Often in our Christian walk we find people are opposed to us. They may ridicule us or ostracize us. They may thwart our plans and make our lives difficult. If we live in one of the countries where Christians are in a minority, they may do far worse, denying us employment or education, even throwing us into prison and killing us.

As we face that opposition, however mild or severe it may be, we need to understand that our primary problem is not the people, but the forces that lie behind them. Certainly, the people have a free will and have chosen to align themselves with those forces. But having made that choice, they are now captives. (What, you’ve never made a wrong choice in your life?)

What lies behind them is nothing less than the army of satan – an army which has its generals and commanders, and ranks right down to the lowest private (demon). This army is highly organized, mercilessly disciplined, and bent on just one thing: world domination. In the effort to achieve that end, its forces will manipulate and maneuver the people who are available to it to attack the people of God in every possible way.

The closer we get to the return of Jesus, the more active the forces of satan are in the world. I see it as I read the news from the persecuted church: more Christians are suffering torture, imprisonment and death for their faith today than have at any other time in church history.

If we try only to deal with the human side of the equation, we are only putting Band-aids on a cancer. The truth is, Jesus Christ defeated satan at the Cross. Satan continues to get away with his attack on God’s people only because we are silly enough to waste our time battling with people, instead of standing in the victory that Jesus has already won for us, taking up the Sword of the Spirit, and tearing down the demonic strongholds that are our real opponents.

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There is one God, and one mediator between God and people, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5)in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9)and Whom God the Father has exalted to the highest place, giving Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)