Revelation 12
7
There was war in the sky [heaven]. Michael and his angels made war on
the dragon. The dragon and his angels made war. 8 They didn't
prevail,
neither was a place found for him
any more in heaven.
neither
was a place found for him
any more in heaven
This phrase is loaded with
implications and insights that often are given little attention. The
concept of having a place to live, to exist, to be
accepted and to fit in is a creation design principle
built into the psyche of many living creatures. We are not
created to be alone, isolated, independent or aloof from
others. We are designed to function and interact dependently with
others to make up a united body. This makes perfect sense
as we were made for joy, and joy requires more than one
to experience realistically, and it grows exponentially the
more we become involved. This is the 'place' for which
we intuitively long, where we feel cared for, wanted, nourished in
every respect and find our sense of home. We are made for
love, for joy, for fellowship and intimacy. Without
this 'place' we feel lost, disconnected, constantly wandering
and searching for security and peace but never finding it,
which leaves our internal spirit filled with dissonance
because our very design is violated and short-changed.
But the unclean
spirit, when he is gone out of the man,
passes through waterless places, seeking
rest, and doesn't find it. Then he
says, 'I will return into my house from which I came
out,' and when he has come back, he finds it empty, swept,
and put in order. Then he goes, and takes with himself
seven other spirits more evil than he is, and they enter in
and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse
than the first. Even so will it be also to this evil generation.
(Matthew 12:43-45)
What I find compelling about
this description by Jesus is that the spirit He is referring to here
is one of the angels who originally could find no place in heaven
after joining the accuser of God, the great Satan, the one who turned
himself into the dragon of Revelation. We can use the patterns of
operation as templates to learn how things in the past repeat
themselves over and over throughout the history of this war. This
spirit found himself looking for rest and doesn't find it. This
resonates strongly with the very first time that he and all the other
angels who aligned themselves with fallen Lucifer against God's
government of love learned that there was no place in heaven to be
found for them to remain.
I believe it would be very
enlightening to spend some time unpacking this passage, both for
coming to a better appreciation of how this war came to its first
decisive turning point long ago in heaven, and also for what it has
to say about our relationship to this war and what it involves when
it comes to each one of our own situations.
I want to compare this story
with another passage that at first may seem like it has little to do
with this but in reality exposes underlying issues of conflict in
this war and how we are to overcome.
Don't be deceived,
my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every
perfect gift is from above, coming down from the
Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor
turning shadow. Of his own will he brought us forth by the
word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of
his creatures. So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift
to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; for the anger of
man doesn't produce the righteousness of God.
Therefore, putting away
all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with
humility the implanted word, which is able to save your
souls. But be doers of the word, and not
only hearers, deluding your own selves.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a
man looking at his natural face in a mirror; for
he sees himself, and goes away,
and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
But he who looks
into the perfect law of freedom, and continues,
not being a hearer who forgets, but a doer of the work, this man will
be blessed in what he does. (James 1:16-25)
What might this have to do
with an unclean spirit leaving and then reentering a man with seven
other spirits more evil than himself? It is because this is how the
war is being fought, for keep in mind that this is a war of truth
versus deception, lies about God, about how reality should function
and about where to source our perceptions about our identity, our
value, purpose and how to act like ourselves.
What James begins by
pointing out here is the issue that was under dispute in the very
early stages of this war the dragon was conducting in reaction to the
war Michael initiated to expose his lies with the actual truth of
God's heart and character that was under attack. James warns us not
to be deceived, and then goes on to detail the area of deception in
particular. Here we can see that the issue under dispute is the
source of everything that is good, where our gifts come from as well
as whether or not God has a dual disposition or is pure and singular
in His constant attitude of honesty, love, humility and truthfulness.
James declares that with God there is never any shiftiness, never any
darkness or even hint of darkness like a shadow but that He is the
Father of lights. John also emphatically declares the same thing when
He says in 1 John 1:5 that God is light and in Him is no darkness
whatsoever. This is in contrast to what Lucifer began to insinuate
and later openly assert as his infected the minds of angels with
doubts about God's purity of integrity and trustworthiness. Later he
used similar assertions with Eve when he insisted that being like God
involves knowing both good and evil. That contradicts the testimony
of the Son of God who stands for the truth about God and stands for
all those who choose loyalty with God, both unfallen angels and
humans on earth who believe and choose to trust God.
Clearly we see that the war
here is over what we will choose to believe is truth. James says that
God brought us forth by the word of truth. This can refer to the
original creation of humanity who by design are to be reflectors of
God's light of glory. This design means that we will reflect in our
lives either the Son's view of God or the dragon's version of God.
Clearly an unclean spirit having access to our inner spirit would be
a deceiving spirit finding a place to hang out because we have
allowed his lies to find residence in our thinking and choices. I
suspect that many of us have such deceiving spirits with easy access
to us without our ever being aware of it because their lies are so
familiar that we simply assume most of our life that they are merely
facts of reality rather than lies that prevent us from living out the
freedom and joy of liberty in Christ Jesus.
James mentions another thing
I find compelling here that I won't take a lot of time to unpack but
is very relevant to informing us about one of the key issues in this
war that needs to be clarified in our mind.
the anger of
man doesn't produce the righteousness of God.
I will simply say this: when
we allow Satan to cause us to project our feelings of anger and
desires for revenge, punishment of evil-doers and notions about
justice back onto God, we remain blinded by the lies of the enemy and
are not living in the light that the Son of God has brought into the
world about how God relates to those who fight against Him. Most of
our propositions and doctrines involving God's wrath and the
punishment of the wicked are riddled with false assumptions about
God's ways and character and come from our first parents embracing
the lies of Satan about God being a mix of light and darkness, good
and evil who relies on enticements of rewards and threats of
punishments to manipulate others to conform to His commandments. So
long as we cling to such ideas about God we discredit the truth about
the Father of lights and reject His mercy which is the only way we
can become prepared to come into His presence and thrive instead of
experiencing torment.
James goes on to instruct us
to put away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness. We may not
be aware of how much filth there is inside of us, and this is part of
the curse of living in the darkness of deception, for a deceived
person almost never is aware that they are deceived. When a person is
clueless as to some extreme danger they are in, there is no incentive
to heed warnings meant to save them because they assume the warnings
are for others and not themselves. I believe we need to plead with
God and give Him permission to do whatever it takes to come to an
awareness of our true condition and the grave danger we are in and
unmask the true nature of the diabolical enemy who has kept us in
bondage under the tyranny of fear all our lives and humbly accept
that what the Word of God says to us is the only thing we can trust
in spite of our feelings and traditions to the contrary. This is how
the war is being conducted, a war over what spirit we will believe
about who we are and what reality looks like and what is coming in
our future.
James tells us that what is
able to save our soul is to receive the implanted word. This of
course is the word of God, not the word of the dragon. Again, this
entire war revolves around whose word we will trust, whose words we
will choose to believe as defining who we are and how to live. In
turn, whatever word we receive and becomes planted inside our mind
and heart determines the defining characteristics of how we perceive
reality and what we will believe God is like. The war between Michael
and His angels and the dragon and his spirit angels is entirely a war
over how God needs to govern and achieve unity and cohesiveness of
society and maintain harmony and peace in the universe. This may seem
like an exaggeration to many, but our traditional opinions about the
nature of the war have been far too small and have blinded us as to
how intense the battle is happening all the time in our own
individual lives. These instructions from Scripture need to be taken
seriously if we are to come into the light and be rescued from the
deep darkness that covers the entire world.
This is where the parallel
passages begin to fit together tightly. Evidently in the story Jesus
tells, the unclean spirit who leaves a person had already been
residing in them for who knows how long already. And if there is a
point of time when the spirit goes out of a person, it would not be
because they simply decided to go look for other places voluntarily
or simply got bored. No, deceiving spirits are always seeking minds
and hearts where they can find access to take control, to deceive, to
manipulate and exploit. And inferred in this story by Jesus is that
so long as they can remain in a person and have access to them, they
find at least what we might call relative rest even though they never
experience the kind of rest explained in Hebrews 3 and 4. But they do
claim such person's as being their place of rest.
