Overcomers

Rev 12:10, 11 "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. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death."

This is going to be ugly. For some reason, and I really can't figure it out right now, Satan has the ability to have an audience with God. The verse in chapter 12 that points this out says: "but they (the dragon and his angels…Satan and his demons) did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer." (v8) This is backed up by the book of Job where Satan talks to God and challenges Him with the life of Job. And now this verse, that Satan is constantly accusing Christians of things before God day and night. When this war in heaven takes place, Satan will be cast down onto the earth. That is when things are really going to get ugly on the earth. Bad stuff had happened before, but now…

This, however, is when things get beautiful, because it is at that point in time that salvation, strength, the kingdom of God and the power of Christ come. "Therefore, rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them." v12 That is the beginning of the end for Satan because when this happens Satan "knows that he has a short time." v12 A short time to do the rest of his dirty work. A short time to bring destruction. And no longer before God accusing the brethren.

I hate Satan. I see what he and his minions do in lives. And I know that he loves to accuse us. He loves to condemn us. He loves to point out our flaws. He loves to throw our failures in the face of God and say: "See. I told You so. These followers of Yours are weak and worthless. Look at the stupid things that they do." Unfortunately, he is right. We are weak and worthless and do stupid things. But then look at this truth: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…". Rom 8:1 Paul just got done talking about how weak and flighty he was in Romans 7 and then he asks the question: "Who will deliver me from this body of death?" The answer: Jesus. When Satan accuses us, all God does is say: "Look at My Son. No more condemnation for these people." Praise God.

I am talking with a guy right now who can't get out of the accusation mode. He is feeling guilty about something and he can't fight his way out of it. Even though he has confessed his sin, even though he is contrite and probably has shed tears over what happened, he still feels accused. This is Satan. This is his job. This is what he is good at. Keep us down. Keep us ineffective. Keep us wallowing in guilt. God does not want that and He took care of it the only way that He could, through the blood of His Son. And this did something for us. It made us overcomers. I love this word: overcome. It means "conqueror". It means: "those who carry off the victory". No more defeat. We win. How? Through the blood of Jesus. And this makes our words different. We are no longer negative Nancys. We no longer feel sorry for ourselves. No more wallowing in guilt. We speak victorious words even in the face of death. Going back to Romans 8: "Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 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 Christ Jesus our Lord." (v37-39) Overcoming victorious conquerors. That is what Jesus has made us.