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"I saw Satan falling from heaven as a flash of lightning! And I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you. But don't rejoice just because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered as citizens of heaven." The Bible, Luke chapter 10 verses 18 to 20 |
Satan is a fallen, high-ranking angel who rebelled against God. Along with other lesser fallen angels, he is now the great enemy of God, mankind and everything that is good.
Satan is so thoroughly evil, so much the master and instigator of all that is bad, that it is difficult to find words which properly describe him and his doings. The words I use here very much understate his characteristics. Grossness and obscenity are his trademarks as much as subtlety and craftiness.
The most important thing to understand about Satan is that he is a defeated foe. He is limited by God as to what he can and cannot do (Job chapter 1 verses 6 to 12 and Ephesians chapter 6 verse 12).
Satan has limited power. He cannot force anyone to do his bidding but he acts as though he really had this power. This is known as "bluff."
Satan cannot be everywhere at once. He is limited in time and space.
Satan is not all-knowing (Hebrews chapter 2 verse 14). He would not have taken part in Jesus' crucifixion if he had known that it would lead to his own all-time defeat.
Another example of Satan's limited understanding is the fact that he wanted to usurp God. If he had been successful in this, he would immediately have ceased to exist, because God created and continues to maintain everything.
Satan is the father of lies.
Satan can create nothing. He can only spoil what God has already created.
Satan knows that his time is limited.
Satan aims to fight God by influencing God's own creation, mankind, against him. He achieves individual results in this way fairly easily because many people readily respond to his suggestions.
Satan aims to frustrate any attempt by man to do God's will.
Satan aims to destroy mankind. He therefore tries to create the maximum amount of torment, confusion, chaos, havoc and misery throughout the world.
Satan will do his utmost to keep us from "seeking and feeling" after God. He will provide distractions of all sorts, such as, something exciting to watch on TV; researching a new car: getting married; not feeling up to it; the possibilities are endless.
All of these things are legitimate and perfectly harmless in themselves. Satan simply attempts to manipulate our attitudes so as to make these things appear to be good reasons for not seeking God's ways right now. Some other time, yes, but not right now. And, as we all know, tomorrow never comes. God has promised us the help of his Holy Spirit in recognizing what is happening and overcoming it.
Satan will use any method whatsoever to influence us. He is not fair, just, kind, truthful or merciful in achieving his aims. Perhaps his most powerful and paralysing weapon is fear. He attempts to make us afraid of anything and everything, with one exception -- he will not encourage a healthy fear of God.
He hates us with an implacable hatred. He even hates his own followers because in him is no love at all. This hatred is vented on everything without the slightest compunction. Interestingly, although we are free to hate the devil and all his works, we are not free to hate bad people. Rather, we are to hate the evil they do.
He attempts to influence us via any of the communication methods we use with God, even prayer. His primary method is to influence our thoughts because, if he can win in this area, he can effectively neutralize us, or even turn us against God. Apathy becomes a very powerful weapon in his hands.
He will try at all times to get us to think negatively and to consistently see the bad side of whatever happens. Some of us are more prone to this problem than others but we all struggle with it.
He attempts to make us misinterpret the motives of others.
He wants us to become bitter, cynical, disillusioned and discouraged. He is delighted if he can fill us with resentment and hatred towards other people.
He throws unreasonable doubts on God's motives or even on God's very existence.
He blurs the boundaries between good and evil, truth and lies, right and wrong, just and unjust. He hates any clear-cut issue.
He delights in confused and illogical thinking.
He tries to belittle us and to destroy our faith in God.
In general, Satan wants us to think and act like him, creating strife, confusion, dissension, misery, unhappiness, cruelty, doubt, injustice, unkindness, oppression - if its bad, that's what Satan wants for our lives.
God's viewpoint of Satan is that he is a defeated foe. He is always under God's control but he is still allowed to tempt mankind for God's own good purposes. We may, or may not, understand what these good purposes are at any given time or in any given situation.
One main purpose God has in allowing Satan to continue his evil existence is to test the faith of those who "seek and feel" after God. God has therefore set the scene so that anyone who is really interested in seeking and feeling after God is faced with real, practical choices daily.
God does not want mankind to be mindless and unthinking robots but to follow him and his ways simply because they have decided to do so. If there were no Satan, and there had been no original sin, we would be unable to choose between good and evil and we would "choose" only the good.
We are in a unique and privileged position: we can choose to get to know God and his ways or we are free to ignore him. We can even go over to Satan's way of doing things if we wish. The choice is ours and ours alone.
Although Satan will do his worst to stop us "seeking and feeling" after God, he is limited by God in what he can do regarding us. We have God's absolute assurance that no one can separate us from himself if that is what we really desire. We are eternally safe! (Romans chapter 8 verses 38 and 39).
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Page updated 11 May 2004