Strategery against Satan

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸And in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” (Ephesians 6:10-18, NIV)

So what are the strategies against Satan?

1.     Understand who you are in your relationship with Christ.  One of the hardest realizations of my growth had to be realizing the truth about who I am in Him (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:17).  For me this was the step immediately before repentance.   Ultimately, only God knows you as well as you do.  But until you are open about your own weaknesses you cannot hope to address them.  This would include identifying your sin and then repenting for it. This is demonstrated in a 3 step process described in Romans 6… We need to know who we are in Christ (Romans 6:1-10)… We need to consider ourselves dead to sin (Romans 6:11)… We need to submit ourselves completely to God (Romans 6:12-14).

2.     Know that you cannot defeat him on your own (James 4:4-10).  Here is a solid piece of humble pie for many of us.  You have to come to the conclusion that you are not in control.  Even those who do not have a type “A” personality will try to control a situation when it starts to spin out of control.  One of the hardest things for me to do is to realize that God…is in complete control.  Even when “bad” things happen.  You have to learn to let go of that control and walk in faith and trust God. This faith in God, is essential.  Another bad cliché?  No, the absolute truth.  The only true way to defeat Satan is to accept Christ and to trust Him (Ephesians 6:16-18).

3.     Know that God loves you.  The most powerful moment in my life was truly understanding the depths of God’s love for me.  I am His child.  He loves me, defends me, protects me, and most importantly He forgives me.  Realize this, Gods love for you is so complete, that even when you do stupid things… He will forgive you.  God has never abandoned you.  Despite your choices, which have put you at odds sometimes with God, God will always be by your side.  This is an extremely important strategy to defeat Satan because for one simple reason, forgiveness.  Satan wants to convince you that the sin you just committed is the one that will break the camel’s back so to speak.  He wants you to think that THIS TIME God will not forgive you – The Bible calls this condemnation.  This is an absolute lie, and I can say that with downright confidence because God has promised this (see Romans 8:1). Knowing that God loves you requires faith.  God’s love can cover you with protection that you cannot imagine.  You MUST accept this very simple truth.  This can provide an armor so to speak that you have to put on (Ephesians 6:13-14).

4.      Understand that Satan is as real as Christ.  Everyone has heard the over used phrase “the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist”.  Sound like a cliché?  It isn’t.  Satan shows intelligence (2 Corinthians 11:3), emotions (Revelation 12:17), and that he has a will (Isaiah 14:12-14, 2 Timothy 2:26).  The Bible also shows that he is a created being (Ezekiel 28:11-19), and that he is a spirit being (Ezekiel 28:14).  Satan manifests himself in this world through rulers, authorities, powerful people, EVIL PEOPLE (Ephesians 6:12).  Do not fall prey to the thinking that the devil isn’t real.  Do not believe the lies that Satan is some story.  Do not cringe when you mention Satan or when others mention him.

5.     Prayer, Prayer and MORE PRAYER (Ephesians 6:18)

6.     Read, Study and Memorize God’s word… (Ephesians 6:17). This is our only offensive weapon in the Armor of God… Don’t believe it? Check out how Jesus Himself used His knowledge of the Bible to defeat Satan in Matthew 4:1-11.

Even knowing these will not guarantee that you will have success all of the time.  Satan will score, but the outcome of the game has already been determined.  Christ is victorious in a blow out.  You have to be vigorous in your defense, and be prepared.  Because the cool thing is that if you have totally placed your faith in God, you don’t even have worry about the outcome.  Your fate has been decided.

If you have learned anything over this year it is that life is fleeting (Think of Chile, Haiti, the Olympic accident, etc).  The search for truth that you may be agonizing over may end in an instant.  At that point you will know the truth, and will find out that Satan, and God are both real.  As each of us have seen or read about tragic and unexpected deaths of some nature or the other… The point is we all know that this life can end in a split second.  No warning or lead up.  Just over.  In that moment Christ will reveal himself to you as your judge.  You may think that you have years to take a journey to determine the truth.  In reality, you may only have a fleeting moment before the truth will be revealed.

Getting to know your Adversary

I am a firm believer of understanding an opponent.  In a competitive situation, it helps you to win.  One of the best strategies is to know how you will be attacked so that you can effectively defend yourself and/or pull of a counter attack.  But what do you do when you’re in a situation where your weakness gets continually exploited, and there is no appearance of a sound counter attack available? 

I don’t handle failure well because I hate to lose.  If I fail at something or do it wrong I over analyze, over criticize, and then come down hard on myself.   While all of us have very different lives, different challenges, and different successes we all have one common opponent.  Our opponent is relentless, ruthless, and cunning- the kind of opponent who is a win at all costs kind of guy.   He will outright lie to you, exploit your weakness, push you to the brink and tell you half truths.  The opponent I speak of, Satan.

I probably lost some of you with the very use of the word Satan.  Bear with me on this.  Up until a few weeks ago I had never given Satan much thought.  I understood what he represented at a conceptual level, but had never really pursued it beyond that.  To me, Satan was something in the Bible that had caused Adam and Eve to sin, and tempted Jesus.  I guess you could say that I thought of him in more of a historical context rather than something that was operating in the here in now.  Even from a social context, the look you get on most people’s faces is bewilderment when you mention the word Satan, or Devil… I’ve even gotten this “you’re weird” look a spiritual conversations!  

The Set Up…

For the last few years God has been really working on my life.  During this time my understanding of Christ has grown immeasurably! I guess that I first grew in my knowledge of Him from a business perspective (Many thanks to Liberty University’s MBA program). 

Since graduating, however, I have had time to get to know this God that I serve on an even deeper and more personal level.  I wanted to get to the heart of the matter and not have a vague understanding of Christianity… I wanted to know Him.  Kevin recommended that I dive into a personal study of theology.  So, I got a theology book by Charles Ryrie for Christmas, and away I went.  To say that I have been blown away by the amount of material that is in this book is an understatement.  While a number of things have changed, as far as my theological approach and general understanding, one of the biggest impressions left on me has been the chapters on Satan.

For those of you who believe Satan is some sort of metaphor for bad things, the Bible tells us you are wrong.  If, like I did, you think that Satan is an entity that only acted in ancient history but is no longer present and active, I care about you too much to not tell you that you are mistaken.  Satan is real, he hates us, and he is very much alive and active – that little booger is running around wreaking havoc on everything!  Here’s how the Bible describes him: Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)

Your doubt and misunderstandings plays right into Satan’s strategy for ruining your life. In John 10:10 Jesus told us the bad news about Satan… “The thief [Satan] comes only to steal and kill and destroy…” But Jesus didn’t stop there, he went on to tell us the good news: “[but] I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” What Jesus is saying here is that He wants us to know the strategies of Satan so that He can help us fight back and have a GREAT life, in Him!