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This talk is all about uh source of Satan's power. A little bit of information about his fall and how we can deal with him in life. Um I appreciate the question that someone sent me about this. Um It's good information. I've been sitting on this for a little while, but it's time. So I want to start this by uh giving a little meta lesson on um a way that God does things whenever we're studying the gospel. It's, it's good that we're learning what we're studying about. It's also very good to try to pick up side note lessons that can teach us more about other things. So transferable lessons. So we know that Jesus uses used analogies very often in his mortal ministry. And um it turns out that he uses them all the time before that and after that, he still uses them today. So in Mark four, there's an example of this uh the Lord said, whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed which when it is sown in the earth is less than all the seeds that be in the earth. Now, in my book, The Glory of God's Intelligence, I talk a lot about awareness and light and truth and how we learn things, et cetera. Um But in a nutshell, if you haven't read that, I highly encourage it, highly encourage it. But in a nutshell, uh the, the point that's relevant to this is that when the Lord's trying to reveal something to you, he has to couch it within what you understand already. And um there are some artificial barriers. He has to work uh against like our sacred cows for instance, and our traditions because we box him into a certain pre conceived notion. And so all he can reveal is what fits in that box. But there are also um limitations that are just inherent to the way reality works. So, um if you've never thought about the kingdom of God, but you have seen a mustard seed and you know that it grows up to a very large tree, then maybe uh that helps you understand the way this works, right? So throughout the scriptures, and when God speaks to you, you'll see him use analogies all the time and it's, it's a way to connect something you've never thought of before to something you have in an effort to explain something to you um that fits inside of your current awareness and pulls you out into what you've never before considered. Um So that matters here because a lot of the scriptures that describe uh Satan and the situation with him are these uh sort of what could we call them parallel treatments, I guess where the way it's written, it describes more than one entity. So an example of this and I, I don't have this in the slides, but you'll find a lot of descriptions of the Lord that are also descriptions of an end time servant. And you'll find this in Isaiah, you'll find this in Psalms. It's something God does all the time. OK? Now, finally on to these scriptures, right? So before Satan was Satan, he was Lucifer, he was a being with great power in the presence of God. And um there are a few verses that describe this. So here's one in Ezekiel 28. Um And you'll see this parallelism with the king of Tyrus. This is what I was talking about. So these people in, in this time and in Ezekiel's time would have recognized properties of the king of Tyrus who was a physical person. Um And depending on who you ask, this could also be a prophecy about a future person. But for our purposes, we're reading it as a description of Satan. So it says, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus and say unto him thus saith the Lord God. Thou seals up the sum full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God . Every precious stone was thy covering the sardi topaz and the diamond, the barrel, the onyx and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald and the carbuncle and gold, the workmanship of thy tablets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created thou art the anointed cherub that cover 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. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created till iniquity was found in thee by the multitude of thy merchandise. They have filled the midst of thee with violence and thou hast sinned. Therefore, I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God and I will destroy thee o covering cherub from the midst of the stones of fire. 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. So there's a lot here. We don't really have time to go through this verse by verse, but I'll just touch upon some things. So uh you should go through this and ask God what do these things mean? So for example, thou seals up to some full of wisdom and perfect and beauty. What does that mean? Well, it means that uh Satan had learned a great deal of knowledge from God. He had come up to a point. Uh It says later that was perfect in thy ways from the day that that was created. So Satan uh had gone through a long procession of experiences where he had proved himself worthy of, of further light and truth and he attained it. And that continued until iniquity was found in Him. There's another meal lesson here, which is that it doesn't matter how far you've progressed with God, you can still fall. Uh But that's not what we're talking about here today. So he dwelt in the presence of God. He was uh where is it? Thou art the anointed cherub that cover. So Cherubs are the guardians of the presence of God and they cover God's presence from those who are unworthy to be in it. And um he was appointed to have that role. Uh So as we draw closer to God, we ascend in the roles that he gives us. And this is telling us that Satan was very advanced when he was Lucifer and he had um ascended very high. He had been promoted by God to high stature because of the knowledge that he had acquired and walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. This is again, this is talking about