July 29 – Satan cannot win

Then war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But the dragon was not strong enough to prevail, so there was no longer any place left in heaven for him and his angels. So that huge dragon—the ancient serpent, the one called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world—was thrown down to the earth, and his angels along with him.  (Revelation 12:7-9  NET)

Scripture teaches that Satan used to be an archangel in heaven who, with the passage of time, became infatuated with his own beauty and perfection, and planned to overthrow God and sit on His throne.  In the process a third of the angels in heaven joined him.  The holiness and purity of heaven could not coexist with the pride and impurity of Satan and so war broke out and the dragon and his “angels” were banished from heaven and cast down to earth.

Huge dragon, ancient serpent, devil — these are a few of Satan’s names, the one who has been forced to make earth his base of operations, and whose anger is now directed at the inhabitants of earth.  But instead of feeling intimidated by the idea of a huge dragon or ancient serpent as our enemy, we need to understand what every successful hero of faith in the Bible understood — that with God, we are always on the winning side.  Those of us who submit ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, have indestructible weapons that He provides out of His love and mercy.  We have the authority of His name, the authority of the Word of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit.  All of these allow us to defeat every single attack of evil in our lives.

We need to learn to be tireless warriors, otherwise we will be destroyed and lose our salvation.  But in the Kingdom of God a warrior has a great amount of inner joy and peace because he knows he has already won. In fact, many passages in the Bible indicate that the end times will bring the greatest period of spiritual warfare that the world has ever seen, and we are closer to that time than anyone else who has ever lived. 

Isn’t that wonderful?  Michael defeated Satan and threw him out of heaven, and the same power that worked in Michael is at work in us!  Being a part of this war is a glorious thing and we should be honored to fight side by side with the Lord Jesus Christ.  As long as we stay close to God, live by faith in His word, and reject the appeals of our emotions, Satan — the huge dragon, the ancient serpent — cannot win.