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Chapter 16 The Battle Is Over ( No More War Between God & Satan ) In view of this "too often accepted" doctrine, we pause to give our God thanks for sending us His Prophet with the correct teaching. Brother Branham declared in no uncertain terms that "The Battle is over," and God has won on all fronts! As has been our habit in the past we want to present some statements by the Prophet, then compare them with the scripture. The message must always be proven by the scripture, and never certain scripture isolated in an effort to prove the message. It is our prayer that the true Bride will receive the life changing revelation that the battle between our God and Satan was finished long ago and not only so, but He came down and won our war for us also. SATAN'S DEFEAT IN HEAVEN QUOTE: POSSESSING THE ENEMY'S GATE, PAGE 11 "Aren't you happy this morning to know that we stand more than a conqueror. There is nothing to fight the devil about. (How contrary this statement is to the general belief of many precious people.) The fight is over, the whistle has been blown. The victory flag has been raised. In the midst of every sin pile the old rugged Cross is planted by the Blood of Jesus Christ, a Conqueror.The only thing we have to do is believe it. Look and live. If you've got an enemy this morning, and if you are a seed of Abraham, and after hearing this, there is not enough devils in hell to keep that gate up before you. It will open, I don't care what it is.You walk up there as a seed of Abraham and say, "I claim this as mine. This is mine because God swore that He would raise up Jesus, and through Jesus I could conquer it. I come in the Name of the Conqueror, Jesus Christ. Step back I am pressing through. Then stand up there with your shoulders back and your shield shinning, covered by the blood of the Lord Jesus. The enemy will recognize it." (End quote) How much plainer could it be stated, that there is no more war between God and Satan, and that Jesus won our battle for us also. Faith stands on this basic truth.QUOTE: JUST ONE MORE TIME LORD, PAGE 3 "The devil put you in the pawn shop and Jesus came and redeemed you, and opened up the doors. The only thing you have to do is walk out and claim you liberty. That's all! You have a receipt from God that the debt is paid. Jesus said with His last words, "It is finished." Every redemptive blessing was completely finished (paid for) God's great wrath on sin was settled when He became sin for us. It was! The debt was settled." (End quote) In other words, Satan was defeated. There is no more war between God and Satan. Jesus has already taken us out of his hands, we are redeemed. Our personal victory is also a fact, it only needs to be claimed. Let's look at this truth in the Word. The battle between the Lord and Satan started in Heaven. Satan's rebellion was the cause of the conflict. Ezekiel 28:16-18 gives the account of Satan's defeat in heaven. "By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence and thou hast sinned: Therefore, I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God, and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou has corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee." This finished the war in heaven. Then, when Jesus came to Earth, He gave this testimony, "And He said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightening fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you." (Luke 10:18-19) When Satan was put out of Heaven, he fell to Earth, having been defeated in his rebellion by our God. Down on Earth he became a thorn in the side of mankind, but our Father God was not satisfied that it should be so. The plan of God included destroying the works of Satan, not only in Heaven, but also on Earth, for the benefit of His children. SATAN'S DEFEAT ON EARTH 1 John 3:8 "-----for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." But there was yet a victory that needed to be won on Earth, concerning this war between God and Satan, he must be overcome by man. Man, in his fallen state, was no match for the supernatural power of Satan on Earth, but God's plan included a GOD-MAN coming to Earth who would defeat Satan. The virgin birth produced such a man, and a after a forty day war in the wilderness, Jesus Christ in a flesh body like unto ours, had totally defeated Satan. We find the story of Satan's defeat on Earth in Matthew 4: 8-11. "Again the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them . And saith unto Him, all these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Thus saith Jesus unto him, get thee hence Satan, for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth Him, and behold angels came and ministered unto Him." Now we have seen Satan's defeat in Heaven by Jehovah God, and also on Earth by a God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. But a problem yet remained, in that we as God's children have different blood in our veins than did the Lord Jesus. In His veins flowed the blood of God Himself. Acts 20:28 "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood." Our Lord Jesus, having bypassed the lineage