by Angela Moreno

As I’ve traveled through life, I have discovered the benefits of knowing who you are competing against and the people who may be against me causing strife in my life.

Knowing your opponent is a great benefit. In our natural world, we see this daily. Sports teams study the team they will play against. They do this because knowing the other team’s strengths and weaknesses may give them an advantage to win the game. When we are competing for a promotion at a job, we know who we are up against for the promotion and try to play up our strengths compared to their weaknesses.  We do our research so we can be successful in our every day life.

How well do you know your biggest opponent?

Satan is our opponent. More than any person on this planet, he is against you and wants you to fail in every aspect of your life. His very name means accuser and he’s pretty good at his job.

To understand who Satan truly is, we have to know his history.

(Just as a side note, I’m going to give you a lot of scriptures about him.  Read them for yourself.  We should not always take someone’s word when he or she say something is biblical.  Just because someone says it, doesn’t mean it’s true.  Remember the saying God won’t give us more than we can handle- not in the bible.  Do your own research! And don’t be afraid to ask questions, even to your pastor, where you can find something in the Bible. Especially if it’s something that you are unfamiliar with or doesn’t sound right to you.)

Satan was a beautiful, beloved angel of God who was very intelligent, too intelligent for his own good. In the book of Ezekiel we read about who Satan was:

You had everything going for you. You were in Eden, God’s garden. You were dressed in splendor, your robe studded with jewels: Carnelian, peridot, and moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald, all in settings of engraved gold. A robe was prepared for you the same day you were created. You were the anointed cherub. I placed you on the mountain of God. You strolled in magnificence among the stones of fire. From the day of your creation you were sheer perfection …and then imperfection—evil!—was detected in you.  (Ezekiel 28:12b-17, message)

He was beautiful and given everything a beloved angel of God deserved.  However this was not enough for Lucifer. He soon became jealous of God and wanted to take His place. In the book of Isaiah, we read of Lucifer’s fall:

 You said to yourself, “I’ll climb to heaven. I’ll set my throne over the stars of God. I’ll run the assembly of angels that meets on sacred Mount Zaphon. I’ll climb to the top of the clouds. I’ll take over as King of the Universe!”  (Isaiah 14:13-14, message)

And a war broke out in Heaven because disobedience is NEVER acceptable to God and a disobedient angel could not remain in Heaven with a holy God:

War broke out in Heaven. Michael and his Angels fought the Dragon. The Dragon and his Angels fought back, but were no match for Michael. They were cleared out of Heaven, not a sign of them left. The great Dragon—ancient Serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, the one who led the whole earth astray—thrown out, and all his Angels thrown out with him, thrown down to earth. (Revelation 12:7-9, message)

With this act of disobedience, Satan was unleashed on the world to cause sin, devastation, and disobedience.  He set his mind on God’s beloved creation and set out to destroy them.

Satan’s number one goal is to stop us from believing that God exists. He wants us as a number for his side.  He knows he’s going down, and he wants to take as many of us as possible with him. Nothing would make Satan happier than for a person to choose not following God, because in essence, it means that person has chosen to follow him instead.

If he can’t stop us from believing in a loving God and we chose to believe in God, Satan’s goal is to cause confusion, mistrust, and for us not believe in a good God that provides for his children.  He wants us so focused on ourselves and our desires that we can’t focus on Jesus. He wants to steal, kill, and destroy us (John 10:10).

Next week we will look at how the Bible describes Satan and the tactics he uses to keep us distracted and in a world of sin and confusion.