1. Destined to overcome.

‘They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.’ ( Rev 12 : 11 )
God who knows the end from beginning, has declared the Church victorious over its arch enemy the devil. It definitely didn’t look like that to John who ‘was on the island Patmos because of the ‘word of God’ and the ‘testimony of Jesus.’ ( Rev 1 : 9 ) and it certainly doesn’t look like that to us either. But ‘the Revelation of Jesus Christ … to show his servants what must soon take place’, was intended to encourage the Church, because we get to know the outcome of the battle, even before it is over !
Everytime the nation of Israel went out to war in obedience to the word from God, they were invariably foretold the outcome of the war.
“This is what the Lord says to you: Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s … You will not have to fight this battle. Take your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem.” ( 2 Chron 20 : 15 – 17 )
So what they were supposed to do was to put on the armour and take their positions .
‘Therefore put on the full armour of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything to stand. Stand firm then …’ (Eph 6 : 13 – 14 )
Faith in the ‘blood of the lamb’ is the shield with which we can ‘extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one’ and the spoken ‘word of the testimony’ in our hearts about Christ is the ‘sword of the Spirit’ with which we can strike terror in the hearts of the enemy.
The Church is the only army on earth that is armed to fight the invisible realm and let us learn to wield our weapons. Let’s not forget that those who are in the frontiers of this fight against this pandemic are but human and they are already overwhelmed, trying to contain it in the physical. So let the Church battle it out in the spiritual, since ‘in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.’ ( Ro 8 : 37 ) Amen.