Have you ever
thought about the will of Satan?
We are constantly as
Christians desiring God's will to be done in our lives. We read this--
Mat 6:10 Thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Mar_3:35 For
whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and
mother.
Act_13:36 For
David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on
sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption
Rom_1:10
Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey
by the will of God to come unto you.
Rom_8:27 And
he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he
maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Rom_12:2 And
be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of
God.
And there are still
more verses like those.
The will of God is a
reality. But as the following excerpt
states, not all is the will of God.
We tell ourselves in
many of our situations in life that - it is God's will and we do this to
believe that we must accept everything that occurs.
God doesn't will sin
and yet sin exists.
God doesn't will
pain and agony, yet it exists.
God doesn't will
heartache and sorrow but it is everywhere.
Satan wills all
things evil. God WILL utilize situations that occur to bring about our ultimate
good, but He does not will that we sin or are victims of sin in any way.
Rom_8:28 And
we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose.
And God purpose in
calling us is to be saved through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
More on all of this
tomorrow by the grace and yes, by the will of God.
*******
'God’s Ordering
We know that besides
man’s will there are two other totally antagonistic wills in the world.
God calls us to obey
Him and to resist Satan.
Twice in the Bible
do we find these two sides mentioned together:
(1) “submit
yourselves therefore to God,” exhorts James, and then he follows immediately
with “resist the devil” (4.7);
(2) “humble
yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God,” enjoins Peter, and
continues by charging his readers to “resist (the devil), firm in your faith”
(1 Peter 5.6,9).
This is the balance
of truth. A believer certainly must learn to submit himself to God in all matters, acknowledging that what He orders
for him is the best.
Though he suffers,
yet he heartily submits to the will of God. This, however, is just half the
truth. The Apostles understood the danger of being lopsided; hence we find them
right away warning the Christian to resist the devil once he submits to God. This
is because there is another will besides His, that of Satan’s.
Frequently the devil
counterfeits the will of God, especially in the things which happen to us. If
we are unaware of the presence of a will other than God’s, we can easily
mistake Satan’s to be God’s and so fall into the devil’s trap. For this reason
God wants us to resist the devil when we submit
to Him.
Resistance is done
by the will. Resistance means our volition opposes, disapproves, and
withstands. God wishes us to exercise our volition, therefore He exhorts us to
“resist the devil.” He will not
resist for us; we
ourselves must do so.
We have a will; we
should use it to take heed to God’s Word. So teaches the Bible. Thinking that
God’s will is
revealed in His orderings, the Christian may accept anything which comes to him
as His will. In that event he naturally will not employ his volition to choose,
decide or resist. He just quietly accepts everything. This sounds good and
appears right, but it contains a serious fallacy.
Now we do
acknowledge the hand of God behind everything, and we do confess we must submit
fully under His hand. But the point at issue here is more one of attitude than
of conduct. If what happens to
us is the direct
will of God, would we object to it? This is a matter of our heart intention.
But after we are assured of our obedience to God we should inquire further:
does this emanate from the evil spirit or is it but God’s permissive will? If
it is His commanded will, we have no objection; if otherwise, we will resist it
together with God.
Hence this never
implies that we should submit to our environment without daily examination and
testing. Our attitude remains the same at all times, but our practice comes
only after we are sure of God’s will, for how could we submit to Satan’s will?
A Christian ought
not act as one who is without a brain, passively driven by his environment. He
actively and consciously should examine the source of every item, test its
nature, understand its meaning, and decide the course to take. It is important
to obey God, but not blindly. Such active investigation is not a sign of
rebellion against God’s ordering, because our heart’s intent continues to be
one of submission towards God. We only wish to be sure that in our submission
we are verily obeying God.
A definite lack in
an obedient attitude exists among believers today. Though they perceive God’s
will, they nevertheless fail to yield. Contrariwise, those who have been broken
by God run to the other extreme by unquestioningly accepting whatever occurs to
them.
The truth lies in
the center; obey in heart and accept after being assured of the source.
How sad, though,
that many fully consecrated believers do not discern this difference. Such a
Christian therefore passively submits to his environment, surmising that
everything happens to him by the
order of God. He
gives ground to the evil spirits to torment and hurt him. These spirits provide
environment (their snares) by which to trap the saint into performing their
will or raise up circumstances to trouble him.
Believers may
misunderstand this to be what Matthew 5.39 enjoins when it says “do not resist
one who is evil,” not recalling that God summons them to struggle against sin
(Heb. 12.4). By overcoming environment they are overcoming the spirit of this
world. The factors in such a misapprehension of God’s ordering are that (a)
believers do not use their will to choose and decide; (b) God certainly does
not oppress them with environment; and (c) the evil spirits utilize the
environmental circumstances as a substitute for their passive will. Rather than
obeying God these believers actually are obeying the evil spirits.'
Excerpt from 'The
Spiritual Man' by Watchman Nee
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