God’s Devil - Part 1: Satan

It is likely that I will not tell you anything today you may not already know but I am sure it is helpful for each of us to renew our minds about the one who is our enemy forever as we seek the will of the Lord, and seek to implement His purpose for our lives.

We know only a little concerning the beginnings of Satan. 

Regardless of what else we learn about him, it is important that we never forget he is NOT God. He is a created being. He is not self existent and he owes his very life to the Lord of all.

Scripture teaches us in Isaiah 14:12-15 that he was one of the high angels of creation, given the name Lucifer, meaning “bringer of light”, which is interesting in that he has forever worked toward darkness.

“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How are thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations!

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”

We see immediately from the teaching of Isaiah the sin of pride that brought Satan down from glory to his new home in Hell.

Jude 1:9 teaches us of the level to which his pride and arrogance rose when the archangel Michael had to contend with him for the body of Moses.

Three verses before 1:9 we see the fact that angels who kept not their first estate have been reserved to everlasting chains under darkness.

We know that Satan was in the garden with our first parents.

We also know that after the 6th day, God looked at all he had made, which now included man as a living soul, and considered it very good.

We also know that the creation on earth was not the first creation work by God. In God’s challenge to Job exposing Job’s ignorance, scripture teaches in Job 38:4-6, God asks Job where he was when God laid the cornerstone of the foundation of the earth? God also tells Job that at the moment of the foundation, the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.

The angels were there when the creation of material things began. 

But Jesus himself taught us in Luke 10:18 that he saw Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Peter confirmed in 2nd Peter 2:4 that angels were cast down to hell, and not spared by God.

So Paul tells us in 2nd Cor 4:4 that he became the god of this world, and most of the 6th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians teaches us what is necessary to stand against him.

Paul was well aware of the work of Satan as he reminded us in 2nd Cor 12:7 when he taught us that his thorn in the side was a messenger from Satan. 

Paul also provided the ultimate penalty to those who had fallen away from faith in 1 Timothy 1:19-20 by delivering them unto Satan.

To complete the table setting of what Satan is, we must never forget that his choice to rebel against God was permitted. Just as God, whose hand is mightier than all things, allowed Lucifer to choose rebellion and removal from glory above just as he allowed Eve & Adam to choose rebellion and removal from glory below.

Now we come to the first point concerning Satan that is of major importance. Satan cannot force you or I to do anything. His only power over us is to tempt us to step away from the Lord’s path with those things we desire and the choice we make is all ours, not his.

Remember that temptation is not sin. Yielding is!

Satan never comes to us empty handed.

He always brings something in his hand to offer us.

He studies our hunger and presents the most alluring food.

Do you want riches? He shows you easy money.

Do you want power & position? He shows you kingdoms.

Do you want success? He shows you shortcuts of evil.

Do you long for happiness? He convinces you that he can provide it. But it is not free.

Do you lust? He will bring willing women into your life to destroy your marriage. He will show you the shortest path between the sin of the eye to the sin of the flesh. What a navigator he is.

Just as he took Jesus in an instant to the top of the temple, he will take you in an instant from looking at someone you know you should not be looking at to doing something you know you should not do.

Remember God who cast him out could have locked him in hell but rather chose to allow him to walk free on the earth (as Satan clearly says in Job, chapter one). All Satan does is under the permissive will of the Lord. 

He works very well within the battlefield granted him.

Satan’s work is quite easy to explain:

1. He wishes to withhold from God souls yet unsaved by any means possible.

2. He wishes to bring misery and defeat to those who have given their soul to Christ by accepting His salvation. 

Satan uses temptation as his primary weapon against us and its sharpest point is his instigation toward evil. 

Here is his essence. He knows what we want and he promises it to us, and in most cases he can deliver it as well.

But no matter what the offer made, it can only be implemented if we freely choose it.

Now we come to the meat of the matter.

How does Satan specifically work against us?

Temptation is universal.

He tempts every man. There are no exceptions. While there are billions of people on earth, it seems as if he has time to tempt all people all the time. His power and speed of action is far greater than we can imagine.

Temptation is life long.

Matthew 24:43 warns us that he comes as a thief when we least expect it. He never tires and he never wavers in his efforts to disrupt our devotion to God. Spiritual warfare is a commitment for every hour and every day of life. He tempted Jesus. He tempted the apostles. He will tempt us without end. 

Job 7:18 teaches that “… The life of man on earth is a trial of every moment.”

Temptation is shrewd.

Satan brought ruin to the perfect garden with the power of his deception. While he did not directly confront God, he brought doubt into the mind of our first parent by questioning what God had actually said and twisted it to accomplish his evil goal. 

He is the master of lies. In John 8:44 Jesus said” … he abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him”.

How does he work against us today?

We should carefully remember that Satan is no beginner. He has practiced his craft upon a savior, his disciples, every prophet and David, God’s chosen one for king of Israel, as well as every saint who ever lived, every pastor, and all those have devoted themselves to the Lord since Jesus brought His gospel.

Satan delights in difficult prey. The easy prey he assigns to his lesser demons. 

His work against us is a masterpiece of intelligent lies, calculations, deceptions, and fierce & deadly planning.

Remember he can disguise himself as an angel of light. His initial bait will always appear good. The satanic trap will not use that which appears evil or we would not choose it.

The filthy part of our choice will arrive shortly thereafter.

Rendering sin beautiful is the supreme art of the great deceiver.

In that beauty we seem always deaf to the hissing of the serpent.

Satan’s toolbox:

Ignorance – Satan’s greatest victory comes when he convinces most of us that he does not exist. Statistics have long shown that most people do not believe he is real and at work among us.

Our free will – He must overcome our ability to say NO by making the effort look so tempting that we freely choose it. Our defeat does not come later when the sin is revealed but comes immediately as we realize what we have longed for is available and our weakness changes the NO of our heart to the YES of our lips.

Every victory over Satan, no matter how small, makes us stronger in spirit. Every defeat, no matter how small, makes us weaker in spirit.

Neglect of prayer – Satan attacks from the first thought in our morning and if our first thoughts are not prayerful, the door is quickly opened to him.

If we neglect our prayer life, or if we diminish it, we are open to his attack and are basically making his job easier. This neglect also removes us from the only direct assistance we have available to us, calling upon God for strength in the trial through the communion of prayer.

Attachment to material things – This area is one of Satan’s finest attacks in our society. We have become a society filled with love for our possessions. In many cases we have replaced the Lord with the god of consumption. Our appetites are seldom satisfied. We want bigger homes, bigger cars, more money, higher status, finer clothes, $200 shoes for our children to play in, and always the latest gadgets silicon valley offers us.

Many of us have been convinced that the peace of God promised to those that love him in obedience can be replaced by peace found in a bottle or a pill or something else that distorts reality. All who go down that road one day understand that it is false peace brought by a false but convincing lie.

Satan finds easy going in these areas as he can provide all these things that we think are so important if we will only allow them to be above our love for the Lord in our lives. 

Jesus told us in Matthew 6:24 that we cannot serve God and mammon.

Worry & anxiety (burden bearing) – Satan knows how to attack us with smaller weapons if he feels he cannot prevail quickly. He will bring burdens into our lives and send worry into our minds to deprive us of the joy and peace we have in Christ. He works on our psychological level over time to darken our trust in the Lord. He will make us question whether the Lord is still with us if problems arise.

He creates financial worry to distract us and to test our resolve. We see this everywhere today.

Discouragement – From worry flows discouragement, weariness, and then weakness toward sin as Satan brings what we see as answers to our problems. 

Remember his son will appear to have the answers to all the world’s problems in the time of tribulation and he learns this lesson from his evil father.

Dropping of the guard – as all these personal issues arise and fester, we drop our guard against the most evil one. We forget the gifts of God, and all His blessings, and begin to listen more to the dark side of what appears answers that we need. 

What we really need is to renew our strength in God through repentance, confession, and devoted prayer but we no longer see those things as solutions.

THE ATTACK HAS FOUND SUCCESS WITHIN US.

As Peter said to us, “Knowing these things how should we live?”

How do we gain victory over Satan?

First we must remember that He that is in us is far more powerful that he who is in the world. 

We are not given the power necessary ourselves. Victory, like all other blessings, comes from above.

Second, we should renew our understanding of James 4:7 which teaches us if we FIRST submit ourselves to God, then we can resist the devil and he will flee from us. 

Submission must precede victory.

We must openly and sincerely confess our sin and beg forgiveness so that the our sins will no longer hide His face from us and He will hear our prayer. (Is 59:2)

Third we must renew our foundation in the Lord. His foundation has not wavered while we wandered, and now we must once more rest the fortress of our faith on his strong foundation.

Fourth & finally – 

We must change the locks on our hearts back to the original lock that was keyed to Christ when we were first saved. That key was designed to make us one with Him. 

John 17:11 says:

“… Holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are.

Oneness with Jesus is the master key given us for victory over Satan and all his evil works.

MAY GOD BLESS US AS WE FIGHT THIS SPIRITUAL WARFARE.

God’s Devil - Part 2: The Devil’s Place

Our study will be guided by the necessary fact that we need to come to a much better understanding of the spiritual adversary we know as Satan. We will study his beginnings, his interference into human life as well as his constant effort to deter the birth and growth of the Gospel. But prior to beginning our study in depth, we must take an initial time to prepare ourselves for the next portions of this study by considering what is the true place Satan occupies within creation.

Lucifer, his original name meaning “bearer of light”, was the most beautiful angel created. His position was among the top levels of God's kingdom until iniquity was found within him and he led a rebellion against God within heaven. This moment of his sinful rebellion was also his moment of defeat. Any power he would exercise after this moment would always be subject to God's will and decree. From eternity past, he has moment by moment suffered the humiliation of knowing that he could never be the master of his own existence or power.

