Bruce Collins, Evangelist

The personal website of Bruce Collins

The Unseen Battle

 

 

Ephesians 6:12  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

 

Where are these heavenly places where the wicked spirits do their dastardly deeds?  We are here on planet earth in this life and we are wrestling something very real but unseen.  It seems to me that heaven may be up but it must also be another dimension all around us.  If we who are the Lord’s could really see the battle that is going on, we would have a much greater appreciation for the power of God and for the love of God in our lives.  We would also be much more aware of the need to pray and rely on the Lord for preservation.  We would not be so self-sufficient and confident of our abilities if we really understood the power and craftiness of Satan and his minions.  They are doing their best to mar that which glorifies the Lord Jesus.

 

With Regard to the Unsaved

2 Corinthians 4:4 says he blinds: “Whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”  Revelation 12:9 reminds us that he deceives: “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”

 

We can see that Satan is not omnipresent but he has angels that serve him and because of them, it often seems like he is everywhere. One of his missions is to keep the unsaved in darkness.  He wants them to believe any lie rather than the truth.

 

With Regard to those who are Saved

Satan presents the believer’s faults to the Lord.  If Satan cannot keep a person from believing in the Lord, he will try to prove to God that the faith of a believer is not really genuine.  Revelation 12:10 reminds us, “Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.’”

 

We see this in the book of Job when Satan attacked Job’s motives.  Satan said Job was worshiping God only because God had blessed him with family, wealth and good health.  In Job 1:9-11 we read, “So Satan answered the LORD and said, ‘Does Job fear God for nothing?  Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.  But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!’”  Job had not bought into the lie of the prosperity Gospel so when Satan tried to destroy him he said, "Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD (Job 1:21)."

 

Satan resists the prayers of a believer.  Daniel experienced this.  In Daniel 10:12-13 we read that an angel strengthened Daniel and spoke to him saying, "Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words.  But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia."

 

Conclusion

Satan is a great tempter.  He tries to get temptation and opportunity to come together so that Christians will fail in their desire to serve the Lord.  He did that with Peter in the palace of the high priest.  As a result, Peter denied the Lord three times.  He lies to us.  He sometimes comes across as a bear that seems tame but is really wild and dangerous.  Other times he approaches us a roaring lion.  He knows how to win hearts as Absalom did who wanted to seize the kingdom that belonged to David his father.  He can be beautiful, and sweet. He can be ugly and confrontational. 

 

How can Christians deal with his desire to destroy us?  Obviously we can only do it with prayer and the word of God.  When he shoots his fiery darts of doubt we need to remind him and ourselves of the promises of God.  We need to pray so that real answers will remind us of the power of God in our lives in a real way.  The unsaved will only be saved from his snare by considering the eternal cost of believing the Liar rather than the One who is the Truth.  As Christians we need to be reminded of Paul’s message to the Romans where he says, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).”  Amen and Amen!

 

Satan knows that ultimately He loses but He wants to destroy the joy of the saint and the soul of the unsaved.  We need not give him that satisfaction!

 

Bruce Collins

 

Meditation for the week of June 25, 2017

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>