Was The Devil Ever Given Authority?

Was The Devil Ever Given Authority?

Genesis 1:26-28 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

This is another verse we talked about in my class.  They were describing how this verse shows God giving us the freedom to rule the things on Earth.  There are three things God is giving us permission to do in this verse.  First, He is saying to be fruitful and multiply.  God created one man and one woman.  It was their job to create the rest of the population on earth.  The second thing God asked us to do is to expand over the earth.  God told us to fill the earth and subdue it.  The last thing He told us to do is to take authority over it.  God told us to have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.  This might not be anything new to you.  You may have already known this.  I have definitely heard this verse many times before, especially the be fruitful and multiply part.  However, I have never heard it explained as it was in class on Monday night.  I had never thought of it as God giving us authority over the things of this earth.  I know it says it, I just never really gave it much thought I guess.  

The next thing they said is something that I also never really thought of and although it makes sense, I am guessing most of us have not thought of it.  The teacher asked if the devil was ever given any authority over the things of the earth?  That is a great question and the answer is no.  Yes, he was given permission by God to mess with Job, but even then, he needed to ask permission.  He has never been giving authority of the things of this world.  Do you know what that means?  The only way he has any authority over us is if we relinquish that authority God gave to us.      Have you been giving the enemy authority over you and your life?  Have you been allowing him into your thoughts and letting him run wild?  Maybe you didn’t know you had a choice.  The devil is very good at twisting the truth and making us believe we don’t have a choice or that we are not in charge.  

I think we worry about the enemy because we realize there is spiritual warfare all around us.  We worry because evil seems to be creeping into all aspects of the world.  We worry because the hate seems to be growing stronger and stronger.  The world seems to be fighting hard against Christians these days.  I saw a billboard last night that said, “I am an atheist and I vote.”  What is even the purpose of that billboard?  I know people are saying it seems things have never been this bad.  If you have ever read any books written by the saints, they always say the same thing.  Everyone always things the time they are living in is the worst time.  I am not saying we aren’t getting close to end times and I am not saying we are.  Jesus told us the timing is not for us to know.  

I do know if we spend time worrying about it then we are giving the authority over our worry to the enemy.  Whenever we are worrying about something we are spending too much time in the what ifs.  When we do this, we are allowing the enemy to come in and have free range in our thoughts.  He only has that authority because we are giving it to him.  Maybe we are getting close to Jesus’ coming and maybe we aren’t.  My question is not whether He is coming soon or not, my question is what do I have to do to be ready for it.  Instead of worrying about what may or may not happen, let's spend our time making sure if it does happen we are ready.  Saying that makes me think of parable of the 10 Virgins in Matthew 25:1-13.  The Parable of the Ten Virgins, is one of the parables Jesus told about ten virgins who await a bridegroom; five have brought enough oil for their lamps for the wait, while the oil of the other five runs out. The five virgins who are prepared for the bridegroom's arrival are rewarded, while the five who went to buy further oil miss the bridegroom's arrival and are disowned.

It makes me think of this parable because the girls did not know when to expect the bridegroom.  Five of those girls were ready for whenever he got there.   They did not have to worry if he got there late because they had come prepared.  This is what we must do.  We must stay alert and do our best to make sure if Jesus came tomorrow, we would be ready for Him.  When we do this, we take the power away from the enemy.  He wants to be in our ears whispering, Jesus is coming and you aren’t ready, you still have so much to do, you aren’t good enough, you will never be ready and so on.  However, when we spend each day living according to how Jesus asked us to live, we don’t have to worry about His coming because we are ready.  We don’t have to listen to the enemy whisper in our ears because we already know what he will say.  We know he will try to twist the truth.  Remember on Tuesday we talked about how the devil’s greatest fear is confident children in Christ, this is how we get confident.  We live each day in the best way we can and at the same time we are continually striving to live it better.  Not because we have to earn our way into heaven or to earn the Lord’s love, but because we love God and we want to keep growing closer and closer to Him.  We can’t grow closer if we don’t know Him.  If we want a more intimate relationship with God we need to read scripture and really get to know who God is.  

Instead of spending time worrying we could be spending this time reading scripture and spending time just being with God.  I think that is His favorite.  Every week in prayer group God tells us some version of, “sit with me in silence, or just be with me.”  My goal and hope by talking about this with you this morning is that you will realize that if the devil only gains authority by us giving it to him, we don’t have to be afraid of him.  Yes, be aware and be on guard, but we don’t have to be afraid of him because we are children of God and God is our refuge and our shield.  God will protect us from the enemy.  I think one important thing we forget when we think about the enemy and the spiritual warfare that is going on is that God already won the war.  When Jesus died on the cross He defeated evil.  He regained this world for us and we have the authority over it, not satan.  Let’s not give him any power over us.  Let’s be strong and confident in who we are and whose we are.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we love you and we are so grateful you created us in your likeness and image.  We are grateful you gave us dominion over the things of this world as we know that is giving us a lot of responsibility.  We are sorry we don’t always do things correctly.  We are sorry we aren’t always good stewards of the things you give us dominion over.  Lord, help us not to relinquish any of our authority to the evil one.  Help us not to give him power over us or to let him into our thoughts.  Show us how to keep that from happening.  Lord, you are incredible.  You already defeated evil, so we don’t have to be afraid of him anymore.  Help us to be strong and confident children of God.  You are amazing Lord.  You are the light of the world and the word made flesh.  You are the resurrection and the life.  We adore you and we glorify you.  We are grateful for all you do for us and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Remember Jesus loves you and so do I! Have a blessed day!

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