Know Your Enemy & Know God

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children (Hosea 4:6). 

        Have you ever really wondered why sin is so enticing, why it looks so beautiful upon first glance, or what it feels "right"? We always here how bad sin is and its effects and how we are sinners by nature, but we never hear the beginning story; we hear so little about the creator of sin - Satan. We are in a battle everyday: us vs. world, spirit vs. flesh, good vs. evil. These dichotomies have always been present but we forget that we are in an ongoing battle. Whether participating in a fight, match, battle, competition, or war, it is always suggested to know your opponent. As Christians, we are at war and battle with sin DAILY. I read a startling but powerful statement by a pastor that said, "We should fight to kill sin every day because every day, it's fighting to kill us. Everything that we encounter is a spiritual fight if we know it or not. Our feeble and weak flesh is susceptible to the enemy's cunning traps so easily because we either have no idea who he is or what he's capable of doing. Many of us grew up with this elementary concept that Satan has horns and a pitch fork and is the “big baddie” that is out to get us. There is some partial truth to this: he IS out to get us. Since we do not know what we are really up against and do not know what he's capable of, we are blindly throwing punches into thin air hoping to land a blow. We dwell and live on his turf and must know what his plans are, what his purpose is, and how he plans on pursuing them both. Ironically, it seems that we do not know about our enemy because we are scared, and sometimes extremely frightened, to talk about him. We need to know what the Word (God) says about him so we can know how to prepare and stay prepared when he comes. He is no myth, no fairytale, or story told to describe evil but is as real as God and his eternal Word is.

In a nutshell, Satan was the angel over music and worship in Heaven, or the Anointed Cherub, that was cast out by God because he let his pride, ego, and vanity get to him. He was, the greatest thing that God created. God literally gives out a fine description of who Satan was before his fall.

Ezekiel 28: 12-17; 12) “You were the perfection of wisdom and beauty. 13) You were in Eden, the garden of God. Your clothing was adorned with every precious stone – red carnelian, chyrsolite, white moon-stone, beryl, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald – all beautifully crafted for you and set in the finest gold. They were given to you on the day you were created. 14) I ordained and anointed you as the mighty angelic guardian (or guardian cherub). You had access to the holy mountain of God and walked among the stones of fire. 15) You were blameless in all you did from the day you were created until the day evil was found in you. 16) Your great wealth filled you with violence, and you sinned. So I banished you from the mountain of God. I expelled you, O mighty guardian, from your place among the stones of fire. 17) Your heart was filled with pride because of all your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of you splendor” (New Living Translation).

This was Lucifer - beautiful, anointed, and full of wisdom, magnificent, flawless, and perfect - until he let sin seep into his heart and made it evident externally. He literally had it all but wanted more; he wanted to exalt himself above God so he lost it all. It is extremely clear where we get the spirit of pride, greed, vanity, selfishness, and ego-centrism from.

 Isaiah 14: 12-15; 12) How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13) For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14) I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. 15) Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit (King James Version).

I do not know where the idea stemmed from, but Satan is no fool or idiot. Never take him for some brainless moron that gets “lucky” when you fall or stumble. He is intently strategic and purposeful and knows how to bait and intimidate with a roar. Satan is called a roaring lion because it is the roar of a lion that drives its prey into traps (in our case SIN). He has been in the business of making sin look good since the fall of man. Genesis 3:6 describes how Eve "was convinced and the fruit looked so fresh and delicious, and it would also make her wise". Even after God's very specific commandment to Adam and Eve not to eat of the forbidden fruit, they disobeyed anyhow. Sin looked that good and was presented so cunningly and deceivingly at the same time. We think we are strong to take on sin and we think we can stand against it on our own will and might but we are fooling ourselves. We are powerless and slaves to sin without the limitless power of God through JESUS, His Blood and His Holy Spirit. Even Michael, one of God's mightiest and strongest angels, could only rebuke Satan through that wonderful and everlastingly powerful name, Jesus. Today, in our world, we flirt with sin like it is a date and always kiss and tell. We forget how strong sin is and how strong the one behind it is too. Little intended white lies, partial truths, sexual immorality (but not sexual intercourse), shacking/cohabitation (living together without being married), "borrowing" but never giving back, cursing/using profanity, unforgiveness or whatever subtle sin it may be, sin is sin. As Christians, we should not be determining which sins are appropriate for an occasion or which sin is "not as bad" as the other one. We must stop sticking up for the one thing that is not only separating us from God's heart and will for our lives but killing us in the long-run and sending us quickly to Hell. God hates sin but loves the sinner and so should we. This is not to say that we will not be tempted because even Jesus was tempted. When Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by Satan, Satan distorted the Word of God to try to get Jesus to fall. Satan is no fool and knows the Word too. The difference with Satan using the Word and God using the Word, is Satan always has a clever way to misconstrue it in a sick, demented, twisted way that thwarts God's meaning. Satan takes it completely out of context or puts it in context to fit sin accordingly (sounds familiar huh). But each time, Jesus resisted the enemy. We are bound to be tempted by Satan's whispers; that is inevitable. However, James 4:7 tells us to submit to God, resist the enemy and he will flee. This is why it is devastatingly important that we stay under God's protection. Satan and sin may be strong, but I know for a fact that God's love, grace, power, anointing, NAME, and mercy was, is, and forever will be Supernaturally Greater. Period.

Last I checked, we were still Children of God and hold within us the same Holy Spirit according to Acts 2:4 today. The same breath that God breathed into Adam and Eve still exists in us now! Remind yourself: THIS IS A RIGGED FIGHT; YOU ARE ON THE WINNING TEAM! We may have been born sinners but, because of Christ, we were born to be reconciled. We are more than Conquerors. Greater is He that is within us, than He that is in the world. We can do ALL things through Christ that strengthens us. We are only victorious because of GOD and nothing else. We are nothing without God and we are literally powerless without Him. Although the enemy is deadly, the God within you is deadlier. The Holy Ghost that dwells within you and that is present around you is a Weapon of Mass Destruction. Jesus did not just deliver a supernatural gift from Heaven but gave us a HOLY POWER! Only because of God we win!