Satan's Dirty Little Secret

This week's blog is a snippet of chapter five of my book project entitled In Spirit and In Truth. "Satan's Dirty Little Secret" is exposed through discovering that the enemy of our souls actually knows more about "worship" than we do. His place in heaven gave him incredible privileges which we have yet to experience, yet in his pride, he proclaimed the five "I wills" (Isaiah 14:13-14) which in essence, spoke volumes as to what was in his heart:

I will ascend to heaven: I will establish my kingdom.

I will raise my throne: I will establish my power.

I will sit enthroned: I will establish my place of recognition.

I will ascend above the clouds: I will establish my Predominance.
I will make myself like the Most High: I will establish my supremacy. 

Satan is a brilliant foe. We too often underestimate his abilities to infiltrate the church and destroy the very purpose for which we exist as a church body---to worship the Lord. He does this in an ever-so-subtle way and before we know it, we have fully embraced the idea of usurping the authority of God in our lives. How does he do this? Consider the story of Hansel and Gretel. Did they one day decided to go to the witch’s house and say, “Hey, I’ve got a great idea! Let’s climb into someone’s oven and let them eat us for dinner!” Hansel and Gretel didn’t have the desire to be eaten by the witch, but they ended up there by first detouring from the path where they were suppose to be walking. Once away from where they needed to be, they were offered tasty delicacies which brought them further into the witch’s lair. She in turn, fattened them up to the point where they became helpless to her evil plot.

     For us, we do not start off by saying, “Today, I think I will announce my supremacy to the world!” Instead, we begin by saying, “I am going to establish a small little kingdom for myself. A place where I can make some decisions of my own and where I can establish my own set of standards.” We convince ourselves that this kingdom of ours will pose no threat to God’s kingdom. In fact, just as the serpent convinced Eve, God wouldn’t mind at all. It is perfectly fine with God if I have a little place of my own where I can “be like God” and make the choices of what is “right and wrong.”

     What follows is the beginning of a downward spiral. A kingdom of one is never enough. It then becomes important that you establish a sense of power by attempting to control things which normally God would control. Adam and Eve were not satisfied with the fact that God willingly controlled all that went on in the Garden. They became attracted to the “power” He had and wanted to be in on the “know.” I don’t know about you, but have you ever noticed that church is one of the most political atmospheres on the planet? There are some individuals that feel it is their God given duty to submit an opinion about everything that goes on in the church. They want to know it and want to have their say in what happens in the Body of Christ. Adam and Eve figured that if they could know what God knew, they could somehow have their “say” as well.

     With the quest for power comes the need for recognition. Since it’s your kingdom you’re establishing, people have to recognize who you are. It must have been quite an ego boost for the couple in the Garden when the serpent had taken notice that they were being mistreated by the Lord. He gave them a sense of entitlement. They deserved not only to "know" but to be “known.” Certainly every creature in the Garden knew God, but this was their big chance to make a name for themselves. The serpent cunningly alluded to the fact that God may have been wrong. “Did God really say?” Perhaps we do know better. Image what people will think of us if we can let them in on some knowledge that God has not revealed to others!

     The result becomes clear. You are now the expert! You are now bent on fulfilling the quest to “ascend above the clouds” and let everyone know that you have been given such glory and greatness. You no longer need the boundaries set before you in God’s word, because you are exempt as you have been given “new revelation” which is given to those whose eyes have been opened. Because God has not done a thorough enough job explaining His Word to others, you have been donned with the privilege of interpreting the meaning of what God “really meant” concerning His Word. 

     The last step is a far leap from the initial step of simply desiring to have one corner of life in which you can call your own. The words “I will make myself like the Most High” is seldom ever spoken; however, it is lived out on a daily basis among countless numbers of people who have called themselves “Christians.” We live as if our lives are our own. We have the gull to attempt to fashion God in the image we have created rather than the image that He has given us of Himself. We reserve the right of supremacy in choosing how, when, where, and why we worship. We fashion our own truths, set our own boundaries, and formulate our own beliefs concerning who God is “to us.” In essence, we create a supremacy in ourselves which doesn’t exist in God Himself----the ability to create a god that has never exited before.

     This is the goal of Satan’s dirty little secret. Because he knows so much about worship, it is through our worship in which he plots his deceit. He makes us feel as if worship is an activity and not our entire life. He makes us believe that there is a part of ourselves that is our own and that we have been given a sense of entitled because we are human. He gets us to believe that in some small way, God may be wrong about how He is to be served and worshiped. He woos us to the belief that we are somehow a significant part of worship and we somehow need to be included in the receiving glory. He gets us to buy into the idea that God will share His glory with us and make us forget that the only glory we possess is Jesus Christ in us. He then gives us a blueprint to fashion our own god from the use of our emotions, attitudes, and desires that serve to produce a god which will fit comfortably under the rule of our kingdom.