The Devil is a Joke! Pt 3

Now earlier when I was telling you why we need to beware of the Devil some of you might have started getting weary of the Devil. But now I’m gonna tell you why I titled this hub “The Devil is a Joke!” I’m gonna tell you why despite all that the Devil has on his side, (experience, forces, and nothing to lose.)

He is nothing compared to you. Because the Bible says something about you and I’m talking about the church when I say you.

Revelation 12:11 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.

The bibles says that you will overcome him. With three weapons the blood, your testimony, and sacrifice.

1. The Blood of the Lamb.

The first is the Blood of the Lamb before you got saved you were the Devils slave. 2 Timothy 2:26 says that you were caught in the snare of the devil, and that you were captive by him at his will. You couldn’t have freed yourself if you wanted to. The only way to free yourself is to obey God but you didn’t have the power to obey God. Because just like the devil you were created perfect but iniquity was found in you! But the day you got saved you regained the freedom to obey God you regained the power to love Him!

John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

The day you got saved, the day you allowed the Blood of Jesus to cleanse you from unrighteousness. You received the power to become a son of God. You were freed from your captivity no longer in bondage to the Devil. You no longer had to fear him or his bondage.

Romans 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

2. The Word (your testimony.)

But it can’t end there! You’ve got to remember who you’re dealing with. I keep saying we have nothing to fear but we ought to beware. Just because the Devil lost his power over you doesn’t mean that he has no power over you. I’m talking about access. He still has access to power over you. What power does he have access too? Your power! I’m talking about disobedience. The Devil doesn’t have the power to bring you into disobedience but he can exploit you in your own disobedience. Sin! The areas of your life where you are in disobedience are the area’s the Devil still has access to. With your permission.

Revelation 12:11 tells us how to take back that power. And it’s not by choosing to obey God. You cannot choose to obey God. Deuteronomy 30:19-20 says to choose life. Many think that means that we are to choose to obey God. But if you read the verse it says to choose life so that you will be able to obey God. So that you will have the power to obey God.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20, 19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: 20 That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

So then how do you choose life?

Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

You do not choose life by your actions, you choose life with your tongue. You choose life with your testimony. Obedience is not something that done or chosen obedience is something that’s said with faith!

I taught this in a message once in Texas and immediately was challenged after the meeting. The Christian accused me of taking two different verses from two different books and pasting them together. He told me that I would never find that in just one book. I did even better I found it in just one verse.

Joshua 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

That’s why Revelation 12:11 says they defeated him by the “word of there testimony.” Many Christians seem to be confused about what their testimony is. You hear Christians all the time giving their testimony and spending 40 minutes giving glory to the devil talking about how bad they were and the last five minutes giving glory to God.

Your testimony is not how wicked you were, your testimony is how righteous you have been made. Your testimony is that God saved you. That God who is able to raise himself from the dead is able to raise you from your sin.

The word of your testimony is God’s word in your mouth! You need to realize how much power is in your word! The Bible says in John that the Word is God and it says in Genesis that you were created in the image of God. God has placed the power of life in your tongue but he has also placed the power of death.

In other words what you say about you is true about you. If you say that you are a sinner you are a sinner. If you say that God has saved you and released you from sin you are righteous, no longer a sinner but a saint! Because you have spoken God’s word over your life!

It’s like this. God said let there be light and there was light. God said let the dry land appear and it was so. God said let the earth bring forth grass and it was so.

Now Jack said and there was meth addiction. Jack said and there was pornography. Or, Jack said and there was righteousness, Jack said and there was salvation. It’s up to me, it’s up to you. What you say about you is true about you.

Matthew 18:19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.

Who is your word in agreement with?

Revelation 12:10 And I heard a loud 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.

If you constantly call yourself a sinner, you’re in agreement with the devil. He is the accuser of the brethren and he’s pretty darn good at it. He doesn’t need your help.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

The devil says that you are still a sinner, God’s word says that Jesus died for us to make us the righteousness of God in Christ.

I know that you still sin, and I know that if you say that you are without sin you are a liar. But just because you sin occasionally doesn’t make you a sinner. I sing occasionally and trust me when I say that doesn’t make me a singer. Romans chapter seven teaches that you are not very good at it.

Romans 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

You used to delight in sin. You didn’t condemn yourself every time you messed up. In fact sometimes you even bragged about your sins to your friends. But now you delight in the law. I wish I had the space to break down that whole chapter of Romans but that would be a whole new hub altogether. Because the first verse in the next chapter teaches that there is now no condemnation. Because we have been made righteous, we have been justified.

So what if you still fall occasionally, That’s why we walk by faith and not by sight.

Romans 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

Let God be true. So even if your own actions seem to say that you are a sinner you (your actions) are a liar God’s word is true. God’s word says that you are righteous. Keep confessing what you believe and quit confessing what you see and soon you’ll start to see what you believe. But keep confessing what you see and eventually you’ll start to believe what you see. You’ll stop calling yourself a sinner saved by grace and start just calling yourself sinner. You’ll start to doubt that God ever really saved you in the first place. That’s why the devil doesn’t want you to confess God’s word. That’s why he wants you to walk by sight and not by faith.

The power of your testimony, the word of your testimony defeats the Devil! And strips him of all access to your power!

3. Personal sacrifice.

The last thing that Rev 12:11 says is that they loved not there lives unto the death. I said earlier that the reason that the Devil is such a threat to you is that he has nothing to lose. The only way you can come up against an attitude like that is with the same attitude.

You’ve got to be willing to give it all up. To give up your life to the will of the Spirit.

John 12:25-26, 25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. 26 If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.

When you go after the things of this world you can’t have them because you’re focused on them. But when you are willing to submit yourself to God you give Him your life. You no longer have anything to lose.

That’s when you can face the Devil with no fear, when you have nothing to lose!

And unlike the Devil, when a man has nothing to lose he has everything to gain! The Devil has nothing to lose because he’s already lost. We have nothing to lose because we’ve already won.

You can boldly go into the enemy’s camp and take back everything he stole from you. You can take back your prosperity, take back your health, You can take back your family.

Break down.

In order to defeat him you’ve got to be washed in the blood of the Son, speaking the word of the Father and submitting your life to the will of the Holy Ghost.

When you got saved your freedom was returned, when you speak the word your power is returned and when you die to self your life is returned. When you have submitted yourself to God and I mean by that you’ve been washed in the Blood, you’ve spoken the word and you’ve, sacrificed your life the Bible says in James 4:7 when you do that he will flee from you run in terror from you.

I can’t wait until the day we finally get to see him for what he really is.

Is this the man?

In the end we will see him for what he really is, a defeated failure. We will be amazed and amused that we were ever afraid of such a weak and despicable being.

Ezekiel 28:18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.

Isaiah 14:16-17, 16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; 17 That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?

The devil is a joke!

when I say that the Devil is a joke I’m talking about in comparison to you. Compared to who you are in Christ, and all that God has put in you, and done for you.

The devil is a joke! And the sad thing is, he’s not even funny.