THE DEFEAT OF SATAN
Recently I was asked to minister virtually to an online group based in North America. When it was time to pray, a matriarch offered to pray! What amazed me was that the prayer turned into a commentary of the havoc that Satan was wrecking in the lives of God’s children. She mentioned the name of Satan more than the name of God in that prayer! Sometimes it hard to forget the one who has wounded us most!
Please allow me at the onset to bring some good news found in Romans 16:20 BSB
[20] The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”
This is a great promise! It is an echo of God promise in Genesis 3:15 BSB
[15] And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
We are talking about the defeat of satan!
Paul, the Apostle of of the Love insists that: “Love always protects” in Verse 7 of his 1 Corinthians 13 treatise on love. Love always protects, indeed love always protects and Love always protects!
One of the things that strikes me most about Jesus, was His willingness to protect His followers from the greatest adversary, the devil! He knew it would cost Him His life but He decided to do it anyway propelled and constrained by love! These words touch me to the core:
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
John 15:12-15 NIV
He calls His disciples friends! Think about it. Jesus is ready to give His life to protect His friends! He defines that act of dying for His friends as the greatest love ever seen! Love always protects.
In another passage Jesus describes Himself as the good Shepherd and not a employed hired hand. Listen: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
John 10:10-13 NIV
The proof that Jesus is the good Shepherd is His ready willingness to lay down His life as He protects His sheep from the wolf, the thief who comes to steal kill and destroy! He declared that He is ready to lay down His life for the sheep. He does so motivated by His deep love for the sheep!
His first agenda when He came to this world was to protect His own from the greatest adversary, the devil also known as Satan. Listen:
“Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.”
Hebrews 2:14-15 NLT
He came to protect His own by destroying that which had held them in greatest captivity, the fear of death wielded by the devil!
Listen to the Apostle John on this very issue. “Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
1 John 3:7-8 NIV
Jesus appeared to destroy the work of the devil over our lives. He died to protect us from the devil! Glory be to God.
That is why John the Revelator could declare: “Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.”
Revelation 12:7-12 NIV
Glory be to God, Jesus has overcome the adversary. He paid redemption cheque with His blood! He has protected us and is protecting us and will always protect us. With Jesus, you are safe from the adversary!
-Listen to this powerful powerful promise from the Apostle Paul:
“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.”
Romans 16:20 NIV
Satan crushed under our feet! I cannot wait!
Listen to what the end of the book says about the End of the adversary: “When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Revelation 20:7-10 NIV
The promise is to completely destroy and vanquish the adversary forever! Thank God for the plan to destroy the adversary and his works in the universe forever!
-“Our dear Lord Jesus, the Christ, that you for the great lengths you have gone to protect and secure us from our greatest adversary the devil. You died for this very purpose. Now teach us to walk in that victory in Jesus Name. Amen and Amen.”
