Yeah.
Oh, Lord, You are our joy, our prize, our glory. Oh, we thank You. Oh, at the table, You have blessed us. Oh, Lord, so we enter into the ministry time. Lord, may You personally minister to us.
Our Lord, You are the Word of life. Oh, You speak and express God Himself. Lord, give us the spirit of wisdom and understanding that we may know You.
Oh, Lord, I cast myself into the shadow of the cross, the removal of the natural elements in me. Although I am just a vessel, oh, may You speak. Anoint Your words, anoint the hearts, anoint our ears. May the Spirit of the Holy Spirit move in our meeting, that all may be edified and built up.
Praise You and give You glory, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Let’s read the Gospel of John.
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of man be lifted up.
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
He also Himself likewise took part of the same;
that through death He might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.
The second half of this verse is the emphasis: that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.
And He saith unto them, Because of your little faith:
for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed,
ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place;
and it shall remove;
and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
According to my earnest expectation and hope,
that in nothing shall I be put to shame,
but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body,
whether by life, or by death.For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
The emphasis is on verse 21: “For to me, to live is Christ.” The emphasis is on to live. And, of course, to die is gain.
That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection,
and the fellowship of His sufferings,
becoming conformed unto His death.
Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein;
and he that rolleth a stone, it shall return upon him.
So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.
Then was the king’s wrath pacified.
This is David defeating Goliath.
And he took his staff in his hand,
and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook,
and put them in the shepherd’s bag which he had, even in his scrip;
and his sling was in his hand:
and he drew near to the Philistine.
And David put his hand in his bag,
and took thence a stone,
and slang it,
and smote the Philistine in his forehead;
and the stone sank into his forehead;
and he fell upon his face to the earth.
That is our Scripture reading.
The theme, or title, of today’s sharing and fellowship is “Experiencing the Destruction of Satan Through the Cross.”
The destruction is not a complete making of Satan non-existent, because we know he will be cast into the bottomless pit and then eventually into the lake of fire. But here, it is in the sense of making him powerless in our lives.
Destruction of Satan through the cross: as we read in Hebrews, the Lord Jesus died on the cross and destroyed him that had power, that is, the devil. So the devil may try to accuse us, but as long as we stand on the ground that I am already dead with Christ, it is like Satan is beating a dead horse. He could never get to us, as long as we stand on the ground of the cross. So the theme is to experience that.
Let us first take a look at our Lord Jesus’ course from heaven to earth, and then back to heaven. He came to this earth to die. His death on the cross destroyed the devil.
We just read that, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so shall the Son of man be lifted up. You know, a snake, even in general, when you smack it in the head, it kills it. Anatomically, it is because their nervous system is concentrated in the head. So you bruise the head, it kills the snake.
But other animals, even humans, sometimes you have a head injury and can still live. You have other nervous systems that can control the internal organs. But a snake—you bruise its head, and it dies.
That fulfills perhaps the first, or earliest, prophecy of our Lord Jesus being crucified on the cross and saving mankind. That is the verse in Genesis 3. You remember God said to the snake:
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman,
and between thy seed and her seed:
He shall bruise thy head,
and thou shalt bruise His heel.
Bruising the serpent’s head—that is the destruction of Satan.
Then, in the book of Numbers, Moses and the people were in the wilderness. The background of it, I am sure we know: he lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, and the people who were bitten looked at the serpent and were healed. That is a picture of our salvation.
The serpent that Moses made was made of brass. Brass symbolizes judgment. So all judgment was cast upon our Lord Jesus. He bore our sin. Where there is sin, God judges. And He took it all on the cross, nailed it there, and destroyed the devil.
So we thank the Lord. The first thing is the Lord’s death. He accomplished this great, wonderful work in destroying the devil.
Then He descended to the lower parts of the earth, in Hades. Certain things happened that we do not know, but from two passages in the Bible, we know a little bit.
The brothers have said that the forces of evil all tried to detain Him when He went to the bottom, when He went to the bowels of the earth, but He overcame.
