For some time now, the import of John 10:4,5 has continued to unravel each time I am in His presence. The only true God, not mammon, will succeed in His glorious purpose for His stubborn people. The Lord our God calls us to a bold trust in His sole deity and sovereign ways, and an undistracted mental focus on who God is must be renewed, for:

1. the idolatrous culture of the world erodes clarity.
2. the natural thoughts of the human mind resist the truth about God, and
3. the record of God’s faithfulness in the past, declaring it. . . saying it. . . calling it to mind mandates each of us to a wholehearted trust in His unfailing word.

These assertions speak to God’s divine providence and such great sovereignty that believers must understand that Satan’s power has a boundary. This truth is evident in the life story of Job and Israel of old!

Over the next six sessions, we will delve more into the subject of the limits of Satan’s power, serialising extracts from Brother John Piper’s book titled PROVIDENCE. The objective is to have each believer know he is under cover and that the end of every situation that confronts, no matter how dire, the end is God’s victory. The reason to stay with God. David captured this in the phrase ‘wait patiently’ in several of the Psalms. It is not mere tautology but a reality and resolution for each of us.

John Piper wrote:

“Powers of Satan That Are Not Final or Decisive… the approach here is not to minimize the power and pervasive activity of Satan. Just the opposite. My strategy is to take seriously Satan’s power in different spheres and show how this power is not final and not decisive. In other words, while God has his reasons for why he permits Satan to exist and to pursue his evil path, he never has given, and never will give, to Satan any freedom that God himself does not restrain and decisively direct for his wise, just, and good purposes.”

Beloved, to follow are nine exposures of Satan’s ultimate powerlessness under God’s providence. Don’t miss any of these for you will need to imbibe this in the ensuing battle of the ages that is unravelling. Selah.



Pastor Afolabi Oladele