2003-01-08
Good Morning Dear Ones,
In my last message, I was led to share citations which demonstrated that God has given us the authority to use His word in the course of doing battle with the forces of evil. Now, that we know we have that, we need to learn how to use it.
Let’s look at what happened first using JN 12: 31 as a jumping off point. “Now it is time for the world to be judged; now the ruler of this world will be overthrown.” It was clear from HE 2: 14 that Christ shared man’s human nature. He did this, so that through His death He mighty destroy the devil, who has power over death. From simply reading these two citations from the previous message, we can see that Satan had a plan too, a plan that failed from the time that Christ died on the cross. Satan’s plan is first revealed clearly in IS 14: 13-14, “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.” We get further elaboration on this in EZK 28: 15-17, “Your conduct was perfect from the day you were created until you began to do evil. You were busy buying and selling, and this led you to violence and sin. So I forced you to leave My holy mountain, and the angel who guarded you drove you away from the sparkling gems. You were proud of being handsome, and your fame made you act like a fool. Because of this I hurled you to the ground and left you as a warning to other kings.” We need to pay particular attention to the words, “and be like the Almighty” in the Isaiah passage. Here’s why. GN 3: 1-6 is the now familiar beginning to the story of the original sin. Look at the promise the serpent (Satan) is making to Eve in luring her to sin. GN 3: 4-5, “The serpent replied, ‘That is not true; you will not die. God said that because He knows that when you eat it, you will be like God and know what is good and what is bad.’” JN 8: 44 tells us that Satan is the “father of all lies,” and here’s a beautiful example of it.
For awhile, Satan’s plan is working. The original sin is committed, so the stain of his evil is passed down to all mankind, since we all came from the lineage of Adam and Eve. Our God is omniscient, so He knew even before Lucifer, His prized angel in charge of worship in heaven fell, that he would be cast out of heaven and become the Satan we all know and detest. I’ve often reiterate COL 1: 15-20 and 1 PET 1: 20-21, which are the citations about the pre-Creation counsel in heaven at which God decided that Christ would become incarnate and would die on the cross to interrupt Satan’s plan. God’s power and authority have always been greater than Satan’s, and the story of Job serves as a blatant example of that. That is why we can believe it when in JN 12: 31 and HE 2: 14 we are told that Satan and his followers will be judged, found wanting, and overthrown. We can say that Christ’s Atonement was elevated Him to the greatest Interrupter of evil the world has ever seen. He defeated it!
We can also confidently make the statement that Christ will be victorious in wresting dominion over the earth from Satan and back into God’s hands. I have often witnessed to my faith that every word of the Scriptures from start to finish is wholly true and consistent. I do so again here. That is why I believe we can look at REV 5: 5 and say this is basis of our claim that Christ will be successful in this pursuit. [John speaking] “Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not cry. Look! The Lion from Judah’s tribe, the great Descendant of David, has won the victory, and He can break the seven seals and open the scroll.’” There is no question Who that “Lion from Judah’s tribe, the great Descendant of David” is. He is Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God Who was slain for the sins of mankind. The scroll here represents the mortgage to dominion over earth. We can collect up and learn these Scriptures and the ones I will share in tomorrow’s message. That will give us quite a quiver, full of arrows of our own that are poisonous to the evil one and his followers. The key to learning how to use God’s word is taking the time to prayerfully study it and put together the pieces of God’s plan, His big picture to help us have motivation and faith that we can indeed claim victory over the devil on the grounds of the cross.
PRAYER: O Lord, we are Your very grateful children, in awe of the power and magnificence of Your word. Your power is so much greater than Satan’s, and we earnestly thank You for allowing us to understand it through the Holy Spirit, for giving us the authority to use it in spiritual warfare, and for showing us how to use it. [There is more to share on how to use it than I had space to discuss in this message, but it is my promise that with Your help, I will go on with that tomorrow.] Our heads our bowed in an attitude of humility and gratitude when we think of the enormous personal sacrifice You made with Your decision to send Your Son to the cross for us. We are awed by the example of obedience He set for us in facing such pain and humiliation with such dignity. You demonstrated to all the apostles and over 500 people that Christ was resurrected [1 COR 15: 3-8; AC 1: 8-9] and told us through the prophetic message of the Psalmist in PS 110:1 long before it ever happened that He would sit at Your right side until You put His enemies under His feet. You actually told us the outcome of the enmity between mankind and evil in GN 3: 15 when You said the serpent’s head would be crushed while mankind’s heel was only bitten. Through the Holy Spirit, You have given us the gift of faith, the ability to understand Your word, and the opportunity to not lose sight of Your big plan for us. That is the Your plan to bring as many of us as possible back to Your side to be joint-heirs with Christ to the Kingdom that will last forever [RO 8: 17]. You have loved us right from the beginning, and Your love was not something we could earn. It was the gift of Your grace, as is our salvation. No Deity ever worshipped by mankind ever had a heart as big as Yours, power so great as Yours, nor deserved our gratitude and obedient trust as much as You do. You are the One true and Only God we will ever worship. We dedicate ourselves to confessing our sins, to eschewing sin, and to acting on our knowledge that we can use Your word to defeat Satan’s attempts to thwart it. We promise that Satan will not succeed in his challenge of our faith. We offer You our adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, trust, obedience, glory, honor, praise, and thanks. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
There is more to say about how to use God’s word, and that, as promised above, will be the subject of tomorrow’s message. Our Lord takes us from being babies in the faith toward maturity. It is a great gift that we are given when we yield ourselves to that purpose. None of us knows so much that he is ready for glorification yet, but each of us holds out the hope that God will allow that in our future. The process of sanctification always involves spiritual warfare for the believer. But this is how God enables us to grow in our spiritual maturity, inching closer to the day when we will be perfected by Him. Our part is to comply with obedience and confidence in Him. His part is to bring us back to Him for eternity. In this covenant relationship, each human partner is blessed beyond his imagination. I truly believe that God gives us a foretaste of heaven when He grants us the “peace that goes beyond human understanding” [PHIL 4: 7] when we have pleased Him. That is one more out of countless demonstrations of His love for us. Peter and I send You our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn