He had everything going for him—good looks, intelligence, musical ability of genius level, rank, and prestige in heaven—he was a glorious angel in God’s presence. Was…he was all that. He very well could have been God’s most beautiful creation, but Satan could not tolerate a position less than being Number One, and when pride and arrogance took hold of him, as Ezekiel records, his heart was lifted up and he defied the Creator of the Universe. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor (Ezekiel 28:17).
As He formulated a plan to rebel against Almighty God, he was dismissed from the presence of God, taking with him one-third of the angelic host—no doubt angelic beings he shrewdly lied to, promising them power, authority, and position in the kingdom he formed, in the most destructive revolt against God that has ever occurred. It changed the world, and mankind fell into a hopeless trap of sin.
Satan, brilliant and radiant as he was as one of God’s arch, or ruling angels, ruled over other angels. When he renounced his allegiance to God and revolted against Him, he rapidly became a Straight Up Loser…for all time. What began as a very good creation (Everything created by God is good, 1 Timothy 4:4), went very bad. Initially, Satan was created to serve and honor God, but he can never regain that place of servitude and integrity. There is no hope of redemption or salvation for the Straight Up Loser. Pride fueled his rebellion, and to this day, it still fuels the destruction of those who allow it to take root in their hearts. Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall (Proverbs 16:18 NLT).
The Straight Up Loser thought he knew better than the Most High God. Perhaps he thought he knew more than God and could run a universe more effectively. Being puffed up with pride makes us unable to see things clearly. We see them through a distorted lens of self, and we become deceived.
The Straight Up Loser was, and is, a deceiver. Lying and deception define him, and Jesus said of Satan, “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it,” (John 8:44 NKJV). “Speaking from his own resources” means that no outside force contributes to the lies he says; he lies from the core of his being since his nature is a complete deviation from a sound mind (Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary). Satan is completely, utterly, totally filled with darkness. There is no light or life in him at all—only death. His mission is to steal, kill, and destroy. The thief [Satan] comes only to steal and kill and destroy (John 10:10).
Jesus said, in John 8:12 (ESV), “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows Me will NOT walk in darkness, but will have the Light of Life.” Because God designed an alternative plan for mankind to escape the trap of sin that Satan started when he rebelled—that being redemption through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross--we are freed from living in the darkness of the Straight-up Loser’s kingdom. Jesus called him the prince of this world (John 14:30), and because Satan does have power here for a time, we witness the horrific deeds of demon-possessed and evil people who are his ambassadors on the earth.
How dark our world seems presently, but Satan’s power is limited, and our hope lies in the fact that God disarmed Satan’s kingdom at the cross. Colossians 2:15 (NKJV) tells how that happened when Christ was nailed to the cross and died: having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. At that time, as Derek Prince explains, He [God] made a public display of the representatives of Satan’s kingdom and He triumphed over them in the cross (Derek Prince, Spiritual Warfare).
The Straight Up Loser’s power sources—his principalities and powers—were defeated by Christ’s victory at the cross. The atrocities we see happening today are the works of Satan unleashed in the world through people whose minds and hearts have surrendered to the Straight Up Loser, not Jesus Christ. Simply not acknowledging Christ as Lord and living unto oneself is enough of a commitment for the Straight Up Loser to begin using a person to advance his evil on the earth.
We are Christ’s ambassadors, and our purpose is to represent Christ’s victory in our lives and testimony. Our assignment is to administer the victory, demonstrate the triumph, and exercise the authority that Jesus has won on our behalf, Prince says. As evil encroaches around us, keep in mind Jesus’ words to us, "Look, I have given you authority over ALL the power of the enemy…" (Luke 10:19 NLT). Declaring God’s Word and using our authority in the face of evil is backed by the Almighty, even if we are in the darkest corner of evil. His words to Joshua apply to anyone who calls on His Name: “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them, for the Lord your God He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you,” (Deuteronomy 31:6). Our authority, which is God’s authority trumps Satan’s. He has been stripped of his weapons; we just need to realize and act on that truth!
For the record, the destiny of the Straight Up Loser is described in Revelation 20:1-3, 7-10:Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be released for a little while...And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
THAT’S the Straight Up Loser’s end. We declare that God always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place (2 Corinthians 2:14).
© 2021, Chris Werre
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