2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
All too often believers forget that God equips us to be victorious in spiritual warfare. I made that comment to a friend recently, and her response was to ask me what I meant by spiritual warfare. God helps us to understand that by relating through IS 14: 11-15, what happened to his most favored angel in charge of worship in heaven, Lucifer. “You [Lucifer] used to be honored with the music of harps, but now here you are in the world of the dead. You lied on a bed of maggots and are covered with a blanket of worms. King of Babylon, bright morning star, you have fallen from heaven! In the past you conquered nations, but now you have been thrown to the ground. You were determined to climb up to heaven and to place your throne above the highest stars. You thought you would sit like a king on that mountain in the north where the gods assemble. You said you would climb to the tops of the clouds and be like the Almighty. But instead, you have been brought down to the deepest part of the world of the dead.”
REV 12: 9 gives us more information on this subject. “The huge dragon was thrown out-that ancient serpent, named the devil or Satan, that deceived the whole world. He was thrown down to earth, and all his angels with him.” Therein, the adversary and his band of evil angels were punished by righteous angels under God’s direction because of the evil one’s attempts to arrogantly usurp God’s sovereignty.
Those mature enough in the faith recognize that in the Protevangelium, GN 3: 15, not only is the conflict between the forces of good and evil announced, but the eventual outcome can be gleaned as well. “I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite their heel.” Biting one’s heel will cause pain, but crushing one’s head will lead to death. RO 6: 23, “But sin pays its wage-death; but God’s free gift is eternal life in union with Christ Jesus our Lord.” In 2 K 6: 16-17, the prophet Elisha and his servant found themselves facing Syrian troops. The prophet said, “Do not be afraid,” to his servant. “We have more on our side that they have on theirs.” Then, he prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes, and let him see!” The Lord answered his prayer, and Elisha’s servant looked up and saw the hillside covered horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” These were God’s angels ready to fight for Israel. DN 10: 12-14, gives us another glimpse into this unseen warfare that is going on around us. Daniel had been engaging in a heartfelt intercessory prayer for Israel, a plea for God to forgive her for her disobedience and release her from the Babylonian captivity. He had been praying for three weeks (21 days) when the angel, Gabriel, came to him with a hugely important message for all of us. “Then he said, ‘Daniel, do not be afraid. God has heard your prayers ever since the first day you decided to humble yourself in order to gain understanding. I have come in answer to your prayer. The angel prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me for twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief angels came to help me, because I had been left there alone in Persia. I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the future. This is a vision about the future.’ “ We know from DN 8: 17 that this vision had to do with the end of world.
With all of this in mind, today’s passage, 1JN 5: 1-5, is God’s way of letting us know that He has equipped us to be victorious against the world. “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Messiah is a child of God; and whoever loves a father loves his child also. This is how we know that we love God’s children; it is by loving God and obeying His commands. For our love for God means that we obey His commands. And His commands are not too hard for us, because every child of God is able to defeat the world. And we win the victory over the world by means of our faith. Who can defeat the world? Only the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” What connects the world with the adversary and all his evil angels goes right back to the original sin of Adam [see GN 3: 6]. Since all mankind is descended from Adam, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” [RO 3: 23]. That is why Christ’s Atonement is so crucial to us; it really is the only way salvation is available to all who are willing to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. Two citations reveal the nature of the power to be victorious that we are given. RO 6: 6, “And we know that our being has been put to death with Christ on His cross, in order that the power of the sinful self might be destroyed, so that we should no longer be slaves to sin.” RO 6: 16, “Surely you know that when you surrender yourselves as slaves to obey someone, you are in fact slaves of the master you obey-either of sin, which results in death, or of obedience, which results in being put right with God.”
John allows us to know how to love God. JN 14: 15, “If you love Me, you will obey My commandments.” JN 14: 21, “Whoever accepts My commandments and obeys them is the one who loves Me. My Father will love whoever loves Me; I too will love him and reveal Myself to him.” He also shows us another line of defense we have against the adversary and his followers in JN 14: 16-17, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, Who will stay with you forever. He is the Spirit, Who reveals the truth about God. The world cannot receive Him. But you know Him, because He remains with you and is in you.” We can have confidence in our ability to defeat the devil when he does spiritual warfare with us. The only time he wins is when we allow him to win. With true faith in Jesus Christ, we have the Holy Spirit to teach us the truth and Christ’s power to chase away the adversary just as He used it when he was tempted in the wilderness [see MT 4: 1-11]. Our temptations come in the form of appeals to our flesh, trials like the ones Job faced, invitations to engage in intrigue, and attacks on our loved ones-particularly our children. That is how the adversary does his dirty work. With the discernment God gives us through the Scriptures, we are equipped to recognize this evil and defeat it. We can endure in our faith and know that our endurance brings us personal character, God’s approval, and hope. Be comforted that with faith, we are all equipped to emerge victorious in Jesus Christ!
PRAYER: O Lord, without You we are nothing and we have nothing. As our Creator, You have given us all. All too often, we either forget all that You have equipped us with or we have not taken the time to allow You to reveal it to us by studying the Scriptures. The most valuable asset You make available to us in our faith in Jesus Christ. Through it, You made salvation open to us as well as eternal forgiveness for our sins. You knew before we were born that we would need to deal with the evil machinations of the adversary and his followers. Your compassion extended to us for You to give us the power through our faith to defeat them. You greatest desire for us is that we should love You by being obedient to You and putting our trust in You. Your goal for us is that we should progress through the process of sanctification, allowing You to propel us toward the degree of perfection we need so that we can follow “the First among many brothers” and experience our own glorification. Yes Lord, we eagerly await that Day when we will meet Him in the air, receiving resurrection bodies, on our way to eternal joy and fellowship with You. In humility, we offer you our praise, adoration, thanks, and worship. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will look at 1JN 5: 6-8 which examines the shared testimony of Christ’s witnesses, the water, the blood, and the Holy Spirit. Know that when we face the trouble and temptation that the adversary places we are equipped by our faith in Christ to deal with them. We can chose victory over defeat, because our loving Abba made us able. Trust and obey Him today, tomorrow, and always and see what I mean. Peter and I send you our heartfelt love today.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn