Subtly taking simplicity

Revelation 12:9 says, [9] And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

"You see those capitals? They're proper names," explains Richard Jordan. "In Job, he talks about Satan in his origins being the dragon and Leviathan, that crooked serpent.

"It's important for you to always remember Satan is not just an evil force in the world; he's a personal entity. He's a mind. It's the 'wiles of the devil' (Ephesians 6).  He knows how to plot and strategize. He has a will. In Isaiah 14, five times he says, 'I will.' He has feelings. In Revelation 12, when he's cast out of heaven, it says he comes with great wrath.

"I Corinthians 2:6 says, [6] Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:

"When he talks about the princes of this world, he's not talking about Nero and the Roman government. He's talking about the angelic creation.

"Verses 7-8 say, [7] But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
[8] Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

"That's how you know the princes there aren't the earthly princes because they wouldn't have cared about it. Rome didn't care about what Jesus was preaching; they were going to kill him anyway. The religious leaders wouldn't have cared. It was Satan and his host.

"My point is there were things God planned that they didn't know. God simply kept a secret to destroy everything Satan's wise plan was. He thought he was smart but he wasn't smart enough to figure out the plan God had that He didn't tell him about.

"Satan is not God, not equal with God. He's not omniscient; he's a pretender. He is a supernatural angelic being but he wants to make you think he's the God of this world.

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"In a passage that describes his career, Ezekiel 28:14 says, [14] Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

"You remember what the name Christ means? The anointed one. Satan was selected out by God to lead in His creation.

"Verse 17 says, [17] Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.

"Notice he rebelled against God. He took his will and sinned. Verse 15: [15] Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.

"When God made him, he was perfect until rebellion was found in him. With his deceptive plans to corrupt God's creation he became a crooked trickster.

"The essence of a trick is to make something appear to be true when it isn't, or to make something appear as if it isn't true when it is true. He tries to hide the truth and deceive you into thinking something else is real or vice versa.

"Isaiah 14:12 is the classic passage about the original intention of this character: [12] How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

"He sat down and plotted a plan of attack to take over the position of God Himself. When he was Lucifer (the name means light-bearer), Job says he had a 'high right arm' and he held up the light. As the anointed cherub over the throne of God, his job was to lead creation in the worship of the one who sat on the throne.

"That's why he was made beautiful and wiser than any other creature. God gave him those attributes so he'd be able to devise ingenious, brilliant, wonderful ways to reflect the glory of God and to see God's glory manifested in ever-new ways. Instead of doing the same thing over and over and over, he would have that creative spirit put in him.

"When he had that, though, what he did was focus it on himself. I've thought about this many times, Ezekiel says that around the throne of God is this light that's as the appearance of a rainbow.

"In the Bible, all the facets of creation and the glory of God manifested in creation are laid out in front of you, so the glory Lucifer is seeing is this fantastic demonstration of all the fascinating things God has placed in His creation.

"He's leading the choir. He was the original musician. Tabrets and pipes, musical instruments, are created in him. He literally was the heavenly choir director. You know why music is the universal language? Because creation was created to be led by a musician who turned bad.

"You think about how influential music is. There's a reason it's that way. God made creation that way, to harmonize around His truth. Lucifer takes it and uses it for himself.

"Here's this guy up here with all this beauty, this light coming out of him leading creation and he's looking down at God. Revelation 4 says the floor of God's throne room is like glass.

"Have you ever seen somebody walk down a city street, looking at themselves as they pass a store, doing what they call 'window-shopping'?

"In my thinking, here's Lucifer, this dazzling, beautiful creature, and he looks down and sees his own reflection. You know what he did? He fell in love with himself and thought, 'You know, I'm the one who ought to be on that throne!'

"He thought about it, and when you think about it and it aggravates you, you begin to brood and get mad. He developed a plan to put himself on that throne.

"When the verse says he 'did weaken the nations,' that's saying he went out and tried to destroy what God was doing in the earth.

"Verse 13-14: [13] For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
[14] I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

"That's a place in the universe where the angels go to give account of their stewardship. You remember in Job 1 when the angels of God appeared before the Lord and Satan came with them. Did you ever scratch your head and say, 'How'd he get in the heaven?' He wasn't in heaven; that's a planet in the universe in the second heavens where the angels come and give account of themselves and it's called 'the mount of the congregation' because that's where they congregate!

"In Ephesians 5 it says how the heavenly host are gathered together and how God judges among the congregation of the mighty because they have an accountability to how they carry on the business of heaven. Lucifer said, 'I'm going to be the one they give account to; I want to be the guy they're subject to.'

" 'I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,' and notice, 'I will be LIKE the most high.' He didn't say, 'I'm going to BE the most high.' He said, 'I'm going to be like Him. I'm going to be so like Him that nobody is going to know the difference; they're all going to think I'm really Him.'

"When it says 'most high,' that's a title of God, the possessor of heaven and earth, the one who runs the WHOLE show. So Satan's goal is to deceive people into putting him into the place of Almighty God.

"He does it, not by being God, but by counterfeiting. You got to get that. That's the whole issue in the idolatry of the devil. He's the deceiver, the counterfeiter. He's going to throw a trick out there to separate you away from the truth and cause you to believe his lie.

"II Corinthians 11:2-3: [2] For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
[3] But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

"The tactics that the serpent uses to beguile, trick, cast a spell on her that leads her into error, Eve, through his subtilty . . . You see the trickster working here? 'So your minds would be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ.'

"Can I tell you that in your spiritual life, your Christian life, your daily life, one of the great ways you can evaluate things you hear, 'Does it honor or take me away from the simplicity that's in Christ?' If it adds works, and your resources, it isn't the simplicity.

"The simplicity in Christ is, 'He's enough. He's everything. He's all that I need. I'm blessed with all spiritual blessings in Him. I'm complete in Him. I don't need anything else to be complete, to be blessed, to have forgiveness and purpose and meaning and love. I have it all in Him.' Anything that moves you away from that simple truth is corrupting you."

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Personal info: As a second and third-grader at the teeny-tiny Nate Saint Memorial School (closed in 2017) in the rain forests of Ecuador, on the Pacific side of the Andes Mountains, I was taught by two young missionary women from the United States. Both of them were unattached and looking to find mates.

I only have a few vivid memories of them. One is how they had a bottle of Lemon Up shampoo in their bathroom. I was attracted to it not only because I rarely saw products from the USA but it had a plastic yellow lemon for its cap. The other memory is how I made a pile on my dinner plate of chopped onions and peppers I picked out of a meatloaf they made and my mom got upset because I embarrassed her.

Little did I know that my dad, a missionary doctor/surgeon at the world-famous outfit's small hospital, was causing daily trials for my mother. The biggest thing is my dad was popping pills, something that led to us leaving not even two years into our stay.

After my dad was first questioned about his drug use by Dr. Wally Swanson, referred to by name in the movie End of the Spear, he stopped coming to work! My mom said he would leave our apartment early in the morning and catch a bus to a town 30 miles away where there was a little cafe. There he would spend all day drinking coffee and reading books he brought with him when we moved from Ohio. He wouldn't be home until evening.

One day my mom was doing laundry in the complex's laundry room when Swanson's wife, Charlotte, came into the room and said, "Tell your husband Wally is in surgery all by himself." My dad happened to be home that day and when my mom relayed the message, he simply said, "He can get Brian Wigglesworth (a British man who was the third missionary doctor) to help him."