No. 1550: Satan is our real enemy and adversary - not those who perform evil deeds, they are only an instrument in the Evil One's fight against good, us and God!

No. 1550:
Satan is our real enemy and adversary - not those who perform evil deeds, they are only an instrument in the Evil One's fight against good, us and God!

Norway's national coat of arms, and the shield in Norway's royal coat of arms, is on a red background an upright, crowned lion of gold, which in the front paws carries a gold-jawed ax of silver. former.
Having met the authorities in various contexts, it is with a certain mixed feeling. If I look at the national coat of arms with the lion, I think that I also see a predator that is inside the system.
Why not a lamb, cat or a pet?
Yes, there is probably also a certain part of the predator nature behind it all.
In any case, we see a duality, as discussed i.a. and the prophet Daniel.
As I write about a little further down in the article.

 

 

Room. 16. 17 But I beseech you, brethren, to watch over them which cause disobedience and offenses against the doctrine which ye have learned, and depart from them; 18 For these do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but his own belly, and by his sweet speech and his beautiful words the hearts of the simple fool. 19 For the word of your obedience has come to all; therefore I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise to the good and pure to the evil. 20 But the God of peace will hasten to crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!

As a believer, struggle is not uncommon, at least it should not be.
Job says:

Job 7. 1. Is not a man's life on earth a service of war, and his days as the days of a laborer?

Is not a person's life on earth a service of war?
This is the truth and reality of the one who walks with the Lord.

We as Christians experience a whole different and much more violent struggle on all levels in our lives than the children of the world who are, by and large, on the verge of perdition.
Jesus himself says the following.

Matt. 7. 13 Enter through the narrow gate! for the gate is wide, and the way that leads to perdition is wide, and many enter through it; 14 For the gate is narrow, and the way is narrow leading to life, and few find it.

Here we see what Jesus himself said, that there are two paths that we humans follow.
The "easy" path we all follow from birth. It is the way that does not lead, which Jesus calls the broad way.
Then we have the other way, the one that leads. As Jesus refers to as the narrow way. Jesus also uses the word gate to cross or narrow the narrow road. When it comes to the wide road, there is a road that one does not really need to do anything to be on.
Why? For that path we are all on from birth, but we must then leave this path to enter the path that leads to Jesus, heaven, the 1000 year kingdom and the new Jerusalem.

When we read in the basic text, it becomes much clearer that the narrow road is not really the narrow road, but the road.
While the wide road is the road that leads to destruction and annihilation!

We encounter this with the road, something as the first were called if they belonged to the road.

Ap.gj. 9. 1. But Saul was yet making a tumult and of murders against the disciples of the Lord: and he went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to Damascus, to the synagogues there, that he might find men who belonged to God, both men and women, he could then lead them bound to Jerusalem.

Notice what is written: "For if he found anyone who belonged to God, both men and women, he could bring them bound to Jerusalem."

Those who belonged to the road, which is like a parallel to what Jesus says about us Christians, that we walk on the road or the road that leads forward. The only way that leads, as the "other" way leads only to destruction and annihilation!

In the basic text it is clearer that those who were on the road.
In other words, one had to make an effort to both get on that road and be on that road.
"Fell" one down or did not come up the road, which was one not on the right path that led and leads forward.

In other words, there are two ways. A path that does not lead, but that leads to destruction and annihilation!
While the other is the very good and right path, which will ultimately make you reach the goal of our journey as humans on this earth.

It is clear and obvious that those who are on this path will be under attack.
Not least from the spirit army which aims that no one should and must travel on this road.

It is obvious that the enemy - Satan - and his spirit army will do everything he can for us who are on the road. Neither should we influence those who are on the "wrong" path, and we ourselves should get away from the "right" path.
The path that leads to life as Jesus himself said.

The Kingdom of God - The kingdom of Satan is two greatest opposites!

From My Bible Commentaries Colossians 1:13 For he has delivered us out of the power of darkness, and brought us into the kingdom of his beloved Son.

Once upon a time, we too were children of darkness and lived like them. We did not know better, at least dmost of us. But now we have been set free, and there has been a colossal upheaval, we are now placed in the beloved kingdom of the Son of God. What characterizes that kingdom is the opposite of the kingdom we were in before. Before darkness, now light. Before hate, now love. Before looseness, now the responsibility to follow Jesus and the word of God. Before anything is allowed, now we live under God's will and bound to Christ and God's word. Everything has become new, therefore we must live accordingly or it will be worse off with us than those who have never experienced this.
(end of quote.)

