People in the church have the mistaken idea that Satan can do whatsoever he desires when he desires, but that is not true. Satan has no more authority on this earth than a gnat unless man lends him his. Have you ever thought about this? When Satan attempted to usurp the throne of God and failed; what did God do to him? Did He just slap him on the wrist and tell him he was a bad angel? No! God sentenced Him to an eternity of hell, kicked him out of heaven, and exiled him to a place far from His presence. Since God still had plans for Satan; He created for him a temporary holding cell complete with boundaries he cannot cross. He was barred from God's presence except on certain rare occasions when he was called to report his activities to God. [Job 1:6 & 2:1] Whereas God is orderly and organized and all of these things were placed in Satan at his creation, but after his rebellion he became the exact opposite of the being he had once been. At one time he was the angel of light, the sum of perfection as God described him; [Ezekiel 28:12-15] but God says he has now become the angel of darkness, the author of confusion and every evil thing, he is a liar, a murderer, a thief, and the enemy of all that is good. 

 

In the first and second verses of Genesis the bible tells us, (1) "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (2) The earth was without form, and void: and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters."  Theologians tell us there is an unknown period of time between verse one and verse two of Genesis one. The bible says the heavens and the earth were completed in verse one, but something happened that changed all that by verse two. My next statement is purely speculation, but Satan being a spirit and spiritual forces being greater than natural elements had the power to change the solid consistency of the natural earth back into its original form in his attempt to keep God from forming anything of substance within Satan's exiled area. I also believe Satan knew that the heavens and the earth was going to be the future home of God's highest creation that would be made in the very image of God with Godly powers to rule over the heavens and the earth as well as Satan and those angels that had been evicted from God's heavenly kingdom. At the time the original earth was created in verse one of Genesis one; I do not believe there was any darkness in God's kingdom, and no darkness appeared in it until after Satan's rebellion and exile. Where upon his eviction from the presence of God, Satan turned the area he was confined to into a chaotic mess and turned it to darkness in his anger. But, as the time came for the implementation of God's plan for the creation of man; when God said, "Let there be light." He was telling the Holy Spirit,"It's time!" And the place of Satan's exile light up just as it had been at the first; and when the light appeared Satan knew God was about to implement His plan for the creation of man; and his place of exile was about to come under the dominion of both God and man. 

 

Our next question would have to be: "Why would God exile Satan to the area of His creation that He planned to make a home for His children?" The answer to that would have to be: since God created every spiritual being in His creation with a free will; there was always a chance God's man would use his free will to rebel against his creator just like Lucifer had done. If there was going to be another rebellion; it would not be in heaven but in a confined area outside the gates of God's heavenly domain. Well, we know from reading God's account of Adam in the Garden of Eden that Adam did in fact use his free will to rebel against the commands of God and gave away his God given authority to the devil. Where upon Satan used that dominion to bring death and destruction into the life of man and earth.

 

That leads to the question: why didn't God just automatically sentence man to hell as He had Lucifer and his angels? The answer is: angels are not made in the image and likeness of God; and they do not have a portion of God's own Being in them. Man is God's crowning achievement. He is God's highest creation. God did not make man on the order of angels. Man was made on the order of God with all of his abilities and attributes. We are the very children of God Almighty Himself! We were not created to bow the knee to anyone or anything except our Father. We were made to rule right alongside God Himself. Listen to what the writer of Hebrews tells us in [Hebrews 2:6-9] "What is man (Adam) that you are mindful of him, or the son of man (the descendants of Adam) that you take care of him? You have made him (man) a little lower than than the angels: (that word angels in this Scripture is a misinterpretation of the original Hebrew word. The word is 'Elohim' in the Hebrew Lexicon and is the same name used throughout scripture for God Himself.) You have crowned him (man) with glory and honor, and set him (man) over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his (mans) feet. For in that He put all things under him, (man) He left nothing that not under him. (man) But now we do not yet see all things put under him, (man) but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels (Elohim) for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone."

