What has Satan been doing since he set up a kingdom of his own?  He has been busy recruiting subjects and mobilizing his forces for warfare. Today, he has innumerable Satanic hosts in the aerial heavens, on earth, and in the underworld.

The Bible speaks of “the devil and his angels.” It tells us some angels sinned.

Matthew 25:41

Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Jude 6

And the angels who did not keep their proper domain but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

As the “prince of demons” and “prince of the power of the air,” Satan rules a massive host of spirit beings in the aerial heavens. These “demons” or “evil spirits” who are employed in Satan’s service are probably the same ones who were under his authority when he was “the anointed cherub” and who followed him in his rebellion against God. The heavenlies are filled with these spiritual hosts of wickedness who are entirely organized and consist of principalities and powers over which are intelligent world rulers.

Satan’s seat, the headquarters of this vast organization, is above the earth, and the sphere of activity of this Satanic host is on the earth and in the atmosphere that surrounds it.

Revelation 2:13

I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. 

Matthew 8:16

When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick.

Ephesians 6:12

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

As “the prince of this world,” Satan is also ruler over a Satanic order on earth. The descendants of Satan’s seed are found not only among angels and demons but among men. The seed of the serpent can be traced from Genesis to Revelation. These men and women choose to live in self-will rather than in God’s will, refuse God’s sovereignty over their lives, and reject Jesus Christ as their Savior because of their pride and self-righteousness. Cain is the first one mentioned as the seed of the serpent.

1 John 3:12

not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.

The Lord Jesus did not hesitate to recognize the serpent’s brood in the self-willed, self-loving, Christ-hating, Christ-rejecting Pharisees of His day, and He called them by their rightful names.

Matthew 23:33

Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?

On one occasion, in speaking to those who rejected Him, He revealed their spiritual ancestry, the devil, and said they were subjects in His service.

John 8:44

You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.

Still, at another time, Jesus called the unsaved among men “the children of the wicked one.” They had asked for an explanation after He had told them the parable of the tares and the wheat.

Matthew 13:38

The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one.

God has innumerable hosts in Heaven, paradise, and earth as His subjects. The seed of God can also be traced from Genesis to Revelation. It includes all those who, from the beginning of human history, have been rescued from Satan’s kingdom and removed into God’s through faith in the atoning sacrifice of the Son. Abel was the first of these heroes of the faith.

Hebrews 11:4

By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.

Throughout the centuries, men continued to offer those “more excellent sacrifices” that required the shedding of blood, thus expressing their need for faith in the Savior who was to come.

Then the Savior came and made one sacrifice for sins by shedding His own blood. Since then, through the preaching of the Gospel, multitudes from out of all nations and peoples of the earth have renounced their citizenship in the kingdom of Satan and have become subjects in the Kingdom of God.

Colossians 1:13

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son

In addition to these vast multitudes of God’s subjects on earth are the innumerable hosts of angels in Heaven whose delight is in the unceasing worship of the Lamb that was slain.

Revelation 5:11-12

¹¹ Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,  ¹² saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!”

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

Gracious Lord, we continue to renounce our citizenship in the Kingdom of Satan and declare we are Your subjects in the Kingdom of God! To God be the Glory, Amen.

In Him,

Marion