That leads us to the next
question. If an unclean or demonic spirit has already been hanging
out in a person's life and suddenly leaves, what might be the cause
of their sudden eviction? This is also where the pattern informs us
that something similar likely transpired in heaven as described in
the passage we are looking at in Revelation 12 here. The original
question we are exploring tangentially is the nature of the place in
heaven that was somehow not able to be found by the dragon and his
angels, and I believe we can glean clues from analyzing similar or
parallel situations where those same spirits either find a place to
hang out or find themselves without rest and constantly wandering
around restlessly looking for a place of their own to dwell in and
control.
Jesus said that one of these
spirits passes through waterless places,
seeking rest, and doesn't find it.
A waterless place clearly involves symbolic language, so we should
become aware of what the symbol of water may mean here. In prophecy,
waters usually represent peoples, but there are other meanings as
well. Jesus talked about the water of life that potentially can gush
out from our inner parts, and Paul says that we need to experience a
washing of the word.
Husbands, love your
wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly, and gave himself up
for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by
the washing of water with the word.
(Ephesians 5:25-26)
Given
that unclean spirits refer to the angels who lost their original
place in heaven by aligning with the dragon, we can put the clues
together to see that their loss of place continues to cause them to
restlessly look for places of rest which apparently has to do with
how much of the word of God is active in a person's soul. Paul seems
to indicate that this word involves loving our spouses like Christ
loved us and gave Himself up for us that He might sanctify us and
cleanse us by washing with the water of the word. This would be in
direct contrast to the implied condition of a person while an evil
spirit is allowed to remain in them, for Jesus infers that such a
spirit introduces filth and in effect is trashing the 'house' he is
living in. We see similar illustrations of this in stories of
irresponsible young people conducting parties in mansions while their
parents are away that end up trashing the premises and causing huge
amounts of damage. This is the nature of selfish indulgence which is
motivated by these very spirits. These are merely outward expressions
of similar conditions internally by people who do this. But the same
thing can be happening internally in people who appear to be just the
opposite externally, for darkness and lies can produce opposite
symptoms as Paul points on in Romans 1 and 2. The cause of
dysfunction, whether expressed through pious religious prigs judging
open sinners as worthy of severe punishment, or in reckless sinners
flaunting their supposed freedom to indulge in all sorts of base
passions, is actually the same. It is the exchanging of the truth
about God for the lie, and this is at the crux of this entire war as
we have been talking about since the beginning of this study in
Revelation.
So back to the question of
what caused this unclean spirit to suddenly leave off residing in a
person where he had previously been able to hang out and trash his
life? If we look at the parallel passage in James or take into
account the various stories of Jesus or His followers casting out
demons from people, it likely involves something along the lines of
having the truth of the word of God brought into the life that causes
such torment to this kind of spirit that they simply vacate because
they cannot tolerate living that close to the truth of God's love.
Truth and love are intolerable by demonic spirits who thrive on
circulating and promoting lies, deceptions and innuendoes about God's
untrustworthiness and keeps their place secure in our lives. When the
truth comes too close to them they lose their power over us because
the authority we have given them is withdrawn and they are compelled
to exit.
Yet what we see in both the
account of Jesus as well as in the passage in James is the potential
for a relapse, and such a relapse can result in a condition far worse
than the original problems caused by a single dark spirit hanging out
in our life keeping us numb to our actual condition of being
deceived. Jesus speaks of such an expelled demon as wandering about
looking for another place to rest and not being able to find any.
This is like what happened originally in heaven, where the dragon
Satan and his angels found no place for them in heaven and came to
this earth previous to the creation of humans. We have almost no
information about what transpired at that time except that they could
no longer remain in heaven and later ended up here on earth. I
suspect that during part of that time these fallen angels could have
wandered many places throughout the universe seeking a place to rest
but with no success because everywhere they went they found
themselves unwelcome by the unfallen inhabitants of other planets and
unfallen angels who had determined to remain loyal to Michael and
trust His testimony about God's nature rather than Satan's.
