Trumpet Ministries, Revelation 12:9
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And the great [huge] dragon was cast out [thrown down], that old [ancient] serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out [forced out and thrown down] into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (Revelation 12:9)
This is not a gentle action. The precious blood of the Lamb was given in full payment for the redemption of the creation. But the old landlord will not let go of his slaves. Therefore he shall be driven from the heaven by superior spiritual power.
The source of all sin and rebellion shall be driven from the spirit realm and hurled down into the earth, stripped of all ability to control the physical realm of people and nature.
The wrestling match has come to an end. God in Christ in the saints has conquered the adversary.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places [in the heavenlies]. (Ephesians 6:12)
The wrestling match is in the area of obedience to God’s Truth, on the part of the saints. They are God’s judges and must be holy and obedient in His Presence. The actual power of conquest is issued to the elect angels as they are empowered by the Spirit of God to overcome all the power of the enemy.
Our ability to bring righteous behavior into view depends on our choosing to obey God’s Word. If we choose to obey the Lord, God furnishes the power in the spirit realm so a way is made for us to practice righteousness. The power of the Spirit of God breaks the yoke of wickedness. This is how the Truth of Christ sets us free from the bondages of iniquity.
The forcing of Satan and his angels out of the spirit realm is so staggering a blessing to every righteous spirit it scarcely can be grasped. To think that the power, the authority, the actions, the motives, the words, the imaginations, the memories of rebellion and sin, will soon be destroyed completely out of the creation of God!
But the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed. And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them. (Deuteronomy 7:23,24)
The above passage, speaking of the demon-worshiping tribes that inhabited the land of Canaan, typifies the total destruction of the kingdom of Satan that will be accomplished by Almighty God in Christ in the saints.
It is complete, total, absolute conquest—the destruction of all rebellion and sin from the creation of God.
Note that the huge dragon deceives the whole world. Sometimes we are led to believe the wrestling match is one of power. But basically the issue is one of truth and deception.
All power belongs to God, and God has given His authority and power to Christ. The devil works with the authority and power Christ has apportioned to him so the will of God may be brought to pass.
The reason we saints cannot seem to exercise the degree of righteousness in the world around us that we would, and sometimes not even in our own immediate environment and our own flesh, is that we are warring against wicked spirits who impose their will on us.
How are we to overcome these spirits?
God has given us His Divine Truth in the Scriptures. When the Holy Spirit opens a passage of Scripture to our understanding, and then we mix faith with the Word that has been given to us, the power of God through Christ enables us to begin to live by that Word.
Our task is to come to know the truth and to choose to obey that truth. God’s task is to open truth to us as we press forward in faith, and then to send us power from Heaven so we are enabled to obey the truth of God. In this manner we come to know Divine truth and the Divine truth sets us free from the bondages of sin.
But we must keep on choosing to obey the truth. We Christians are to keep on asking the Lord to lead us into all truth by His Holy Spirit who dwells in us. There is much deception in the world around us. This deception is proceeding from wicked spirits and we are not able to overcome the deception by means of our own wisdom and strength. Only Christ is able to overcome the deception that comes from the enemy of our souls.
Satan is not permitted to exercise authority or power over a person who is walking in the light of God’s will. In order to harm us, Satan must persuade us to believe a lie. If Satan can deceive us into straying from the path of truth in some way, then we begin to lose the power of the Holy Spirit who is helping us. In this manner Satan lures us out from under the protection of the blood of Christ, away from the wisdom and power of the Spirit of God.
If Satan can deceive us into turning aside from the pathway of Divine truth he can bring us into bondage so we will worship him and perform his will in the earth.
The Philistines could not harm Samson until Delilah was able to deceive him into allowing her to cut his hair. The moment Samson’s Nazarite vow was broken his strength left him.
Balaam was unable to curse Israel. Therefore he sought to seduce the Israelite warriors to commit fornication. Balaam understood that God’s protection would be removed from Israel if the soldiers of the army could be led into sin.
Satan’s legal hold on earth’s peoples was removed on the cross of Calvary. In order to maintain his hold on people, Satan must keep them blind to God’s Word and will. He accomplishes such blindness by deceiving them, by putting lies into their minds. Satan is a master deceiver and is able to keep multitudes of Christian people in bondage, weakness, and confusion by means of his artfully designed snares.
Whenever any individual is able to understand God’s will and perform it, the power of the Lord Jesus Christ releases him or her from the chains of sin and rebellion against the Lord God of Heaven.
Satan is the deceiver of the whole world. The entire earth is one great area of satanic delusion. The peoples of the earth are laboring in the sins and rebellions that gratify demons and fallen angels.
The wicked spirits receive release and satisfaction through the sinful and rebellious acts of human beings. But the human beings are required to pay for their demon-inspired lawlessness and lust with broken bodies, betrayed families, tormented, anguished minds, shattered hopes, broken covenants, premature physical death, and possible eternal separation from their Creator in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur.
