How Satan Became Satan — Zac Poonen

In the last few meetings we have been looking at what God is like in His relationship with us and what He desires us to know about Him, so that we can have confidence and boldness as we approach Him and also so that we can be bold in our encounters with Satan.

The Origin of Evil and the Fall of Lucifer

Now in the Bible, right at the beginning we are told about the entry of Satan into the Garden of Eden. We are not told about his origin right at the beginning, even though we are told about it later. But it is important for us to know how Satan became Satan, because that is how all the evil in the world began.

And if we are not clear in our mind concerning how sin and evil originated, we will be handicapped in our battle with him, and we won't be able to recognize evil and sin for what it is. Generally speaking, when people in the world talk about sin, they are thinking of serious things like murder, adultery, theft and things like that, the type of things which a human government would punish people for.

But sin did not come into the world through murder or adultery or theft. Those were not the first sins committed, not by Lucifer, the head of the angels, and not by Adam. So we can say evil originated with certain other things, and it finally resulted in all the evils that we see in the world today.

And if we content ourselves with the fact that we don't commit all these gross sins that other people commit, well, then we may still fall into the sins that caused evil to first come into the world. And that is why it is good for us to think of the origin of evil.

In Genesis, in chapter 1, we read that God created the heavens and the earth, and we know that whenever God creates anything, it will be perfect. He never creates anything imperfect. But yet we read in the next verse, the condition of the earth, and the real translation of that verse would be, and the earth became formless, empty and dark.

So something happened between verses 1 and 2. After God created the heavens and the earth perfectly, to make the earth formless, empty and dark. And that is the fall of the angels, with the head of the angels, Lucifer, or the Morning Star.

We don't know exactly what his name was. Lucifer is just an expression from Isaiah 14. It's referred to there as the Morning Star. Let's turn there for a moment. In Isaiah 14, it says here, in verse 12, how you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning.

That's why we get that word, Lucifer, son of the dawn, you've been cut down to the earth. And why did he fall? Because you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars of God, I will sit on the mount of the assembly, I will ascend above the heights, I will make myself like the Most High.

How did sin originate? Through the head of the angels saying, in verse 13 and 14 you read him saying five times, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will. All sin originates when a man wants to do his will, and not the will of God.

It's not just murder, adultery, and theft. Anything contrary to the will of God is sin. Jesus taught us to pray, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Now if we don't identify sin, we can be living in sin and not even know it.

Self-Will as the Root of Sin

If my understanding of sin is the same as the world's understanding of sin, then I don't have any light to give them, I don't have anything to teach them. They already know those things. You see sin in a little child, not because he commits murder or adultery or theft, but because he's got a stubborn, I will, I want to do what I want to do.

And you see that's how the highest of the angels became a devil. He said, I will, I will, I will. You see that strong self will in you? All quarrels between people are because of this I will. All quarrels between husbands and wives and brothers and brothers in churches is because I want my way, and you want your way, and we clash.

And it's the spirit of the devil there and here. And if that is how sin came, salvation came, when Jesus came to earth and said, not as I will, but as thou wilt, Father. That is the root of salvation.

And until that root has taken, until that seed has taken root in our heart, we are not going to experience a full salvation. A lot of people when they say they have repented, they have repented from smoking and drinking and gambling and certain external evil habits, but the root remains.

And if the root remains, you can still experience salvation. You can be a Christian for twenty, thirty years. You can be a missionary, Bible teacher, anything, but you're not going to deliver other people from the root of sin because you haven't seen the root of sin yourself.

Where is the root of sin? It is you want your way. That child wants his way. You accepted the Lord some years ago, but the axe was never laid to the root of the tree. You just used a pair of scissors and snipped off certain bad habits which came from this root, which gave you a bad testimony before others.

In fact, the vast majority of believers that I have met, even full-time Christian workers, it doesn't make a difference. Their main aim in life is to cut off all the bad fruits so that they have a good testimony before men.

And if they have a good testimony before men, they think they're OK. Their lives don't count for God. They're not effective because the root is not being dealt with. Jesus came to lay the axe to the root of the tree.