In the case that Jesus told,
this spirit decided to return to observe what may have become of the
residence he had been evicted from originally, and to his demonic
delight discovers that while that person's life has radically
improved and cleaned up from all the havoc the demon had brought into
that person's soul, no other spirit had been invited to take up
residence there and the person in effect was available for occupancy
by whomever could find a way to get in.
This is the main point of
this story by Jesus, that it is not enough to simply be set free and
get cleaned up by the power of the word of God declared over a
person's life. Yes, the truth did set them free, and the truth did
cause much restoration, healing and new hope and love in that
person's experience. Yet if they did not make choices to authorize
and keep authorizing continued growth by giving permission for the
Spirit of God to be in charge, then their situation could become
extremely hazardous and yet they themselves were oblivious to their
own danger. Such a person may presume that now that they are free of
the control of the lies that the former spirit occupant had used to
manipulate them and trash their life, that was good enough. Any
suggestion that they needed to continue to move deeper into the word
of God and apply it to their own lives might be seen as legalistic or
works oriented, and such ideas were considered out of line with the
gospel of freedom in Christ. Yet both Jesus and James make it clear
that simply receiving freedom from the power of sin and control by an
evil spirit does not make us secure and safe from reinfection. In
fact, Jesus says plainly that if a dwelling place (a human heart and
mind) is left unoccupied and unattended, that they are like sitting
ducks simply inviting a relapse that may prove the total ruin of that
person's life because of their own negligence.
Jesus does not explain what
this person should have done, but this is where James can serve to
fill in what is vital to understand if we want to avoid the fate that
Jesus describes and happening to such a person. There are several
things in this passage from James that we would do well to heed when
we become aware that we may well be in a similar situation after
finding deliverance and feeling good while in reality we may be in
even greater danger than before.
James says that we need to
embrace a spirit of humility, and from that posture we need to
receive the word of God as an implant inside of us.
James also warns that it is
very dangerous to simply hear the word but fail to actually act on
it.
Then in the analogy that
James uses to illustrate his point, we find out what he actually was
describing as to what it means to do the word and not merely hear it
and maybe experience its initial power to set us free. In other
words, it is just as important if not more so, to make choices that
will keep us free and moving forward in our freedom as it is to
initially experience deliverance that has the power to set us free
from the lies, confusion and destructive habits of thinking and
living that ruin our lives. This action that defines what it means to
be a doer of the word of God involves looking into what James says is
like a mirror and later identifies as being the Law of Liberty.
This is where traditional
views of the purpose and function of the Law of God usually brings in
confusion as we jump to conclusions about what we expect to see when
we come to look at the law closely. Most of the time, people assume
that the Law is designed to show us how sinful we are, how out of
harmony we are with God's expectations, and almost instantly we then
begin to feel condemnation and begin trying to figure out how to
escape these negative feelings and the illustration gets hijacked
from that point on out. This is how I read this and heard it taught
for most of my life until the Spirit brought this to my attention not
long ago and I suddenly realized I had not been paying close
attention to what James actually was saying.
But the unclean
spirit, when he is gone out of the man,
passes through waterless places, seeking
rest, and doesn't find it. Then he
says, 'I will return into my house from which I came
out,' and when he has come back, he finds it empty, swept, and put in
order. Then he goes, and takes with himself seven other spirits more
evil than he is, and they enter in and dwell there.
The last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Even so will
it be also to this evil generation. (Matthew 12:43-45)
Don't be deceived,
my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every
perfect gift is from above, coming down from the
Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor
turning shadow. Of his own will he brought us forth by the
word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of
his creatures. So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift
to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; for the anger of
man doesn't produce the righteousness of God.