the presence of God. Uh God dwells in everlasting fire and it says thou wast upon the holy mountain of God. And that's the throne of God or where God lives. And again, this says that he was worthy to dwell in the presence of God. He had been appointed because of his knowledge and obedience to dwell there. Uh And then it talks about the corruption and this is using types, again, the multitude of the merchandise, et cetera. Um Therefore, I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God and I will destroy thee from the midst of the stones of fire . Um So, so why did Satan uh rebel against God? It says thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness. So we'll get more into this. But the rebellion of Satan was driven by pride. He thought that he knew more than God and that he had a better way than God's way. Um which is ironic because the only way to attain what he had is through submission to and trust in God. So he turned away from that and thought that maybe he could do things better. So preamble Lucifer sin. So this is uh this is describing what he did. It says, Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus. Again, this is a type of Satan thus sayeth the Lord God because thine heart is lifted up and thou hast said, I am a God. I sit in the seat of God in the midst of the seas, yet thou art a man and not God though thou set thine heart as the heart of God. Um Again, this is one of these , these um these combined parallelisms. And so we're talking about the Prince of Tyrus, but we're not talking about the Prince of Tyrus. We're talking about Satan and we're also talking about this future figure who Ezekiel is describing as the prince of Tyrus who will probably actually sit in the midst of the seas and obviously is a man. But these descriptions also apply to Satan and they can help us understand these things behold, thou art wiser than Daniel. There is no secret that they can hide from the. Um this is kind of mocking this person with thy wisdom and with thine understanding, thou hast gotten the riches and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures by thy great wisdom and by thy traffic, hast thou increased thy riches and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches. So again, the parallel is with Satan, he obtained all the knowledge and power that he has through obedience to God. And now he's pivoting and saying, I know better of myself and I know a better way of doing things. And um that's sort of, that's the reason he said in trouble, right? So we'll jump over to Isaiah 14, which is another parallelism with a future person. Uh But also helps us to learn more about Satan says, how art thou fallen from heaven? O Lucifer son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground which did weaken the nations 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. That's a phrase you'll find other in other places in the scriptures. But again, this, this refers to the physical dwelling place of God, the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I would be like the most high yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee saying is this the man that made the earth to tremble that did shake Kingdoms that made the world as a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof that opened not the house of his prisoners . So uh there will come a point where people say um of this person and also of Satan, uh they'll be shocked at how powerless uh he has become. And the reason they will feel that way is because of the information they have gained, that helps him to overcome the power of Satan and the power of this person . And we will get to that. But that's the point of this presentation. Again, that little foretaste of where we're going with. This is how we can get to that point. OK. So we've gone through, we started with the tricky stuff. Now we're gonna get to the easier stuff. So in Moses four, we read a much more plain description of, of um how Satan came to be and I the Lord God spake unto Moses saying that Satan whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine only begotten is the same, which was from the beginning. And he came before me saying, behold, here am I send me? I will be thy son and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost and surely I will do it where forgive me thine honor. But behold my beloved son, which was my beloved and chosen from the beginning said unto me, father, thy will be done and the glory be thine forever. So these two verses, we have the two plans. Um The Lord Jesus said, um I'm going to do what you have shown me needs to be done according to your wisdom. And um I will serve you in this respect. And Satan said, no, I know better. Here's another way we can do it. And uh I'll, I'll get it done. And so that was rebellious. In verse three, it says wherefore because that Satan rebelled against me and sought to destroy the agency of man which I the Lord God had given him. And also that I should give unto him mine own power by the power of mine only begotten I cause that he should be cast down and he became Satan. Yeah, even the devil, the father of all lies to deceive and to blind men and to leave them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice. Now, there's some confusion about what this cast down means that we're going to talk about that. But the point is that Satan had a different idea than what the father uh wanted to do. And he strove to, to forward and enact a plan that differed from what the father wanted. Uh In Abraham three, we have this very brief couplet. It says the Lord said, whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the son of man, here am I send me and another answered and said, here am I send me? And the Lord said, I will send the first with the other passage. We know why. And the second was angry