KEYS TO VICTORY OVER SATAN

One of the verses in Revelation that has totally captured my attention is Revelation 12:11. In the light of all that is going on in our world, I believe this is an important verse to commit to memory and have a basic understanding of.

“They have conquered him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death” (Revelation 12:11, ESV).

1. The blood overcomes (conquers) Satan’s accusations, which are meaningless because Jesus has already paid the penalty that our sins deserved.

Somehow the church of today has lost sight of the “power of the shed blood of Jesus Christ.” We don’t talk much about it and have traded the “power of the blood” for the power of positive thinking, the power of positive confession, the power of 21^st century business models.

Ignore the importance of the power of the blood of Jesus Christ and you are consigning yourself to a life where the enemy is constantly taking advantage of you.

You might say, “Well, outside of the Bible I don’t know what to read.” A longtime friend of mine, Ray Beeson, has just released an excellent book on the blood entitled SIGNED IN HIS BLOOD. Get a copy and take hold of the most important keys to victory. (And he did not ask or even hint that I should do this.)

As I am writing this part of the article, an old song keeps coming to mind. We don’t sing this much in church anymore and I truly miss it:

            Would you be free from the burden of sin?
            There’s pow’r in the blood, pow’r in the blood;
            Would you o’er evil a victory win?
            There’s wonderful pow’r in the blood.

   Refrain:
   There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r
   In the blood of the Lamb;
   There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r
   In the precious blood of the Lamb.

                   (The song Power in the Blood is public domain)

One of the highlights of my life was hearing a choir of about one hundred former drug addicts sing this song, first in English and then in Spanish. Redeemed from the hell of drug addiction, those brothers had experienced the power of the blood of the Lamb and when they sang about it, heaven came down to earth. It was glorious!

2. “They have conquered him (Satan) . . . by the word of their testimony.”

The word of our testimony overcomes Satan’s deception and lies. This is the language of the witness stand in a courtroom. In the face of pressure to turn away from their faith in Christ, they did not do so and their steadfastness reveals the genuineness of their faith.

What is their testimony? It is a personal declaration of how they came to know Jesus Christ as savior. Your sharing may not be a perfect presentation of the gospel but the Holy Spirit can use it, and He will if you will “just do it.” The enemy has lied and deceived many into thinking, “I’m no good at this. What do I have to say? Others can do it better.” And because of this religious spirit of deception, very few people share anything of their testimony or their witness.

Your witness has a “power” to it and the apostle Paul put it this way;

“For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16, NLT).

Don’t be ashamed—just share what Jesus means to you and let the Holy Spirit minister to those you share with. When you share your “witness,” the Holy Spirit can use it to draw people to Christ. There is a power to the gospel but it doesn’t have a chance to work if we don’t share it.

3. “They have conquered him . . . for they loved not their lives even unto death.”

If there is a spirit of Laodicia in today’s church, and I believe there is, then this point needs to be emphasized . . . strongly!

We are temporary residents on this earth and in this life. When we received Christ as our personal savior, we traded in our earthly citizenship for eternal citizenship in the Kingdom of God. As pilgrims, we are not to hold tightly to earthly things and to this fleshly body, and because we don’t, Satan’s ability to threaten us and to accuse us is diminished.

When we are “over the top” consumed about our salary, retirement, fringe benefits, houses, cars and possessions, then we are in danger of directing our love in the wrong direction.

I thank the Lord daily for a nice car, a nice home, mostly nice friends but I am ready to give it all up in a second to do what He wants me to. There is only one Master of the vineyard and it’s not you or me. I’m a pilgrim here and I’m available to Him, and when I make that clear, then the enemy’s ability to follow through on his threats, his accusations, is diminished.

We have in our grasp the keys to victory over all the threats of the enemy. But if we are holding on too tightly to “our lives,” if we are not sharing our “witness,” or if we have no understanding of the “power of the blood,” then we have put the keys to victory away and have invited the enemy to take advantage of us!

