The enemy of our soul known as “the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray” (Rev 12:9), established his kingdom of evil on earth at some point prior to the creation of Adam. Waiting in the garden of Eden, Satan manifested a spirit of deception through the serpent, and in so doing succeeded in convincing our forefather to question God and disobey one single command: “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the know-ledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Gen 2:15, 17). By an act of deliberate disobedience, serious consequences resulted for all of future mankind.
Referred to as the Fall, Adam’s perfect relationship to God was lost and both he and Eve were driven out of the garden, losing further access to the tree of life. To a degree, Satan gained power over the world such that Jesus didn’t dispute this authority when tempted by the devil in the wilderness (Luke 4:6,7). Ever since that trespass by Adam, Satan has continued to deceive the world through a kingdom of evil forces in the heavenly realms described by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesians. In this letter, Paul describes these forces of evil as organized into an empire having well defined rank and order much like a military command with Satan as commander-in-chief.
The manner by which these forces of evil bring the “diseases of Egypt” upon the people of God is no mystery. Their malicious methods were used successfully on God’s chosen people in the Old Testament times and we’re to learn from their missteps: “These things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did” (1 Cor 10:6). Paul writes that what took place with the Israelites was written down as a warning so we might be careful to not fall as did they did. It’s a warning to avoid opening the door to demonic attack by disobeying God’s authority and His revealed will whenever we assume that we are standing firm (10:7-12).
Satan’s scheme has never changed over the ages. Being a “liar and the father of lies,” the devil masquerades as an angel of light in an effort to have us challenge truth as revealed in the word of God. The basis terms of covenant which God has made with His people are given in Deuteronomy 28. “If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands…,” blessings are promised. “However, if you do not obey the LORDyour God and do not carefully follow all his commands…,” curses will come (the withdrawing of blessings) including every kind of sickness. Man’s refusal to submit to God’s authority will remove His protective ‘covering’ against Satan.
We have an illustration of Satan’s deception given by Jesus in a parable of the so-called prodigal son (Lk 15:11-32). Actually both sons demonstrate ways by which the devil is able to keep believers from enjoying their inheritance of being in godly relationship with a loving heavenly Father. In the case of the younger son, he was living under the covering and blessing of his father until he willfully chose to separate from his father’s presence in order to seek the pleasures of the world. Until that time, all his needs had been graciously met and he was able to overcome temptation.
Then he found himself bewitched by lures of a world governed by Satan….the very thing of which John warns believers clearly: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world” (1 Jn 2:15,16). Like Demas who deserted ministry with Paul because of love for the world (2 Tim 4:10), the younger son succumbed to temptation and found himself living in a pigpen.
Temptation will occur for consecrated believers even as it took place for Jesus during His testing in the wilderness just prior to beginning His earthly ministry. Temptation in and of itself is not sin, however. Jesus was tempted in every manner as we are, yet remained without sin because He rejected the enticing of Satan. But the younger son in the parable didn’t reject enticement. Lure of worldly pleasures and perhaps peer pressure led to the squandering of his inheritance in a “distant country,” the latter referring to a separation from previous close fellowship with his father.
As Jesus warns, we cannot serve two masters. Eventually we come to a place of loving one and turning our back on the other. Satan is well aware of this and will employ every imaginable scheme to turn us away from constant fellowship with Jesus as the Lord of everything in our lives. People talk of God hiding His face, but only two things cause God to do such, namely unbelief and sin. “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you” (Isa 59:2). Attraction by the world can prove so gradual and seeming innocent that one is ensnared almost without awareness unless a daily effort is made to examine one’s consecration.
While the younger son failed to remain in constant fellowship with his father, the older son succumbed to a different scheme of Satan. A common failing observed today, it was walking in spiritual poverty instead of appreciating the fullness of salvation and enjoying fellowship with God through union with Christ. The older son failed to appropriate the unlimited partnership with his father as expressed by the words of his father, “My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours” (Lk 15:31). There are two things in the older son’s attitude about which we should take note.
The first is a self-righteous attitude toward his younger brother who temporarily had fallen away from faith but now was “alive again” (15:32). Believers must never forget that Jesus came to save the vilest sinner, lest we fail to welcome into fellowship those of ill repute as well as those repenting of failure as did King David. A second point concerns words of the father who tells the older son, “Everything I have is yours.” There was to be no limit to their relationship. What Christ did isn’t just about forgiveness. He came so we might have His life indwell and prosper in all things.
All riches in Christ are intended to be ours and “everything I have is yours” is not to be afflicted by disease. Scripture is clear that one benefit of being in Christ is being healed by His wounds. Our responsibility is to search our hearts for spiritual roots that may be hindering God’s healing such as bitterness, anxiety about tomorrow, envy of others and self-rejection, and then to deal with these issues through repentance. To which class of believer do you belong? Living with love for the world, only to end up in a pig pen like the prodigal? Or is it failing to live in rich fullness through Calvary? Whatever is the case, just hear God telling you, “Everything I have is yours.”
