Part I | The Beginning | Ordained & Anointed

Let’s be honest. We, Christians, are some of the most judgmental, gossiping, and unforgiving groups of people. More than ever, I am seeing very little difference between the people in the church and those outside the church. Several years ago, after completing our fifth annual couple’s conference, the spirit of God spoke to my heart: “Your ministry is in transition, I will be sending you believers…that are going to hell.”

This shocked my spirit. I told my wife the very same day. It took me several years to really begin to understand what all this meant. How could a believer in the Lord, Christ Jesus…go to hell?

Forgiveness…what the hell is it? I mean really. The church and Christians talk about it all the time. Most even practice it. I grew up in the church thinking I understood it until I realized I have never really defined it.

As a licensed professional counselor, certified sexual recovery therapist, and being in my own recovery for over 15 years, it was about 8 years ago that I realized I had little to no true understanding of it nor how to practice it. It is not surprising many of my clients and Christian friends do not know either.

How could do this be? I had grown up in the Church and had been in the church my whole life. I’m a seminary graduate, read hundreds of books by Christian authors, listened to thousands of sermons, and written my own books and blogs. How did I miss this?

In this series of seven blogs, we are going to explore the topic of forgiveness and what it truly means. I believe it has been misunderstood and taught incorrectly in the church. To understand forgiveness, we need to go back and start from the beginning and find the origin. Many of the blogs in this series will be taken from our latest book, Offended Deceived Addicted. For the complete work on this topic, order your audio or hard copy book by clinking on this link: https://www.transformedhearts.com/product/offended-deceived-addicted/.

We are going to begin by looking at the origin of offense and how being offended came to be. It is less about what, when, or why but more about who. Let’s get started.

Contrary to popular belief and political correctness, Lucifer (also known as Satan, the Devil, the Accuser, the Deceiver, and the Oppressor), is real and does exist. He is not only real but powerful and should not be taken lightly.

“But even Michael, one of the mightiest of angels, did not dare accuse Satan of blasphemy, but simply said, “The Lord rebuke you.”…But these people mock and curse the things they do not understand. Like animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them, and they bring about their own destruction.” – Jude 1:9-10 (NLT)

In this passage, we see Lucifer is real, powerful and should not be mocked or cursed. He is a very powerful being with great knowledge—knowledge unknown to man. He has full knowledge as compared to humanity’s partial knowledge.

In addition, it is also believed that Lucifer and Michael were the first two angels created. Michael was created from the internal power of God and Lucifer from God’s external light. Michael shows Lucifer great respect—even in his fallen state as Satan.

Lucifer was one of the most powerful created angels, known as the cherubim. God created Lucifer as the most beautiful of all the angels. We see this in the following passage:

“Then this further message came to me from the Lord: Son of man, weep for the king of Tyre. Give him this message from the Sovereign Lord: You were the perfection of wisdom and beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Your clothing was adorned with every precious stone—red carnelian, chrysolite, white moonstone, beryl, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald— all beautifully crafted for you and set in the finest gold. They were given to you on the day you were created. I ordained and anointed you as the mighty angelic guardian. You had access to the holy mountain of God and walked among the stones of fire.” – Ezekiel 28:11-14 (NLT)

In this passage, we see Lucifer was and is the perfection of wisdom AND beauty. He was given perfect wisdom, so he is anything but stupid.

He is the perfection of beauty. The most beautiful of God’s creation outside of God himself. He wore clothing made with every precious stone. (Now, there are some nice clothes you can spend tens of thousands of dollars on—even millions, but they are rags in comparison.)

He was ordained and anointed as the mighty angelic guardian. He was ordained AND anointed by God himself.

Ordained means “to make someone a priest or minister, to confer holy orders on, to rule, order, command, establish, dictate, or command.”

Anointed means “to consecrate, bless, hallow, to smear or rub with oil.”

This was a big deal. Lucifer was an amazing creation by God who was blessed and hallowed to command, dictate, and establish holy orders. He had access to the holy mountain of God and walked, what appears to be, in the presence of God. Perfectly, he was in the presence of God and walked with God all the time. He was a high priest for God, but he was not THE High Priest, as that position was reserved for His Son, Jesus Christ.