 

Beloved, angels were created to be servants of God and man and nothing more. [Hebrews 1:14] They possess great power, but it is nothing compared to the power of God and man. God has not left us helpless in this life. He has given us the creative ability to create a life that is on the plane of God by using the words of God as our substance from which to construct it. Whether we know it or not, we are creating our life using the words of somebody. If we are not using God's Words, we are using the thoughts and ideas we receive from Satan. What we have is exactly what we have been speaking. Now Jesus told us in Matthew 16:23] "Get behind me Satan! You are an offense to me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men." There are a couple of very interesting statements in this Scripture besides Jesus demonstrating the authority of a sinless man to command Satan to leave our presence. The majority of the church has never been taught nor have they realized that a person's sins that have been forgiven makes that man a sinless and pure man in the eyes of God just like Jesus was when He was on the earth. And if we are forgiven we have the authority to command Satan to,"Get behind us!" just as Jesus did and Satan and all of the evil he has brought into our life has to depart from our presence. Brothers and sisters, Do you understand what I am saying? Satan cannot stay in the presence of a pure and sinless man once he has been commanded to leave. If we are forgiven; it is as though we have never sinned, and all of the authority God gave Adam in the beginning is ours to use through the death and suffering Jesus went through on our behalf. And when Jesus who is our example commanded Satan to leave a person, everything evil left the person. That means sickness, disease, demon possession, everything that is of Satan left him. And that which is of God came into the person and replaced the sickness, demon possession or whatever had been there before.  And when Jesus said of Satan,"You are an offense to me." He meant evil is an offense to a Holy God and should be to a Holy man. If Satan is an offense to the Son of God, he should be an offense to the children of God. If evil and sin isn't offensive to us, we need to check our relationship with God because something is amiss, and it isn't on God's end; it's on our end. The statement, "You are not mindful of the things of God, but of men." tells us that Satan doesn't have a clue about what is going on in heaven. He can't know because he cannot escape the limitations of his exile. He is only mindful of the things of men, and he wouldn't be mindful of the things of men if men would not give him the time of day and commanded him to go where he is headed at some future time.

 

Dear God, help us to understand that you are not weak; and your children are not to be weak. We were created strong and expected to rule with you over all of your creation. And for those people that will lay aside their desires and take up their cross and follow the Lord; will rule and reign with Him over all of creation for all of eternity. Praise God. Brethren, don't you see who you are? Rise up and take your position in the body of Christ. Get the sin out of your life and make your life count for something. Stop complaining about the trouble you are facing; use your trouble as an opportunity to exercise your faith and take authority over your troubles in the name of Jesus; command Satan to get out of your face; and your life will straighten out. If you will not use your God given authority; don't expect things to get better. They won't. They will keep getting worse until Satan has taken everything you own and in the end your very life. One day I was talking to the Lord about my problems, and He said to me very plainly; "Stop complaining to me! I don't have what you need. I didn't take it from you; the devil did. And if you want it back; get in his face and tell him you want it. It belongs to you; it doesn't belong to him. I don't have a need for it, and neither does he. You have the authority on the earth, he doesn't. Now use it!"  In no uncertain terms the Lord told me if we are a Christian and Satan has robbed from us, he did so to keep it out of our hands. If we don't have what God has blessed us with; we can't use it to benefit the kingdom of God. So if we have been robbed from whether it is in our finances, our health or our sanity; know that God didn't take it from us, and if we want it back; we are going to have to exercise our authority and demand Satan return it to us. That is the only way we will get it back. Understand this also: everything in God's kingdom operates upon the premise of who has the authority to do what. We have been given the authority to rule with Christ, and if we have been saved for some time our heavenly Father fully expects us to use the authority He has given us to rule with Him. Ignorance is not an acceptable excuse in the kingdom of God. He has given us a sound mind and He expects us to use that sound mind for something other than a storage place for the garbage we see on television. If we don't study His Word and if we don't use the authority He has given us; we have no right to complain to Him about the things that are going on in our life we don't like. OTBP