Daily Devotional for Wednesday November 19, 2003
God -vs- satan
1 Kings 18:21-40
God -vs- satan. God versus satan is like the Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers playing against the best high school football team in the nation. As good as that high school team may be, they are over-matched in every area and have NO CHANCE to win. There is one scenario however, in which the high school team is able to win. That is if the Bucs don't show up for the game and lose by a forfeit. If you read the last chapters of the Bible, you know that in the end God will defeat satan and send him into the Lake of Fire for eternity (Rev. 20:10). Until that time, satan is a very real enemy that can only win when God is not present.
Sadly, this world that we live in, our culture, is NOT going to ever get better. The social issues that we fight like divorce, abortion, homosexuality, adultery, fornication, declining morals and ethics, drugs and alcohol, are never going to get better...only worse as time goes on. What has helped to feed this steady decline in our culture is the media. Radio, television, the Internet, movies, music, and publications. What fuels the media is advertising.
Satan is the "prince of the power of the air," and has slowly but surely WON the battle for the media which he uses to feed his lies to the masses worldwide 24/7. Satan has WON the battle in the advertising world which is the fuel the media machine runs on. As each day, each week, each month, each year passes, satan becomes more bold in using the media to fulfill his mission which is to kill, steal, and destroy the lives of people!
The reason satan has won this battle is simple, THERE NEVER WAS A BATTLE! Instead of going head to head with satan, Christians decided to not fight. What Christians have done in the last 40 years is like Moses not trying to cross the Read Sea. What Christians have done in the last 40 years is like David running from Goliath. What Christians have done in the last 40 years is like Stephen keeping his mouth shut. What Christians have done in the last 40 years is RUN FROM satan. We set up our own TV stations and networks, set up our own radio stations and networks, wrote our own books and magazines, made movies and music for ourselves.
We decided to NOT FIGHT for the mainstream vehicles that the people of the world are plugged into every day. Instead, we set up our own vehicles that are geared to only reach those who are already in the church. If people outside the church were "accidentally" reached that was fine, but these are vehicles clearly designed to take the message of Christ to the people of Christ and NOT to the world at large in which we live.
Being a huge sports fan, I have always loved I Kings chapter 18. There are lots of rich battles in the OT, like David and Goliath, the children of Israel against those people who denied the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But the account in 1 Kings chapter 18 of God versus the prophets of Baal is THE BEST! This was bigger than the Super Bowl. It was literally God -vs- satan. If it was a football game, it would have been 77-0! God wiped satan out. The great lesson here is two-fold. First, the people of God must be bold enough to pit God against satan like Elijah was, and second, God will NEVER lose!
I love you and care about you so much. As you can tell even from these written words, this is something that I have great passion about. We as the people of God have got to become more bold and not be afraid to take God outside the four walls of the church and into this lost and sinful world. Head to head with satan, God will win EVERY TIME!
I will give you a small, but perfect example. Every Mon-Fri from 1-2 am EDT I do a "live" television program on the UPN affiliate in Tampa, Florida. Even though this is a Christian program where I pray for people's needs on the air, I do it on a secular network since that is the audience I am trying to reach. Over 92% of my audience is not saved or in church. They are just normal people, going thru the day to day struggles of life, looking for hope.
Each night we have incredible testimonies of people reaching out to God in their time of need and having their lives changed. I have led over 50 people to the Lord, LIVE, on the program. What a great thrill that on the same network that is carrying so many of the negative messages of satan to the world, people are getting saved!!!
My friend, time is short, the trumpet will blow at any moment, what are we waiting for? Yes, we are saved and we know where our eternal home is, BUT WHAT ABOUT THOSE IN THIS WORLD THAT ARE LOST? I will pray for you today to open your hearts to these words today. God is calling YOU to be like Elijah on your job, at school, where you recreate, whatever you do in the normal course of your day. HAVE NO FEAR since we serve a God that will answer by FIRE!!!
When we put God against satan, God will win every time. THE ONLY WAY GOD CANNOT WIN IS IF WE ARE AFRAID TO LET HIM! Throughout our daily lives, there will always be opportunities to pit God versus satan. My challenge to you today is this. DON'T run from these opportunities. Be like Elijah and have the courage to stand up and CHALLENGE satan. OUR GOD WILL WIN EVERY TIME!!!
In His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ, Bill Keller