I, a Watchman

The religious world is upside down

Let’s talk about the devil, the father of lies.

The most believed lie of Satan, the devil, is that he is a spiritual being, and therefore doesn’t exist. The truth is that when we look for the devil in the spiritual realm, we find all kinds of strange things, but mostly we find other people looking for spirits, doing strange things. There is a spiritual realm, and in it, there exist angelic beings and demons, but humans are not equipped to function there. We live here, in the physical world. And that’s where the devil does his work. For those who are looking for him (I ask: why would anyone?), the devil won’t be found in the spiritual realm.

The Golden Gate, or the Gate of Mercy (שער הרחמים) or the Shushan Gate (שער שושן) in Jerusalem. It has been sealed since 1541. This is the gate leading from the Mount of Olives, where it is believed Jesus will return to Jerusalem.

The devil was cast out of Heaven when he, an archangel, rebelled against God’s authority, and took about a third of the angels with him. Satan, meaning “adversary” was Lucifer, and is a fallen angel. Satan is allowed to exist because humanity chose to believe a lie, and while lies live in the world, the father of lies also lives in the world. But in Heaven, there are no lies. Believing the cartoon version of the devil with horns and a tail is believing a dangerous lie—nobody is going to find the devil that way.

Another lie is that Satan does not communicate with God. The book of Job in the Old Testament records a conversation between Satan and the Lord, that Satan came along with the “sons of God” to present himself. The Lord asked Satan, “from where do you come?” Satan answered, “from going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” Satan is bound from entering Heaven, but he is not prevented from presenting himself to God and speaking, in the spiritual or the natural realm. But in the spiritual realm, there is no lie before God. Satan speaks the truth, and makes his accusations against mankind—meaning individually, you and me.

It is a lie that Satan and God are adversaries. Lucifer rebelled against God, but there is no real way to win in that rebellion, because God created all. Satan is a created being, and he knows that the Lord created him. His rebellion against the creator rests in having God’s best creation, that being humanity, join the rebellion, because in the natural realm, the physical world, mankind is the only being that possesses both free will and the ability for the spirit of God to live within us. This means that, with God’s spirit operating in us, we can effect things in the spiritual realm. The devil can only affect things in the physical realm, which is why when people look for him in the spiritual, they don’t find evidence of him.

The devil is not God’s adversary—God has no equal—he is humanity’s adversary. By believing our adversary’s lies, we become enemies of God. James, the brother of Jesus, wrote in James 4:4, “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” The word “enmity” is defined as “the state or feeling of being actively opposed or hostile to someone or something.” The devil has power over this physical world, and has set up his own kingdom here, because in the realm where he lives, he has no actual authority.

Satan is a watcher of humanity. He walks to and fro in the earth. When Adam sinned and believed Satan’s lie, God removed his spirit from humans, who were then barred from the Garden of Eden, a place where God freely walked with his creation, and God’s spirit dwelled in Adam. The devil’s only place in the garden was as a serpent, where he watched, and waited for the opportune time to sell a lie. Once Adam and Eve bought that lie and believed it, power over the earth, and the people in it, without the spirit of God in them, became Satan’s. He became the “prince of the power of the air.”

Paul, in his epistle to the Ephesians, wrote in chapter 2:

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

The devil has a spirit and is a spiritual being. But his spirit does not dwell, or reside in people. It “works” in people, in this physical world. People cannot access the true spiritual world through Satan’s spirit. So, reader, you ask, what about demonic possession, and “The Exorcist.” If a person decides to look for the devil in the spiritual realm, sure, they can yield their mind to demons, and once those demons take hold of the mind, for remember, they work here but live in the spiritual realm, that person is subject to the demons’ influence. Once so yielded, it is very hard, and in some cases, impossible, for the person who got themselves in this state to regain control on their own. This is the root of many addictions, self-harm, cutting, and suicide.

Dabbling in spiritism without being properly equipped and supported is walking into a war zone in ignorance of the enemy, unarmed, and ready to present your mind and allegiance to the enemy when captured.

So many people, including Christians, get the world and the spiritual realm completely wrong and upside down. They see the devil in the spiritual, and look for God in the natural, physical world. God is a spirit. He is not flesh and blood. He cannot be seen here. Look for Him here and you will not find Him; you will only find his ambassadors, who know Him by faith and by His spirit dwelling within them. The devil wants us to believe that Satan is in charge of the spiritual world, and God is the absentee landlord of this world, so that people will blame God for evil and remain enemies with God and the people of God. It is, in fact, his most successful lie.

Now let’s talk about God.

