"WAR IN HEAVEN - THE OUTCOME" By Don Krider God, we thank you that we have the invitation to come into the presence of the living God. We are desirous, above everything else, that the Holy Ghost of God will teach us the things of the Lord that will cause us not to hear with the natural, but Lord, to open up that spiritual ear to receive what you have for our spirit man. God, we are not people of darkness but of the light, and God, that light is in the Spirit. It is light that is life and I am asking You to bring it to us in the power and the might of Your Holy Spirit, in Jesus' mighty name! Amen! I want to bring you a topic that the Lord laid on my heart years ago. It's going to open a key to something we need to understand in Christ and when we understand this we will never be bound again. You see, the devil cannot bind you. "He whom the Son sets free is free, indeed" (John 8:36). It's us who bind ourselves. If we are going to move in the liberty of God we are going to have to know the word of God as it is written. Many times we read the word of God with natural eyes and try to get a natural understanding out of it, and all we get is fear. Maybe all we can see in Revelation is monsters and all kinds of horrible things, but I want to show you something. Rev. 1:1 The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto Him... It is God's revelation. Jesus was the messenger of that revelation. It is the revelation that God gave from the beginning to the end of time. It is a revelation that deals from the beginning until the close of the age. It is not something that is only to happen in our lifetime or in a late hour dispensation; it is things He said He would show to His servants, things which must shortly come. When did Jesus Christ receive this revelation? When did God give this to His Son? He gave it to Him before the foundation of the world. He gave Him this revelation, not after His resurrection, but He gave Him the revelation while He was with Him, while He was the Word, yet not made flesh. It was a revelation of all things that would come to pass. Ezekiel writes the same thing; Daniel declares the same thing; Isaiah declares the same thing. They got the same revelation from the same Spirit because God gave it to Jesus and Jesus showed it to His servant. Now let's look at Rev. 12:7-8 Rev. 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, (8) And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. This is after the man-child has been born; Satan tries to devour Him and is defeated. You see, from the beginning, the devil was the father of the lie. He had no power in the Garden; all he could do was deceive a woman called Eve. Now he knows that he can't win; he knows that the ballgame has been lost. He knows he has a short season. He knows that if he is going to get a crowd to go with him into the lake of fire he has to be busy deceiving. In the last days there will be lying signs and wonders. They have always been here. Someone said, "Brother Krider, how about the mark of the beast." They had the mark of the beast from back after Jesus was raised from the dead. When they began to persecute the Christians they could not buy nor sell without a mark. WAR IN HEAVEN DK All you have to do is to read history. They could not buy nor sell unless they had a mark of the church and it wasn't the church of the living Christ; it was the church of the Antichrist. The Lord is saying to us, "I want you to wake up and realize something: it is finished. There's nothing you can add to it. There's nothing you can do except conform to My plan and begin to move as I tell you to move. Begin to be directed as I tell you to be directed and bring the Gospel that will set men free. Introduce the Kingdom of God because I'm going to manifest it before long." Rev. 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, (8) And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. (9) And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (10) And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. (11) And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. After Peter had received the revelation that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus said to him, "Upon this rock...", upon this confession of faith, "...I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). Was He prophesying something He hoped would come to pass? Was He prophesying something that He hoped one day would work? NO! He was making a flat statement. He said, "I am going to build my church. Satan could not prevail in heaven and he will not prevail upon the earth." The gates of hell, the judgments of hell, shall not prevail against the church of the living God. It has already been established. Jesus spoke it; that settled it. Every time I preach on Revelation the crowd gets thinned out because the enemy doesn't want you to hear this. He begins to deceive God's people and says, "You better not go to church tonight; you have been gone four nights in a row now." I want to tell you something: Jesus Christ received the revelation from God, the Father, before He ever came to the earth. You were chosen in Him from before the foundation of the world. He brought a heavenly kingdom to man and said, "Adam, don't you realize something - the gates of hell can not, will not, shall not prevail." There's no maybe in it; there is no power in that which is defeated. He said that they fought with His angels and they prevailed not, and neither was their place found any more in heaven. There was a vacuum created now. Lucifer was the covering cherub (Ezek. 28:14,16). Ezekiel Chapter 28 and Isaiah 14:12 talk about Lucifer. Ezekiel 28 talks about the king of Tyrus, which is the old serpent, the devil. He said that their place was no longer there for them. There was no way back for the fallen angel; there was no way back for Satan to recapture the glory that he had with God. Let's look at Luke 10:17-20: Luke 10:17 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. (18) And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. (19) 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. (20) Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. WAR IN HEAVEN DK Before Jesus ever became a flesh body He was the Word (John 1:1), and when there was a war in Heaven He was there. He saw Michael and His holy angels fight against Satan and his ungodly devils. He saw that war and He saw Satan fall from Heaven as lightning. When he fell to the earth there could be no light any longer upon the earth. The earth became dark, and void, and without form. It had no purpose to exist because sin had come; rebellion had come. Everything God had made in that beginning creation fell into darkness. But one day God said, "Let there be light"! Hallelujah! That began the redemptive plan that would restore the creation back to its original state. There is a vacuum today in heaven and that vacuum now is to be filled with the Bride of Christ. I want you to notice something in verse 19. He said, "I give you power over all the power of them. I give you power to tread upon scorpions, upon serpents, and nothing shall harm (or hurt) you." Why? What happened when Lucifer fell? He knew that his dominion was threatened because there was a Godlike man in the garden. Only one thing he lacked: to be like God. He was in His image, but he lacked eternal life; and before he could get to the tree of eternal life, Satan had to devise some plan whereby he could thwart man.