Scripture Reading: Revelation 12:7-11

Revelation 12:7-11

7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. 10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.

Lucifer is full of pride. We know this. The devil is a liar. We know this! Satan is an accuser and Satan is a defeated foe. Salvation is available to the whole world and the Saints (that’s you and I) are overcomers through the blood of the Lamb (Christ) and the word of their testimony.

The first mention of Satan [Termed the Accuser is found in 1 Chronicles 21] David numbered the people because Satan filled his heart with pride … David was rebuked by Joab and begged not to go through with the numbering, but David would have none of it. Pride drove him to go through with the action. The penalty was stark, 70,000 people died because of his disobedience.

Have you ever gone against Godly counsel? Have you ever been advised that if you go ahead with this course of action then it will lead you to an unhappy end? Pride stirs up a rebellious spirit. You become obsessed with your plans and won't listen to the sound counsel of others. Pride drove Satan to lead a rebellion in heaven [of all places], a war against God and the angels— a Coup-d’tat— trying to takeover heaven, exalting himself against the Most High God.

Matthew 18 is the solution for defeating pride… coming together to discuss hurts, misunderstandings and differences of opinion lays it on the table to see things clearly.

Politicians are considered the best at turning a question around on the asker to avoid telling the truth. SATAN lives an existence of avoiding the truth! He is a professional at spinning half truths, lies of omission and lies of commission. Living a lie is Satan's existence every day! His nature, his essence is to live a lie. He is avoiding the truth that he is a defeated foe. He intidates, takes advantage of your weaknesses and exploits strongholds to try and put forward the strong front that he is in control.

Satan believes he is better than everyone else...He considers himself able to be greater than God, spoke out blatantly against God regarding Job. But he also displayed that he is prejudice against man… God says one thing about man, Satan says the opposite! His eyes are tainted with hatred and malice based on jealousy which is the offspring of pride {How dare they get the attention I deserve} God considered Job and saw that he was faithful and good... Satan turned it around based on his prejudice against man.

Are you getting the picture of how Satan operates against you? Turns every good thing that you do or happens to you into an exploitation of your failures, weaknesses and misery. Satan will lie to us. He will try and persuade us that we are weak and shallow in our faith. He may even inflict us with sores, sickness and pain to try and get us to turn against God.

If the devil is here and this is his domain, if he is the prince and power of the air here… then I promise you, you want to go to heaven where he is no longer — to the place where his ilk was judged and cast out. This is the Good News, Jesus defeated the works of the devil and made it possible for us to be removed from his influence and go to heaven.

We have power in our testimony over the accusations of Satan.

We need to remind ourselves regularly of who Satan is… He is a prideful sycophant [the king of vain flattery] who loves to stir up rebellion and war. He is a liar and the father of lies! Every day he is living a lie for he is a defeated foe. He despises mankind and is doing his utmost; in the little time he has left to influence the world away from Jesus Christ!

Knowing this is our Enemy… we need to stand firm against his wiles and devices, against his deception, against his construction of rifts and strife within the brethren so that we can then stand against him. Invoking the Power of the blood of Jesus Christ, and the Word of our Testimony!

We can defeat Satan by joining with Christ, by invoking His power in our lives!