The Desperation of
Satan
Satan knows that those
that seek God for pardon and grace
will obtain it. Can you imagine this?
Satan, the being that is the most
sinful of all created beings, knows
that our prayerful request for pardon
and grace will be granted. God
inspires the Spirit of Prophecy. It
plainly says, “If we ask for
pardon and grace we will obtain
it.”
Blinding our Minds
How is it that the
devil knows the truth, and we
don’t understand it ourselves in
our personal walk with God? “In
whom the god of this world hath
blinded the minds of them which
believe not, lest the light of the
glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto
them.” 2 Corinthians 4:4.
In order for us not to
understand the glorious gospel of
Christ, the devil has to blind our
minds. The devil knows the
“goodness of God leadeth”
us (Romans 2:4) to repentance because
he has experienced the love of God.
“Lucifer in heaven has sinned in
the light of God’s glory. To him
as no other created being was given a
revelation of God’s love. If we
really understood the goodness of
God, we would run to Him.
How does Satan blind
us? Satan is exultant when he can
lead the children of God into
unbelief and despondency. He delights
to see us mistrusting God, doubting
His willingness and power to save us.
He loves to have us feel that the
Lord will do harm by His providences.
It is the work of Satan to represent
the Lord as lacking any compassion
and pity. He misstates the truth in
regard to Him. He fills the
imagination with false ideas
concerning God; and instead of
dwelling upon the truth in regard to
our heavenly Father, we too often fix
our minds upon the misrepresentations
of Satan and dishonor God by
distrusting Him and murmuring against
Him.
Too often we are in
danger of dwelling – not on the
nature of Christ, but on the nature
of Satan – every time we believe
that God will not give us pardon and
grace, for the devil “is a liar
and the father of lies.” John
8:44. With his [Satan] own evil
characteristics he sought to invest
the loving Creator. Thus he deceived
angels. Thus he deceived men.
Danger of Dwelling on
Failure
How do
misrepresentations of God cause us to
fall? The adversary seeks continually
to obstruct the way to the mercy
seat, that we may not by earnest
supplication and faith obtain grace
and power to resist temptation. Any
time we don’t believe that we
can have God’s mercy, our way to
the mercy seat is obstructed, and we
become deceived. We have no power to
resist temptation without God’s
mercy and are led into sin. Satan
“hopes” so to destroy their
faith that they will yield fully to
his temptations, and turn from their
allegiance to God.
The Bible declares
that God’s “mercy endureth
for ever.” Psalms 107:1. If the
Bible says that, how does the devil
lead us to believe that we cannot
obtain it?
When the mind dwells
upon self, it is turned away from
Christ, the source of strength and
life. Hence it is Satan’s
constant effort to keep the attention
diverted from the Savior and thus
prevents the union and communication
of the soul with Christ. Satan
“endeavors to affright their
souls with the thought that their
case is hopeless, that the stain of
defilement can never be washed away.
Satan determined to put forth still
further effort to weaken and
discourage God’s people by
holding before them their
imperfections of character. When we
believe that our sins can never be
washed away, our faith is destroyed.
When that is happening, what do we
fail to do?
There is no danger
that the Lord will neglect the
prayers of His people. The danger is
that temptation and trial they will
become discouraged, and fail to
persevere in prayer. Satan knows that
those who ask God for pardon and
grace will obtain it. But if we do
not ask God for pardon and grace, we
will never have victory. Therefore,
the devil does his uttermost to keep
our attention on misrepresentations
of God so we will never overcome sin.
Our strength lies in asking God for
His pardon and grace. Tragically,
though, Christ saw multitudes
perishing within reach of abundant
help. All power (Matthew 28:18) has
been given unto Christ for us to
subdue the devil, but we must simply
ask for it in prayer.
The Power of Prayer
How powerful is
prayer? Prayer has ‘subdued
kingdoms, wrought righteousness,
obtained promises, stopped the mouths
of lions, quenched the violence of
fire.’ The way we defeat
Satan’s kingdom is through
prevailing prayer. Pray in your
closet as you go through your daily
labor let your heart be often
uplifted to God. These silent prayers
rise like precious incense before the
throne of grace. Satan cannot
overcome him whose heart is thus
stayed upon God.
As we have constant
communication with God, Satan and his
entire host are defeated foes. If
Satan sees that he is in danger of
losing one soul, he will exert
himself to the utmost to keep that
one. And when the individual is
aroused to his danger, and, with
distress and fervor, looks to Jesus
for strength, Satan fears that he
will lose a captive, and he calls a
reinforcement of his angels to hedge
in the poor soul, and form a wall of
darkness around him, that
heaven’s light may not reach
him. But if the one in danger
preserves, and his helplessness casts
himself upon the merits of the blood
of Christ, our savior listens to the
earnest prayer of faith, and sends a
reinforcement of those angels that
excel in strength to deliver him.
