God’s Devil - Points to Ponder, Part 10
DELIVERING US FROM EVIL
Satan's attacks can be dangerous to our faith journey because he appears many times in his various evil roles, murderer, liar, and false angel of light. The ways in which he works his evil cannot be underestimated. In our modern days, some cases of evil events are written off as just natural occurrences. His work is at times overlooked because he has convinced so many in our time that he does not exist, which can wreck the faith journey for those who ignore him completely. This position denies the redemption by Christ which itself delivered us from sin's penalty while not removing sin's presence.
The Gospels show a clear knowledge of the many areas in which the action of Satan is formed. Jesus taught us in Matt 13:19 that Satan steals the seed (His Word) from the good ground (our hearts) & that Satan sows tares into wheat in Matt 13:39 & Satan's pure possession of one's heart as in Mary Magdalene in Mark 16:9 & Judas in Luke 22:3 and Ananias in Acts 5:3. The teachings of Jesus on this matter are clear. Satan sows error through false prophets and hampers the plan of God while persecuting the church. All of
these evils are allowed by God and are within His eternal plan of salvation. The great light of Jesus Christ is designed to show us these activities so that we are more aware.
The presence of the Son of God in this world is the beginning of the ruin of the kingdom of darkness. In these later days, until the final defeat of the forces of evil, the power of our Messiah remains through His Holy Spirit within us, our Comforter. Jesus was kind enough to allow us to see His final mortal thoughts in John 17 and we should be careful to note that He did not ask the Father to remove believers from the world but to keep us from the evil one. Through His request and our prayers we can find the greater strength (His alone made perfect in our weakness) to say “NO” to the snares along our faith journey. Nothing is more important to our deliverance than prayer. When the Christian prayer life is strong, Satan is weakened.
The healings worked by Jesus and the apostles are many. The NT is filled with them because physical healing and spiritual healing (casting out unclean spirits) are visible signs from God to mankind that salvation has arrived. Even though sin seems to be ever increasing on earth which still remains under the power of Satan's rule, the light of faith shows us that everyday victories can be ours. Neither temptation, nor deception, nor persecution, nor any work of the evil one will ever be able to separate us from the love of Christ.