Operating System Spirit

When Satan tempted Jesus with the doubts about being the Son of God in the wilderness, he was not only referring to Jesus' condition as a human and trying to question that aspect of Him; he was also coming from the stance in which he, as previously Lucifer, had originally taken in heaven when he questioned the truth about Christ being God just as authentically as the Father. The whole great controversy between Christ and Satan was initiated in heaven when Lucifer began to entertain doubts about the divinity of Jesus. It seems that he found it difficult to believe that Jesus was not a created being like himself. Christ apparently appeared so similar to Lucifer that Lucifer made the mistake of thinking that he was equal with Christ and thus should have all the same privileges as Christ. So when God treated Christ with greater honor than Lucifer by including Him in the secret counsels of the Godhead while excluding Lucifer, it was at that point that Lucifer's jealousy began breeding ideas of what is now known as 'sin'.

This core issue was and always has been the foundational challenge that turned Lucifer, 'Son of the Morning' into Satan, 'the accuser' which is the meaning of the word Satan. His insistence from the very beginning of sin that Christ was not really equal with God created so much bitterness in his heart that he could not hide it. That bitterness continues to drive him to tempt anyone and everyone to disbelieve God's revelations about the true identity of Jesus Christ. That was the essence of his temptations of Christ in the wilderness and actually underlies all of our temptations as well in one way or another. Our our beliefs about who Jesus Christ really is will be revealed in our willingness to believe that Jesus, the human representative of God, is actually God Himself and as such has been sent to transform our internal pictures of God that have been grossly distorted through the lies of Satan about both God and His Son.

When we profess to believe that Christ is Lord, that Jesus is God, that claim in fact must go much deeper than simply an intellectual assent that probably Jesus was divine while living as a human somehow. To truly to believe in Jesus is to be willing to confront every last lie about God and how He feels about us and how He treats us. To really believe in Jesus is to come into agreement with Him about what He has declared and shown us about what the Father is like. If we say that Jesus is truly the Son of God, then we also have to allow the testimony of the works of Jesus – the way that He treated and related to sinners, to convict us of our false ideas about God and to exchange them for the truth about Father as revealed in Jesus' life and teachings.

To believe in Jesus is to separate ourselves from the rebellion of Lucifer who insisted that Christ was no greater than himself. Somehow our insistent demands for our own rights are tied in with the inner rebellion that infects each one of us that sympathizes with Lucifer's claims against Jesus. Lucifer demanded his 'rights' in heaven and ended up eventually losing all access to heaven in the long run. But that was not because of some arbitrary decision on the part of God but because Satan's spirit became so out of tune with the fundamental spirit that governs all relationships in heaven that there was no longer any place found there where he could function or operate without being repulsed by all who remained.

The war that took place in heaven was a war over which system of government, which internal model of spirit would be the operating set of principles that would underly all relationships for the universe. Lucifer proposed that his new model, that of standing up for your own rights, should be the foundational principle that should govern every intelligent being. But God has not created intelligent beings to insist on their rights as the basis of healthy relationships but to humble themselves, to submit to God and to one another and to have the spirit of selfless love and service for others. This is the original and authentic operating system that all creation was designed for, the spirit that must govern every thought, every desire and control every interaction with every other being.

(For further insights on this read the devotionals for July 1 in both Christ Triumphant and My Utmost for His Highest)