See, when the root is eliminated, then the disease goes away totally. Then we enter into true spirituality. Otherwise, we will keep on battling with sins. Many people, they stop battling with one sin.

They've overcome that. But they're battling with another one. And their whole life is defeat, defeat, defeat. And at the same time, they have to go and preach to other people that Jesus can give you victory.

It's such a hypocritical life. A sincere person will just give up and say, I don't want to be a hypocrite anymore. Let me go out into the world. But since most Christians are not sincere, they are hypocrites.

They keep on pretending that they have victory when they are thoroughly defeated. And they keep on preaching victory to others when they are defeated themselves. And what is the reason? I'm not saying anything to condemn you, my dear friends.

I'm saying something to help you to identify the root of sin in your life. If you don't deal with this, I will. You will never become holy. You will never fulfill God's full purpose for your life. Your entire Christian life will be shallow.

Sin did not originate even with disobedience. Adam and Eve disobeyed. But long before that, what Lucifer, the head of the angels, did was not disobedience. He wanted his way. That is the poison he put into Adam.

Seek your own. Seek what's good for you. Look at the multitudes of people who say they are serving the Lord in this country, in different parts, all seeking their own. And here and there you find a few who are really seeking the will of God.

Which category do you want to be in? Don't think that because a man gives up his job and becomes a full-time worker or goes and studies in a Bible college and gets a degree and begins to teach in a Bible college, he is spiritual.

He may be just as carnal, more carnal than another person in a secular job. Because spirituality does not come by giving up our job. It comes by giving up our will. And it's much easier to give up our job than to give up our will.

Satan said, I will, I will, I will. And with those expressions, into this perfect universe, sin came. And it will always be there, wherever people say, I will, until they understand what Jesus said. Take up the cross.

In very simple words, what is the cross? The cross is where my will crosses God's will. And that's where I have to die. I die to my will and choose God's will. I want to say to you, my dear brothers and sisters, that is the root of true Christianity.

That is the root from which you will really become a spiritual person. And it is not something that you can do once in your life, you know, like getting married. You can get married in a moment. To get married is easy.

But to have a happy married life, that is a daily affair. In the same way, to give your heart to Christ and be born again, that's over in a moment. But to walk with God and to become a spiritual man and woman, you have to take up the cross every day.

Jesus said that. And here we see what the root of that cross is. It is the denial of this poison of Lucifer, which has entered the human race, to seek my will, to seek my own. Why did Paul tell Timothy that even among his co-workers, even among Paul's co-workers, he said in Philippians 2 and verse 21, all seek after their own, not the things that are Christ Jesus.

If he had said that about worldly people, we can understand it. If he had said that about a whole lot of carnal Christians in the Corinthian church, that also we can understand. But he said that about full-time Christian workers who were going around with him.

And Paul had discernment to see these people have given up their jobs, but they have not given up seeking their own. And some of you are young. You look up at some of the older so-called servants of the Lord whom you see.

And as you observe carefully, you will find that in many ways they seek their own comfort and their own profit and their own gain and their own salary and their own hundred and one things, all in the name of Jesus.

And you, who came to serve the Lord sincerely, will begin to lose your vision when you see such people. And then you look around at others and you'll find most of them are like that, and you'll say, well, I might as well be like that too.

And that's how the devil destroys a lot of sincere young people. Because the role models whom they look at are people who are seeking their own. And that's where I want to encourage you never to make a man your example who does not walk in the spirit of Christ, who never sought his own, who never did his own will.

It's not Bible knowledge. I want to encourage you, don't ever be impressed with a man's Bible knowledge or knowledge of Greek and Hebrew. Don't ever be impressed with a man's degrees. Jesus had none of them.

Be impressed with godliness, with humility, with brokenness, with a man who knows how to say no to his own will and who doesn't seek his own. Such men and women you should follow. And if you don't find such men and women, look at Jesus.

He's always there for you to look at and follow and determine that you will never follow a bad example. You don't want to judge them, you're not their judge, God is their judge. Don't judge them, don't speak evil of them, don't criticize them, but discern them and say, that's not an example for me to follow.

And seek to follow Jesus who came to undo the works of Satan. The Bible says in 1 John 3 .8 that the Son of God appeared for this purpose to destroy the works of the devil or to undo the works of the devil.