What does it take for a created being like this to become so dissatisfied and throw it all away? What happened in the heavenly realms? How did it happen? We don’t know for sure other than what Scripture tells us, and the rest is what we can speculate by filling in some of the blanks.

What we do know is that there are nine precious stones listed: red carnelian, chrysolite, white moonstone, beryl, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise and emerald. These stones are also listed in Exodus 28:15-30, as the people of Israel are told how to make the breastplate that covered the high priest’s chest. In this passage, not nine but 12 precious stones representing the 12 tribes of Israel are mentioned. Therefore, it is believed that Lucifer’s breastplate was incomplete. In fact, it’s missing the third row of stones, and the tribes they represent have meaning. We will revisit this topic later in the book.

Now, God and the spiritual realm are outside of time. We don’t know how much time in our human understanding may have passed. It could have been one day or a billion years. We don’t know how long this drama played out.

To understand time, imagine a line segment on a piece of paper with you and I on the line on the paper. God is the one holding the paper, as the Creator and Designer. Nothing would exist outside of His will for it to exist. He creates everything from His essence, which is 100 percent pure, holy and loving. There is no evil or anything selfish in His essence.

It is believed Lucifer’s role was much like that of a modern worship pastor. He may have directed or led the music in heaven. We only know this by doing some digging into the Hebrew. In the NASB version of the Bible and the King James, Ezekiel 28:13 can also read:

“You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering: the ruby, the topaz, and the diamond; the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper; the lapis lazuli, the turquoise, and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings (timbrals) and sockets (flutes), was in you. On the day that you were created they were prepared.”

Some scholars believe “In the Hebrew, the word for “settings” is toph which means timbral, which is a musical instrument. Likewise, the Hebrew word for “sockets” is neqeb and means “pipes, grove, hole.”

The angels worshipped in perfect unity as they always did to a perfect, holy God. However, what if at one point something drastically changed, and God presented His Son, Jesus Christ? Now His Son, Jesus, is part of God the Father yet also separate. All bowed down to the Son of God to worship Him, as they had always worshipped God.

I would like to suggest to you that it was at this moment when Lucifer became offended by God and by the Son of God. Maybe he began to think some of the following thoughts to himself.

“I thought I was God’s most beloved. Who is this imposter? The Son is in my spot. God is withholding this good thing from me. I deserve to be seated in and beside the Father. God, you have this wrong. This is not going how I planned it. This needs to be corrected and made right. I need to take matters into my own hands! I know better than you God. I am right! You are wrong! I need to take control. I know better than God. God needs to be removed. I need to take my rightful position as god. I am god.” – Offended Deceived Addicted, page 7-9

I believe it is in this moment that Lucifer begins to think these thoughts lead him to feel an injustice, which led him very dark place.

How often have you thought or felt these things? How were your behaviors less than loving, kind or generous?

Cory Schortzman Executive Director

Cory Schortzman is an author, speaker, teacher and licensed mental health professional. Since 2008, he has served as the Executive Director of Transformed Hearts Counseling Center in Colorado Springs, CO. He is the founder of SARA, the Sexual Addiction Recovery Association. Cory is passionate about helping couples and individuals overcome sex addiction. He is also passionate about bringing awareness to the public and supporting the elimination of sex and human trafficking. Cory has been married since 1998 to his beautiful wife, Kerry, and lives in Colorado with their four daughters. He and Kerry have been seen on the CBS Early Show, Inside Edition, and ABC Good Morning America, Fox 21 News, and TLC/Discovery discussing the harm of sex addiction and the joys of recovery. He has also been heard on numerous radio programs.

Cory’s books include: Out of the Darkness, Into the Light the Workbook, Into the Light the Steps, Ashes to Beauty the Steps, 301 Dating Ideas, 301 Conversational Ideas, 301 Ways to Say I Love You, 301 Ways to Love Your Children & 301 Recovery Tools & Tips.