The Word of God says the devil is the accuser of the brethren:

         And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven.

         And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

         Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying,

         “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.

        “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.” [Revelation 12:7-11]

         The devil gets riled up pretty easily. If he acted like an ass in heaven he will obviously do the same on earth, and has, and always has, and continues at present.

         He hates God, he hates the truth, and he hates real Christians.

         The above passage is abundantly clear regarding the ongoing personal attacks the devil levies against the Lord and real Christians. He is constantly on the offensive attacking attacking attacking—using whatever means he can in the ongoing attempt to assassinate character, destroy honest people, and bring railing accusations that most often have no merit whatsoever.

         He reminds one of some spoiled rotten smarmy little high school freshmen who doesn’t know when to shut up and needs to be taken out somewhere and get the hell beat out of him for his own good and that of everyone else.

         I think most people know people like this. In most cultures of the world people like this only survive if they manage to gain a lot of power of some sort, and such people know they otherwise have no chance so they do whatever they must to gain power, so they can attain a base of power, so they can have a certain level of protection, so they can then engage in what drives them—attack attack attack—accuse accuse accuse—everyone’s an idiot but them—if only they could rule the world…

         Short of that, these people often must settle for their own little limited fiefdoms, the best of which are found in the realm of religion.

         And there you have it—the devil is really into religion. He is a religious legalist of the very worst kind. And when he manages to train and send forth his own well-taught disciples, one can see in them exactly that which resides in him—these religious legalists are the biggest jerks that ever wore a human skin suit.

         “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” [John 8:44] [1]

         Though full of the devil and possessing a heart record that smells like the worst rancid decaying herd of rats in a wall cavity, it never stops them from bringing accusation after accusation after accusation. It would be good if they could look in a mirror and accuse themselves and then suffer the ongoing exponential effects of a mirror in a mirror in a mirror attacking themselves to the point of ongoing destruction like that of the Ozian wicked witch, “I’m melting! I’m melting!”

         That would be pretty cool to see.

         But in reality they don’t do this. They simply pick out people who are the very opposite of themselves, starting with the Lord Jesus and extending to real Christians, and make a life of attempting to tear them down through unlimited accusation.

         It never worked against the Lord Jesus. In fact, it dovetailed with His plan of redemption. In further fact, accusation helps real Christians get better and grow in spiritual strength.

         It’s like living long before the age of modern weapons when warriors had only the crude implements of protection such as spears and arrows, and who went hunting the alpha male keystone predators—hunting the hunters—who went after powerful male lions who had been terrorizing their village. They found a way to attack and defeat the best and most ferocious hunters on the planet that no others had any chance against.

         This is exactly what the Lord Jesus did to the devil.

         It is exactly what He calls His people to do also.

         © 2015 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.

[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

THE PRESENCE OF THE DEVIL (1)