All the works of the devil are done by when a man says, I will. Against God's will. That's the poison he put into Eve's mind in the Garden of Eden. God said, do not eat of that tree of knowledge of good and evil.

The devil put a poison after a little bit of reasoning into Eve's mind and he said, I will eat of that tree. And when she gave that fruit to Adam, Adam also knew the commandment. God said, don't eat of that tree, but Adam said, I will eat of that tree and sin came.

And as long as this self-will remains unbroken within us, we will never experience a full salvation. That is why the greatest aim of God in our life is to break our self-will. And that does not happen the day you are born again.

It does not happen with any amount of Bible study. It happens when you have seen that this is the root of sin and you come to the Lord and say, Lord, remove it from me. The Holy Spirit works within us to make us like Jesus.

What is he doing? He is seeking to break this self-will. He is telling you to tie your tongue when you want to speak with your tongue. Think of this verse in the Psalms. It says in Psalm 12 and verse 4, it speaks about, in the first verse it says, godly men have ceased to exist.

That means it is very rare to find a godly man nowadays. The faithful disappear. Godly men are fast disappearing. And then he gives some of the reasons. The reason is usually in the careless use of the tongue.

And these ungodly people, they say, verse 4, the last part, our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? Who is there to tell me what I should say and what I shouldn't say? I speak what I like. And there we see the spirit of rebellion.

You may be born again, but you don't allow the spirit of God to control your speech. Somebody irritates you and you speak back in the same tone. Why? Because you say, with my tongue, verse 4, I will prevail.

My lips are my own. I will speak what I like. I will write to people what I like. And what's the end result? Sin and more sin and more sin. So where does holiness begin? It's not just in giving up different things or removing our ornaments and wearing white clothes.

It's all a deception. You can look very holy. You can be like the devil inside. In fact, the devil usually comes as an angel of light. I think if the devil ever came into our midst, he'd come with white clothes.

Otherwise he wouldn't be able to fool us. He won't come with black clothes. You'd be able to identify him. Now, I'm not speaking against simplicity, but I'm just telling you, you don't become holy with your clothes.

I wish it were so easy. Then we could make everybody holy. Just stitch white dresses for them and they'll all be holy. But it's not so easy. It's not even the length of your hair or that you stop wearing stylish dresses.

It's none of these things. Sin lies deep within the heart where a man says, I want my way. And salvation also lies deep within where that man has yielded to the claims of Christ and let that my will be slain.

Pride and Self-Exaltation in Christian Service

I want to show you something further from Isaiah 14. It says, he said, I will ascend, verse 13. I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mountain. I will ascend. I will make myself like the Most High.

All those five I wills are related to going up and up and up. There was only one person above Lucifer in the universe and that was God. He was above everybody else, all the angels, but he wasn't satisfied.

That spirit that wants to rule and dominate and get other people underneath them is the root of sin. That's how sin began. When Lucifer said, I'm not happy with where I am. I want to go up and up and up till there's nobody above me.

Do you find that spirit in Christian work? Or maybe you haven't seen Christian work enough. You know, when I left my job, I was 26 years old. I had spent all my Christian life in the Navy. I had not encountered much of Christian organizations and Christian setups in different denominations.

I was very naive. That means I didn't know much and I thought full-time work must be like heaven and Christian organizations must be like heaven because everybody there has come out to serve the Lord.

What a surprise I got when I came out and I found in churches and Christian organizations people trying to get on top of each other and pushing other people down and speaking evil of others and running after money.

It was just like in the Navy. It was worse than what I had in a secular job. And it was all being done in the name of Jesus. I got a tremendous shock. But I knew God had called me. So I said, well, I'm still going to serve the Lord.

Let everybody else be whatever way they want to be. I don't want to judge them. But I'm not going to follow their example. I know what God called me to and I'm going to do that. Now I say this to you because some of you may think all Christian workers are like Jesus and very spiritual and don't be deceived.

They're not. And every Christian organization is like a little heaven. It's not. But when you see that, don't get discouraged. If God's called you, live for Him. In the midst of all that darkness, be a light.