In Matthew 12, there is a verse—you may remember it—that says, how else are you going to spoil a strong man’s goods and take his spoil, except you first bind the strong man? That is our Lord Jesus binding Satan in Hades and then taking the spoils: us.
And I was thinking—well, I was not there—but maybe I can put it this way: my name was written there originally, before being saved. My name was there. That was my destiny. But our Lord Jesus descended there, and in Ephesians it says He took captivity captive and ascended into heaven.
The first captive, that is us. He made us His captives. Formerly, before we were saved, we were captives of Satan. But He went to the lower parts of the earth and took us. He bound the strong man and took us to be His captives, and ascended into heaven. Our position is now in heaven. Praise the Lord.
Then He resurrected from the dead. God raised Him from the dead, and all power is given to Him.
Before He ascended into heaven, His disciples walked with Him to the Mount of Olives. He said to them, “Wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father.” That is, He would send the Holy Spirit, and they would be endued with power from on high.
Jesus also said in the Gospel of John, in chapters 14 and 15, a number of times that He would send the Comforter, that is, the Spirit of truth.
So there are two aspects of the Lord’s sending the Holy Spirit. Today, we already have the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost, that fulfilled Joel’s prophecy, saying:
I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all flesh;
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
That was at Pentecost, where we see the flames, like tongues of fire—that great power that gave birth to the church.
The Lord also promised to send the Comforter. In the context where He said that, it was, “I will not leave you orphans.” The disciples were troubled in heart when they heard that Jesus was going away. But He said, “I will send the Comforter, and He shall abide with you.”
So thank the Lord. There is that aspect of the power of the Holy Spirit when we need it, and also, every day, the Comforter is abiding in us. He is with us.
He said, “It is expedient for you that I go away, so that the Comforter may come.” If He did not go, in the flesh He could only be in one place. Yes, it was good in Bethany, in the house of Lazarus. It was very good, I am sure. But He could not be somewhere else at that time, in the flesh. Today, He can be in us everywhere, anytime.
So we have the Holy Spirit, who encapsulates the course of Christ: death, descent to the bottom of the earth, resurrection, ascension, and the coming of the Holy Spirit.
We talk about the experiencing of Christ. What book in the New Testament is more focused on that? Well, there is none other than the book of Philippians. It is all about experiencing Christ.
So the verse we read: Paul said, “For to me, to live is Christ.” To me, I feel if we want to have a full experience of all the things we just talked about in the course of Christ—especially the death and the destruction of Satan in our lives—we first need to have a mindset. It is a spiritual mindset: “For to me.”
Paul wrote that previously he was talking about how he was in bonds and imprisoned, and there were people envying him and giving him trouble. But his attitude he maintained was, “For to me.” Without having this committed mindset to the Lord, we could be shaken. I could fall out of the continuous experiencing of the Lord’s death.
There was a brother who served the Lord, who was gifted in evangelizing, and he had this mindset. All he did, day and night, was pray. He stood up in church, had gospel meetings, and preached the gospel. That was all that he focused on.
At the end of a month, there were about three hundred people who got baptized. But there was also envy among the other people. One person said to him, “Don’t try to do anything.” But he thought, “I am just serving the Lord.” So he kept the mindset of only focusing on the Lord, preaching the gospel, and saving souls.
There was another servant who, sadly, had a family that did not support him. The family said, “You do all that work for the Lord. What do the people do for you?” He did not keep that mindset and later stepped down from service.
So I feel Paul is a good example that we need to have this committed spiritual mindset: “For to me, to live is Christ.”
To live is Christ. In the original Greek, the order is like this: “Live, Christ.” There is no verb “is,” but grammatically, when it is placed like that, you can add the word equates in between to help understand: to live equates Christ.
Well, I think in humans we only have two modes: alive or dead. So, to live is Christ. He equates Christ. Wow.
There was a brother who shared that some brothers went to visit a factory. As they viewed the factory, after they were gone, one brother in the factory later said, “Jesus walked through the factory.” That is like that idea: to live equates Christ.
Another brother was praying fervently, and he prayed for quite a long time. At the end, he had this feeling—he shared with me—“I was praying, but at the end, it was Jesus praying in me.”
