****Please read the scripture from the Bible first as this is God's Word****

Revelation 12 relates the battle of the ages between Satan and God, and focusing upon Jesus Christ and Israel. In the middle of this chapter is a wonderful word of praise about how the brethren will become victorious over Satan. These are important truths that are important in helping us become over-comers. You can become an over-comer.

These versus are metaphorical being that they represent something. In verse 1 we see a wonder in heaven, or a sign. It is a woman clothed with the sun, moon and twelve stars, and she is bearing a child. The woman being spoken of is Israel. If we read on we see another wonder or sign, which is a dragon with seven heads and ten horns but if we skip over to verse 9 we see who the dragon represents, and that is Satan himself. We see that the dragon drew or brought a third of the stars or angels in heaven and cast them upon the earth. We see in verse 5 a description of a man who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, this is obvious for it is Jesus. And we see that the Devil was seeking to kill Jesus upon arrival. We see in verse 7 a war in heaven, in which Michael and his angel fought against the dragon and the of course God's army of Michael and his soldiers defeat Satan. This all seems like a lot to take in, but I can asure you it is real, but what you have to realize is there are many things happening behind the scene so to speak, more than meets the eye. There is a spiritual world, one that is very active, and we as humans cannot see it and things like this are hard to comprehend because we can't see it.

I want to focus on verse 10 and 11. We see that the power of God through salvation through Christ. Salvation means to be rescued, we were taken out of fellowship with God when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden. They ate of the forbidden fruit and God pronounced judgment upon them. God told them if they eat they will surely die, God was talking about spiritual death or separation from God. God dwelled with Adam & Eve in the garden as they had direct access to God, they had perfect fellowship with God, and they for lack of a better term, they blew it. Since then we have endured sin, after sin after sin after sin. The only thing that restores our fellow ship to God is the shed blood of Jesus Christ. This is God's grace bestowed upon us, this is his gift to us, in John 3:16 we see that for God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son that whosoever BELIEVETH in him should not perish (die), but have everlasting life. God loves us, and he wants fellowship with us, but God is also a just God in that he hates sin. We must confess our sin, repent to God and he will rescue us. In Romans 10:9-10 Paul tells us that if we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe on him with all thy heart, you shall be saved. You see to overcome Satan's evil plan to devour you, you must over come his power. How do we accomplish that?

Verse 11 sums up how we become overcomes. You over come all by the shed blood of Jesus, there is much power in the blood of the Lamb. The blood of the Lamb provides victory over sin. The blood washes us and cleanses us from our iniquities. The blood forgives us of our transgression. But we must repent, ask God to forgive us, and wash us with Christ's blood.

We over come Satan by our testimonies. If you look in today's business world, what is the #1 form of marketing? It is marketing by word of mouth or recommendations. A testimony of a believer can show the power of God in their life to a non-believer. A testimony to a believer is like a steroid, it only builds our faith makes us stronger. Testimonies are powerful, but they will all lead back to the root of the testimony, which is saved by grace, saved by the shed blood of Jesus. The bible is like a testimony, it tells us of historic events that took place and their outcomes. The bible gives us testimony of the future, what is to come, and what will happen, it is the living word of God. The bible is God's communication to us, when we open the bible we are somewhat face to face with God.

Another way we over come Satan and his evilness, is the quality of your love. You see the quality of your love is determined by the quality of the cherished object. What more precious object do we have than Jesus Christ. The quality of your love is measured by what you are willing to sacrifice for that object. We are blessed to suffer for the one that suffered for us. In the last part of verse 11 we see John speak of not loving their lives unto death. What does that mean? It means to not love this physical world and the things there of, to not love your fleshy life, for your true treasure is in heaven worshiping the King for ever and ever, that is eternal life. The key to spiritual victory is to abandon your love for your self and endure sacrifice for Jesus. That means get rid of your selfishness and pride, be selfless, and giving for that is true love.

posted by Ben at 9:35 PM