inspiration as some may put it.

Another example might be the manifestation of Satan himself. Usually, whenever the devil manifests himself in this physical realm, his presence is mostly categorized as a heavy force of violence, anger, bitterness, fear, and so many other grotesque emotions that cause harm to people.

That’s how spiritual beings are designed to operate and that’s how all of them operate including and especially God Himself.

In the physical realm, gravity is a force. Yet, in the physical realm, gravity is the manifestation of an angel or series of angels working together to influence this physical world in a way that we refer to as gravity: a strong force of attraction between bodies that have mass in space. Similarly, the wind is a force characterized and attributed to specifically four angels here on earth (Reference: Revelations 7:1).

So when Paul talks of death as an influence or force, he isn’t nullifying every other statement in the Bible that describes death as a personality; death in fact is an angel—but again, for coming article series such as “The Celestial Hierarchy” and “Classifications of Celestial Life”. Looking at death from a spiritual perspective, he is a personality, and the power or influence of death is his attribute and characteristic. When he manifests, he causes death to result. Hence, Paul’s statement “…he that had the Kratos (force or influence) of death”.

I understand that this explanation thus tends to vilify claimed physical encounters with spiritual entities. So, for all those expecting a physical encounter with a spiritual being such as a face-to-face encounter with a demon or Jesus or an angel…yeah, be careful what you believe, my friends. It might just be a spider dangling a little too close to your eyes rather than a manifested Satan or anything.

What does that mean? You cannot see Satan physically! You cannot see demons physical! There are no physical manifestations of demons or angels or spirits of any kind. It’s a spiritual law: if you do not have a physical body, you cannot function in the physical realm as a physical entity. You can only function as an influence. Even God Himself obeyed His own laws each time He manifested Himself in the physical realm: when He appeared to Abraham, He appeared as with physical body. When He appeared before Moses, He did so as a fire burning in a bush. When He appeared before the whole earth as Jesus. Even the angels that appeared to save Peter when he was imprisoned and waiting execution appeared with physical bodies. Spirits are not allowed to operate in this physical realm without a physical body. That’s why they have to possess someone to operate otherwise they can only operate as influences or forces.

So, if you ever expect to meet Satan in the flesh—yeah it will probably be him with a physical body looking like you and I—not like an alien or anything (I’m just saying).

That, right there, is the basic understanding of what Kratos is and we can now move on to the next one: Ischus.

ISCHUS

Ischus is mainly used in the Bible to define physical strength or bodily strength and has very little to do with anything spiritual related.

When discussing physical strength in the Bible, an idea that comes to mind is the personality of the Old Testament judge, Samson.

Now, needless to say, Samson was exceedingly strong for a natural man; he was perhaps the strongest man the Bible records to have existed under God’s anointing in terms of strength, and it’s for a reason. Let’s take a quick reading of a portion of one of his accounts and we can move onto defining Ischus a little more:

“Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her.

And it was told the Gazites, saying Samson is come hither. And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night (that’s right, fam, Samson was in there all night with the harlot—all night, but observe what happens next), in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him.

And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them to the top of an hall that is before Hebron.”—Judges 16:1-3

Okay, that’s enough. My first comment to that account is “What in God’s name, Samson? Really?” Did you read that correctly? The man goes into a harlot’s place, does his thing all the way until midnight, then simply wakes up, walks outside the house, rips the gates of the city from the ground (bar and all), puts them on his shoulders, and as though it wasn’t a frightening enough sight, he carries them up hill! Wow—steroids, much? Or perhaps something a little more spiritually characterized?

We all know that the reason Samson was able to do this was as a result of the anointing of God through the manifestation of the Spirit of Might upon and within him: he walked with the Holy Spirit in one of the Spirit’s 7 manifestations i.e., the Spirit of Might (we will discuss more on this in coming articles) and that was the reason for his awesome physical strength. But if simply having the Spirit around you and with you could give a man such immense physical strength, should it also not be that having the Holy Spirit in us should bring forth such strength too?

Well, you guessed it—emphatically, yes! We do have that kind of strength as Christians too by virtue of having the Holy Spirit in us. Think I’m simply assuming this?

“And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace”—John 1:16

That, right there is referring to Jesus Christ and is saying we have received ever single thing that makes him who he is (from the “Christ” part to the authority the man has been given in heaven) we have also received it. So, we have everything that Jesus has been given in heaven) we have also received it. So we have everything that Jesus has—including the Holy Spirit in all his fullness, and his fullness includes His dominion, wisdom, knowledge, understanding, council, fear of the Lord, and yes, might (Kratos) too.

Before we conclude on our discussion concerning Ischus, let’s take a quick look at how Samson activated this tremendous strength of God.

