Here I Am, Send Me

You belong to your father, the Devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44)

What is the one subject Jesus talked about the most more than anyone else in the Bible during His earthly ministry? Hell. Why does our Lord warn us so much about Hell? IT’S A VERY REAL PLACE, just as real as Heaven, and you and I should not take Hell lightly. The world will tell you that Hell is one huge party, except…IT’S NOT! God tells us that Hell is constant “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” In other words there are absolutely no pleasurable or positive feelings there. I imagine it to be constant agonizing death without annihilation over and over again…FOREVER. This does not sound like a party to me. In every major battle throughout the history of mankind each victor was “crowned champion” because of one major principle of war…they knew their enemy and they knew their enemy very well. Now, we know the battle has already been won, but this should not instill a sense of apathy in understanding who our opposition is. How are we to be “the restrainer” or “the salt” if we do not know what to look out for? If you don’t know who the enemy is and cannot recognize him, you can be sure he knows exactly all there is to know about you, and he will surely take advantage of your ignorance regarding him.

First let’s cover the origin of the evil one.

How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation. On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ (Isaiah 14:12-14)

The Devil was once Gods’ most beautiful creature created. The angel to lead all angels.

You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. (Ezekiel 28:14)

However, Satan wanted to be God and have His power. As a result, God cast him out of Heaven after the Devil attempted a mutiny against Him. How do we know, because 1/3 of the angels were cast out with him.

Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. (Revelations 12:4)

1/3 of the angels in Heaven were cast out along with their leader. These fallen angels are more commonly known to the world as “demons”, and in Genesis they are referred to as “the sons of God”.

Let’s dive into the power of The Devil, what he can do, and what some of his objectives are. First, we have to understand that The Devil has dominion over the world currently.

We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. (1 John 5:19)

We reside in a fallen world which is filled with the “spirit” of Satan. In many instances scripture refers to this “motivation” of mankind spawned by Satan “lawlessness”. This is why Jesus instructs us not to be “of the world” because the current “operating system” resides on the “motherboard” of The Devil. Also, this is another reason why Jesus, and then later Paul, refers to this “spirit of rebellion” as being “a slave to sin”. Unbelieving men and women live in rebellion, because we are born with sin nature and without innocence, but the world will attempt to tell you the exact reverse. Since we are all born innocent then we shouldn’t desire a savior let alone need one right? Yet even though we come into this world corrupted The Bible tells us that God reveals Himself to everyone through creation so no one is without excuse but unborn babies and infants clearly are unable to make the choice to either accept or deny Jesus, however, it’s clear in The Word that those appointed for wrath and condemnation consciously and actively live in enmity with God. So this indicates unborn babies and infants who die, unequivocally, go to be with The Lord. The world will throw everything it can at you to bring you up in its own image filling you with pride. Pride in yourself, pride in the world, pride in your knowledge of scripture…“the spirit of rebellion”.

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. (Ephesians 2:1-2)

Why does Paul refer to Satan as “the prince of the power of the air?” Let’s think about this. What goes to and fro on the earth and back and forth on it rapidly? Air. Let’s couple this with Job 1:7…

And the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.

We know that Satan is not omnipresent like God, but he sure does get around and he gets around quickly! Both of these passages indicate that although Satan isn’t everywhere all at once…his influence certainly is. Specifically through his workforce…demons.

Satan affirms this point of him having dominion over the world to Christ in the desert…

And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been given to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. (Luke 4:6)

When Adam and Eve were deceived and gave in to the temptation of the serpent they gave dominion to The Devil.

Now let’s cover some major examples of Satans’ influence on the world

Idolatry/False worship: Since The Devil is referred to as “the father of lies” what’s the most powerful lie of them all? “Yahweh doesn’t exist”, or equally seditious… “you can worship God and worship many gods as well.” Examples of false gods would be Baal, Ashtoreth, Moloch, Chemosh, Dagon, Ra, Isis, Osiris, Buddha, Krishna, Allah of the Quran, Alcohol, Drugs, Porn, Money, Power, Worldly Intelligence, The Universe, “Manifestation”, Happiness, Mother Earth, and many, many more. Needless to say the list goes on and on. Anyone or anything that one worships other than Christ is a false god/idol.

It’s clear to me when I read scripture that if these false gods are not The Devil himself then they are, at the least, one of his minions a.k.a demons. In fact Christ even refers to the false god Baal as literally being Satan.

