Who Is Satan?
- God tests us but does not tempt us. Satan tempts us but, really, can do nothing about it (What Is Self-Discipline?).
- Satan is the one who brought murder, theft, and all the other bad things into the world. That necessitated God giving us laws to bring us back to how He wanted us to live (How Do We Let the Spirit Lead?).
- Sin is never going to raise the white flag. Satan is never going to admit defeat. He is never going to give up (The Battle Between Flesh and Spirit).
- The world, controlled by Satan, reflects his chaos. He promotes division and divisiveness. He promotes isolation (Characteristics of Disciples’ Lives).
- The problem is the two sides don’t play nice together. They are controlled by two entirely different beings. Satan controls the human nature while God controls the spiritual nature. It is our choice which gets top dog in our lives (The Battle Between Flesh and Spirit).
- Obeying God’s laws and commandments isn’t as hard as Satan makes it out to be (Isn’t It Impossible to be Obedient?).
- Until we became believers, Satan didn’t have to worry about us. Now that we are believers – and worse, disciples – Satan has to do everything he can to turn us away from God. Now, we have to watch for Satan (Watching while Praying).
- Satan is going to continue to tempt us when he thinks he has a shot of winning (Saved by a Donkey).
What Is Satan?
- Satan is a liar (Jn. 8: 44) (Belief: The First Step in Salvation).
- God didn’t choose the angels. He didn’t choose Satan and his demons to fix. He chose us (What Is Election).
- We have to keep close watch because Satan is sneaky. He is going to attack where we are most vulnerable and snow us. He isn’t going to show us his true self. He is going to be all appealing and charming (The Battle Between Flesh and Spirit).
- Satan is the master manipulator. If we aren’t careful, we’ve sinned (Watching while Praying).
- You know Satan is going to be at his sneakiest the more committed we are. He going to make it as sparkly as he can to tempt us (What Is Diligence?).
- Satan wants to steal our peace and blame it on God (Is Peace an Attitude?).
- Man and Satan are to be blamed for the results of sin, not God (Is Peace an Attitude?).
See Also
What Lies Does Satan Feed Us?
- Satan tells us we don’t need God – that He isn’t omnipotent as He says. He says there is no reason for atonement and that Jesus doesn’t love us because we aren’t worthy. Satan tries to convince us that grace isn’t free – we have to earn it. Satan is wrong (Belief: The First Step in Salvation).
- Grace, salvation, faith, eternal life, the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ sacrifice. Shouldn’t that be a draw to people? Satan wants to convince us that our independence of God should mean more than all of these gifts. He is wrong (Is Election Really Mercy?).
- God had told Adam he couldn’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for he would die if he did (Gen. 2: 16-17). But Satan being Satan, He twisted that to make disobedience attractive (Completion from the Cross).
- We just want to make sure we question in faith and not unbelief. We can’t let Satan hijack us into unbelief and thinking we aren’t worthy. We aren’t worthy on our own – but we are with Jesus (Where Is Jesus?).
- Peter is, in II Peter 1: 10, talking about having assurance of salvation. There are times, isn’t there, when we really question our salvation. That is Satan working overtime on us. He wants to keep us off balance in our relationships with God. That way he can worm his way in better and derail us (Evidence of Election).
- Satan didn’t approach Adam and Eve to make their lives better. His motive was to let sin and its consequences (spiritual death and separation from God) and its results (poverty, crime, disease, death just to name a few) into the world (How Are We Debtors to God?).
- God’s authority has also been stamped on us. Unfortunately, Satan has convinced some that He has no hold on us (God’s Judgment of Sin).
- Satan does a good job getting us to doubt that we have been forgiven (What Does It Mean to Be Crucified with Christ?).
- Obeying God’s laws and commandments isn’t as hard as Satan makes it out to be (Isn’t It Impossible to be Obedient?).
- Unfortunately, Satan makes sure we have an intense desire for what we should not have or do (What Is Sin?).
See Also
What Is Satan’s Plan?
- Satan wants us to take our focus off God and put it on ourselves – which means he wins, and God loses (Does God Help Those Who Help Themselves?).