There are two kingdoms fighting against each other, where the kingdom of God is the strongest and the perfect.
But in this world it is not always so, as not all things are yet subject to the kingdom and dominion of God and Christ.

From my Bible commentaries Hebrews 2. 8 everything you have put under his feet. When it says: "put everything under him", then nothing is except; everything was to be subject to him. We still do not see that everything is under him.

But with Jesus, God the Father "bet" everything on him. Should there be salvation, redemption and we humans could have to do with God. Was everything related to whether Jesus passed the test and the Father would acknowledge it!

9 But we see that Jesus, who for a short time was lower than the angels, is crowned with glory and honor, because he suffered death. Thus, by the grace of God, he should taste death for all.

Jesus persevered as a human being and completed his work. But it was in the most bitter way. He was not spared anything, even death embraced him.

10 For God, who is the cause and origin of all things, would bring many children to glory. Then he had to let the leader who leads them to salvation reach perfection through suffering for the Son of God.

This is such a great paradox that we must take eternity for help to understand and get to the bottom of this. That God himself could allow and acknowledge that salvation had to and should go through humiliation, suffering and death.
(end of quote.)

Scripture also says the following that I want to include.

2 Cor. 4. 3 If then our gospel is hid, then it is hidden among those who perish; them.

Scripture says that the God of this world is none other than Satan!

We also read in Hebrews the following:
"Put everything under him," then nothing is excepted; everything was to be subject to him. We still do not see that everything is under him.

Jesus has all the power and authority of the scriptures, we read this, among other things. here.

Matt, 28. 18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

We all live in this zone of conflict, but first and foremost we believers are the object of this struggle as we are on the "wrong" side in relation to him who has temporary power on this earth; Satan, the Evil Serpent who seduced Adam and Eve and the entire human race!

Now there is a lot to say about this. But deep down, there are two opposites fighting. It is God and Satan, it is the dominion of Jesus Christ or the God of the world, Satan's dominion!

When e.g. people go against the word of God and believing people, then it is more or less affected by the negative forces!
When we as believers and we humans do things according to God's word and God's will, the scripture says that we partake of God's Spirit and really God himself!

Ap.gj. 5. 32 And we are his witnesses of these things, likewise the Holy Ghost, whom God gave unto them that obey him.

When we obey God, we partake of the Spirit of God and the Divine nature.
When we obey Satan, we share in the Spirit of this world and that which breaks down!

Scripture says of those who have not turned to the Lord and been saved the following:

Eph. 2. 2 in whom ye walked after the course of this world, after the prince of the powers of the air, the spirit which now worketh in the children of unbelief; 3 among whom also we all in the past walked in the lusts of our flesh, and we were by nature children of wrath like the others.

Closing comment:

In Daniel we see the kingdoms of the world in two ways. A way that people perceive, and a way that lies behind them of spiritual dimensions.
We read in Daniel 2 and in Daniel 7 where in Daniel 2 we get to see the outside world.
Then as a picture support, which has various alloys and metals that are and look like something very nice, beautiful and large.
But in Daniel 7 we meet the same world kingdoms as predators, and then it is the predator nature that is prominent, where there is also a form of complex predator nature that is described to illustrate these world kingdoms.
Now we will not go into this here, because it will be too extensive, but we see the difference.
What is clear in the word of God is that the one who is behind it all is none other than the old Serpent, Satan himself!

I have been and am also in battle. Who is behind these fights?

It is very easy for a believer to know, it is not God but Satan.
It may seem so "innocent", but when all the cases against me are built on lies and fabfalse lies and false accusations. Then we know with a good "safety margin" that it is Satan.

Joh.e. 8. 44 You have the devil as your father, and you will do the will of your father; he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth; for truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of lies.

We as believers know where evil and lies come from, Satan.
We as believers know where the good and the truth come and go, God!
Therefore, it is important to be informed and ready for this battle, it is part of our spiritual armor that Ephesians 6 speaks of.
See my Bible commentaries on Ephesians.
http://janchristensen.net/bibelkommentar-hoved.php?side=bibelkommentarer-Paulus-brev-til-efeserne