The devil's realm is this world's scene and he is wrathful. We should not be surprised at this; he hates and persecutes the church, and we are told to expect this. "Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child" (Revelation 12:12-13). He is seeking to establish his own kingdom on earth, the kingdom of man without God, 666 (Revelation 13:1-4). His design and determination is to make war against the church. He is operating now (2 Thessalonians 2:7). There is always a sense of mystery regarding the fact and operations of evil, but they, he, are for real. Be warned, he roams the earth. He uses people in places of power in the state and in the church. If he can influence and control the state and the pulpit, he can control the nation. He takes hold of a Jeroboam and all of Israel is steeped in idolatry. He is ever seeking to poison the cistern of the church. If he can infiltrate the seminary, the Bible college, then he can defile the students, who in turn go out and defile the church.

Author Jimmy Hamilton was a member of Bethel Evangelical Free Church, in Stoke-On-Trent, Staffordshire. He was recognised and separated for the work of the gospel by the Church at Bethel in 1987. Jimmy is Presbyterian, Protestant and Reformed by persuasion. He spent eight years as a home missionary working with an evangelical missionary Society. He has ministered in Churches in Carlisle and Warrington and, until recently, was ministering to people in the Staffordshire Moorlands district from a church in the village of Fole, in Staffordshire. He now works as a freelance, itinerant missionary.