God is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. He created ALL – the universe, the heaven and the earth (land, sea, vegetation, living creatures in the sea and on the land, all mankind [man and woman], and the environment we live in). He has authority over the air we breathe, the waves in the oceans, namely, every atom of water and air is entirely controlled by God at every instant in time throughout every generation. But He has no control over what people do to the water and air since He gave us free will to act on our own, and He never infringes on that free will.
All of Creation was part of His plan for everything and everyone, which is so pertinent to our own lives today to understand why God created each of us. The desire for God has always been within us because we were created by God and for God, Who wants all of His children to be with Him in Heaven.
As we journey through life, the Holy Spirit gives us wisdom on our callings and missions to accomplish for our Creator. But we are at choice as to whether we heed His promptings. For His faithful servants he provides guidance, protection and strength needed to stay close to the Lord. So by His authority He sets up a protection barrier around each of His faithful. So what does this barrier mean for us?
It means that God always knew we would need to be protected from the deceptions of Satan, so He set a barrier that Satan cannot penetrate unless we give into his temptations. How do we bring strength to that barrier? By developing a love relationship with Jesus, and keeping our mind, heart and eyes fixated on Him, telling Him often how much we love Him and letting that love grow daily. We are falling in love with Jesus, who gave us the greatest gift of love on the Cross, redeeming us and opening the gate to Paradise for us. Our hearts will become captivated by His love, never wanting to be set free. We abandon ourselves and seek to become one with Him, trusting Him with complete control of our life. Then we will begin to live Heaven on earth with all that only He can give us - joy, peace, love, wisdom, and the courage and strength to go out into world and make a difference doing His work to save souls. And when death comes, we wouldn’t even feel the passage from this life to the next. But what if we (1) have succumbed to the temptations of Satan and broke the barrier or (2) have been living a life outside our protection barrier?
(1) This barrier is broken by sinful behavior. But due to God’s mercy and forgiveness, it can be restored by sincere and humble repentance, realizing the God is everything and we are nothing. Having already experienced the love bond with Jesus and our remorse for offending Him, we must run to Him begging for forgiveness to once again seek the shelter of our protection barrier and His favor.
(2) If we are living our life outside our protection barrier, then we are called to conversion, the changing of our life style from the world toward God, who is waiting with open arms to receive us. So our first step is having a desire to change our life toward God, then we are ready to move on to the next step, repentance. This decisive change of direction in our life starts in our minds, leading to a change in our hearts, followed by a change in our behavior. It is primarily a turning away from evil toward good. Now we are ready to spend a reasonable time examining our sinful behavior and repent of those sins before a merciful and loving God. Our protection barrier awaits us.
So why does God allow Satan to test us? God wants to see if we are spiritually strong enough to remain faithful to Him under exposure to Satan’s deceitful tactics. Even Jesus was tested:
Remember that Jesus was hungry after spending forty days fasting in the desert before beginning His public ministry. And Jesus in His human nature was not immune to the temptations of the Devil. We read in Mt 4:1-10 that Satan tried to get Jesus to worship him, offering Him the kingdoms of the earth, and Jesus said to him: “Get away Satan! It is written, ‘The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.’ ”
In our own lives, we are can expect a barrage of temptations from Satan and his demons as we travel through life, and especially as we grow in holiness. They work round the clock to try to separate us from God, offering us the momentary, and sometimes sinful, pleasures of this life. We say NO to the deceivers, keeping our eyes fixed on God and asking for Heavenly protection to remain under God’s authority whenever the assault from Hell occurs.
Several scriptures displaying God’s authority:
1. Jesus said to Pontius Pilate in John 19:11, “You would have no power [authority] over me if it had not been given to you from above.” Jesus’ words speak of the Father’s authority over Pontius Pilate and everything else that He has created.
2. Before Jesus ascended into Heaven, His Apostles asked Him if was going to restore the kingdom to Israel, and Jesus answered them in Acts1:7, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority.”
3. In Romans 13:1, we read: “Let every person be subordinate to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God.”
The authority that flows from Heaven is supreme! That which threatens us is revoked and removed because God has set His protection around us, not allowing Satan to touch us. This protection allows only the blessing of God in our lives. So when Satan comes with a temptation to seek to pull us away from God, we must turn it off and say no to it with conviction. To become strong in our conviction, we must set our minds on things above and not of this earth.