STEADFASTLY RESISTING IN THE FAITH
If you are a member of the Body of Christ, get ready to face a mad devil. You may not want to think about it or even accept it but if you have determined to follow Jesus with all your heart, Satan has marked you for destruction. And he’s going to flood your life with troubles of all kinds.
The apostle Peter warns, “The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer” (1 Peter 4:7). He is saying, in other words, “This is no time for lightness. You have to get sober minded about spiritual matters. It is an issue of life and death.”
Why the need to be so serious? The end of time is near and our enemy has turned up the heat. He is stalking us like a lion, hiding in the grass, waiting for an opportunity to pounce. He wants to devour us, to utterly destroy our faith in Christ.
Some Christians say we shouldn’t even talk about the devil, that we’re better off just ignoring him. Others try to reason him out of existence. Liberal theologians, for example, argue that there is no devil, no hell, no heaven.
But the enemy of our souls is not simply going to go away. Few biblical figures have been identified so clearly and extensively. He is described as Lucifer, Satan, devil, deceiver, hinderer, wicked one, usurper, imposter, accuser, devourer, god of this world, ruler of darkness, old serpent.
These emphatic descriptions tell me the devil is real. And we know from Scripture that he wields a very real power. Even now he is at work on the earth—in our nations, cities, churches, homes and individual lives. And we dare not be ignorant of his methods and strategies of warfare against us.
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world” (1 Peter 5:8-9).
The apostle Peter warns, “The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer” (1 Peter 4:7). He is saying, in other words, “This is no time for lightness. You have to get sober minded about spiritual matters. It is an issue of life and death.”
Why the need to be so serious? The end of time is near and our enemy has turned up the heat. He is stalking us like a lion, hiding in the grass, waiting for an opportunity to pounce. He wants to devour us, to utterly destroy our faith in Christ.
Some Christians say we shouldn’t even talk about the devil, that we’re better off just ignoring him. Others try to reason him out of existence. Liberal theologians, for example, argue that there is no devil, no hell, no heaven.
But the enemy of our souls is not simply going to go away. Few biblical figures have been identified so clearly and extensively. He is described as Lucifer, Satan, devil, deceiver, hinderer, wicked one, usurper, imposter, accuser, devourer, god of this world, ruler of darkness, old serpent.
These emphatic descriptions tell me the devil is real. And we know from Scripture that he wields a very real power. Even now he is at work on the earth—in our nations, cities, churches, homes and individual lives. And we dare not be ignorant of his methods and strategies of warfare against us.
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world” (1 Peter 5:8-9).