We should boldly understand that whatever mischief Satan is allowed to do, it is always appointed by God for the ultimate service and benefit of the saints who are the Lord's children. Our Lord's eye is ever upon him. After his first moment of disobedience, his failure and final doom were sealed. At the cross he was defeated spiritually, for there Christ was guaranteeing that at least a part of fallen humanity would be purchased out from the kingdom of darkness to share in eternity the kingdom of light. He will be defeated eternally when he is thrown into the lake of fire for at that moment he will be forever given over to eternal torment which will be known by all who belong to God, and his pain will be endless.

It has been said that those who are born again take the devil seriously. We, as believers, must take him seriously, very seriously. Any distortions as to whether he is real that creep into our thinking will play directly into his hand and desire. It has also been said that his greatest victory has already been won as most modern believers are unsure that he actually exists. A portion of those who do accept his existence hold a more dangerous thought that he can act independently of God and that God only becomes involved in what Satan does when we, in prayer, ask Him to do so.

We should take note and be reminded of Martin Luther's teaching that the

“devil is God's devil”. Blessed are those who are convinced that this prince of this world has become the slave of the Prince of Peace.  

Our study will give an overview of the career of Satan and his dealings with the Almighty.

We will trace his fall from an exalted position to his defeat by Christ and to his ultimate shame and final contempt. We will focus again upon the fact that we who have been translated from darkness into light are able to stand against him.

Our first premise is that God has absolute sovereignty within His universe.

This means that even evil is a part of the larger plan of God.

We should be convinced that unless we grasp how the devil fits into God's scheme of things, we will find it far more difficult to stand against the conspiracy waged against us personally and his growing influence in our culture. Only when we stand in awe of God will be understand that it is unnecessary to stand in awe of the devil. The greater our God, the smaller our devil. We do not have to wait until we see him cast into the lake of fire to rejoice in his defeat. Satan gets more power as we give it to him. 

Satan is exactly as strong as we believe him to be. Because the chosen people believed that Jericho was unconquerable, it was. The citizens of Jericho saw it differently. They were afraid of the chosen people and puzzled why it took forty years for them to come against their city. Joshua and Caleb knew that God had removed His protection of Jericho as we are taught in Numbers 14:9. It was not the strength of the city but it was the unbelief of the chosen people that postponed the victory. If we believe Satan is invincible, he will conform to that expectation. That is why we must never see Satan in our mind's eye without seeing God.

Our second premise is that God uses our conflict with Satan to develop spiritual character within us. These struggles give us the opportunity to have our faith tested. Our spiritual warfare is our classroom where we learn about the ugliness of sin and about the chastisement of God. Along with His grace and power. He could have banished Satan to another planet or cast him quickly into the lake of fire. He chose to use the devil, giving him a role in the divine drama where our souls must fight before they rest. While the enemy is ruthless, he is fully under the control of the Lord and may only do as he is bidden.

The Bible teaches us that the devil has great power but that it is forever limited by the purposes and plan of God. It is a picture of a proud being who has already been humbled and his greatest asset in his war with us remains our own ignorance.

God’s Devil - Part 3: The Star that Bit the Dust

We begin to have our first understanding of the full story of God and His devil, Satan, with the passage “You were in Eden, the garden of God”.

In a place far beyond our ability to imagine, a glorious creature chose to take a great gamble that would backfire on him, causing rumblings throughout heaven and earth even to this day. This was a tragedy of great proportions. God would ultimately use it for His purpose. Clearly it was a part of the original plan formed before the foundations of all things.

Who was this creature who traded peace for war? His name was Lucifer (bearer of light) who had no natural light of his own but was created by God to reflect the divine light of God's holiness. Two prophets of the OT tell us the story of this important one. Both Ezekiel and Isaiah tell the same story but just from a different perspective. Both prophets pronounce woes on the proud kings of their day. Both remind these kings that God will not abide their arrogance and rebellion. Because of those factors, God will bring them down from their lofty perches.

These two descriptions are given as stories about certain kings but neither could possibly truly describe any kings of earth. Each tells us a story of the one who stands behind these kings. They tell of a creature who once had awesome beauty but now has become fully evil. This one lived in the garden of God but is now sentenced to fill his eternity within a dark abyss of contempt.

We should look first at the description given us by Ezekiel in 28:11-19.

We know this king mentioned, even though a name is given, King of Tyre, was never “full of wisdom” or “perfect in beauty”. Nor was he the “anointed guardian cherub” or was he ever “blameless in all his ways”. Therefore to make sense of this passage, we must presume Ezekiel was speaking of the being who stood behind this king.

The Eden that is mentioned is not the garden in Genesis. It is a paradise of perfect creatures. Lucifer was the masterpiece of God, a showpiece of creation whose beauty brought glory to the work of the Lord. His creation was God at His best.

The duties this one performed was of the highest calling in the angel world.  As the anointed cherub, he was created to serve God at the highest level. He served a priestly function in paradise. We must remember that the wings of the cherub were placed on top of the Ark of the Covenant. The phrase “your sanctuaries” refers to worship. Lucifer evidently directed the worship of other angels.

Lucifer's desire was to “ascend into heaven”. Though he had access to the throne of God, the earth was his domain, and where he seemed to originally attend to his priestly duty. Afterward it was the creation of Adam and Eve that caused Satan to be overcome with jealousy, and it is thought that his sin came shortly after the creation of mankind. Until his sin, he had existed to serve God, without competition. He was God's worship leader.

His gamble was one of extraordinary odds. We are shocked by the statement from scripture that says “You were blameless in your ways, from the day you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you”. With that comment we have a glimpse of how sin entered creation. What was this sin? It can be described as either of two words, arrogance or pride. We are told by the words of the prophet, “In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned … Your heart was proud because of your beauty”. His beauty and position led to hardened pride.

Why would a perfect creature become no longer satisfied with his high position in eternity? Why rebel? Lucifer's bad judgment is a direct warning to us. We must never think that our obedience is best for God but not best for us. Consumed with burning jealousy, he set out to do what he wanted, not what God wanted him to do.

Isaiah tells us a similar story. He begins by giving a warning to the king of Babylon; then like Ezekiel, he describes the being who stands behind the king. He then gives five goals that Lucifer set for himself as he entered his sin. Each statement begins with the phrase “I will” and we see this scripture in Isaiah 14:13-16.

“I will ascend to heaven”

This is not the heavens of sky and clouds that we see each day but he is speaking of the third heaven where God dwells. Lucifer had already enjoyed access there as we see in the first verses of Job. Now he wanted to go there to take the place of God. He wants to ascend not to serve but to rule, not to obey but to rebel.

“I will exalt my throne above the stars of God”

We learned in Job 38:7 that stars are often the symbol for angels. Lucifer already had authority over them but it was authority delegated to him. He now longed for full and independent power of his own. He wanted to be worshiped himself.

“I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north”

Lucifer was obsessed over having a dominion of his own.

“I will ascend above the heights of the clouds”

God's glory is made to be seen in a cloud to His people (Exodus 16:10). Lucifer wants such glory in his own name.

“I will be like the most high”

Finally his heart is revealed to us. He would be like God. He had seen the glory and honor given to God for all eternity past and also in the present and now he wants it all for himself. Until Lucifer's blunder there was harmony in the universe. Every creation was subject to the divine will. But now there would be opposition and Lucifer would recruit other angels to join him in rebellion. Here is a being who knew God and no longer believed God's ways were best.

Pride caused Lucifer to gamble and he did not know that only one third of the angels would join his rebel cause. Revelation 12:4 tells us that the dragon's tail “swept down a third of the stars of heaven”. For every angel who joined Lucifer, two did not.

There was no possibility that Satan/Lucifer might repent. Repentance is a gift from God to the heart of His human creatures who can overcome sins by confession and thereby find forgiveness with restoration of fellowship. Satan was fully evil at this point and there was no good within him nor was he seeking restoration.

Second, and most importantly, there has never been any sacrifice made for his sins which could bring redemption. Christ bore the cross to take away the sins of human creatures, not angels, as we are clearly taught in Matthew 1:21 “... he shall save his people from their sins...” and Hebrews 2:16-17 “... to make reconciliation for the sins of the people”. With no atonement available, Satan's actions were irrevocable and permanent, and there exists no means for them to be rescinded. 

He would thereafter win small battles but was predestined to lose the war.

God, as He forever has, was working all things according to His own will. Paul teaches us in 1st Timothy 5:21 that the two thirds of the angels who did not join Satan are to be forever known as “elect angels”, meaning preserved from sin and sealed. God, in His infinite wisdom, chose to use Satan to bring forward to mankind the truths He chose us to know, all revealed in His prophets, His Word, and His Messiah. 

Though Satan is intelligent, he is not wise. Each of us, after the garden, is born with a drop of his rebellion in our hearts for which a redeemer has been given to overcome and a comforter gifted to guide and assure the soul victory of the saved.

God’s Devil - Part 4: There is a Serpent in our Garden

Satan ignored all the warning signs. His doom in hell was sealed from the moment he sinned. Here we have evil exposed for what it is which is the desire to oppose God even with the assurance that the Almighty will be victorious.

Satan chose to escalate the conflict. Admitting defeat was too humbling so he went onward with sustained rebellion. Other angels were recruited. The idea of creating a rival kingdom patterned after the eternal realm was tempting. His hidden desire was to continue to exercise authority over those whom he had original responsibility. Other angels followed him into the growing rebellion. Whether they realized it or not, the moment they joined the sinful effort, they also were moving to destruction.

Satan's next targets were human beings. When he watched Adam and Eve being created, he surely thought they were the strangest beings he had ever seen. They were made in God's image and they had a capacity to fellowship with God that not even the angels possessed. Satan knew he would do everything possible to get them to side with him in his attack on God.