And when you see people having the spirit of Lucifer, wanting to go up and up and up and up and up, you decide you're not going to have that spirit. I decided that. I decided that more than 33 years ago when I quit my job.

I said, I'm not going to have anything to do with this spirit. Because the Lord had opened my eyes to see the way Jesus went. He brought salvation by coming down. And at the end of His life, before He went to the cross, He was at the feet of His disciples, washing their feet.

But the disciples hadn't understood their spirits. They were discussing who's going to be the next director after Jesus dies. That was their discussion. But Jesus was not interested. He was never a director.

He was nothing. He was a servant, washing people's feet. That is the spirit that brought salvation into this world. And that is the only spirit with which we can bring salvation into Christendom today.

God is looking for people who have the very opposite of the spirit of Satan. Why am I pointing out to you the spirit of Satan? So that you can see that the opposite of that is the spirit of Christ. Satan said, I will.

Jesus said, not as I will. Satan said, I will ascend. Jesus said, I will descend. Satan said, I will ascend right up to the top till everybody is underneath me. I'll be the director of everything. And Jesus said, I will descend and I will become a slave.

And I will be the servant of everybody. And at the end of my life, I shall die as a slave, not as a director. If you have that spirit, you will be a servant of God in the midst of so many who in the name of Jesus seek their own and who have not identified that what they have within them is the spirit of Lucifer.

You can have any amount of Bible knowledge and be motivated by the spirit of Lucifer. I've seen lots of people like that. I don't judge them. I leave them alone. And I say, I do what God has called me to do.

Humility, Servanthood, and Christian Titles

And I want to encourage you, my brothers and sisters, keep this before you. Go down. It's not easy. Because you'll find everywhere around you people are seeking to go up. And you say, Lord, I'm going to go down.

I'm not interested in position, title. I want to serve others. I don't want to ever lord it over one person in my life. I want to be a servant of all men. I never want to do anything or say anything or give people an impression that elevates me above them.

Why did Jesus say to his disciples, don't be called rabbi, father, leader. Don't have such titles. He gave us two titles. He says, you're all brothers and you are servants. If you want a title, here are two of them which Jesus gave.

Brothers and servants. In Matthew 23, why did he say that? Don't have these titles. Because the purpose of a title is to elevate you above somebody else who doesn't have that title. That's why Jesus in his entire life, he never took a title.

He was not reverend Jesus or right reverend Jesus or pastor Jesus. No. He never wanted a title. Because that would elevate him above the people he came to serve. You may say that's a very small thing.

But it is in small things that our obedience is tested. And if it is an unimportant thing, Jesus would not even have mentioned it. But he told his disciples specifically, don't take titles. How do we test the obedience of children?

Supposing I'm sending my little boy to school, what do I tell him? Now my son, make sure you don't murder anybody on the way. And on the way to school, don't go and rob a bank. And on the way to school, this five year old boy, I'm telling him, don't commit adultery.

And he comes back and says, dad, I obeyed all those commandments. I never robbed a bank. I never killed anybody. Are those the areas where we test a child's obedience? No. That child's obedience is tested when he's out there playing with his friends.

And daddy or mommy says, come in. Help me with some work. Small thing. And he says, no, I've got to finish this game or something like that. That's where his obedience is tested. And that's where your obedience is tested too.

Not in the big, big commandments which we all keep. But in the small things. Please remember this. There are many small commandments in scripture. And it's in all those small commandments that you really detect your spirit.

And so we see here this spirit of pride and self-exaltation which made Lucifer in a moment into a devil. And that's another thing we see. That it doesn't take long for a perfect person to become a devil.

And it's good for us to remember that. You can walk for years in the way of the Lord and then in a moment decide, well, I've had enough of this. I want to exalt myself and be like everybody else. And you go crashing down in a moment.

Wisdom, Beauty, and the Danger of Pride

I want to turn further in Ezekiel, in chapter 28, which tells us something more about how sin came into the world through Satan. It says here that Satan, I don't have time to show you everything here.

