The Enemy of Mankind and/or
My Experience with the Devil, Himself.
I have heard some pastors/people say that the devil is just a toothless lion
making loud roars and that he is dumb. They probably have developed this notion
because of the devil's misconceived idea that he could overthrow God! But, for
the leaders of a church to say these things to an unlearned audience plants the
wrong idea about Satan in their minds! These leaders are unknowingly being
used by Satan! Neither Jesus, the disciples, nor the angels ever said
these type of things about the devil. The Devil is the "Master of Deception"
and a formidable enemy.
Jude 1:9
Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed
about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation,
but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
Michael, the warring archangel, treated the devil with respect! If you don't
think the devil is a formidable enemy and has caused a formidable problem,
then why did God have/need to send His own Son to defeat him and take care
of that problem? We must understand that the devil knew full well what
he was doing in the garden with Eve, and he knew full well what he was
trying to do when he was tempting Jesus. Satan is the most intelligent creation
of God. He knows and understands so much about God and His Word that he
actually thought he could be as God and dethrone Him.
If you think I am glorifying the devil too much, or raising the devil up too high,
then let me share a truth! If you down play the devil and his powers, then you
have down played the Lord, what He did, and the whole Bible. If you maintain
that the devil is just a loud roar with no clout and not the Master of what he does,
then you're saying the Lord didn't do much, that He didn't overcome much,
that it really didn't matter! Our Lord overcame a formidable enemy!
Everything that is despicable and against God (and us) in any way
originated in the devil! Wake up Church, he is your enemy. Don't play
like he isn't there!
This article's purpose is not to teach the authority of the believer over the
powers of darkness but to enlighten us concerning Satan's METHODS OF
DECEPTION. A clearer picture of Satan's personal abilities and activities
is what the Lord is after here. When the Lord revealed that I was to talk more
about the devil,. He showed me two sentences on the same line! The first
sentence said something about Jesus and the next sentence said something about
Satan. God put both sentences on the same line for a purpose! I know from
what I've learned that there is not enough taught about Satan in the churches.
Satan loves the thought, "Don't talk about the devil, you are glorifying him,
you are detracting from Jesus." I can tell you, if you don't talk about the devil,
then you have detracted from Jesus! He is the reason Jesus had to come!
The truth about the devil is in Jesus! Satan is still here and the only things Jesus
took from him were "the keys of death and hell!" Jesus said He was the Truth,
the Light, and the Way and He came to show us the way to live, through example.
He showed us, by example, how to defeat the devil!
If you are called by God for a specific purpose, then I can tell you that
you will not fulfill your purpose completely unless you learn how to
recognize & deal with Satan. There are many ministries who look to be
doing great on the surface, but the devil is grinning from ear to ear. Believe
me, some of them even do spiritual warfare!
Speaking of grinning, I encountered a man who said he saw the devil and laughed
at him. Then the devil laughed back! I must tell you that this is not good and,
knowing a little about what this man does in his ministry, I understand why the
devil laughed back. In reality, the man should be seeking God as to why the devil
is laughing at him!
To move on, the Lord once told a member of this ministry, ."The unspoken
truth is a lie." It took some time for me to understand that particular truth and it
has driven me to go ahead with some writings that I probably wouldn't have
done otherwise. One of the truths I haven't spoken much about is my experience
with the devil, himself.
In the 70's, I was a young man who went to church much the same as the
average person goes to church. I had concluded that the devil was kind of like
"Mother Nature," so to speak, that Jesus had defeated him and therefore he
was not that great of a problem anymore. But I have learned - You will never
win a war if you don't know your enemy! If you are mistaken about his
abilities, you won't win! Jesus knew His enemy and his devices!
My encounter:
I have mentioned in other articles the seven day experience God gave me in
1980. On the eighth day I surprisingly experienced this "so called force" that
I had so flippantly concluded to be like Mother Nature. I was delivering feed to
a feed lot in the evening, as I so often did in those days. I felt something evil and
was trying to discern where it was coming from. I turned and 'felt' it move from
a nearby grove of trees to within about thirty feet of me. It then took form before
my eyes. The devil (in his spiritual form) was standing there next to the fence,
looking up, clinch fisted, and speaking into heaven! He was talking to God directly,
with all of His might and with all manner of cursing! His words were going up to
heaven from earth! He was in a rage towards God, and evil was radiating
from his being in all directions. I became very sick and weak all through my
body just from being in his presence. Those words of cursing God were
permeating my whole being. Those words were so powerful in my mind that
I thought they were becoming my thoughts. I kept saying in my mind, "God,
these are not my thoughts, I have never spoken words like these!" I kept hanging
on. I went into a half crouched position for protection. I didn't think I was going
to live! I thought I was losing my mind! My chest knotted up and I could
hardly breath.
