In Ezekiel 28:12 Satan is called "the king of Tyre". There are demon powers behind the rulers of this world and at that time Satan himself was behind the ruler of Tyre. And the Lord spoke to Satan who indwelt that human ruler. The Lord reminded Satan of the time when he was in the garden of Eden (Ezek.28:13) This tells us that Lucifer was in Eden before Adam and Eve were there. And the Lord reminded Satan of how he had been "perfect in his ways from the day he was created until sin was found in him" (v.16,17).
Lucifer's heart was lifted up primarily because of his beauty. Is your heart ever lifted up when you look into the mirror and see how good looking you are compared to others? Beware of that. Thank God for the good gifts he has given you. There's nothing wrong in having a good-looking face. But there is everything wrong in being proud of it. For then you open the door to Satan.
Another reason for Lucifer's pride was his cleverness. Do you know that the most intelligent among all created being is Satan? There is nothing wrong with being intelligent. We can use our intelligence for the glory of God. But we have no right to be proud of it. We don't have to be stupid to serve the Lord. No. Thank God for your intelligence, and thank God for your beauty, but never be proud of either.
The third reason for Lucifer's conceit was that he had the highest position among all created beings. He failed to recognise that all these three things that he was proud of - his beauty, his cleverness and his position - were all gifts of God. And that is what many human beings - and many Christians too - fail to recognise. And that's how Satan gets a foothold in their lives, and finally destroys them.
So we see that all the sin in the world originated with pride. Not with murder or adultery but with pride. And that's why salvation came through Jesus humbling himself. The way of humility is the way of deliverance from all of Satan's schemes and wiles.
In Lucifer, we also see the origin of the spirit of discontentment with one's appointed lot in life. If we could look at this world from God's point of view, we would see the world full of grumbling, complaining, murmuring people everywhere - a spirit that they have all imbibed from Satan.
The spirit of rebellion against authority is yet another thing that originated with Lucifer. There was only one authority that Lucifer had above him - and that was God. And he rebelled against that authority. He wanted to be above that authority and to push God down. Do we find that spirit in the human race? The spirit of rebellion against authority is what has led to numerous revolutions in countries and what has caused strikes in factories. And in these days, we find that rebellious spirit even among students - not only among college students, but among school students as well, and even among small children in a home. All this is a sure sign that the world is deteriorating. Disrespect for teachers, and for parents and even for elder brothers in the church is rife everywhere. Never forget that it was this spirit that changed the best of the angels into a devil. And this spirit can change a good man or woman into a devil even today.
God never makes anyone evil. It is when we open ourselves to the spirit of Satan that we make ourselves evil. And now notice one final characteristic about Lucifer. When he fell, he didn't fall alone. He had company. We read in Revelation 12:4 that he dragged down one-third of the other angels along with him. They too foolishly joined him in his spirit of pride, discontentment and rebellion. It is the same today. Where one person is evil, he is not content to remain evil by himself alone. He wants to drag others down with him into his misery and evil, as well. A root of bitterness in one person can infect many others, if those others are not watchful (See Heb.12:15).
