CONCLUSION
The strategy of the enemy from the beginning was to lure people into believing that he is in charge; that he is Lord. He wants the attention and the worship and he will use every trick in the book to take the focus away from Jesus who in the only and true Lord.
He has convinced unbelievers that God is unreliable and to be feared and avoided at all costs. He has spawned all the false religions in the world as substitutes for the one true God because, in the end, in disguise he is getting the attention he wants by taking it away from Jesus.
Jesus made a fool of Satan through the cross by exposing his false claim to be Lord because He absorbed the worst that Satan could throw at Him and came back from the dead to show the world that He is Lord (Philippians 2:6-11) and that His way of love works.
.”And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11.
Our strategy in the world
The witness of Scripture in both the Old and the New Testament is that it is the proclamation and declaration of the truth that wins the victory. Satan flees when the truth is made known.
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’…But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him.” 1 Corinthians 1:18, 19; 27-29.
God does not need prayer walks, pulling down strongholds, identifying principalities and powers over regions and countries and all that goes with it to save people. He ordained to do it through the foolishness of preaching the cross. The city of Ephesus was powerful proof that His strategy works.
God does not need our help to make the cross effective. He needs our worship and our obedience to do what Jesus commanded – follow me; go and make disciples.
Did the cross work?
There is no doubt that the cross worked. We are here as witnesses to the victory of Jesus, more than 2000 years after He died and rose again. Religions and philosophies come and go, but the church continues to live and grow in spite of every attempt to destroy it.
We have the assurance that Jesus will come again to dispose of the enemy and all those who choose to believe his lies, forever, and to set up His eternal kingdom on earth where He, together with His people, will rule and reign forever.
The role of the church is to proclaim that He is Lord and to worship Him, and never to give the devil even the time of the day! Whatever he may have to say, he is a liar and already defeated. Hallelujah!