In our previous message from chapter three of the Book
of Esther we have discussed Satan’s involvement.
We are in a spiritual war. Even before the creation of
the world Satan used to be called Lucifer and was of extreme beauty and in
charge of music in heaven. Then he got proud and decided that he should
actually be god and recruited a third of heaven’s angels to support him in his ‘campaign’
to take over heaven. God, who cannot stand pride, kicked him out of heaven and
from that moment became Satan’s arch enemy.
When the LORD created the earth and man and appointed
man to rule over the earth, Satan saw the opportunity to get onto equal grounds
with God. Here was his ideal break to have his own kingdom. He knew that if he
could only get man to do two crucial things, he would have man under his power
and would have rule over the earth. He actually learned from his own history.
If he could get man to disobey the LORD, the LORD would
have to keep his promise and man would die in their relationship with the Lord.
When he, masqueraded as a serpent, told Eve in Genesis 3:4-5: “‘You will not surely die,’ the serpent said to the woman.
‘For God knows that when you eat of it
your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil,’”
he was actually right. They did not die on the spot, but their life has been
limited and more importantly, they died spiritually, separated from God, which
is why the rest of the human race is born with a spirit which is dead towards
God and need to be reborn and receive a revived spirit.
Apart from them having died
spiritually towards God, man has received what Satan had mentioned. They have
received the ability to understand good and evil and they have received another
detrimental thing that would destroy many relationships and lives in times to
come – pride and the desire to be their own God.
The second crucial consequence of Adam
and Eve’s disobedience is the fact that they had lost the authority that the
LORD had given them over the earth and it went at the time to their conqueror,
Satan. He took control of the earth at that moment and got what he wanted – his
own kingdom. It was there where the war started, a war between the kingdom of
darkness and the Kingdom of light, and which is the war we are involved with as
well. Through the ages man was the object of this warfare. They either followed
Satan, and acted against everything the LORD stands for or they followed God in
resistance of Satan’s strategies.
This is why I said that whenever God’s
kingdom is involved, Satan has a hand in there somewhere. It is, however, not
always him or his demons that tempts us to sin, since our sinful nature (flesh)
also works against us as the Bible mentions at various occasions. Satan has
also been overcome on the cross, which means that Jesus rules over him now and
therefore whoever remains in Jesus
has regained authority with Jesus over Satan and the earth, and has been
restored to the authority Adam had, but only in Jesus. This is why Jesus said in
John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are
the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart
from me you can do nothing,” and James in James 4:7: “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” It is only in a
position of submission to the LORD, in other words in declaring our dependence
on and our availability to Him, that we have the authority Jesus has.
I hope we now have a better understanding why we need
to be aware of Satan’s reality and why we cannot ignore him.
Lord, help me to submit to you completely.
Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.
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