I was taught at a young age that the devil was very powerful. We were taught that the devil had power over us and could make us do stuff. But to read the bible and really walk with God has taught me something different. If the devil was defeated at Calvary and is still defeated, and if Jesus rose with "all" power, then that can only mean one thing...........The devil does not have any power over us! How could Jesus have all power and the devil still have some over us? If Jesus has all power then we have it too! We get power from the Holy Spirit of God because of what Jesus did on calvary. And the enemy is powerless against it. He can only deceive, manipulate, and use the power that he steals from us! You see, because of what we say, what we do, or where we go, he finds opportunity to enter into our lives and rob us of the God given power that we have.
In this passage in Luke, Jesus spilled the beans on how things operate in the heavenlies. Satan desired to sift, or "riddle" Peter. This word is telling us that the devil wanted to set Peter up for a fall, but Jesus says that he prayed for Peter that his faith would not fail and once he turned back to him again, he would help others. Wow! Okay, let's back up. Jesus said that Satan had asked permission of God to test Peter. God says, go ahead. Jesus says, I have prayed for you so your faith will not fail. And then Jesus gets prophetic and speaks a word of prophecy by saying, "When it's over and you come back to me, help others that go through testing times!" You see, if the devil had power over Peter, Peter's test would have been his end! But God only allowed the enemy to test Peter so he could lose his pride and help his brothers with their testings! The devil had to ask permission, and I'm sure God was like, "well, go ahead cause i need to work something out of Peter so he can stop being so hard nosed and unfeeling." So, God gave him permission to test Peter. But the test was fixed because the outcome of the test was already spoken by the Word himself! Peter wasn't being tested to see if he would fail or not. He was being tested so that he could know what a test felt like and he would have compassion for God's people while he ministered to them. You see, Jesus had already declared that Peter would pastor the first church, so Peter wasn't going anywhere. And had Peter not had pride in his heart, he would not have denied Christ and would not have needed to go through this testing period. The devil sought an occasion against Peter because of the pride that Peter had in his heart. But without that, Satan would not have been able to test him. There would have been no occasion or reason for the testing!
Suggested Reading: Matt. 28:18, 1Pet. 1:7, 1Pet. 4:12, Rev. 1:18
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