Gluten Free & God Seeking: Taking a Look at Revelation 12:11 - How Do You Overcome Satan's Accusation?

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Taking a Look at Revelation 12:11 - How Do You Overcome Satan's Accusation?

Just like Christian in Pilgrim's Progress our journey isn't always smooth sailing. On the contrary, John Bunyan shows us through his allegorical tale that we will often meet trials and accusations that hurl us into either the Slough of Despond or Doubting Castle. Through Christian's journey we learn that we are in a spiritual battle against God's enemy.

Sunset this week on our bay.

John Bunyan was born in England in 1628, and in a biography that I have called To Be a Pilgrim, I learned that Pilgrim's Progress is in part his own spiritual biography. He much like Christian was loaded down with feelings that God couldn't forgive him because as a young man he was pretty wild and blasphemed God continually.

And during this time in England it was against the law to meet outside of the Church of England. God led him to meet a minister named John Gifford, who was a Nonconformist, and his group of believers met a lot like the early churches did in Acts. Through this man's personal story of salvation, John was brought to believe that the Lord could save even him!

Though just a poor mender of pots and pans, John had a natural gift for preaching. When believers gathered together in their homes, John would often talk to them about the Bible. Eventually John ended up going to court for preaching without being ordained. He was actually in prison for 12 years, and it was during this time that he wrote his beautiful, enduring classic Pilgrim's Progress.

After three months in prison John could have been released if he would promise never to preach again, but he couldn't. At that time he had three children and a young wife, and his oldest child was blind. I think he must have often felt the fiery darts of Satan, that he writes about. It doesn't take too long to find out that God's enemy is cruel and fights against us at every turn.

This past week I read a Life-Study on Revelation 12 and there's a verse in this chapter on how to overcome Satan: And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they loved not their soul life even unto death. Revelation 12:11

In chapter 36 of the Life-Study of Revelation Witness Lee gives practical help how to deal with the Devil's accusation. He explains that the difference between condemnation and accusation is that after our conscience condemns us for doing something wrong and we confess it, we should have peace in our heart. If we still feel like there's a barrier between us and God, then we are probably under Satan's accusation. I really got help from the excerpts on pages 428-429 on how to deal with these accusations:

"The blood of the Lamb, which is for our redemption answers before God all the accusations of the Devil against us and gives us the victory over him….If you have done wrong, you need to clear it, but do not take the accusations of the enemy….Rather, you must say, 'Lord, cover my conscience, thoughts, and realizations with Your prevailing blood. Your blood defeats the enemy.'…Any apparent condemnation that does not stop after we have confessed and applied the blood must be of the Devil. Once we realize this, we should tell Satan, 'Stop! I will not confess anymore. This is not me; it is you. Devil, this is not God's enlightenment--it is your accusation. I am not perfect, but you must realize that I am under the blood of the Lamb, and the blood is my perfection. Don't you realize that I am under the blood? I am one of the brothers who overcomes you, not because of my perfections, but by the blood of the Redeemer'"(Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Revelation. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1976, Print).