The Devil is Operating on Legal Mandate. Be Strong and Vigilant
Literature
Satan could stand confidently before God—most notably in the Book of Job—because he was acting within the scope of permitted, delegated authority as the “accuser” or “adversary” at a time before his final, permanent casting out from the heavenly realm-source: Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange
Reflections
Theories of the Christian faith are of the opinion that, Satan knows certain truths Christians are ignorant of. For instance it is understood that, the enemy knows that God works through righteousness yet this is not known to Christians and it is the reason many believers are involved in lifestyles that do not glorify God and tends to undermines or raise question marks about their validity to stand before God worthy for their prayers to be answered.
Some Christians are also ignorant about the fact that, as much as their lifestyles may hamper them from enjoying the full blessings of the Almighty, provision has been made to always come back to God with genuine confessions to reestablish their relationship with their God. The devil pries on our ignorance, you know.
In this context, the literature explains that, Satan was confident standing before his Maker because God permitted him. Why? Because Satan is the accuser of the brethren. His work is to find faults with you and refer the incident to God so that, he can have a strong basis to convince or restrict God’s hand from helping or saving you. The note word however is ‘permit’. You can be living right but God can permit the devil. People can bear false witness against you even though you’re faultless. People can go and say all manner of things about you when indeed, you’re not evil in anyway. The fact that you’re serving a living God does not mean everything will go right.
Remember Job was an upright and blameless man throughout the land of Uz. He feared God and shunned evil (Job 1:1). The devil is jealous of your uprightness. It surprises the devil that as mortal as you are, God cannot still find any wrong with you. It’s not all men who fear God. There are men who will never hasten at God’s voice nor pay obeisance to His word. Some do not even believe of His existence and their attitude shows. The way we reverence God in his presence. Are you forced to kneel and worship God? Are you coerced to be a spiritual man? Do you see it as too much work to provide spiritual leadership as a man? Many men do not feel obligated to lead their families through prayers. These are the things that defines a man that fears God. It is hard for the bible to say this about Job and so the devil was enraged.
Job was doing all the above mentioned things right yet still, God permitted the devil. God didn’t want to but the devil pushed God really hard to bring that trial the way of Job. The devil said ‘You have said all these nice things about Job. You have said it but I do not know. Allow me therefore to see if he is really upright and blameless as you said, if he fears you and runs away from evil. The devil knows you are a good Christian. In fact he knows that, he has nothing to accuse you of. It hurts the devil when you’ve passed the test and you are living peacefully. Yet in order for him not to feel God is being personal with your victory, God says, ‘Okay, you go test him’. A man can only be who he is. Situations do not change a man. This is what God is thinking about you that is why He is allowing various degrees of trials your way.
Do you know arm robbers and crime activists believe it is their right to rob people or commit crime? You and I who are pure in heart see their activities as evil but they see it as ‘delegated authority’ in their circles of operation. Evil men are mandated by their leaders to commit evil. Heads of witches delegate their lower ranked members on assignments. Remember the devil came to kill, to steal and to destroy (John 10:10).
What the enemy calls authority is evil in that sense. Yet the literature says, ‘delegated authority’. Remember, the devil has a role to play in our Christian life. He is titled as the ‘accuser of the brethren’. He has to test you, he has to play that role for your Christian life to be perfect. You can never be victorious without a test or examination. Jesus had to pass the test of human trial before Pilate, death and resurrection before he was crowned with the name above every name. It is one of the reasons God permitted the devil in your life-‘right of accusation’.
Remember the devil is our opponent since he left heaven. You need an opponent to be victorious in a competition. This world we are in is a competition world. Why? The devil is doing the opposite things Christians must not do. So his duty is to come test you of those things if you will fall to them. He knows it’s against your belief but he will come to test you. If you’re not fortunate and you fall to it, he has won. The devil knows us and sets nice traps that suits our weaknesses. ‘It is the woman who made me eat’ (Genesis 3:12) – Tripartite trap from the serpent, Eve and to Adam.
Remember that, the devil is looking for you. He knows his time is short so he is working around the clock. Understand that, the devil has an ambition. He has an objective to meet before Christ returns. There are certain things he has to achieve and you’re his target. He will stop at nothing to get you. Be very conscious of this as you journey.
