Wait a sec, I need you to read this slowly, we are talking about learning from the Devil here. A wise man once said  

I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness form the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers

-Kahill Gibran

As much as we hate snakes (e.g. the Black mamba) we must appreciate its ability to reach a speed of 20 km/h without any appendages (that’s faster than many people can run), that’s the same appreciation we must-have for this big bad guy – the Devil

A Brief Story Of The Big Bad Guy [who is the Satan]

There are several mythologies of the “big bad guy”. However, the story I am drawing this article from is quite clear on the position of the “big bad”. He is called Satan in this story. From the source of this myth, Satan isn’t “the evil” nor is he the opposite of good or God, but simply a vessel of the “evil”. The evil is “Sin”.

According to the Bible, which is the source […], Satan, being an Angel (cherub), was created by God just like the rabbits and flowers, however, Satan was, simply, the first to ‘Sin’.

It should be noted that in the Bible everything that transpired was between God and his creation – nothing more, nothing less. That being clearly stated, Satan is in the same category with you and I (Gods creations)

Are we still together? okay,   Like humans Satan is neither good nor evil in nature, but simply imperfect.

Hoping to have successfully changed your perception of Satan, at least a little, I now urge you to follow this article to delve deep (not too deep though ☺) into all the wonderful lessons we can learn from this beautiful creature of “you know who”.    

 EMULATING SATAN

The short version of the story was that Satan tried to dethrone God, however, he was beaten to a pulp by the other warring Angels (Micheal to be exact), and was cast down to earth, from whence he continued his job of convincing people to rebel against Yahweh (God), just like he convinced one-third of the Angels in heaven to fight against “you know who”

The first thing that should strick anyone who imagines the conflict that erupted in heavens because of the rebellion of Satan was his TEMERITY, the guts he had to even picture himself sitting on the throne of his Creator, the amount of mind-boggling conviction he had in him which drove him to attempt the greatest coup ever attempted since the beginning began.  

He was so convinced that his aura of certainty in overthrowing the Maker infected one-third of the Angels in heaven. There is a saying that “if you are not brave enough no one would back you up”. For him to have gathered that amount of support which literally placed an innumerable number of Angels on his side, it is crystal clear that he didn’t lack any atom of bravery.  

So, In this story, he got the drubbing of a lifetime and consequently got thrown out of heaven, and after suffering the brutal defeat in heaven he simply didn’t quit, instead, he introduced sin into the Creators perfect work in Eden and further tempted Jesus(the son of Yahweh) in the wilderness, it is even recorded in the story that Satan still goes around till date “like a roaring lion looking for who to devour”.

Quitting just isn’t in this guy’s dictionary.  

LEASONS TO BE LEARNT

if we distill his experiences and attitude towards failures and set back, we get a fine elixir for resilience in character. Lessons to be learnt from the devil include:

• • CONSISTENCY: Mathematicians would always remind us that there is more than one way to solve a problem, and programmers would keep insisting on a new and better algorithm for handling tasks. Satan appears to understand these facts intricately; In the temptations in the wilderness, he played with Jesus’s weakness (hunger), then the concept of his purpose (gaining back the whole world), and finally he tried to play with his divinity (angels coming to save him from falling), when all his attempts of winning Him(Jesus) over failed he simply DECIDED to switch plan, and that was to kill Jesus in the most humiliating and gut-wrenching way possible (he actually accomplished that).    It is clear as “the writings on the wall” that Satan is purpose-driven, relentless, innovative, tactical, and brave enough to see his plans through  

• • ASKING on the encounter of Job and Satan it can be clearly seen that Satan asked the Maker for a chance to tempt Job (remember Satan was thrown down to earth and left to roam. Job was a servant of God), and on an encounter of a man possessed by many demons with Jesus (the Son of God), the demons begged Jesus to cast them into the swines.

We would literally go batty if we were told all the opportunities we missed by simply not asking. It’s insane what people are willing to shear or even give away; who could guess that the Creator would allow Satan to have a fun time with Job his beloved.  

“You create your opportunities by asking for them”

Patty Hansen

In order not to bore you with the countless wonderful lessons to be derived from the life of the Devil I’ll love to round up here with this quote

“the first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want”.  

Ben Stein  

All other steps you’ll need to take would simply be to archive your decision or at least something close☺   So, there it is, DECIDE, BE BRAVE, FOLLOW THROUGH, IMPROVE AND NEVER GIVE UP

P.S: keep striving, the best is yet to come. Do well to leave comments, I’ll love to hear your views and contributions to this topic.