Acts 26 Witness - Overcoming the Enemy

The Bible tells us that, as believers, we have two powerful weapons in our arsenal to defeat the devil. Two truths that can give us both victory over the enemy and the courage to persevere -holding on to our faith - even in the face of persecution and martyrdom.

"They overcame him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony, they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." (Rev. 12:11)

We don't have to look very far around this verse to find the biblical context that enables us to clearly identify the symbols and the personal pronouns in this promise. The subject of this sentence, "They," refers to those who have received "power and salvation and the kingdom of God" from Jesus, (v.10), ones who are "our brothers and sisters" (v.10), and people who "keep the commands of God and hold fast to their testimony about Jesus (v. 17). Clearly this is speaking of believers who are being attacked during the end-times. They overcame "him"... who is this dread attacker of Christians who is overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the believer's testimony? We don't have to wonder! The enemy here is identified as "the great dragon", "the ancient serpent", "the devil" and finally, specifically revealed by name, "Satan". (v. 9) Of course, "the Lamb" is Jesus! The One who has repeatedly been pictured as a victorious lamb throughout John's divine apocalyptic vision. (Rev. 5:6 and others)

Note, though that the believers don't overcome the devil by having a perfect understanding of all the events that are happening around them, they don't hold fast to their perfectly "correct" theology of the end-times or their "correct" interpretation of all eschatological prophecies. No, they overcome by understanding the basic truths of the gospel, by holding fast in faith to the fact that the shed blood of Christ alone is what saved them, and by speaking the word of their testimony!

Most of you know that I have a love for studying biblical prophecies about the end-times, but the more I study these things, the more I am convinced that what we must focus on now - what is really important during these times - are the same things that Paul pointed to when he began preaching to the Corinthians:

"And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power!" (1 Cor. 2:1-5)

I want to encourage us to avoid foolish arguments and instead, focus the two things that we know have guaranteed success in our spiritual battle with the forces of darkness! To overcome the devil, we must give ourselves to communicating the simple truth of the gospel, (i.e."The blood of the lamb" that has already defeated and disarmed the devil, see Col. 2:15) and sharing the "word of our testimony!" In so doing we overcome the enemy and build each other up!

To that end, I invite you to join me! If you would like to share an "Acts 26 testimony" about a time when you saw, heard or experienced God's power, send me an email, addressed to Acts26witness@gmail.com, It could be a story of an answered prayer, a miraculous healing, your salvation story or anything that you have experienced that glorifies God and points to the transforming, restoring, protective, provisional power of Christ! If it's not too long, I might share it here on the Acts 26 Witness blog!

Here is an example. I received this testimony last week from a new subscriber to the blog. She shared the story of her friend, a mom who had been praying for a situation at her daughter's college. Her daughter, a new freshman who had only recently arrived at her school, had a jarring encounter on campus with a young man who seemed to be on drugs and who she suspected of selling drugs. The daughter shared the upsetting incident with her worried mother and they, along with others, had been praying for this individual to be apprehended and his drug dealing days to be brought to a swift end. Well, their prayers were answered and the drug dealer was caught ... but not by the police! I share their story with permission.

"I just found this out last night, that a couple days ago, (my daughter) was let out of class a bit early. She went to the chapel where there were students giving their testimony. (I'm getting chills just typing this) Anyhow, the fella who they thought had been high on drugs and that had come up to them, scared them, etc... was standing up there with someone else and he was testifying to just receiving CHRIST as HIS SAVIOR! As a part of his testimony he confessed to being a drug dealer. But somehow in (now...crying over here) the midst of all of us praying fervently to have this fella caught and to protect my daughter and her roommate and everyone else...GOD heard and in His loving, beautiful, redemptive mercy drew this fella to HIMSELF and covered him with HIS love so that HIS life could be forever changed. He could stop hurting himself and others AND so that the girls didn't have to walk around in fear, but could feel protected and loved. I believe that is a WIN-WIN-WIN situation. And GOD is so GOD in that my daughter wasn't even supposed to have been there. (at chapel) The only reason she was able to hear and witness it for herself is because her professor let her out early. GOD knew that in order for her to feel safe, she needed to hear him speak it. But even having him testify and tell about his problem with dealing drugs it will help the professors/leaders to know they need to surround him with care in order to overcome his hurdles. He won't be left alone in it. Our HEAVENLY FATHER heard our cries and prayers for these girls and WOW, HE sure knows how to give wonderful gifts!"

Amen! and Hallelujah!

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Up next, (hopefully tomorrow) an Acts 26 Witness that has special meaning for me personally, one that came from my Dad.

You can scroll down below and catch up on any posts you might have missed.