3/14/2018: This is a very common example of excising a portion of Scripture. It is very common to hear this scripture quotation from Revelation 12 as a prescription for solving one’s present problems.
“And they overcame him (devil) by means of the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.” The implication is “just plead the blood and say some Bible verses out loud” and you will win in spiritual warfare.
However the last line is never mentioned by TV pastors. The verse 11 goes on to say “for they did not love and cling to life even when faced death”. (Amplified Bible) This later sentence is discussing the death of self, our goals, our ambitions and our very being. In this sense, we do not matter when it comes to winning spiritual battles. We must be willing to sublimate our often preconceived ideas and ambitions to achieve the greater good of the Kingdom of God.
The enemy embraces this concept very readily, although not in the Biblical sense. In World War II, the Japanese had kamikaze pilots who sacrificed their life for the greater cause. Today we see the ISIS warriors and Muslim radicals doing the same thing for what they consider a greater purpose. It is very hard to defeat such tactics.
God wants us to embrace the same concept for Holy Spiritual warfare. We can invoke the benefit of the covering of the Blood of Jesus and quote scripture all we want, but until we are willing to fight to the death of self, not much will happen.