How bad is bad?

Let’s sum up everything we have learned to this point.

• Sin is a form a madness that has infected our natures.

• The demons control us by training us to think about what they want us to think about in relationship to desires we have.

• God designed us to flow in perfect harmony with a higher power.

• Satan is not trying to set us free so that we can use our wills in any way we want, he is attempting to be the higher power that dominates us

• Every act of sin either strengthens the grip Satan already has on me or else enables him to take new territory inside me.

Now lets go back to the original rebellion of Lucifer. He was the only being in the universe who could set up an independent kingdom to compete with the kingdom of God. Every other angel and human who rebelled against God, even if they thought they were setting up their own little kingdom, ended up subject to the power of Satan.

We don’t know what part free will paid in how Lucifer decided to values and standards of his new kingdom. Did he decide to become the way he is or did he become the way he is as an inevitable result of his rebellion? There is no Biblical data to answer that question. What we do know is this: Lucifer became the exact moral opposite of God. The implications of this are absolutely chilling.

The clearer our picture of God is, the more alarming we find the fact that Satan has choose to become the exact moral opposite of God. The contemplation of God’s kindness, love, and mercy should melt us to tears. God isn’t just kind, He is the source of kindness. God is the most gracious, the warmest, and the most considerate of beings. God is everything that is sweet and tender and giving. Satan is the opposite of that. And he is trying to dominate your life.

It’s not that Satan loves less; Satan doesn’t love at all. There is not one trace of love within him. He is utterly without pity or mercy of any kind. His evil is pure and undiluted by any goodness whatsoever.

Consider the following stories. An evangelist tells the story of praying for a young woman who had been battling cancer for two years. The disease had finally spread to both lungs and there was nothing the doctor could do. As the evangelist prayed for the woman he was suddenly able to see into the spiritual realm. He could actually see a demon attached to this woman’s side. He rebuked the demon and commanded it to leave. And the woman was instantly healed.

I spent some time with people dying from cancer in my days in the pastorate. It isn’t pretty. In the end it’s usually a grueling, torturous way to die. Now think about this being attached to this woman. This was probably a fallen angel. He had apparently devoted two years of his existence to killing this woman inch by inch. He knew she had two small children at home. He felt her fear and her pain. This was a being who at one time had probably stood in the presence of God. And he was reduced to the point where he could spend two years doing this!

Imagine yourself in the role of that fallen angel. Imagine listening to the woman when she finally told her small children that she was going to die. Imagine the children distraught and crying. At some point, if there was the slightest glimmer of kindness or mercy in this being, you would expect it to let go. “I’ve tortured the woman enough. She has two small children. I’ll go somewhere else.” But he didn’t do that. His inner being is engulfed in total darkness. There is no trace of goodness there any longer.

In case you’re wondering, I don’t believe that all disease is caused by demons that have attached themselves to a human body; but I do believe this particular story. And we know that there is a connection between disease and the kingdom of darkness. “Ye know … how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.” (Acts 10:37, 38 KJV)

Those who were sick were “oppressed by the devil.” This is what I think. I can’t prove it, but I’m virtually certain of it. Some of Satan’s minions were running around manipulating people into joining the sexual revolution at the exact same time that other fallen angels were manipulating a virus in Africa that would become the HIV infection. I’ve never been around someone dying of AID’s, but I understand that it is a very slow, hard death.

“I don’t know, Mark, this seems a little speculative to me.” Okay, I understand that. So let’s take a look at two examples right out of the Bible. Do you remember the incident in Mark 9 where the disciples were unable to cast the demon out of the boy? “But when the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth. ‘How long has this been happening?’ Jesus asked the boy’s father. He replied, ‘Since he was a little boy. ²² The spirit often throws him into the fire or into water, trying to kill him.’” (Mark 9:20-22 NLT)

Again, it is important to think about this from the point of view of the fallen angel causing this havoc. Imagine the anguish of the parents each time the boy went into convulsions. Imagine the little boy in tears asking his daddy why this kept happening to him. There was an intelligent being causing this and witnessing every moment of pain and suffering this family had to endure. And he would not relent. He would not say, “enough.” There was no mercy or pity inside of him to interfere with his enjoyment of their suffering.

We know that the demons know that they are going to hell if they loose this war. The demons confronted by Jesus in his earthly ministry were terrified that He would cast them into the pit before the end time.

How bad do you have to be to knowingly manipulate another being into a condition of everlasting torment? I don’t honestly know if the demons hold out any real hope of winning in the end, but how bad do you have to be to be trying to take as many human souls with you as you can when you loose?

God hates sin. He loathes it. He detests it. And He wants us to come to feel the same way. God never looks at a sin as an isolated act. God sees acts of sin as footsteps on a path that leads to total domination by absolute evil. God looks at sins as compromises with evil beings that laugh as human souls are carried screaming off to hell.

But let’s not think about such things. Let’s keep our focus where its always been. Let’s thing about the cookie. Such a delicious cookie. Let’s not pay attention to the demon standing nearby with a rolled up newspaper in one hand and a cookie in the other. Just look at the cookie. Don’t pay any attention to the hand that’s holding it out to you. We’ve been trained to think about sin the way the demons want us to think about it. It’s up to us to begin to bring the truth of God into the equation at the very moment that we feel the desire to sin.

Instead of thinking about the cookie, think about the fact that the sin you are tempted to commit will either strengthen the power that one of these twisted, evil beings has over you, or it will enable this horrible creature to take new territory in your life.

The beings that are manipulating us have had thousands of years of practice. That doesn’t mean that they can’t be defeated; it just means that they know what they are going to do next. They’re probably a little bored by the whole process. How would you like to do the same job for thousands of years?

Satan knows what he’s going to do. Do you know what you’re going to do? If you’ve been looking at the cookie, and that’s all you’ve been thinking about, then you’ve been loosing. It’s time for you to make some plans, and one of the best plans you can come up with is to consciously link the act of sin with the powers that are behind the whole thing in the first place. In the next post I’ll give you some specific advice on how to do that.