Adam and Eve were different in another way. They could reproduce themselves. When the angels sinned they acted individually. The decision of one angel did not necessarily directly affect another angel. This was not true of humans. If Adam and Eve were to sin, they would thereby contaminate all humans to follow. Satan therefore took a special interest in these new strange creatures. He was on hand to hear the instructions God gave the original parents. They could eat of every tree in the garden except one. There was one “No” among thousands of “YESES”.

Now we begin to gain a glimpse into the satanic mind. Jesus commented later on this very moment in John 8:44 “... he is a liar and the father of lies...”. He does not come forward as the devil but rather disguised as one of the beautiful creatures, changing himself into something he is not to deceive those he intends to convert. He does not come to frighten but to encourage and to instruct.

The serpent was likely a beautiful creature originally and far from being afraid of this creature, Eve seemed somewhat attracted or at least fascinated, not knowing she was being captivated by a being who sought her destruction.  Satan has not changed his tactic  throughout history. He did not appear to King David as a demon being but rather showed David the naked beauty of a woman and like Eve, David did not say no. We cannot misunderstand how Satan works. He gives us what we think we want. Sometimes he brings blatant lies, but sometimes mixes lies and truth. When we are intrigued by the truth part we are then open to the deception part.

Satan's first lie to Eve and Adam was to pervert their opinion of God. He begins with a small thought, “... did God say?...”. He creeps doubt into the mind, He makes it appear that God said no because he does not want you to be like Him, knowing much more than you do. God is deceiving you. Instead of the many sources of good fruit, Satan was able to bring focus on the one source forbidden. David had many women in his palace, but Satan showed him the one he had not yet possessed.

We are lured by temptation because we come to think that God does not know best for us, we do. The serpent substitutes confusion for understanding. Satan tells Eve they will be like God, which was Satan's pure desire for himself. So they ate, and Satan was proven wrong. Just as God had promised, they died. Their bodies, before perfect, began that day to age and decay toward death physically. But that moment they died spiritually as they were then separated from God.  Unless God intervened, they would also die eternally.

Eve sinned:

• She saw and became curious.

• She took and became a thief.

• She ate and became a rebel.

• She gave and became a temptress.

Adam made no objection. He ate when she gave to him. The tree was not a bad tree. All that God had created He Himself termed good. The tree was simply a test to see  if man would obey the voice of God or the voice of a serpent who claimed to speak for God and clearly had beguiled his wife. Adam's first great sin was not eating of the forbidden tree. It was harkening to the voice of his wife instead of to the voice of God 

(Genesis 3:17). Eve was deceived but Adam ate knowingly. Adam and Eve discovered what Satan already knew. Disobedience brings unpredictable results. In Eden the crown of creation slipped from Adam's head. Satan picked it up and crowned himself. Satan would now treat the world as if it belonged to him but this was only his first step. Now he wanted worship from man as man came to continue to yield to his temptations.

Adam and Eve were judged by the removal of the close fellowship God had put into place, even walking and talking with them each day in the garden. Satan was judged by the promise that his serpent would crawl in dust and more importantly, would be defeated by the redeemer to come. (Genesis 3:15).

Now we are allowed to see for ourselves the original plan of God for His creation.

We must accept that all that happened was under His control. Our scriptural truth of that fact is found in Hebrews 1:3: “... controls all things through the word of his power...”.

Paul was allowed to know how God's plan was unfolding and when it began. He shared it with us in his letter to Titus, chapter 1, verses 2-3:

“In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie, promised before the world began; But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour... “. 

God made a promise before the ages began and this does not mean  the ages of creation, but in eternity past. Hebrews 13:20 is even more specific:

“... our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant”.

Clearly this covenant made before the world and being everlasting, was made not with either angels or men. It was made among the members of the Trinity. God, the Father, who loves the Son perfectly, promised Him a gift of redeemed humanity and a special expression of that love. The fall of man and his coming redemption was not only foreknown but was a part of the plan from the beginning of all things. This is why Jesus continued to refer to His people as “those that the Father gives me” (John 6:37 & 10:29 & 17:9). Those who would be redeemed were already written in the Book of Life long before Eve touched the forbidden fruit.

The grace of God and His justice and love would be put on display as His plan unfolds. As for Lucifer, now Satan, he would continue to exist for the glory of God, just as he had done in ages past.

God’s Devil - Part 5: The Serpent’s New Religion

We take a look at the next step in the plan of the devil, Satan, to work against God after he has successfully caused the rebellion in heaven in which one third of angels were deported to earth, and he has successfully caused the fall of mankind with his temptation of our first parents in the garden.

Since the evil nature of Satan must be disguised to bring success to his plan, he determines his next step is to pervert the worship of God forever as man grows in number and by his nature seeks meaning for life. Being worshiped in disguise is better than not being worshiped at all. Satan's goal was not to make Adam and Eve, and their descendants, atheists, but to turn their worship from the true and living God to other false gods under faiths that are also false. Satan would now compete with God for the faith of man.

To make this perverted proposal popular, Satan began to construct various religions for man to adopt, each of which was not God centered but exclusively man centered. Over the many centuries he has found success again by presenting these false faiths as true and made them attractive to mankind. Here are a few:

The lie of reincarnation:

 God had promised that if Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit they would surely die. They ate and they died, physically over time and spiritually the same day they sinned. In order to overcome the normal human fear of death, Satan constructed a false belief that death is only a simple step to another human life as the soul travels onward to the next body to start life on earth again. There is no judgment therefore death is not to be feared. Even today there are still many who accept this false faith.

The lie of esoterics:

Satan promises a renewed conscience which is no longer focused upon God but upon the a physical transformation of becoming enlightened. Meditation itself or coupled with some form of drug will bring a change in the mind and previously hidden knowledge will become opened to the seeker. Communication with the dead is made possible by this faith and because this fact is forbidden by God in His command not to have such efforts, God provided a powerful example of what happened to King Saul after he sought out familiar spirits to raise Samuel from the dead. (1st Samuel 27:7-8).

The lie of pantheism:

The belief is that God does inhabit all of His creation, therefore worship of nature or trees or animals is considered to be worship of God. This false faith is among the highest form of idolatry and Satan has used this false faith well with many converts.

The lie of relativism:

Satan had promised Eve that the first parents will be like God, knowing good and evil. In this one respect, Satan was correct. But this beginning clouded the moral boundaries of life that God had set. The main focus of this false faith is that boundaries of right and wrong are not absolute and that each person should do what they feel is right for them, even if their action is opposed to God's law. This practice was at the heart of the temptation of Eve. God's word was challenged and questioned and Eve was convinced to do what she wanted (or thought she wanted) rather than obey the clear instruction of God. 

The lie of hedonism:

This last false faith is among the most enduring lies Satan brought to man. This false faith teaches that happiness is found when you do what you wish and what you think feels good even if it violates every command of the Lord.  The word “hedonism” has been closely tied with physical intimacy in modern times which has come to mean men or women can proceed to experience any form of physical intimacy outside of the God ordained institution of marriage. Our nation is under tremendous suffering for this lie as our divorce rate continues to soar and we have included the ending of life in the womb as proper in our country so that this lie can prosper.

God was not mocked by Satan. He was well aware of Satan's next moves and how Satan intended to install the lies among mankind. God took serious action to be sure Satan was warned about what would happen next as a result of these plans for evil.

God took the initiative and used His own “I will” statements to counter the “I Will” statements made earlier by Lucifer as reported by the OT prophet.

A redeemer was promised who would rise from a woman and would crush the head of the serpent. The serpent would only be able to injure the heel of the redeemer.

Despite hearing the promise of God, Satan did not concede defeat. He would continue to strike back with his lies of false faith and temptations designed to diminish the soul of man. From this crucial moment, the battle was engaged and would soon heat up as a conflict of many centuries.

God’s Devil - Part 6: The Serpent is Crushed

Finally, Christ arrived. Centuries earlier (in our idea of time) God has promised the serpent that a redeemer was coming (Genesis 3:15) and God kept His word. When Christ was born in Bethlehem, Satan quickly tried to kill Him. Mary and Joseph took the infant to Egypt and Satan's first plan was ruined. Many infants were killed in what was called “The Slaughter of the Innocents” but Jesus lived.

So if he could not kill Him, Satan tried to corrupt Him in the desert temptation. He pretended to offer Jesus a shortcut to gain the world without the cross. Remember Satan was prince of this world. Jesus withstood this temptation and overcame Satan. Even later, when Jesus heard words similar coming from the lips of Peter, Jesus told Peter,

“Get thee behind me Satan” (Mark 8:33). The conflict (both earthly and spiritually) was set. Satan was in the garden and Satan was at the last supper. We know from John 13:27 that Satan himself entered Judas to guide the wicked (but necessary) deed. Jesus Himself conceded that the hour for evil to seem to win was near. In Luke 22:52-53 Jesus said the hour belonged to the power of darkness. But Jesus was clear on the message of the conflict. He assured us in John 12:31-32 that as He was lifted up, then would men be drawn to Himself.

Clearly, even after all these conflict moments, we still see that God has allowed Satan to continue to have power in this world. The appearance of defeat (the cross) was to be the greatest victory three days later. The cross is primarily about us and it answers the question of the ages. How can unholy people become the sons and daughters of a holy God? We are the trophies in this ancient war. If we are believers, Satan knows he cannot have our souls, but he will never stop trying to damage our fellowship with our Lord. The battle in this war was cosmic. God was there. Satan was there. We were there.

We must not overlook the fact that not only are we sinners by action, but also we are sinners by nature. Sin is not only what we do. It remains what we are. Satan is our accuser (as we see in the first chapter of Job), but he cannot tell God anything God does not already know. The dispute is not whether we are sinners. Satan accuses us because he wishes us damned forever as he is. But the eternal divine plan is not damnation for those who are His, rather it is salvation forever. Satan reminds God that we too are sinful rebels but he also knows the wages of sin is spiritual death and he knew that for him, there was no redeemer sent. God had promised in Ezekiel 18:4 that “... the soul who sins shall die...”. But He now reveals that it is someone else who will do the dying for us. 

