01-31-24-ENG.

And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.”

Revelation 12:7–11

The only way to identify a lie is to know the truth. But if a person does not know the truth, then the lies will consume him. And before you know it, not only will this person be accepting lies as truth, but this person will also be endorsing them. That’s how deep Satan’s deception runs. He’s clever. He will get a person to die for a lie, all the while condemning and criticizing those who are standing for the truth. It reminds me of the farmer who had gotten tired of the neighborhood boys coming and stealing his watermelons. After enough times, he decided he would be clever about how he handled it. The farmer decided to put up a sign at the edge of his watermelon garden that read, “One of these watermelons is poisoned.”

That’ll do it, the farmer thought, as he wedged his freshly painted sign into the ground. The problem is that the farmer underestimated the neighborhood boys. When he came out the next day, he saw that the number one had been crossed out with red paint. In its place was painted the number two. While the farmer knew he hadn’t poisoned any of the watermelons himself, he didn’t know if the boys had, and he wouldn’t be able to sell them. The farmer lost his whole crop because he could not outwit the thieves seeking to do him harm.

Satan is a thief who wants nothing more than to do you harm. If you think you are going to somehow outsmart him, outmaneuver him, or outwit him, I would advise you to think again. This isn’t his first rodeo, and you aren’t his first prey. Satan has been doing this too long. That’s why the only way you are going to uncover his lies in your life and reveal his plan to take you down is by taking every thought you have captive to the Word of God. You are to study God’s Word and discern what God says on the matter.

That should be your first question on every subject: What does God say about it? What God has to say is the absolute truth on the matter. As you bring up the truth of God’s Word in the face of the many issues you may face, Satan will have to retreat. He holds no power or authority over God. In fact, Satan is allergic to Scripture because he’s allergic to truth. Like water tossed onto the wicked witch in The Wizard of Oz, Satan cannot handle the truth. He dissolves in its presence. As we see in the passage for today from Revelation 12, Satan flees when you call on the blood of Jesus through the power of your testimony rooted in the basic building block of truth in God’s Word.

Reaction:
On a scale of 1–10, how much of the spiritual “abundant life” do you feel you are experiencing? What things can you do in order to move that number higher on the scale? Why is spiritual maturity an ongoing pursuit rather than a onetime goal?

Prayer:
Jesus, draw out the plans You have for me from the depths of my understanding into the forefront of my awareness. Help me see the swiftest route to spiritual maturity so that I can take it fully without fail. Give me grace to grow and experience all that I am meant to be, for Your glory and others’ good. In Your name, amen.