The Devil Went Where?

 

QUOTATION

 

“Most people don’t like the darkness. It can be scary. I remember when I was a small child, I was convinced a monster lived under my bed, and was waiting in the dark for just the right time to come out and kidnap me and take me away from my Mom and Dad! Until you discover the Light of Jesus you will remain in darkness!”

 

Barry Denzil Haney

 

SCRIPTURE

 

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

 

Ephesians 6:12

 

REFLECTION

 

The devil went where?

 

According to the Charlie Daniels Band in their hit song of the same name, the devil went down to Georgia:

 

“The Devil went down to Georgia, he was looking for a soul to steal
He was in a bind, 'cause he was way behind, he was willing to make a deal…”

 

Is that true? If we go down to Georgia, can we find the devil! Well, yes, but Georgia does not have the exclusive right of devil ownership. Satan is everywhere! 

 

In a sermon entitled “His Power of Darkness”, John Weece says the following:

 

“Sad, Scared, Struggling, Suffering…If you don’t find the source of these negative emotions you will spend the rest of your life fighting the wrong battles against the wrong enemy…the source is Satan.”

 

During my walk with Jesus, a constant feature of my life of faith, is a struggle against the forces of evil. As a Christian, I believe in the reality of spiritual warfare and the unseen realm, the unseen spiritual world.

 

According to the Bible, the origin of spiritual warfare occurred when Satan and his angels rebelled against God:

 

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him”

 

Revelation 12:7-9

 

These cast out angels are the demons, Satan’s minions, who are intimately involved in the spiritual warfare we face each day! How many demons are on the earth to wage war with us? The Bible tells us this in Revelation 

 

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

 

Revelation 12:1-4

 

Wow, the number of demons on earth is equal to one-third of the stars in the universe! According to an article, “How Many Stars Are There”, found in The Physics of the Universe website, 

 

“there may be around ten billion trillion stars in the observable universe, or quite possibly anywhere up to 10²⁴.”¹

 

A scary thought, right! It would seem we have no chance against Satan and his army of demons.

 

In her book, War on the Saints, Jessie Penn-Lewis gives the church this warning about demons and their intentions:

 

“The church must recognize that the existence of deceiving, lying spirits, is as real today as in the time of Christ, and that the attitude of these spirits toward the human race remains unchanged. Their one ceaseless aim is to lie to and deceive every human being; they are ... ceaselessly and actively pouring a stream of wickedness into the world ... they are satisfied only when they succeed in their wicked plans to deceive and ruin people.”²

 

But we do have hope in this spiritual battle, this hope is with Jesus. When we have faith in Jesus, believe He is the Son of God, and believe because of His work on the Cross, we are saved by grace through this faith, then we have the power of the Holy Spirit to fight our battles against Satan and his army.

 

In an article from Focus in the Family entitled “Spiritual Warfare: Winning the Battle”, the following advice is offered on how to win the spiritual battle:

 

·       Admit that you’re a sinner and ask Christ’s forgiveness for your sins every day. Then trust God to deliver you from the powers of darkness.

·       Pray and read Scripture regularly. Spending time with God and His Word will help you know Him better and be assured of His love for you. Personalize Psalm 91 as a covenant prayer – be confident of the Lord’s sheltering care.

·       Remember that God is stronger than the devil. Christ defeated Satan on the cross, so He can deliver you from Satan’s traps and keep you in the protection of His grace. That’s what the apostle James had in mind when he wrote, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

·       Keep a journal of all your thoughts and emotions. Write as if you were talking directly to the Lord; this will help you be honest with yourself about your struggles. Re-read what you’ve written to identify how Satan is trying to deceive you (for example, through fear, bitterness, or shame). Then shred those pages as a physical reminder that you’re laying your struggles at the foot of the cross.

·       Turn away from the lies of the devil and his evil spirits. Consider what you uncovered in your journaling. Pray through the Prayer of Deliverance and the Prayer for Repentance & Renunciation if you need to. Be open to any response the Lord might have.

·       Find a pastor, Christian counselor, or trusted fellow believer (of the same sex) you can talk with openly. Ask them to pray with and for you. Remember: This isn’t the kind of thing you can overcome on your own. As James puts it in another biblical passage, “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:16).

 

Put on the Full Armor of God each day and be assured you will be triumphant against Satan and his army of demons if we have faith in Him!

 

ILLUSTRATION

 

Chess Game With Satan

 

From a great chess player of Cincinnati, we learn that in the early part of the last century an artist who was also a great chess player painted a picture of a chess game. The players were a young man and Satan. The young man manipulated the white pieces; Satan the black pieces. The issue of the game was this: should the young man win, he was to be forever free from the power of evil; should the devil win, the young man was to be his slave forever. The artist evidently believed in the supreme power of evil, for his picture presented the devil as victor.

 

In the conception of the artist, the devil had just moved his queen and had announced a checkmate in four moves. The young man’s hand hovered over his rook; his face paled with amazement—there was no hope. The devil wins! He was to be a slave forever.

 

For years, this picture hung in a great art gallery. Chess players from all over the world viewed the picture. They acquiesced in the thought of the artist. The devil wins! After several years a chess doubter arose; he studied the picture and became convinced that there was but one chess player upon the earth who could give him assurance that the artist of this picture was right in his conception of the winner. The chess player was the aged Paul Morphy, a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana. Morphy was a supreme master of chess in his day, an undefeated champion. A scheme was arranged through which Morphy was brought to Cincinnati to view the chess picture.

 

Morphy stood before the picture, five minutes, ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes. He was all concentration; he lifted and lowered his hands as, in imagination, he made and eliminated moves. Suddenly, his hand paused, his eyes burned with the vision of an unthought-of combination. Suddenly, he shouted, 

 

“Young man, make that move. That’s the move!”

 

To the amazement of all, the old master, the supreme chess personality, has discovered a combination that the creating artist had not considered. The young man defeated the Devil.³

 

PRAYER

 

 Our Heavenly Father,

 

We know Satan is not confined to one place,

But instead, he and his army of demons are

Everywhere. Because of this we are so afraid 

of the darkness! Thank you for being the source of Light

protecting us from Satan and his army of demons! 

 

Thank you for Your Son Jesus Christ, who died for 

all mankind on the Cross at Calvary so we might be saved 

by grace through faith! Thank you for the hope we 

gain through faith in Jesus, giving us the power to

be triumphant during our chess match with Satan!

 

In the precious name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior,

 

Amen!

 

SONG OF WORSHIP

 

Because He Lives

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8--QzIwyqI

 

God Bless You,

Barry

 

1“How Many Stars Are There!” The Physics of the Universe, n.d. https://www.physicsoftheuniverse.com/how-many-stars-are-there.html. 

 

2Penn-Lewis, Jessie, and Evan Roberts. War on the Saints. Thomas E. Lowe, Ltd, 1973. 

 

3 Tan, Paul Lee. Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996. Print.