Overview
The war between God and Satan centers on Jesus. It preceded Jesus' birth; survives his death, resurrection, ascension and enthronement; and persists in spite of Jesus and the Spirit's prayers for the saints. Why?
Eve and Adam's legacy, satanic principles of defiance, force, greed, selfishness and evil ambition, are universal. They promise hard to resist socio-economic, political, religious, etc. approval and rewards. Compliance means "yes" to those principles and "no" to God, God's word, and God's Spirit. It entangles and entrenches. Victims believe all the right things. But they can't stand for what they believe. They live inauthentic, ineffective.
God's answer, as always, is Jesus. Jesus faced the "yes" pressure from birth to ascension. But he resisted through a lifestyle of self-imposed weakness, love, prayer and the Spirit. The Conflict silhouettes believers' experience against Jesus' experience to focus believer-resistance; insisting, believers in Jesus can survive authentic and effective.
Wilson Awasu (Ph.D., Fuller Theological Seminary) is a missiologist, researcher of spiritism and spiritual formations, and a missionary training consultant. He is the author of Transformational Conversion, Fresh and Spicy (Antidote to Burnout), Family Likeness, and Kathy's Good News. He and his wife Anna live in Lakeville, Minnesota.
Synopsis
The war between God and Satan centers on Jesus. It preceded Jesus' birth; survives his death, resurrection, ascension and enthronement; and persists in spite of Jesus and the Spirit's prayers for the saints. Why?
Eve and Adam's legacy, satanic principles of defiance, force, greed, selfishness and evil ambition, are universal. They promise hard to resist socio-economic, political, religious, etc. approval and rewards. Compliance means "yes" to those principles and "no" to God, God's word, and God's Spirit. It entangles and entrenches. Victims believe all the right things. But they can't stand for what they believe. They live inauthentic, ineffective.
God's answer, as always, is Jesus. Jesus faced the "yes" pressure from birth to ascension. But he resisted through a lifestyle of self-imposed weakness, love, prayer and the Spirit. The Conflict silhouettes believers' experience against Jesus' experience to focus believer-resistance; insisting, believers in Jesus can survive authentic and effective.
Wilson Awasu (Ph.D., Fuller Theological Seminary) is a missiologist, researcher of spiritism and spiritual formations, and a missionary training consultant. He is the author of Transformational Conversion, Fresh and Spicy (Antidote to Burnout), Family Likeness, and Kathy's Good News. He and his wife Anna live in Lakeville, Minnesota.