Introduction
We are continuing our look at the enemy of our souls. We have seen how pride and corrupted wisdom can lead to destruction. This was depicted by Lucifer, Son of the Morning.
We also took a look at the devil, our accuser, slanderer and deceiver. His very nature is to accuse the people of God. Do we accuse one another, or do we love?
What would be our counter-attack for these three?
Pride – Understand our reliance on God and that within His Body we are interdependent. We need each other.
Corrupted wisdom (rationale to make us feel okay with getting what we want or justifying what we did) – Meditation on the Word of God teaches us to walk in the ways of God.
Accusing – love and intercede.
(4) Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, (5) is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. (6) Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. (7) It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
– 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 CSB
We see that to counteract these first strategies of Satan we need to get in God’s Word until it gets in us. We then submit to what God has said and walk in love.
Let’s take a look at the seven more aspects today.
Adversary
The devil and his forces are always looking for ways to oppose us. This isn’t just in the mind, but in intense spiritual conflict. Zechariah gives us a picture of this.
(1) Then he showed me the high priest Joshua standing before the angel of the LORD, with Satan standing at his right side to accuse him.
– Zechariah 3:1 CSB
Our warfare is not against flesh and blood. Satan is our adversary. He works through humans to oppose you from doing God’s will. Does that surprise you?
Think of how Satan entered Judas to betray Jesus. How Peter in his rationale, was used to try to keep Jesus from His purpose.
(23) Jesus turned and told Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns but human concerns.”
– Matthew 16:23 CSB
Man has dominion over the earth. This spiritual battle needs to enlist humans to fulfill their purposes. This happens mostly without their knowledge, but others understand the evil allies needed to gain power and wealth. They just don’t understand the full cost. Their eternal soul.
We talk about being the hands and feet of Jesus to do God’s will and minister to those around us. We must remember that it is also our voice that proclaims, declares, and intercedes. We are participators in God’s plan as we are led by the Holy Spirit.
In the same way Satan and his forces use people to keep us from fulfilling God’s plan to save humanity.
Herod tried to keep the King from coming by killing all males under the age of two. The religious leaders looked for ways to trip Jesus up, accusing Him and finally killing Him. Roman soldiers carried out the plan by nailing Jesus to the cross. Humans are used on both sides of this spiritual war.
(8) Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.
– 1 Peter 5:8 CSB
Prayer and fasting along with binding and loosing are weapons in our hands to bring God’s plan to earth.
(11) “on earth as it is in heaven…
– Matthew 6:11a CSB
Angel of Light
(13) For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. (14) And no wonder! For Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. (15) So it is no great surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will be according to their works.
– 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 CSB
Satan can come as an Angel of Light. He has the supernatural ability to make things look good, holy, and righteous. He can disguise sin as harmless and help us form rationale that make us right in our own eyes.
Being right and being righteous are two different things.
We talked about this earlier. Satan tried to use Peter to cause Jesus to disobey God by not going to the cross.
(23) Jesus turned and told Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns but human concerns.”
– Matthew 16:23 CSB
Relationships can be used to move you down a wrong path. It may seem like it is okay.
What starts out as innocent, turns into disobedience. At multiple points, you have to evaluate how it lines up with God’s way.
Had Jesus allowed what Peter was saying sway Him, we would have lost all hope of eternal life. If He would have allowed His affection for Peter to entangle His decision to go to the cross all of creation would suffer and not be rescued and restored.
Where else do we see this? Many a marriage has been destroyed by spouses not walking in God’s way, obeying His Word.
Tempter
Satan is the tempter. He has no power over your will.
(3) Then the tempter approached him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
– Matthew 4:3 CSB
Temptations are set before you to cause you to sin against God. He uses three main areas to tempt you.
- Lust of the flesh
- Lust of the eyes
- The pride of life
Examples of these things could be riches, physical gratification, pleasures, possessions, lands, recognition, people, and more.
(13) No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God,” since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone. (14) But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire. (15) Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.
– James 1:13-15 CSB
We have to be alert to these temptations. James later tells us to submit to God and resist the devil and he will flee.
Destroyer
(11) They had as their king the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he has the name Apollyon.
– Revelation 9:11 CSB
Let me give you the English translation for these two words.
Abaddon is Hebrew for destruction and Apollyon is Greek for the destroyer. Satan is the angel of the bottomless pit.
It was the destroyer that brought death to the first born at Passover.
(23) “When the LORD passes through to strike Egypt and sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, he will pass over the door and not let the destroyer enter your houses to strike you.
– Exodus 12:23 CSB
Jesus said Satan was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44). It is he that brought death into the world.
(12) Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned.
– Romans 5:12 CSB
When we look at what happened to Job, we see widespread destruction at the hands of Satan and his army. He was being true to his character.
(10) “A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
– John 10:10 CSB
This is good news. God’s plan wasn’t for us to experience sin, sickness, sorrow or death. His plan is to give us hope and a future.
Father of Lies
Satan is a liar, he is its source. He distorts the truth and tries to pervert the Word of God.
(44) “You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
– John 8:44 CSB
Through his lies he tries to blind people to the truth. He twists the truth in some of these ways.
- evil is good
- believers are weak and powerless
- there is no hope
- God doesn’t care
- brings in False Expectations Appearing Real (FEAR)
We have to recognize the lies, reject and take authority over them.
Prince of this World
This is a reference to Satan BUT he is not in control.
(31) “Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out.
– John 12:31 CSB
The world nor its people belong to Satan. God has not given him power or authority to exercise dominion over it.
Jesus has broken the power that Satan had over mankind. Believers are delivered from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of God.
(13) He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.
– Colossians 1:13 CSB
Satan exercises authority and dominion through the evil world system he has established. Once again he is working through people that he has kept blinded.
(4) In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
– 2 Corinthians 4:4 CSB
Praise the Lord! It is the gospel of Christ that sets us free. It transfers and transforms us into the people of God.
Prince of the Power of the Air
Satan is ruler over evil powers and principalities that make up his kingdom.
(24) When the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man drives out demons only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.”
– Matthew 12:24 CSB
As the Pharisees said the ruler of demons. They were inferring that it was Jesus, but in reality it is Satan. This was just another lie of Satan being spread by men.
The devil works through evil spirits and the children of disobedience.
(1) And you were dead in your trespasses and sins (2) in which you previously lived according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. (3) We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
– Ephesians 2:1-3 CSB
He sends spirits of fear, hate, lust, greed, doubt, confusion, and more to attack you. These are the powers and principalities that we wrestle against.
The presence of God is our strong tower amid the attacks. We daily need the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Strategies
Satan wants to keep you from maturing to the point where you are full of power and fully equipped to accomplish God’s plan.
He comes to accuse, oppose, deceive, tempt, lie to, and destroy you. As we move closer to the Lord’s return and you move closer to your ministry for Christ, his attacks intensify.
We have been given authority and power over him. We have been given the armor of God and strategies to counter-attack.
As our adversary opposes us we pray, fast, bind, and loose. As the Angel of Light makes things appear okay and our rationale becomes questionable we meditate on the Word of God and pray for discernment.
As we are tempted we pray to the Lord to keep us from temptation. But if we are tempted we ask for deliverance. We submit ourselves to God, resist the devil.
When we recognize the destroyer’s work or encounter lies, we reject the lies, press into the Spirit, and abide in the Most High God. There is fullness, safety, and shalom in the presence of God.
We have become part of His Kingdom. A Kingdom that has no end. And from this Kingdom we proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, be reconciled to the Father.