ROCK SOLID REVELATIONS FROM REVELATION

I began teaching the Bible class at our church last November and the book of the Bible assigned to me was Revelation. My first reaction to the request was not one of thrill or even simple acquiescence; it was more like, “You’ve got to be kidding me! Why would I want to do that?”

Of all the books of the Bible, I am not sure that any have more differing opinions offered than Revelation and the various views of the last days that it brings forth. For instance, families, churches and friendships have been destroyed over the understanding of when the rapture might take place. 

The rapture! Now there’s a term that is not found in the Bible but still brings forth the very worst in conservative Christians. Liberal Christians don’t really care because most of them don’t think there’s life after death anyway.

I have come to the conclusion that the book of Revelation (and this is a deeply theological thought and will no doubt leave some of you breathless with wonderment) is like a series of snapshots.

 

All of the snapshots that the apostle John presents in Revelation are absolutely beautiful. They are filled with amazing imagery and detail but, as the outsiders, we are left with an intriguing problem of how all these seemingly unrelated pictures fit together.

I am a fan of police procedural crime drama shows on television. I love to watch the police pull together all the info on a crime, all the clues, all the evidence and then, step by step, hunt down the bad guy. On many of the shows they have some kind of wall or marker board. They begin the investigative process by putting all the available info up on the board and then they try and make it all fit together so they can solve the crime.

Well, the book of Revelation is similar to a series of random clues about end-time events. These are what I call the snapshots. How do they all fit together?

One thing we have to understand is that the Revelation snapshots do not flow in an orderly chronology. Some of the events pictured in Revelation took place before time began, others have happened since the death and resurrection of Christ, and some have not happened yet.

One of the words used in Revelation to describe some of these difficult-to-understand events is “mystery” (see Revelation 10:7). In Bible language this means “not obvious to the understanding, or partially hidden.” Why would God give us some clues but partially hide others? It is my opinion that He does so because He understands our human nature. He knows that if we were to have too much information about the timing of the last days, we would get lazy and puffed up with pride, so (again, in my estimation) He withholds some of the critical points to keep us slightly off balance, hungry to seek Him for answers and awake/alert to what is going on in the world.

When asked by the disciples about the end times, why did Jesus, more than once, respond by saying, “Stay alert, be on guard, be watchful”? He knows that if we get too much information we won’t be on guard as we should be (see Luke 21:34, 36; Mark 13:33, 35, 37 and Matthew 24:42, 44).

What are several of the irrefutable things I have learned from the Revelation?

1. For all who truly love the Lord, the book of Revelation is a book of triumph—great victory—for the followers of Christ. We watch as Satan and his army is defeated. We get a glimpse into heaven and into the throne room of our heavenly Father and we get just a brief glimpse into the new heaven, the new earth and the new Jerusalem. What amazing snapshots these are!
2. God is constantly showing His Father heart to His people. Everywhere we look we see God caring for His children, protecting them, providing for and guiding them.

One of the passages that powerfully spoke to me was Revelation 7:15-17. When John inquired of one of the elders about what he was seeing, the elder responded, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14, ESV). But it’s what the elder says next that impacted me so deeply. I absolutely became Pentecostal when I read, “He who sits on the throne will shelter them with His presence” (verse 15). This is the picture of a Father who is consumed with love and concern for His children.

3. No matter what happens, no matter when the rapture takes place, no matter if we go through some of the Tribulation or none of the Tribulation, we have the promise of Jesus that He will be there with us. “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). He does not leave us by ourselves . . . He is always there with us!

And these are rock solid revelations!

THE CULTURE WAR

A firestorm of criticism about the “narrow thinking” of Christians appeared in the media late last fall when the patriarch of the Duck Dynasty, Phil Robertson, made a personal statement that he believes homosexuality is a sin. Phil’s comments were picked up by the mainstream media who then created the scenario for the most recent clash in the Culture War.

