“For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.” (Heb. 10:34)
And they say, “You will own nothing and be happy.”
This supposed new world order says, “Build back better,” our Father in heaven says with all authority, “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” (Rev. 21:5a)
We do not fear Satan any more than we fear anything else, but we do have respect for the position that the Living God has placed him in. We who have been born-again will not taste of the second death, he will suffer it forever, we are tempted by him who was created to tempt, he deceived himself.
“Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.” (Eze. 28:15)
We are saved by grace through faith.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1)
He is a deceiver; we are not unaware of his wiles.
If our adversary notices and wants to personally attack one who is hid in Christ, he must ask permission to do so, but not in all things, we are in the world, and so are in a manner subject to the evil that the god of this world has been allowed to impose upon it. I offer in part 1st Corinthians 10:13 as a validation to this statement. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
These temptations are common to all mankind, Satan does not need to ask permission to tempt anyone, saved or lost, we have the same opportunity, if you will, to fall into temptations the same as the brute beasts, the wicked do.
“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;” (Heb. 2:14)
“But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;” (Heb. 10:12)
Satan can bring pain into your life, he can bring suffering, he can even kill your flesh, if God the Father gives him permission to, he can do nothing to those who are the righteousness of God in Christ unless he asks first. But when Adam chose to sin, when the curse was placed on this earth, Satan became the ruler of this planet, he was given, as it were, a set of rules to follow, and those rules have never, will never, and can never be broken by him.
His desire is to see the name of the Living God dishonored, to cause you to doubt the word of the Most High, and as he did in the garden, he will use others to do so. Eve was deceived, yet the choice was still hers to make.
By showing us the pleasures of the world, he attempts to draw us away from the pleasures to come, by revealing the evil of this world, he tries to make us doubt the Sovereignty of the Living God. When trials and tribulations, pain and suffering are lovingly given to us by our Father in heaven, he attempts to cause us to deny His care for us.
The temptations my friends can be the last of our concerns at times, doubting His love for us who died for us is the greater sin.
Go back to the beginning of this short letter to you and reread that verse, can you understand that love, can you emulate it? Can you find hope in Christ when all seems hopeless, can you love Him still when all is taken away from you, when the pain will not abate, when grief and sorrow are your constant companions?
“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.” (Job 13:15)
You will be held accountable if you follow the world, if you heed that temptation, if the voice of our adversary keeps ringing in your ears and you succumb to it. He is, for all intents and purposes, simply doing his job, he is a tool in the hands of the Creator.
Accept everything that comes upon you, be accountable for your decisions in them.
