Satan, The Adversary

Whether you know it or not, you are in a fight. An opponent is determined to keep you from being, doing, and having what God has designed and desires for you to be, do and have. Both believers and unbelievers have a common adversary who seeks to keep you distracted, deceived, and overwhelmed. He wants you so worn down that you do not recognize his attacks and take action to defend against them but accept them as just a regular part of your life.

One of the worst things that can happen to a person is to be engaged in a conflict and think it’s normal. To begin normalizing something that should not be the norm but should instead be discontinued or avoided and eliminated from your life. The enemy attacking us all is an accuser, an adversary, a user, and an enemy to everyone. He will not live and let live. He will use the situations and people in your life to attack you, and a failure to be vigilant in identifying him will see you falling for his deceits leading to your defeat.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” – 1 Peter 5:8

The devil is a pretender and a deceiver. He walks about “like” a roaring lion, but he is not one. He is pretending to be a lion with power and authority on the earth, and while he may influence things on the earth, he does not have power over you unless you give it to him. Don’t see yourself the way the world does because you are not like everyone else and must change your perspective. You are a citizen of the kingdom of God. In the world but not of the world. You have been born again and are a citizen of the kingdom of heaven!

As a believer, Satan is the adversary that accuses you in heaven (Revelations 12:10). He wants to devour you, use you up and destroy you to keep you from your destiny. He is trying to use your sin to deny your future and destiny. He reminds you of your sin and shortcomings to convince you that you are unworthy of a place in God’s family and, in this way, sows doubt into your heart and mind to keep you from acting. To make you feel like you’re already too far gone and that God does not love you, to keep you from addressing those things in your life that gives him a right to be there.

You cannot sit idly by and watch things passively happen, for there are perils in being passive, in accepting what happens to you without responding or resisting. Exercising your faith requires you to take action. Stop being a spectator in your life, waiting for things to happen to you. Stop settling in a victim mentality, for you are a victor and have been made victorious through Christ and His victory over sin and the world.

Our adversary, the devil, knows the power of our minds and heart. He knows that the issues in our life flow from our hearts, and if we meditate on the wrong things, they will take root in our hearts, and that root will produce fruit in our lives. We will speak and act from that perspective and with the wrong mindset. We must learn to recognize our enemy, if we do not, we will fall prey to his attacks and do nothing to defend ourselves from the devil’s schemes, strategies, and deceits (Ephesians 6:11). The key to victory over the devil is the word of God.

Satan’s goal is to separate us from God’s word and attack our hearts and minds. He wants to examine or sift you and is looking for those who qualify to be sifted, tested, and attacked because he can’t just attack willy-nilly. He must find something of his in you that gives him a right to, and he uses these attacks to separate you from your faith and the word of God. He knows that if he can do so, he will be successful.

“And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.” – Luke 22:31

Satan knows who you are and his job, or what he believes to be his job, is to sift you. To sift is to closely examine something to separate what is useful from what is not. When Satan sifts you, there is a separation taking place. He (Satan) wants to sift you to find things in you that do not belong so he can try to disqualify you from your destiny. When Satan examines you, he does so to find something in you that he can use against you. Satan examined Jesus, and nothing was in Him that he could use as a claim against Him.

“I will not speak with you much longer, for the ruler of the world (Satan) is coming. And he has no claim on Me [no power over Me nor anything that he can use against Me];” – John 14:30 (AMP)

The good news is the devil can’t just haul off and mess with you. God has measured how much you can handle and how much you can go through. God is only letting you go through the test so you can grow. The devil gets permission from God so you can increase or by you because you give him permission and participation. The devil is using schemes, strategies, and deceit against you. He is doing so because he knows who you are even if you don’t, and he knows what you are capable of even if you are unaware. Satan is trying to get you to abandon your faith and stop relying on God’s word within you.

He has a plan to trick you, get you involved, and deceive you into thinking what is happening is a normal part of your life. Without the word of God in you, Satan can successfully attack you with fear, anxiety, anger, lust, depression, and the sinful nature of the old you. Do not entertain all the thoughts that come to your mind, for they are not all your thoughts. The enemy will plant ideas in your mind; if you meditate on it, it begins to take root in you and color your outlook on everything. You do not have to receive it if it is not of God!

As believers, we must learn to cast down every thought that exalts itself against the will and word of God. God will not cast down those thoughts; He gives us the ability to do it. If you’re wrestling with specific thoughts and ideas, you need to let them go because if you don’t, those thoughts will have a hold on you just as you have a grip on them, and they will bring you down with them or down the path you are wrestling not to go.

Take heart, for God has given us the weapons and tools we need to combat the devil’s weapons against us, to overcome his schemes, strategies, and deceits. Three such tools are our faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.

“Above all, lift up the [protective] shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” – Ephesians 6:16-17 (AMP)

Faith is our absolute belief in God and His ability to save and provide for us and is the foundation for everything else we believe in. It will act as a shield against the enemies’ attacks and help us to change our mindsets, to have a renewed mind, and act as a helmet to protect us when we fall short.

The helmet of salvation Paul talks about here is a renewed mind and firm belief in our salvation through Christ and His work on the cross. When you stumble and fall, it will help you to remember that Jesus has covered you, He has saved you, and you do not need to live in that failure. Satan will always try to convince you that you aren’t saved anymore. He will try to find some reason to convince you to give up, but the helmet of salvation will remind you of the finished work of Christ. This mindset protects us from Satan’s deceptive mental attacks against us and will strengthen us to keep pressing forward no matter what.

The sword of the Spirit is the word of God and the word of God in us. It is both an offensive and defensive weapon, and just as Jesus fought the devil with the word of God, we should follow His example and do the same.

With these tools, you can overcome your life’s negative thoughts, feelings, behaviors, habitual sins, and struggles. You can have joy, peace, and certainty in a turbulent or uncertain time and defend yourself against the attacks and accusations the enemy brings against you. The key to victory over the devil is the word of God. Let the word of God dwell in you richly and in abundance, and let it be your source of focus and direction. The devil tries to get you emotional, to keep you focused on what you’re going through, to wallow in it and focus on it. To keep you from seeking God and using the weapons he has given you.

I know just how hard this can often be. When you miss the mark, fall short, and into sin, it is easy to hate yourself and feel ashamed. To hide and draw away from God in isolation because “how could God love someone like me?” So, you isolate yourself and wallow in your failure, which only makes it worse by feeding into itself and playing right into the devil’s plans. If Satan can isolate you, he can attack you, spiritually rip you to pieces, and wound you.

Do not allow your pain, failure, and sin to fester. The Bible instructs us to give no place to the devil (Ephesians 4:26-27), for if we let things linger and stick around, it gives him an avenue to attack us. So don’t wallow in your failure or sin; get up and get to the throne of grace! God is CALLING you to Him, and He wants a restored relationship with you. Don’t be ashamed, the blood of Jesus has given you the authority to come to the Throne boldly. In those times of fear or failure, go to God, get alone with Him, and seek Him in prayer. God created the throne of grace so you can come to him and get things right. Grace is God’s empowerment to overcome sin and failure. Come boldly to the throne of grace to accept God’s forgiveness, love, and empowerment.

 

The information expressed above are excerpts from the sermon “Satan: The Adversary” preached by Dr. Lee A. Simpson. You can listen to the complete sermon on our YouTube channel in parts one and two.