Phil Robertson’s comments on homosexuality did not cause the Culture War to start; the War has been taking place for a long time and Phil’s comments were the catalyst that caused the clash to draw increased media attention.

The Culture War I am speaking of is not primarily about whether or not homosexuality is a sin. This war is between two cultures that are diametrically opposed. It is the clash between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world or, as the apostle Paul referred to it, “the domain of darkness” (Colossians 1:13).

We became citizens of the kingdom of God (sometimes referred to as the kingdom of heaven) when we received Jesus Christ as Savior and experienced the “new birth.” As citizens of God’s kingdom, we live by a set of rules different from those who have not experienced “new birth.” As members of God’s family we are expected to live our lives as His children and according to His rules.

The “domain of darkness” is at war with us. It is the desire of Satan to ruin our Christian life—to demean, embarrass, harass and confuse God’s children until they quit acting like they belong to the kingdom of God and return to the way of life of the “darkness” of Satan’s kingdom. And so Satan has given rise to all kinds of methods to try and achieve his goals.

In the early days of the church the enemy launched a variety of agendas in his attempt to subvert the expansion of God’s kingdom. Two of Satan’s favorite methods were to encourage immorality among believers and to compromise new believers by encouraging them to become entangled again in the worship of false gods.

In our western culture, we don’t have much in the way of overt idol worship such as they did in the the pagan nations surrounding Israel thousands of years ago. In that world, idol worship was everywhere and it was common for massive amounts of food to be given sacrificially to the idols. After the sacrificial giving, the food was commonly eaten by the idol worshipers and sometimes by the people of the nearby community. The early church fathers recognized that if new or immature believers saw Christians helping themselves to the food offered to idols, it could confuse them into thinking that if the eating of food offered to idols was acceptable then what could be wrong with actually worshiping those idols?

Immorality among Christians has been a struggle since the very beginning. Some of the sects the early church struggled with were like the Nicolaitans of whom Jesus said in Revelation 2:6:  “You hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”

The Nicolaitans taught that it was permissible for Christians to participate in idol feasts. They rationalized that such conduct was just an empty gesture that fulfilled patriotic or social obligations and was legitimate as long as the Christians did not really believe in the deities being worshiped. However, the early church taught that it was dangerous for believers to continue “eating meat offered to idols” and that there should be a clean break from all aspects of idol worship, with no going back (1 John 5:21 and Acts 15:19-21).

The second major teaching of the Nicolaitans was that Christians should be sensuous. They taught that in order to master sensuality, one must know it by experience, so believers should abandon themselves without reserve to the lusts of the flesh. They falsely rationalized that such behavior concerned only the body but did not touch the spirit of man.

Does this sound at all like some of what is being “pushed forward” in our culture and in segments of the church today? It was these devious practices that stirred such strong feelings in Jesus.

One of the reasons the Nicolaitans were a problem in the early church was their approach. They came with a subtle, seductive message, not against Christianity, but declaring that they were teaching a new and improved version. In today’s words, they say, “Our message is more culturally relevant.” Cultural relevance is a foggy term that will continue to be debated long after you and I have returned to the dust.

It doesn’t matter if we change the style of music or wear flip flops and shorts to church—it doesn’t really matter! What does matter are the fundamental truths of the Christian faith! One of the truths that some are trying to “broaden” is our understanding of Jesus’ statement, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Those who come like the Nicolaitans say, “There are many ways to God but the best way is through Jesus Christ.” On the surface this sounds like an acceptable statement, but it is not. There are not many ways to God—there is but one and that is through Jesus Christ. He is not the best way, He is the only way!

We are at war and every follower of Jesus Christ must be alert to the battle!

