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War In
Heaven - Michael Defeats the Dragon
Lesson Nineteen
Chapter Twelve Continued
Verses
7 - 9 |
And
there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels
fought
against the dragon, and the dragon fought with
his angels, and
prevailed not; Neither was their place
found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was
cast out, that old serpent, called
The Devil, and Satan,
which deceiveth the whole world: he
was cast out unto
the earth, and his angels were cast out
with him. |
Michael
has been assigned by God to care for the destiny of Israel.
And at that time
Michael shall stand up, the great prince which
standeth for the children of thy people.
Daniel 12:1 We
read about conflict between Michael and the follower of Satan
as
told in Ephesians 6:12 - For
we wrestle not against flesh and
blood,
but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places. How can we as mortals
survive the onslaught of powerful
demons
without help? WE CAN'T!!! However, as told in 1 John 4:4...
Greater is He that is
in you, than he that is in the world.
When God created the
angels, He created different classes of
angels. Michael was one of the upper class, and powerful.
Read the tenth
chapter of Daniel where Daniel prayed for days,
with apparently no
answer to his prayers, until an angel touched
him on his shoulder
and said (Daniel 10:12-14) --thy
words were
heard, and I am come for
thy words. But the prince of the
kingdom of Persia withstood me
one
and twenty days: but, lo,
Michael, one of the chief princes, came
to
help me; and I
remained there with the kings of Persia. Now I am
come...
This lower class
angel could not compete against the higher
ranking
angels of Satan until Michael came to help him. This
is not talking about the church because the church is now in
heaven with Christ. 1Corinthians 15:51-52...
Behold, I shew you a
mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all
be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump:
for the trump shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed. We,
the members of the church, the bride
of Christ, shall be with Jesus in heaven.
| Verse
10 |
And
I heard a voice saying in heaven, Now is come
salvation,
and strength, and the kingdom of our God,
and the power of
His Christ: for the accuser of our
brethren is cast down,
which
accused them before
our God day and night. |
Satan is
continually accusing and bringing railings to God about the
unfaithfulness of Christians, but Jesus sits on the right hand of God
as our mediator, our attorney you might say, and protects us from
what
Satan can say. Remember Job and how the devil tried to
destroy
him? So Satan is cast out of the first and second heavens
where he has been
prince of the air, and cast down to the earth.
In Ezekiel 28:17 we
read,
Thy heart was lifted
up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted
thy
wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the
ground.....And in John 12:31,
Jesus speaking, Now
is the
judgment of this world:
now shall the prince of this world be cast out. Now
four things have taken place:
| 1. |
Salvation
from Satan's atmospheric control. |
| 2. |
God's
strength has crushed Satanic might. |
| 3. |
The
kingdom of Christ is about to arrive. |
| 4. |
The
power of Christ shall be seen as He sets up His kingdom |
Verses
11 & 12 |
And
they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and
by the
word of their testimony; and they loved not their
lives unto the
death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens,
and ye that dwell in
them. Woe to the inhabitants of
the earth and the sea! For the
devil
is come down unto
you, having great wrath, because he
knoweth that he
hath but a short time. |
Now the
heavens can rejoice because Satan is no longer the
'Prince
of the air', but cast down to earth. However, Woe
to the
inhabitants of
the earth. Satan's
wrath is now great, as he knows
he has but a short time,
and he will take out his vengeance upon
the earth and the sea, and
especially on God's chosen people,
the Israelites.
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or questions
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