In the beginning

In the beginning, God created Adam to be perfect, "in His image" (i.e., like Him), and placed him in the Garden on earth as
His agent. Since Adam was in communion and fellowship with God, He delegated to Adam His dominion authority on
earth. But when Adam fell, mankind through sin gave that dominion authority over to satan. Satan did not acquire that
authority from God but only has the authority which is given (often by default) to him by men, by human will (and in some
cases by the Lord).
Both Christ and satan honor human will; Christ by choice, and satan by force. Hence, human will carries "authority". Men
defaulted their authority to satan; and satan as the great liar has convinced mankind to believe that is "normal". satan's
apparently "great" power is because so many masses of people have collectively thus defaulted to him. Ephesians 2:1-3 and
12 tells us that men who are not under Christ are under satan.
But Christ has purchased that dominion authority back from satan, and has delegated it to us His Body. Christ after His
crucifixion was given the authority of God over satan. As man He served notice to satan that neither He nor any of His
subjects will ever give human authority to satan. In fact, in Ephesians 1:20-23 we see that God has delegated to our
resurrected Christ His full authority over earth, Heaven, and hell, including satan's complete Kosmos!So, all that satan does, he does only by the expressed permission of God and by human will. We see in Job 2:1-6, Luke22:31 and Ephesians 1:20-21, that satan can do absolutely nothing without God's expressed permission and approval. God uses satan as His agent to enforce the Adamic curse. God also uses satan in many ways to deal in our lives to adjust and
mature us, i.e., in our "wilderness trials", etc. But satan has only been given permission to rule the earth for a season. That
season ended legally on Calvary; it is being ended in fact as God uses His church, believer by believer, to conquer the world
back from satan. Christ has supreme authority to reign now. And He is calling all of us, now, to be His subjects indeed.