Revelation 20:3b that he should deceive the nations no more

I borrow only enough of yesterday’s ending scripture to highlight the issue of deception. Satan play’s the spoiler by means of deception, lies, and appetites. It feels good therefor is must be good. Here is the secret to the first issue of salvation, a turning of sorts by the power of God through the Holy Spirit as an external force. A longing for us by God to create in us a longing for Him.

Sin will no longer be as pleasing and satisfying as it once was for you. That process can take on many forms because pleasure can also take on many forms. The one unchangeable law of sin is consequences. There will always be consequences for sin. Now I will reuse a word I used earlier, rebellion. When it comes to consequences, sin will say, I will have my way regardless of the consequences. That’s rebellion in its raw form. “I will have my way regardless of who gets hurt.” Another form of that is “I am only hurting myself.”

This touch of the Holy Spirit is the first offerings of salvation, the removal of the pleasure of sin. Once again, going back to my original thoughts on the subject, there is awareness, acceptance and then choice. You first must become aware of this displeasure. You must accept it is real, true, and not just an emotion. Then you need to make a choice to do something about it. The method of choice is tricky because if you have not heard about God’s plan for you, you might choose another. There are many choices out there, but only one method leads to God.

The same method by which the Holy Spirit communicates dissatisfaction to you is the answer to the way out. You might not yet understand that, even after responding to it.

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Psalm 85:8 I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.

Make no mistake, I am still talking about being lost, but we must address the issues of warfare in order to completely understand the concept of lost. We were lost to God through no fault of our own, having been born into a realm not of our own making. We grow up in it not fully recognizing it is a battle zone.

Romans 8:20-21 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

It is God’s desire to set us free even though we do not yet recognize where we are being held captive, or who is the jailer. The chains of bondage for the lost is sin. We do not see them, we do not immediately feel them, but they are real.

Revelation 20:1-3 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

In the truest sense, from God’s eternal viewpoint, Satan is a defeated foe, having lost his battle for the souls of mankind at the Cross. We shall get into that in greater detail later, but for now the issue is that we are born into this world on the losing side. The issue at hand now is how many souls he can hang onto without losing them to Christ. That’s his game, the spoiler.