Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
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Some unknown moment in eternity past, Satan coveted the glory that was God's, the glory that all of God's creatures gave to their Creator. He devised a brilliant scheme to obtain some of that glory and grasped after what was not his. Somehow, he persuaded a third of the angels in heaven to honor him as they did God, and in great wrath, God cast them all out of His presence. Jesus said that he witnessed the event. He saw Satan "fall as lightning" from heaven. What a horrifying picture! How must it have felt for Satan to be cast out, for all eternity, from his beautiful, blessed home! Damned before the time of damnation! Judged before Judgment Day to be worthy of eternal death. Now, he is a bitter, lost, and desperate spirit, wandering about on the earth, "seeking whom he may devour".
Even in his fallen state, however, Satan's desire did not change. He still envies the glory of God and strives to share in it. He still craves God's glory, and he envies those who partake of the glory of God, in this case saints on earth who are filled with the Spirit of true holiness. But the Devil is cursed never again to feel the blessed holy Spirit or to know its peace and majesty. He is cursed to want what he can never have. Satan is attracted to the congregation where God is blessing the most. That glory reminds him of his former heavenly home, from which he was forever expelled by the power of God. He remembers God's glory, and to share in it was his original desire.
As we spoke of these things, it came to me that the people who refuse to repent and come to Jesus will also spend eternity wanting something they can never have. In the Lake of Fire, they will want to see, but "they shall never see light." They will want to move, but they shall be "bound hand and foot". They will want relief from the agony, but "the fire is not quenched" and "the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever." They will want to repent, but it will be too late. In short, they will be cursed by God to an eternity of wanting what they can never have. Just like Satan.
Salvation is just the opposite. It is complete peace. It is the complete absence of want. God will so fill those whom He saves with goodness that it will be impossible for the feeling of want to exist. We will be given a world in which "there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away" (Rev. 21:4). Those who will be saved will be so blessed that they will never again feel the feeling of "wanting". There will be nothing else to want.
David felt this. He wrote, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." He knew how fully God could satisfy a soul. In another Psalm he wrote, "No good thing will the Lord withhold from them that walk uprightly." One of the most loving prayers that one can pray for another is that prayed by David for the righteous in Psalm 20: "The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble . . . and give thee the desires of thy heart." If God fulfills all the desires of your heart, there is nothing left for you to want.
"Wanting" is a part of this wearisome, wicked world. It is part of God's curse on sinful humanity. There is so much want in this world that even wise Solomon said it could not be measured. But "want" will not exist in the world that will be given to God's faithful children. If the Lord is your shepherd, my dear friend, be patient. The time is coming when you shall not want.