So, this lady, Delilah, had attempted countless times to discover the source of Samson’s great strength and assumed many different hypotheses, right? She got him to try telling her three times and each time he gave her a new hypothesis, she jumped for the opportunity and attempted it: she tied his hands with new rope while he was asleep, yet he still broke them when he felt need arose.

“And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before and shake myself…”—Judges 16:21

In case you haven’t gotten it yet, he is saying he activated his strength all those times before by simply “shaking himself.” We’ll discuss that in coming articles (I know this is getting old to hear by now but just bear with me).

DO I HAVE ISCHUS?

Emphatically, yes…again!

Ischus and Kratos are results of the influence of the Holy Spirit, and we’ve already discovered that we have the Holy Spirit living in us and we’ve also discovered why and how much of his manifested presence lives in us.

Note: if you don’t recall this discussion, chances are you are yet to read my previous article series on “Who and What a Christian Really Is” and “Classifications of Celestial Knowledge” in which case, I strongly advise you do in order to better understand the concepts discussed in this article.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ISCHUS AND KRATOS

So, when we refer to Ischus, we are talking about physical and or bodily strength.

Ischus is that tremendous supernatural physical strength that the Holy Spirit inspires within individuals (most significantly in the case of Samson).

However, contrary to what the modern-day video games and folklore contain concerning the word “Kratos”, it actually doesn’t necessarily mean “bodily strength” though it may imply it from time to time because of the similarities I draws with the word “Ischus”.

Kratos is a force or influence brought about by a spiritual being’s physical manifestation or presence. And for those of you who may have already guessed, the greater the spiritual being’s power or ability, the greater the force of influence of their physical manifestation: that’s why God has the greatest Kratos of all beings. When God manifests in either of His seven operations, you cannot miss it. When He manifested through might (Ischus) in Samson, there was no mistaking where this strength came from. Samson was beyond greater than anything the world had ever seen. When God manifested through wisdom in Solomon, the world had never recorded wisdom of that extent until Jesus. There was not mistaking it was from God.

Now, a curious thing to point out before concluding this article is how that when it comes to dealing with spiritual hierarchy, Christians are on par only with God Himself, second only be followed by natural men, then angels and spirit beings. This may seem hard to accept but I assure you it’s very real: stay tuned for the coming article series on the “Celestial Hierarchy” where I go over this in greater detail. So if Christians have the same potency as God Himself in terms of the influence relative to their physical manifestation, then shouldn’t it mean devils shouldn’t be able to influence us and rather us influence them as well as other spiritual beings? Give that thought on your own and see what resolves you come up with based on everything we’ve learned so far.

I understand so far that I’ve overloaded you with so much information for one article, so I’d rather continue this topic in greater detail in later articles so as you may have a little more time and substance enough to meditate on before we pick up from right here in later articles.

CONCLUSION

I do feel the need to mention, however, that the concepts I’m discussing with you now are simply basics, and that more complex concepts will be discussed in coming articles.

If I am to conclude this series then let it be on this note: these types of power and everything we discuss in this series and on my platform is for Christians and Christians alone. If you are not Christian then this cannot apply to you no matter what you try. And this is not me saying this, Jesus Himself says it,

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”—John 14:6

There is no other way to have this except by becoming Christians. Christianity is not just a religion. Read everything we’ve taken a look at from our very first article series on Who and What a Christian Really is for yourself to know what a Christian is. If you are here and haven’t given your life to God (and therefore aren’t Christian) then I offer you the opportunity to give your life to God.

Simply believing in God and in Jesus DOES NOT make you Christian.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.“—Romans 10:9

Paul tells us exactly how to become Christian. He says you need to believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, and you need to confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. If you have never done this then you have not Christian no matter how often you go to church and no matter how good a person you are. So, right now, if you’re reading this and wish to give your life to God and become a Christian, repeat this prayer below out-loud to yourself wherever you are,

“O Lord, God,

I believe with all my heart in Jesus Christ, Son of the living God.

I believe He died for me and God raised Him from the dead.

I believe that He’s alive today.

I confess with my mouth that Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life from this day.

Through Him and in His Name, I have eternal life; I am born again.

Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul!

I’m now a child of God. Hallelujah!”

Now if you said that prayer for the very first time and gave you life to the Lord today, congratulations: you are now a new creation! You are born again! And you are child of God from this day. Please, please, please reach out to me directly using my contact form or on the numbers given below and I will respond to you immediately: I have amazing gifts lined up just for you and I wish to help you through your Christian walk. Feel free to read my article series on Who an What A Christian Really is to learn more about who you are as a Child of God, what it means to be a child of God, and what you have as a child of God.

Until then, thank you so much for joining me on this epic journey in understanding the Classifications of Celestial Power. Join me in my next article series where I go over “Classifications of Celestial Wisdom”.