and kept not his first estate. And at that day, many followed after him. So there was a rebellion in heaven and many followed after Satan. So what are Satan's objectives if you want to win a war? You need to understand what your opponent is all about. So Satan's objectives are to prove he is right and prove that the father is wrong and this is manifested in terms of their competing plans. Satan wants to force you to be righteous and I've put that in quotes on this slide, force and righteous. Uh, but he wants to provide a plan that compels you to be how you need to be in order to live in the presence of God. Now, unfortunately, that doesn't work. It doesn't work that way. That's contrary to reality. And God's plan is not some arbitrary thing that he, you know, capriciously composed. It's actually the only way. And uh I talk about this in the glory of God's intelligence, the importance of constraints and understanding reality and working with that instead of against it. Um But anyway, we could talk about that for a long time. I'll just end it there. And his other objective is to prevent mankind from being saved. So to prove He is right. He wants you to force you to be righteous, to prove God is wrong. He wants to prevent mankind from being saved through Jesus Christ. And this explains everything He does. Ok? So now we need to talk about Satan's power. So there's some questions, you know, what, what power does Satan have? Where did it come from? How do you conquer it, et cetera. So that's what we're gonna talk about now. So we know from the scriptures that Satan has the power to stand in the presence of God. Uh re re we read about that in job and we'll hit that later. Uh We know that he has the power to work miracles . We know that he can possess people. We know that he can torment people. And that includes physically, mentally and emotionally. And that's a whole range of situations from, you know, you have this disease and you don't know where it comes from and it turns out it's from a demon or all the way to um you know, you're depressed, you're anxious, whatever or Satan could, could actually appear to you and he can make you levitate off the ground and slam you into the ceiling and all these other crazy things that aren't part of people's normal experiences, but it happens, it's a full gamut of things and he can also tempt you so he can uh cause actions, feelings and uh the like that are contrary to God's will to be appealing to you. He can, he can try to persuade you to do these things or not to do what God wants you to do. So how did you get this power? This is like where people start to get confused . Well, uh so first off, we need to address this idea that some people have that um beings, I'll, I'll use a broader term than just angels that beings are created to be exactly what they are. Um That's really not the way it works. We acquire light, but we have to obtain it. We're not just like injected with it arbitrarily. There's, oh, this ties to so many things, but it ties to this belief that um that profits are created, you know, or that, that, that, that's a, you know, obviously a, a positive thing. But on the negative side too, that somehow demons are created, they're not created, they become what they are. Over a lot of experiences. I don't want to use the word time because that's kind of specific to our situation. But over a lot of experiences, these, these entities come to be what they are and there's only one way, right? You either acquire light and you grow or you act contrary to it and you go the other way. Um So anything that has power has power because it has light and anything that has light can only get it in one way and that's obedience to God and effort in seeking him. That's it. You can explain everything this way and it's very important to understand that. So here's a quick verse to make this point. Again, I don't want to give like a three hour discourse on this. But if you're interested in it, you can read the glory of God as intelligence um incidentally, like you're not going to see this chapter where does Satan's power come from. Um But you'll see these ideas scattered throughout and then by using a little introspection, you can think about these things and maybe God will teach you something about it. Um These presentations, these videos, they're not in lieu of the book or vice versa. Um They're all resources and it's worth your time to make the most of it. Uh While you still can in DNC 8813, it says the light which is in all things which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed. Even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things. And in the book, I talk for a long time in several places about this passage, it's, it's a very important passage. But um the power of God comes from light and that's the same light that is uh in all things and through all things and you have the capacity and everything has the capacity to seek and acquire more of that light. And with that comes power. Um So where does Satan? Satan's power comes from? Let me try to say that properly. Where does Satan's power come from? In short, it comes from God. It comes from the same source of power for all things. And um it comes through the light, it comes through information now that's going to bother some people. But uh it's true and you should think about it and study it out and maybe that will help you root out some traditions that are blocking you from uh becoming more of what you could be. So Jesus said to pilot you uh pilot said, don't, you know who I am, I have, I have power to set you free and power to kill you. And Jesus said, this is from the Rob Smith translation. Obviously, I'm paraphrasing Jesus said, uh you don't have any power except what, what the Father gives you. Um In other words, Jesus was submitting to the situation