of Adam's contaminated blood, had it within his power to live completely above all sin. This He did even though He was tempted in every way as we are. This is the mystery of the God-Man. We cannot wait until we understand this mystery, but we must receive it by faith. The truth is, that our Lord Jesus had the ability to live above all sin and chose to do so while you and I do not have this ability. If we could live above all sin and therefore make it to Heaven, then Christ would have died in vain. Gal. 2:21 "I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law (by us being able to keep all the law) then Christ is dead in vain." The point we are making is this, because of our relationship to our fallen father Adam, we could not live above all sin. Therefore, this sin produced condemnation, which in turn gave the devil power over us. It is only when our hearts "condemn us not" (I John 3:21) that we have perfect faith. But our Father promised that "----sin shall not have dominion over you." (Romans 6:14) This brings us to the third great defeat that Satan suffered, which was at the Cross of Calvary. We have seen in the Word his defeat in Heaven, then also on Earth by a God-Man. In one sense we can say that these two victories were God's personal battles against His arch enemy. SATAN'S DEFEAT AT THE CROSS But now we stand at the foot of the cross, it is the end of six, long, terrible hours of suffering. With His last breath Jesus has cried, "It is finished." (John 19-30) What was it that was finished? It was the final victory over Satan for you and me. The God-Man, Jesus, could have called angels to deliver Him from the cross, but He chose to stay there until, in His flesh body, He had won the victory over Satan for you and me. It was not enough that God should defeat Satan. It was the plan of our Father that we too should defeat him. Not being able to do this in our own strength (wrong birth) we needed someone to gain this victory for us, then it could be legally transferred to our account. This is exactly what happened at the cross. God was not satisfied that He, personally, had won all battles against Satan, but He came down Himself and won the war against him for His children. He paid our sin debt in full. Satan's hold over us is condemnation, but with no sin chargeable to us "there is now no condemnation" (Romans 8:1) The cross was the answer to man's personal war against Satan. It is truly finished! Satan's legal rights were taken from him. QUOTE: ISRAEL AND THE CHU-RCH, PAGE 54 "The devil is nothing but a scarecrow. He just scares you into things. He has no legal rights at all. He was stripped of every right, Jesus spoiled him at Calvary." (End quote) QUOTE: ONE MORE TIME LORD, PAGE 3 "Satan has no more power, only as he can bluff with it. If he can bluff you into it all right, you will have to have it. But legally he has no more power at all. Every power he had was taken from him at Calvary." (End quote) These things being true, one might well ask then, "Why do we as God's people, still have so much trouble with this enemy?" The answer was given byour Prophet William Branham. He taught about a battle that rages in our minds. QUOTE: GREATEST BATTLE EVER FOUGHT, PAGE 13 "Now don't miss this! When the great battle started on Earth. The human mind was chosen for the place of battle. That is because decisions are made in the mind, the head. Where you've got to meet your enemy is in the mind. You've got to make your choice. It meets you." Page 15, "It's the word of God brought in the channel of your thought. Your mind accepts it and grasps it. And what is your mind controlled by? Your spirit! And your spirit catches the Word of God. And that's the thing that's got life in it. (The Word) Oh Brother! When that takes place, when life come down that channel into you (the channel of your mind) then the Word of God is manifested in you, and from the middle of the heart it goes forth." Page 16, "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he." There you are, that's the battle ground. If you'd only get that started first." (Believing with the mind started first.) Page 17, "It must be accepted in the mind, then it's believed in the heart. (After God turns it into a revelation it is believed in the heart) Then the Word of God becomes a reality." (End quote) Concerning this war that rages in our mind, we are to stop this battle by simply accepting God's Word that our enemy has been defeated. We are not to allow a battle to exist in our mind. We are not to even entertain a thought that disagrees with the fact of Satan's total defeat, we are to stop this war every time it tries to start. QUOTE: GREATEST BATTLE, PAGE 17 "It's not how long you can make the war last, it's stop it right now. Well, I might fail, it might not be right. Don't you do that at all. You throw aside everything and open the channel (the mind) and say "God, your Word is eternally true and it's for me." (End quote) The Bible clearly teaches that our God came down to live in a body like ours, and His purpose was to defeat Satan in such a body as we have. This, then, is what makes our victory legal; a God-Man tempted as we are and