The Devil You Donýt Know

By William Landon

There are many traditional concepts of the devil in organized religion as well as in popular myth and culture. Nearly every worldview has an explanation for the evil we see in our daily life experiences. While we may not like to think much about the darker side of life, we instinctively seek a reason or cause for the negative parts of our experience in this world. In most of the explanations of evil there is some personification of hurt and suffering called Satan, the devil, the evil one or some other name. The Bible tells us a great deal about the enemy of God and humanity including the fact that he is bent on hurting God by harming us.

Given the fact that Satan is dedicated to harming us, we would do well to have as clear and accurate an understanding of him as we can. Our best defense against any opponent is to know how they operate, what they are capable of and what their limitations and weaknesses are. Fortunately, we can do this without succumbing to an unhealthy level of obsession about the foe of all humanity.

In this book you will find a nontraditional explanation of where and how Satan operates within humanity. This view deserves a hearing, as the prevailing ideas about the devil's working don't seem to be terribly effective for the purpose of aiding us in overcoming our adversary. Some may find the idea of a personal devil (Satan in the flesh) a disturbing or insulting concept. If you will give it a careful hearing, however, this unorthodox idea may just be a key understanding in your successful resistance to the evil one's desire to harm you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Sep 25, 2006
• ISBN: 9780595855926

William Landon

Bill Landon has spent 40 years seeking a relationship with God, in side and outside organized religion. After more than a decade of Bible study Bill has found a path of living with a personal relationship with God. This is the second book in which this journey is described. Bill lives with his family in Connecticut.

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THE DEVIL YOU DON’T KNOW

William Landon

iUniverse, Inc.

New York Lincoln Shanghai

The Devil You Don’t Know

Copyright © 2006 by William Landon

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,

taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

iUniverse 2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100 Lincoln, NE 68512 www.iuniverse.com 1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

Other Scripture from the King James Version as noted by (KJV)

Cover Art—William Landon, New York Autumn, Acrylic on Canvas

ISBN-13: 978-0-595-41238-9 (pbk)

ISBN-13: 978-0-595-85592-6

(ebk) ISBN-10: 0-595-41238-6 (pbk)

ISBN-10: 0-595-85592-X (ebk)

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1 Humanity

Chapter 2 Human Evolution

Chapter 3 The Flesh

Chapter 4 Human Nature

Chapter 5 Satan

Chapter 6 Sin—I

Chapter 7 Sin—II

Chapter 8 God In The Flesh

Chapter 9 Corpus Christi

Chapter 10 The Synagogue Of Satan

Chapter 11 The Law And Satan

Chapter 12 Satan And Self

Chapter 13 Demons

Chapter 14 Satan Out

Chapter 15 Onward

Appendix A

Appendix B (Bible Verses Used By Chapter)

About The Author

Endnotes

This book is dedicated to all believers in Christ past, present and future. Especially this work is dedicated to the people who seek after the truth knowing that this is a costly search. To those who have made or will make the commitment to seek the Father without regard to the cost, I dedicate this book. May you always rejoice in the fact that the Father will reward your search and your commitment to the truth that is the Lord.

Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know.—Irish Proverb

Introduction

Divine Ignorance

There are times in every Christian’s life when we are offered the opportunity by the Father to go on with Him. These times represent an offer from the Father to grow both in our understanding of Him and in our relationship with Him. The growth in understanding and the growth in depth of relationship are linked. We cannot increase the depth of our relationship with the Father (or with anyone else for that matter) without an increased understanding and vice versa. Ironically, this growth begins with a sort of ignorance. At those times when we choose to accept the Father’s offer for a greater level of understanding we do so without a firm idea of where the journey will lead us. This is not a bad thing and it is certainly nothing to be ashamed of. The Father never gives us the entire story at the beginning of any period of growth because such a revelation would rob us of the opportunity to walk by faith. The operation of faith is both a blessing and an essential element of our spiritual growth. On a darker note, we are not given the whole story at the outset of any opportunity to grow with God because if we knew some of the places we would have to pass through we might well opt not to take the journey.

What I mean by the opportunity to go on with God is this: we are given some revelational insight and are asked by God if we would like to go deeper in that understanding. When we answer yes to this offer it is almost always an answer given without having any understanding of where the journey will take us. I use the phrase almost always instead of always only because it is possible for God to do anything in any way. For this reason I tend to shy away from using absolutes. Nevertheless, you should know that I believe that the Father never gives us a complete revelation at the start of any journey. Our ignorance in these instances is not a subject for judgment or of shame. We cannot possibly know beyond what we are shown. In these cases we are sharing in the experience of Abraham: By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8)

It is incumbent to a life that is to be lived primarily by faith that we be able to say yes to God’s proposals without knowing all (or, possibly, any) of the details. This is why I call this kind of lack of information a divine ignorance. As I mentioned before, if we knew some of the places we would have to go through to take the journey we might very likely stay at home. I know that this is true for me as I am not by nature a great risk taker.

When the Father introduced a small number of people to an entirely new (to us) understanding about Satan and where he operates in this world we were given just this kind of offer. I don’t think that any of us had the least idea of the animosity this simple little truth would provoke. I would have to seriously question my willingness to go on in this adventure had I known then what I know now. Having said that, I must quickly add that I am eternally grateful that I did say yes and that the Father gave me this opportunity. It is only in hindsight that we can accurately assess the value and benefit of any choice we make in life. It is this aspect of life that makes living a spontaneous and belief-based activity. The understanding I will share in this book is certainly a graphic example of this point.

Around the Pool

I find it hard to believe that others throughout the Christian era have never seen the central issue I will share in this book. Of course, as I have said many times, all things are possible with God. It is far more likely however that the principle point I will share in this book has been seen by others throughout the Christian era. I believe that this is probably true but that for whatever reason this truth was never committed to writing before. It is, of course, entirely possible that the points made in this book have been written down before and these writings have been lost or have had only a limited distribution. This is to my mind odd but the Father has His own plans and purposes—we just follow along. I do not lay claim to this truth as any kind of a personal possession as all truth rightfully belongs to God. We merely follow His leading in obedience to what He wants us to do with His truth. This is as much as any human being can hope to do.

This part of my schooling began innocently enough at the home of my very good friends Arthur and Linda Licursi. Several years ago my wife and I were sitting around Art and Linda’s pool on a hot summer Sunday afternoon. As we often had before, we were discussing what the Father had been showing us. At this time in our lives these revelations were often about the basic makeup of humanity and how things in this world work spiritually. The view presented in this book is based on the understanding that we are made up of three basic parts: body, soul and spirit. Arthur then posed the question: What if the body is not a single physical unit as is commonly taught, but rather a body that contains a metaphysical part as well?

Arthur went on to explain that he felt the Lord was showing him through the Scriptures that the references to flesh in both the Old and New Testaments were not just referring to our physical body. This other part of our body would be Satan in the flesh. Thus the journey began. I remember a curious sinking feeling in my stomach as I left the Licursi’s home that day. I remember asking the Father Why can’t you just leave well enough alone? We were at that time fel-lowshipping with a group of people and we were enjoying wonderful growth from this fellowship. I believe that I knew in my spirit that this new understanding was going to be trouble.

However, when you make the commitment to go on with God you are asked to go on unconditionally. The trap is that God is so sweet and His understandings so wonderful that you can hardly say no after even a short time walking with Him. You can stop at any time you want because the Father does not force us to walk with Him. Nonetheless, you may quickly discover that the longer you walk with Him, the harder it gets to stop.

Intuitive Understanding

The concept of Satan presented in this book will probably be quite different from anything you have heard or read about before. It was different from anything I had previously been exposed to. It is different from anything any of us had heard down to the present hour. It is unlike any representation of Satan presented in any church, fellowship or denomination I am aware of. The understanding about Satan’s origin, his fall and his working in the world will be fairly common to many people familiar with standard orthodox Christian teachings. The foundations for these understandings come from the Scriptures. We will review these aspects of Satan’s existence for the sake of continuity and completeness but they are not new. These facts are biblically based and are not disputed by any Bible-based Christian group. The point of variance comes in the understanding of the location from which Satan operates. This understanding, while far from being universally accepted is, I believe, also biblically based.

All of what I present here will be based on what I believe the Father has shown me from Scripture or has raised through other people and confirmed through the Bible. These ideas have been scrutinized by a number of people I have an acquaintance with and whom I believe to be earnest seekers of God’s truth. As I have mentioned in all of my writings, a Scriptural basis is a necessity for my acceptance of any idea. The Bible is my objective measure. This is the truth presented in the Bible (objective) and confirmed in my spirit by the indwelling Christ (subjective). When we are born again we accept Christ into our lives by allowing Him to come and dwell in our human spirit to be life for us. As a part of being life for us, we have all of Christ’s understandings spiritually (intuitively) though not intellectually (cognitively). What we often experience as growth in the Lord is the transfer of these spiritual understandings to our conscious knowledge base. When we were enlivened in our human spirit by Christ, we had the faculties of our human spirit fully activated. Among these faculties is our intuition.