It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household! (Matthew 10:25)

If you track the history of the name Beezlebul first you will discover it’s a Hebrew name for Satan and if you back track even further you will land on Beezlebul’s original name…Baal. Does Satan have influence over his demonic army? You bet he does. So ultimately whatever is under demonic influence in this world is ultimately The Devil. I have noticed an odd and unusual growing trend amongst my fellow believers in that some of us are now disassociating the works of demons with Satan. As if demons are somehow entirely mutually exclusive to The Devil or the sinful actions of man are indeed just that, solely the actions of man without any outside influence. This is extremely dangerous, and I warn you Christian to be vigilant about this “movement”. If you and I are “in Christ” and our doings are “of Him” then certainly the relationship between demons and their leader is somewhat similar. How do 2000 demons in the Gadarenes all understand that their time is running out and that Jesus is the Son of God, because there is a network of communication between Satan and his henchmen.

And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time? (Matthew 8:28-29)

Man is either influenced by God or by Satan and that is it. There is either good or there is evil. There is either obedience or rebellion. There is either light or there is darkness. There is no “in between grey area”. It’s really that black and white in the Bible.

Using the Lord’s name in vain: This one is extremely subtle and might just pass you and me by if we are not paying attention. We talk to many people during our day, week, months, etc. Sometimes we will encounter those who will say out of irritation or extreme anger… “JESUS CHR…!” As if the name of our Lord and Savior is a curse word or derogatory term. Have you ever heard someone say “BUDDHA!” or “MUHAMMAD!” in a fit of anger? No right? Why is this? It’s because Satan knows Jesus is the one true God, and so he needs mankind to associate negative feelings with the name above all names. Again, is this the workings of a demon influencing someone’s mind? Maybe, but ultimately it falls perfectly in line with Satan’s main objective which is to make sure he does all he can to disprove the existence of God, so in the end once more, it is The Devil. There is no separation between “falsehood” and The Deceiver. They are simply one in the same.

The god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:4)

Love: Just as Satan loves to fool mankind in believing God doesn’t exist, he also loves to fool mankind in believing he doesn’t exist either. This is when he takes something that God created that’s beautiful and awe inspiring and twists it ever so slightly to make sure it just passes inspection so it’s in compliance with his initiative to defy Christ. It appears “natural” and “normal”. It feels good…great even. This perversion falls under the lifestyle…“love is love.” This is why we have congregations now that are openly accepting the behavior of the LGBTQ agenda and are openly supporting same sex marriages. Jesus clearly designed love to be between a man and a woman which is why all humanity began with Adam and Eve. It wasn’t Adam and Adam or Eve and Eve. It was Adam and Eve. God’s sole construct of what love should be for the purpose of marriage is that of the love experienced between a man and a woman. Should we then hate and turn our backs on the LGBTQ community? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Would Jesus do that? ABSOLUTELY NOT! These people are the very definition of who Christ came for. Our Lord came for sinners like you and me and not for the righteous. So we are to extend the love of our Savior to the LGBTQ community, but God makes it very clear we are not to agree with the lifestyle and openly support it.

God tells mankind to multiply. Can a woman and a woman naturally multiply? No. Can a man and a man naturally multiply? No. When a man has intercourse and exchanges “bodily fluids” with another man, from a biological standpoint, this is harmful to the receiving males’ immune system. Why…because it’s unnatural. Speaking solely scientifically, when a healthy man and a healthy woman have sexual intercourse this elicits a positive biological response in both of their bodies at a cellular level and is beneficial to their immune systems. Why…because God created sex to be between a man and a woman. There is literally zero scientific evidence that supports men and women are born homosexual, transgender, bisexual, or pansexual. Rather, the evidence tends to lean towards these lifestyle choices as being predicated on environment and upbringing (spirit of rebellion). Therefore if one chooses to be gay, then this indicates they can also choose not to be gay. Every sexual experience we have, if it’s not by force, is a choice. If this is something one struggles with you can take a hold of this struggle by the throat and ultimately kill it through the power and glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Christians know this “muscle of restraint” very well and if you are battling these lustful thoughts towards the same sex let me assure you that YOU CAN OVERCOME IT. The Devil has loved when men and women are apart since the beginning. When did the serpent decide to strike in the garden? When the man and the woman were separated. Eve was all alone, and where was Adam? The Bible doesn’t say, but it sure is an interesting question. If you can destroy what a family was intended to be by God than you have an open lane to destroy society. There are places in this world where the population is beginning to dwindle because men and women are not having sexual intercourse. Again…The Devil.

These are just a few examples of how Satan loves to attack mankind, but we mustn’t forget that The Devil’s power pales in comparison to the power of Christ. There is no struggle between Jesus and Satan. If Jesus is the “positive” The Devil is not the “negative” of Christ. Everything Satan does is allowed by God. This is a major reason if not the reason why people disbelieve, because they cannot reconcile why an all loving, all knowing God would allow such evil to take place in the world, but that my friend, is the entire point…we are not supposed to be able to reconcile, because we are not God.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. (Ephesians 6:10-14)