SCRIPTURE ON THE PERSON OF THE DEVIL!

On John 10:10 it says: “ The thief(devil) comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” I was reminded of this Scripture a few years ago: Within a week’s time all of the following happened to me: my garage door which had a remote control, completely went kaput: the springs broke and the engine stopped working! So there came off a chunk of money! Then my car started leaking: another chunk of money; and then, I got a call from my bank that someone had tried to use my ATM bank card to remove $1000, but thank God the bank didn’t approve it and they were checking with me if it had been me!; then a couple of days later, I got a call from, what from the beginning sounded like scammers, trying to get my pin number from another ATM card: I told them I would check with the bank in person first, so he got kind of scared: when I checked with the bank they said they never called to ask for Pin numbers!;and then my computer got attacked by a Trojan which appeared as a reputable security company, but they were just trying to get money: when they couldn’t get it from me, they completely infected my computer! So another chunk of money to clean it up!

I started wondering why all this was happening, and John 10:10 came to mind; then I was reminded that I had attended a Seminar about 2 weeks earlier where the Pastor was talking, and he mentioned about tithing: I did think ‘I know all that’ but I had gotten convicted that I had stopped tithing because I thought ‘ Oh well, I give of my time for the Lord’s work, I am paying tuition towards the Seminary, as I had only 3 more classes to get my Masters, I do give some donations towards charitable institutions!’ So this conviction came back to me and I started to give of my full tithe again towards fruitful ministries! I can’t say that all that ‘stealing and destroying’ and ‘killing my peace’ stopped! Of course, things happen at times but we need to ‘resist the devil and he will flee from you’.(James 4:7), and tithing is one way of protecting ourselves, so put him to run! And from this Scripture we see that the devil is mentioned in masculine terms, he, so he is a male person!

Some people believe that because as believers we have been transferred from the kingdom of the world to the kingdom of God ( read Colossians 1: 13-14) then now the devil can’t have a heyday with us! But as we live physically in this world, the enemy comes as a ‘roaring lion seeking whom he may devour’ : “ Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5: 8. The only thing is now we have access to the keys of the kingdom such as rebuking the devil from our path ( “ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4: 7), using the Word, prayer, our authority in the name of Jesus! Of course, we shouldn’t see a devil in every other thing in our journey with Jesus!

So why does the devil follow us at times? There are times when evil, such as moral evil, is due to the free-will actions of a person. When we follow our own willfulness, our own chosen sins, then there is the reality of why we become buffeted by the devil! We are out of the protection of God! And of course, there are times when the evil that follows us is not caused by our own sin! Sometimes God allows satan to test us and that’s where we need to use the keys of the kingdom, in order that the work of God be glorified! For example in John 9: 2-3 we see Jesus’ disciples asking Him concerning about a man being born blind: “ ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus replied, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned…but this happened that the work of God might be displayed in his life’. “ We see then Jesus restoring his sight. Also, in the Old Testament, in the book of Job, Job’s friends are seen blaming his calamity on Job’s sin, but at the beginning of the book it shows satan telling God that if He took everything from him he would turn his back on Him…So God tells him to do so but not to kill Job. So the evil in Job’s life was not the cause of Job’s sin!

And of course evil follows us since we live in a fallen world. Just living in this world, with the physical genetics transferred from Adam and Eve, is going to cause us to fall into some sin at some stage of our lives, which I believe happens usually after becoming 13 years . And the devil doesn’t appear usually as a scary monster; as it says in Scripture ‘ to be watchful as the devil may appear as an angel of light!’ And at this present times the devil is very active to take souls into his kingdom of darkness: we can see it clearly with all that goes on in the world as the Lord Jesus mentioned that this would happen when He is just about to make His second coming. So all we have to do is believe in Him as our Savior and Lord. And we are to turn from our sins and repent. According to Erickson1 “ It is evident from both the Old and New Testament descriptions of sin that sin is universal. Both Testaments further affirm the depth and breadth of sin in all humans.”

NOTES
1Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology,(Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006),637.

THE WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD
“Put on the whole armor of God,
That you may be able to stand against
The schemes of the devil.” Ephesians 6:11.