In this moment, Christ was no longer innocent. He was made sin for us. 2nd Cor 5:21 teaches that He who knew no sin was made sin, so that we, who have no righteousness, might become righteous.

In this moment, Jesus was not a victim of political circumstance. Nor was He a victim of Temple masters plotting against Him. He was delivered to this moment by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. (Acts 2:23). The divine plan formed before the ages began was unfolding exactly as God ordained. The penalty for sin was provided and the wages of sin were paid. God maintained His holiness and yet arranged for us to be found not guilty.

This victory does not mean that Satan no longer works against us. He continues his work and accusations. Generally his accusations are true as we remain sinful. We must understand that the payment made by Christ saved us from the penalty of sin, but does not save us from the presence of sin. We still must confess sin and repent of it to maintain our fellowship with the Lord. 

While the power of Satan, delegated by God, is strong, it is not absolute. He can only kill by approval, and he cannot make alive. When Jesus was raised to life from death, God proved His complete superiority over death, physical and spiritual. There remains no dispute over who is Lord. As added proof, we are taught in Ephesians 4 that in those three days in the tomb, Jesus removed those OT saints from Hades and when He ascended  He took them with Him to heaven. Abraham's bosom was emptied, leaving only hell itself occupied until the Great White Throne judgment moment arrives.

No wonder Satan remains angry. He is still condemned to the earth itself but is only out on bail until the lake of fire calls his name to come.

We have seen the lightning. Thunder is on the way.  To man, the lightning seems to come before the thunder. That is because light travels faster than sound to humans.

But scientists tell us that both actually happen at the same time. Here is our proof that in the kingdom of the Lord, all things are forever now. Satan was defeated and remains so.

If we ask why Satan has not already been sent, after his defeat, to the lake of fire, we get an answer that is without question. He remains active because God is using him to complete the divine plan. We begin to understand that the serpent is actually God's serpent. He served before he fell. He is serving now. 

God’s Devil - Part 7: The Serpent is God’s Servant

How much power do we think Satan has? We may think that we cannot give a precise answer to that question but taking a different perspective, we can give a very accurate reply. The devil has as much power as God allows him to have, and no more. We can also begin in our study to understand that his power is overestimated.

The devil is just as much God's servant in rebellion as he was in God's service in his former days of obedience. Even now, he cannot act without God's express permission and he cannot tempt or demonize or make a single plan without the consent and approval of God. 

The devil is God's devil.

He must do the bidding of the Almighty. After his rebellion and his centuries of work trying to make sure the redeemer never arrived, God kept Satan in this world for one reason, which is that he has a God delegated part to play in the Lord's creation, and he will play that part under God's rules, not his own.

God created Lucifer before he became Satan. It was God who cursed the serpent in the garden. It was God who predicted his ultimate defeat and humiliation. It was God who allowed Satan to fight against Christ. It will be God who will supervise the conflict to the end. God has not abandoned His responsibility of being in charge of all creation. We should remember that Hebrews 1:3 clearly teaches us that Christ (God Himself) upholds all things by the word of His power.

We should consider the ways that Satan serves God even now.

Satan is used by God to judge the unconverted. Satan is allowed to cause spiritual blindness throughout the world in the minds of those who will not embrace the good news of the gospel. Paul wrote that our gospel is veiled to those who are perishing in 2nd Cor 4:4:

“In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them”.

Christ taught that the Word of God is like a seed planted in various types of soil.

Mark 4:15:

“... Satan cometh immediately and taketh away the word which has been sown in their hearts.”

This blindness, however, is subject to the will and purpose of God. In the case of those who believe, God overcomes their blindness with the light of the gospel, and there is nothing the devil can do about it. We ourselves can be helpful in this process if we simply will witness to the lost what the Lord has already done for us.

God uses Satan to refine the obedient. Sometimes God chooses the scene of our next battle. We recall that it was God who brought up Job to Satan.  After much discussion God allowed Satan to test Job but did not allow him to touch Job himself. After the first test, Job maintained his faith and integrity. Satan requested permission to harm Job himself and God allowed it but warned Satan that he could not take Job's life. Satan's power was therefore increased but only by God's permission. Here we should be clear in our study that in Job's trial, Satan was the immediate cause but God was the ultimate cause. That is why at the end of the story, Job's friends comforted Job “ for all the evil that the LORD has wrought upon him”. (42:11).

There are cases where Satan chooses the scene of a spiritual battle. When Satan found a weakness in Peter he had to come to Christ to request approval to sift Peter and in Luke 22:31-32, Jesus makes the statement that Satan had demanded to do so. Satan could not approach Peter in this test of Peter's spirit without first gaining permission.

God uses Satan to discipline the disobedient. Sometimes we ourselves choose the scene of the battle. King Saul  had his moments of greatness and humility after God chose him to be the first king of Israel. But when David entered  his life, Saul became eaten up with jealousy. Saul vented his anger at David and even attempted to kill him.

In 1st Samuel 18:10 an evil spirit from God came upon Saul. The demon was sent by God to torment Saul because of his sinful jealousy.

God uses Satan to purify His chosen ones. Paul was given a thorn in his flesh and it is described as a messenger from Satan to buffet him. This thorn was given Paul to keep him from becoming prideful from the blessings God flowed to him. Paul prayed three times to ask that the thorn be removed. God said no, but also told Paul that the grace of God was sufficient for him to deal with it.

God uses Satan with God's own willingness also as part of the temptation battle. God wanted to test Job. Satan wanted to destroy him. God seeks to purify and reconcile us while Satan longs to diminish our fellowship with the Almighty. The devil has to obey God's every command but he is not tasked with obedience to our commands. We have spiritual weapons to stand against Satan (Ephesians 6 / The Whole Armor) but we do not absolutely control the enemy. Paul himself wrote in 1st Thess 2:18 that Satan had hindered his movements. 

We are commanded to undergo spiritual battle in this life but we are not predestined to lose that war.    

God’s Devil - Part 8: Neutralizing the Serpent’s Poison

Even the most devoted Christian can, at times, have within their lives some of the characteristics of Satan because we still struggle in our fallen position. We can be bitter and rebellious  and there are even more parallels than these. Honest reflection reveals to us that these times exist.

Satan wants us to sin so that we will be like him. God wants us to renounce evil and sin and reflect the Holy Ghost who indwells us, so that we become more conformed to the image of His Son. The battle within and without is intense. These struggles begin in the mind but quickly become battles of the flesh. The devil does not have absolute authority over human beings. He tempts us with evil but we are the ones who willingly choose to do what we wish and in our walk of faith, we must face up to our own sins.

Paul grants us a special teaching on this very matter in Galatians 5:19-21 :

“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,  heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

The list is long and by no means complete. Our task is to identify the fruit of rebellion and give Satan no place. If we are successful in our struggle against temptations, God is glorified. But in order to understand the battle we must first see the characteristics within us that remind us of the devil himself.

An immediate factor that comes to mind is verbal slander. Even as words leave our mouth, we know we should not have said them. Evil words may even contain some truth, but the hidden desire is to discredit and disparage. When we gossip, we do the devil's work for him and we are promoting the kingdom of darkness. This “venom” has its source in the serpent.

A far more serious similarity is the failure to confess Christ. Both the believer who neglects to confess Christ by witness and the unbelieving demon are similar. The silent Christian and the rebellious demon have this factor in common. Both cannot find it within themselves to honor Christ in the presence of others. Consistently in worship we sing the phrase “O for a thousand tongues to sing” but our hesitancy to use the one tongue we have may find its root in our unwillingness to show full surrender. We can deny Christ by spoken words, which is serious, but we deny Him also at times by our silence.

Another factor that brings us similarity is uncleanness. At least 20 times in the New Testament demons are referred to as “unclean spirits”. This has nothing to do with physical cleanness, but refers to spiritual and moral impurity. To be unclean is to be out of moral agreement with God.  Anything unlike God is impure. When we are self-driven rather than Spirit driven, we become unclean in the eyes of the Lord, even though we spend much energy trying to tell ourselves otherwise.

Desiring control is strongly and seriously demon driven. Satan works diligently to control our lives. When we do the same at the expense of surrender to the Lord's control, we are showing the fruit of self-will. We share this aspect of life with Satan as he wishes the same for us as we surrender to his temptations rather than stand against them seeking God's stronger control.

Desiring praise is another similarity we share with Satan. When Satan told Christ He could have the entire world in exchange for just one act of worship and in doing this, he revealed his deepest desire. Self-will craves recognition.  We sometimes step into this unworthy characteristic ourselves. We must recall that Jesus insisted upon humility in His chosen ones, and we ourselves are now chosen by Him.

Practicing deceit is a another similarity that needs mention. Satan is a deceiver and is self-deceived. Deceit is tricky. Remember the one who is deceived is unaware that he is being deceived. We have a tendency to deceive ourselves into believing that we are capable of properly controlling our lives. We are not. Jesus was careful to teach us this fact in John 15:5 when He taught us “... without me ye can do nothing”. Our deception is willful and we must ask the Lord to give us the grace to “put to death” the deeds of the flesh, which mirror the deeds of our enemy.

When we do so, we will no longer tell God what he can and cannot do to refine us. The ownership of our lives will have been transferred and we will fully believe that God is greater than us and the devil.

We have been bitten by the serpent, but the wound has been lanced and there is a pure form of anti-venom that neutralizes the effect of the poison. By faith, Christ came to set us “free indeed”.  

