Greater Is He

Our relationship with God is meant to be “Here as in Heaven”. The enemy is done if we are seeking for God to be in our lives, here on Earth.

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Start by understanding this verse first:

“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4

 

The devil walked into the throne room where God was talking with His angels.

God looked up at him. “Well, hello there, slewfoot.”

“God.” The devil glanced at him, nodding ever so slightly. He avoided God’s eyes, the shame and guilt of his actions always kept lucifer from standing at a place of strength. Especially before the Creator.

“So what have you been up to lately?” God asked.

“Just hanging out on Earth. You know, not much,” he answered.

God smiled slyly. His disdain for satan is obvious. He loved proving the genuine weakness of the beast. “So, have you noticed Job. He is faithful and good.”

“Yes, I am aware of him. But, like all your servants, You protect him,” the devil responded.

“Of course I do. They are mine and I have no use for your foolish attacks on them.” God smiled. “Unless it will grow and benefit them.”

“So why do You bring him up, then?” The devil asked.

“Because I have a long-term plan for him,” God answered. “He is going to teach millions about my faithfulness. As well as perseverance and strength.” He leaned towards the devil. “And I am going to use you to do that.”

“Right, God,” the devil laughed. “If you lift your protection, I will prove You wrong!”

God sat back on the throne and grinned. “Very well, do as you wish. But you cannot touch him personally; he is to be left unharmed.”

The devil laughed out loud. “This will be fun.”

He went out and attacked Job. Took all he had and turned his wife against him. Still, Job did not walk away from God and remained true.

So the devil returned.

“You’re back?” God asked. “Too bad. You kind of stink up the place.”

“Yes, well, just looking at this thing with Job.”

“I was right, wasn’t I?” God scoffed. “Imagine that God of the Heavens being right.”

“Well, You are still protecting him,” the devil protested.

“Really, after killing his entire family, save his nagging wife, taking all his property, and bringing him to his knees, you feel he is still being protected too much?” God shook His head. “Very well, his life is yours to attack, but you cannot kill him.”

The devil smiled. “I will prove to You he is just as venerable as anyone else.”

“You are weak. I exist outside of time, remember? I already know the outcome!” God shouted.

The devil skulked out of the room.

The attacks on Job continued. Even his so-called friends turned against him in the midst of all the devil took from him. But in the end, Job remained true to God and was blessed beyond anything he experienced before. And the devil, so limited as he is, was defeated. Again.

All of his attacks against God’s people are allowed and used. Why does God allow them? Every case may be different, but it, ultimately, is to build the Kingdom and the people in the Kingdom.

We might struggle with the knowledge that God “has allowed” this to take place. But we can look at many examples and see this one understanding: The devil was not defeated by God in his attack on Job. He was defeated by a MAN of God.

That doesn’t lessen or weaken God in any way, so don’t go there.

God empowers people. And since the Day of Pentecost in the Book of Acts, His empowering has been off the charts. We are not defeated. No more than Job was. The devil was beaten in the Garden. In fact, he was beaten when he turned on God from the beginning. The only real power the enemy has is to convince people that he has control. He does not!

One of the greatest struggles that Christians have is to make something more of their enemy than he is. We need to grasp three extremely important facts about the devil:

  1. He is beaten. He’s kind of like a lower management employee that has been fired because he was a bad manager. But he still has run of the place. He goes around creating issues with people he really has no control over that just haven’t got the message that he was fired. He literally has less power than a person that was just saved this morning. A newborn Christian has more power in their faith of God than the devil has. But not until that person realizes it.
  2. He is a con-man. All that he has as far as strength against the people of God is given to him for the benefit of God’s people. But every time we speak of him in a way that he is on the attack, we give him the glory he so wants. Through this action we empower him. In truth, I am disgusted just writing about him. We should work to make certain that he is not even brought into our thoughts or speech.
  3. He is very limited. In the scope of his overall prowess, he cannot even begin to compare with God. Jesus is NOT his opposite. They are not on the same playing field. The devil is weaker than we are. He is not omnipresent, omnipotent, or omni-anything. And, while he is the great opposition of the Church, he is not personally attacking individuals within the church. Because he doesn’t have that kind of reach. He literally can only be in one place at a time. It is true that his demons are regional and work to disturb anything going on that is a threat to the darkness. However, if we are having a bad day, it is in all likelihood the simple fact that life can be hard. The sun rises on the evil and the good, rain falls upon the just and the unjust. (Matthew 5:45) When we struggle, it is more often because of sin in our lives. Which can act as doors to evil. Even when we are doing everything to grow in God’s goodness, we run into issues because our light will show the sin in others and that will naturally cause conflict between us.

Life can be very difficult even for those who are truly seeking to follow God. And, yes, the more you do for God the more may come against you.

Years ago there was a saying that went around Christian circles for some time: “Greater levels, greater devils.” Sounds correct, right? Wrong. The more we grow with God the greater our strength should be and the harder it should be for the demonic to pull one over on us.

However, it can work the other way around. The greater we become in the Kingdom of God, the faster and more powerful we can become against the enemy. That should be our focus in that area. If, in fact, we need to even begin to go there.

Our relationship with God is meant to be “Here as in Heaven”. That is how Jesus taught us to pray. The enemy is done if we are seeking for God to be here in our lives, here on Earth.

Done. Finished. Completed. Dead. Finito. Washed up. And…unimportant!

Focus all your attention on Jesus. Remove the enemy’s name and existence from your vocabulary. Let this be the last you spend any time upon involving him.

 

 

 

Please note, in my greatest disrespect toward the enemy, his name is not capitalized anywhere within this article on purpose.

 

 

Featured Image by Fathromi Ramdlon from Pixabay

The views and opinions expressed by Kingdom Winds Collective Members, authors, and contributors are their own and do not represent the views of Kingdom Winds LLC.

About the Author

Matt Davenport Ministries is Matt and Nancy Davenport. We work in several areas of ministry, focusing on teaching the Word of God. We also publish teaching books and Christian novels. Matt is a former senior pastor, currently ordained through ABEA. Sapphire Arts, LLC, is our "tent-maker" company. We will have occasional items in here that are handmade from our small business/company.