Limits Of Satanic Power

by J.D. Terrell, Carlisle | Category: Satan And His Kingdom | Jul 1981

"This is your hour, and the power of darkness" (Luke 22:53).

Circumstances most solemn surrounded those words of Christ. The conflict of the ages, with all the forces of hell in battle order, was about to reach its climax at Calvary. Anticipating His approaching decease the Lord declared, "Now is the judgement of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out" (John 12:31). Yet in a terrible sense it was "your hour, and the power of darkness"; an hour allowed, indeed ordained, by the sovereign God of salvation for the full deployment of every Satanic force against His holy Son. We shall see that it was also at the cross that the ultimate, eternal limitation of Satan's power was effected; the final curb which enabled the apostle Paul to ring out the triumphant challenge, "0 grave where is thy victory?"; and the redeemed of the Lord, with quiet confidence, to declare themselves "more than conquerors through Him that loved us" (Rom. 8:37).

All down the ages of divine dealings with men and angels, however, there have been limits imposed by God upon the authority and powers of the devil. We may ponder the unrelenting judgement on certain disobedient celestial beings (Jude v.6); while at the same time observing the high standing and freedom of activity which divine omnipotence permitted to the adversary himself (Jude v.9). True, in God's perfect wisdom and judgement, the "covering cherub", having rebelled, was dispatched in summary fashion from his place of heavenly greatness. The Lord declared to His disciples, "I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven" (Luke 10:18). Though the base of his evil operations could not be heaven itself, yet God allowed to him wide spheres of activity and influence as suggested by such terms as "prince of this world" and "prince of the power of the air"; while Satan's evil associates are designated in such sinister terms as "the world rulers of this darkness". And in a sense not elaborated in Scripture, the enemy had access to heaven as depicted in the book of Job.

Now it is, of course, the experience of this exemplary man of God which offers us one of the clearest and most penetrating insights into the matter of God limiting Satanic power. Without this exposure of God dealing on behalf of His own, many a faithful soul would have been crushed beyond endurance by overwhelming afflictions. What amazing confidence and trust God placed in His devout servant! - and what a position of trust we occupy from day to day as those whom our Lord relies upon as His witnesses in the world, as "ambassadors on behalf of Christ". We must often confess that the "accuser of our brethren" is afforded more than ample material for his malignant purposes (Rev. 12:10); and our diligent Advocate is occasioned frequent exercise of His gracious intercessory service (1 John 2:1). In all of this the believer takes unfailing comfort from the knowledge of a sovereign hand upon the tempter and destroyer. The words of Job 2:6, "Behold, he is in thine hand" might well strike terror, until we reflect upon the Speaker who can add with unassailable authority, "only spare his life".

This glimpse behind the scenes of the dramatic suffering and testing of Job only exposes the more painfully how superficial and hollow were the subsequent words of Job's friends. So much so that, ultimately God intervened with, "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?" (Job 38:2); and proceeded to declare in majestic poetry His everlasting creative power and glory. We see no more the dead hand of Satan, but the splendour of divine omnipotence. "Then Job answered the LORD, and said, I know that Thou canst do all things, and that no purpose of Thine can be restrained... I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth Thee" (Job 42:1,2,5). May suffering saints' eyes be opened like Job's, and those of the prophet Elisha's young man (2 Kin. 6:17) to appreciate by faith the over-ruling hand of divine bye, power and wisdom. To the Corinthians Paul offered the priceless assurance, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure if' (1 Cor. 10:13). At the same time it is well to note that in this passage the apostle is warning against yielding to temptations, although God has permitted them, so that there is both comfort and caution in the words.

We have briefly considered above the reality of direct divine intervention in the limitation of the devil's power. There is also another important sense in which God exercises control of Satan and his evil servants. We might reverently call this a purposeful manipulation of certain of the adversary's activities. In 1 Sam. 18:10 we read that, "an evil spirit from God came mightily upon Saul", and in 2 Cor. 12:7 about Paul we read, "there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me". So in His dealings with these men, spiritually reprobate on the one hand and devoutly pious on the other, God had a positive hand in the deployment of essentially evil agencies. In the one case the rebellion of the heart was amply confirmed; in the other the triumph of grace was beautifully displayed. Thus yet another aspect of the over-ruling of a providential purpose is demonstrated in Satanic activity.

