I remember the warnings my Daddy gave me as a little girl while playing in the ocean.  “If you see this beautiful thing floating on the water that sort of looks like a  pretty flower, run from it!  Get away as fast as you can.  Even if it doesn’t appear too close, it’s tentacles will reach out underneath the waters unseen, and get you!”

Likewise, Satan (our adversary, the Devil), was the most beautiful creature that God created.  Ezekiel 28:13-17 describes his beauty, as he was covered with the most brilliant, precious stones.  His beauty led to pride, which led to his fall.  He lost his prestigious position and his place in the Kingdom of God.  We now know him as evil personified.

Satan is not the horned, red devil figure that we see in cartoons.  If his true, internal, evil nature were visible to the physical eye, we would never be tempted to have anything to do with him or his ways.  No, he will appear as the most magnificent thing we could ever imagine, and will often be hard to take our eyes off of!  He even “transforms himself as an angel of light.”  (2 Corinthians 11:14)

Like the jelly-fish, swimming/dancing/playing with Satan will prove deadly.  Even the slightest brush against him will sting for days.  Engaging him even from a seemingly safe distance is dangerous, as his undetected tentacles can and will reach out and “get you”!

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.  (1 Corinthians 10:21)

The good news is that as born-again believers, we have the very Spirit of Christ, the Holy Ghost, living inside of us.  In the Name of Jesus, we have authority to resist, renounce and cast out every work of the Devil and his host of demonic forces.  Guard  your hearts and minds, and remember who you are in Christ.  Resist the devil, and he will flee!  (James 4:7)