Satan has never been able to condemn my conscience. He cannot make me feel bad about anything. He cannot cripple my ability to fellowship with God or to receive from God due to guilty and unworthy feelings. It is easy to overcome the accusations of Satan when we see the truth.
The first key to the whole thing is to admit your sins. Why is that so difficult, unless you have a stubborn pride in your heart so that you wish to think of yourself as perfect? Oh, that possibility was long gone. You are not perfect. You have committed many sins. Just admit everything. Admit your sins before Satan has the chance to say anything. He does not even talk to me about my sins, because he cannot tell me anything that I do not know about them, and he cannot point out anything that I have not already admitted before God.
Many people appear to grasp this first thing, but then they stumble over the second thing. This second key is just as important as the first, and if you stumble over this second one, it is doubtful that you truly understand the first one. This second thing is to affirm that God has made you righteous in Christ Jesus. There are those who claim to affirm this point, but they keep holding on to their own sins, as if they have not confessed them and abandoned them.
They insist that they are still sinners more than they affirm that they are righteous in Christ. They think that they are being humble and honest when they do this, but the truth is that they have never given up on being righteous in themselves, and they do not have their trust in the righteousness of Christ. If you depend on the righteousness of Christ that has been applied to your account, then when it comes to your standing before God and your boldness before Satan, your own righteousness is irrelevant.
To illustrate, once I trust in the name of Jesus to cast out demons, the merit in my own name has become irrelevant. When you wield the authority of Chris to cast out demons, it would be absurd, and totally stupid and laughable, to speak both the name of Jesus and your own name when you confront the evil spirits. What would we say about someone who does this? Imagine if you see Tommy Jones declare before a demon, “I command you to come out in the name of Tommy Jones and in the name of Jesus Christ.” You would think that he is so full of religious pride that he has become delusional.
And this is what we should think about someone who keeps calling himself a sinner, while claiming to trust in the righteousness of Christ. He is self-centered and arrogant to the point of becoming delusional. This person makes himself vulnerable to Satan, because he still thinks that his own righteousness is relevant. Of course, we continue to pursue holiness in obedience to the teachings and examples of Christ, but that has nothing to do with my status before God, before the world, or before Satan.
As much as I am confident that Jesus Christ is accepted before God, I am to the same degree confident that I am accepted before God, because I am accepted in Christ. It would be absurd to think that God accepts Christ, but rejects his lungs or his legs, or that his fingers must earn their own acceptance. Christ is one, and I am one with Christ by faith. If God accepts Christ, then God accepts me, because there is no difference.
Satan cannot touch my conscience, because my conscience is pegged to the righteousness of Christ and not my own righteousness, and Satan cannot accuse Christ of sin or failure. For the same reason, I have no unruly thoughts that can disturb my conscience, because there is no fault in Christ. You say, “But haven’t you sinned? And haven’t you failed?” I admit everything, and I feel no difference. If you wish, I can even admit things that I have not done, and it still makes no difference. My conscience is not moved by any accusation, whether true or false, whether sincere or manipulative, because my conscience is not pegged to my performance. I have an invincible peace, because no one can destroy the righteousness of Christ.
Think on these things. Put down your pride and admit your sins. Give up on attaining perfection by your own power. Don’t pretend to give up but harbor some lingering hope about it. Throw out your own righteousness, and along with that, your pride, and you will no longer be vulnerable to the attacks of Satan, or to the religious traditions of men, which come from Satan. Put on the righteousness of Christ. Wear it like clothing. Trust in it like armor. By grace and through faith, God has applied this perfect righteousness to your account.
The righteousness of Christ will change your feelings. It will upgrade your speech. It will move you to action. Suppose a multibillionaire decides to share his wealth with you and promises to never take it away. It will change your feelings. You will feel rich just as if you have billions of dollars. Although the money does not originate with you or directly belong to you, in effect you indeed have billions of dollars. It will upgrade your speech. Before this, you might say, “I cannot afford this.” Now you say, “This is nothing. I can easily afford this.” It will upgrade your perspective. Before this, you might exclaim, “I cannot pay for this with five years of my wages.” Now you say, “This is so cheap that it is as good as free.” It will move you to action. You will make plans. You will buy things. You will help people.
In fact, once this multibillionaire shares his wealth with you, it would be unnatural for you to feel, to talk, and to behave like before. If you remain unchanged, and if you still feel poor, talk poor, and act poor, it would mean that you have no faith in the billionaire or that you have lost all sense of reality, so that you would remain like a poor person when you have access to billions of dollars. When your sense of wealth is pegged to someone else’s billions of dollars, you will feel rich, talk rich, and act rich. Your feelings correspond to the other person’s wealth, not your own. Likewise, when you abandon your own righteousness and walk in the righteousness of Christ, you will feel perfect, talk big, and act bold. If you do not, then you are still walking in your own righteousness. This is not humility. It is a sure sign of religious pride and unbelief.