because he knew that it was according to God's will. This is interesting because Pilate was an adversary to Jesus obviously. Um But this is, this is what we're talking about here. Uh The Lord said without me, you can do nothing the whole John 15, I am the true vine. Um And this is the way it goes and that without me, you can do nothing. He wasn't just talking to some specific person or some group of people or you know, it's not like believers have less power with God. This was an eternal principle. If you're not subscribing to the light, you can't have the power that the light provides. And there is no other power except what comes through the light. So chill on that uh side note here, miracles are not necessarily for the purpose of bringing people to God. So righteous people can do miracles, wicked people can do miracles. Satan has power to do miracles, miracles come by cause and effect, they come through information, they come through either keeping someone's instructions, who knows what the cause and effect are. So you don't necessarily have to understand how to make a hammer to hit a nail with a hammer, right? Someone can just give you a hammer and then you hit it. Um But there is a cause and effect there, right? And that's the , the means by which this stuff happens. Purpose. On the other hand, um the purpose of miracles that come from servants of God or God himself, it's all about improvement. It's all about growing closer to God. And you can compare and contrast the miracles, for example, that Pharaoh's magicians did and the miracles that Moses did, they were very similar to a point. Um But how do you tell the difference? It's, it's about the purpose, it's about the improvement. So Pharaoh's magicians were doing these miracles to frustrate the purposes of God. That's what they're attempting anyway. And Moses did his miracles, which looked the same to a point. He did his miracles to forward the purposes of God to improve things, to benefit things. He was obviously he was trying to get the people out of Egypt as he had been commanded. But uh this is the difference. So Satan can do miracles. Yes. And we'll talk more about that in a second here. But the purpose is different. Power is very similar and it comes from the same source which is information, it comes from reality, it comes from awareness, understanding things as they really are cause and effect. OK. So, so how does Satan use his power? Uh, again, remember his objectives. He wants you to be miserable. He wants you to, uh, not be saved through the power of Jesus Christ. Um, he wants to force you to be righteous, with force and righteous in quotes. So, um, he's a liar from the beginning and I made a video about that and you should definitely watch it. It's called a liar from the beginning, but he wants to convince you that there's some other way than the way that God has ordained, that there is some other way than reality according to God. And that is the lie from the beginning and everything you think of as a lie is a, is a sub lie of that big one. Um He wants to convince you that there's some way to be happy other than the way God knows, you can be happy that He wants to convince you that there's some other way to obtain the things you desire other than the way God has appointed. God is not arbitrary in any way. He shows you the things that He shows you. He gives you the commandments, he gives you because He knows all things and He knows that will lead to your greatest happiness and that there is no other way to obtain those things. If there were some other way, that is exactly what He would give you. If there were an easier way to do it, that is exactly the way he would show you how to do it. But there is no other way. So Satan says, hey, there is another way it's easier. Come on. So, who does Satan try to target? Well, if you're a wise military commander, you, uh, so let's say that you, well, that, that could be a long analogy. If you're a wise military commander, you always take out the thing that could hurt you the most first, right? So Satan targets those who pose the greatest threat to his purpose and who are those people? They are the people who either have the most light or could obtain the most light. So um in Luke 2231 the Lord says to Peter, he says, Simon, Simon behold, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat. Why? Because if you take out Peter, you do a lot of damage, right? In first Peter five, Peter says be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walk about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith. Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. There's some cryptic language here, but Peter's saying what Satan's going to do and warning people about it and also giving them a tool to fight back which he says, resist steadfast in the faith and we'll talk about what that means and why it works knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. And in other words, don't think you're special when Satan comes to attack you, it's something everybody has to go through who walks that path. So, um there's a lot I could say about this, but just briefly, I want to warn you that the second you try to follow God in all ways and all times and all places, you're gonna send a very clear beacon and ensign to all of Satan's minions uh seen and unseen that you are a target. Um You shouldn't be scared about this, but I'm trying to give you some keys of, of knowledge and understanding here so that you have tools to resist those things and um to overcome them and it's not a penalty. It's just the way things are, are ordained and designed. If you want greater light and truth and happiness and joy, you will have to walk through greater darkness, sadness, sorrow, and temptation. There is no other way and it's a good thing at the end of the day. So what