Spiritual Warfare

Today’s Reading: Revelation 12

Some years ago, I read an interesting book called Military Misfortunes: The Anatomy of Failure in War by Eliot A. Cohen and John Gooch, in which the authors noticed that throughout history, defeat rises out of three basic features: the failure to learn, the failure to anticipate, the failure to adapt to changing conditions. We are in a different war called spiritual warfare. And in today’s chapter, we find one of the most descriptive places in all Scripture of this battle. We also see in these verses the battle lessons that Cohen and Gooch speak about—that we can learn about this battle, we can anticipate the enemy’s movements, and we can have new weapons to adapt to his attacks.

Here is the battle we are in:

“There was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.’” (Revelation 12:7-12)

We find so much in these verses about hell, heaven, and the believers. There is a battle going on against the soul of every Christian. This is the origin, the reason, the cast, and the results of spiritual warfare. We see all the descriptive words of the devil. He is called the dragon, the great dragon, the serpent of old, the devil, the accuser of the brethren, and Satan.

We learn that he and his angels were thrown out of heaven. They are fighting a war they can’t win, and they know the time is short, but that doesn’t stop their devilish onslaught. They fight with great wrath and anger. And their target is God’s church. The last verse of the chapter says, “The dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (verse 17).

We are the offspring. And if we are the target, we need a weapon. But we don’t get just a weapon. We get three weapons: “They overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death” (verse 11).

Here are God’s three devil-winning strategies to overcome Satan:

First, the blood of the Lamb. This is a judicial weapon. Judicial means we have legal rights. The blood of Jesus is our assurance that our sins are forgiven. In the long list of his names, the devil is called “the accuser of the brethren.” He accuses us of our sins to try and get us to doubt that we are God’s children. When we have been born again, the blood of Jesus goes over the doorposts of our hearts, just as the children of Israel needed to put it on their actual doorposts, so the angel of death would pass by. We are covered by the blood, Satan has to pass by, but not without throwing some fiery darts.

The second weapon is the word of our testimony. This is an evidential weapon. We have history from saints in the past that God delivers. When we read and hear about God’s deliverance in His children’s lives, this is a weapon. How do we use it? Like this: When we tell or hear testimonies, we are encouraged and know that if God did it for others, He could do it for us as well.

The third weapon hardly gets mentioned: “They did not love their life even when faced with death.” This is a sacrificial weapon. It’s the realization that our lives are not our own. We have been bought with a price. We don’t have to go into self-preservation mode. Our timelines on earth are determined by God, not by cancer, violence, or tragedy. We are on God’s clock, and He determines our home-going date, so we don’t have to fear death.

As A. W. Tozer so powerfully reminds us, “When God calls a man, he cannot die until he has done the work God has called him to do. If God calls a man to a work, and the man says yes, that man cannot die until that work is done. The man God calls is immortal until his work is done.”

Man doesn’t decide our death. God does. That’s why Jesus said, “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative” (John 10:18).

Charles Spurgeon gives us this warning: “The trumpet still plays the notes of war. You cannot sit down and put the victory wreath on your head. You do not have a crown just yet. You still must wear the helmet and carry the sword. You must watch, pray, and fight. Expect your last battle to be the most difficult, for the enemy’s fiercest charge is reserved for the end of the day.”

But something good comes out of this war and battle, as evangelist Smith Wigglesworth reminds us: “Great faith is the product of great fights. Great testimonies are the outcome of great tests. Great triumphs can only come out of great trials.”

This is a great fight we are in, but we will come out with great faith, great testimonies, and great triumphs because the Lamb of God gave us weapons in this war.


Excerpt from:
Dilena, Tim. The 260 Journey. Colorado Springs, CO, Book Villages, 2001.
260journey.com