Lust and lawlessness bring misery in this world and eternal torment in the next life.
Eternal life through Christ is the gift of God. But sin and rebellion against God’s will cost the individual everything of value.
God’s answer to the lack of righteousness, holiness, and obedience in His creation, and the resulting chaos and human agony, is the construction of the Body of Christ.
As soon as the Lord has brought the members of the Body of Christ to maturity in the Head, then the Head, Christ, will descend from Heaven. After that, the whole Christ—Head and body—will perform the work of the Servant of the Lord (Isaiah, Chapter 42). Part of the ministry of the Servant of the Lord is the bringing of justice to the Gentile nations (Isaiah 42:1).
The Lord Jesus will not return to bring justice to the Gentile nations until He brings His Body, the Body of Christ, to the Divine standard of unity and maturity.
When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory. (Psalms 102:16)
As Christ is born through the travail of the Church the accusations of Satan are overcome. Some of the saints will be totally obedient to the Father. Their Christ-empowered obedience will conquer Satan. Then Satan and his wicked angels will be forced from their thrones in the spirit realm and hurled into the earth at the hand of Michael and the elect angels.
At that time there will be people on the earth. The Laodicean churches will be full of deceived Christians who have been persuaded that believers should be living prosperously in this world, enjoying the friendship of the worldly people who are lovers of the present age. Such believers have little or no understanding of what it means to be a pilgrim and stranger in the world.
During the reign of Antichrist the true elect of God, the faithful remnant, those who bore the end-time latter-rain Divine testimony, will be hidden away in the remote wilderness areas (Revelation 12:14).
It is not unusual for God’s elect to be driven from the centers of civilization.
They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. (Hebrews 11:37,38)
At that time (when Satan and his angels are cast into the earth) the world will be enjoying "peace and safety." Antichrist will have been able to deceive the Christian people into believing the government is their friend and is ready to assist them with various programs designed for the "betterment" of people.
Today Antichrist has overcome the testimony of many Christians by giving them an abundance of peace and prosperity. Satan has rocked these "believers" to sleep in the lap of Delilah.
Satan will not bother these "saints" while they are singing "Onward Christian Soldiers" as long as they keep on serving him with their love of money, their lust, and their lawlessness.
It appears Satan’s strategy for the end time is to overcome the Christian testimony by making friends with the Christians. (Contrast this with the arenas of Rome.) He has tried the prosperity strategy already and it has proven to be a successful technique.
In some instances Satan has convinced the Lord’s anointed they are not to suffer in this world, and that the Lord Jesus desires above all else that they prosper in every material way. In such cases the Lord is viewed as the servant of the believer, anxious to supply every whim and desire the Christian may have.
What a distorted understanding of the relationship of the Christian disciple to the Lord Jesus Christ!
The Christian people have received this lie because they have been taught they are saved "by faith" apart from repenting and turning away from this world. They can gossip, slander, commit fornication, engage in adultery, lie, steal, and practice every other unclean, ungodly, devilish behavior but they still will enter into the Kingdom of God because "God is love."
This doctrine is from Hell, and the churches have received it because they covet the praise of men more than the praise of God. The Lord Jesus today is in the process of separating His elect from this cesspool of lust and lawlessness.
The Spirit of Christ warned us clearly many hundreds of years ago:
And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace [prosperity, material security, worldly ease and pleasure] shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand. (Daniel 8:25)
One of Satan’s supreme strategies of the last days is to destroy the Church of Christ by "loving" it and putting it to sleep with material prosperity.
At that time Antichrist will be active on the earth. The False Prophet will be spreading religious delusions and working miracles. An enraged Satan accompanied by a multitude of wicked angels will be thrown down into the earth.
No longer will Satan and his angels be permitted to rule from the spiritual thrones. They must be content to work alongside Antichrist and the False Prophet, being bound to the planet as any other person.
What about the Laodicean believers? They will be "serving God," so they think, in this filth and perversion—just as is happening today. But shortly they will suffer the full weight of God’s judgment.
What about the remnant, the seed of the woman? The saints of the remnant have followed the Holy Spirit to places of safety and provision; for they will remain alive on the earth until the Lord Jesus returns to earth in the Glory of the Father with the saints and holy angels.
Can you imagine an earth inhabited not only by wicked men and women of the type that is beginning to be prominent but also by wicked, rebellious angels who are filled with rage because they have been cast down from their thrones of power in the heavenlies?
Indeed, it will be a time of woe for those who are living on the earth, except for the saints who are protected by the promises of the Ninety-first Psalm.
In that hour the believers will be destroyed quickly unless they are being protected by the blood of the Lamb of God and are filled with the Holy Spirit of God. This terrific spiritual pressure will separate the members of the Body of Christ from the Christian "believers" who are lukewarm in their love for Christ.
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