Satan called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his evil angels, he said,
"We can't keep the Christians from going to church. We can't keep then
from reading their Bibles and knowing the Truth. We can't even keep them
from conservative values. But we can do something else. We can keep them
from forming an intimate, abiding experience in Christ. If they gain that
connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken."
"So let them go to church, let them have their conservative lifestyles,
but steal their time, so they can't gain that experience in Jesus Christ."
"This is what I want you to do, angels. Distract them from gaining hold
of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their
day!"
"How shall we do this?", shouted his angels.
"Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent un-numbered schemes
to occupy their minds", he answered. "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend,
then, borrow, borrow, borrow. Convince the wives to go to work and the
husbands to work 6 or 7 days a week, 10-12 hrs. a day, so they can afford
their lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As
their family fragments, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the
pressures of work."
"Over stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still small voice.
Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive, to
keep the TV, the VCR, and their CD's going constantly in their homes. And
see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays music constantly.
This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ. Fill their
coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the
news 24 hrs. a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood
their mailboxes with junk mail, sweepstakes, mail order catalogues, and
every kind of newsletter and promotional offering, free products, services,
and false hopes."
"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from
their recreation exhausted, disquieted and unprepared for the coming week.
Don't let them go out in nature. Send them to amusement parks, sporting
events, concerts and movies instead. And when they meet for spiritual fellowship,
involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled
consciences and unsettled emotion."
"Let them be involved in soul-winning. But crowd their lives with so many
good causes they have no time to seek power from Christ. Soon they will
be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family unity
for the good of the cause."
It was quite
a convention in the end.
And the evil
angels went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere
to get busy, busy, busy and rush here and there.
Has the devil
been successful at his scheme? You be the judge.
Does "busy" mean: B-eing U-nder S-atan's Y-oke?
Author Unknown
Many of you probably have seen this circulating as a forward, and, later, with a petition being signed by people for God, I believe. Anyway,
the story
serves to illustrate Satan's intricate and insidious plan to catch and
hold us in his power.
So who is this
"Satan" anyway?
Our enemy
goes by many different names and many different disguises. He is known
as Satan by some, Lucifer by others. He is The Liar, The Deciever, The
Devil, amongst many other names. But whatever he is called, he is our enemy.
The Bible teaches us that Satan is our enemy and as with any battle, it
is wise to know your adversary’s tactics and strategies. To understand
how our enemy operates, we must search the Scriptures to see what God has
to say about him.
Is Satan real?
Yes he certainly is. In both the Old and New Testaments Satan’s existence
is taught and talked about. Seven old Testament books tell us about Satan
(Genesis, 1 Chronicles, Job, Psalms, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah) and
in the New Testament, Satan is mentioned thirty-seven (37) times. Jesus
Himself teaches us about Satan’s existence in the Gospels of Matthew, Luke,
and John.
Where did he
come from?
Satan was
part of the original creation. the two Scriptures that talk about the origin
of Satan are Isaiah 14:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:12-18. In Isaiah 14 we learn
about the desire of Satan (Lucifer) to be like God. And Ezekiel 28 describes
Satan's original position and his sin and subsequent fall.
In Isaiah, the Bible explains the desire of Satan (Lucifer) to be like
God. These are known as the seven “I Wills” of Satan. “For thou (Satan)
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.” Isa. 14:13-14 The
book of Ezekiel describes Satan’s original position and his sin. Satan
was part of the original Creation and had a position of prestige and glory
before he fell. His very name Lucifer means “the bright one” or “the shining
one”. Ezekiel 28:13 describes Satan as having a beautiful jeweled covering.
Satan was one of God’s chief angels and was perfect in God’s creation.
“Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till
iniquity was found in thee.” Ezek. 28:15 How was Satan perfect? How could
God create Satan, knowing that he would sin? God could have created Satan
without free will, just as he could have created us in the same manner.
But God wants us to love Him by choice, not by force. And that goes for
Satan and the angels as well. God allowed Satan the choice to love Him
or not. Sin was “found” in Satan – it was not put there by God.
"Let no man
say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted
with evil, neither tempteth he any man."
James 1:13
God created Satan as a perfect being, just like Adam and Eve were perfect in creation, but Satan chose to sin and in so doing, he fell from grace.
What was Satan's
sin?
Although we know very little concerning the circumstances surrounding Satan's
original sin, Jesus gave us an insight into the iniquity that was found
in Satan:
"He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because
there was no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh his own,
for he is a liar, and the father of it."
John 8:44
Satan, the
father of lies, originated in his heart the first lie in the universe:
that he could be like God.
Satan then believed his own lie that he could be like God, thus exhibiting
an attitude of pride. Pride is believing something untrue about yourself.
And Satan, after telling himself that he could be like God, turned his
false thinking into action by rebelling against God and he convinced one
third of the heavenly hosts to join in with him (Rev. 12:4). Because of
this sin and rebellion, heaven could no longer be home to Satan or the
hosts that rebelled with him and so God cast them down.
Why didn't
God take away Satan's power?
Why God didn't strip Satan of his powers when He cast him down is not known.
