REALLY

"of what was never a war"

REALLY, THE STORY of the devil is the story of sin. Sin is bigger. The devil’s part in it small, in the long run. We, the church, have flipped the script. We’ve made the devil huge and sin a crazy offshoot of his evil. This is, as I said, backwards. Sin tempted him. He didn’t create sin for his purpose. And God knew it would happen long before Satan existed and had foreordained Jesus (1 Peter 1:20).

God is Creator. He made all places, earth and hell, heavens and the universe. The fact it multiplies still, the stars continuing to form, is a picture of His eternal life. The intricacies of it, from the smallest unseen atoms to enormous beasts, show His wisdom. God created angels for His good purpose. Nothing He’s formed was meant to live without His nature, His goodness. His will.

Sin altered that, and began with Satan, who was weakened by it, forever disconnected from all that God is. He fell like lightning from heaven (Luke 10:18) and was so changed, he had to inhabit a serpent to be heard. Eve was deceived to lower her gaze from Elohim to admiration of the tree, in the same way Satan was deceived in a false image of himself. He no longer looked to God as a messenger of God (Hebrews 1:14), for which he was created, but looked at who he thought he’d be. He was weaker, not stronger.

This is pictured in John’s Revelation 12, which is, as I said when God showed it to me, “the devil’s overinflated opinion of himself.” The chapter is a picture of history and not a foretelling. Note Satan failed at all he set out to do because God is all-knowing. Nothing is hidden from Him. And He’d made Jesus the solution.

“about judgment, because the evil ruler of this world has been condemned.” (John 16:11, Williams)

Jesus came to judge and condemn the devil (John 16:11). But greater, He defeated sin. Sin is the problem, the enemy, if you will. Although that word must be taken from church talk. We want an enemy to fight, but there isn’t one. The devil is destroyed (rendered useless), Hebrews 2:14. The works of the devil, these being fallen angels or devils or unclean spirits, are destroyed (dissolved), 1 John 3:8. It is a complete victory of what was never a war. We like to think of Jesus as sword-carrying, and He is pictured with one in the Word, but He didn’t fight a battle. He obeyed even unto death (Philippians 2:8).

“And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:8)

Most teach spiritual warfare then turn around and teach Jesus being crushed by Satan when He was dead. These conflict with each other. Both are wrong. Jesus made it clear what He’d come to do, that He would die and rise again. He showed His obedience to the Father by submitting to trial without making any defense. He even stated that He could call for 12 legions of angels, yet He didn’t do that (Matthew 26:53). There was no battlefield, no opposing armies, no weaponry. God didn’t descend with a sword. The victory was accomplished when Jesus died. Because He was alive in spirit. He is Christ, the Anointed One, filled without measure with the Holy Spirit (John 3:34), who cannot die.

Satan came face-to-face with a living God, and nothing has been the same since.

It is our imaginations and our not listening to the Spirit of God that has given the church a false image. We apply it to many verses of Scripture, turning everything into warfare. But God has given us Shabbat. Every single day is Sabbath rest. And instead, what looks like us being called to fight is revelation of changed thinking. We must come up higher to God’s perspective and stop seeing things in our human, sinful view. We are peacemakers (Matthew 5:9) because we are peaceful. Peace is God’s purpose, His nature. And He didn’t have to fight to bring it to earth. He simply is.

Photo by Jose Manuel Esp on Unsplash


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