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Spiritual Warfare Series: The Supremacy of Christ!
by Nellie Shani The Apostle Paul, in trying to describe the Supremacy of Christ says, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:15-17). We cannot really do justice to the whole aspect of spiritual warfare until we begin to grasp who God really is. Where as the Bible tells us that God has no beginning and no end, the Bible gives us a very clear account of Satans beginning and his end, which will be in the lake of fire. And the devil who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, . . . they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever (Revelations 20:10). Growing up as a child, there was nothing I feared more than the devil. I had conjured up an image of this charcoal- black powerful and terrible being who had red eyes, sharp teeth, and a tail that was forked at the end. He probably would emerge out of the closet as soon as the lights were turned off. If the closet was too small then he could fit perfectly under my bed! As fate would have it, the bed that I shared with my younger sister was the closest to the closet. For that reason, I always pulled the covers over my head as I slept no matter how hot it was. I imagined that waking up in the middle of the night and looking into the eyes of such a creature would certainly have sucked my young life out of me! I grew up in a family where evening prayers were not a choice that the children were given. My two older sisters who were born-again -whatever that meant to my limited understanding-were the pioneers of this great crusade against the devil. As we prayed every night before going to bed, my greatest fear was that the devil would hear our prayers and come to attack us at night. I therefore tried to look as disinterested as I could with our evening devotions as my older sisters who were extremely fiery Christians in my estimation, yelled what seemed to me as insults to the devil and ended with In the powerful name of Jesus! I wanted the devil to know that I did not feel too strongly about our hatred for him. Per chance when he came into our bedroom at night, he would see me as partly on his side. I kind-of liked Jesus, but I felt that we should not be too enthusiastic about praying against the devil. The image I had of Jesus, was influenced by an old faded picture that I had seen on a wall at my aunts house, in which a gentle looking white woman was carrying a chubby pale-faced half naked baby. Around the woman and babys head was something round (halo) and I always wondered what that was. I certainly did not think that this helpless-looking chubby faced Caucasian baby I had seen on that picture was any match for the devil as I had seen him depicted! The fact that in the cartoons and movies that I had seen the evil character always overpowered and terrified even adults did not help in my over-estimation of him. When I became a Christian I did not stop fearing Satan. I did not read the word of God for myself and therefore had no facts to counter the image that I had construed in my young mind. Needless to say, my prayers basically consisted of begging God to please save me from the attacks of this vile creature. I also had to contend with the image of Satan that was coming out of Hollywood through movies. After watching horror movies from Hollywood that give the devil more power than he deserves, it is no wonder that many adults still view the devil today as I viewed him when I was a child. Unfortunately there are many Christians who still see Jesus as the beautiful, chubby, pale-faced Caucasian baby that we see depicted in many pictures of the Mother and child. They have not yet had the revelation that He is the Lion of Judah who is supreme over the powers of darkness. Nellie Odhuno Shani is a Counselor, Conference speaker and writer. Her first books are available on amazon.com, Barnes and Nobles and on her author's websites. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |