
Share this message
By Mary Carothers
God is the creator of all things. He alone can design and bring into being something out of nothing. God creates the original. On the other hand, Satan is a created being. As such, he cannot create; he can only counterfeit. In other words, he has to fake it.
In I Peter 5:8, the Lord tells us to be alert, vigilant and self-controlled. Why? Because our enemy, the devil is always prowling around – like a roaring lion – looking for someone to intimidate and devour.
We need to know that Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah (see Revelation 5:5). Jesus is the real thing, the true Lion. The devil is a counterfeit. He acts like a lion, and he even sounds like one, but we know that he is a liar and a deceiver.
Do you know why the lion is called the king of beasts? Not because he is the largest – the rhinoceros is larger. Not because he is stronger – the elephant is stronger. Not even because is the fastest – the ostrich is faster. The lion is called the king of beasts because of his roar. It is the most fearful and blood-chilling cry in the wild. With it, he causes his prey to be paralyzed with fear.
What Satan counterfeits is the roar. He seeks to intimidate us with his lies and deceptions. He wants to paralyze us with fear – and make us ineffective as Christians. He attempts to destroy our sense of worth by telling us such things as “Nobody likes (or loves) you. You’re dumb. You’re ugly.” He trembles lest we ever come to know how very precious we are to the Lord. In the same way, he tells unsaved people that they are too bad for God to ever forgive, that they are beyond hope.
But Jesus said that whoever came to Him, He would never cast away (see John 6:37). He wants us to know that His love and forgiveness are greater by far than any sin. By His blood, Jesus has purchased us, and we are gifts to the Father (see Ephesians 1:11&18 TLB). What the Lord tells us in His Word is true, what Satan tell us is a lie. Jesus is The Truth; Satan is the father of lies.
When we abide in Jesus (John 15), when we hide God’s Word in our hearts (Proverbs 3), when we obey the Lord (see Job 36:11), walking in the Spirit (see Galatians 5:25), God has told us we would tread upon and trample the counterfeit lion (Psalm 91). He will give us authority over all the power of the enemy (see Luke 10:19).
Let’s remember what the Lord tells us in Job 4:10: The lions may roar and growl, yet the teeth of the great lions are broken. How was this done? Jesus accomplished this for us on Calvary. Our enemy – the counterfeit lion – has been defeated by the true Lion of the tribe of Judah. Let us therefore go forth as more than conquerors in Christ who loves us (see Romans 8:37). (Reprint from September 1993)