should you expect from him? Well, um there are three things in particular, I'm going to touch on first, get ready because he will influence those around you to make your life harder. That is the understatement of the century. But um you can ponder on that and you'll see the diversity of applications that, that come into your mind of things that have already happened to you and things you can imagine might. And I will assure you that it's going to be even worse than that. In Matthew 1036 the Lord said a man's foes shall be they of his own household. Do not underestimate how much control Satan has or could have on those that are closest to you. You will find that the more you follow God, the less frequently you will find yourself in safe places. And so you really have to become much stronger by trusting Him to a greater degree. And uh really, really clinging to him in all things. He will try to influence you to break God's commandments and he will torment you. These are the things that He is going to do. But the good news is there's an antidote to each of these tactics. The antidote to his influence on those around you is to overcome evil with good. That's something Paul said. You should look it up and think about what that means, but there's a lot to it. I'm not going to crack that egg right now. But um that's the antidote as far as his trying to get you to break God's commandments. You absolutely have to trust God. My mind is going to the example of Adam and Eve and Eden. And the way he tempted Eve was he tried to um diminish the consequences, the negative consequences of breaking God's command. And he over inflated the benefits of breaking God's command and he succeeded because eve very quickly forgot that whole thou shalt surely die part. And, um, he was successful. But if God tells you to do something or not to do something, you should really trust Him. He's never given you a reason not to. And every single time you trust Him, he will prove to you that it was a good idea. And I, I stand by that. That's, that's some true doctrine there as far as his tormenting you. Uh I have uh an unusual antidote here and that is torment him. If he comes at you, you come at him. If he makes you depressed, go out and preach the gospel to someone. If he, if he causes you pain, go out and bless someone's life, um Everything he does to you go and hurt him by doing something good to someone else and you will find very quickly that he will leave you alone if you do those things because it, um it hurts his purposes to mess with you . All right. Let's go with some case studies here. Um incidentally to do that, to torment him in response to him tormenting you. It takes an awful lot of faith in God, but I promise you that if you muster it, uh this is the way forward, this is the way through these things. OK? So we're gonna go through some case studies uh to learn more about Satan. So this is from job chapter one. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, whence comes thou, then Satan answered the Lord and said from going to and fro in the earth and walking up and down in it. Who help Peter said, he does that sort of thing. And the Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant job that there is none like him in the earth a perfect and an upright man, one that fear God and eshowe evil. Then Satan answered the Lord and said, doth job fear God for naught. Hast not thou made an hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side, thou hast blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, behold all that he hath is in thy power only upon himself, put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. What do we learn by this passage? Well, first off, I want to tell you job is not a mythical book. Some people think that this is a literal book. There's a whole lot of good stuff in this book. And uh you should decode it and see the value in these things. So let's do that for this passage. So, first off, when did this happen? So, job, job's life happened after this war in heaven, right? This, this rebellion I should say in heaven and yet here's Satan and he has power to present himself before the Lord and he just kind of strolls up into the presence of God. Now, anyone who's had any experiences with God should know that one doesn't simply stroll up into the presence of God. It takes a great deal of power with God to be in his presence, especially when you feel like it right. That's not something that you just go and do. So as we read in the passages before we know that Satan one had a great deal of power with God and two that, that power was retained to some major degree after his rebellion. This is contrary to the theology of many people who conveniently skip over this passage we on. So what about this exchange between the Lord and Satan? Well, um sa uh sorry, the Lord says, hey, job's a righteous guy. Why would he say that to Satan? Well, uh we'll get into this. But the way you take power away from Satan is to prove that he is wrong. The way you prove Satan wrong is by showing him people who have been redeemed through their faith in Jesus Christ. You show him, people who actually obey God. So, Satan counters by saying, yeah. Well, I mean, of course, job is obedient to you because you've only ever blessed him , give him some hard things and watch how quickly he disobeys you or abandons you or doubts you. So why would Satan say that? What's Satan's motivation? It's to show that the gospel through Jesus Christ doesn't work and that there's a better way his way, which is to force people. And he says, if we actually hit him with any kind of hard times, you'll see how quickly he abandons you. And then we see God saying, go for it. Let's see what happens, right? So, um here we see what's the source of Satan's power? God. OK, let's move on job chapter