Satan's story, his purpose, is always the same.The scriptures give us an insider's view in the book of Job of one of Satan's purposes.
Satan's Attack on Job
Satan said to God, "[Job] only loves you, God, because you bless him!"
God boasted that there is no one on the earth who loved Him and trusted Him like Job. Satan attacked, "He only loves you because you bless him."
So Satan takes away all the good in Job's life, leaving Job in UTTER CONFUSION! Job's friends counsel him WRONGLY that God did this to him because of his sin. (We know God in the New Covenant has "taken away the sins of the world" and is not dealing with us over sin. "His kindness leads us to repentance.")
Even Job said, in trying to understand, "Surely God gives and God takes." But was God taking from Job? NO! Satan was taking. It was a test, an attack...on what? for what purpose? For Satan to blast in God's face, "I can make your creation curse you! No one would love you, God, if you weren't blessing them! Your creation is just selfish; you don't 'have it all', God!"
Satan's plan was to get Job to pull away from God, to not love Him, not praise His name, not continue in a steadfast relationship with Him because the blessings were removed. Why? To hurt God. And to get Job off solid ground of trusting in God's goodness.
THIS IS NOT HOW GOD TESTS THE LOVE OF HIS PEOPLE! THIS IS SATAN'S TEST.
Job withstood the test, even to the point of believing God was taking from him, which was not even the case! In the end, GOD GAVE HIM BACK EVERYTHING AND MORE.
Satan's attack is the same to this day. He looks for what he believes is only a love for God because God blesses us. Any blessing we seem to love more than God (or seem to devoted to for our purposes rather than God's), Satan will blast, steal, take away, thinking that this will be enough to get us to no longer praise God, no longer consider God good and faithful--which means we would change our testimony about him to others in the world, thereby defaming His name.
It is a dreadful act of a thief, an evil con artist, a liar. We must not get confused. God is not taking away.
HOW COULD WE POSSIBLY OVERCOME THIS? ARE WE DOOMED TO LOSE IN THIS KIND OF TEST?
"Why did God allow it? Wasn't that proving that it was God's will that we suffer?" No. Satan did not go to God this morning and ask permission to bring temptation and destruction into your life today? He is not getting permission from God to do what the bible clearly teaches us he is ALREADY, RIGHT NOW, TRYING to do: to steal, kill, and destroy.
Well, then, is there any hope that we can save what He is trying to destory?
First, once we understand why Satan is attacking that thing, we can pull back and re-set our hearts on God's faithfulness OVER our attachment to that blessing. It is a healthy signal to us that maybe Satan thinks he's getting at something. If he puts his dirty hands on something, know that it is testing your faith--do you love this more than Him?
We can overcome, however.
We know from Revelation that we overcome the devil by: (1) the Word of our Testimony, (2) the Blood of the Lamb, and (3) by not loving our lives unto death.
This third one is the key in this kind of situation. If Satan thinks we love something (like our house, our career, our mate) more than God, then Satan will enjoy trying to steal it so that he can move our devotion away from God, to hurt us and to hurt God.
We must remember that it is NOT GOD'S WILL that Satan take it, but that whatever Satan steals, we can receive again by faith. Knowing this about God's unstoppable, unfailing goodness toward us is what enables us to NOT LOOK AT THE "LOSS OF BLESSING" AS BEING OF ANY CONSEQUENCE TO THE OUTCOME OF OUR BLESSED LIVES.
In our hearts, we say, "I will proclaim the faithfulness of God even as it looks like I am losing! I will proclaim that God is for me, His intentions are that I do not lose this! He already has planned the returning to me of whatever I have already lost! His intentions are that I continue to be blessed for HIS NAME'S SAKE! I AM AN OAK OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, bearing His glory so that all will wonder about my God. "All will say, surely I am blessed."
But if in our hearts, we love the Lord more than that thing, "Satan has nothing in me," he cannot touch me!
This is how you will overcome! Set your mind on the meaning of your life! What is your real purpose! Push toward that, and Satan, convinced that you will praise God regardless, loses his battle against you.
BUT DIDN'T GOD TEST ABRAHAM WITH ISAAC?
This was a type and shadow of Christ to come. God dramatically demonstrates that asking a son is the highest price that he would ultimately not require of a human--PRECISELY BECAUSE THIS WAS THE PRICE HE DID PAY FOR US. This was a foreshadow of the coming picture of the Father, God, giving up his own son...giving us a picture to prove to us that He would do for us what he would not ask of anyone! It's always about God's gifts, His goodness, not our acts of sacrifice!
(article in process...more to come)