There was one time when God came to earth, in flesh and blood, and made himself subject to the prince of the power of the air. The devil rejoiced that God sent His one and only begotten Son, so that in the flesh, in the physical world, Satan could have his way with God, face to face. Of course, Satan knew this would happen. He knew the Word of God, and was there to see when the scriptures were written. He did not know the divine revelation that inspired the scriptures, because, while Satan is a spirit, he does not have access to the spirit of God living in humans. That is a protected relationship, where “deep cries out to deep.” In fact, Psalm 42, where that verse is found, represents a key prophecy regarding Yeshua and His death on the cross.

O my God, my soul is cast down within me;
Therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan,
And from the heights of Hermon,
From the Hill Mizar.

Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls;
All Your waves and billows have gone over me.
The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,
And in the night His song shall be with me—
A prayer to the God of my life.

I will say to God my Rock,
“Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
As with a breaking of my bones,
My enemies reproach me,
While they say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”

Before the crucifixion, before Yeshua began His public ministry and miracles in the earth, He was tempted by the devil. Luke chapter 4 details Satan’s three attempts to turn the begotten of God to become the enemy of mankind.

While Yeshua was in the wilderness, the desert, fasting for 40 days, Satan came and tempted him first with his physical sustainment: turn these stones into bread. Yeshua was alone, in the physical sense, and nobody would ever see this miracle, which would fill his belly. It was a powerful temptation, but Yeshua answered “it is written” with scripture from Deuteronomy 8:3; the entire verse is this:

He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Then the devil tempted Yeshua with power and authority over the kingdoms of the earth. “All this authority I will give You,” Satan said to Jesus, “and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.” And the lie: “Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.” Satan did not, and does not, have the authority to give anything in this world away. His authority in the earth is stolen, borrowed, yielded, by us, the true inheritors of the world. If Yeshua decided to worship Lucifer and buy the lie, the “God” part of the God-Man would depart, and we would be left with the Messiah the Pharisees and Sadducees wanted—one that sought power and political influence—a son of the devil.

Again, Yeshua responded with scripture, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.” This is from Deuteronomy 6:13. In his third temptation, Satan quoted scripture, sowing doubt into Yeshua that He is not really the Son of God unless He can prove it. From the highest point of the Temple, Satan demanded that Yeshua throw himself down, so that the angels would catch Him. This is the same old lie—looking for God in the physical world, when God is a spirit. Yeshua answered with another scripture, Deuteronomy 6:16, “you shall not tempt the Lord.” The Savior knew who He was; he didn’t need to prove it to Himself or to the angels, or the demons. They also knew. Satan then departed to wait for a more opportune time.

The devil still operates in the world, though his stolen authority is greatly diminished because he is opposed by the faith and prayers of Christians who have the spirit of God within us.

What does it mean to be a watchman?

Hosea 9:7-9 describes the current situation.

The days of punishment have come;
The days of recompense have come.
Israel knows!
The prophet is a fool,
The spiritual man is insane,
Because of the greatness of your iniquity and great enmity.
The watchman of Ephraim is with my God;
But the prophet is a fowler’s snare in all his ways—
Enmity in the house of his God.
They are deeply corrupted,
As in the days of Gibeah.
He will remember their iniquity;
He will punish their sins.

The watchman sees the enemy in proper context. The devil operates in the world. God operates in the spiritual realm. Those who have the spirit of God have protected access to God, and the Lord grants power for signs, wonders, and miracles through that faith. The same power of the Holy Spirit that raised Yeshua from the tomb is also available to work through and in believers to heal the sick, cast out demons, and do greater things than Yeshua did in his earthly ministry. This is what the Bible promises.

I, a watchman, look at the world with my senses: hearing, seeing, feeling. But what I see and hear and feel is not to be fully trusted. It is only through faith and the spirit of God that these things are brought into context. It is only through study of scripture that the true sovereignty of God—those things that are reserved for God alone—is understood and applied to those things we on earth are called to do as workers in God’s kingdom. It is only through prayer and worship that the activation and anointing to do those things God has prepared for us happens. It is only through fellowship and connection with other believers that the community of believers and the body of Christ can effectively act to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.

The devil is the father of lies, and he operates in the world, making things look like they are not in reality. God is the father of all reality, and the giver of all good gifts, and He operates in the spiritual, worthy of all worship, honor, and praise. The watchman’s task is to call out when things appear to be not as they seem, and to warn those who are prepared.

I, a watchman, say, prepare yourself. If you do not know the power of God or His spirit, seek it. Pray. Read scripture. Find fellowship. Build faith. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Do not look for the works of the devil in spiritual places—you will only find lies and ruin. Do not blame God when miracles, signs and wonders don’t happen on the earth, or when evil happens instead. That is a sign that faith is waning, and workers in the harvest are needed. Become a worker. Be a watchman.