THE CAPTAIN OF THE HOST

Satan ensnares some believers because they fail to realize his power and to recognize his tactics. But others make the equally fatal mistake of overestimating his power and overemphasis his activities. He is mighty, but there is One infinitely mightier. He is powerful, but there is One who is all-powerful. He can and does attack us from without, but there is an omnipotent, triumphant One who can and does strengthen, sustain, and energize us from within. He is the One to whom all power has been given in heaven and upon earth. He is the Captain of our salvation, the Leader of God’s hosts.

1 John 4:4

“Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”

Matthew 28:18

“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”

Romans 8:37

“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”

Hebrews 2:10

“For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”

The believer should always look upon Satan as a defeated foe. The Captain of our host has already overcome him. Any power that he exercises today is only a permitted power that God may get greater glory to Himself through the victory gained by His child before a doubting world and that the Christian’s life in Christ may be deepened and strengthened. Satan was permitted through his human tools to stone Stephen to death, but through Stephen’s gloriously triumphant martyrdom, God won the crown jewel from Satan’s diadem, Saul of Tarsus. He was allowed through human instruments to put to death the Lord of glory, but in doing it, he sent himself to the bottomless pit.

That wicked one has no claim whatever upon one who is born of God, and he has no power to harm or hurt him. The believer who is hidden with Christ in God and who is one with his ascended Lord has the right to claim the perfect protection which that position provides and to reckon himself as a conqueror in Christ Jesus.

1 John 5:18

“We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.”

Romans 16:20

“And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.”

The Captain of the host never commanded the children of Israel to fight for a position of victory but to fight from a position of victory. In His reckoning, the battle was won before it was begun. Even before entering a battle, He invariably spoke in the past tense of the enemy’s deliverance into their hands.

Joshua 6:2-3

“And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valor. And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.”

Then why did they have to fight the battle at all? That through faith in their Captain and His Word, they might come to share His assurance of complete conquest over the enemy. While the walls of Jericho were still standing and the children of Israel were shut outside the gates, Joshua proclaimed to the people that their conquest of the city was an accomplished fact.

Joshua 6:16

“And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the LORD hath given you the city.”

The battle of the believer is that of faith from his position of accomplished victory over the evil one through his oneness with His ascended Lord.

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Praise You, Lord Jesus!! You are our Captain. The battle has already been won.