God Will Have The Last Word.

Revelation is a complex book, yet is is for ordinary people. Its theme is simple and straightforward: Jesus is Victor! There are many things we don't understand, but there's one thing we do know: God will have the last word.

 * Satan has a great deal to say about our lives. He is "the accuser of our brothers and sisters" (Revelation 12:10). He "accuses them before our God day and night" (Revelation 12:10), but God will have the last word: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God,

    and the authority of his Messiah" (Revelation 12:10).

 * Satan is not only the accuser of God's people. He is also "the deceiver of the whole world" (Revelation 12:9). What do we see as we look around us? - "The whole world is under the control of the evil one" (1 John 5:19). That's what we see now. There will, however, come a day when the righteous owner will take over: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever" ( Revelation 11:15).

 * What practical relevance do these truths concerning the end of time have for our lives here-and-now? By assuring us that Satan's final downfall is certain, God encourages us to face Satan and conquer him in the name of Christ and by his power (Revelation 12:11).

There is a great conflict - "the devil has come down to you in great wrath" (Revelation 12:12). His time is short - and he knows it. We can be victorious. Victory is God's gift. It's the triumph of faith.

We can ease the intensity of the conflict by lowering our standards. If we do this, the devil won't pay much attention to us. He won't need to. We'll be no threat to him. When we maintain the standard of godliness, the conflict will become more intense. we see this in the experience of John - "I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus" , (Revelation 1:9). Along with "the kingdom", there is "the suffering and patient endurance." It was in this close relationship with Go that John heard the voice of God as "a loud voice" (Revelation 1:10). How does the voice  of God become "a loud voice" in our hearts? How does God's voice get heard with ever-increasing clarity and power? We are to be "in the Spirit", worshipping the Lord "in spirit and in truth " and walking in the Spirit and in victory. We must remind Satan that "his time is short" (Revelation 12:12).