God’s Devil - Part 9: Closing the Door when Satan Knocks

Satan has a master plan to deceive the nations of the world but inside that master plan he also has a personal plan for our individual lives. He believes he can get us to follow him for at least part of our life journey. He plants seeds within our lives that will germinate and bear dark fruit later. He then stays out of view waiting for that moment when his evil fruit begins to mature. He knows very well that he himself is unwelcome to us so he comes to us in different disguises under different names.

He has surrounded himself with many lesser spirits (the third of all angels who were expelled from heaven with him) and these do his bidding. While these lesser ones are not able to read our minds, they do observe carefully our actions and their observations allow them their most fruitful areas of temptation. Satan has already put into place plans for the downfall of each life and we ourselves step willingly into the traps he sets.

His principles are known and should be remembered.

He is angry at God for he still wants to be like the Most High. To attack us as believers allows him to think he is getting back at the Lord. We are becoming more conformed to the image of Jesus each day and he sees that change happening, increasing his anger.

He works diligently to make sin look good to us.

He works best through the sins of the flesh. He takes the sins we already struggle with and uses those to strengthen his power toward us. He seeks leverage over us to influence our lives. In this way he can begin to gain his ultimate position over us which is control.

His stages of control are also clearly evident.

His first level of control is temptation. He, or one of his servants, injects thoughts into our mind that we think are our own. In this way, he remains hidden while arranging his lure. Satan can gives us ideas but we cannot escape the fact that when we act on them, we do so willingly. Temptations of the flesh are among his most common efforts. Each of us is a fallen creature and we lean toward sin by our original nature but when we seem accepting of such sin, we grant him the foothold he desires within us.

If we consistently travel downward in such sin, the depth of it can develop into his second area of control, possession. While he cannot remove us from salvation, he can, with our help, make it begin to possess us mentally.

His third level of control is the stronghold built within us from the first two. As our acceptance of such sin builds, we lean away from God and allow Satan to construct his fortress within us. The beauty of his sinful temptation makes us think we ourselves wish it and we fail to hear the hissing of the serpent in the background.

We open the doors of our hearts to these areas of control in several ways.

Our rebellion against obedience to the Lord and swaying to the music from below becomes the door of indifference toward God.

Temper showing anger with the need to resist can overcome us because it is far easier to sin than not to do so. Satan enjoys any crack in that door.

The door of guilt is one that is the easiest to open as we welcome Satan because he reminds us of sins past and how horrid they were. We open this door willingly when we forget that those sins were cast away by God long ago by our repentance and confession. When we find ourselves mindful of these, the reminder is not coming from above but from below. We must remember Satan accuses us of the very sins he enticed us to commit.

The door of fear is flung open for Satan by us when we yield to fear. When we fear to witness to those lost, Satan is overjoyed. The pressure we have upon us as we miss opportunities to witness is magnified daily by Satan. We must recognize the author of this fear and reject it. 

The door of immoral behavior is a sly door that Satan both knocks on and pushes against so that we open it wider to him. We are beset with perverse images everywhere. Products are sold to us using sexual images. We must be aware of this fact and renew our will against it constantly.

Martin Luther warned us that the devil's knocks are unending. He said that no matter how loud the knocks are, we must not open the doors. He reminded us of the whole armor given us in Ephesians 6, and says as we use those weapons, Christ stands ready to answer the knocks for us if we simply ask it. We must learn to say no to the devil just as Christ did. Unfortunately in many moments we seem to replace no with maybe. To Satan maybe means yes as he ramps us the attacks. Our battle is constant and we must be far more willing to pinpoint the source of attack.

The poison of the serpent must be neutralized.      

God’s Devil - Part 10: The Serpent is Cast Out of Heaven

God's judgment is often long in arriving but when it does arrive, it is swift and sure. As human history wraps up toward it's end, the end of Satan will happen in stages.

The lake of fire was sure from the moment Lucifer spoke the words given in Isaiah 14:14  “... I will make myself like the Most High”. For many centuries Satan has ruled the earth since with his end postponed. When He no longer needs Satan for His own purposes, God will bring Satan's end.

At the cross, the prince of this world was defeated, and in that moment Satan was judged and found to be guilty. He was shown to be deficient in purpose and power. Satan took a blow to the head and the death on the cross only showed Satan taking a nip at the heel of Jesus just as Genesis 3:15 foretold.

Satan's final ruin comes in three stages:

• First, he is cast out of heaven.

• Second, he is bound for 1,000 years.

• Third, he is cast into the eternal lake of fire.

Does Satan still have access to heaven today? For far over 2,000 years, believers in Yahweh in the OT and in the Father and His Son in the NT, have asked this question. Does the heavenly meeting described in the first chapter of Job still occur? Since Satan is still accusing us and using his temptations to harass us, it seems likely the answer is yes, since he must receive permission to do so. It seems probable that he has not yet been fully denied access. Remember that there is no human time in heaven so John was shown things both current and future when he was given the vision of Revelation.

Revelation 12 allows two signs of the coming final warfare.

12:1-2:

“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.

And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pain to be delivered.”

The woman represents Israel and the stars represent the tribes. We see this because this woman is still existing in the tribulation times.

12:5:

“And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron,  and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.”

This one sentence summary is of Christ's birth, life, and ascension into heaven.

The second sign is given in verse 3:

“And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.”

The crowns show his authority and the ten horns are thought to be the ten kingdoms described in Daniel 7 where we are given a view of kingdoms unified under Satan's puppet, the Antichrist.

There is more to consider.

12:4:

“And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven; and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.”

Past and present events are seen as one. The picture given is meant to be horrid. The evil dragon stands by waiting for the woman to give birth so he can destroy the child. The woman, however, flees to the wilderness where she is protected and nourished for forty two months (three & one half years), the last half of the tribulation.

As a result of the war in heaven, Satan left the glories there, never to again reside there. Michael, the angel, who had great respect for Lucifer (Satan) not contending with him for the body of Moses (Jude 9), now fights Satan with confidence.

12:7-8:

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought, and his angels, 

And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.”

We must remember that Michael and Lucifer (Satan) were once co-servants together in the Lord's heaven. This portion of the story is the heavenly counterpart of the victory of Jesus Christ on earth. The devil and his angels are thrown out and have lost their place above.

12:10:

“And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.”

This kingdom could only be proclaimed because Satan, the accuser of the brethren, had been cast down. If this kingdom is the millennial kingdom, as seems likely, it begins the literal reign of Jesus 

After he is cast out we read a warning in verse 12.

12:12:

“... Woe to the inhabitants 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.”

He knows his time is short and he hits the earth running He continues to pursue Israel (the woman) trying to destroy the nation but God prevails again, not allowing that effort to succeed. Losing his place in heaven appears to have made Satan more determined to succeed on earth. During the last three and one half years of the tribulation period, Satan, through his Antichrist, rules the world.

Satan will inhabit a man who appears to be God.  He forms his unholy trinity with himself as the father, the Antichrist as the son and the beast he creates as the spirit. In these days all will worship them except the elect whose names were in the Book of Life before the foundation of the world. False miracles will be seen. He will create a new religion that seeks to imitate Christianity. He will control the world's vast financial network by commanding that only those who have his mark may buy or sell. Those who challenge the authority will be put to death. The devil will be seen to be in charge.

While the church will have already have been raptured there will be those who stand against this evil rule. These will be the overcomers.

12:11:

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto the death.”

They overcome the same way we do, by the blood of our Lamb, the Messiah. The power of the cross still stands. Next their testimony is active and has power. Third, they have been given the awesome gift of martyrdom keeping Satan from his victory. Just as it was God's will for Jesus Christ to die at the hands of evil men, so His followers die under the same care and plan. Even here, the devil is still God's servant. Death cannot frighten the followers of the Prince of Life. The devil will end because God will not allow worship of a counterfeit to stand. Worship is only allowed to stand for His Son. 

The final showdown is near.  

God’s Devil - Part 11: The Serpent in Eternal Humiliation

In the OT God repeatedly predicted a coming kingdom in which righteousness and justice will win out over all evil and sin. Isaiah 2 reflects on this time when men shall turn their weapons into farm instruments. So far, such tranquility has never appeared in human history (after the fall from the Garden of Eden). Such a time and kingdom will be when Jesus Christ shall rule.

Satan has continually tried in his own efforts to bring about a world ruling kingdom. From Rome to the Holy Roman Empire to Prussia to the German Reich, all of history reflects his attempts. Scripture reveals one more such effort on Satan's wishes. At the time the Antichrist appears, the world may seem ready to accept his dream which has been in the making since the ancient days of Babylon. We have studied that Satan will be cast down from access to heaven in the middle of the tribulation but this event will not hinder his efforts on earth.

His final push will crumble into pieces at the feet of our Lord. This time Satan will not approach a Jesus whose flesh is weakened whatsoever by human hunger in a wilderness. This time Satan will find a glorified Jesus who comes to judge and defeat him. Jesus speaks of these times in Matthew 24:21 teaching that these days will be worse than any days ever known.

Descriptions of these days of horror can be seen in Zechariah 14 and also Revelation 19. We are given to know that the Lord's elect will come with Him to be witnesses of the final battle. The beast and false prophet will go into the lake of fire with Satan soon to follow, but not quite yet for him. God has one more assignment for Satan.

He will be bound for the 1,000 years and only loosed at the end of that time. Human nature itself will not change in the 1,000 years and there will still be sin and salvation then. When he is loosed he will one last time find followers to join with him in the last conflict. 

Our faith in these scripture promises is called premillennialism. Saved souls, both dead and living, will have been caught away, raptured, before these days occur.

If the first step in Satan's final downfall is his being forbidden to access heaven any longer, the next and last step will be forbidding him to reside on the earth. For 1,000 years the earth will be free from his constant daily influence or direction. Now we are ready for his final fall.

 Rev 20:10:

“And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire … and be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

What can we say about this final destination for Satan and his own?

