The Power Of The Devil

 The Power Of The Devil

What does the Bible say?

 

I often run into Christians who speak of the devil as though he is powerless and weak. That he is a defeated foe and not a real enemy.

It’s almost like they haven’t actually read the Bible.

Yes, Christ defeated Satan on the cross.

Yes, God is in complete control.

But, no where in the scriptures have I found instructions for us to ignore the enemy. or act like he has no power.

As a matter of fact the Apostle Peter says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.” (1 Peter 5:8-9)

A lion will roar, and it will cause the herd to flee. This gives the lion a chance to devour the young, weak and infirm. We have the power through faith to resist. But, it is an obvious affliction on those who are attacked.

It’s not something to be ignored, or belittled.

We are told in the book of Jude to not be foolish in how we speak of Satan, the fallen angels and spiritual forces. They have power and authority. (Jude)

Paul says That we are not to be ignorant of the enemy. (2 Corinthians 2:11)

So, we need to know what we are facing. Not to treat the enemy as if he is nothing or ignore him, but to face the enemy properly.

We are called to resist. But, how can you resist if you do not know anything about the enemy? (1 Peter 5:8-9, James 4:7)

 So, let’s do a quick overview of the enemy.

It is believed that Satan fell through pride because he wants to be God. (Isa. 14:12-15)

At some point after his fall, he used a Serpent to deceive Eve, and get Adam to fall. (Gen.3)

Adam had dominion of the Earth. But, when he fell Satan took that dominion. That is how he became the god of this world. (2 Cor. 4:4)

There’s a lot more to this story, but it could lead to an entire book.

So, Satan has authority in this world.

Paul plainly states it. All the Apostles state it.

When a person is born into the world they are born in a right standing with God. They are subject to death, but not hell. Until they commit the first sin, knowing it’s a sin. Then, they are subject to hell, just like all humans.

It is also at this time that the person becomes a slave to Satan. They are his children. They are his slaves to various degrees. (Ephesians 2:2)

Here’s where some Christians will jump up and say “Yeah but he is defeated! God is in control!”

Yes, Jesus defeated the enemy on the cross. And there will be a future victory as well. (Gen. 3, Luke 10:18, Revelation)

This means that when Jesus died and rose, He defeated Satan. He set the prisoners free. ALL the prisoners or slaves under Satan’s control are free. But, only a few will hear the call and turn to Jesus to obtain it.

Saints are free from the control of Satan. We are saved and cannot lose it. But, as the Bible warns we can open doors and let the enemy back into our lives again. We can fall under that power. Take addictions as an example. (Matt. 12:43-45)

We can also still be impacted by Satan working through other people or nature.

All of this is plainly taught by the scriptures.

But, there will still be those who say “Yeah but God is in control!”

He certainly is.

Nothing can happen to us that God has not allowed.

We see this both in the book of Job, and when Jesus tells Peter that Satan has asked to sift him as wheat. (Luke 22:31-33)

Why? Why does God allow the devil access to us?

It seems that Satan has some kind of legal authority to ask, and expect an answer. We can speculate on why this is. But, we do not fully understand how things work in the spirit realms.

What we can say is that we have faith and power in Jesus Christ to resist the enemy. We have access to the King in prayer. We have God’s Word and promises we can stand on. We also have a relationship with God. We know Him. We know His character, and the Holy spirit dwells in us.

So, we know that God is always good. He seeks good always. He loves us and wants us with Him. So, no matter what happens, He is on our side, and we can use it to grow closer to God, and grow in faith. We can turn evil around for good.

 But, how can you do that if you do not recognize evil? If you ignore the fact that we have an enemy, how can you stand against him or turn his attacks around for good? (Rom. 12:21, 2 Cor. 10:1-6)

If you feel that everything comes from God, then how can you call anything “Evil”?

Does God do evil?

Of course not, but He does allow things to happen. It’s our job to have faith in Him and turn to Him. Then turn the evil for good. We use it to save people or help people.

The scriptures tell us that the enemy possesses power. So, let’s do a list of what this power is. And I am in know way stating that this is everything. But, starting from the beginning of the Bible and going through we see that the enemy has the power to…

Deceive people who are walking with God and know Him, if they are not careful. If they doubt God’s Word, and Goodness. He can use our loved ones to get us to turn from God. He can use nature as a cover for his activities. We see this in Adam and Eve.

We can see in the book of Job, that Satan and his angels go about the Earth. We see that He has the power to cause a tornado to kill people. He can get humans to rob and kill others. He has the power to cause disease. He has the power to get our loved ones to turn against us. He also has the power to kill. (God would not let Him kill Job.)

