Friday, January 9, 2009

The War in Heaven - Copley

Please read Revelation 12:7-17. Warfare runs as a theme through out the Scriptures. The enemy shows up in the garden, the Cross, in the Book of Revelation and every where else. Any time the work of God is being done, the evil one is active. Someone wisely said "Where God build a temple, next door to it, Satan builds a chapel." Michael and his army of angels wage war with Satan and his angels. The latter are defeated and cast down to earth. Whether this defeat occurs at the time of Christ's death on the cross or at the end of the age, it signifies the fact that Satan is a defeated foe. His defeat is not the result of Michael's war. Rather, Michael's victory is solely due to Christ's triumph over Satan on the Cross. The ground of our victory is the blood of the Lamb, which is not a kind of magic charm, a ritual that we import into sermon or prayer to attest to our orthodoxy or to secure supernatural results. It is not a formula to be credulously mumbled, nor is it a parroting of mystical words. It is the expression of an intelligent, active, vital faith in Christ the Lamb of God, who by the shedding of His blood, bruised Satan's head and utterly defeated him. So then, when in prayer we plead the blood of the Lamb, we are really saying that our faith is resting for victory over Satan and sin upon all that Christ achieved for us by His victorious death and victorious resurrection. We participate in Christ's victory when we witness to the saving power of the blood of Christ (our word of testimony), is the reference to the Word (Bible) or to our words? Probably both are intended, for any testimony that is not Bible based is powerless to achieve spiritual results. Grounded in the Word of God, our testimony becomes a sword in the Spirit's hand. Finally, because we share in Christ's victory, our lives are not as important to us as our continuing in love for Him. This attitude is also important in our experiencing victory over Satan. Satan's defeat brings rejoicing in heaven, but only woe on earth, because he knows that his time is short. Finding himself on earth, he persecutes the woman (the believing covenant-messianic community), who flees. She escapes through the help of the earth. This does not means that 'nature' is on the side of the saints-it simply shows God's continuing protection of His own. Satan then turns to make war with her offspring. We have victory because of Calvary. The blood of Christ was shed for all and through the Cross Satan was defeated.

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