Sitting in church a couple weeks ago, I was listening to my lead pastor Steve Poe teach a series on the Book of Revelation. Famously the last chapter of the Bible, but also probably the most skipped chapter as well. I get it, Revelation is intimidating and there is no denying it. The fact of the matter is Jesus gave us Revelation in order to encourage us that no matter how bad the world is, that His love will conquer in the end. We need to understand the power of this scripture.
(For the purpose of remaining consistent, I will be quoting scripture using the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible)
Jesus said to us "Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to each person according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End" (Revelation 22:12-13). Throughout Revelation we see the undoing of the Earth through a vision of disciple John. We begin to see what evils in the world can do without God's restraint on them. It's truly a frightening picture to see, but in the pre-tribulation teaching of Revelation, the Church is raptured before His wrath hits.
Along the way we see glimpses of how Satan's power on Earth is enough to convince some people to steer away from God. We can see currently that Satan has a presence on this Earth in a lot of our daily lives. Many people struggle with temptation or addiction and much of the hate that we see can be attributed to Satan. It can be overwhelming at times to see what evil has done in this world.
What we can't do is compare the power of Satan's evil versus the power of God's love. My pastor told us a story of how God taught him that despite good and evil being opposites, God and Satan are not. To say that God and Satan are opposites is to say that they are equal forces going against one another. That's part of the evil's deception because we cannot foresee what is coming in the end. We perceive Satan to be a match for God in far too many instances.
We can't give him that kind of credit.
"How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit" (Isaiah 14:12-15).
This story of how Lucifer was cast from Heaven reminds us of the power of God. Despite a revolt in the paradise He created, God proved that He is always and will always be stronger. Sometimes, when I'm reading Revelation, I feel like this book is not a warning or something to worry about. This book is here to help us feel protected and to know that in the end God will triumph like He always has. God ended the revolt, He came to Earth and defeated death, and He will win the final battle too. Satan is no match for God and goes running scared at His name. It's time we start treating the idea of Satan as it should be: he's a fallen angel, not an equal.
God is mightier than any evil Satan can come up with. Don't listen to the lies. We are in good hands, believers. God gave us the Book of Revelation to remind us, so don't be afraid to open it. As intimidating as it can be, it is important for us to understand the power of our Savior.