in a flesh body such as we have, destroyed Satan's power over us. Hebrews 2:14 "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." From the Bible and a Prophet's message we are to understand that the war is over, not only between our God and Satan, but also between God's children and Satan. You will say to me, "But the Bible says resist him." True, but to resist Satan simply means to turn him down. There should be no war connected with us simply refusing what he comes to us with. There is a vast difference between standing behind the walls of a fort and refusing to open the gate to an enemy, and in leaving the fort to try and take some new ground. All the ground has already been taken for us, and we have been placed behind the mighty walls of the fortress of the Word. To leave our fortress to fight for some ground that is already ours, shows our need for more revelation concerning what the Lord Jesus has done for us. Truth is, dear Bride, when we win the battle in our mind, then there is no more war at all, for that is all that remains to be done. We, with child like faith, choose to believe what the Word says concerning God's personal victory over Satan. Then, also believe the victory He won for us at the cross, and just as the Prophet said, " We can be happy that we stand more than a conqueror. There is nothing to fight the devil about, the fight is over, the whistle has been blown, the victory flag has been raised------The only thing we have to do is believe it." (End quote) This does not mean no more trials and hardships. It does not mean no more testings with a sickness, nor that our hearts will never be broken again. It does mean that we will have no more doubts about the outcome of a trial or test. We can know God's will is being done through it all. We do not have to "try to get our healing." It is already bought and paid for. It is as simple as holding onto the health that God promised us. If we have temporarily turned loose of the Word about it, all we have to do is repent of our unbelief and go back to His Word. III John 1:2 "Beloved I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospers." We will be victorious in all things as our soul prospers (or accepts) this mighty revelation that all battles have been won by our Elder Brother, The Lord Jesus Christ. WHAT IS THE BATTLE OF THE MIND? To simplify the battle that rages in our minds, we can say that it really boils down to making a decision. The Bible teaches that we must choose. Joshua 24:15 "Choose you this day whom you will serve." Any of us who have our right mind can make a choice, but concerning the choices we make, there is needed another powerful revelation. We often choose to believe certain things, but then because our emotions are contrary to the thing we chose to believe, we yield to the lie that the transaction was not real. The truth is that once we make the choice to believe, then our God accepts our decision as final; even when every emotion in us is going contrary to what we say we believe. At first we will be made to feel like a hypocrite, but after we have held steadfastly to our decision, the Lord will take care of our emotions. We will end up "feeling" as if we believe. I do not say that we can choose to believe without the help of the Holy Ghost, but He is always on the scene to help us. Hebrews 13:5 "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." Other wise, our unbelief would be the Lord's fault, and we do know that we cannot fault Him. May the Lord let the "child like" simplicity of winning the battle in our minds, come before us just now. God sent us a Prophet who told us "God will honor the right mental attitude." The right mental attitude is to think in line with the Written Word. In order to do this, most of us need to be changed by the renewing of our minds. Romans 12:2 "And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your MIND. That you may prove what is that good and perfect will of God." The "good and perfect will of God" is to perform His Word in our lives. All He waits for is our believing, and faith, in it's beginning is a simple choice to believe what is written. Notice, a choice to believe is the BEGINNING of faith, but not it's final end. The end of our choice to believe will be a God sent revelation that will empty our hearts and minds of all doubts and fears. Believing is our part; it is something we can do. Sending the Supernatural revelation is God's part. We cannot give ourselves a revelation. To prove what we have just said we go to Hebrews 11:6 "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for He that commeth to God must BELIEVE that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." Notice that the topic under discussion is FAITH, and the Holy Ghost says that in order to come into faith, we must first BELIEVE. Then after God sees our belief He will reward us with a supernatural revelation of faith. To show we are still in the message, I quote the Prophet. QUOTE: BLASPHEMOUS NAMES, PAGES 22-23 "And the biggest part of our faith is mental faith. Hearing the Word brings us a mental recognition of God. (Please note here that the Prophet is not putting down mental believing, rather he is teaching that it has to be there first) But if this coming down from above, oh Brother, if it ever strikes, then there is a Godly, spiritual faith. Our mental faith then becomes a spiritual faith. (But what if there is no mental belief there for that which comes down to strike?)