The place was created by God, prepared by the Almighty for those who were doomed to dwell there. Christ said that God's message will be to the wicked:  

Matt 25:41:

“Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”   

If the devil is God's devil, then the lake is God's final command for him. God rules  over all of His creation (is sovereign) and He will not give any part of His final eternal kingdom to another.

The place is a place of torment. The torment will be physical (fires never quenched) and will be a place of ultimate eternal rejection away from the presence of God. 

The place has many occupants. The beast and false prophet were sent there at the return of Christ 1,000 years before. Immediately after Satan is sent there, the Great White Throne moment arrives and the rise and casting away of all unbelieving dead will be seen. Revelation 20:11-15 describes this event and clearly teaches us that Death and Hades gave up these individuals to the Great White Throne and then both Death and Hades are themselves to follow them into the lake of fire. This moment is known as the Second Death.

The place is eternal. Jesus taught us this strong lesson in Matt 25:46:

“These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

This plan, in place for all eternity past, will be in place for all eternity future.

The place is purely just. The serpent will be judged into there as the final penalty for his original rebellion, as will his demons who were once one third of all the angels, These must bear their many sins and pay the full penalty for them. No atonement was made for their sins. Human believers were redeemed by the blood of the Messiah. 

Rev 1:5-6:

“And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

The devil today is still the prince of our air, and appears to rule earth, but he does so only by divine decree. He tempts us, but only to the extent that God chooses to grant him his wish. He destroys, but only as God approves of such destruction. He stalks proudly about the earth, but only as far as God lets him stalk. He is unwilling to face the reality of his impending eternal humiliation and shame. He already knows what others may not know, which is that his actions upon earth are but a long charade. His present battle victories over the faithful are temporary. The outcome is certain.

He exists only as God's instrument of justice for the disobedient and God's intended means of purification for the saved. Our war with him teaches us about the nature of sin, the holiness of God, and our own helplessness apart from grace. Lucifer's fall gave our heavenly Father His intended opportunity to display limitless mercy toward us. Through His use of this fallen one, the Lord shows us the path needed for those who believe to overcome. This was His plan before the foundation of all things. It still unfolds each day within His creation, over which none rules but Him.

Romans 11:36-36:

“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to who be glory for ever. Amen.”

God’s Devil - Part 12: Satan’s Beginning and Methods

We know only a little concerning the beginnings of Satan. 

Regardless of what else we learn about him, it is important that we never forget he is NOT God. He is a created being. He is not self existent and he owes his very life to the Lord of all.

Scripture teaches us in Isaiah 14:12-15 that he was one of the high angels of creation, given the name Lucifer, meaning “bringer of light”, which is interesting in that he has forever worked toward darkness.

“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How are thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations!

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”

We see immediately from the teaching of Isaiah the sin of pride that brought Satan down from glory to his new home in Hell.

Jude 1:9 teaches us of the level to which his pride and arrogance rose when the archangel Michael had to contend with him for the body of Moses.

Three verses before 1:9 we see the fact that angels who kept not their first estate have been reserved to everlasting chains under darkness.

We know that Satan was in the garden with our first parents.

We also know that after the 6th day, God looked at all he had made, which now included man as a living soul, and considered it very good.

We also know that the creation on earth was not the first creation work by God. In God’s challenge to Job exposing Job’s ignorance, scripture teaches in Job 38:4-6, God asks Job where he was when God laid the cornerstone of the foundation of the earth? God also tells Job that at the moment of the foundation, the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.

The angels were there when the creation of material things began. 

But Jesus himself taught us in Luke 10:18 that he saw Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Peter confirmed in 2nd Peter 2:4 that angels were cast down to hell, and not spared by God.

So Paul tells us in 2nd Cor 4:4 that he became the god of this world, and most of the 6th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians teaches us what is necessary to stand against him.

Paul was well aware of the work of Satan as he reminded us in 2nd Cor 12:7 when he taught us that his thorn in the side was a messenger from Satan. 

Paul also provided the ultimate penalty to those who had fallen away from faith in 1 Timothy 1:19-20 by delivering them unto Satan.

To complete the table setting of what Satan is, we must never forget that his choice to rebel against God was permitted. Just as God, whose hand is mightier than all things, allowed Lucifer to choose rebellion and removal from glory above, he allowed Eve & Adam to choose rebellion and removal from glory below.

Now we come to the first point concerning Satan that is of major importance. Satan cannot force you or I to do anything. His only power over us is to tempt us to step away from the Lord’s path with those things we desire and the choice we make is all ours, not his.

Remember that temptation is not sin. Yielding is!

Satan never comes to us empty handed.

He always brings something in his hand to offer us.

He studies our hunger and presents the most alluring food.

Do you want riches? He shows you easy money.

Do you want power & position? He shows you kingdoms.

Do you want success? He shows you shortcuts of evil.

Do you long for happiness? He convinces you that he can provide it. But it is not free.

Do you lust? He will bring willing women into your life to destroy your marriage. He will show you the shortest path between the sin of the eye to the sin of the flesh. What a navigator he is.

Just as he took Jesus in an instant to the top of the temple, he will take you in an instant from looking at someone you know you should not be looking at to doing something you know you should not do.

Remember God who cast him out could have locked him in hell but rather chose to allow him to walk free on the earth (as Satan clearly says in Job, chapter one). All Satan does is under the permissive will of the Lord. 

He works very well within the battlefield granted him.

Satan’s work is quite easy to explain:

1. He wishes to withhold from God souls yet unsaved by any means possible.

2. He wishes to bring misery and defeat to those who have given their soul to Christ by accepting His salvation. 

Satan uses temptation as his primary weapon against us and its sharpest point is his instigation toward evil. 

Here is his essence. He knows what we want and he promises it to us, and in most cases he can deliver it as well.

But no matter what the offer made, it can only be implemented if we freely choose it.

Now we come to the meat of the matter.

How does Satan specifically work against us?

Temptation is universal.

He tempts every man. There are no exceptions. While there are billions of people on earth, it seems as if he has time to tempt all people all the time. His power and speed of action is far greater than we can imagine.

Temptation is life long.

Matthew 24:43 warns us that he comes as a thief when we least expect it. He never tires and he never wavers in his efforts to disrupt our devotion to God. Spiritual warfare is a commitment for every hour and every day of life. He tempted Jesus. He tempted the apostles. He will tempt us without end. 

Job 7:18 teaches that “… The life of man on earth is a trial of every moment.”

Temptation is shrewd.

Satan brought ruin to the perfect garden with the power of his deception. While he did not directly confront God, he brought doubt into the mind of our first parent by questioning what God had actually said and twisted it to accomplish his evil goal. 

He is the master of lies. In John 8:44 Jesus said” … he abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him”.

How does he work against us today?

We should carefully remember that Satan is no beginner. He has practiced his craft upon a savior, his disciples, every prophet and David, God’s chosen one for king of Israel, as well as every saint who ever lived, every pastor, and all those who have devoted themselves to the Lord since Jesus brought His gospel.

Satan delights in difficult prey. The easy prey he assigns to his lesser demons. 

His work against us is a masterpiece of intelligent lies, calculations, deceptions, and fierce & deadly planning.

Remember he can disguise himself as an angel of light. His initial bait will always appear good. The satanic trap will not use that which appears evil or we would not choose it.

The filthy part of our choice will arrive shortly thereafter.

Rendering sin beautiful is the supreme art of the great deceiver.

In that beauty we seem always deaf to the hissing of the serpent.

Satan’s toolbox:

Ignorance – Satan’s greatest victory comes when he convinces most of us that he does not exist. Statistics have long shown that most people do not believe he is real and at work among us.

Our free will – He must overcome our ability to say NO by making the effort look so tempting that we freely choose it. Our defeat does not come later when the sin is revealed but comes immediately as we realize what we have longed for is available and our weakness changes the NO of our heart to the YES of our lips.

Every victory over Satan, no matter how small, makes us stronger in spirit. Every defeat, no matter how small, makes us weaker in spirit.

Neglect of prayer – Satan attacks from the first thought in our morning and if our first thoughts are not prayerful, the door is quickly opened to him.

If we neglect our prayer life, or if we diminish it, we are open to his attack and are basically making his job easier. This neglect also removes us from the only direct assistance we have available to us, calling upon God for strength in the trial through the communion of prayer.

Attachment to material things – This area is one of Satan’s finest attacks in our society. We have become a society filled with love for our possessions. In many cases we have replaced the Lord with the god of consumption. Our appetites are seldom satisfied. We want bigger homes, bigger cars, more money, higher status, finer clothes, $200 shoes for our children to play in, and always the latest gadgets silicon valley offers us.

Many of us have been convinced that the peace of God promised to those that love him in obedience can be replaced by peace found in a bottle or a pill or something else that distorts reality. All who go down that road one day understand that it is false peace brought by a false but convincing lie.

Satan finds easy going in these areas as he can provide all these things that we think are so important if we will only allow them to be above our love for the Lord in our lives. 

Jesus told us in Matthew 6:24 that we cannot serve God and mammon.

Worry & anxiety (burden bearing) – Satan knows how to attack us with smaller weapons if he feels he cannot prevail quickly. He will bring burdens into our lives and send worry into our minds to deprive us of the joy and peace we have in Christ. He works on our psychological level over time to darken our trust in the Lord. He will make us question whether the Lord is still with us if problems arise.

He creates financial worry to distract us and to test our resolve. We see this everywhere today.

Discouragement – From worry flows discouragement, weariness, and then weakness toward sin as Satan brings what we see as answers to our problems. 

Remember his son will appear to have the answers to all the world’s problems in the time of tribulation and he learns this lesson from his evil father.

Dropping of the guard – as all these personal issues arise and fester, we drop our guard against the most evil one. We forget the gifts of God, and all His blessings, and begin to listen more to the dark side of what appears answers that we need. 

