Do you like stupid criminal stories?
Like the one where a guy got the bright idea to steal an ATM machine … so late one night he drives to the bank and wraps one end of a chain around the ATM and the other end around the rear bumper on his pickup and hits the gas. But he only succeeds in ripping the bumper off his truck. Then he panics and speeds away, leaving his bumper behind for the cops to find the next morning, with his tag on it!
That’s a stupid criminal.
And in my tiny, limited, mortal brain, I always thought that the story of Lucifer, aka Satan, is the ultimate stupid criminal story. I can never wrap my head around the absurdity of it …
Picture a Being, an Entity … who has no beginning and will always be. He is all knowing, all powerful, and all present, at every place and every moment, past, present and future, all at once. He exists outside of time and space. He spoke a word and all of creation and life appeared.
And this Being created other spiritual entities called angels, who – although immortal and way more powerful and superior to humans – are still created beings. And one of these (lower case) created beings had the hutzpah to stand before his (upper case) Creator and defy Him to His face, vowing to ascend and take His very throne!
Sounds like a fool’s errand to me!
That’s what it sounds like to a lot of people unfortunately. We don’t take the “devil” very seriously. The very word conjures up caricatures in our minds of fire and pitchforks, and red cartoony creatures with tails. I suspect it pleases him that most humans don’t take him very seriously … makes his job easier and makes him an even more dangerous enemy.
But the Creator takes him seriously!
Satan was given a kingdom … he was cast out of heaven and thrown down to the physical earth where he now rules. And we became his subjects when we, too, rejected God to “rule over ourselves”.
It’s the garden of Eden story, where people believed the lies they were told and chose to follow a corrupt created being instead of the pure and holy Creator. So we in the physical realm were cut off to access of the spiritual realm and spiritually we are dead even before we die physically, which makes a lot of us not take spiritual things seriously. That nonsense is for the crazies and the fanatics.
Dead people, living in the darkness of a doomed kingdom, cannot see the danger in front of them. And who will tell them the truth?
The ruler of their doomed world, Satan? Not likely.
He has access to both the spiritual and physical realms. He knows the truth more than anyone. But he hates that truth and he hates God. Unless he’s totally delusional – which may be the case – he surely knows he can’t defeat God, but he can surely hurt God by keeping humans from finding the light and the truth.
When Christ came out of that tomb, He ripped away the “veil” that separates the unseen spiritual realm from our physical realm. One day it will be literal, but for now, when we choose to accept His sacrifice for ourselves, our spirits come back to life and we find ourselves living and communing with God via His Holy Spirit. Now we have peace with our God and new life in Christ.
As He communes with us through His Spirit and shines His light in us, showing us His truth and giving us spiritual “eyes to see”, we begin to change ... our thought patterns, our interests and goals, our relationships, our activities, the way we view the world, the unexplainable peace inside ... suddenly, life feels “off”. Because we don’t belong in this worldly kingdom anymore. We’re citizens of a different kingdom. And we’re living in a war zone …
We’re going to need some help navigating through this …