When Adam and Eve gave in to the devil’s temptation to mistrust God and to put themselves above him by disobeying his instructions they did not become their own god.
Rather they fell prey to the devil’s malicious intentions.
When we give in to the temptation to reject God and disobey him we give the devil the place of God in our lives.
You submit yourself to what you obey.
And we obeyed the devil’s suggestion to rebel.
And although our submission to the devil protects us from becoming through and through evil ourselves, which means we can still turn from our rebellious ways in this lifetime, this does mean that he has power over everyone that does not acknowledge the sovereignty of God.
And his intentions towards us are not good.
Many people live happily unaware of the grip the devil has over their lives.
They think that if God exists He is love and therefore all will go to heaven when they die no matter how they lived or what they believed.
Now God is love but this does not mean that our behavior and believes do not have consequenses. That would be like letting criminals roaming around freely because the false assumption we should tolerate everyone and therefore their behavior as well.
We all agree that crimes need to be contained and though we may have compassion on the offenders and even understand how they came to commit these crimes we will still take action to prevent them from doing it again.
Even to the point of putting lawbreakers in prison or giving them the death penalty.
What makes us belief God is any different?
He would be a fool and not a good protecter of the other inhabitants of his kingdom that do submit to his rule if He would let any rebel in!
However there are two kingdoms.
If you are not part of God’s kingdom, where those who submit to his rule dwell, then you live in the devil’s kingdom.
You may want to review your believes about God if this describes yours.
The kingdom of darkness is not a safe place to be in.
Other people do not believe in him at all and think death is just the end which is equally dangerous. You will lose your soul in eternity.
Then there are those that worhip other gods which is the same as elevating ourselves to the place of God since those gods are our own inventions.
This is the same as not acknowledging God above us or just surpressing his existence, saying He is not there.
Others still worship something in nature and thereby basicly worship themselves since we are part or that same nature. Making ourselves gods and again not acknowledging him above us.
And others do believe in the God the bible reveals to us.
But even many believers are not fully aware of the role of the devil in their lives.
His power over us does not automatically end when we convert to faith in Jesus Christ.
Our surrender to God must be total.
And although we will be saved and go to heaven when we die if we accept Jesus as our Savior and Lord and repent from our sin, we can only be set free from the devil’s influence in our lives to the degree we submit ourselves to God.
That means every aspect of our lives.
Not witholding anything back from him and having other “gods” on the side, which we often do.
These gods can be anything that take the place God should have.
It can be other people from whom we seek approval, to get a sense of self worth.
But we make ourselves gods as well if we do that.
After all we often think it is up to us to give others their worth.
Now it is something else to be kind to someone and to help them see their worth.
But often we put ourselves in God’s place.
Thinking others need our approval.
But they do not.
They might need your encouragement now and then, but do not assume they need your validation for anything.
I know we are probably not even aware we do this so very often.
Thinking we are just encouraging others.
While in fact we are basicly stating they need our validation.
I think an example of this is the many programs on tv we have these days were people are judged for there skills.
There is nothing wrong with a contest in itself, and it is often fun to see people showing their skills.
All to often though a sense of worth, or worthlessness, is attached to those judgements and I believe we should be careful with that.
Our value does not come from our successes and who even determines whether we are a success?!
If the food you made tastes good to you and your family then please do not let some high and mighty shef that is on tv dictate whether your dish was a success or not.
Now if a contest like that stretches you to get the best out of yourself then by all means partake in them.
But do not forget to have fun in the process!
And do not attach your sense of worth to it.
Besides, there are probably people out there in the world that never partake of a contest that are better then the winners.
Just to give you some perspective.
Our lives should not be a contest.
Rather it should be a celebration of what was given to us and others.
The devil made it a contest though.
He thought it was about who is the highest and has the most power.
And we see his influence permeate all throughout our society.
Whether at work, at school or in sports and politics.
So much strive and discord and even wars would be prevented if we did not turn to other people to give us value.
If we did not want to have the highest place and be “god”, the highest autority.
If God would be the one we go to for finding a sense of worth we are not offended at other people all the time and we will live in love and peace with each other instead of always trying to outrun others.
Now I know the devil can do all kind of wicked things in people’s lives, like bringing sicknesses or creating disasters and curses.
There are others that can write better then I about these things.
About witchdoctors and mediums and foretunetellers and such and the influence you open yourself up to when you go to these people.
All I can say is: do not get involved in anything that is occult. Do not play that ouija board. You get more then you bargained for.
The devil is a deceiver.
He will dangle something that looks good in front of you.
You may even get some good advise a few times from evil spirits, but it will not last.
The result will always be darkness and destruction entering your life.
But what we do not often realise is that our tendency to put ourselves above both God and others comes from the devil as well and equally leads to destruction.
Like the destruction of our health because the stress it brings to always try to please others.
And the ruining of our relationships because no one can ever fill the place in our lives that only God can. Not even a spouse. So we are always disappointed in others for not filling our needs.
If we reject God above us we have chosen automatically another master.
And he will never let us go out of his grip.
Only God can and thankfully will deliver us from him.
If only we submit.
To be continued…
Creator's Joy 