black t shirt|
Satan is nothing more then God’s dog on a leash, here to do His bidding!
Remember Job?
But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips. Job 2:10
Job never once attributed evil as being Satan’s evil, He saw only God IN all things. The only power God allows Satan to have is the power to suggest to those still focused on him that he still has any power!
What’s more, the whole purpose of the so called “attack” of the enemy on Job was for one “eternal” purpose, and that purpose is found here:
The Lord said to Job: “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!” Then Job answered the LORD: “I am unworthy–how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer– twice, but I will say no more.” Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm: Job 40:1-6
When Job finally came to the end of himself, and the end of questioning God, (symbolized here by forcing himself to shut up by clasping his hand over his mouth) it was only then God spoke to him… OUT OF THE STORM!
In other words, the storm (who was God) was introduced into Job’s life for this purpose, and God used Satan as His convenient agent (dog on a leash) in using sickness, poverty, isolation, fear, and betrayal for His own planned purposes! In this case it was to bring Job to his absolute negative, so the positive power of God could fully occupy that barren and empty place, a much deeper place than before the storm!
The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Job 1:12
And in the dialogue between Jesus and Pontious Pilate: Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from (My Father) above… (John 19:11)
Job had to be planted in death, because like us, that was the only way he could discover Satan really had no power over him.
That is, with the exception of the power of the lie!
So what happened next?
Total and complete restoration, and just as an added bonus, God doubled everything Job had before his “storm” and gave him a long life to enjoy it!
After Job had prayed for his friends (comforters), the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.
The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.
After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so Job died an old man and full of years. Job 42:17
Now does that sound like Satan is acting as his own independent entity? An entity which we have been led to believe is in some kind of eternal spiritual “tug of war” battle with God to see who ultimately wins control? Where we have seen God as the white dog, fighting Satan the black dog?
It sounds more to me like just a “created angel, gone bad.” The one we know as Satan, God’s own personal dog who… well just read the following…
Having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Colossians 2:15
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death-that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15
Conclusion:
Job was a man who loved God, did everything he could to be obedient to God, and he was a “good” man. And what does it mean the Job did not sin with his lips? Could it be that Job was trying to hold onto the image of how people saw him? It doesn’t say he didn’t sin, just that he didn’t sin with his lips.
His “goodness” identity was the very thing God saw that needed to go, and so he orchestrated a plan to bring Job, the “real” and “stripped down” version of Job directly into His presence.
And for 40 or so chapters, God uses Satan to take Job down, and in every possible way a human can be taken down, all so Job can see his goodness isn’t really that good. And if it’s not enough that Job loses his family, his stuff, and his health, God then sends his closest friends to accuse him! “Job, what are you doing, or what is it you should be doing that you are not?”
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. Romans 7:15-20
Like Job, Paul also saw himself as being good, and so God sent a storm into his life. And the storm, what we know as his “thorn in the flesh” opened his eyes to the one thing Paul had that could never be stripped away from him, the revelation of God’s power IN and through his weakness… a new awareness of himself and God which came to him by way of His abundant Grace.
Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?
If I must boast, I WILL BOAST ABOUT THE THINGS THAT SHOW MY WEAKNESS. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever knows that I am not lying. II Corinthians 11:23-31
So picture Job sitting in ashes, covered with boils from head to toe, he has lost his entire family, all of his riches, and now is about to lose the one thing Job needed to lose more than anything else, his identity! Job, who was honored by the men and women who surrounded him because of what He did for God and others, now sits as a sick, broken, empty shell of the man he was before his “storm!”
So what about us?
The only possible way humans can know for sure that God will never abandon them, and that His love comes without any performance based conditions, is when God is allowed (or in my case invited) to remove everything they trust in, take them to ground zero, and reveal Himself as the… All IN All!
I know since the day I asked God to bring me to the end of myself, way back in 1983, I have been to hell and back so many times I can’t count.
But through it all I have learned it is God’s hell, and not Satan’s!
Last April a grapefruit sized tumor was discovered on my kidney, along with a life threatening infection in my spine. This past week, Linda and I received news that we have been exonerated of all criminal charges (immunity and indemnity), false charges that have been hanging over our head for the past three years, charges that could have potentially landed Linda, myself, and her 27 year old daughter in prison for years, and left us completely bankrupt for life!
I am sharing this for only one reason.
God continues to use the numerous trials and tribulations of my life to create the illusion of lack, punishment, and abandonment! And it’s here where we start out seeing all of life, everything that pertains to our life with our natural eyes. But the truth is, once you lose it all… you realize it wasn’t yours to lose in the first place. There is a freedom in “losing to gain” that goes way beyond what we have been led to believe true freedom really is!
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a “loss” because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may “gain” Christ and be found IN him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith IN Christ-the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ-yes, to know the power of His resurrection and participation IN His sufferings, becoming like him IN His death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3:7-11
Praise our God, all peoples,
let the sound of his praise be heard;
he has preserved our lives
and kept our feet from slipping.
For you, God, tested us;
you refined us like silver.
You brought us into prison
and laid burdens on our backs.
You let people ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water,
but you brought us to a place of (freedom) abundance. Psalm 66:8-12
FREEDOM… is just another word for nothing left to lose. (From the song, Me and Bobby McGee)
And Satan is nothing more than God’s dog on a leash, being used to bring us to that very place!
write by Darius