Colossians 1:13 NLT
[13] “For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, [14] who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.”

It’s all very well to pray a grand prayer like the one we examined yesterday, but how can we be so sure that God will answer us? After all, He only does what is in line with His will.

God’s answers to many of our our prayers depend on what He has done to intervene on our behalf. What has He done to ensure that what we pray is according to His will?

Does He really want us to know Him, to experience His power, and to rejoice in His goodness? Of course He does! He made it all possible by rescuing us from Satan’s power and bringing us supernaturally under His own benevolent rule. We did nothing to contribute to what He has done.

How do we know that we have been forgiven and freed from our guilt and the fear of punishment?

Something powerful has happened inside; something has changed in our conscience and in our emotions. We no longer have that sense of impending doom. We have inner lightness and freedom from guilt that is different from the heaviness we once felt. We have a deep assurance that we are okay with God. We feel loved and secure. All these changes are real even if we cannot explain what has happened.

These new experiences can only point to one thing. God has done something to make these changes supernaturally possible.

How did He rescue us from Satan’s power? I didn’t really understand this truth until I took a long, hard look at what Jesus did at the cross. Let me jump the gun and explain what Paul has to say in the next chapter.

Colossians 2:14-15 NLT
[14] “He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. [15] In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.”

Satan held us captive in the following ways.

1. He claims to be Lord over us because he has captured us by our sin. He has us in his power and under his influence. No matter what we do, we cannot get free of his control.
2. He holds us captive by reminiding us of our fate. We are stuck with him and doomed with him to eternal judgment.
3. He uses these lies to deceive us into thinking that we are still forced to serve him.
4. He holds up our disobedience to God’s laws as proof that we are doomed.

But God did something unthinkable…

1. He took all our guilt, placed it on Jesus, and had Him killed in our place. He took every law we broke, every sin we committed, every rebellious thought and act, and nailed it to the cross, writing over all the charges, PAID IN FULL.
2. He showed the devil up to be a liar because we are no longer guilty of any sin. Satan tries to deceive us into believing that we are still guilty and in his clutches. We are not! We are free and under God’s rule and protection.
3. He did all this before time. This means that He took care of our sin and guilt before they happened. Satan’s accusations are all false because our sin no longer exists. People who still follow and worship Satan have been caught in his lies.

Revelation 13:8 NLT
[8] “And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life that belongs to the Lamb who was slaughtered before the world was made.”

The devil has been unmasked. He is NOT LORD, after all. JESUS IS LORD.

So, we have objective proof that we are safely in God’s hands and under His care and protection. God had Jesus killed for us! Satan’s most powerful weapon is useless. His lies have been exposed. Now we have God’s truth as the covering under which we can live in peace and freedom.