What we really need is to renew our strength in God through repentance, confession, and devoted prayer but we no longer see those things as solutions.

THE ATTACK HAS FOUND SUCCESS WITHIN US.

As Peter said to us, “Knowing these things how should we live?”

How do we gain victory over Satan?

First we must remember that He that is in us is far more powerful that he who is in the world. 

We are not given the power necessary ourselves. Victory, like all other blessings, comes from above.

Second, we should renew our understanding of James 4:7 which teaches us if we FIRST submit ourselves to God, then we can resist the devil and he will flee from us. 

Submission must precede victory.

We must openly and sincerely confess our sin and beg forgiveness so that the our sins will no longer hide His face from us and He will hear our prayer. (Is 59:2)

Third we must renew our foundation in the Lord. His foundation has not wavered while we wandered, and now we must once more rest the fortress of our faith on his strong foundation.

Fourth & finally – 

We must change the locks on our hearts back to the original lock that was keyed to Christ when we were first saved. That key was designed to make us one with Him. 

John 17:11 says:

“… Holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are.

Oneness with Jesus is the master key given us for victory over Satan and all his evil works.

MAY GOD BLESS US AS WE FIGHT THIS SPIRITUAL WARFARE.

God’s Devil - Part 13: What the Serpent Wants From Us

We are in a war. The struggle keeps raging even after we have walked with God under His grace given salvation for years. Sins we thought were gone keep cropping up in our minds. What does Satan want from us? He wants us to sin so that our souls will be diminished from our fellowship with the Lord. We are the targets of his relentless attacks. If we are believers he knows our souls are eternally secure so the very best he can hope for is to damage our fellowship.

He will do for us what God will not do. We will not have to humble ourselves to be blessed by Satan. We do not have to confess sin to be honored by Satan. We do not have to submit to the Almighty to make Satan happy. All we need is to be self-absorbed, self-motivated, and self-driven. The serpent hisses in joy when we show that side of ourselves.

His chief method is to make sin pretty and desirable and to convince us that we can control it when the truth is that it comes to control us.

God does not tempt us to evil, but He does give us the opportunity to show how much we love Him. Every temptation Satan brings to us turns out to be a test of our loyalty to God.

In previous ages, It seems sure that Christ and Lucifer had met many times in heaven. After Lucifer's rebellion. He found it impossible to tempt Christ in the heavens above. But now that “the Word was made flesh” Satan likely thought his chances were better with Jesus on the earth and now a man as well as God. Though Jesus, as God, could not sin, Jesus as man might be able to be tempted. It was a new opportunity for Satan and one that the Lord welcomed since scripture teaches us that Jesus was “driven” into the wilderness for the temptation to occur. Hebrews 4:15 reminds us that Christ was in every respect tempted as we are.

So Satan used his best persuasion on the Lord in this moment. First he tried to get Jesus to turn away from the will of God. Matthew 4:3 reveals Satan told Jesus to turn stones to bread to resolve His hunger. The second temptation was trickier and more sly.

He tried to get Jesus to turn away from the word of God. He quoted Psalms and tried to get Jesus to throw Himself down from the Temple to see if the angels would save Him, again quoting Psalms. The third temptation was seeking to get Jesus to turn away from the cross. He offered Christ all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would just once worship Satan. The world, of course, was made by Jesus and already was His. 

Jesus used the scriptures to respond to all three moments and never yielded. He taught us here that temptation is not sin, yielding is sinful.

Today Satan and Jesus no longer meet in the wilderness of Judea. Christ is seated in heaven at the right hand of the Father and remains head of the church. He has in His possession the key of David. He describes Himself as the “Holy One” who can open and no man shut and shut and no man open. (Rev 3:7).

There is no easy answer to those who are saved but still under Satan's attacks. While the answer is not easy, it is evident. What God wants is to purify us. He wishes us to declare our full spirit and life to Him in loyalty. We cannot say that we truly love God with all of our heart, mind, and soul unless we are willing to make difficult choices in His favor. 

God is also glorified when we believe that the truth of His Word is stronger than the error of Satan's lies.

God's further purpose is to reveal Himself to us, to come to us in the renewal of love and understanding. Sometimes God teaches us more while we suffer in temptation than in the few moments we find ourselves free from it.

We should consider a few words from a man who was under Satan's attack for a very long time without ever knowing why. His story is a great lesson for us.

Job 23:10-12:

“But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot hath held his steps, my way have I kept, and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.”

He never relented in his love for the Lord and never gave Satan any victory.

He reminded all that we receive both good and evil at the hand of God. 

He continued in one thought throughout his trials:

BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD.

God’s Devil - Part 14: The Serpent Strikes Back

An important factor in the spiritual conflict we study is that angels are created individually and they fell individually. They have no mother or father. There is no difficulty in believing that one third fell but we must remember that two thirds remained loyal to Jehovah God. But in the case of mankind, the entire race is descended from Adam and Eve. Therefore when they sinned, they took all of their descendants with them into sin and from their fallen moment onward, all humans except Jesus were born with their sin virus passed downward.

When Satan learned he would be crushed by the seed of the woman, he began the effort to kill anyone who appeared to be possibly the redeemer that was promised. So his next step was to strike against the family and to divide it. 

Adam and Eve had a firstborn son who brought them hope and they named him Cain, which means “the gotten one”. We have no scripture that teaches us that Cain was anything but a contented child. However, when his brother, Abel, was born, rivalry began, which would end in murder. As the two grew and began to make offerings to God, Abel gave as his offering from the firstborn of his flock while Cain made his offering from the fruit of the ground. The offering of blood was accepted by God while the plant offering was not. Much later, we are taught in Hebrews 11:4 that by faith Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice. Cain grew in resentment toward his brother. God rebuked Cain and reminded him that when he offered a better sacrifice it would be accepted, while if he did not, sin was close by. Rather than repent and seek to please the Lord, Cain decided to take matters into his own hands and murdered his brother. Additional scripture teaching in 1st John 3:12 tells us that Cain slew Abel because he was of the evil one. Satan saw a chance to use Cain's hard heart as an instrument to rid himself of a possible redeemer who was clearing pleasing to God. Satan thought his work was done.

God brought Adam and Eve another son, Seth, meaning “substitute”. Satan then realized that even if he continued killing possible redeemers, God could and would continue to bring more. God confronted Cain about his murder and Cain, like his father Adam, deflected his responsibility and was therefore condemned to a life of useless wandering. Satan's (the serpent) first attack was against the family. In modern times Satan has surely come to know that the redeemer did arrive and set about salvation work for mankind through grace. But the attack on the families of man continues.

The descendants of Seth began to call on the name of the Lord. From Seth would come Noah and Abraham, people who were found to be faithful to the Lord as they were chosen by Him. Through him also would come the final promised redeemer.

So if the family attack did not succeed, the next step for Satan was to corrupt society. As humans began to multiply on the earth, wickedness increased. The wickedness was so full that God saw that all hearts were becoming evil (except one, Noah), and the Lord brought the flood to end this evil and start man's creation again. One family was spared in the ark and the seed of the woman would come from that family. God's promise was eternal and He would not change it. Here we see that no matter how much evil seems to prosper, God will prevail if He so chooses.

As evil returned in idolatry and false worship over time, God chose one man, Abraham, to bring forth His chosen people. Abraham was not chosen because he believed. He believed because he was chosen.

God proved that he can, if He wishes, multiply the race to fulfill His promise and that He can, if he wishes, preserve the seed, and that He can, if He wishes, choose the seed bringer out of idolatry into faith.

Certain methods of Satan are becoming clear. His primary strategy is against God's people. In the OT these were the people of Israel, through whom the seed would arrive. In the current age, the efforts of Satan are against the church which is his enemy. He used the pagan Roman empire against the early church and the persecution was strong. But as we are taught in the NT, the blood of the martyrs was the food of the faith.

We see that all Satan's victories are short lived and are actually illusions. He does appear to win some battles but those are allowed by God and are overturned by the work of God. 

Abel was dead, then there was Seth. The earth was corrupt, then there was Noah. The nations turned to pagan idols and then there was Abraham. The male children of Bethlehem were slaughtered but Jesus had gone to Egypt. The final defeat of Satan is sure as evidence proves. Our final victory is in Christ and His redeeming work on the cross.        

God’s Devil - Part 15: The Struggle of Life Against Satan

Christian warfare is a war of moral and spiritual struggle. 

The incarnate Word and the rebel angel confronted each other in the greatest battle of the spirit ever known. We must not forget that Jesus, after His baptism by John, did not decide to take a walk in the wilderness. Mark 1:12 teaches us that the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. The victory over Satan in that moment was that of love over hatred, truth over lies, and good over evil. Christ is the great fighter of the spirit domain. He did not struggle against the flesh as all humans do who are all weakened by original sin. He did however, continually struggle against our other two enemies, the world and the devil. Matthew 12:29 teaches us that He entered the house of the powerful and binds him, in order to take back what was His.

The stakes in this struggle are monumental. The final pages of scripture demonstrate the final outcome of this immense war, which shows the triumph of Christ and His enemies descent into the eternal lake of fire.

Why is man ever at the center of a war so severe that it covers all of human history? The answer is found in the first pages of Genesis when in the sixth day, God created Adam from the dust in His own likeness and image and instilled in him His own divine breath, making him a living soul. There is something of divine value in man, his soul. This value is not lost on the devil. One soul would have been treasure enough for Jesus to go to His cross. Nothing is more important to God because God loves man as a son. Every man's soul is dear to the Lord.

Satan is jealous of this fact. He wanted to be as God and therefore he competes for each soul. His primary purpose is to capture the souls of the lost and to diminish the souls of the saved. The first enemy of man is his partially corrupted nature. Flesh without discipline is a most devious enemy and is an ally to the devil. A second enemy is the world around us, which is not evil itself by creation but has become sin polluted by our history since the fall and acts as a playground for Satan. We should be careful not to attribute to Satan more power than he actually possesses but by the sin of our first parents, Satan has come to seek to dominate all mankind. He blows on the fire of our weak flesh and acts within the seductive temptation of the world to seduce and snare us. When we willingly choose sin we become subject to his short leash.

