THE WILL OF SATAN

Part 3 of 5

Carson Richards

Not All wills are good wills. Isaiah 14:12-14, “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 also 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.” So the very beginning of the fall of this intelligent, beautiful creature, was the “I will.”

From that purpose comes another great part of his sinful nature, “emulations.” The big seventeen marks of the flesh in Gal. 5:19-21 has one of them, this emulation. It simply means competition based on incessant ambition. This creature, then, has instilled the principle of competition in the heart of men, his dupe. Notice how that will persists throughout life from the earliest manifestation of human will in childhood to the very last gasp. The child wants a better toy than another; the old person wants more attention than the one in the next chair. Always you must compete with another human being, for the enemy has put that way into his will that he has imposed on the lesser creature, man. We have to follow suit in some sense to exist but, be that as it may, it is the very antithesis of love which thinks of the other person. You must exceed, not just excel, you must win, win, win, or despair sets in. So our wills are influenced by this part of the Satanic will, in this world.

After this vying with God, other products came forth in the will of this tremendous creature. John 8:44, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own (will or disposition): for he is a liar, and the father of it.” So Jesus characterized him in three ways: murderer, liar, and lustful or ambitious. The presentation of the devil as a murderer is primary, so he must put that will in man.

Another word for murderer is destroyer. The name, “Apollyon,” in  Rev. 9 means “destroyer.” In other words, the unmitigated, dogged intent to destroy everything in his way is the killer instinct. Again, this arises in the lower creature, humanity. Notice how that in every activity of the world: sports, politics, science, even religion (or primarily, religion) this killer instinct is dominant. I worked with a fellow who said one day, “That son of mine will succeed in the world, he has the killer instinct.” He said that he, himself, did not. For curiosity, I asked him if he thought that I did, and he said, “No, and you haven’t got very far, have you?” There is that great slant on this great being.

Next, “liar,” Luke 4:5-8, “And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” I remember a brother saying, “That is not so, for the devil is a liar.” That fits in with the truth spoken by Nebuchadnezzar when he said that God gives the kingdoms to whomsoever He will. You can’t have it both ways. So he lies in this big way with a big man, as Jesus is.

To us, as little people, he makes big promises. I remember another brother telling how the devil would use a man and then drop him. We see that all over in what happens to big people in prominent places. You  see, his will is to lie. What did he tell  Eve? “You shall not surely die.” Did she? It wasn’t ‘surely not,” but “surely.” If each of us could recount all of our spiritual experiences, you will find he has lied to us. Sometimes about seemingly good things, sometimes fearfully bad things, to come.

Then his lusts; he has “blind ambition” as the fellow characterized an expresident in a book, Lust, though narrowed down to the one human relation as men are prone to do with words, really  means an insatiable desire of any sort. To have something you don’t have; to do something you are not doing; and there is never an end point of satisfaction, only a temporary weakening. A millionaire wants another million. A scientist wants the next great discovery. The athlete wants the next crown. The adulterer wants another partner. This master of evil plants unanswerable intensity of evil in mortals. What a will!

Jesus spoke in John 8:44, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do…” However, not all who follow lusts in religion are youthful. The first mentioned passion above, “emulations,” is a strong passion, to out do others in religious endeavor. The gospel says, “in honor preferring one another.” It says the law was fulfilled in one word, “thou shalt love thy neighbor as they self.” Even good words become a matter of competition.

Ephesians 2:2, shows the evil of Satan as to his will, that is greater than that of men. “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” We are born into a world wherein Satan’s will is imposed on all. John in his epistle says, “the whole world lieth in wickedness,” or better, “the wicked one.” He has control of the way things are run. If so, on man accumulatively, what can one person do? Satan’s will is tenacious, pernicious, salacious and malicious. Sounds frightening – I intend it to do so. Tune in next month, and the Lord willing, and hear of another will, God’s will, our only recourse!