Satan Wants to Take Away Your Fun

Heaven is known for its elaborate parties. There's always celebration and fun there. In the beginning, God had appointed an angel named Lucifer to be in charge of organizing the parties in heaven—every spirit spending time together with the Creator and Source of all fun, joy, happiness, laughter, humor, comedy, peace, etc.

Unfortunately, Lucifer got vain and proud. He wanted to be the ultimate life of the party—the center of all attention. He wasn’t content to enjoy being with God in His presence and leading and teaching the other angels how to have fun. To the contrary, he incited rebellion among one third of the angels when he tried to exalt himself above God. He wanted to be the center of attention at the heaven parties, implying that God wouldn’t be welcome as the honored center of attention.

His pride resulted in separation from God; he was cut off from the source of all love, joy, fun, happiness, humor, laughter, etc. Satan (that is, Lucifer) and those angels were cast out of heaven and condemned to eternal punishment with no chance of re-entering the party in heaven. Consequently, they are perpetually depressed, joyless, jealous, hopeless, vindictive, condemned, angry, afraid, etc. (1)

To get back at God, they want humans to experience their same emotions, so they do all they can to get us to think the same way that they do. They want “on earth as it is in hell” and also to bring people to hell for eternity with them. This occurs when people likewise choose to rebel against God, separating ourselves from His presence.

After he fell down to earth, Satan in effect told Adam and Eve (the first human beings), “God has forbidden you to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because He wants to keep you from having fun. Rebel against His restrictive rules and repressive commandments and you’ll have freedom.”

Mankind was convinced by Satan’s temptation, but it turned out that Satan was false advertising. By listening to the liar, mankind gave his authority over to Satan and also opened the door to regret, disease, death, curses, and a sinful nature when they disobeyed God. They weren’t truly happy or satisfied after eating from the tree, but rather felt guilty, ashamed, and afraid. Thereby they became spiritually separated from God and from the joyful, intimate relationship they had shared with Him before.

God didn’t want us to be joyless, unhappy, and miserable, but always desired that we be filled with the joy, pleasure, and intimacy that comes from a relationship with Him. That’s why God came down to earth as a Man to teach us how to have fun. Jesus Christ’s first miracle happened at a wedding celebration when he turned water into wine, even at the end of the party when many had already gotten drunk. (2)

Jesus came to teach us how to enjoy life and have fun. He said, “The thief [Satan’s domain] comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10 ESV). Teaching us how to have an active role bringing about God's will of “on earth as it is in heaven,” Jesus’ lifestyle included rescuing people from Satan's kingdom (hell) that they might have citizenship in heaven. He attended parties, was invited to parties, was the life of the party, taught about how heaven parties, and gave off a joyful vibe from which formerly greedy, isolated people learned how to party. (3)

No one fostered community and welcomed former outcasts like Jesus did; he brought them happiness. However, some party-poopers—that is, religious people—were jealous about how Jesus was always the center of attention. Jesus called them a “brood of vipers,” alluding that Satan’s joy-stealing attitude influenced the way they thought. Although they had a form of godliness as the religious leaders of the day, they lived in denial of God’s power and were demonized. (4)

However, Jesus didn’t cast out these demons from them because Jesus only delivers us from our enemies, not from our friends. (5) The religious leaders were unwilling to repent (or to change the way they thought). They didn’t see the need to make Jesus the center of attention and of their lives, for following him wasn’t worth it to them. Although they were unwilling to deal with themselves, Jesus respected their free will choice to oppose him. Ultimately Satan used the prideful, jealous religious leaders to have Jesus falsely accused and executed.

Satan thought he had defeated Jesus when he had “successfully” influenced the religious and political leaders to have Jesus killed. However, since Jesus had never rebelled against God, Death had no legal right to keep him in custody. Thus, Jesus’ body did not decay, and Jesus rose from the dead three days later after he stripped Satan of all the authority that Adam had given over to him in the Garden of Eden. Therefore, Jesus now has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. (6)

If you have not yet entered into a relationship with God, then the following is a suggested prayer for receiving Him into your life to be the center of your attention and affection. Read it aloud if it expresses the desire of your heart, “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” --Romans 10:9-10 ESV:

Father,

I thank You that You created me to know me personally and have a wonderful plan for my life. (7) I’m sorry for all the ways that I rebelled against You. Although I looked for joy, pleasure, and fun in other things, this has ultimately ended up in disappointment.

I believe that You are the Source of joy, peace, love, and satisfaction, and I want a relationship with You. I believe that You will show me how to really have fun, since You are the Inventor of humor, comedy, fun, and happiness.

I ask You to forgive me for all my sins--all the ways I disobeyed your loving commands (that You gave for my own protection and provision), and all the ways I sought happiness apart from connection and relationship with You. I repent, turning away from all sin, lust, fear, selfish ambition, and everything that displeases You and steals joy from our relationship.

Thank you that Jesus paid the price for my rebellion when he died on the cross.

I believe that You raised Him from the dead, proving that you will give me a new life--a personal relationship with You that never ends.

As I give you my entire life, I thank You that my old life dies with Jesus on the cross, and I receive Jesus into my life. Now Jesus Christ is my life; I died, and my life is now hidden with Christ in You, Father.

Thank you for receiving me into your honored family through the blood sacrifice of Jesus. Thank you for delivering me from Satan’s kingdom and bringing me into Your kingdom, which consists of righteousness (right relationships with You and people), peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. As I commit to follow you with my whole life, make me into the person You want me to be. Whatever the cost, I look forward to how You will teach me how to really have fun along with others, as we enter into that same party lifestyle of enjoying Your presence, just like Jesus did.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen ("So be it!")

If you sincerely prayed to receive Jesus into your life as the Savior, King, and Party-Planner of your life, then welcome to God's honored family! Heaven, Party Central, is celebrating right now.

“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” --Luke 15:7 ESV

My prayer for you is that…“[y]ou may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” --Colossians 1:9‭b-‬14 ESV

1. See Isaiah 14:12ff, Ezekiel 28:12ff, Revelation 12, and other passages for more context for consideration of this Scriptural theory or interpretation.

2. Just like God didn’t build a wall with barbed wire around the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, this shows that God gives us the choice to find our pleasure in obedience out of delightful relationship with Him, or to listen to the voice of temptation to find pleasure apart from Him. Rather than removing their booze, Jesus made more and left it at the guests’ personal discretion how much extra they would choose to drink, according to their consciences. See Psalm 16:11; John 2:1-11.

3. See Mark 2:13ff; John 2:1-11; Luke 7:34ff; 15:1-32; 19:1-10

4. See Matthew 3:7f; 23:33; 2 Timothy 3:5

5. The idea that Jesus delivers us from our enemies, not from our friends, I learned from Derek Prince. We must make demons our enemies and resolve that we'll cooperate fully with Jesus by fighting tenaciously (in repentance) if we want to be free from demonic oppression.

6. See 1 Corinthians 2:8; Acts 13:26-39; Luke 4:5-8; Revelation 1:18; Matthew 28:18

7. This idea I learned from Dr. Bill Bright.