“Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit” (1 John 4:13). There is Someone dwelling in us besides ourselves. It is the Spirit. The Spirit is the consummate manifestation of the Triune God. Hallelujah, the Triune God is in us!
“In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil” (1 John 3:10). Many Christians have been taught that Christ is seated on the throne at the right hand of God; He does not live in them, but He has sent His Representative to be in them. They do not believe that Christ Himself dwells in us. No doubt they also do not believe that Satan is in their nature. Notice that this verse calls some the children of the Devil. Are they his adopted children? Did he simply find them on the street, take pity on them, and adopt them for his own? To be called the children of the Devil means that such were born of Satan; his life and nature are in them. John 8:44 says, “You are of your father the devil, and it is your will to do the desires of your father.” The Jews might claim to have Abraham for their father, but their real father was the Devil, the father of liars. They were born of him.
Ephesians 2:2 tells us that the ruler of the authority of the air “now is operating in the sons of disobedience.” Where is Satan today? He is not only in the air, but also in fallen man, in our flesh. This was his counterplot.
Matthew 16:22-23 records that one day Peter was being kind and loving toward the Lord Jesus, telling Him, “God be merciful to You, Lord; this shall by no means happen to You!” He was unaware that Satan was in him and that he was one with Satan. The Lord turned to him, calling him not Peter but Satan. Not only was the betraying Judas a devil (John 6:70); even the loving Peter became Satan.
These verses are enough to impress us that both Satan and God have wrought themselves into our being. Satan is in our flesh. God is in our spirit. In the next message we shall see that Satan in our flesh is the law of sin and of death. This God who has been processed and is now the Spirit dwelling in our spirit is the law of the Spirit of life. Both Satan and God are now within us as laws.
You may find this hard to believe. It no doubt differs from what you were taught in the past. I beg you to drop your religious background and consider the pure Word of God. If you reject what I have just shared with you, where do you put all these verses? The ruler of the authority of the air as the evil spirit is now operating in fallen man; before you were saved, Satan was working in this way in you (Eph. 2:2). Even after you are saved, Satan is still present. This is clear from the example of Peter. He was saved in Matthew 16:16. After that he nonetheless became Satan.
Praise the Lord that we have the highest law in our spirit, which has freed us from the evil law!
(God's Eternal Intention and Satan's Counterplot, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)