two again there. OK. So between the lines here. So what happens after that? Well, job says, yeah, things are bad, but God's been so good to me that um it's only fair that some bad things happen because, hey, he's been so good to me. So in Job chapter two says, again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said unto Satan from whence comes thou and Satan answered the Lord and said from going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said, unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant job that there is none like him in the earth. A perfect and an upright man, one that feare God and es Sheth evil and still he holde fast his integrity. Although thou hast moves, although thou moves me against him to destroy him without cause. And Satan answered the Lord and said skin for skin. Yeah, all that a man hath he will give for his life, but put forth thine hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan behold, he is in thine hand, but save his life. Same lessons as before. And uh of course, we know what happened to job after all that. Another case study, the temptation of Jesus. This is from Matthew chapter four then was Jesus light up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had forced it fasted, 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterward and hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, then the devil taketh him up into the holy city and set him on a pinnacle of the temple and saith unto him. If thou be the Son of God cast thyself down for it is written. He shall give his angels charge concerning thee and in their hands, they shall bear thee up lest at any time. Thou dash thy foot against the stone. Jesus said unto Him. It is written again. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain and showe him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and saith unto him. All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me, then saith Jesus unto him. Get thee. Hence, Satan. For it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leave him and behold angels came and ministered unto him. What do we learn from this passage? Well, um first, tactically, Satan's not an idiot. He comes when we're at our weakest points, especially when we're weak in the flesh. So Jesus hadn't eaten anything in 40 days and 40 nights and Satan comes. And so what's the first temptation he gives? He says, well, aren't you hungry? Use your power to make these rocks into bread. And um Jesus counters with a scripture. And uh it's important here to note that, that Jesus is uh focusing on the Father's purposes. Um And that's we, we mentioned that before and then the devil takes him into the holy city and set him on a pinnacle of the temple and he says, hey, cast yourself down and he quotes scriptures trying to justify what he's tempting God to do and what the Lord to do. And, and Jesus says, um he counters with another scripture. Now we have scripture against scripture, right? And so people don't realize that you can twist scriptures to, to mean any anything you want them to mean practically. And uh just like the miracles of God can, can be used for different things. Uh And I'm talking about cause and effect. So if you know the cause and effect, you can make things happen, even if it's not um in line with the Lord's purposes. And then he goes into a high moun mountain and shows him all these kingdoms of the world. And he says, you can have all these things if you just worship me and, and Jesus doesn't fall for the short term benefit . And he thinks about the big picture like Eve didn't do. And he says, uh I'm not going to do that because it's not according to the father's purposes. And then the devil leaves him. So why does the devil leave him? Because if he were to stay any longer, he would get more evidence that he's wrong and Jesus is right and the father is right and that would erode his power and we'll touch on that here in a second as well. So let's say in his timeline in the preexistence. He acquired a lot of light. We talked about that and uh there was a pre mortal council in heaven and there was a rebellion we talked about that he was able to stand in the presence of God during the life of job. We talked about that. Um Sometime after that, he uh will be cast down to earth. I'm using future tense there for reasons. I'll describe in a minute, I'll be bound 1000 years in ways that you should be able to understand through this presentation. He comes back into power to a certain degree. There's a final battle and then he's cast out for good. Say this, this timeline is a timeline of acquisition of a lot of light and then the loss of that light. So we're gonna shift talking about the loss of the light. Ok? So let's go to revelation 12. Apologize for the small text. So as there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and upon her head, a crown of 12 stars and she being with child cried travailing in birth and pain to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and 10 horns and seven crowns upon his heads and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and to cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered for, to devour her child as soon as it was born, and she brought forth a man child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her child was caught up unto God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God that they should feed her. There 1000 200 threescore days and there was a war in heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought and his angels and prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out that old serpent called the devil and Satan which deceive the whole world. He was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven now is come salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down which accused