|
Satan's
Kingdom. Satan's Fall
From
Heaven's Highest to Hell's Lowest
by
Pastor John Hamel
Fortunately
we have a very good account of not only Satan’s origin, but where
he is ultimately going.
The
Bible says God created Satan to do good, not evil.
Holy God did not create evil within Satan.
Evil creates itself. Satan
was created with a free-will and free-will always carries with it the
potential for evil. Free-will carries with it the potential to turn away from God and to
cease to be like God.
There was no
evil in Satan when Holy God created him, only free-will.
God
does not create robots. He
creates moral free agents who can live for Him or against Him, all as a
conscious act of their own free-will. Angels
and human beings must choose to love God.
God will force no one to love Him for that would be
manipulation and control.
God craves voluntary love. This
is also why all human beings crave voluntary love, because they are created in God’s
image. (Genesis 1:26)
Satan
was created with free-will just like you and me, and he chose to use his
will to rebel against God. Up
until this point there was no evil found in him, only the potential for
evil. That is the risk God was
willing to take to ultimately end up surrounded by a family of human beings
and angels who came to Him to love Him, as an act of their own free-will.
Love is not love unless it has someone to be loosed upon.
Human
beings take the same risk when they marry.
Marriage carries with it the potential for great love or great
destruction. Human beings enter
into marriage believing the best because they are created in God’s image.
Having children also has the potential for great love or great
destruction. Human beings are
willing to take the risk that comes with having children because they crave
to love and to be loved, just like God.
Out
of His great desire to love and to be loved God was willing to take the same
risk creating Lucifer that He took when He created all of the angels and
Adam and Eve.
Satan’s
Roots Can Be Traced Directly to Heaven
“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!
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 upon the mount of the
congregation in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of
the clouds, I will be like the Most High God.
Yet thou shalt be brought down to Hell to the sides of the pit.”
(Isaiah 14:12-16)
Evil
did not exist anywhere in creation up until the point when Lucifer used his
will to attempt to overtake the Most High God.
Evil came forth from Lucifer. One could even say it was created by Lucifer,
as a direct result of his misusing his God-given free-will.
As
we will see, Lucifer, who later had his name changed to Satan
beginning in the book of Job,
was originally created to oversee all the worship in Heaven.
One might even refer to him as God’s Executive Vice-President next
to the Trinity.
Lucifer
blew his position of honor through pride.
He began to believe his gifts were not gifts after all, but intrinsic,
special abilities that he cooked up on his own. Lucifer’s fall was a
direct result of believing a lie about himself. That
is what pride does, it believes lies about oneself.
Pride always has the same result.
Pride is destructive. Pride
is predictable. Anyone who follows Lucifer's example of pride will
soon fall even as Lucifer fell.
More
Details Regarding Satan’s Roots
In
the passage we will look at now, God is speaking to the Prophet Ezekiel and
is referring to Satan who had possessed the King of Tyrus.
This will become clearer.
“Moreover
the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation
upon the King of Tyrus and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou
sealest up the sum, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.” (Ezekiel
28:11-12)
Lucifer
was the epitome of angelic creation and the only one in all of Scripture
described as “perfect in beauty.” He
was once an Archangel.
“Thou
hast been in Eden, the Garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering,
the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper,
the sapphire, the emerald and the carbuncle, and gold: The workmanship of
thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast
created.” (Ezekiel 28:13)
Ezekiel
lived 3000 years after Adam and Eve lived in the Garden.
Adam and Eve were no longer alive in Ezekiel’s day.
No one else alive on Earth at that time had been in the Garden 3000 years earlier,
only Lucifer. It is not possible that the Holy Spirit speaking through
Ezekiel could be speaking to anyone other than Lucifer here.
Notice,
Lucifer had precious stones for his covering.
We still see this today in the music industry where musicians cover
themselves with robes, rings, gemstones, etc.
In many, though not all cases, this is a perversion of Lucifer’s former anointing.
We see this particularly demonstrated in the lives of homosexual
entertainers such as Elton John, Liberace, etc.
This
passage also reveals that tabrets and pipes were built into Lucifer making
him a walking worship ministry. There
can be no doubt that he was Heaven’s ultimate worship leader.
To this day Lucifer is intimidated by true, humble, anointed worship leaders because he
is envious of them bringing praises to God.
This is why Lucifer tempts so many to take their musical gifts out of
the Church and bring them into the secular world to be perverted and
misused.
Worship
leaders, above all others, must continually guard against the spirit of
pride.
Many wrongly believe that
because they are anointed to bring people into the presence of God with
music, in order
that Ministers may preach more effectively, that they, too, can do just as
good a job preaching as any Minister. This
is far from true. One must have the
anointing to preach. Just
because someone is gifted and anointed in one area does not mean that they are gifted
and anointed in
all areas.
