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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Spiritual Survival in the Coming Days, #38
In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals—these are the very things that destroy them. (Jude 1:8-10—NIV)
Satan could not care less about what we think we can do in terms of spiritual warfare. Satan is terrified only of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is only as we are filled with God and moving in God that we can do any harm to the enemy.
The New Testament does not counsel us to rebuke Satan. Rather, it warns against this. We are as "unreasoning animals" when we boast about the power we think we have over the fallen lords of darkness.
If Michael the archangel did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against the devil, what do we think we are doing?
The Bible counsels us rather, to draw near to God and resist the devil; not rebuke the devil, resist the devil.
The point is, if we first draw near to God, and then refuse to yield to the temptations of Satan, Satan will flee in disarray.
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7—NIV)
We of today do not submit ourselves to God, we yield to temptation such that we are not living a righteous, holy, obedient life, and then we attempt to rebuke the devil. We are totally unscriptural, and unrealistic in terms of spiritual facts. The result is we are continually being deceived.
We of the Pentecostal-Charismatic persuasion are buried under a superabundance of spiritual formulas ranging from how to lose weight to how to take control over the fallen lords who govern the geographical areas of the world. Isn't it dandy how informed we all are, how ready we are to be raptured into Heaven so we can watch the 144,000 Jewish evangelists without the Holy Spirit preach the Gospel of the Kingdom (which they themselves cannot enter because they cannot be born again without the Holy Spirit) in the face of Antichrist. The Jews shall suffer every kind of torment, but we Gentiles will be eating popcorn in our mansion while we are watching the battle on our television.
Just think! We have ten thousand years to praise God for His "grace," meaning we have never become a new righteous creation but God accepts us in our moral uncleanness. It truly is a come-as-you-are party.
Then, after we have had seven years of lolling around in the Paradise of God, we suddenly shall be summoned to the rallying point where the Lord Jesus is gathering His troops. We shall be issued armor, a sword, and then mounted on a war stallion.
The Lord Jesus will sound the trumpet. At that time we, who had supposed that we would be reclining forever on our couch in our mansion, find ourselves hurtling down through the clouds to form our battles lines on the dried-up bed of the Euphrates.
To be continued.