them before our God day and night and they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore, rejoice ye heavens and you that dwell in him, in them woe to the inhabits of the earth and of the sea. For the devil is come down unto you having great wrath because he knoweth that he hath. But a short time is from Revelation 12. Now, whether you think the revelation chapters occur in chronology or not in chronological order, it's very clear from this passage that uh this was a future event that John was writing about in the New Testament and whether it's still future or not, I'm not gonna get into , I don't want to try to decode the Book of Revelation right now. But um I will say that that uh this did not happen before creation. It didn't happen before the life of job and it didn't happen before the life of Jesus. And that's important. And I think one reason it's important is because it says right here how um Satan will be conquered by the blood of the lamb, by the word of their testimony, by those that love, not their lives unto the death. In other words, people who successfully live the gospel of Jesus Christ and are saved are redeemed from the fall and they prove that Satan is wrong and that the father is right. They glorify the father. And the other thing is that um the, let's see the way that Satan does what he does uh is not always the same in the sense of his power, his power is successively reduced through more and more evidence that he's wrong. So his power was greatly reduced when the Lord successfully lived his mortal life and atoned for the sins of all people and it will be even further reduced in the tribulations of the end times when people remain faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ, even though it cost them their lives. And uh I, I guess I'll leave it at that. Ok. So Satan will not always have power. Um I say this is a future event. I'm only going on record saying that it's post the life of Jesus. I don't want to get into all the details of that. It's not important to make it any more specific than that persistence of Satan's power relies upon his belief that he's right . So every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is the Christ and also Satan and all of his minions will come to realize that they were wrong that there is no other way other than what God has ordained. And if you think about it, all of creation is just one giant act of persuasion. It has uh differing outcomes depending on how much people believe it um at the time appointed for them to believe it. But that's what it is. It's one giant act of persuasion. Satan's a liar from the beginning. And again, you can look at my video presentation on that if you want, I encourage you to and the successful salvation of the elect will be the final thing that renders Satan powerless. It will show he's wrong without any dispute. Um Here's an interesting passage from Romans chapter 11 verse 29. Paul says, the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. You can ponder what that means in terms of Satan, he obtained his power and he retains his power according to certain principles, he obtained his power by learning cause and effect from God. He retains his power as long as there isn't sufficient evidence in his perception that he's wrong. And I don't have tons of time to go into this , but you can't have faith in something you don't believe. And right now he still believes he's right. And there's still enough evidence to support that, for him to maintain his power, he loses his power by being shown he's wrong. And the way this happens is there men and women who trust God even to death, they're obedient to him, they seek him, right? And that's remember the story from job. So how do you fight Satan's power? Long term to overcome the devil? You have to obtain more light and truth than he has. The good news is the amount of light and truth that he has is decreasing as more and more evidence is presented that he's wrong. The other good news is that through following the gospel, you will acquire more light and truth. But for right now, he knows more than you do and he has much more power than you do if you think about it and you read uh Jude 19. You'll see that even the archangel , Michael is very powerful. Uh He did not feel comfortable directly attacking the devil at that time. Instead, he uh said the Lord rebuke you. He invoked Jesus Christ because uh he did not have sufficient power to do it himself. In the short term, you can fight him by demonstrating unwavering trust in God. And that can mean many different things depending on your circumstance. This is what the Lord did when he was tempted by Satan and his mortal ministry. And remember that you should and you can invoke Christ when Satan attacks you. It doesn't matter in what way he attacks you. Now, a lot of people believe this and I think some people sort of believe this through instinct or something else, but it's true, you can do this, but it doesn't just mean saying words and I'm preparing a presentation about the name of in the, in the Lord's name or the name of the Lord. Um It's not ready yet, but in brief , this isn't just saying just this isn't just invoking Christ, but you should actually trust in God because that's where the power comes from. It's not just throwing words around. Satan's not scared of words, right? But what what affects Him is your trust in God. It shows he's wrong and it will cause him to leave. Why? Because he's a liar and all liars, they flee from reality. That's modus operandi. Uh because the light shows that they are wrong. So they turn from it and they run from it because they know that it will make them miserable. So I hope all this helps and uh I wish you the best as you try to build on these things and strengthen yourself to fight against Satan and his tactics.