In all the annals of revelation, however, it is supremely in the Lord's earthly ministry that the limitation of Satan's authority is seen. Beginning with the wilderness temptations recounted in Luke 4, we witness the unfolding of spiritual resources for victorious living, to the glory of God. Here the Master points out the high way of spiritual conquest through the power of the Spirit and the living word of God: These represent the believer's principal armoury in conflict, and the only means of curbing the adversary's onslaughts. And how many hours of intensive supplication and prayer must have filled these long days of temptation for the Lord! His response to this, and to many subsequent episodes of severe temptation, provide us today with the finest example. Yet the Lord in His ministry also directly intervened in Satanic activity for its severe restraint. Most notably, of course, was the casting out of demons. "If I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then is the kingdom of God come upon you" (Matt. 12:28). Indeed the Holy Spirit declares unmistakably in 1 John 3:8 that "to this end was the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil".

Now this appropriately returns us to the crowning limitation imposed by God upon the power of the enemy - the triumph of the Crucified. The casting out of the prince of this world (John 12:31) at the cross marked the beginning of the long, slow but relentless decline of Satan's powers towards the fearful climax of the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10). It was at the cross that, "having put off from Himself the principalities and the powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (COL 2:15); and it is at the all-authoritative behest of the One who is "arrayed in a garment sprinkled with blood" and who "hath on His garment and on His thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords" that the powerful angel lays hold on the dragon, the old serpent which is the devil and Satan and binds him in the abyss for a thousand years (Rev. 19:13, 16; 20:1-3). We glory in the incarnate Son who partook of flesh and blood "that through death He might bring to naught him that had the power of death, that is, the devil" (Heb. 2:14). "0 death, where is thy sting?".

Flowing gloriously from the victory of Calvary are all the eternal blessings of salvation for the believer. But the experience of conversion, of birth from above, itself entails an entirely new relationship to the adversary. Wittingly or unwittingly - or perhaps a bit of each - the unbeliever "walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2). Now he is "quickened". Once he was the captive of the "power of darkness". Now he is "translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love" (Col. 1:13). He is turned "from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God" (Acts 26:18). Before he was a sinner bound for eternal

judgement; now he is a member of "My church" against which "the gates of Hades shall not prevail" (Mat. 16:18). He is sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise unto the redemption of God's own possession (Eph. 1:13,14). Never will he, or can he, be sealed, as will some, to eternal destruction (Rev. 14:9,10).

Throughout the Christian life there is a solemn responsibility upon the believer to be acutely aware of the devices of the adversary (2 Cor. 2:11); to be alert and watchful against the "roaring lion" who "walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Pet. 5:8); to resolutely deploy "the whole armour of God" in the unending struggle against the "spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:10-17); to resist the devil and see him flee from us (Jas. 4:7). In such ways we can, by God's help, vastly restrict and limit the power of the adversary for evil in our lives. In Rom. 7 we see something of the struggle Paul knew and in Rom. 8 the overcoming power of the indwelling Spirit is expounded.

Brief reference has already been made to the end-time activities of the enemy and to the limitations put upon them. This repeatedly features in the Revelation narrative. For example, in the matter of the seals, the trumpets and the bowls, we see at certain points how the Almighty, through His strong angels, unleashes some of the forces of Satanic horror(e.g. Rev. 9:111) as judgement upon a rebellious earth - all under strict heavenly control. Again, in Rev. 12:7-17 we see the deceiver of the whole world granted certain powers in a well-defined location as precisely decreed by a sovereign God, and similarly restricted as to time - "knowing that he hath but a short time" (Rev. 12:12). And so to the awful final judgement leading up to the new heaven and the new earth. In Rev. 20 is recorded the final outcome of the death-stroke inflicted at Calvary, when the old serpent is bound, then loosed again and finally cast into the lake of fire. With such certainty before and such examples as Job behind, the child of God can rest in the confident assurance of divine supremacy and sovereignty. He can reflect in holy fear that, in the midst of his temptations and afflictions, perhaps a voice full of understanding and of trust is challenging the enemy, "Hast thou considered my servant...?". Every lift of the evil one's finger is under God's unerring control; and the captivity of His own is ready to be turned, as was Job's, just at the moment decreed by divine wisdom and love (Job. 42:10).

J.D. Terrell, Carlisle | Jul 1981
Satan And His Kingdom