Hope He Sees a Wasteland

Have you ever seen a movie where the hero or heroine stands atop some tall structure, I mean really tall and as they look around they see a vast wasteland? If you have, great; if not, maybe I’m just dreaming and if I am then Hollywood needs to pay me for the rights to make my dreams into a movie! That would make a great scene for a movie. Of course there is one minor problem with my ever being a movie writer, most movies seem to have more than one scene! They’re kinda hung-up on that detail.

What if Satan were to one day climb to the top of the tallest building in your town and look around? What would he see? I hope he would see a vast wasteland! Wouldn’t it be cool if someday he looked out over your town and saw a ginormous hole in his kingdom? Because to Satan all that is beautiful, full of life, and righteous is disgusting and offensive. People and places that are restored to a right relationship with God repulse him. True joy, happiness, love, and fulfillment of life are vile things in his eyes which see life and God through distorted and angry lenses. To Satan beauty is death, self-destruction, unhappiness, rebellion, enslavement to unhealthy “freedoms”, and lies that entrap people in sin that keeps them from a relationship with the righteous God. Some say Satan doesn’t love you. I say he loves you; he loves you to be unhappy, restless, hurting, struggling, dieing, fooled, and separated from God and the eternal benefits that come with having a relationship with the Almighty.

Maybe when you saw my comment about what I hope he sees you let-out a (high-pitched and drawn out), “Whaaat?!” But now that you understand how he sees, what do you think? Or how about if God were to look out over your County, what would you hope He sees? The same thing we hope Satan sees! Beauty, love, happiness, people who know Him and are known by Him, people treating themselves and each other like the priceless treasures that God thinks we are. People helping and loving people and introducing people to Him that don’t know Him yet. People who aren’t perfect battling sin because they haven’t been fooled into accepting it because, “That’s just who they are.” People loving enough to tell the truth about sin, but loving too much to judge and not help.

There are only two kingdoms in this world; Satan’s & God’s. We are all a citizen of one, and only one of them. The question is which one are you a citizen of? But there are also a couple of other questions; Which one do you live in? and Which one are you fighting for? See there is no middle ground here. Pretty much we live in Satan’s but if we are a citizen of God’s then we should be fighting for His. Remember being in this world but not of it? Not being of it goes beyond just not participating in the debauchery of the world it also involves fighting for God’s Kingdom. Matthew 11:12 clearly states that the Kingdom is methodically advancing, but what is not so clear is the rest of that verse, “the violent take it by force,”(KJV) “forceful men lay hold of it,”(NIV) or “violent people are attacking it.”(NLT) Either it means that people are trying to force their way in on their own merits; people are trying to forcefully stop the Kingdom from advancing; or there are people who are moving it along. Or it could be all three. I believe all three are happening. The Kingdom is advancing but with people trying to force their way in on their own merit thereby changing the requirements for citizenship, and with people trying to stop it with force; it is obvious that we need those who are citizens of it to be pushing it along or it will be going backwards. So now the question is are you one of those that are helping it to advance or one that is trying to stall or shrink it? You are either actively engaged in the battle to advance one of the kingdoms or you are a covert operative for the other one, you can’t be Holland here.

So, back to the original question, “Have you ever seen a movie…” Just kidding. The real question, “What do you hope Satan sees as he stands on the tower and looks around your town & county? If you want him to see a wasteland the next question is, “What are you doing to make sure that happens?”

Talk to me, david.pastorrock1@gmail.com