Those are good examples to follow. Jesus, right? To live is Christ.
We can go on a little bit deeper. If we also want to experience how He has destroyed the devil, where can we go today so that there is no devil vexing or disturbing us?
In John, Jesus said, “The prince of this world hath come, and he hath nothing in Me.” In Jesus, in Christ, that is the only place we can go where we will not be vexed by the devil. He has no footing, no claim, no power in Christ.
We also read Philippians 3: to know Him and the power of His resurrection. This goes deeper and is more powerful.
I kind of like to stick with the power-of-resurrection part when looking at the apostles in the book of Acts—how they could heal the lame, even their shadow could heal, and Paul was bitten by a snake and just shook it off. Yes, the Lord endues us with that kind of power. But I cannot just envy that or just want that.
Paul says the next thing: “and the fellowship of His sufferings.” When I read that part, I said, “Ah, it is suffering again.” But then I prayed, “I must adjust my attitude about this.”
So I thought, what was I before I was saved? I deserved to suffer. I was a rebel. I deserved to suffer.
And it is the fellowship of His sufferings. We can use the word share in His sufferings. Our Lord Jesus is willing to share His sufferings, or when we suffer, He suffers. He is able to endure. He gives grace when we suffer.
I am not even worthy to suffer with Him as a fallen man, a sinner. Originally, I was doomed for eternal damnation.
The apostles also said in the book of Acts, chapter 5, after they were beaten, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. So if it were not for the Lord’s grace, I am not even worthy to have this fellowship with His sufferings.
And then, to be conformed unto His death. “Conformable unto His death,” simply put, is to be formed together with Him. The Lord’s death has a manner, and we are formed to conform to His death.
This is important because the flesh is where Satan has ground. The Lord said to Peter, “Get thee behind Me, Satan.” So by my status, if I am in the spirit, then I am not Satan. If I fall into the flesh, then Satan.
How do I not remain in the state of the flesh, so that I am Satan? It is to be conformed to His death.
There is also reward that comes with experiencing Philippians 1 and 3. Just as an incidental note, Paul, in the next verse we did not read, said that I might attain to the resurrection from the dead. That is the better resurrection. It is a resurrection to reward.
Well, we can continue to look at some testimonies and examples in the Bible. The destruction of Satan is something we can experience, and I am sure many of us have experienced it on the day that we believed in Jesus.
There was a man, before he was saved—this is what he said about himself later on—who had five demons possessing him. Which five? The alcohol demon, the cigarette demon, the dancing demon—and you can broaden that to all kinds of entertainment to try to satisfy that vain feeling in him—the gambling demon, and lust.
He was married but had an extramarital affair. There were five demons. Imagine a man living like that: nonstop smoking, nonstop drinking, coming home abusive, being vexed by the devil all the time.
One day, he came to the Lord and believed. Later, he testified that from that day on, when he believed in Jesus, all five demons left him.
This was in the church life back in Taiwan. The church life was strong. He entered the church life and served with the saints there. When there was a gospel-preaching meeting, he would be invited to give his testimony of how he was saved by the Lord and how the five demons left him.
The victory at salvation, on the day of our salvation, is something we can experience and have experienced. The devil does flee. A lot of demonic spirits leave us on the day, as soon as we believe. We are translated into the kingdom of the Lord.
But as we progress and journey in the Lord’s way, we may find that there are still elements that are not so easy—still elements in us that belong to the devil and are not so easily cast out, because the flesh is still very much active.
The Old Testament gives us more detailed views of our flesh. You know, the Amalekites, Egyptians, and Philistines all typify different aspects of our flesh.
The Amalekites signify strength and fierceness; Egypt signifies the world; the Philistines signify being puffed up and the realm of darkness. They all typify the flesh.
So what we need, as we continue in the Lord’s way, is to experience the Lord’s death and resurrection daily. Take up the cross.
So we read from Samuel the example of David defeating Goliath. Where are death and resurrection in the part that we read concerning David slaying Goliath?
Well, as I read it again, I almost had to look for it. Of course, I prayed, and I feel that the verses we read have great significance to help us understand.
