Over the last few days, both through my own mind and from outside sources, the Father has been speaking to me concerning this important issue of His children unnecessarily (and dangerously!) listening to the voice of the accuser. Have you ever pondered this passage from Revelation?
“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 brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” – Revelation 12:10-11
There is so much for us to rejoice in as we read these two verses. Right off the bat, the loud voice in Heaven declares the fixed authority of Jesus Christ. His salvation has come. His power has come. His Kingdom has come. Notice that the establishment of these glorious components of the majesty of Jesus coincided with the stripping of authority from Satan, the accuser of God’s people. This is one of those passages in Revelation that we understand as having already occurred, occurring presently and appointed to occur in the future. Jesus testified in Luke 10:18 that He witnessed Satan being thrown down from Heaven. Satan (and the fallen angels who pledged loyalty to him) was evicted from Heaven! Yet we clearly see here that his ministry of accusation continues unto this very hour. What does this type of activity from the enemy look like?
He accuses you to God. He accuses God to you. He accuses others to you by working suspicion and fear in your heart towards people in your life. He accuses you to other people (this is one reason why some people treat you improperly with no reason to do so). Ultimately, the enemy’s favorite type of accusation is to accuse you to you. He magnifies all your failures, and wants you to live in perpetual guilt. He whispers in your ear that terrible scenario of not being enough, not doing enough, not succeeding enough, not loving enough, not serving enough…his list of enough’s is perfectly tailored by him to fit your own personal areas of weakness. The accuser traffics in fear and dread. In the present, he is skilled at getting people to succumb to the paralysis of analysis, trying to get things just so in our lives. Concerning the past, he works tirelessly at keeping our greatest failures loud in our ears and clear before our eyes. When it comes to our futures, Satan counteracts God’s promises with doubts and fears of many varieties. By the way, Satan doesn’t need to employ a demon every time he desires to minister accusation to you. He has a whole host of humans that he can send your way to beat you down with their never-ending measuring stick, with which they seek to daily smack you down. Accusation may very well be Satan’s most effective tool against those who have been truly born again. He can no longer assign you to Hell, but he will work tirelessly at making you wonder if you are truly destined for glory.
I find three things from the passage from Revelation that reveals our source of victory against the accuser:
- We have conquered Satan by the blood of the Lamb. Your acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord is not merely some admission pass into Heaven. Yes, Jesus purchased Paradise for those who trust in Him, but faith in Christ also produces a triumph in this life we are living by faith. Jesus, God’s Lamb, has made you forever acceptable to the Father. No condemnation sticks to you. Your record has been cleared. You are completed through Christ. Because of this, it is foolish to give place to any accusation in your life. You are renewed in the spirit of your mind (Ephesians 4:23) as you intentionally learn, believe and declare that you are who God says that you are. The blood of the Lamb has secured your position as a child of God. You have the privilege of ignoring the enemy’s accusation as you revel in the Father’s affirmation. This is how we fight our battles.
- We conquer Satan by the word of our testimony. Many read Revelation 12 and make the mistake of leaving it only in the “yet future” category. While the passage certainly speaks of a future generation who overcome Satan at the end of the age, it also has a valid present-moment application. The “word of their testimony” speaks of a life-governing confidence that lives in the heart and is communicated through the lips. It is the walk-and-talk of the Christian life. Our confession of Jesus Christ as Lord is what begins the Christian life, but it is also what defines the Christian life. We have believed, therefore we speak (2 Cor. 4:13). The endurance of our faith proves the validity of our faith. We never renounce Christ, we never abandon the faith, we never allow anything to cause us to stumble at the truth of the Gospel. We live what we preach, what we sing, what we testify and what we pray. The power of life and death are in the tongue, and our faith is lived though both what we say and how we live.
- We are conquering Satan through a life of carrying the cross. This is the key to defeating the enemy in this area of his accusing us. Satan and his demons are liars. They want us to live on the defensive so they unleash a constant barrage of accusation. They want us focusing on what is lacking in us, rather than what is glorious and gracious in Christ. As we live a life of self-denial, married with a lifestyle of renouncing this world system, we render Satan’s accusation meritless. He is firing blanks at us, and we know it because we can see that our daily lives are not our own anymore. We have been bought with a price, therefore we will not love our lives, even unto death. The cross on our shoulder is the cushion in our conscience. We become more aware of Jesus’ love, the Father’s grace, the Holy Spirit’s leading as we carry our cross. Satan’s voice fades because we have entered that bliss of having nothing to lose and nothing to prove to anyone – including our own selves.
So, my hope is that all of you who are reading this today will deny and defeat every source of accusation in your life. We are not always able to control what enters our ear, but we are well able to control what stays in our heads. So much more than mere positive thinking, the call to protect your mind from the strategies of the accuser is crucial to living the abundant life which Jesus provides. Start with these practical helps I have shared today. The battle never ends and it is high time that you start winning.