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Blog - The Five "I Wills" of God and Lucifer
Lucifer was the greatest and most beautiful angel which God created. He was "the anointed cherub that covereth" (Eze 28:14). It was said of him, "thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty" (Eze 28:12), and "thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created" (Eze 28:15). And then something happened to Lucifer: he was perfect "till iniquity was found in thee" (Eze 28:15). His sin was one that we all have a tendency to fall into: pride.
The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy and told him that when looking for a man to train and ordain to be an elder that he was not to be "a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil" (1Ti 3:6). Lucifer's perfection and beauty went to his head and his "heart was lifted up because of [his] beauty" and he "corrupted [his] wisdom by reason of [his] brightness" (Eze 28:17). Since the devil is the prince of this world (Joh 12:31) who directs the course of this world (Eph 2:2), it is no wonder that one of the three sins which characterize this world is "the pride of life" (1Jo 2:16).
Typical of a proud, arrogant sinner, the devil's eyes couldn't be satisfied (Pro 27:20) and he couldn't settle for being number two. The devil was a zealous believer in his freewill, declaring, "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High" (Isa 14:13-14). Satan was like the fool whom Solomon wrote of who "rageth, and is confident" (Pro 14:16). Though Lucifer was full of wisdom (Eze 28:12), his pride corrupted his wisdom (Eze 28:17), turning him into a fool, which the words of his mouth demonstrated, for "in the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride" (Pro 14:3). In his foolish high-handed rebellion against God, Satan failed to realize that he had brought a knife to a gun fight.
While Satan is a believer in the preeminence of the creature's will, God is a believer in His divine sovereignty whereby "he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?" (Dan 4:35). God "worketh all things after the counsel of his own will" (Eph 1:11), and "he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased" (Psa 115:3), and "what his soul desireth, even that he doeth" (Job 23:13), and He says "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure" (Isa 46:10). In response to Satan's five foolish, haughty "I wills", the LORD retorted back with five of His own "I wills", declaring, "I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire...I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee...and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee" (Eze 28:16-18).
Now if you want to say some "I wills" to God, how about: "I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple" (Psa 5:7); "I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works" (Psa 9:1); "I will rejoice in thy salvation" (Psa 9:14); and "I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever" (Psa 23:6).