God uses Satan as an Ugly Tool to cause our Being to be Fully Open to be Filled with God

It is amazing to realize that God uses Satan as an ugly tool to cause our whole being to be fully open to God so that He may fill us and replace anything else with Himself.

Our wise and almighty God has judged and condemned Satan already, but He allows him to remain free to be purposely used by God as an ugly tool to execute God’s severe dealing with His loving ones.

Satan used to be Lucifer, the bright Daystar that led all the created beings to worship God and praise Him; however, he looked at his beauty and became proud, and he rebelled against God.

He used to be the highest and brightest created being of God, having both the kingship and the priesthood; however, he wanted to exalt himself to be on the same level as God.

This led to his fall, for no created being can be the same as God. So God came in to judge Satan, and He pronounced His judgment on him.

However, God did not directly destroy Satan but rather, He allows him to still exist to fulfil a negative side of His purpose.

The application of God’s judgment upon Satan is with Christ and the church, the Body of Christ; through this corporate entity composed of God and man, God will execute God’s judgment on His enemy.

Satan wanted to overthrow the authority of God and to exalt himself to be equal with God; he wanted to be on the same level as God, and so he became God’s enemy outside of God’s kingdom and His adversary within His kingdom.

Nowhere do we see this more real than in the book of Job, where two councils were held and Job’s name was mentioned, and Satan was present at both of these councils; here we also see that God allowed Satan to do something negative to Job so that he would fulfil God’s purpose.

Satan thinks he’s smart and that he will destroy what God wants to accomplish; he thinks that the more damage he does, the more God’s purpose will be annulled.

Satan may be smart, but God is wise; in His wisdom, He allows Satan to exist to fulfil a negative purpose in God’s economy, for God uses Satan as an ugly tool to execute God’s severe dealing on His loving ones.

God allows Satan to Remain Free to be Purposely Used by God as an Ugly Tool to Execute God’s Severe Dealing with His Loving ones

In Job 1:6-12 and 2:1-7 we see that there were two councils held in heaven concerning Job; Jehovah of hosts summoned all the heavenly armies, the angels, and Satan the adversary also came.

Because of His loving concern for Job, God held two councils in the heavens to talk about him (1:6; 2:1).

The sons of God (the angels) came to present themselves before Jehovah, and Satan – the adversary – also came with them (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; cf. 1 Kings 22:19-23; Psa. 89:5-8).

It seemed that God initiated the conversation, asking Satan how has he been doing, where did he go, and did he see His servant Job, such a righteous and perfect man, full of integrity.

Simply by mentioning this to Satan, God wanted him to do something for Him, and Satan “fell for it”.

According to Isa. 14:12-15 and Ezek. 28:12-19 after he rebelled against God, Satan was condemned and even sentenced by God, yet his right to enter into the presence of God has not yet been taken away from him (Rev. 12:10).

In His wisdom and sovereignty, God didn’t execute His judgment on Satan but has given him a certain limited time to do something to meet some negative need in the fulfilment of His economy.

For example, in the case of Job God couldn’t and wouldn’t ask any of His many excellent angels to do what was needed to damage Job in order to strip him of everything so that he might be full of God (Job 1:1, 8, 11-12; 2:3-7).

God realized that Job must be reduced to nothing, and this could not be accomplished merely by the common sufferings of the human beings in the old creation, the sufferings caused by man’s mistakes, or the sufferings under God’s discipline or governmental judgment.

The level of suffering inflicted on Job was directly by Satan, for God would never do this to any of His children, and none of His angels would do this; yet God used Satan for this purpose.

There is in this universe a perverse, evil one, who by nature does this; he opposes God and all those who are on God’s side, and he would do everything to torment and destroy them.

Satan was the unique one in the whole universe who could and who would fulfil God’s intention of stripping Job of his possessions and ethical attainment.

The scene in Job 1-2 shows us that Satan still remains free to be purposely used by God as an ugly tool to execute God’s severe dealing with His loving ones (cf. Luke 22:31-32).

In Job’s case, he had been blessed by God with many outward possessions (seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a great many servants), a dear wife and seven sons and three daughters.

He was very successful in being perfect and upright, and he held on to his integrity.

He was a contented person, for he had many possessions, he was successful, he had a good family, and he had many attainments; yet God knew that he lacked God, he did not have God in him but rather, he was filled with integrity and self-righteousness instead of God.

So God used Satan as an ugly tool to strip Job of his possessions and his ethical attainment so that Job would be consumed and stripped of anything that he has built up in himself, for God to work Himself into Job.

God wants us to be filled with Him instead of being filled with our own attainments, success, and self-righteousness.

So He allows Satan to touch us, touch what we have and what we are, yet not terminate our life, so that we may be stripped of anything that is not God, and we would be emptied to be filled with God.

Lord Jesus, we worship You for Your wisdom in using Satan as an ugly tool to execute Your severe dealing with Your loving ones. We submit ourselves under Your mighty hand, Lord, and we want to keep our being open to You in everything that happens to us. May we seek to gain You and be constituted with You more and more. Save us from trying to gain anything else besides You, and save us from relying on our own understanding, success, attainments, and achievements. Save us from blaming God for the bad things or the sufferings that befell us. Cause us to see that there’s an evil, pernicious, and perverse one in this universe, who is used by God to strip us of everything so that we may be filled with God. Oh Lord, have Your way to fill us with Yourself!

How God uses Satan as an Ugly Tool to cause our Being to be Fully Open to Him and be filled with God

When God mentioned Job to Satan in the two councils held in heaven in Job 1-2, Satan’s response revealed his commercial mind – he thought that the only reason man worships God and draws close to Him is because God blesses man.