The book of Job shows us that no matter what happens God is with us and we are to stay with Him. Trusting Him and His Goodness.

But, we see here that Satan is the prince of the power of the air. He apparently has power to control the weather. Which explains why we see ancient people all over the world making human sacrifices of babies to gods, so they can have good weather for crops, and fertility. We see the destruction weather and climate can cause.

He uses humans to kill, steal and destroy, obviously. How does this control occur? It’s possible that it starts with a whisper into the mind of a leader who then gets men to follow him. A leader whom Satan worked to put into a position of power.

We see that he gave Job a disease. We do not know what disease. It doesn’t matter.

All of this, the destructive weather, violence of men and disease, came upon Job and led Him into despair. So, Satan can also cause despair. (Except for God. Job continued to trust God and lean toward Him, and that’s what saved him.)

Job also shows that Satan can get our loved ones to betray us, or at least add to our torment.

I tell you this so we can recognize what is going on around us and pray properly or respond correctly. We respond with spiritual warfare. We respond with love and prayer and praise and trust in God, and His promises. We overcome evil with good. We take the bad that happens to us and turn it around to serve God and help and save people.

So, let’s fast forward to the New Testament.

Immediately after Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. (Matt. 4:1-11)

This is a lesson for us. Have you ever considered that the moment you got saved and was baptized Satan was allowed to tempt you, and sift you as wheat?

I’m not saying he is. I’m not saying it happens to everyone, all the time.

But, the question must be asked. If you’ve never been tempted by the enemy, or faced spiritual warfare, then whose child are you?

 The temptations Jesus faced are temptations we all face, except for Christ, they were far more extreme.

We learn that we can overcome these things by faith in God and His goodness, as well as using His Word.

So, we see that the enemy has the power to tempt us, and try to get us to fall. But, we can resist and if we fail we can turn to God and confess it to Him. (1 John 1:8-10)

We also see that Satan has power over the nations of the Earth. This is confirmed in the book of Daniel. (Dan. 10)

Paul also speaks of how the enemy has power in high places. (Eph. 6:12)

When we look at the ministry of Jesus we see that there are unclean spirits and demons that work in peoples lives. and we are called to wage war against them.

We also see that his greatest earthly rival was the religious leaders.

Jesus plainly said they were the children of the devil. (John 8:44-47)

So, we can say that Satan used religious leaders to kill Jesus and persecute the Church. He got these religious leaders, to use the governmental powers, to kill people, and impose laws upon them to destroy their freedom.

The Bible also says that there are false brethren, false teachers, and false prophets. (2 Cor. 11:26, 2 Pet. 2:1)

All of whom are probably listening to Satan.

Since he is the god of this world, and has power over the disobedient children. and he has power over nations, governments and religious leaders.

Then, we can say that the empires seeking to conquer the world, are doing it by his authority. That when they oppress people and persecute saints, it is by Satan’s authority, throughout history and even today.

Ok?

We see from Jesus’s ministry that the enemy can cause a friend to betray us and deny us. Even in the face of death. Even to betray us to people who will kill us.

Friends and family.

The Bible teaches that saints will be betrayed unto death by those closest to us. (Luke 21:16)

History teaches it.

We see saints dying the most horrific deaths for Christ, caused by the devil.

The enemy will attack and tempt our family in order to get them into terrible situations simply to hurt us. But, we turn this for good and tell them about Christ.

All of the apostles and saints around the world have faced persecution. And there is more to come. That is the reality, even though we might not face it in our current time.

So, as you can see the enemy has power. We are not called to belittle it, but to stand against it. We are not called to fear it, but to turn it around for good.

It is a tactic of the enemy to get believers to not wage war, by making us think he has no power.

Now, understand that through Christ we have power and authority over the enemy. Through faith we can stand on His Word. We are overcomers through Him who is in us. 

 But, if you think there is no enemy you won’t exercise that power.

People crack jokes and say “The devil made me do it.”

Well, maybe he did. Maybe instead of joking about it, we need to wage war and make sure of what is going on.

Maybe there is a devil behind every bush. Maybe it’s a roaring lion.

God is with us, but we are called to wage war. If we are saved we are free from Satan but we are still in a war.

God is with us. He protects us. Nothing can touch us unless it is allowed, and we can overcome it.

This life is just a moment. Every terrible thing only lasts for a second compared to eternity.

And when we die we go to be with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:1-8)

There’s no need for fear. There is no need to be focused on the enemy.

But, we are called to wage war.

We are called to turn to God and focus on Him, and we shall overcome.

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Bio: Chris Bunton is a writer, poet and blogger.

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