FOOTSTEPS ON THE STAIRS

 

Jeremiah sat alone in the empty meeting room feeling a growing sense of despair. The meeting had been announced to begin at noon—with lots of advertising and many people contacted. But not a single person had showed up. It was now nearly 12:30 and his growing sense of failure was almost overwhelming. Why had this meeting with such a noble purpose turned out to be such a dismal and depressing disappointment?

The U. S. was in dire straits. The economy was crashing; banks were failing; factories were closing; railroad companies were going bankrupt; unemployment was skyrocketing; and the nation was being divided largely along lines of politics and justice. Added to the bleak economic picture, the American church was losing attendance almost weekly and the general spiritual condition of the country was extremely apathetic.

Burdened by the terrible spiritual and economic condition of the nation, Jeremiah Lanphier, a Christian businessman, decided to invite others to join him in a noonday prayer meeting on Wednesday, September 23, 1857. The meeting was to be held on the third floor of the Dutch Reformed Church on Fulton Street in downtown New York City. Jeremiah worked hard to get the word around so that as many as possible would know of the gathering where they could come and pray about the economic and spiritual condition of the nation.

At 12:30 all seemed lost; the prayer meeting would not happen. Apparently no one cared or believed that prayer could make a difference. Sitting alone in the empty meeting room, Lanphier was surprised to hear the welcome noise of footsteps on the stairs and a moment later one person arrived. In the next few minutes several more arrived and a total of six were present for the first prayer meeting that became known as The Laymen’s Prayer Revival or the Revival on Fulton Street.

Those at that first meeting were encouraged and they came back a week later—joined by others for a total of forty-two who gathered for prayer. A few weeks later it was decided to have a prayer meeting every day at noon, and within six months over ten thousand men were gathering for prayer each midday in New York City.

The prayer revival that began on Fulton Street burst out of New York and flooded across the country. From the tiny town of Hell Corner, New Hampshire, came reports that a prayer revival was born and hardened sinners were repenting. In Chicago two thousand men met daily for prayer in a downtown auditorium. Four thousand men were praying daily in Philadelphia and in other cities such as Waco, Texas, and Louisville, Kentucky, thousands more were gathering daily for prayer.

In Charleston, South Carolina, a Presbyterian pastor called for and led an evening of prayer for the nation. At the appropriate time, the pastor rose to dismiss the crowd—but no one would leave—and the prayer gathering continued until after midnight. Two months of nightly meetings followed with the crowds numbering 1500 to 2000, with hundreds of people turning to the Lord.

Not only were prayer gatherings being held throughout the nation, with large numbers of people coming into relationship with Christ, but God’s presence was being felt throughout the land.  Ships coming into New York harbor reported that when they neared the dock they were suddenly aware of the presence of God. On one ship the captain and thirty of the sailors were converted right before the ship docked. On the battleship North Carolina, anchored in New York harbor, four sailors knelt for prayer deep in the bowels of the ship. Other sailors noticed them and began to mock what they were doing when suddenly they were gripped by the presence of the Lord and they too knelt to ask for forgiveness.

It is estimated that between October of 1857 and October of 1859, the churches in America received two million new converts as a direct result of the Prayer Revival.

The similarities between the conditions in America in 1857 and today are strikingly clear. The nation then was in all kinds of economic and financial difficulty, as it is today. The nation was deeply divided in 1857 over the injustice of slavery, and today our nation is just as divided, just as bitter and vitriolic, over politics and justice.

And then we have to compare the state of the church in 1857 to that of the church today. If we are honest about the general spiritual condition of our nation, we have to conclude that it is at a low ebb. Put aside the hyperventilating of a few telling us that, “Everything is okay!” Yes, the number of megachurches is rising but at the same time, church attendance across the nation is dwindling and more churches are closing than are being opened. Recognize that the Christian media have not done what they said they could and would do—evangelize America—and have largely isolated themselves in the “ghetto” of cable T.V. There is no great move of God in our nation!

                                                                                                              Will you join me in praying for revival in our land?

“Lord, send a revival—and please send it soon!”