Therefore, putting away
all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with
humility the implanted word, which is able to save your
souls. But be doers of the word, and not
only hearers, deluding your own selves.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a
man looking at his natural face in a mirror; for
he sees himself, and goes away,
and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
But he who looks
into the perfect law of freedom, and continues,
not being a hearer who forgets, but a doer of the work, this man will
be blessed in what he does. (James 1:16-25)
And the Lord God said, It
is not good for the man to be by himself: I will make one
like himself as a help to him. (Genesis 2:18 BBE)
God is love, and just as
love requires a minimum of three to fully function as love, so
too do all the inhabitants of His creation who are designed to be
expressive of the Godhead's heart. This sense of innate longing
to find our place and fulfill our purpose is a
God-implanted motivation designed to propel us toward our
fuller potential. Intuitively we search for this experience
all our lives, but it can only be found and experienced by
embracing our place in our Creator. This is what is called the
unity of faith, and without it we cannot thrive.
He made from one blood
every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having
determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings,
that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they
might reach out for him and find him, though he
is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live, and move, and
have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'For we
are also his offspring.' (Acts 17:26-28)
When we participate in a
group who shares common motives, interests and desires (in the
groove as some used to say), we feel synchronized with those
who challenge, compliment and resonate with us. That is when we feel
fulfilled, where we experience a sense of satisfaction and
discover the power that is inherent in knowing our group identity,
even if that identity is not what God created us to experience.
Because all creation
is modeled after the character of agape love describing
how the Godhead has always existed, sentient beings can only
find their place, their niche in the society of the universe, as
they choose to live in harmony with the principle of agape
love which is the design template of true reality. Our
longing for this place for us springs from the deepest
levels of our being and is experienced in our longings to
feel accepted, loved and in sympathy with others around us.
We crave to find that
place where we may thrive within a group identity that
gives us meaning far greater than just ourselves. This
is not unique to humans but is the design of God for all
created beings. It is a propelling force intended to provide
impetus toward joy as each individual seeks to discover
their unique place where the heart comes fully alive and finds
fulfillment and peace.
In God's design, knowing our
place, feeling settled, accepted and fulfilled is not about living
under subjugation or forced obedience. Our true place is where we
discover true freedom and joy in willing, selfless service to
bless others as we receive freely from God.
As you go, preach,
saying, 'The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!' Heal the sick, cleanse
the lepers, and cast out demons. Freely you received, so
freely give. (Matthew 10:7-8)
This has been counterfeited
in Satan's kingdom by a different sort of finding your place.
In this counterfeit system of hierarchy, everyone's identity
is derived apart from creation design and purpose. This
alternative reality depends on shame, blame and pride that
drives us to jostle for position on an artificial scale of
relative worth. This violates our very design and is what
brought about the fall of Lucifer. When he abandoned his
design identity as a joy-filled light-bearer of God's selfless
love to launch his new ideas involving trading and
commerce, all predicated on the notion of relative fluid value
and propped up by artificial law and stratified by a system
of hierarchy.
This grand experiment with
new concepts all transpired in the pristine, vulnerable atmosphere of
heaven where there had always been only trust with never a
trace of fear or shame. Yet it was not long before the effects
of this experiment began to sour, for where there had
previously always been freedom, joy and constant
gratitude in dependence on God to supply every need,
now there was haggling, trading, competition, coveting
and growing discontent. These resulted in foreign feelings,
attitudes and motivations that had never existed, and
their effect was to mar and distort the image of God as their
disposition was altered by lack of reflecting His love.
The no longer freely received from their Creator but looked
for how to supply their own wants. Lucifer himself was
transformed through this experience from an efficient
messenger of God's love, wisdom and peace, as well as heaven's
choir instructor and director, into something quite opposite –
filled with bitterness, jealousy, hatred and finally the
greatest accuser ever. As an incessant complainer, the
ultimate fault-finder, the great agitator and the father of lies,
there could no longer be found any place in heaven that was
fit for such attitudes, because he had chosen to abandon
his original identity to carve out an entirely different
one for himself, one that competed with God instead of
reflecting God.