------When that stream of grace is pouring into that MENTAL BELIEF that you've got, then upon this, a spiritual revelation, I will build My church-----." (End quote) And so we see by the Word and by the message that Supernatural faith begins with our BELIEF, which is nothing more complicated than our making a decision to accept what is written. It is our mental acceptance of God's Word that causes Him to eventually send His revelations. To hold to God's Word while every emotion and all our natural reason declares it wrong, this is the thing that truly ends the war in our minds. It ends the war because God sees our continued belief and sends a revelation of real faith. May I show you this teaching in the message. QUOTE: PERFECT FAITH, PAGE 27 "There is nothing left for us to do but believe it, and believing it is the substance that creates perfect faith." (End quote) WHAT IS BELIEVING? Mark 11:24 "Therefore I say unto you, what things soever you desire, when you pray, BELIEVE that you receive them and you shall have them." Jesus said, "When you pray BELIEVE." But, what is believing? Has our God assigned us a task that is so utterly hard that we cannot attain to it? We hear ourselves, and others, saying, "I wish I could believe, I want to believe, I know I am suppose to believe, but I just can't seem to do it." But what actually is believing? It is simply TRUSTING, no more and no less. We learn by comparison, so let's compare trusting God with earthly trusting because trust is just trust, no matter which direction it is pointed. Trust is so simple it is hard to explain. I trust my wife, after 52 years I have learned to trust her. I trust her with our money, I trust her to keep her marriage vows, I trust her with my very life, as far as she would have power to save me. Here in this life we trust certain people. This is the revelation now, that's all our God expects of us. Just trust Me in the same simple way you trust others, He says. In Jeremiah 2:5 the Lord asks a question through Jeremiah, "Thus saith the Lord, what iniquity have your Fathers found in Me, that they have gone far from Me? With a broken heart God asked the Israelites, "What have I done that causes you not to trust Me?" If we can trust each other, How do we dare testify that we cannot trust our Creator? The same simple faith that we exercise toward each other is all He asks of us. That is all that believing is. Have we not had the revelation that our God is a Perfect Being? Do we not know that He has never mistreated one single person? Do we not understand that He has never made a mistake? Every born again believer has had these revelations, and having had them we CAN trust Him. To point the same trust up toward God that we have in our earthly people, who have proven themselves trustworthy, will bring results beyond our greatest expectations. To believe His Word that tells us that the battle has been won on every front, and that there is no more need to fight the devil, will produce a life of power and peace that the world cannot help but take note of. Thirty years ago, when I was a new Christian, two years old in the Lord, I was receiving a little publication from a precious lady in California. In one of the articles she made the statement "I feel sorry for devil fighters." That single statement stopped me from reading the articles, because in those days I was a genuine devil fighter. I had no idea about the revelation she tried to portray. Now I see that she was saying that the war is over, there is no more need to fight.To fight the devil is to loose the battle. The only way to win is to depend on the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ has already won all for us. All our enemy has left is to try and bluff us. The Lord has left him that much in order to give us place to use faith. The definition of the word "bluff" is "a threat that cannot be carried out against resistance." Resisting Satan is not going out to war with him, but is simply refusing to open the door of our minds and letting him bring the war into us. We refuse to be tricked into fighting a war that has already been won. Our Elder Brother went to war in our place. How dare Satan try and make us believe that our Jesus did not defeat him! As long as we believe that the blood of God set us free from all sin at the cross, we can say with our Lord Jesus, "The prince of this world commeth and hath nothing in me." (John 14:30) Little Bride, it is not that you and I will win the battle some day, but it is that the war is already over, and our victory was secured through our powerful Warrior, Jesus Christ. As Jesus Himself said, "---When you pray, believe." (Mark 11:24) That is the only thing that stands between you and I and total victory over our enemy, Only Believe. Only believe what the Word says about the war that has already been won for us! Amen. |