DAILY WORD "...and the truth will set you free.."

Daily Word

Prepared By:  Suzy Naber

24 /11/2006                

The Spiritual War was first declared in Genesis 3:15 by God Himself following Adam’s sin and resultant fall. God had created Adam and Eve in His image, a perfect being that would reflect His glory and character and gave them dominion over everything. Unfortunately, being created with a will of choice, Adam and Eve fell short of the glory of God and they were tricked by Satan, who took the form of a serpent and succeeded in deceiving them. Due to Adam's sin man lost his God-given dominion over the planet earth, and Satan stepped in and took Adam's dominion from him. Satan became the god of this world and every child born into this world has been born in the pattern of fallen man and mankind became more and more wicked.

Following the fall, God came to rescue mankind and made a declaration of war to Satan and a promise to mankind to save them through a Redeemer (Jesus Christ, the Messiah) who would be born of the seed of the woman and would crush the head of Satan. (Genesis 3:15) "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel". The Son of God had to come from the seed of a woman to become man like us in order save mankind.  

Satan used every means possible to foil this promise and to see that this prophecy would not come to pass in order to keep dominion over men.  Satan knew that if he could succeed in corrupting the human seed, it would be impossible for the promise of Genesis 3:15 to be realized since the Son of God, the Redeemer, could not have been born of a corrupted human seed. So the entire panorama of the Old Testament revolves around the conflict between God and Satan. God was trying to preserve a holy seed, a nation, through which the Messiah would be born. Satan, on his part tried to thwart this promise and used human failure to corrupt this seed; first through the death of Abel, then through the corruption of mankind prior to the flood, through the rebellion of mankind at the tower of Babel, and all through the entire human history. But God always found faithful man to preserve an incorruptible seed from which the Messiah would be born; such as Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah down through the lineage, until finally it centered in David, and in David's descendents, culminating in the birth of Christ.

God victoriously preserved the promised seed down to that day when, as Galatians 4:4 records: “when the fullness of time was come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law to redeem those under law that we might receive the full rights of sons."  Jesus Christ, the son of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, was the only one who ever was born of the seed of the woman. Everyone is born of the seed of man except Jesus. "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; so the Holy one to be born will be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:36).  Jesus Christ came to this world by the Holy Spirit through the seed of a woman to become man in order to save men from the devil's dominion and to crush the head of Satan and to give men victory over Satan.  

The Holy One, the Son of God, came in form of a man, died on the cross for our sins so that we may live and have victory over Satan. He is the Lamb of God to be slain for the world. He bore all our sorrows, sicknesses, wore a crown of thorns, sweat drops of blood, and tasted of death and took upon himself the entire curse and judgment that fell upon Adam. He was made a curse for us in order that we may be blessed. He restored everything to man which has been lost in Adam. He restored the lost relationship between man and God and through his resurrection power made us more than conquerors in all aspects of life. Thanks be unto Jesus our precious Lord and Savior!

The conflict ended and the devil was defeated. Through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus "disarmed the powers and authority of Satan and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." (Colossians 2:15) "For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive."  1Corinthians 15:21 and 22

Jesus won the victory over Satan and gave us back the dominion over Satan. But Satan does not give up easily; in Revelation 12:17   "Satan was enraged… and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring – those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus."

But remember we won the battle through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and have the victory, but we have to know the weapons to use against the devil ! In "Part Two" we will discuss how to live this victory! Amen.

Scriptures to read: Revelation 12:11 "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death".

Prayer:  Thank you Lord Jesus for winning the victory for us. Thank you for your death on the cross for us. Thank you for disarming the powers and authority of Satan and restoring everything back to us through your resurrection power. Thank you beloved Lord and Savior. Amen.