We have been able to see how the ‘signs’ of the ‘woman’ and the ‘dragon’ show us the spiritual background of the things that are happening on earth. The background for the chaos and tribulation on earth—the great struggle between what the Heavenly Jerusalem, the mother of us all, brings forth and what the powers of darkness attempt to set up in opposition to it. This is a struggle every Christian experiences in his personal life. When someone wants to come to the Lord, to give himself to Christ, to be born again, there are all kinds of ‘inexplicable’ forces that try to prevent him from doing so; an almost physical opposition, in the flesh of the body, but felt especially psychologically.
Pre-believers are discouraged from coming to faith because of arguments like:
‘Do not take that step! Think of all you have to give up! Are you also going to become a pious bigot?! Just look at all the things you will no longer be able and allowed to do! All your little pleasures will be past tense! And just look at those Christians: dutifully heading to church on Sunday, but don’t meet up with them during the week! They are hypocrites, and you want to be one of them?!’
And if a person makes the decision surrenders his heart and life to Christ then doubts and temptations may soon rain down: “What are you thinking of? You?! Did you think God would have you? Oh, you allowed yourself to be carried along in the emotion of the moment. Rubbish!” And then you no longer ‘feel’ anything, and you think: maybe it was just a one-off emotional experience. Help! I lost my faith! Because I do not ‘feel’ anything today! A person can easily mistake ‘feelings’ for ‘faith’. To make that point clear, just a nice story told by a Chinese Christian. There are three men walking on a very narrow wall. Their names are: Fact, Faith and Feeling. Only room for one at the time, to be followed by the next one and the last one. One after the other. ‘Fact’ is the leader, followed by ‘Faith’, and next comes ‘Feeling’. As long as Faith looks at Fact all is okay, and Feeling will follow. But when you put Feeling first, and then Faith, followed by Fact, all will tumble and fall. Or Faith first and then Fact and then Feeling? No, again they all will tumble and fall. The right order is: Believe the truth of the Word of God and the Facts about the cross and the resurrection of Jesus. Put your Faith in the facts. And then you will experience the Feelings of joy and happiness and peace in your mind and in your heart. So don’t worry if you do not ‘feel’ anything anymore! The Bible says in Romans 1:17:”… the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.” ‘Shall live by faith’, not necessarily by feelings! The devil can play our emotions like a piano. From very high notes to very low notes, back and forth! But faith looks at the facts and wonderful feelings will follow!
If you did take that most important step, if you did honestly take the decision to surrender all to Jesus, and if you did really pray that you want to become His child, to be saved for ever, He will not abandon what His hand has begun. Matthew 11:28-29 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Rest assured! You will soon start to notice that the new life is growing within you. Maybe you don’t feel that much in the beginning, but that will come! God’s grace cannot be stopped. In spite of the inner struggle between the forces of your old flesh and the life of the new birth within you. (Compare Paul’s struggle, and his solution: Romans 7:7-8:4) This will continue throughout your whole life, until you will finally be presented spotless among the assembly of the elect in eternal life in Heaven, as the old baptismal formula puts it so splendidly—clothed in shining white, robed with His righteousness. 1 Corinthians 1:30 (ESV) “And because of Him [Greek: from Him] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption”. Perfect in Him! By God’s doing, placing us in Him. Perfectly cloaked in Him!
From where do these whispers come, that try to bring doubt in your mind and your heart and that try to rob you from your Faith? Who are behind it? Who are those ‘stars’ that this verse speaks about, that were flung down to earth? We saw that ‘stars’ could be ministers, messengers.1 They were also called ‘angels’. Are they angels that Satan brought down with him when he fell, and which go out in the world as forces of evil? Daniel writes the same thing about the demonic anti-Christ, the little horn that becomes very great and that also has a third of the ‘stars’ at his disposal hitched to his bandwagon.2
• It is actually generally accepted that these ‘stars of Heaven’ are spiritual beings, angels—just like Satan. Satan wanted to set his throne above the stars, above the angels and, with outrageous ambition and pride, to take God’s place. To be equal with God. Read for Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:11-19.
• The fallen angels are also presented to us in the Bible as great powers behind the scenes of the world stage and as demonic powers in the lives of people.3
Bible References:
1.Revelation 1:20 2.Daniel 8:10 3.Psalm 78:49, Psalm 82; Job 1:6; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 6:11–12; 1 Timothy 3:7; 2 Timothy 2:26; Hebrews 2:14–18; 1 Peter 5:8–9; Revelation 2:10, 16:14; Isaiah 14:13–14
