Churches falling into Satan’s mindset

Churches falling into Satan’s mindset is some thoughts on how we do ministry. It is part of a work which I am working on for publishing in an ebook format. It is taken from “Satan Anthology Workbook” by David Cox. It is a commentary on Isa 14, a passage about Satan and his methodology and thinking…

I will make myself like the Most High. (Isa 14:14)

Satan expresses his purpose to overtake God. Notice the problems in Satan’s logic. If he is the greatest there is, then you do not measure that greatness by another’s greatness. You would simply say, “I am Lucifer, and I will be Lucifer.” To concede that somebody else is greater than you is to surrender your assertion of being the greatest.

Irony in Satan’s thinking

Note the irony here of what Satan says. Satan’s sin centers on his intense desire to be just like God. The key word here is “like”. He cannot become God, so at best he will be “like” God. This is a concession that he recognizes that he is not eternal, that he is not almighty, that he cannot take on all the intransmissible attributes of God. So “at best” he cannot actually become God. But at the same time, consider that everywhere in the Bible, we as God’s children are commanded to “be like God” (John 13:15; 1Co 11:1 Eph 5:1; 1Jn 2:6; 3:1-2; 1Pe 2:2 ). 1John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. This imitation of God is exactly what God demands of his creatures. So where did Satan go wrong?

The answer lies not in being like God, but in how you get there, and to whom you attribute getting there. Satan wants to be like God by his own efforts, skills, and abilities. We, the children of God, are to be like God our Father by means of God himself. The independence element is what made Satan’s actions wrong. Likewise the lack of true sincere gratitude (i.e. gratitude is because something happened which somebody else did and you recognize that person) is the mark of Satan.
Even more ironic is that Satan wanted total control and power. He wanted to completely over creation as God is over creation. Reality fact #1 – Satan himself admits that he cannot be God only like God. The character part of God is despised by Satan, and he only wants control and power. Reality fact #2 – In all likelihood, God placed Lucifer in a position of total control or intercession (at the top of all creation) so he was already in the spot closest to what he wanted. He gave up his “perfect position” of power and ability, authority and exaltation, to do what? To try to force his way back into where he was to begin with. The great difference is in gratitude. Satan’s working is outside of God’s power. He wanted to do this without God, and not in God’s manner or method of doing things, so he is condemned and has become an outcast.

We continue, Satan despised what God had given him to create some alternative. This goes directly to the will of God, and the will of Satan (and man) to “sin”, despise the God ordained path (will of God) to make an alternative, anything that is not God’s will.

Application to Modern Way of Doing the Ministry

This is exactly what is wrong with man, and we can even blame most Christianity with the same fault. God has set his will in Scripture, and for example, God’s divinely ordained instrument and method is evangelism feeding into local independent assemblies. Yet the methodology of man is to make any alternative “form of ministering” except what God has given. In those that do use the “form of God”, i.e. local NT churches, many of them want to break from the NT form of what a church is, and instead of preaching against sin to change heart and mind, they want to do “something” else, i.e. an alternative. Satan’s paw print is all over this thing of trendy churches.