Our First Line of Defense!

Revelation 12:10-11- Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. NKJV

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This text is loaded with revelation, but for today’s blog we are dealing with a key weapon God has given us against the devil. John the Apostle has been exiled to the Isle of Patmos as a punishment or because of persecution for his faithfulness to the Lord. However, he is not sitting around whining about his isolation, he is communing with Jesus!Jesus takes this time to reveal to John, “things which must shortly take place”. It is at this time, when John is being given an opportunity to see and listen in on what’s happening in heaven, that we learn how to overcome the devil.

Since we have already talked about him as the accuser of the brethren, I won’t focus on that. What I want us to see in this verse is, the weapon: “they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb…” They, meaning the ones to whom salvation was given, the children of God. Him, meaning the devil. So our most effective weapon against the devil is the Blood of Jesus. Let’s look at how it works!

Salvation comes through the precious blood of Jesus. Ephesians 1:7 – “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” When we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, it is our first line of defense against the devil. Satan knows that he has no way, whatsoever, to get back into God’s grace. And he doesn’t want you to experience it either. Therefore, he does everything he can to keep mankind from accepting Jesus and partaking of the grace of God. Once a person receives Jesus, they are born into the family of God (John 1:12). Paul wrote that at the time of salvation, we are also delivered out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. (Colossians 1:13).

This is important to note as a first line of defense against Satan. Before you or I became the children of God, we belonged to the devil. In Ephesians, chapter 2, Paul wrote that at that time, before Christ, we were strangers to the covenants of promise, we had no hope, and we were without God in the world. This is a terrible place to be because it’s Satan’s domain, and he is in complete authority. He can whip up on you and have full legal authority to do it. The only way you can stop him from kicking you around is the Blood of Jesus! You have to become born of the Spirit of God, through the Blood. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. There is no other way!

Our physical bodies have a first line of defense. “The first line of defence (or outside defence system) includes physical and chemical barriers that are always ready and prepared to defend the body from infection. These include your skin, tears, mucus, and, stomach acid….” Once we become spirit beings, our first line of defense for us as spiritual beings is the Blood of Jesus, applied on the doorpost of our hearts. This salvation keeps us in a state of readiness against our enemy!

A natural depiction of this spiritual principle is seen in Exodus, chapter 12, when the children of Israel is getting ready to depart from Egypt. Moses instructs them to kill a lamb and to reserve the blood of the lamb. The blood was to be placed on the two door posts and on the lintel of the houses they were in. (This was to be their first celebration of the Passover). In verse 12, God tells them that He will strike all of the firstborn in the land, of man and beast, and when He sees the blood, He will pass over them and their homes. The blood was a sign, that the people in the houses where the blood was applied was “off limits”.

In the same manner, the Blood of Jesus is applied to our hearts on the day of our salvation. It is a sign to God and the devil, that we have been bought with the Blood of Jesus; and the devil has no legal right, or authority, to mess with us. It doesn’t stop his attacks! It makes him keenly aware that when he messes with us, he is messing with someone dear to the heart of God. It also let’s him know that in the past when he messed with us, we were on our own; but that is no longer the case. When we become born again, we gain a Heavenly Father, God, and He is in our corner! Not only that, to every one that is born again, Jesus has given authority over the devil! So that’s another reason why the devil works so hard to keep people from getting saved. Isn’t that exciting! The one who had authority over you is now under your authority! Glory be to God!

Before you even think about going on the offense against the devil and using that authority, make sure the Blood of Jesus has been applied to your heart. Once that first line of defense is in place, you have nothing to fear from the devil. In my next blog, I’ll give more insight into the power of the Blood against the attacks of Satan. Wonderful Jesus!