It's a lamentation against the king of Tyre, verse 12. And the real king of Tyre was Satan who indwelt that human king. And it's written here in verse 12, the last part, Ezekiel 28, 12. You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

Full of wisdom, perfect in beauty. Extremely clever. I remember reading somewhere once that it was not a donkey who became the devil. It was the highest of the angels. You see, a donkey cannot rise very high.

And because it cannot rise very high, it cannot fall very low either. But the higher your capability, the greater your fall when you fall. You know the difference between falling from the first floor and falling from the tenth floor.

A lot of difference. It was not a donkey who became a devil. But it was the cleverest and the smartest. It is clever people in the church who are far more in danger than simple people. I have seen that through the years.

Clever people, smart people, highly intelligent people, people in high positions, they are more in danger. I'm not saying God cannot use them. Paul was a very clever, brilliant man, but he humbled himself.

But I'm saying they are far more in danger. That is why it's very difficult for God to find a spiritual man among those who are very clever and brilliant and who have high positions. Paul said to the Corinthians, you look at your own calling.

Not many among you are very clever in this world. Not many among you are big and great and noble in the world. But God has chosen the foolish things. God has chosen the weak things. Why? Because those who are very clever and mighty, they seek their own.

They want to use their abilities for the world. Don't you see that so much in the world today? Here in Kerala, if a father or mother finds a brilliant child, he must be an engineer or a doctor. And if there is someone who is failing regularly in 10th standard, they will send him to Bible school.

I'm not saying all of you are like that. I'm just saying that's the spirit out in the world. Why? Because the best must be given to the world. And the rubbish must be given to God. That is the attitude.

But God picks up that rubbish and makes fools of those clever people. That's God's way. He picks up the Peters and the James and the John's illiterate fishermen and confounds the wisdom of all the wise great scholars of their time.

Praise the Lord for that. He doesn't need human cleverness. When you have the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, you don't need any of this human cleverness and greatness. But remember, Satan was full of wisdom, perfect in beauty.

He was in Eden, the garden of God, before that initial world was destroyed, as we read in Genesis 1, 2. Before that, there was another garden of Eden in which Satan was. And after God remade the earth in Genesis 1, he remade that garden of Eden and put Adam there.

And that's what made Lucifer so jealous. This chap has taken my place. I've got to get him out of there. And he succeeded in getting him out. There were three things that Satan had at that time. Beauty, he must have been physically extremely attractive.

Intelligence, highly intelligent. Here it calls him in verse 3, wiser than Daniel. Very intelligent, very good looking and a very, very high position. And he became proud of his beauty, proud of his intelligence and proud of his position.

Things that all of us have to be careful about. Well, if God has given us good looks, you can't do anything about that, but you don't have to be proud of it. If God has given you intelligence, there's nothing wrong with that, but when you become proud of it, it says your heart was lifted up because of your beauty, because of your wisdom, because of your position.

There are so many things God can give us. Abilities, talents, Bible knowledge. But if any of these things lift up our heart, that means I begin to think that I'm a little better than that person. You've got the spirit of Satan already.

And in a moment, you can become like the devil. It's not your intelligence that makes you like the devil, it's your pride in your intelligence. It can be pride in your Bible knowledge. You can preach the word and feel, boy, I can preach better than that person.

And you become like the devil already. It can be anywhere. It can be in prayer. When you pray in such a fantastic way in public, that everybody says, boy, Amen and Hallelujah and you're excited yourself because you've performed such a, it's like a dramatic performance, you have performed such a wonderful prayer.

It never went beyond the roof because God never heard it. You were just proud of it. You were not praying to God, you were just praying to impress all the other people in the room. There's a lot of that.

So the devil comes into our holiest activities when you do a work for the Lord and you want everybody to know what a wonderful work you did. And of course, you will say it very humbly, brother, I'm only sharing this for prayer and thankfulness.

So nobody realizes that your real motive is to show other people what you're doing. My brothers and sisters, pride lifts up its head in every activity. Whatever you may do, there Satan comes to try and elevate you above others, make others small, make yourself big, show what God is doing through you.

Now I believe there is a legitimate place to share our testimony and to share with others for thanksgiving and prayer what God is doing, but I tell you, it is a very dangerous area. And I myself always do it with fear and trembling.

