Book 1 of Musings Overcoming Satan
The blood of the Lamb is our power base. The word of our testimony is our activity. Loving not our life to the death is our protection.
The Bible says that there will be Christians who overcome Satan, the accuser of the brothers, by the blood of the Lamb; by the word of their testimony; and by loving not their lives to the point of death.
If we are to overcome Satan, each of these aspects is essential.
If it were not for the blood of the Lamb we could never overcome Satan. This is because of our guilt. It takes quite a period of time and continual obedience on our part in order for our sinful nature to be destroyed. Meanwhile the blood of Jesus keeps us reconciled to God in spite of our sins, rebellion, and foolishness.
As long as we are following the Spirit of God faithfully, walking in the light of God's will, the blood is cleansing us from all unrighteousness.
In order to overcome Satan and his accusations we have to be showing forth in ourselves a true testimony of God's Person, ways, will, and eternal purpose in Christ. The Holy Spirit creates this testimony in us.
There are two main areas of the testimony, both enabled by the Spirit. The first area is that of supernatural power. This includes all forms of the gifts of the Spirit, including prophetic utterance.
The second area is that of moral behavior. Our behavior must be in line with God's eternal moral law.
If either of these two areas is lacking, supernatural power or acceptable moral behavior, we cannot possibly overcome Satan.
We see, then, that the first area has to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. The second area has to do with the Holy Spirit.
The third area in which we overcome the accuser has to do with the Father. It is stern obedience to the Father.
Each of the areas is essential. The third area, that of stern obedience to the Father, is the reversal of the original rebellion in Heaven. The first two areas lead ultimately to the third.
In order to obey God completely we have to die to our self-will, to our right to be ourselves. We never lose our uniqueness as a person, but we do lose our right to express ourselves apart from God.
I would venture that in our day there are two areas that need improvement. The first is moral behavior. Because of the overemphasis on grace as forgiveness, the Christians have forgotten grace teaches us to lead a godly life. God will not work with us when we are not living an upright, holy life.
The second area that needs improvement is that of stern obedience to God. We need to pay much more attention to finding God's will and doing it.
We can see world events shaping up such that England, Israel, and America are being worked into a corner where they are going to have to stand against the Muslim nations and North Korea. I don't think China and Russia will be much help. It is to their advantage, perhaps, to stand by and wait until America and England have been weakened. Then they may make their move.
However, they may outsmart themselves, because the Muslim nations eventually will come against all people who are not Muslim. This appears to be their determination in the present hour.
As we read the paper we see that Israel is depending on the United States. I think England wishes to maintain a close relationship with America. Our President, thank God, is a man of prayer and there are others in the government who are devout Christians, from what we hear.
However, the bulk of our citizenry, or at least a substantial part, is given over to pleasure. They love their pleasures and comforts too much to waste their time praying.
We trust in our military strength, and we have courageous, dedicated members of the armed forces of our country.
But unless God helps us we are in for deep trouble. Our military will not save our country, Britain, and Israel, apart from God's help. And God is not going to help us unless we do more than make a brief show of reverence by singing "God Bless America." There must be massive national repentance.
What must we do as individuals? We must place ourselves by faith under the protection of the blood of the Lamb. We must live our lives according to the moral law of God.
Finally, and most importantly, we must do as Paul commanded: we must present our body a living sacrifice to God.
The best protection we have against Satan is our death on the cross. When every part of our personality has been counted as dead, when we can say 'for me to live is Christ and to die is gain', then, and only then, are we invincible.
Satan always attacks us at some point in which we are asserting our natural life. When we have given all to Jesus, when we have remained without complaining in the imprisoning circumstances in which He placed us, Satan cannot harm us. In order to harm us he would have to overcome the resurrection Life of Christ; and this he is unable to do.
We can overcome Satan totally through the authority of the blood of the Lamb; by following the Holy Spirit as He creates the Divine testimony in us; and especially by loving not our life to the death.
If our whole nation would follow Christ in these three areas of victory, or even if the Christian people would do so, no other country could raise a finger against us. But we may be unwilling to deny ourselves and trust God to this extent.
Therefore in the future we may find Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Yemen, and Pakistan arrayed against us. Meanwhile China and Russia will be licking their chops, waiting for the proud United States, the super-power of the free world, to suffer humiliating losses.
Our country's only hope is that God will remember the missionaries who have gone from America and given their lives in Africa and other places, and that He will remember the humanitarian acts, such as feeding the poor and clothing the naked, that have characterized America. God is well able after all hope is gone to preserve this once great nation.
Hopefully by then the abortions, the sexual perversions, and the Hollywood filthiness and foolishness will be behind us as we struggle just to survive physically.
They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. (Rev 12:11)