The Bible in Depth – #2

Study Two
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Spiritual Combat
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When Satan was kicked out of heaven, he really had no place to go except to Earth. The Bible says demons seek wet places and you can’t get much more wet than inside the body of a human being. Once inside the body, a demon works at controlling the human soul. The human soul is comprised of the mind, the emotions, and the will—all the components by which we live. Once a demon controls the mind, for example, he can then tell the human he is living in what to think. Controlling the emotions, a demon can tell the human how to feel. And, of course, when the demon controls the human’s will, he can accomplish just about anything he wants.

But Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. Once Jesus placed His blood on the altar in heaven, the war was over. Satan was eternally defeated. The devil knows he is defeated, but he hides in the crevices of the mind, emotions, will, and body to see if the human knows that Satan and all his cohorts are defeated. If the human doesn’t know the battle has been won by Jesus for all His disciples, then Satan can overwhelm the human, gradually gaining ground until the human becomes possessed. First the devil oppresses his victim, then he obsesses the human, then he possesses him or her.
 
Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place, once for all, having obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12).
 
Until Jesus appeared on this earth, gathered His chosen followers, known as disciples—meaning those who are dedicated to learning—and started His teaching in person, Satan had the run of the earth. In our day, as back then, Satan is best known for his corruption of God’s creation. Everything God created was intended to bless us. Satan took blessings and converted them into destructions. Health turned into sickness. Wealth turned into poverty, and so on, touching every law of nature.
 
23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. 24 Then His fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon possessed, epileptics, and paralytics, and He healed them. 25 Great multitudes followed Him—from Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan (Mathew 4:23–25).
 
Notice the word “all.” There was nothing left unhealed. He healed them all. Every distortion of God’s creation by the devil was healed. That healing is available to us today. Jesus demonstrated His victory over Satan, and His victory is our victory if we are disciples of Christ.
 
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:1, 2).
 
At the new birth, when we surrendered our lives to Jesus, we became the righteousness of God through Christ, and the most glorious of gifts that we received from Jesus at this new birth is the Holy Spirit coming to live inside of us. He is our teacher, our leader, our best friend, our fount of knowledge, our confessor, our comforter, and we left sin and death behind in our old life. Our new life is lived according to the following Scriptures.
 
4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons 6 and because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. (Galatians 4:4–7).
 
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:2–4).
 
Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you (James 4:7).
 
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).
 
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God (1 John 5:4).
 
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13).
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