If you don't have any fear and trembling when you're reporting what the Lord did through you, you have not understood how close sin is to you at such times. We have to do it in a real spirit of humility, cleansing ourselves from any desire to exalt ourselves, remembering that that is the spirit of Satan, who exalted himself, who got exalted because of his beauty, his position, his ministry.

He had a ministry, a God-given ministry. He was anointed and he became proud of his anointing. He became proud of his ministry. And how many Christians have destroyed themselves through pride in their anointing, through pride in their ministry.

Discontentment, Comparison, and Contentment

That's why we need to look carefully at the origin of sin. Let's look at this in another way. We can say that Satan was discontented with the place God had appointed for him, even though it was such a high place and we can say his boundary was so huge, all the angels, millions of angels were under him.

He was discontented. He wanted something more. He was greedy for more. And there we see discontentment with the lot that God has appointed for us is another thing that can make us like the devil. That was the origin of sin.

It may not be discontentment with them. It could be discontentment with anything. To start with, you may be discontented with your face. You look into your mirror and say, God, why did you make me like this?

Why didn't you make me a little more good-looking like the other person? Or why did you make me this color? It can be anything. You can be discontented with your family. Why, oh God, did you bring me into this family?

There are so many people in the world who are discontented with something or the other. They are discontented with their house. They are discontented with their salary. They always have a spirit of murmuring and complaining.

You see it in children, discontented with their food. You read in the Old Testament that God gave them manna. And do you know that the manna came every day. Their breakfast was the same color, same size, same taste every day for them.

No variety, no chutney, nothing. Just manna. And they said, what is this? God was angry with them. The Bible says God slew many of them because they grumbled. Because grumbling and complaining is the spirit of Satan, who was discontented with what God gave him.

If you want to serve the Lord, one of the most important things you need to learn in your life is contentment. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 6, Godliness. It doesn't say Godliness is great gain. We would think Godliness is great gain, but the Bible says Godliness with contentment is great gain.

And Paul said in Philippians 4 .11, I have learned. Learned is a word that comes from education. I have learned to be content in all my circumstances. When I am betrayed by my brothers, I am content. When I am beaten on the back for serving the Lord, I am content.

When I am locked up in a jail for serving the Lord, I am content. When other people take advantage of me, I am content. When God gives me a little bit of ease and comfort, I am content. He says, I am perfectly content with whatever circumstances God gives me and I don't compare myself with that other person.

Learn these lessons from the origin of Satan. That's why the Bible says, do all things, Philippians 2 .13 -14, without murmuring, grumbling, complaining. Everything in my life, I must do without murmuring and grumbling and complaining.

And if in your young days, you grumble and murmur and complain about something, can you imagine what is going to be your condition a few years from now when life is more difficult? When circumstances are comparatively easy, like you have it here, you grumble and complain about something or the other, you will never be able to serve the Lord.

You can know everything about every single subject taught here and come first in the class, but you won't be able to serve the Lord if you have not learned contentment. Because discontentment was how the devil became the devil.

The Spirit of Christ Opposed to Satan

Pride, self-will, self-exaltation, discontentment, it is there throughout the human race. I sometimes feel if we could go up to heaven and look at this world, we would see it oozing with murmuring and grumbling and complaining and criticism and finding fault.

And all over, every country, among the barbarians, among the educated, it makes no difference. Always complaining, complaining, and here and there in this world, God sees a godly man, a godly woman, who sends forth the perfume of praise.

Lord, I have nothing to complain about. Everything is perfect. Everything you have ordered in my life is exactly the best for me. See, God has drawn a circle around all of us. That circle determines the measure of my intelligence, the measure of my income, monthly income, the size of house I live in.

Around somebody else He may draw a bigger circle, bigger salary, better circumstances, more intelligence. None of my business. I am not to be a busybody in other people's matters. I am to say, Lord, this is the circle you have drawn around me, and in this circle I shall find my salvation, and in this circle I shall become like Christ and fulfil my ministry.

That is a godly man. You don't have to travel the world and preach here and there to be a godly man, but be content. And if it pleases God to increase that circle, fine. But I will remain content with whatever circle God draws around me, the color of my skin, the beauty of my face, my ministry, everything.