By inventing a new
identity foreign to that given him in his creation, Lucifer
turned into the great Satan, the father of lies and the original
murderer, even though no one had ever died. Jesus says
that if you hate your brother in your heart it is the
equivalent of murder. This is because identity comes
from the realm of the spirit rather than based on what one
does or possesses. Satan became the first to experience and
cultivate hatred, and that hatred was primarily focused on
the Son of God more than anyone else. Years later that hatred
produced its outward fruit in his vicious attack on that
same Son employing all the agencies of evil that he could
amass to unleash the stored up venom in Satan's heart
as well as what infected all who reflected his selfish resentment.
Shall the throne
of wickedness have fellowship with you,
which brings about mischief by statute?
(Psalms 94:20)
Don't be unequally
yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship have
righteousness and iniquity?
Or what communion has light
with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)
Have no
fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,
but rather even reprove them. (Ephesians
5:11)
This is the message which
we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is
light, and in him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with him and
walk in the darkness, we lie, and don't tell the
truth. (1 John 1:5-6)
The point here is that
everything Satan was becoming was foreign to God's design
for him, so the place he had once enjoyed and where he had
experienced greatest fulfillment and happiness in selflessly
serving others now was despised by him. He lost all
desire and at last even all capacity to live in sync
with that original design. This fake identity now shaped
who he became, and it was impossible for that spirit to fit in
with the spirit of the rest of the inhabitants of heaven. Love and
fear, light and darkness, truth and lies share no common ground.
There was no place where he could continue to find sympathy
and synchronize with others. This is the tragic outcome of
choosing to pursue a direction of believing and acting out of an
identity that does not originate from God.
Likely we have witnessed
this pattern in our own experience. It is an all too familiar
pattern but it is predictable, because the same spirit
that launched the original rebellion and was resisted by
Michael in defense of His Father's reputation, uses the
same tactics to infect others with the motives that gave
him traction in the beginning. The result is always disharmony,
tension and disruption of peace and harmony and
societal disruption, and polarization is the inevitable
outcome.
Angels who
didn't keep their first domain, but deserted
their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds
under darkness for the judgment of the great day. (Jude 1:6)
Let's explore a bit more
this concept of a place to fit in as found in Scripture as we
pick up clues of how events may have transpired in heaven,
resulting in Satan and his angels losing their place through
their own disruptive agitation. Beginning in Revelation, we
see a pattern emerging involving this design principle of everyone
having their place and what happens when we don't find our
place.
The fruits
which your soul lusted after have been lost to you, and
all things that were dainty and sumptuous have perished from you, and
you will find them no more at all.
(Revelation 18:14)
I saw a great white
throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the
heaven fled away. There was found no place for them.
(Revelation 20:11)
He sent forth a dove from
him, to see if the waters were abated from the surface of the ground,
but the dove found no place to rest her foot,
and she returned to him into the ship; for the waters were on the
surface of the whole earth. He put forth his hand, and took her, and
brought her to him into the ship. (Genesis 8:8-9)
Woe to those who join
house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no
room, and you are made to dwell alone in the
midst of the land! In my ears, Yahweh of Armies says:
"Surely many houses will be desolate, even great and
beautiful, unoccupied. For ten acres of vineyard shall
yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield an ephah."
Woe to those who rise up
early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; who stay
late into the night, until wine inflames them! The harp, lyre,
tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts; but they
don't regard the work of Yahweh, neither have they
considered the operation of his hands. Therefore
my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge.
Their honorable men are famished, and their multitudes are parched
with thirst. Therefore Sheol has enlarged its
desire, and opened its mouth without measure; and their
glory, their multitude, their pomp, and he who rejoices among them,
descend into it. So man is brought low, mankind is
humbled, and the eyes of the arrogant ones are humbled; but Yahweh of
Armies is exalted in justice, and God the Holy One is sanctified in
righteousness. (Isaiah 5:8-16)
This passage gets to the
heart of the problem exposed by the war in heaven between
Michael and the great dragon. It reveals what developed in the
heart and mind of Lucifer as he turned away from reflecting the
light of God's selfless glory, choosing instead to indulge a
spirit of self-importance and domination over others. He
shifted his source for identity from living out the design God
made him for, to believing that his value and worth came
from his own attributes, appearances, giftings and from the
admiration from those under his charge who thought so
highly about him.