The smooth rocks. He took smooth rocks, or river rocks, out of the brook, out of the water. How did the rock get to that smoothness? Rocks by nature are jagged. They had to go through some process in order to be smooth. That process is abrasion.
Think of spiritual abrasion. We are stones, right? The Lord, He is the Rock. We are also living stones. In the Bible, the foundations of New Jerusalem are gems. They were not just made gems; they went through a process. Diamonds had to go through a process of heat and pressure.
River rocks had to go through the process of abrasion in the river. They bounced around; their jagged edges were worn down, and it takes time. So spiritual abrasion, I feel, is the cross.
Perhaps it could be a roommate. We are living with somebody; the Lord puts us to live with somebody. You know, just two people sharing a room—there is going to be friction. That friction, that abrasion, erodes our jagged edges.
I had somebody who was kind of noisy living in the room next door. That showed I had some jagged edges too. I knocked on the wall. I thought, “You were going to stop talking at 12:00 a.m.” I got upset and stuff. But we are all believers.
The next day, we apologized. And now, oh, I have to come to the Lord: “Lord, I should not have spoken so roughly and let myself come out.” Jagged edge, right?
Or even in a family, husband and wife. The husband sees the wife working on something, and he wants to help. But the way he comes across is, “You are not doing it right. Here, let me help you.”
Well, that first line—“You are not doing it right”—stimulates the wife. “I was not happy to hear that.” And, of course, then there is a reaction: “I did not ask for your help.”
Well, see, it is in these situations that the Lord puts us in that abrasion requires us to bear the cross, to have those rugged edges smoothed out. We certainly need it in the church.
So that is the smooth rocks. It is in the river, and it does take time. It is not just the same day we are saved. It takes time. It takes patience in learning to bear the cross.
He took the rocks out of the river. The river is also significant. We can experience that river, as it relates to abrasion, as death—like the River Jordan is death.
There is another aspect of the river that I feel is relevant: the Lord’s leading. Have you ever seen a straight river? I know that is kind of humorous. No, rivers are winding.
The Lord’s leading—if we consecrate ourselves to Him—we have a life journey to walk. The way He leads us is just like the way He led His people out of the land of Egypt. In the wilderness, it was not a straight line. It was winding and curvy, with lots of twists and turns.
When we come to a situation, a time when we feel uncomfortable and that environment is almost forcing us to move, forcing us to move on or to go somewhere else, that is an example of the river coming to a bend.
Ezekiel also experienced the Lord leading him deeper and deeper. First, when he was told to go out into the river a thousand cubits, the water was at his ankles. Then another thousand, the water was at his knees. Then it was at his waist. Then deeper and deeper, he could not walk in it anymore.
That is like the Lord’s leading in us: deeper and deeper, and lots of twists and turns.
It may be geographical. I could give a testimony of a brother who was led by the Lord out of China to the East Coast to study, then found a job on the West Coast in Seattle, and then moved to Southern California. But it was not done yet. Later, he moved to the Southern Hemisphere, to a little island with five hundred people. The Lord put him there to serve there.
It could be at the same spot, in changing jobs. We may be required, or led by the Lord, to do work that we did not study. We may have to do extra studying, be put in one employment, then another, and another. It is like that.
In Genesis, we see the example of Jacob. Jacob typifies the leading of the Holy Spirit. He was led to leave because of Esau’s anger. He went to his uncle’s place, and then his uncle’s countenance changed.
He got married there, more circumstances changed, he had children, and then his uncle’s countenance changed. He had to leave and had to go back to meet Esau. Then Joseph was lost, and later he went down to Egypt.
So the river experience also gets rid of our natural preferences. It requires it. When we come to a bend, we really need to bear the cross. “My old preferences—I do not want to move. I do not want change.” But the Lord’s leading does that to us.
The purpose is, of course, to get rid of ourselves through the cross.
It is also interesting how David took five rocks, five smooth rocks. The number five is also significant. The brothers ahead of us have already interpreted that to mean responsibility.