The intuition of the human spirit is that part of us that allows us to communicate directly with the Father. This is the knowing that is deeper than our mind. The intuitive knowing is not intellectual though it may well color our intellectual knowing. The critical thing about intuition is that it cannot be proven objectively. Intuitive knowing is rather a case of I know because I know. It is my understanding that it is through the operation of our intuition that we receive enlightenment from the Father directly. We will take some time at the beginning of this book to review the basic construction of people in more complete detail. This is always essential because without this basic understanding most of what follows will only be confusing.

It is important to state at the outset that we cannot rely on biblical teaching in an exclusively intellectual (mental) way. The Bible is simultaneously the truest and most twisted and manipulated book in existence. Scripture contains the Father’s revelation of Himself to us in an objective way. Yet how we understand these facts is colored by our soul—mind, will and emotion. As a result of this interpretation from our soul we cannot trust our own understanding. We need a final arbiter. I believe that this final arbiter is the voice of the Father speaking through the intuition of our Christ-indwelt human spirit. This is what the Bible means when it says: Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; (Proverbs 3:5)

Traditional Understanding

What you will find in this work will be different from the vast body of traditional knowledge found in Christianity. This does not put me off and I hope it will not put you, the reader, off either. You see, tradition and vastness do not necessarily have any validity when dealing with the truth of God. This simple statement will undoubtedly be shocking to many in mainstream Christianity. Nonetheless, it is true. Most of us find ideas more believable and trustworthy if they come with a pedigree from a number of biblical scholars (people with credentials from formal study) or ideas that have the blessing of some institution or other. Yet the lesson we get from God through Jesus is that none of these worldly criteria hold much worth in God’s economy: Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. (Luke 2:47)

Neither credentials nor size means anything to the Father. A body of misunderstanding is not made true by volume or how many people ascribe to it. A big body of falsehood is not true—it is only big. As for tradition, it is only old. There are any number of myths that have survived down through the ages. They are still wrong, in spite of their age and the number of people who believe them. Humans often are sidetracked by size, popularity and longevity. In the end, however, none of these traits have any intrinsic weight of truth.

The one characteristic about human bodies of knowledge concerning spiritual matters is that they tend to be static. Whenever people assemble a collection of knowledge about God, one of the first things they do is to classify it, codify it and lock it up in a box of limitations. This box is a doctrine or statement of faith—these are the things we believe to be true and everything else is false (by definition). For this reason, every established body of human knowledge is to some greater or lesser extent, static. While such bodies of knowledge may contain many truths they are, because of their static nature, dead.

The only thing that human systems of understanding can do is reproduce themselves including their own limitations. When we go to the university we study the assembled body of knowledge. We are graded on how well we can assimilate this body of knowledge and parrot back some percentage of it. For this reason when we limit ourselves to such systems we never go beyond the traditional knowledge. We are, in many cases, even punished for going outside the lines and formulating new understandings from the previously held knowledge. This punishment is especially likely if our new understandings challenge some part of the old knowledge base.

If any growth is allowed in human collections of traditional understanding it is in volume only. What I mean is that we may allow new knowledge to be added to the system but only conditionally. We will allow new facts about previously unknown issues or we will allow currently generated data to be added to the body of knowledge if it is supportive of existing understanding. Where new understandings are rejected is when this new knowledge challenges the existing understandings. Any new or additional understanding is permitted without objection only if it is based on and consistent with the basic understanding of the old database.

Outside the Box

It is almost always the case that any new understanding will imperil some portion of the old knowledge base. All systems of understanding are based on previous knowledge. What I know and understand is based on other understandings—both my own and the understandings of others that I have been exposed to. When some new piece of information is fed into the mix it is rarely done quietly or seamlessly. This disruption is understandable because radically different ideas often require the rejection of older ideas as a prerequisite for the acceptance of the new. To put it another way, radically new ideas are often refutations of older ideas. This is what makes these new ideas radical in the first place.

Often new understandings are not entirely new facts but are rather, corrections of previously held errors. This is why going outside the body of traditional, accepted understanding is dangerous and not particularly popular. This brings us face to face with two uncomfortable issues. The first is that there is always a group of people who have built a reputation or livelihood on the existing understandings. These people are not particularly pleased with the prospect of these understandings being shown to be in error or even held up as being incomplete. The other issue is one of stability and comfort. Inside the established understanding box we know how things are. Inside the box we have the comfort (though it may be a false comfort) of stability and predictability. It may be a limited system but it is our system. This is often one of the founding principles of denominational religion.