Since becoming baptized in the Holy Spirit, I had been told the enemy didn't
like being around praying in the Spirit. I tried that, but it was a joke (not to belittle
a gift of the Spirit). I did everything I could think of that I had been taught by
other Christians, including using the name of Jesus, all seemingly to no avail!
What happened then? To be honest, I don't know. I only knew I wanted out
of there! I managed to climb into my truck and eventually made it home. I was
shaken as I've never been shaken, with a headache, body ache, and in
bewilderment of what had happened. I was so weak that when I moved my
body shook. I didn't know what to think! But there was one thing I came to
understand right then! The devil is very powerful (especially with thoughts),
a person, a personality with a mind, and is the original source of all evil, just
like the Bible reveals. My heart cries out when I think of people in hell, not
because of the fire, but because I know that gross evil force has consumed
them and there is no way they can get away from it. That evil emitted by
Satan is grossness of the highest and broadest level. There is no way to
describe it in words. You don't want to go to hell because of the issuing evil,
let alone the fire that is there.
After years of the Lord's teaching, I have come to realize much more about
what happened that day and why I had this particular experience. I had previously
believed it was because he understood more than I did about what God had done
with me in the previous week! God had laid some foundational truths in me. He
had spoken about Himself through the Holy Spirit and had revealed end time
events, etc. Did I understand all this? NO, but Satan did! He knows the Word,
he knows it better than we do and he always comes (according to the parable
of the sower) when God does something/anything with us! For years this had
been my only idea of why he was cursing God, but the Lord has given me
a deeper understanding! (The glass that had been causing me to see
dimly has been shattered)
Why was he cursing God?
Looking again at what happened, it is apparent that the devil was not raging
at me. His eyes and rage were not fixed on me, but on God. He became
upset because God exposed him to me. He had been incognito, and he knew
God was starting to teach me about him!
You see, Satan had been present during all of the previous week, countering
( just like he did with Eve) those things God was saying and revealing to me.
The enemy was using thoughts he knew I would most likely accept. He was
giving me thoughts of, "You're losing your mind. (Lying, deceiving) God doesn't
do this any more, it's of the devil. (Deceiving, lying) Who do you think you are
to think God would speak to you? (Haughty) These things are of the devil because
confusion is of the devil. You better find someone who knows something about
all this, etc.!" (Religious) I could go on and on here.
Anyway, I was unaware that these thoughts were coming directly from the
enemy of mankind. I was unaware that Satan was on the scene! I was unaware
that we are in a battle for our own minds. Satan was cursing God because
he had been exposed! He had come within about 30 feet of me and that was
where he was doing his "thing." God had shown me the evil that was coming
out of the grove. Satan was unaware that God was letting me feel that evil.
He was thinking he was not noticed, just like he had been unnoticed
all week. But when he was materialized in the spirit, he knew God was
exposing his presence to me and he flew into a rage. He was HOT about
being exposed.
He didn't manifest himself so I could see him. He is the master deceiver and
he never does this unless it's to his own advantage. He never normally wants to
be exposed in any way, except to those who worship him. I was becoming sick
from being in his raging presence, not his presence. He was out of control of
his own emotions which, by the way, is a sign of a spiritual influence in humans,
Christian or non Christian. A few days after this experience, God told me,
."I have shown you all things."
I learned from this experience that Satan is a thought giver, but I didn't have
any idea of the picture that surrounds that fact. So when God was dealing with
me about thoughts again, He said,."Not all the thoughts in your mind are
yours!" This really upset me. I actually rebelled and said something like, "No way.
All the thoughts in my brain are mine." Of course I was wrong.
http://www.takehisheart.com/satan.htm
I don't 100% agree with that guys website "Testing Spirits" cause on most of his other pages he sounds kinda nuts, LOL, but that article does have some good information in it anyhow about the enemy.