...In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which do not believe, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:4)
The god of this world?!! Who is the one who blinds people to the good news about how Jesus has set us free from the power of evil? OK well that's a no-brainer, right? But the god of this world? Yes, Satan is called the god of this world. "World" in this text is actually the Greek word, AION, which denotes an age, or a period of time. In other words, his rule is temporary, but a rule, nonetheless.
...And the devil, taking him [Jesus] up into a high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power I will give you, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If you therefore will worship me, all shall be yours.
(Luke 4:5-7)
Now first of all, it's helpful to understand that Jesus had been led by the Spirit to go into an extended period of fasting out in the wilderness for just this purpose, to be tempted of the devil, so this was not everyday life for him. He met with this diabolical being head on, and thank God, he beat him! But look at what Satan had to offer, all the kingdoms of the world! Not only that, but he says that they were "delivered" to him and that he has the power to give them to whomsoever he wants. I know some of you are probably thinking that the devil was lying, but if Satan were just "conning" Jesus it would not have been a temptation. The Bible says Jesus was tempted! Yes, Satan has power over this world and its kingdoms. In order to understand how he got this we must go back to the very beginning, the book of Genesis.
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion... over all the earth... And God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it... (Genesis 1:26-28)
Please pay careful attention to those words: dominion, replenish, and subdue. They will be most helpful to our purpose in gaining an accurate understanding of the hidden power of Satan and the role it plays in our lives today. We know from the Genesis account that somehow Adam (which simply means, the first man) forfeited his special liaison status with God (refer to Genesis 3), and I submit to you that in some sense, that dominion was surrendered to Satan, who then began to unleash his evil plan for revenge (in order get back at God). Remember how earlier we learned that the kingdoms of this world, and the power thereof, had been delivered over to Satan?
Well guess who delivered them? That's right! Good ol' Adam!
How this works out specifically is interesting. It seems that what is now called psychic power was once Adam's dominion only now it is under the control of new management. Let's further examine his means for exercising that authority:
...And you who were dead in your trespasses and sins. in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience... (Ephesians 2:1,2)
"The prince of the power of the air" is an interesting title isn't it? Here Satan is described as one who rules over the atmosphere immediately surrounding us, as well as in the lives of those who are disobedient. More on this later.
This idea of the devil and his fellow demons being "thug" landlords over the earth is prevalent throughout the scriptures. In the Gospel of Matthew 8:28-34 is a story of a man who was demon possessed, and when he saw Jesus the demons in him cried out,
"What do you want with us, Son of God? ...Have you come to torture us before the appointed time?"
Wow! Did you read that? "...before the appointed time". Those demons knew that there was an appointed time for Jesus to come and shut their operation down, and that this wasn't it! They knew their lease wasn't up yet. This strongly indicates that there is a time limit on their reign of terror upon the earth.
So! Where does that leave us? Let's wrap up a few fine points here before we go on: We see that Satan was Lucifer, a perfect angelic being of great position (with a throne), we see him being deposed by God for his pride and rebellion, we see the arrival of man on the scene with dominion and authority, and now we see that Satan tricked man out of this dominion in order to regain rule over the earth, we see that there is a time limit on this regime. Next we'll see how he implements this power and how we can protect our selves from his strategies. Click to Continue