Many
anointed worship leaders and musicians have wreaked havoc upon the Body of
Christ, attempting to stand in the Office of the Prophet or the Pastor when
they were not anointed to do so. Sadly, Christian television has been a
great promoter of this particular error.
Lucifer
Was Created
Notice
also God told Ezekiel that Lucifer was “created.”
He could not have been referring to the King of Tyrus being created
because Adam was the only man created by God.
He is referring to a former angel, Lucifer, who was possessing a
world leader known as the King of Tyrus.
“Thou
art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: Thou wast
upon the holy mountain
of
God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.”
(Ezekiel 28:14)
This
is a reference to Lucifer having once been covered by the radiant Glory of
God. That Glory equipped him to lead worship in Heaven beyond man’s
present ability and even beyond that which man is capable of understanding.
God told Ezekiel that He had “set” Lucifer so, meaning he was
created by Holy God for that very purpose.
Evidently,
the
“holy mountain
of
God” reveals that Lucifer had access to the elevated place where
God abides.
The
“stones of fire” Lucifer walked in the midst of is believed to reveal
that Lucifer once walked in the very presence of God without being consumed.
“Thou
wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity
was found in thee.” (Ezekiel 28:15)
Someone
once said, “I don’t believe Lucifer could have been perfect if evil was
found in him.” I said, “Then
you don’t believe the Bible, because the Bible says he was perfect from
the very day he was created, meaning there was no imperfection in him.”
The
Bible is to be taken literally, unless it is very obviously figurative.
Even when it is figurative, we are to then look for the literal meaning.
If the Bible says Lucifer was perfect and free of imperfection, then
that is exactly what he was.
The
term “iniquity was found in thee” becomes clearer by focusing on the
word “found” which means “appeared, occurred, originated and came
forth.”
As stated at the beginning of this study, with free-will comes
the potential for disaster. But
because God is family-oriented and not robot-oriented, He went ahead and
created men and angels with free-will so they could choose whether or not to
love Him. No one is gratified by
forced, controlled, robotic love.
From
Heaven's Highest to Hell's Lowest
“By
the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with
violence, and thou hast sinned: Therefore I will cast thee as profane out of
the
mountain
of
God
: And I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones
of fire.” (Ezekiel 28:16)
Lucifer
had in his possession possibly more power than any created being. But
out of his lust for even more power, he became violent.
He sinned and deliberately set himself against God for the express
purpose of killing Him.
Why did
God let it come to that? After
all, He knew when He created Lucifer that the potential existed for rebellion.
The answer is because it is impossible to have voluntary love without
trust.
From
eternity past Holy God determined that He would surround Himself with moral
free-will agents who came to Him to love Him as a conscious act of their own
God-given free-will. A risky
move indeed, but one that will ultimately pan out for all of eternity.
God
said to Lucifer, “I will cast thee out as profane.”
Beauty became the beast through misuse of Lucifer's free-will.
The word “profane” means “word-breaking, stained, polluted,
prostitute and defiled instrument, as in music.”
Lucifer
literally went from Heaven’s highest
executive, next to the Trinity, to
Hell’s lowest over one single, prideful
decision, “I will exalt myself above the Throne of God.”
“Thine
heart was lifted up because of thy beauty; thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by
reason of thy brightness: I will
cast thee to the ground. I will
lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.” (Ezekiel 28:17)
When
someone begins to become obsessed with themselves, their beauty and/or their
gifts, their heart becomes lifted up with pride. When that happens, the
Spirit of God and the anointing upon them are thrown
right out the window. All gifts,
all talents, all abilities and all good comes from God and from God alone.
(James 1:17)
The Apostle Paul
himself said, “I am what I am by the grace of God.” (1 Corinthians
15:10)
The
Apostle Paul also said the following, "For ye see your calling,
brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world
to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to
confound the things that are mighty; and base things of the world and things
which are despised, hath God chosen, yeah, and things which are not, to
bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in His
presence." (1 Corinthians 1:26-29)
It
is important that those called to any type of Gospel Ministry, particularly
music Ministry, keep this one thing in mind. They were chosen because they
are foolish, weak, base and despised, not because they are special. To
forget this is to follow in the footsteps of Lucifer.
God
also said of Lucifer “thou hast corrupted thy wisdom.”
So many
wonderful Ministries have been destroyed when people got into pride over the gifts God
gave them. The worship leader
wrongly thinks because he can sing he should be the Pastor.
Or the Pastor wants to be an Apostle
or a Prophet.
These are good ways to die prematurely.
God gives someone a new car and they want two.
God gives someone a new home and they want another house on the lake.
Next thing you know, they are not even going to Church anymore because
they are too busy working on the homes and driving around in the cars God gave them.