Satan cannot endure to have his
powerful rival appealed to, for he
fears and trembles before His
strength and majesty. At the sound of
fervent prayer, Satan’s whole
host trembles. He continues to call
legions of evil angels to accomplish
his objective. And when angels,
all-powerful, clothed with the armory
of heaven, come to the help of the
fainting, pursued soul, Satan and his
host fall back, well knowing that
their battle is lost.
God Delights to Save
When we come to God in
prayer, we “must believe that he
is, and that he is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him.”
Hebrews 11:6. What is the character
of God? “Who is a God like unto
thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and
passeth by the transgression of the
remnant of his heritage? He retaineth
not his anger for ever, because he
delighteth in mercy.”
Micah 7:18. God wants us to know that
He delights in saving our souls. It
is God’s to encircle sinful
repentant human beings in the arms of
His love, to bind up our wounds, to
cleanse them with the garments of
salvation. What is our reward? The
children of God are amply
recompensed. ‘They shall see his
face; and His name shall be in their
foreheads.’ Revelation 22:4.
Who are the only ones
to see God’s face? “Who
shall ascend into the hill of the
LORD? Or who shall stand in his holy
place? He that hath clean hands, and
a pure heart…” Psalms
24:3,4. God’s word gives us the
assurance that He will give us His
character as we present our
supplications to Him. Prayer is
heaven’s ordained means of
success in the conflict with sin and
with the development of Christian
character. The divine influences that
come in answer to the prayer of faith
will accomplish in the soul of the
suppliant all for which he pleads.
For the pardon of sin, for the Holy
Spirit, for a Christ like temper, for
wisdom and strength to do His work,
for any gift He has promised, we may
ask; and the promise is, ‘Ye
shall receive.’
Why Don’t We Ask?
If prayer is this
powerful, why don’t we pray to
God and receive the promises?
“Why are thou cast down, O my
soul? And why art thou disquieted
within me? Hope thou in
God…” Psalms 42:11. Satan
is ready to steal away the blessed
assurances of God. He desires to take
every glimmer of hope and every ray
of light from the soul. If we
don’t hope in God’s mercy,
then we’ll not receive His
promises “for we are saved by
hope…” Romans 8:24.
“Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon
us, according as we hope in
thee.” Psalms 33:22. This hope
is a sure hope because “hope
maketh not ashamed.” Romans 5:5.
But if Satan rightly
points out our defects and faults,
how can we have the hope of
salvation? “Christ in you”
is “the hope of glory.”
Colossians 1:27. Christ is our only
hope of salvation. When Satan seeks
to cover the people of God with
blackness, and ruin them, Christ
interposes. Although they have
sinned, Christ has taken the guilt of
their sins upon His own soul. Christ
saves us not on our own merit;
we’re not saved by our own
righteousness, but His righteousness.
God “hath clothed me with the
garments of salvation, he hath
covered me with the robe of
righteousness…” Isaiah
61:10.
We obtain His
righteousness through His mercy.
“Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to
his mercy he saved us.” Titus
3:5. Their only hope is in the mercy
of God; their only defense will be
prayer. We can boldly come to God and
ask for pardon and grace. “Let
the wicked forsake his way, and the
unrighteous man his thoughts: and let
him return unto the LORD, and he will
have mercy upon him; and he will have
mercy upon him; and to our God, for
he will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 55:7.
If we ever want to
realize Christ in us, we must banish
every misrepresentation of God from
our thoughts each day. With the rich
promises of the bible before you, can
you give place to doubt? Can you
believe that when the poor sinner
longs to return, longs to forsake his
sins, the Lord sternly withholds him
from coming to His feet in
repentance? Away with such thoughts!
Nothing can hurt your soul more than
to entertain such a conception of our
heavenly Father.
The Evidence of His
Love
Let us group together
the blessed assurances of His love,
that we may look upon them
continually: The Son of God leaving
His Father’s throne, clothing
His divinity with humanity, that He
might rescue man from the power of
Satan; His triumph in our behalf,
opening heaven to men, revealing to
human vision the presence chamber
where the Deity unveils His glory;
the fallen race uplifted from the pit
of ruin into which sin had plunged
it, and brought again the connection
with the infinite God, and having
endured the divine test through faith
in our Redeemer, clothed in the
righteousness of Christ, and exalted
to His throne – these are the
pictures which God would have us
contemplate.
Christ’s great
love for us is His assurance that our
prayers for pardon and grace will be
answered. But while the followers of
Christ have sinned, they have not
given themselves up to be controlled
by the satanic agencies. They have
repented of their sins and have
sought the Lord in humility and
contrition, and the divine Advocate
pleads in their behalf.
He who has been abused
by their ingratitude, who knows their
sin and also their penitence,
declares: ‘The Lord rebuke thee,
O Satan, I gave my life for these
souls. They are graven upon the palms
of My hands. They may have
imperfections of character, they may
have failed in their endeavors; but
they repented, and I have forgiven
and accepted them.