But for whatever reason, God has allowed Satan to be the "god of this world"
(2 Cor. 4:4) and the "prince of power of the air"(Eph. 2:2) But what exactly
are Satan's powers?
1. Satan is
able to work miracles.
Many unsaved people today are tricked into following Satan because he can
work miracles and make them appear to have been done by God. In Biblical
times, Pharaoh's magicians were able to duplicate what seemed like "miracles"
in order to trick Pharoh's people into believing that he ruled "by Divine
appointment".
2. Satan is
able to blind the eyes of the ungodly.
Have you ever tried to present the Christian view of an issue to an unbeliever
only to have him ignore all you have to say - so stuck on his own beliefs
that it's like talking to a wall? This is because his mind has become so
affected by Satan that he cannot see the truth. You wonder how anyone could
believe such things. And you see the truth of Proverbs 1:7 "The fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
3. Satan is
very subtle.
One of Satan's most dangerous powers is his subtlety. He can transform
himself into an angel of light(2 Cor. 11:4), He has many "wiles" or ways
of deception (Eph. 6:11). He comes to man most often in the guise of spirituality.
Satan's subtlety is seen most plainly in his tempting of man when he is
weak. Christ was tempted by Satan not when He was powerful such as on his
return to Jerusalem to be crucified, but when He had been fasting for forty
days. Today Satan often tempts man after a great sucess, when he feels
invincible and is off-guard.
4. Satan is
powerful, but not omnipotent.
The power that Satan has now is by God's permission. God has allowed Satan
to keep what powers he has. In the first two chapters of Job, God allowed
Satan to test Job. That fact should give the Christian man or woman the
confidence that nothing will come into their life that God has not allowed.
The fact that Satan is not omnipotent is seen in Jude chapter 9 when Michael
says "The Lord rebuke thee". Satan's final doom shows his lack of omnipotence
also as he is first cast into the bottomless pit (Rev. 20:3) and a thousand
years later, into the lake of fire and brimstone - his ultimate and eternal
destination.(Rev. 20:10)
5. Satan is
intelligent, but not omniscient.
Satan does not realize the futlity of his schemes. He does not realize
the battle has been lost for him and his destiny has been already written.
During Christ's crucifixion, Satan entered into Judas in order to turn
Him into the authorities, but he didn't realize that by doing so, he was
playing right into God's plans. God knew that Calvary was necessary, but
Satan seemed unaware of what the consequences of Jesus' crucifixion would
mean to him.
6. Satan is
influential, but not omnipresent.
"And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered
the Lord, and said From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking
up and down in it." (Job 1:7)
This passage
clearly shows Satan is not omnipresent. He is able to influence a great
many people but he can't be everywhere at once. Only God is able to do
that. 1 Peter 5:8 paints another picture of this fact:"Be sober, be vigilant;
because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about seeking
whom he may devour."
The character of Satan
1. He is the
adversary.
An adversary is one who takes up a position against another. From the opening
pages of Scripture, Satan is seen as the main opponent of everything that
is righteous, good, and holy. He is the archenemy of God and His children.
2. He is the
accuser.
Satan is known as "the accuser of the bretheren" because one of his tactics
is to use past mistakes to make the Christian man or woman feel that they
are not worthy or righteous enough for God to care about. If he can get
you feeling guilty of past mistakes you have made, he can make you feel
as if there is no hope of your going to heaven and if that happens he has
won. But Scripture clearly states that God forgives, then forgets your past
sins. "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our
transgressions from us." (Psalms 103:12)
Do not fall for Satan's tactic of a guilty conscience. Once you
accept Jesus into your heart and become saved, you are washed clean; there
is no more sin. you are justified (an old axiom is it's just-as-if-I'd
never sinned). God does not remember your past sins. And if He can forgive
you of them, why must you beat yourself up over them?
3.He is the
tempter.
Of all of Satans character traits, the one that describes him best is his
primary job - as the tempter of man. He is continually tempting you and
me to do things we shouldn't and to follow his evil ways. It is important
for us to know and understand his methods for tempting us so that we can
be prepared to defend ourselves against him.
1 John 2:16 shows us the three methods the Devil uses to tempt us - the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." 1 John 2:16
Each one of
these temptations arises out of a God-given desire, but then is expanded
beyond what God intended and is taken beyond Scriptural meanings and limits.
Satan uses the same methods on Jesus and on Eve as the following chart
shows:
| Three Areas of Temptation | ||
| Area | Temptation of Eve | Temptation of Christ |
| Lust of the flesh | "Eat the fruit." | "Turn stones into bread." |
| Lust of the eyes | "Your eyes will be opened." | "All the kingdoms will be yours" |
| Pride of life | "Ye shall be as gods" | "God won't let you die." |
Christ's victory over the Devil's temptations gives us confidence that we too can overcome his temptation. Remember, the battle is already won. It's up to you to join the winning team. Which side are you on? By submitting to God we can overcome the temptations of the Devil. We need not fear what he can do to us, because he can do nothing that God will not allow.
1 John 4:4
says, "Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world."
NOTE:The contents of some of my pages may not reflect your own personal beliefs,
but I will not bend or alter my beliefs to fit society's views,
or for any other reason. What I've said IS bible, or is based
on biblical teachings and I stand on them as such.
~~
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