Lie #8: The Devil is as Powerful as God
Colossians 2:15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.
Imagine with me for a moment that cockroaches were as big as say, a medium-sized dog. It’s a terrible thought isn’t it?
But if cockroaches were the size of dogs – how would it change your life? Well, they’d be positively dangerous. You’d have to put bars on your windows and doors. You’d have to take a shotgun with you every time you stepped outside the front door, or into your backyard.
In fact, the more you think about it, it sends shivers down your spine. Yick!
Now fortunately – whilst that scenario might well pop up in a nightmare – the truth is that they’re not. The truth is that we have power over those dirty little cockroaches, because we’re much, much bigger. We can squash them under foot, or we can spray them with insect killer.
That nightmare scenario has very little to do with the reality. No, that’s not right. It’s more than that. That nightmare scenario has absolutely nothing to do with reality. Would you agree?
One of the lies that the devil wants you to believe, is that he is just as powerful as God – that your life is being lived out amidst this cosmic struggle between equal and opposite forces of good and evil. An equal and opposite struggle between God on the one hand and the devil on the other. Battle after battle and we have no idea who is going to win the war.
And you know, sometimes … that’s exactly how it feels. Some days, when we fall to that same temptation for the thousandth time, it even seems as though the devil is winning. It feels as though you’re going to lose your salvation. And that … that’s exactly what the devil wants you to believe.
But that nightmare scenario has absolutely nothing to do with the truth.
When you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.
He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it. (Colossians 2:12-15)
I know that sometimes it feels as though the devil is winning his struggle for your soul. But wake up. It’s just not true.
God has made you alive with Himself, he has forgiven you all your trespasses – did you get that “all” bit – ALL your trespasses, setting your guilt aside, and making a public example of the devil, triumphing over him on that cross.
That spiritual battle that’s raging in your life – it’s already been won. That’s the truth.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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