Revelation 12:10–11: “Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.'”

September 5th, 2022 by Pastor Ed in devotional

From this scene, and also from Job 1:6, we can conclude that Satan has been given at least some access to heaven and that his main activity there is accusation. It may be that he is constantly making accusations against believers before the throne of God. But even if he is, John tells us the martyrs prevailed and “overcome” him because of 3 things. The first thing that enabled them to prevail over Satan was the power of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The moment Jesus died on the cross, Satan’s time was limited. The second reason they overcame was because they were not ashamed of their testimony. They spoke their clear witness of Jesus during their life. And third they were not afraid to lose their life on this earth because of their faith. Satan has been stirring up accusations against the people of God down through every century, from Stephen in Acts, to the Circus of Rome, to the Inquisition, and on to this day; as accusation, imprisonment, and martyrdom continues in Iran, Egypt, China, Vietnam, India, and Pakistan.

Evangelist Leighton Ford wrote:

From boyhood, one of my favorite stories has been the forty martyrs of Sabaste. These forty soldiers, all Christians, were members of the famed Twelfth Legion of Rome’s imperial army. One day their captain told them Emperor Licinius had sent out an edict that all soldiers were to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods. These Christians replied, “You can have our armour and even our bodies, but our hearts’ allegiance belongs to Jesus Christ.”

It was midwinter of A.D. 320, and the captain had them marched onto a nearby frozen lake. He stripped them of their clothes and said they would either die or renounce Christ. Throughout the night these men huddled together singing their song, “Forty martyrs for Christ.” One by one the temperature took its toll and they fell to the ice.

At last there was only one man left. He lost courage and stumbled to the shore, where he renounced Christ. The officer of the guards had been watching all this. Unknown to the others, he had secretly come to believe in Christ. When he saw this last man break rank, he walked out onto the ice, threw off his clothes, and confessed that he also was a Christian. When the sun rose the next morning, there were forty bodies of soldiers who had fought to the death for Christ.¹

“LORD, we desire to overcome today by Your blood, our testimony, and the love of Your gift of life over anything this world has to offer.”

¹Leighton Ford, Good News is for Sharing (David C. Cook Publishing Co., 1977), p. 16.