Sadly, if we have a true desire to grow we must be willing to receive correction. This is not nearly so painful if we stop and consider the alternatives to growth. As I am fond of thinking of it, people are like trees in this regard. A tree exists in only one of two states—it is either growing or dying. We too, are either growing or dying. I would rather be corrected and be alive and growing spiritually than to live in a false stability of spiritual death (stagnation).

Going On

It is not a mark of shame that we have a set of misconceptions incorporated in our basic understanding. This is not evidence that we are stupid, immoral or slow-witted. Think of where we came from. We all have come out of the world. This is a world that is awash in misconceptions, ignorance and outright dishonesty. You must always keep in mind that the world is under the control of the evil one: We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. (1 John 5:19) So we all come into the life of Christ with an impressive set of fairy tales about the way things are. This reality is difficult to accept, especially for us who are convinced that we are pretty savvy about how things are. It is, nonetheless, true.

We need to consider some things. What is more important—coming to a deeper understanding of the Father, His world and ourselves or preserving our own foolish pride? To me, there is nothing sweeter than coming to know the truths of God. I am practical enough to realize that this sweetness may be too esoteric for many people. Then consider the pragmatic advantages of growing in the understanding of the truth.

What Really Works

To many people it would be considered ironic to speak of pragmatism and Christianity in the same breath. Christians are usually considered by worldly people to be the most impractical of all people. Christians are often seen as inherent dreamers and not very deeply in touch with the real world. I believe that these views of Christianity have grown up because real Christianity is rarely seen in this world. What most people see (and practice) in this world is religion and not Christianity. Christianity, real Christianity, is a state of being and a personal relationship with the Father. Religion is outward works, rites and rituals. Religion is primarily about looking good and smelling good and doing the right things. Real Christianity is about living and further, Christianity is a life not to be seen.

The spiritual is invisible to the physical. This has always been understood: so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:4) This is part of the reason that worldly people consider the Christian to be impractical. However, this does not mean that the spiritual has no impact or discernable effect on the physical. In fact, the wonder and beauty of real Christianity is that it is the only thing that can really make a positive change in our living. The rest of the world is living under the great illusion that they can (and do) change their lives. The truth is that humanity has plowed on for millennia in the same old way because they cannot, apart from the Father’s influence, change anything for the better.

I would testify from my own life experience to the power of Christ. There has never been anything else that has so powerfully and positively affected my living. No amount of things from the world ever made a real impact on me for the better. No amount of religious doing or experiences ever produced real change or growth in me. Certainly no worldly circumstance or situation, in itself, ever changed me for the better. I have had many pleasant and prosperous things happen to me but none of this ever changed me for the better at the core of my being. All of these things were dealing with my physical and psychological existence. The real me, as I later learned, is essentially a spiritual issue. This is why Christ is the only true force that causes positive change in human beings.

A Spiritual Mind

In order to get anything out of this book, it must be approached spiritually. This is not some deep intellectual ordeal nor is it something that takes years of study to grasp. The spiritual approach is definitely not limited to some group of elite holy men of God. Only two things are needed here: A renewed spirit that comes from salvation, and an open and surrendered attitude toward the Father’s teaching and revealing of His truth to us. In this simple list of requirements we do not find the fundamental evidence that God the Father is an elitist nor is He unreasonable. The Father only asks of us that which we are capable of giving. The truth of this should be evident from the fact that God seeks relationship with all of us: This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:3—4) A knowledge of the truth is not some esoteric, ideal or intellectual abstraction. Please remember that the truth, at its core, is God. The Father is the source and essence of all that is real (true).

We need an open and surrendered attitude toward the Father’s teaching about spiritual matters because only the Father teaches us anything in this area. Further, we can only learn from the Father if we are willing because the Father will not force anything upon us, even His truth. It is in openness and surrender that we seek the Father and His truth. We are promised that this attitude will be rewarded: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7) We are not told to study, to toil or to strive. We are simply told to seek. However, we cannot seek on our terms; we must seek the Father on His terms.

The renewed spirit is necessary because without it we cannot receive fully from the Father. Without the activation of our human spirit that comes from allowing Christ to indwell us at a spiritual level we cannot function in intuitive learning. Intuition is a function of our human spirit and without Christ this attribute simply doesn’t work. We will look at this in more detail later. For now it is sufficient to say that what we need to understand the Father and His ways is a spiritual mind. This is a mind that is open to both the intellectual and the intuitive. Without such a mind nothing of the spiritual reality makes any sense: The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

If you want to learn the things of the Spirit you must seek them spiritually. The worldly mind or the intellectual mind cannot grasp them. If you wish to learn through the operation of the Holy Spirit enough to put yourself in the Father’s hands