And 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 brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.”
Revelation 12:10
In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis clarifies the spiritual reality:
One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universe – a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the Power behind death, disease, and sin. The difference is that Christianity thinks this Dark Power was created by God, and was good when he was created, and went wrong. Christianity agrees … this is a universe at war.
The writer Frederick Buechner has a similar warning in A Sacred Journey: A Memoir of Early Days:
Reality can be harsh and you shut your eyes to it only at your peril because if you do not face up to the enemy in all his dark power, then the enemy will come up from behind some dark day and destroy you while you are facing the other way.
Most succinctly, John Eldredge warns in Waking the Dead: “To live in ignorance of spiritual warfare is the most naïve and dangerous thing we can do.”
One of Satan’s strategies is accusation. In fact, in Revelation 12:10 he is called “the accuser of our brothers.” Satan’s characteristic activity is to accuse us and condemn us. How many Christians have been totally defeated and discouraged because they listened to Satan’s accusations rather than listening to the voice of God saying to us: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1) and “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). How many Christians have cowered back in fear and guilt because they listened to Satan’s nefarious lies?
Don’t do it! Stand firm against the enemy. Stand firm in Christ’s strength and claim the promises of God’s Word. Christ’s grace is bigger than your sin. Rest in the grace of Christ Jesus – grace that is greater than all your sin.