- The goal Satan has is to get us to stop praying to God for direction. He wants us to think we can make our own decisions – especially if those decisions are the exact opposite of how God wants us to act (Does God Help Those Who Help Themselves?).
- Being a disciple is not going to be easy. Satan is going to throw all he has at us because he wants to derail us (How Are We to Be Children of God?).
- We are battling against Satan. He is wanting us to sin and escalate the division. Satan is all about division. Once he draws the battle lines, he can prod us until the city is in shambles (How Do Mature Disciples Control Conflict?).
- We know that Satan doesn’t just plop the temptations on the table. At times, he escorts us to our seats, pulls out and pushes in our chairs, and puts the napkins on our laps (Does God Tempt Us?).
- Society today will not be unified by the worldview. It can’t. Its leader is Satan, the master at causing division (Rebuilding Together under Difficult Circumstances).
- War is part of the society that Satan has fostered. That doesn’t mean God isn’t in control – He is. We, as believers, have to accept Satan will do anything he can to create division that escalates into wars (Wars as a Sign of the End Times).
- While the earth doesn’t belong to man, neither is it Satan’s. Satan has been called the ruler of this world (Jn. 12: 31 ESV). But this world isn’t Isn’t that encouraging these days when we see Satan causing so much chaos? (All the Earth Is God’s).
Our Response to Satan
- It is a progression. When we act on the desires of the temptations (or that time between conception and commission), we sin. Once we sin, it is easier to sin again. Pretty soon, we are living for Satan, not God (What Does It Mean to Walk in the Spirit?).
- Ever since Adam and Eve sinned and Satan has been ruling this world, we’ve chosen to be independent and in control of our own lives (The Holy Spirit within Us).
- If we aren’t looking for Satan and his shenanigans, we are easier prey for him (Watching while Praying).
- We have to watch against Satan trying to get us to sin. We also have to watch others. Satan may be trying to desensitize us with their sin (Watching while Praying).
- We would not consider all sin totally, totally evil (like a lie). But all sin comes from the evil one – Satan (What Is Sin?).
How God Breaks Satan’s Hold on Us
- Salivation breaks the bondage from Satan when he got Eve to believe that she previously had been in bondage to God (How Do We Let the Spirit Lead?).
- Why doesn’t He just squash Satan? God doesn’t do that because that wouldn’t be our free will, then. He would become a dictator. God doesn’t want that (The Battle Between Flesh and Spirit).
- We will still have to make the daily choice — sometimes minute by minute — to choose God. Satan is going to make that as rough as he can (Isn’t It Impossible to be Obedient?).
- The next time we feel obedience is impossible, we need to pray for God’s help to withstand. We need to claim His victory over Satan. We need to seek Him with all of our hearts (Isn’t It Impossible to be Obedient?).
- When Satan tries something, we need to call on God to protect us (Watching while Praying).
- We think it is us fighting Satan. It really isn’t. God fights Satan for us. Our responsibility is to pray to call on God to fight the battle. We have to choose to stand with Him and for Him (Watching while Praying).
- God always allows us free will to choose between Him and Satan (Saved by a Donkey).
- God tests us but does not tempt us. Satan tempts us but, really, can do nothing about it (What Is Self-Discipline?).
- It is logical that war is a major end-time sign. The conflict between God and Satan is coming to a head. Satan is the master of conflict. Conflicts cause wars (Wars as a Sign of the End Times).
- So, why doesn’t God abolish slavery if He doesn’t really approve? This is an unjust world because Satan is in control. He wants this world to not follow God’s Will. He wants the slavery and human trafficking to be prevalent (An Unjust World).
- God is not looking for us to exert a shoddy effort. Establishing the relationship with God and growing in grace and knowledge – all the while fending off Satan — is no easy task (What Is Diligence?).
- Just because God is allowing Satan to blind people right now doesn’t mean He isn’t in control. We have free will. We get to choose who we are – or are not – going to follow (Is Peace an Attitude?).
- Children of God will spend eternity with God in heaven. Children of Satan will spend eternity with Satan in hell (When Is It Time for Salvation after Conversion?).
- God wants us to follow Him, not Satan. When we follow Satan, we are said to have a worldview (Worldview: Satan Leading the World).
See Also
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