Prayer and fellowship with God get thrown right out the window.
I would rather ride the bus and be anointed than to drive a Rolls
Royce and lose my anointing and credibility.
God
said to Lucifer in his pride, “I will cast thee to the ground.”
Anytime anyone deliberately transgresses the known laws of
God particularly concerning pride, they
go into a tailspin and are now on a collision course with tragedy.
They
risk losing everything from health to prosperity and joy. This is not God’s plan.
The
path of the righteous is to grow brighter and brighter, not sicker, broker
and meaner. (Proverbs 4:18)
Pride's
Guarantee: "I Will Bring You Low"
Everyone
knows someone who was cast to the ground because they were blinded by their
own self-importance and self-righteousness.
We must never allow our good preaching, singing, administrative skills or
any talents corrupt us because of pride.
God resists the proud but He gives grace to the humble. (James
4:6-10)
God
told Satan, “I will lay thee before kings.”
Every Born Again Christian in the world
is called to help God with this one. We
are all called to expose Lucifer (Satan) before the nations of the world.
We are called to expose Satan as
the one who causes divorce, pornography, addiction, manipulation, fear,
hatred, unbelief, etc. We are all called to set the
captives free in Jesus’ Name.
Satan
is a wicked, cruel taskmaster, an accuser, a tormentor, a liar and a
deceiver. All
Christians, from the youngest to the oldest, are given authority over
him. (James 4:7)
“Thou
hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the
iniquity of thy traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst
of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth
in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the
people shall be astonished at thee: Thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt
thou be anymore.” (Ezekiel 28:18-19)
The
word “sanctuaries” is “consecrated places.”
Another clear reference to the fact that Lucifer/Satan once held one of
the highest places of spiritual authority.
But he defiled God’s holiness in his life through pride and
rebellion. How easily the
Christian can defile God’s holiness in their life through pride and rebellion.
Although
the Bible says Lucifer became defiled by the multitude of his iniquities, it
all started with one primary sin – the sin of pride.
He stopped exercising mastery over his free-will in one area and it
spread like a cancer into every area of his existence.
We
have seen in this study clear evidence of both Satan’s existence and his
origin. He does not want you to
believe that he really exists.
If you do believe, he does not want you to know his back has been broken
by Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection and ascension.
“I
will bring forth a fire from the midst of thee” is a clear reference to
the fire that created him, fire he once walked in the midst of so freely,
drawing his very life from it. That
same fire of God will destroy him from the inside.
There is no
chance for repentance for Lucifer/Satan.
The chaos and destruction he brought to God’s creation will not be
forgiven. God permanently decreed his destruction when He said, "I
will bring thee to ashes upon the earth.”
Everyone who ever lived since Adam will one day look and say, “Is
that the one who was behind every wicked world power? Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, Nazi Germany, Communism, Iran
and Islam? I expected someone
much bigger and more powerful.
Why is he so frail and weak? Listen to him beg for mercy.
Why was I afraid of him?”
Scripture
Reveals Satan’s Ultimate Destiny
Jesus
cast Satan out of Heaven and into the Earth, eventually stripping him of
power, and anointing Believers to incarcerate him until His return.
At that time God’s angel will come and lock him in the pit of Hell
for all of eternity.
In his
Patmos Island vision, the Apostle
John actually saw Satan’s final destiny.
“And
I saw an angel come down from Heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit
and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old
serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. And
he cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him,
that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should
be fulfilled and after that he must be loosed a little season … and the
devil that deceived them was cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone, where
the Beast and the False Prophet are and shall be tormented day and night
forever and ever.” (Revelation 20:1-3, 10)
Lucifer
was cast out of Heaven for his rebellion, cursed in the Garden of Eden,
judged at
Calvary, defeated in Hell and sentenced ultimately to the
Lake
of Fire
forever.
Cast out, cursed,
judged, defeated and sentenced does not sound like someone that anyone who belongs
to Christ should ever fear for any reason.
Jesus
said, “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions,
and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt
you.” (Luke 10:19)
However,
it is worth stating that if Heaven’s most anointed and powerful
Archangel
could fall out of the very presence of God so easily, Believers best watch
themselves.
Yes, Jesus did say no
one could take us out of His hand, but He never said we could not fall or
jump out of His hand through pride and other sins.
Being
placed in God’s hands and deliberately staying in God’s hands are two
different things altogether.
There
is a lot a Christian can learn from a fallen angel.
“See
then that ye walk circumspectly (soberly) not as fools, but as wise,
redeeming the time because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise,
but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” (Ephesians 5:15-17)
Be Blessed ... John and Barbara Hamel
How
to Be Born Again (Receive Christ as Your Savior)
How
to Receive The Holy Spirit & Power
Home
l Bible
Training l Top l Beliefs l
Contac
|