Son of man, take up a
lamentation over the king of Tyre [a
metaphor for Lucifer who turned himself into the great dragon in
heaven], and tell him, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You seal
up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden,
the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz,
emerald, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and beryl.
Gold work of tambourines and of pipes was in you. In the
day that you were created they were prepared. You were the
anointed cherub who covers: and I set you, so
that you were on the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and
down in the midst of the stones of fire. You were perfect
in your ways from the day that you were created, until
unrighteousness was found in you.
By the abundance of
your traffic they filled the midst of you with
violence, and you have sinned: therefore I have
cast you as profane out of the mountain of God; and I have
destroyed you, covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty;
you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your
brightness: I have cast you to the ground; I have laid you
before kings, that they may see you. By the multitude of
your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your
traffic, you have profaned your sanctuaries;
therefore have I brought forth a fire from the midst of you; it has
devoured you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the
sight of all those who see you. All those who know you among the
peoples shall be astonished at you: you are become a terror, and you
shall nevermore have any being. (Ezekiel
28:12-19)
The dragon no longer
believed the light that his true identity as Lucifer was
designed to share with others. By believing lies about
himself and where his value and purpose originated,
he became the dragon using threats, force, exploitation
and unbridled thirst for power and worship that ruined
his character. Imagining his worth came from his abilities, capacity
for wisdom and stunning appearance, he came to think these
were inherent in him instead of being gifts from his Creator.
Thus in believing lies about the source of his value, sin and
selfishness displaced love for the truth, and his inner
sanctuaries, his heart being the place where God
wanted to dwell, became a place of frustrated passion,
fueled by his own bitterness and jealousy. The principle that
resistance to love produces internal heat of dissonance,
results in a flame of hatred against God and all His ways that
made Satan totally incompatible to live in the presence of Love
any longer.
You
said in your heart, "I will ascend
into heaven! I will exalt
my throne above the stars of God! I will sit
on the mountain of assembly, in the far north! I will
ascend above the heights
of the clouds! I will make
myself like the Most High!"
Yet you shall
be brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit. Those
who see you will stare at you. They will ponder you, saying, "Is
this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook kingdoms; who
made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities; who
didn't release his prisoners to their home?" All the kings of
the nations, sleep in glory, everyone in his own house. But you
are cast away from your tomb like an abominable branch,
clothed with the slain, who are thrust through with the sword, who go
down to the stones of the pit; like a dead body trodden
under foot. You will not join them in burial,
because you have destroyed your land. You have
killed your people. The seed of evil-doers will
not be named forever. (Isaiah 14:13-20)
Lucifer destroyed his own
fitness for his first place until there was nothing left. He and
his followers became so infected with selfishness they were
incompatible with the atmosphere of humility and vulnerability that
defines heaven. There is no compatibility between these two
versions of reality, so the only thing left was to separate.
This is an important lesson we need to be aware of today.
Don't be unequally yoked
with unbelievers, for what fellowship have righteousness
and iniquity? Or what communion has light with
darkness? What agreement has Christ with Belial?
Or what portion has a believer with an unbeliever?
What agreement has a temple of God
with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even
as God said, "I will dwell in them, and
walk in them; and I will be their God,
and they will be my people." (2
Corinthians 6:14-16)
The dragon could no
longer receive God's love or trust His ways as best for
the universe. The sweet fellowship and joy of worshiping God
became repulsive to him, as the spirit of self-exaltation
and pride resulting from his counterfeit system of trading was
totally out of sync with the design of God for him internally. By
profaning his original design, God was no longer allowed to
dwell in him, because the dragon seeks only control and
craves worship for himself which is the opposite of God's
disposition. There was no longer find a place for himself
and his demons in paradise, because heaven is a place
of sweet selfless love, humility, willing vulnerability
expressed in other-focused service which now had become
reprehensible and even torment to him.
