In Luke 9, Jesus sent out twelve disciples to heal the sick, cast out demons, and preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God. In Luke 10, Jesus sent out seventy disciples to do the same thing. After the seventy returned, they were rejoicing because the demons were subject to them through the name of Jesus. Jesus tells them that He saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. We must note that lightning is a sign of a storm. It is amazing that Jesus does not say this when the twelve disciples return. One would think that when His special twelve disciples returned that Satan would have had a bad day. Yet, Satan had a great downfall when the seventy disciples were sent out.

What this demonstrates to us is that Jesus got greater glory when the seventy disciples went out, rather than just the twelve. Too often we are waiting for people with special status to go out and share the gospel when we should be like the seventy and take initiative. We know the names of the twelve disciples, but we do not get a record of the seventy disciples from Scripture. These seventy were unnamed, unranked, but undoubtedly empowered with the name of Jesus. The seventy disciples had the same results as the twelve did. We do not need a special platform, microphone, and recognition to fulfill the commandment of Jesus Christ to make disciples of all people. The seventy were not trying to compete with the twelve, they just wanted to serve in the Kingdom of God – and God certainly partnered with them. Jesus rejoiced when the seventy returned with victory. We do not read of such an emotional response with the twelve. I believe that God gets thoroughly excited when a generation of disciples rises up that doesn’t care if their name is popular or if they have a great position but is just hungry to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the kind of generation that is going to cause the enemy to come crashing down in his influence over our world.

Since lightning is an indicator of a storm, what Jesus saw was a spiritual storm occurring when the seventy disciples went out declaring the good news. The seventy were a mixed group of Jews and Gentiles, which means that the group had religious backgrounds and nonreligious backgrounds amongst it. This lets us know that Jesus can mightily manifest His power through somebody, no matter what kind of background they have. We can pull down the strongholds of our spiritual enemies and cause them to fall like lightning from heaven! We can operate just like the seventy did!

This lightning terminology that Jesus uses is very intentional. In the Old Testament, the false god of the storm and weather was Baal, who is an Old Testament representation of Satan. God was showing the 70 disciples that the Lord is the God of the storm, not Satan. Satan is in fact a lightning bolt subject to the storm! What are lighting bolts good for? Looking at agriculture, we see that crops NEED nitrogen to grow, but that nitrogen in the atmosphere exists in an UNUSABLE form in the atmosphere. The only atmospheric element that converts nitrogen into good use for CROPS is LIGHTNING! What does this mean to us? God uses the storms of life to produce a spiritual harvest of souls! God must be able to trust us with storms in life for souls to know Jesus!

The seventy disciples looked at their opposition as an opportunity to spread the name of Jesus! We must do the same. If we want to have great victory in the spiritual realm, we have got to expand God’s kingdom from the special twelve to the anonymous seventy. We have the same Spirit that the apostles did 2000 years ago. We have the same Spirit that was in Jesus Christ when He walked this earth. We are baptized in the same name of Jesus that the apostles were baptized in. We have the same revelation of the new birth, now we ought to expand how they expanded and have the same results! Let’s get out, be laborers and see God do greater things!

What Jesus saw in the spiritual realm was a storm occurring upon the kingdom of darkness, causing destruction for Satan.

Hector Robles hosts a podcast and bible study channel by the name of Sparrow.Podcast. On a weekly basis, you can find new content regarding the Bible and ministry. He lives and works as an engineer in Columbus, Ohio with his wife, Savannah and they gladly serve at Calvary Apostolic Church.

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