Happy Monday!  I thought I’d start off the week on a lighter note by talking about angels and demons.  Nothing like starting your week off with a sip of good coffee and demon talk.  Obviously I kid, but this is what God’s brought to my attention lately, so all I can do is share what I’m seeing.  I mostly want to open our eyes, to the reality of spiritual warfare as Christians.  When Satan decided to make war on God, Michael and other angels made war against him.  Satan was defeated, but he took 1/3 of the angels with him (these are now known as demons).  Revelation 12:3-4, 7-12 – “And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems.  His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth.”  “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.  And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.  And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.  And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

We should rejoice in the conquering of Satan through the blood of Christ, but also heed the warning that is given.  The devil has come in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short.  1 Peter 5:8-9 tells us “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.”  What is interesting to note here, is that it is expected that Christians will experience suffering and temptation from the devil, and need to resist him.  Peter is not directing his message to non-Christians, but the “brotherhood throughout the world”.  Satan does not concern himself greatly with those who are non-Christians.  Why would he?  They are no threat to him, but we are.  Satan focuses his efforts against us.  It’s important for us to understand the gravity of our enemy.  What are satan’s resources?  He has more demons than can be counted.  Where does this come from?  First the language used above in Revelation 12, referring to 1/3 of the stars as the amount of angels that fell with Satan.  Referring to the number of stars which cannot be counted, should give you an idea that the number of demons with satan are likewise many.  Second, in Revelation 5 we are told that they are “myriads and myriads of angels”.  Revelation 5:11 – “ Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands”  A myriad is 10,000.  Myriads of myriads is equivalent to saying ten thousand ten thousands, or 100 million.  Forgive my math use here, but let’s assume the low end and say that there are only 100M angels in Heaven, and that is 2/3 of the number that was original there before 1/3 fell with satan.  That would mean satan has 50 million demons at his disposal.  My purpose here isn’t to try to give you an exact number, except to say that it is a great many more than most people imagine.

If this seems bad, it’s about to get worse.  Let’s consider what we know about satan and his demons.  They have seen the living God.  They know more about God than we will ever know on this side of eternity, so they are able to craftily attempt to veer us off-course in our worship of Him.  Second, they are vastly more powerful than we are.    Third, they know they have been defeated and their time is short, so they are ruthless in their attempts to destroy us.

What does all of this mean?  In the Lord’s prayer, we are told to pray that we would not be led into temptation, but delivered from evil – we should be praying for this often.  We should constantly remember and proclaim the victory of Jesus in the gospel over the power of sin and death.  We should belong to a group of Christians that can encourage and stengthen us, and we should seek to encourage and strengthen them.  Christian loners make easy targets.  Last, that we have an enemy we cannot see that is vastly more powerful and intelligent than we are should remind us to never become compacent or prideful, but push us to embrace the grace and mercy of God alone for our salvation.  We are helpless, weak, and poor, but we belong to the King and no one will remove us from His hand or separate us from the love of Christ. 

Grace and Peace,
Adam