Spiritual warfare lasts until our final breath. Satan seduces us with the false ideas that death is near and we should seek pleasure in him which comes without joy. Our defense is in the whole armor of God given for this exact reason and it allows us to remain secure our final goal of eternal paradise. Once saved we are His now and forever.

God’s Devil - Part 16: Satan Full Truth

If we listen to what scripture tells us about Satan and his powers of darkness, we will not look for their work only where there is obvious filth, obscenity, and godlessness in the world around us; we will look at ourselves, and at the Christian community. 

It was not the prostitutes, social outcasts, dishonest business people, and political subversives, but God-fearing, law abiding Pharisees that Jesus called sons of Satan (John 8:44). It was not His enemies, but one of His closest friends, Peter, whom He called “Satan” (Mark 8:33).

Satan is most dangerous when he “disguises himself as an angel of light” and when his servants “disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness” (2nd Cor 11:14 & 15). So we must take warning when we talk about the reality of a personal devil. It is not only in those “godless and unchristian people”  who we like to think of as “out there” where Satan works so well. He is also hard at work especially where pious people try to use God to maintain their own personal security, prosperity, and power, instead of  serving God alone. 

He is at work not only where people hurt other people and destroy  themselves by lust, drunkenness, and immorality of various kinds, but especially  where morality, respectability, and law abiding piety become more important than the needs of other people and an excuse to reject or ignore them.

The real problem of evil is not if we can possibly explain its origin. It is whether and how the death grip this lie has on all of us can be broken. Only when we accept that God desires nothing from us except a broken spirit and a contrite heart (Psalm 51:17) that we may then perceive the road sign to the narrow way.

God’s Devil - Points to Ponder, Intro

EVIL SPIRITS SENT BY GOD

Isaiah 45:7

“I form the light and create darkness: I make peace and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.”

Psalm 78:49

“He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and    trouble, by sending evil angels among them.”

Judges 9:22-23

“When Abimelech had reigned three years over Israel, then God sent an evil  spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech.”

Micah 1:12

“Now the inhabitants of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil came down from the Lord unto the gates of Jerusalem.”

Proverbs 16:4

“The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.”

2nd Chronicles 18:20-22 (Ahab's false prophets)

“Then there came out a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will entice  him, and the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said, Thou shalt entice him, and thou shalt also prevail: go out and do even so. Now, therefore behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit into the mouth of these  thou prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil against thee.”

1st Samuel 16:15-16 & 23 & 18:10 & 19:9-10

“But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord  troubled him. And Saul's servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee. And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took a harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.

And it came to pass on the morrow that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul...

And the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand … And Saul sought to smite David... .”

Of the many instances provided by Holy Scripture concerning God sent evil spirits, it is likely that our best and clearest instruction is given in 1st Samuel. This evil spirit was “from the Lord”and was sent to Saul to trouble him.

This lesson does not teach us that God simply removed His hedge, as in the instance with Job, allowing Satan to do his work. Here we see a far deeper truth. God

SENT the spirit to do the work. Even though the hedge was removed and Satan was the instrument, we see in the final chapter of Job who actually wrought the evil.

Job 42:11 

“Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters … and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him... .”

Psalm 78:49 teaches that God even sent evil spirits, who were angels, against His chosen people.

He allowed a messenger of Satan to bring a thorn into the side of Paul and refused to remove it.

His absolute power over evil spirits was demonstrated many times in the New Testament as Jesus cast them out, including thousands of them in Mark 5.

No evil spirits ever act independently of God's sovereign and perfect will and purpose. If they approach us, it is with the goal of our good and His glory (Romans 8:28). They can only do what the Lord permits.

God’s Devil - Points to Ponder, Part 1

SATAN THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD

Satan has been with us from the beginning. He roamed the original garden and was in the room at the Last Supper before he himself entered Judas,

He presented himself to Eve as the one who can reveal the secret to becoming like God. To Jesus he presented the quick and painless solution to glory and unlimited power without the cross. He never presents the cross to us. As he hisses in our ear his way always seems easier and he presents himself to us as the bringer of happiness. Jesus offers true happiness but not as cheaply. The price of it was the highest ever paid for anything. The price was the blood of the Son of God.

The serpent understands how to lead us to sin. We are sin inclined from birth and he exploits our inclination to induce us to evil and make us his own. He cannot bend the will of man. Only the Lord has the power to do so. If our will is bent toward Satan, it is from our own voluntary free will choice. In His wisdom, God permits this, so that with the help of His grace, we can tap the power of all of heaven itself to overcome the battles in this spiritual war.

We must not forget that God could have sent Satan to hell immediately and permanently after the rebellion and war in heaven. He did not. Satan's power of seduction and temptation in the warfare of our spiritual persecution depends on divine permission. He can do nothing that God does not allow.

The eternal mystery of Holy Creation is that man may choose to sin or not to sin. If God wished blind obedience without choice, He could have ended creation with the cattle. He did not do so. All creation was said by Him to be good. In the final sixth day, after the creation of man, He said it was “very good”. 

When we freely consent to Satan's whispers we are, in that moment, defying the will of the Almighty and slip away from “very good” to start the journey to slavery to Satan. John's gospel reveals the mind of Christ on this moment of our consent.

John 8:34:

“Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.”

Romans 6 provides our reply to Satan as he whispers sweetly to us.

6:14 “For sin shall not have dominion over you...”

6:18 “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.”

God’s Devil - Points to Ponder, Part 2

THE VICTORY OF CHRIST

Any study of Satan would be misleading if the victory of Christ were not strongly underlined. Although Satan has won some battles, Christ has won the war.

The situation has now radically changed.  After the Redemption man has received from God the light to discover the snares of our enemy and the strength through grace to resist his assaults upon us. In today's world there seems to be a more ready acceptance of evil, even by some who claim Jesus as their own. At times we seem like an army retreating in defeat. We are not defeated.

The victory of Christ over Satan is the heart of the Gospel. It brought a new age of grace and mercy. With the Redemption, Christ becomes the master of history. The victory over the serpent is the Lamb. All prophecy (beginning in Genesis 3:15) is seen to be a story of liberation and victory. Jesus proved that the reign of God is now present by His command of causing demons to flee from those possessed.

Satan is no longer confronting a man created in human flesh (such as Adam). He now confronts a portion of the Holy Trinity made in the “likeness” of our flesh. (Romans 8:3).  Satan's defeat began at the moment the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and conceived the Holy One inside her. The disciples of Jesus were amazed that they could cast out demons in Christ's name (Luke 10:17). The Lord did not leave us here unarmed. The Raised One brought the Holy Ghost to indwell us from conversion until death.

While the death of Jesus appeared to Satan as victory, it actually was his loss. The work of Satan in the hearts of the Pharisees to end the life of Jesus opened the door to the immense wisdom of the plan of God from the foundation of the world, which broke the dominion Satan had enjoyed over man. The total obedience and submission of the Son in this plan assured it's success for each of us who became His. Satan's fierce warfare became his own undoing. 

The death and resurrection of Jesus established the Kingdom on earth. Jesus announced this fact in John 12:31 when He said that now is the ruler of this world (Satan) cast out. Although the roaring lion still seeks whom he may devour, he is unable to bring harm to those saved unless we yield ourselves to him. The time given by God to Satan between the cross and the 1,000 year reign when Satan is bound is to allow man to war against him and to defeat him daily, proving that the followers of Christ will continue in the work to crush his head while he nips at our heels.

God’s Devil - Points to Ponder, Part 3

THE VIRGIN MARY

There are several points to ponder concerning this special young woman. It is commonly accepted that she was a teenager when the angel came to her with the announcement of her being chosen. This moment is known as the Annunciation. Gabriel said a number of things to her, that she was highly favored, that the Lord was with her, and that she was blessed among women. In that moment two things stand out to us. First we must not overlook that she was blessed “among” women, not “above” women. Therefore she is not set apart to be worshiped. We learn in John's vision of heaven in the Revelation that his mistake of trying to worship an angel teaches us that we are never to worship any created being, human or angel. Second, and very interesting, we have not a sentence nor a phrase, nor a word anywhere in scripture that Satan attacked Mary spiritually. 

In the Divine Plan of salvation, a rebellious creature who dragged humanity to ruin was, in part, overcome by a young Jewish virgin who was submissive and faithful, and by her nature and gift from God humiliated the proud enemy of us all. We cannot overlook the fact that God's wisdom was perfect in that Satan used a woman to condemn humanity and then a woman was chosen to carry the seed of the Holy Ghost which would provide salvation to humanity.

Remember her immense grief as Mary stood near the foot of the cross to watch the awful suffering of her son as He was tortured to death. The darkness that spread over the earth at His last breath may have been more dark for her than any other. The world had rejected Him, the apostles had abandoned Him, and the silence of the Father in that moment must have been difficult for her to either understand or accept.

However, she was gifted by the Lord to carry His only begotten Son and she knew from the angel that He would inherit the Throne of David. She was filled with the Spirit and this young Jewish maiden left us with some of the most beautiful words ever spoken concerning God's work among mankind. Luke 1:46-55 is known as her “Magnificat”, meaning her spoken word to allow all people for all time to understand how magnificent is the grace of the Lord. 

She says her spirit rejoices in God her Savior. In His might He has done great things to her and holy is His name  and He has spoken to Abraham and to the seed of Abraham forever. Here is written evidence of the power and work of the Holy Spirit of God, who transformed this teenage maiden into the mother of the Savior. Blessed be His holy name among us who share that same Spirit with her.