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Friend, taking hold of what God has judged!

Exodus 4:2-4 So the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A rod."  3  And He said, "Cast it on the ground." So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it.  4  Then the LORD said to Moses, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail" (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), 

Following yesterday's revelation that authority flows from settled identity, the Spirit brings us to a decisive truth: authority is revealed when what once intimidated you is brought under obedience.

God asked Moses, “What is that in your hand?” It was a staff -- ordinary and familiar -- until obedience exposed what fear had hidden. When the staff became a serpent, Moses fled. Yet God did not remove the threat; He issued a command that redefined dominion: “Pick it up.” When Moses obeyed, the serpent submitted and returned to a staff -- no longer an object of fear, but an instrument of rule.

This is not spectacle.
This is pattern.

What you fear will rule you.
What you confront in obedience will submit to you.

God did not say, “Avoid the serpent."
He said, “Take hold.”

Yeshua (Jesus) restored this mandate when He declared, “I give you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions.” Darkness does not retreat because it is reasoned with -- it retreats when it is placed under authority. The enemy may posture, hiss, and intimidate, but his power was stripped at the cross. What remains is permission-based -- and authority ends permission.

Notice this: the serpent did not disappear -- it submitted. Authority does not always remove opposition instantly; it forces alignment. What once caused fear becomes proof. What once threatened becomes testimony. The place of intimidation becomes the tool of deliverance.

You do not overcome serpents by avoiding them.
You overcome them by standing in delegated authority.

Yeshua did not save you to hide. He saved you to rule under His finished work. The serpent has no dominion where the Son has been revealed. What Yeshua destroyed, you are authorized to enforce.

Friend, walk in your authority. Do not shrink back from what Yeshua has already judged. Stand where Heaven has placed you and force serpents to submit—not with noise, not with fear, but with settled authority. You are not negotiating with darkness; you are enforcing a verdict already rendered at the cross. The serpent may move, posture, and hiss, but it does not rule. You do. Step forward in obedience, take hold without hesitation, and watch intimidation lose its voice. What once threatened you must now align. What once resisted you must now yield. Walk in your authority, enforce what is finished, and let every serpent know: the Son has ruled, and His dominion is enforced through you.

George & Baht Rivka (Southern Florida)