Think Like God

"Healing comes when we look at Jesus."

JESUS DESCRIBED the bored-and-need-something-to-destroy unclean spirit as wandering to-and-fro searching (Luke 11:24), and somehow the church has latched onto that as what devils do when they are no longer possessing or oppressing a person. We cast them out, they wander, they find someone, we cast them out, in a vicious circle. The church has fixated on the idea that Satan is this dark ruler over wicked forces like he has armor and weapons and organizational skills. We’ve Englished the Greek words translated “prince” and “ruler” and underthought what is a “kingdom.”

So let’s set all this straight. The devil is an idiot. That moron actually thought he could one-up God. Like, as in, God Almighty, who is and was and is to come, who always has been? Yeah, it was a dumb move and so he was kicked out. This is told us in King James lingo in Ezekiel 38. We will return to King James lingo in a moment. Next time we see that stupid idiot, he’s inhabiting a serpent. So, being humans who think too much, we make him into a serpent-like creature, which he isn’t, and the serpent into a devilish one. NEWS FLASH: God created all snakes! He made them what they are. NEWS FLESH AGAIN: God made the devil to be a beautiful angel, then when he sinned, God took it all away. So, both the serpent itself and the devil in his original and then his sinful condition were made by God.

To answer your question, Why didn’t He just do away with Satan? The answer is (a) He isn’t worried about him, and (b) He did. He sent Jesus.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)

God does not do things the way our human mind thinks. We are forever figuring out God’s moves incorrectly. We’d have Abba do some crazy power-surge thing in the midst of a battle of angels, wings clashing. Just stop. Put your thinking cap on correctly. Instead, God became a human to die as a human and let the devil think he was winning, only to find out … SURPRISE! HE’S BAAACK! God’s ways are higher than our ways. The Word of God says that in Isaiah 55:9. To hammer my point home, take what (hopefully) little knowledge you have of manmade gods and their stupid, ignorant, dumb, over-dramatized actions which all look amazingly human, and stand them up next to Jesus.

Jesus: Gentle. Kind. Patient. Healed everyone. Died for all. Rose again.
Manmade god: Angry. Vindictive. Powerhungry. Beating up other fake gods.

Do you know why God is not powerhungry? (Insert ticking clock.) BECAUSE HE’S ALL POWERFUL! Woot. Woot. Papa Spirit can, in fact, do anything He wants with barely any effort. He made the world in six days on purpose. He could have done it in milliseconds.

Your next question is, “Then why do I have to wait to be healed?” The answer is NOT “so that you grow in faith.” God is not refusing to heal you because you lack faith, don’t understand faith, don’t have enough faith, etcetera about faith. God is merciful, like everlasting mercy. He never runs out, never gets tired of being that way. It is who He is. Us, on the other hand, are impatient. Plus, pain hurts, and when we get tired mentally, we give up. I’ve been there, done that, and bought the t-shirt. I’ve had to refuse to die. Our maturity is part of the answer, but the full-and-complete answer for your situation comes only from God, and if you are asking because your dearest relative died and you don’t get it, He has broad shoulders and can take the weight of all you need to say. Then, after that, promise me, you’ll sit down, read the Word, and worship, and let Him give you peace. His desire is for you to have peace.

The devil has no peace. Peace is only found in the Light. The devil has no kingdom. He was kicked out of heaven, kicked out of the kingdom of God, and darkness is what is left when God is absent. There is only a kingdom of darkness because, again, where God is not darkness has dominion, (the meaning of the word “kingdom”). The devil is not a ruler or a prince. The original word “archon” means FIRST. The devil was the FIRST to sin and that’s not a compliment, neither is being the worst sinner in existence. The KJV was written by men familiar with being the servants of a king, so their thinking often comes out in the English words used. Our misinterpretation of the Hebrew and Greek meanings also goofs up our understanding. We can make something simple into something complicated, trying to define words in a language we don’t speak naturally. All Scripture is only interpreted by reading it with the Holy Spirit, who is our teacher. Reference: John 14:26.

Now, let’s attack the church’s continual need to cast out the “spirit of infirmity.” First, though that is NOT a devil or unclean spirit, let’s stop moving them around like chess pieces. There are evidences in the Word of God where devils or demons, if you must use that nasty word that they love and prefer and get hopped up on, were removed from the earth permanently. The Gadarene demoniac is one example. They pleaded with Jesus to not go into the abyss (Luke 8:31, “deep”) and ended up there anyway. But back to the “spirit of infirmity.” I hear this one a lot. It comes from Luke 13:11. I will now quote my mother who always says there is one word for “spirit” in the Greek, pneuma, and so we must understand its use in context through the eyes of the Spirit (like I said earlier). In this verse, Luke 13:11, it is talking about weakness of disposition. In other words, the woman had been that way so long (it says 18 years) that she was weakened by living that way. Note, next, that Jesus “loosed” her from it. This word simply means “free.” Jesus set her free, BY STRAIGHTENING HER SPINE. God gave her strength, healed her completely, and removed the weakness in her thinking. HEALING COMES WHEN WE LOOK AT JESUS, and it requires no casting but only trusting. I had days when I wanted to pitch a hissy fit and did, then had to return to my adoration of Him and put Him back into first place. I had to trust HIS TIMING, something we are simply not good at.

The devil wants us impatient. Okay. Pause here, again, for clarity. NOTE: The devil is not omnipresent. Oh, thank God. Only God can be everywhere at once, and while it’s in my thinking. He hears every word spoken everywhere. Nothing escapes Him. So stop with the “He hears some prayers and not others,” bunk. He hears all of them, and NEWS FLASH THIRD TIME: HE CARES. He always cares. He is love, and He is forever working in men’s hearts to bring them to the truth of the love of Jesus. Always working. He’s never not working. He died for all, for WHOSOEVER. We need to remember this and love one another, the greatest commandment of all. The devil is a thief, who wants to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10), but most all of the time what we hear that we label “the devil” is simply darkness in the world. Sin exists and men sin, and our thinking needs renewing, meaning “changing to be like God’s,” whose thinking is higher than ours, remember? We say, “The devil said …” way too much. No, that was a man who needs more wisdom, and all wisdom comes from God.

So, let’s commit to think before we speak and put the devil in his place, under Jesus’ feet. Let’s fall in love with our Savior and make Him the center of everything, and hear the Voice of the Spirit over men’s knowledge in the church and our own limited understanding. Because once more – WE ARE NOT IN A WAR. Jesus won the war. We are at REST. Hebrews 4. We are STANDING in place while God works on our behalf. Ephesians 6. The two weapons listed are God. Take the devil down a notch or ten million and stop calling him the enemy. He digs strife. He wants us upset and arguing, critical, and offended BECAUSE THAT IS THE NATURE OF DARKNESS. Where there is no nature of God, there is only hate.

I love you.

“He replied, ‘Like lightening falling from the sky, I see Satan exposed (for all to see) and falling from the affections of the heavenly intelligences. All Satan’s forces are like snakes and scorpions—ready to strike you—but I have given you power over them and they cannot harm you. But take no joy in the fact that evil forces flee before you; rather, rejoice in the knowledge that you have partaken of the Remedy and are registered as ‘healed’ in the books of heaven.’” (Luke 10:18-20, Remedy)

“There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” (Hebrews 4:9-10)


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com