Spiritual Warfare: Part Three

Chapter Twenty:  How Satan tries to attack followers of Christ:

John 10:10 tells us that Satan’s mission in this life is to steal, kill and destroy.  If he cannot accomplish this in a believer's life, he will try other tactics.  The enemy has several ways he tries to stop or interfere with your walk with God.   One way is that the enemy loves to ridicule and accuse us, and lure us away from following God.  The tricks are often subtle and seemingly innocent:  “You don’t have time to read your Bible today.”…"So what if you don’t pray regularly, it’s not going to hurt”..."Go ahead, indulge in that sin, no one will know and, after all, who's it really hurting?"..."What's wrong with adding in beliefs that don't line up with Scripture, after all they're harmless and look at how many other people are doing it".

At the root of it all is Satan's determination to get you to stray away from  your relationship with God.  And notice that I used the word "stray"...it's not a sudden walking away from God, but it's more of a drifting away.    Your walk with God becomes less important to you and before you know it, it has taken a backseat to other things going on in your life.  Satan knows that your strength lies in your walk with God and He’ll do whatever he can in order to interfere with your walk with God.  Giving into that temptation may not hurt anyone and may go unnoticed, but it will ultimately affect your walk with God because He knows... and unless you confess and repent of it, it will cause a barrier to come between you and God.  

Even though they may seem to be well meaning, Satan will try to get to you through other people, even other Christians.  They may say something or do something that they think is of their own doing, but it could very well be the enemy influencing them.  Even Peter, who was a very close disciple and friend to Jesus was used by Satan.  We see it in Matthew 16:23..." Jesus turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.'”  And all Peter was doing was what he thought was right.  Prior to this exchange between Jesus and Peter, Jesus had been predicting his death to his disciples.  We read in Matthew 16: 21-22 " From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.  Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”  When you first read Jesus' response to Peter it can seem a little harsh as Peter was simply protesting that he would not allow anything to happen to Jesus.  But Jesus knew, that for that moment,  Satan was using Peter to try to stop what Jesus had come to earth to do.  So, unless we're very careful and close to God in our walk, we, too can go from being doing God's will to all of sudden doing or saying things that are displeasing to God.

Whether another is a believer or not, it doesn't necessarily mean that what they are telling you is the truth, or that they're giving you good advice.  Your fellow Christians can be used by the enemy when they fail to stand against him in their own lives or when they, themselves, have drifted away.  This is one of the reasons I wrote an earlier teaching titled "Have you become deceived?", because unfortunately many believers have been led astray because of what other believers have taught them or encouraged them to do.  Again, another reason for you to stay strong with God and in your Scripture reading. Always, always balance what other believers tell you against the Scriptures and in prayer before God.  Just as Peter was, they can unknowingly be used to lead you astray.

Another way that Satan can try to thwart our walk with God is through our own carnal, fleshly nature.Satan is well aware of our fallen nature, our carnal flesh nature.  He will use it whenever and however he can to sideline us from doing God's work and growing in our relationship with God.  He may lure you with temptation or stir up your flesh by reminding you of an injustice that was done to you and get you to fixate on it.  He will appeal to the natural needs that God gave you (i.e., food, sex, rest) and distort them into such things as gluttony, lust and laziness.  Satan tries to distort our God-given desires so that we sin by fulfilling them in a way that is displeasing to God.  

Some  ways Satan will try to get to you through your flesh:

-pride in your life (arrogant pride or inferior pride)

- unbelief in your heart (Satan wants us to disbelieve God's word, His ability to do what He says He will and to doubt His love for us)

-fear in your heart (one of Satan's #1 tactics.  He wants us to be in constant fear and worry. Satan holds people in bondage by using fear in their lives.  He wants to get our focus off of trusting in God, especially when things don't look like they are going very well and we wonder what God is doing in our lives)

-discontentment with how your life is going (He wants you to be discontent in your situation and will try to get you to focus on finding contentment in the world instead.  This is another one of his lies as the only one that can give you continual contentment is God...only He can make you feel fulfilled inside, no matter what your circumstances.)

-discouragement (He'll try to get you to quit.  The way to overcome this is to praise God especially when you don't feel like it.  God wants you to learn to walk by faith and not by sight (your circumstances or what you think is going on).  Discouragement can lead to insecurity and you may end up giving up.  The ONLY time you should ever quit anything is if God tells you to!)

-condemnation (remember, God convicts us of our sin, but Satan condemns;  with God there is forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with Him, but Satan wants you to feel like you can never recover and you might as well give up.  When God convicts, it is as a result of a specific thing you have done and He makes you aware of it.  When Satan condemns, it's just an overall feeling that you've done something wrong but nothing can be pinpointed. Resist the enemy by praising the Lord, confessing any sin God has shown you and receive God's forgiveness.  Satan also attempts to stop us from feeling we have received God's forgiveness, but remember to walk by faith and not your feelings.)

-hindrances (Satan will try anything he can to get you off track.  He uses people, circumstances, struggles you're dealing with, temptations, or even try to bring up old sins you have repented of in order to block your usefulness for the Kingdom and to bring a halt to your walk with God.  He will use anything and anyone he can think of in order to make you ineffective.)

As you can see, Satan has many tricks and deceptions that he tries to use against believers.  You have to understand that he HATES believers, especially ones who are whole heartedly trying to grow in Christ and endeavoring to further the Gospel.  He will use every dirty trick he can think of.  As Scripture warns us in 1 Peter 5:8,9  "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings."  But the good news is told to us in Colossians 1:13 which reminds us that, “For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

In Spiritual Warfare: Part Four,  we will look at how you can stand up to Satan's attacks and remain steadfast in your walk with God and in His will for your life.