“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 12:10-11).

Satan is the accuser who day and night wants to condemn you before God in the Courtroom of Heaven. Intentionally or unintentionally, as much as we try, we fail.  We fall short.  And the accusations come, one after another, as we miss the mark of God’s glory.

Yet, scripture says we are overcomers! The accusations, no matter how true, don’t condemn us.  How is this possible? Because our Father made provision for us.

Most importantly we are overcomers through the work of Jesus; the blood of the Lamb redeems us, it cleanses our conscience of dead works. The price of sin is death, but the blood of the Lamb takes away death and the enemy has no weapons against us.  That is God’s provision. But, what is our response?

According to this passage, our first response  is the “word of our testimony.” How we live dictates the victory over Satan. While our words are important, it is not what we say, not what happens on Sunday morning, but what we do that defeats the enemy.

And, our second response is if we “do not love our lives even faced with death.”

Six times in Scripture Jesus says in one form or another what He says in Matthew 16:24-26: “And He was saying to them all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?’”

The enemy, in his effort to condemn us, will use what is in our lives to distract us from is most important.  Satan will attack us in five different areas:

1. Physical existence – He will whisper into us the fear of sickness and dying.
2. Our prestige and success – He will distract us with man’s interest instead of God’s.
3. Our relationships – If Satan can convince us that our family or friends, or what our family and friends want or say, is more important than what God wants and says, he has multiple points of attack.
4. Possessions – “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24).
5. Purpose – If we make our lives about our passions and purpose then we are likely to miss the point. It’s about His purpose not ours.

How willing are we to “lose” in each of these areas?  What are we willing to give up?  Are we willing to trust our health and even our life to Him?  Are we willing to surrender what we would consider prestige and success to better serve? Are we willing to give up possessions or even a relationship because they don’t draw us closer to the Lord? Are we willing to let go of a dream?  Unless we are willing to set aside what we want and hope for in every area of our life Satan will use them to attack and eventually defeat us.  Victory lies in our willingness to lose.

Now remember, our Father is not a grouchy old man who withholds what we want to see how much we can take. Our loving, Heavenly Father gives good gifts!  But, He knows that if we love these things more than we love Him we are defeated. That’s why He says, “Love me at all cost.”

And, He also says that if you are willing to lose your life, that is when you will save it.  We are not sacrificing with no hope.  Instead we are sacrificing because we trust our Father.  We trust He will hold and keep the life we can only dream about. It’s a life that might or might not include the prestige, possessions, relationships, or purpose we would choose.  We don’t know.  But, that’s ok, because we want Him to choose, not us.  That’s the path of victory.  That’s the path to being an overcomer.

I don’t want to love anything more than I love Jesus. In all our ways let it end up in knowing Him, and in that place there is no defeat.

What do you need to “lose” or “give up” to return to Him? Rest assured if you surrender your all then you will begin to truly live.

If this rings true for you and you want to learn more, check out “The Overcoming Life” in the Dig Deeper section.

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