David, when the Lord spoke to him, “I am going to deliver Goliath into your hand,” what do you think went through his mind? He was going to go on the battlefield to face this giant. What if the Lord did not deliver him?
The five rocks signify that the Lord is responsible for his life, but on David’s part, he still had to have faith.
You know, spiritual people ahead of us can testify to this. The Lord is responsible, but they have to believe. If the Lord speaks to them to act on it, they believe the Lord’s word and, at all cost, proceed and do it.
Watchman Nee was one time called to go to a conference. He did not have any money—or I think, maybe you have heard this testimony, the Lord asked him to give some money to a brother. So he did not have any money to pay the fare for the boat, but he just left.
Along the way, there were miracle after miracle, and the Lord brought him to that final place to give the conference, and then also brought him back. There was even extra money left.
It takes faith at all costs. David believed at all costs to go onto the battlefield. What if he was killed? That young child facing Goliath, facing a giant—what shame would it bring to Israel? But he had faith, and he went on. He believed the Lord is responsible.
Brother Sparks also shared that one time he had some stomach issue. Usually, he listened to the doctor’s advice, but that time he had the Lord’s burden. We have to be clear: this is not just blindly doing it. We have to be very clear that it is from the Lord.
The doctor told him, “You have to be bedridden. You cannot get up, or else you will die.” But the Lord had given him a word and a burden to go and preach. So he said to the doctor, “Sorry, usually I will listen to you, but this time I cannot. God has a burden for me.”
So he got up and went, believing that the Lord is responsible for his life.
So that is the number five. In David’s experience, we have smooth rocks, a river, and five smooth rocks. But it only takes one.
That one hit Goliath in the head. It is bruising the head. Goliath signifies the devil: bruise the serpent’s head, bruise the devil, and he falls to the ground. Then David cuts off his head in complete victory.
We can also look at another example from Matthew 17, which we read: the mountain.
That chapter begins with the Mount of Transfiguration. Mountains in the New Testament often signify heaven, but they can also signify the evil realm.
In the Old Testament, as I kind of flipped through it, I saw some examples. Babylon was known as a destructive mountain. Look how quickly it came and took away Israel.
Mountain is also where the Amorites and the Anakim, the giants, dwell. It is a dwelling place of flesh. It is a blockade. Zechariah said, “Remove or level all mountains,” so the Lord can walk.
In that chapter, when the disciples and the Lord came down, there was a man whose son was vexed, or possessed by a devil. The epileptic son was tormented by the devil and cast into fire.
The disciples could not cast it out. So Jesus said, “It is because of your unbelief,” and, “This kind needeth fasting and prayer.”
The principle of fasting—what is fasting? It is our view that the Lord’s priority is above our own need. What does that take? The Lord immediately said after that that He would go to Jerusalem, be killed, and in three days be raised again.
He does not depart from the cross. So we do not even have faith of our own. A grain of mustard seed—we do not even have that. We need the Lord Himself to be our faith. Then we can say to the mountain, “Remove, be cast aside, be cast beyond this place.”
This type of mountain is quite strong. It is difficult. Perhaps we are praying for our loved ones to be saved. That is difficult. That takes time. But praise the Lord, we just heard that a brother prayed for his father for thirty years.
It does take faith, fasting, and earnest prayer for this type of devil to be removed.
I have been praying for my own walk with the Lord. I struggle. I have flesh. The work of the flesh, as in Galatians, is all in me: strife, envy, pride, anger, all those things.
Hudson Taylor, when he went to preach in China, struggled with some element in him that he could not overcome. So he wrote letters to his sister to pray for him. It is this kind—this kind is like a mountain. It is a realm of Satan, quite strong. It takes fasting and prayer to remove.
This church in Taiwan suffered a whirlwind of Pentecostalism. When Pentecostalism came, it took the saints like a whirlwind. All but two left.
But the brothers prayed so hard—fasting and prayer, that spiritual battle. In the end, all but two came back.
So we know, if we have faith—Jesus is our faith—to pray and say to this mountain, “Be removed,” it shall be removed.