My hand shall be against
the prophets who see false visions,
and who divine lies: they shall not be
in the council of my people, neither shall they be written
in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into
the land of Israel; and you shall know that I am the Lord
Yahweh. (Ezekiel 13:9)
Then was the iron, the
clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken in pieces together,
and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the
wind carried them away, so that no place was found for them:
and the stone that struck the image became a great mountain, and
filled the whole earth. (Daniel 2:35)
In that day they will
take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation,
saying, 'We are utterly ruined! My people's possession is divided up.
Indeed he takes it from me and assigns our fields to traitors!'"
Therefore you will have no one who divides the
land by lot in the assembly of Yahweh.
"Don't prophesy!"
They prophesy. "Don't prophesy about these things. Disgrace
won't overtake us." Shall it be said, O house of Jacob: "Is
the Spirit of Yahweh angry? Are these his doings? Don't my words do
good to him who walks blamelessly?"
But lately my
people have risen up as an enemy. You strip the robe and
clothing from those who pass by without a care, returning from
battle. You drive the women of my people out from their pleasant
houses; from their young children you take away my blessing
forever. Arise, and depart! For this
is not your resting place, because of uncleanness that
destroys, even with a grievous destruction. If a man walking
in a spirit of falsehood lies: "I will prophesy to
you of wine and of strong drink;" he would be the prophet of
this people. (Micah 2:4-11)
The system the dragon
has developed here on earth likewise has no place for those
who are tuned to heaven's mindset. Just as there was no
place left for the dragon and his angels in heaven, there is no
compatibility for those whose hearts are being reformatted
to reflect the glory of selfless love. Those who are
controlled by the mindset of this world hate the light of
love. All those who dwell in heaven and all who dwell
on the earth are incompatible with each other.
She brought forth her
firstborn son, and she wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in
a feeding trough, because there was no room for them
in the inn. (Luke 2:7)
Jesus said to him, "The
foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the
Son of Man has no place to lay his head." (Luke
9:58)
In the next chapter we find
the explicit revealing of this hostility toward
any who refuse to cooperate.
He exercises all the
authority of the first beast in his presence. He makes the
earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast,
whose fatal wound was healed. He performs great signs, even making
fire come down out of the sky to the earth in the sight of people. He
deceives my own people who dwell on the earth because of
the signs he was granted to do in front of the beast; saying to those
who dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast
who had the sword wound and lived. It was given to him to give breath
to it, to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should
both speak, and cause as many as wouldn't worship the image
of the beast to be killed. (Revelation 13:12-15)
The finality of this
condition of incompatibility and loss of place in God's design
is tragic. Worse yet, it will be replicated in the lives
of all who resist and reject heaven's way of living until like
Satan and his angels, they destroy their internal sanctuary designed
for God to dwell in. They at last become the habitation of demons,
and such ones experience love as torment when encountering the
presence of the passionate love of Jesus.
He will be tormented
with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels,
and in the presence of the Lamb. The
smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have
no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his
image, and whoever receives the mark of his name. (Revelation
14:11-11)
For you know that even
when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was
rejected, for he found no place for a change of mind
though he sought it diligently with tears. (Hebrews 12:17)
Angels who didn't
keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place,
he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of
the great day. (Jude 1:6)
For concerning those
who were once enlightened and tasted
of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of
the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of
God, and the powers of the age to come, and then
fell away, it is impossible to renew them
again to repentance; seeing they crucify the Son of
God for themselves again, and put him to open shame. (Hebrews
6:4-6)
For if we sin
willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth,
there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful
expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which
will devour the adversaries. A man who disregards Moses' law dies
without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses. How much
worse punishment, do you think, will he be judged worthy of, who has
trodden under foot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the
covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has
insulted the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:26-29)
But, beloved, we are
persuaded of better things for you, and things
that accompany salvation, even though we speak like this.
(Hebrews 6:9)
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