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