Once you have admitted your sins, and once you have acknowledged the righteousness of Christ, move on to the third phase, and that is to get on the offensive. Establish yourself in the righteousness of Christ, and then go on to attack Satan and religious traditions, the doctrines of men and demons.
Satan might whisper to your mind, “You are not good enough to receive healing from God.” Laugh in his face and say, “Hey, when did you find that out? Of course I am not good enough in myself, and I have never been good enough to get anything from God. But I have not thought about that for years! I have admitted this a long time ago and gave up on myself. I have put off the righteousness of man, and I have put on the righteousness of Christ. And he is good enough to get anything he asks from God. I stand on a righteousness that is good enough to get anything I ask.”
As Satan turns to leave, arrest him for a moment and say, “Wait a minute, though. What about you? You are literally the devil, and you are telling me I am not good enough? Look at yourself! You are much worse! Good enough, you say? You are the worst of the worst. You are not good enough to talk to me even before I was saved by Christ. Now that I walk in the righteousness of Christ, you are as far below me as you are below the Son of God. I cast you out in the name of Jesus. Don’t even dare to look in my direction.” Have you considered this? Satan accuses people to God and to themselves, but he is worse than all of them.
Say to Satan, “You are stupid, aren’t you? If I am not good enough to receive healing, you are not good enough to tell me this either. If I am not good enough to expect God to answer my prayer, you are not good enough to accuse me of anything, because you are much worse. Satan, you who accuse the people of God, I will accuse you! I have Jesus Christ the Son of God as my champion and my righteousness. What do you have? You have nothing. You are nothing. You are not good enough to stand in my presence.” If you have faith in Jesus, then you are good enough, because Jesus is good enough. He is good enough for anything. Faith is worthy, because faith is not a product of man, but a gift from God.
What if a man says that he is unworthy, and therefore he never prays and he never reads the Scripture? Even when an opportunity presents itself to explain the gospel, he refuses because he claims he is unworthy. We would not praise him or think that he is humble. We would call him wicked and rebellious. He uses self-deprecation as a tactic to persist in his carnality and disobedience.
The same applies to healing the sick and performing miracles. The faithless theology of historic tradition whines, “We are not apostles. We are not special.” They say this to excuse their unbelief and rebellion. The Faithless trust in themselves, and since they are the trash of humanity, no wonder they cannot heal the sick and speak in tongues. They try to spin this as orthodoxy and humility, but we are not deceived.
The faithless theology of counterfeit orthodoxy and cessationism produces a false sense of guilt that is based on religious pride and self-centeredness. It is Satan’s weapon to dull your effectiveness and to destroy your courage for life and ministry. The Bible says that the blood of Jesus removes the consciousness of sin, but faithless theology preserves the consciousness of sin on purpose as a function of humility and holiness. Wake up. Stay alert. Faithless religion is a trap and a scam. The orthodoxy of tradition and history routinely contradicts the orthodoxy of God and revelation.
The Faithless preach a message that echoes the accusations of Satan. They are the voice of the devil. Their zealots and scholars are his servants. Their sermons and creeds are his propaganda. Their churches and seminaries are his strongholds. They think that they are pious for insisting that they are forever sinners. But if they are, then they have never been saved. They do not believe in Jesus Christ, and they will burn in hell. And since they do not stand with Christ, then they are not good enough to stand with us. Because they are in the same position as Satan, they are not good enough to stand before the righteousness of God. We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. We will cast out the Faithless just like we cast out Satan and the demons of hell.
The righteousness of Christ has the authority to heal the sick and cast out demons, and to work miracles. Christ is greater than all the apostles combined, and they had to depend on him to work miracles. But the righteousness of Christ has been applied to our account. Every step we take, we depend on the righteousness of Christ. If he can do miracles, then I can do miracles.
Healing is not earned, and it cannot be earned. The law was given to show that men cannot earn their position with God, and cannot earn the blessing of God. Even in attempting it, they earned themselves the curse instead. But Jesus suffered in our place, and he carried all of the curse. By faith we are free, we are healed, and we are perfected in him. There is no curse for us. We rest in the work of Christ, by faith.
Do not let Satan suggest that you cannot receive healing because you are not good enough. Do not let him suggest that you cannot minister healing to others because you are not good enough, or not holy enough, or that you have not been called into a special ministry. No one is good enough, and no one is special in himself, but there is forgiveness and the gift of righteousness for anyone who looks to Jesus Christ. There is a high calling for every one of us in him.