Our Victory Story

God is always good.  And He always leads to the right passages at the right time.

Luke 10.
Jesus sends out His disciples for the necessary work of evangelizing.  Seventy-two, in addition to the 12, were commissioned in pairs into all the towns that Jesus would be visiting.  The assignment was precise, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few.  So, pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask Him to send more workers into His fields.  Go, and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves.”  (verses 2 and 3)

Jesus continues on with specific instructions concerning the order to “go”, all reflecting the importance and critical nature of the entrusted work.

When the disciples returned, they joyfully reported to Him, and were thrilled to say, “Lord, even the demons obey us when we use Your name!”  (verse 17)

And when I saw the verse that followed, I was struck.  The Lord responds to them by saying this, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightening!”  And when I read the words in red, hope began to rise within me.

The tense of the first Greek verb “beheld”, which is found to be one used in the KJV (“I beheld Satan as lightning fell from heaven.”),  implies continuous action.  The proper print should read, “I was beholding Satan as he fell.”

And this changes the game.

While the disciples were working in their fields with an intense assignment, their Master had been following them in spirit, monitoring each step of their victorious efforts in the face of uncharted conflict.  They had, indeed, “never been this way before” (see Josh 3:4), but all the while they had an onlooking Father who was chaperoning their success.

For me, this served as a beautiful picture of a good Father, who in His kindness, teaches, releases, and oversees.  The success that the disciples were having over the enemy was the beginning of a final conquest over the prince of darkness.  Ahh… and it’s just like our God to use His beloved ones to co-labor with Him here in the earth!

It was as if Jesus was saying to His students, “I have been following you around and I have seen you working on Mine and My Father’s behalf.  And as I was watching, I have been a witness to the triumphant victories.. the ‘work you did in My name’ was beautiful to watch, and as you were concerned about the struggle, I was focused on the advantage this was having for you, and the improvement it was producing within you.  I had you in my view the entire time, and  I was beholding Satan.  As you rose, he fell!”

The commission was important because Jesus was traversing upon His final journey to Jerusalem, and the people who resided in these places that He was to visit for the final time, needed desperately to be readied to receive Him.  These disciples, who served as “forerunners” to Jesus Himself, had been tasked with the kingdom announcement that salvation had come (see 2 Cor 6:2, “today is the day of salvation.”)

And I believe it with all that is within me, in these uncertain times, we have a Master who is keeping watch.  While we’re working.. He is following us in spirit, gazing upon each step of our victorious conflict.

He is watching over all of it. 
He sees the evil.  He sees the devastation, fear, and panic.
And He’s keeping a close eye upon His children.
He knows the hearts of His servants, and He is diligently overseeing the good use we’re making of these challenging times by “staying on Him.” (Isaiah 26:3)

This is an invitation for all believers everywhere to enlist ourselves in the work of Jesus this side of eternity. 
This is an opportunity to demonstrate the power of our good God in “the land of the living” while there is still time.  (Heb 3:15)
This is an appeal straight from the heart of the Father to engage with His purposes in the earth while it still “today.”  (Heb 3:13)

And while we are working… He is watching.  Our Master is following our footsteps as we charge into battle proclaiming the Gospel message in His name.  And while observing our steps of victory that are bringing destruction of our enemy… “crushing Satan under our feet” (Rom 16:20)… He is celebrating His finished work in us.  Many professing Christians stop short of the cross.  And this… THIS… is victorious living PAST the cross!

In these trying days, we must commit ourselves to outwardly demonstrate the victory of JESUS in our lives.  As the song lyrics say, “I raise a hallelujah… in the presence of my enemy.”  It is my story of victory in the midst of painful circumstances that annihilates his intended purpose of destruction.

And so I ask myself the question and pose it to you today too: Is our victory story making evident the fall of Satan?

May it be said of us, “I saw Satan fall like lightening.”