So Satan thinks that, when all man’s attainments and gains are removed from him, and when his very being is touched with sickness, he will curse God, for man has nothing.

However, Satan doesn’t know that God’s purpose in dealing with those who love Him, even in the way of loss, is that they would gain God to the fullest extent, even more than the loss of all that they have other than Him, so that He may be expressed through them for the fulfilment of His purpose in His creation of man.

On one hand, Satan is the enemy from outside attacking us; regarding this, we must be trained to engage in spiritual warfare to apply the victory of Christ to Satan and his emissaries, his followers.

On the other hand, Satan is the adversary from within, and God in His wisdom uses Satan as an ugly tool to accomplish something that nothing and no one else can do it.

We should not be filled with fear concerning this but rather, have a sober mind, full of thoughtful consideration, realizing that God uses Satan as an ugly tool to cause our being to be open to Him and be filled with God.

God uses Satan, the adversary, to reduce us to nothing, so that our being would be fully open for the Triune God to constitute us with Himself, to make us the same as He is in constitution and expression, but not in the Godhead.

Once our whole being is available to God, all our natural goodness and capability, everything we built in the old man, is reduced to nothing, but our existence is maintained.

Now God has access to our entire inner being, and He will produce an army formed of this kind of God-men, to use them to fight against the enemy who did this to them.

Job was a perfect, righteous man, full of integrity; however, he was not a God-man, so God wanted to change Job from a good man into a God-man.

First, the enemy worked behind the environment to cause Job to lose all his possessions and even his children; he thought that Job will curse God when this happens, but Job didn’t.

Then, God allowed Satan to touch Job’s body, and he had boils on his whole body, swellings with an infection that are exceedingly painful.

If we read the book of Job, we see that he said many things about his suffering and about how God is after him, and he didn’t realize what happened to him, neither did he understand why this dreadful suffering came upon him (see Job 3:11, 7:11, 9:21; 10:1; 17:11, 26:5-6; 6:4, 8, 9, 7:20, 9:15, 17, 10:8; 13:3, 15, 20-21, 16:12-14, 19:9, 10-11, 27c, 30:21-22, 31:23).

Through these sufferings, Job’s being was fully open to God; he didn’t curse or revile God, but his being became open for God to come in.

And in Job 41 God spoke to him concerning the “Leviathan”, which apparently refers to a crocodile, but in the light of Isa. 27:1, it is a symbol of the serpent, the devil.

God allows this rebellious angel to be an ugly tool to do a negative work for God.

And this is not limited only to Job; in the Lord’s speaking in Luke 22:31-32 He told Peter that Satan asked to sift the disciples as wheat, but He made petition concerning him, that his faith would not fail but rather, once he returns, he would establish the brothers.

Satan wants to sift God’s people, putting them in a sieve, shake it, throw it, and do things that cause them to lose their orientation, not knowing what is going on.

This is what happened to the early disciples, especially to Peter; he was one who said he will die for the Lord, following Him even to prison and to death, but then he denied the Lord three times, and he repented and wept bitterly.

All disciples were shaken radically, and then in Acts 1 they were in one accord, and in Acts 2 Peter used the key of the kingdom when he stood up to release the gospel, standing with the eleven disciples.

God in His wisdom uses Satan as an ugly tool to fulfil a negative aspect in His purpose to cause our being to be fully open to God and gain God.

The suffering we’re speaking of is not spraining our ankle, being fired from our job because we’re late much of the time, getting the flu, so we suffer terribly. No, this is much more.

God realizes that, if Christ is to be everything to us, we have to be nothing; how can God be a certain thing to us if we still are that thing to ourselves?

He loves us so much; He chose us to be God-men, and He will work Himself into every part of our being until we become His reproduction to be His counterpart, and He will even give us authority to execute judgment over the enemy and rule over the evil angels!

Hallelujah, through us God will make His wisdom known to the evil authorities and angels!

Lord Jesus, we open our whole being to You; we open as much as we can so that You may work Yourself into us and become everything to us. Keep us open to You, dear Lord; keep us open to Your divine dispensing of all that You are to us. May we realize that we are in the loving hands of our God, and no matter what happens to us, He wants to work Himself into us to make us part of His corporate expression on earth. Amen, Lord, we believe into You and we love You, even when we see how You use Satan as an ugly tool to fulfil a negative purpose in Your economy. Gain in us what You are after, Lord, and may our being be open to You for You to work Yourself into us little by little, day by day, for You to gain Your counterpart, Your reproduction!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Job, msg. 2-3 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (2020 winter training), week 2, God, Man, and Satan.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – How could God from all His dealings spare us, / After He spared not His only Son? / Could the Potter’s hand upon the vessel / Ever leave the shaping work undone? / For the center of God’s heart’s desire / Is that many brethren we will be / Unto Christ, His precious First-begotten, / And to Him, conformed we’ll fully be. (Hymns #1210)
  – God’s purpose in dealing with those who love Him / is that they may gain Him to the fullest extent, / surpassing the loss of all that they have other than Him, / surpassing the loss of all that they have other than Him, / so that He might be expressed through them / for the fulfillment of His purpose in creating man. (Song on, God’s Purpose in Dealings)
  – Sometimes all ’round is dry, refreshment’s hard to gain; / How harshly, mightily must Thy rod strike, to drink obtain? / To what hot blaze must Thy fire be raised till trials are complete? / How deep, how painfully must Thy thorn pierce, till there’s an outflow sweet? (Song on, Sometimes Even A Blue Sky)