The destruction of Satan: we can also see the Lord’s wisdom in it. I hope and pray that it encourages us even more when we see how the Lord’s wisdom was at work when He went to the cross and destroyed the devil.
We just read from Esther that verse: Haman was hung on the gallows that he had prepared. Proverbs says:
Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein;
and he that rolleth a stone, it shall return upon him.
Haman, the enemy of the Jews, was promoted by King Xerxes. But he hated Mordecai because Mordecai would not bow. So he devised a plan to destroy him and the Jews.
He made this gallows. The gallows typifies the cross. It was, in the Medo-Persian Empire, used as public execution. The cross was a Roman public-execution method. The gallows was made of wood; the cross was also made of wood. The victim hangs on the gallows. Christ was hung on the cross. The gallows typifies the cross.
Haman used all his efforts to destroy Mordecai and the Jews. I thank God, Queen Esther went to the king to make a petition.
You remember, in those days, if the king did not summon anyone to come to him, he or she would be killed. But he held out the scepter, so Esther could come before the king.
She pleaded to the king and revealed who was the person that wanted to destroy her people. She said, “It is that wicked Haman.” Haman became scared and pleaded for his life.
Then it was pointed out, “Look, Haman made a gallows.” The king ordered, “Hang Haman on the gallows.” That is the destruction of the devil, like that.
The Lord’s wisdom was at work. Haman’s plan backfired on him. It is a kind of ironic destruction of Haman.
We see a similar thing in Daniel. In the book of Daniel, at the time of King Darius, those rulers and presidents were jealous of Daniel. So they devised and conspired against him, to have the king sign a decree that no one could worship or pray to any other god for thirty days.
But Daniel prayed to the Lord. Those rulers and presidents brought this accusation to King Darius, and Darius was sad. He was troubled because he liked Daniel. But because of the decree, he put him in the lion’s den.
But overnight, the Lord protected Daniel because, in a sense, even Paul was taken out of the lion’s mouth. That is death and resurrection.
Then King Darius took Daniel out the next day. And what did he do? He gathered those who conspired against him and cast them, their wives, and their children into the lion’s den. They dug a pit, and they fell in it.
How about our Lord Jesus? In the Gospel of John, when it was time for the Lord to be crucified, He said, “The hour has come. Darkness reigns.”
If it were not for the Lord’s control—God is still almighty, God’s sovereignty is above the devil—if it were not for the Lord releasing that authority, He could not be killed. So He said, “Darkness reigns.” Then the devil went to work.
He went into Judas, who betrayed Him, and then into those high priests, the priests, the Roman soldiers, and the people.
He moved in them: “Away with Him! Away with Him!” Even Pilate asked, “What shall I do with this man? I find no fault in Him.” “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” See, the devil exerted all that effort.
Then they crucified Him on the cross. But that was also the destruction of Satan. The devil’s plan backfired on himself.
So we thank the Lord. Even the Lord’s wisdom was at work in His crucifixion and in the destruction of Satan.
So, as we conclude today’s sharing, I pray that we will move forward in the Lord’s journey, focusing on Him and His course. His course was one of crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension.
We are now endued with the power of the Holy Spirit. But it takes our willingness to experience that daily.
Then we shall witness—I am faithful and certain—the Lord can and will do great works among us. Praise the Lord. Let us pray.
Oh, Lord.
As we consider the path You took, how You accomplished so many things for us: You were in eternity past with the Father, enjoying the glory. Why did You come? Was it not because of Your love for us? We thank You, Lord, it was.
But You created us. It was us that fell and rebelled against You. Yet You came to die on our behalf, taking our sins and judgment and nailing them to the cross. At the same time, You destroyed the devil, the one who has power over death.
You have given us Your Spirit to abide with us, that we may experience You, O Lord, daily. Lord, put away the flesh and all the enemies, the elements of the enemy. You have rendered the devil powerless.
As long as we are abiding in You, thank You, Lord, we can abide in You. He has no place in You.
We pray, Lord, that You will lead us. Continue to lead Your people. Oh, Lord, edify us, and may the glory and honor be unto You. We give You praise in Jesus’ name. Amen.