Satan is nothing but God’s dog on a leash, here to do his bidding!

Do you remember Job?

But he said to her: As one of the foolish women speaks, you speak. That? Will we receive good from the hand of God and not receive evil? In all this Job did not sin with his lips. work 2:10

Job never attributed evil as Satan’s evil, he only saw God IN all things. The only power God allows Satan is the power to suggest to those who are still focused on him that he still has some power!

Furthermore, the entire purpose of the enemy’s so-called “attack” on Job was for an “eternal” purpose, and that purpose is found here:

The Lord said to Job: “Will he who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!” Then Job answered the LORD: “I am unworthy, how can I answer you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer, twice, but I will say no more.” Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm: Job 40:1-6

When Job finally came to the end of himself, and to the end of questioning God (symbolized here by forcing himself to shut up by putting his hand over his mouth), it was only then that God spoke to him… OUT OF THE STORM! !

In other words, the storm (which was God) entered Job’s life for this purpose, and God used Satan as his convenient agent (dog on a leash) by using sickness, poverty, isolation, fear, and betrayal for his own plans. purposes! In this case it was to bring Job into the absolute negative of him, so that the positive power of God could fully occupy that barren and empty place, a place much deeper than before the storm!

The Lord said to Satan: “Very well, then, all that he has is in your power, but do not lay a finger on the man himself.” work 1:12

And in the dialogue between Jesus and Pontius Pilate: Jesus replied: You could not have power absolutely against me, if it were not given to you from (My Father) above… (John 19:11)

Job had to be planted in death, because like us, that was the only way he could find out that Satan really had no power over him.

That is, with the exception of the power of the lie!

So what happened next?

Full and complete restoration, and just as a bonus, God doubled everything Job had before his “storm” and gave him a long life to enjoy it!

After Job had prayed for his friends (comforters), the Lord restored his fortune and gave him double what he had before. All his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted him and comforted him from all the evil that the Lord had brought him, and each gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.

The Lord hurt the last part of Job’s life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter was named Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the earth were women found as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and his father gave them an inheritance along with his brothers.

After this Job lived one hundred and forty years; he saw his sons and his sons to the fourth generation. And so Job died old and full of years. Work 42:17

Now does it sound like Satan is acting as his own independent entity? An entity we’ve been led to believe is in some sort of eternal spiritual “tug of war” battle with God to see who ultimately wins control? Where have we seen God as the white dog, fighting against Satan, the black dog?

Sounds more like an “angel made, gone wrong” to me. The one we know as Satan, God’s personal dog who… well, just read the following…

Having canceled the charge of our legal debt, which rose up against us and condemned us; he has removed it, nailing it to the cross. And having despoiled principalities and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them on the cross. Colossians 2:15

Since children have flesh and blood, he also participated in their humanity so that by his death he could break the power of the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who were all their lives in the earth. slavery. because of his fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15

Conclusion:

Job was a man who loved God, did all he could to be obedient to God, and was a “good” man. And what does it mean that Job did not sin with his lips? Could it be that Job was trying to hold on to the image of how people saw him? He does not say that he did not sin, only that he did not sin with his lips.

His “goodness” identity was precisely what God saw needed to disappear, so he orchestrated a plan to bring Job, the “real” and “naked” version of Job, directly into His presence.

And for about 40 chapters, God uses Satan to bring Job down, and in every possible way a human being can be brought down, all so that Job can see that his goodness isn’t really that good. And if it’s not enough that Job loses his family, his property and his health, God sends his closest friends to accuse him! “Job, what are you doing, or what should you be doing that you’re not doing?”

I don’t understand what I do. Well, what I want to do I don’t do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I don’t want to do, I accept that the law is good. As things are, it is no longer me who does it, but sin that lives in me. Because I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. Because I have the desire to do good, but I cannot carry it out. Because I don’t do the good that I want to do, but the evil that I don’t want to do, I keep doing this. Now, if I do what I don’t want to do, it is no longer me who does it, but it is the sin that lives in me that does it. Romans 7:15-20

Like Job, Paul also saw himself as good, so God sent a storm into his life. And the storm, what we know as his “thorn in the flesh” opened his eyes to the one thing Paul had that could never be taken from him, the revelation of God’s power IN and through his weakness…a new awareness. of himself and God who came to him through His abundant Grace.

Are they servants of Christ? (I’m out of my mind to talk like that) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more often, been flogged more severely, and exposed to death time and time again. Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes minus one. Three times they beat me with rods, once they threw stones at me, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from the rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my Jewish brothers, in danger from the Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger of false believers. I have worked and painted and many times I have not slept; I have known hunger and thirst and have often been without food; I’ve been cold and naked. On top of everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I don’t feel weak? Who is led to sin, and I do not burn inside?

If I have to boast, I WILL TAKE PLACE OF THE THINGS THAT SHOW MY WEAKNESS. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who must be praised forever, knows that I am not lying. 2 Corinthians 11:23-31

So imagine Job sitting in ashes, covered in blisters from head to toe, he has lost his entire family, all his wealth, and now he is about to lose the one thing that Job needed to lose more than anything else,! his identity! Job, who was honored by the men and women around him for what he did for God and others, now sits a sick, broken, empty shell of the man he was before his “storm.”

So what about us?

The only possible way humans can know for sure that God will never abandon them, and that His love comes without any performance-based conditions, is when God is allowed (or in my case invited) to take away everything in which they trust, take them ashore. zero, and reveal himself as the… All IN All!

I know since the day I asked God to take me to the end of myself, back in 1983, I’ve been to hell and back so many times I can’t count.

But through all of this I have learned that it is God’s hell, and not Satan’s!

Last April, a grapefruit-sized tumor was discovered in my kidney, along with a life-threatening infection in my spine. Last week Linda and I received news that we have been cleared of all criminal charges (immunity and restitution), trumped up charges that have been hanging over our heads for the past three years, charges that could have led Linda, me and his 27 year old daughter in prison for years, leaving us completely bankrupt for life!

I am sharing this for one reason only.

God continues to use the many trials and tribulations in my life to create the illusion of lack, punishment, and abandonment! And it is here that we begin to see all of life, everything that belongs to our life with our natural eyes. But the truth is, once you lose everything… you realize it wasn’t yours to lose in the first place. There is a freedom in “losing to win” that goes far beyond what we have been led to believe is true freedom!

But everything that was gain to me, now I consider loss for Christ’s sake. What’s more, I consider everything a “loss” because of the incomparable value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I have lost everything. I consider them garbage, to “win” Christ and be found IN him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith IN Christ, the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ, yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation IN his sufferings, to become like Him IN his death, and so, somehow, to the resurrection from the dead. . Philippians 3:7-11

Praised be our God, all peoples,

let the sound of his praise be heard;

has preserved our lives

and prevented our feet from slipping.

Because you, God, tested us;

you refined us like silver.

you took us to jail

and ugly loads on our backs.

You let people go over our heads;

We went through fire and water

but you took us to a place of (freedom) abundance. Psalm 66:8-12

FREEDOM… is just another word to say that there is nothing left to lose. (From the song, Me and Bobby McGee)

And Satan is nothing more than God’s dog on a leash, being used to lead us to that very place!