Dominion: The Power Satan Wants You to Forget

Sometimes when I sit and think about the spiritual battle we face as believers, I realise that much of it comes down to one central issue, dominion. The Bible repeatedly speaks about authority and about who truly has power. Yet so often, as believers, we walk through life forgetting what God actually gave to humanity from the very beginning. We walk in a sense of powerlessness, we fear life and its challenges, we apprehend struggles, we live in trauma, and we live in constant cycles of depression, loneliness, and sadness.

When you begin to think about it more deeply, you realise the issue at hand. The conflict between Satan and mankind is not a random occurrence. Satan is not choosing to attack you simply because he feels like it today, there is always purpose behind his attacks, and it is usually to weaken us as Christians. His attacks are deeply connected to the authority God gave to you and to me.

When you begin to see that clearly, a lot of things start to make sense.

Many theologians argue that Satan, as Lucifer, was still in heaven during the creation week, as everything was deemed “ good” (Genesis 1:24). If so, he would have witnessed the creation of man. He was there, not yet in his fallen state, otherwise God might not have said that all creation was good. While we do not have a precise timeline, it can reasonably be inferred that Satan saw all that was happening and became proud. In Ezekiel 28:13 it says, “You were in Eden, the garden of God”, which suggests he knew about the tree of life and the purpose of it, and he may even have been present around the time of creation.

Could this be one of the reasons Satan said in Isaiah 14:13-14,

“I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”

Could it be that he said this because he saw the power that God has?

Then later, when God created mankind, He said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (Genesis 1:26).

The fact that we are made in the image of God, and Satan is not, is what makes him angry. He said he wanted to be like God, he wanted to ascend above the stars of God. Because of this pride he fell from heaven, God cast him down, as described in Isaiah 14:12-15.

Do you see what I am trying to unravel?

God made us, you and me, in His image, to reflect Him. He gave us dominion to rule the earth, not because we earned it, but out of love for mankind. Yet Satan desired these things and could not obtain them. He wanted what we were given, but it was never granted to him. Because he desired it and could not have it, he became angry and jealous.

Because of how proud Satan became, God said, “But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit” (Isaiah 14:15).

Satan wanted to ascend, but God essentially showed him how low he could be brought. Jesus later said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18).

But even more importantly, look at the verse that follows. Jesus says, “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you” (Luke 10:19).

Do you see the pattern I am trying to show you?

Satan was cast down to earth, but who had dominion there? Man. So he is under the dominion of men on Earth, not the other way around. What a punishment that must be for Satan. The very people he was jealous of are now the ones who have dominion over him.

This makes me think that when God said He would bring Satan low, it was not only physically, but also spiritually (Isaiah 14:15).

So, Satan is angry, and that is why he tries to make us think we are weak, so that he can appear strong with an “authority” that he does not actually have.

Satan knew he could not ascend again, so the only way he could rise was through man’s descent. This is why the battles we face as Christians exist today.

If we go back to the garden of Eden, Satan told Eve that she would be God-like if she ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:1-5). What he meant was that they would know things they were not meant to know, not that they would truly become like God. That was the lie.

Even Satan’s words reveal what was in his heart, they reveal his desires.

After reading this, I asked myself, why did Satan not eat the fruit himself? Why did he get Adam and Eve to eat it?

Is it possible that Satan did not eat the fruit himself because he was already spiritually dead after the fall? Instead, he wanted Adam and Eve to fall as well. Perhaps he believed that if they fell, they would no longer reflect the image of God but instead resemble him in his fallen state. If that happened, they might lose the authority he was jealous of.

Perhaps he thought that if humanity died spiritually, he could ascend again and stand above them.

This may even be why Genesis 3 in the NIV is titled “The Fall”, reflecting what had already happened to Satan. When we speak about the fall, we understand it primarily in a spiritual sense rather than a physical one. In that sense, Satan’s death was spiritual, and perhaps he wanted the same spiritual death for humanity.

But what Satan failed to realise was that God does not go back on His word (Isaiah 55:11).

Even though he succeeded in tempting Eve, which then led to the fall of Adam as well, Satan did not understand that God’s plans would still stand. God’s words do not fail; they remain true regardless of human failure. Satan failed to realise that it would never be possible for him to ascend again, no matter what he did to humanity.

So instead, he tries to trick us into believing that he has power, when in reality he has none.

The Bible says, “I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching” (Ezekiel 28:18). It is clear here that Satan was reduced to nothing.

If Satan can make us forget who we are, that we are the ones who were given dominion, then his pride allows him to pretend that he is powerful.

So, when we come into agreement with spirits such as sadness and depression, because that is what they are, spiritual influences rather than our true identity, it is heartbreaking to see believers accept the lies of Satan. His plan is to feel powerful again by convincing us that we are powerless.

He whispers lies, “you are weak, you have no power, you will fail, you will never be anything in life, you will never make it, you are not good enough”.

But those words are not true!

Look at what those thoughts do to you. They reduce you; they make you feel powerless; they bring you down, to reflect satan.

Do you see the plan of Satan now?

If you go low, he appears to go high. That is the strategy of Satan. He seeks authority and dominion, authority he never truly had but desperately desired.

This war with Satan is fundamentally about control. Who wins the battle for your mind? Who wins the battle for your soul? Who wins the battle over your life and your family?

For Satan, it is always about power.

So, we must resist it. It is easier said than done, but as you learn to walk with God more intimately, you begin to see that overcoming the devil is possible.

Jesus reminds us, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

Greater is Christ, Who is in you than satan who is in the world. As long as you remain in Christ, you can overcome. You can stand firm in the battles that Satan wages against your life.

Reflection:

• What thoughts have I accepted that might actually be lies meant to weaken me?

• Am I allowing fear, sadness, or discouragement to shape how I see myself?