If I were the devil I would assemble all my minions
and my demons in my strategy room and I'd give them your phone number
your picture your email address and I would review with them your weaknesses one by one
I would tell my staff about your bouts with doubt
how I all but had you convinced that the bible was a joke so if I were the devil
I think I would try to take your joy
I'd try to load you with so much anxiety and fear and dread and trepidation that you couldn't sleep
at night the devil knows he can't touch your salvation because you're a child of God bought
with the blood of Christ and no one can snatch you from your father's hands he can't take your
salvation but boy he can take the spring from your step and the sleep from your night
and the love from your relationships so if I were the devil
I might download a dump truck of guilt on you
and I would every time you stepped forward in faith I would remind you of the times you
fell the times you stumbled just last week just
two decades ago I just keep that scrapbook of sin circulating through your mind and I would whisper
you really think there's enough grace in the world to cover you
I would leave you just in the shadow of a doubt
and if that didn't work
I would try what seems to be his most popular tool of the day and that's distraction
I would post my minions on every corner every stairwell every office
and they would load on you things to do
people to see tasks to complete sales to make assignments to complete one thing after another
do this do that do this do that until if at all if you even came home you'd come home exhausted
distraction busyness clutter hurry catch another flight write another report hurry hurry hurry
or distraction in the form of what you read and see staring at a phone or a computer
for hours and hours leading life through a scream
counting likes counting friends how many hearts did I get measuring
self-worth according to the number of people who looked at your Instagram suck you in
I would keep you so busy you'd never have time
to read God's word I am convinced that satan's intervention plan today is to keep God's people
so busy with the things of this world that they have no time to devote to their spiritual
lives sometimes being busy b-u-s-y just means being under satan's yoke
if satan can encourage us to get our lives so full of other things that we have no time for God
he has begun his work in us and the ultimate end of it will not be
something that is pretty the devil is a liar
the father of lies he has carefully studied each one of us for a very long time
but I guess my point is and my question to you is how long have you studied him
the devil begins early in our life by bombarding our minds with cleverly devised
patterns of little nagging nagging thoughts doubt fear he moves slowly and cautiously
after all well laid plans take time so we're in a war our enemy is satan not people we war not
against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and wickedness in high places
and he'll try to do everything he can to distract you he takes his time to work out his plan
If we do not know our enemy we do not have much of a chance to be victorious
over our enemy now the bible tells us a great deal about the enemy of our souls
the bible tells us in Ephesians 6:12 for instance that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood
but against principalities and powers and against the rulers of the darkness of this age
and against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places John Philips tells us we should
remember when we read that that our enemies are not people we must see beyond people satan may use
people to persecute us they may use people to lie to us or cheat us or hurt us or even kill us but
our real enemy lurks in the shadows of the unseen world moving people like pawns on the chessboard
and as long as we see people as enemies and wrestle against them we are spending our time
in vain we get focused on the people and we lose sight of where the battle is really being fought
and if we continue to do that we will continue to lose we will continue to go
backward in our Christian experience the devil is a divider he came to split he likes to split
marriages he likes to split friendships he likes to interrupt community any place you sense gossip
or tension or separation or hostility or unforgiveness it smells like the devil
that's the scent of the devil what he did in the garden of eden separating Adam and Eve from God
is what he wants to do with every person separate us from God and separate us from each other he's
the opposite of Christ who said love the Lord your God and love your neighbor the devil wants us to
avoid or not worship God or even hate God or doubt God and avoid and hate
our neighbor he gets he he he dwells in the world of isolation loneliness is his payday
if you're lonely and separated then he's smiling and rubbing his hands with glee
Now let me tell you some things that I've learned about satan first of all he is the great deceiver
he's the great deceiver revelation 12:9 refers to him as the one who deceives the whole world
which he does by counterfeiting and camouflaging he tries to imitate the work of God and he does
it very effectively he's the great deceiver he is also the great divider that you know that satan's
purpose is to divide and conquer satan has always been a divider when he was cast out of heaven
he divided the angels and he took a third of them with him he instigated division in the
first family pitting Cain against Abel wherever you see satan at work there's always division
and he loves to divide the people of God if we could only understand that we would step back
from our petty differences and realize that we're just playing into the hand of our enemy
whose purpose is to divide he does not know the meaning of unity he has no concept of unity his
whole strategy is the strategy of division he's the great deceiver and he's the great divider and
thirdly he's the great destroyer when God allowed satan access to the life of Job what did he do
what did satan do when he was given free reign on Job's family he destroyed everything he destroyed
his servants his cattle his children his family satan is the destroyer
listen to me ladies and gentlemen satan has one plan for your life and mine
he wants to destroy us he wants to destroy our influence for God we ought to pray against him
every day we ought to pray that satan would have no place in our lives because he comes to deceive
he comes to divide and he comes to destroy you have an enemy with one sole purpose to deceive you
ultimately to destroy you satan is a very real person he's a liar he's a deceiver and
many many many people are very deceived and their deception is very evident when they say
I don't believe in such a person as the devil and one of the first things he does is to point out
something in your life that you don't have he does not remind you of how much you do have
how blessed you are how healthy you are what you drive where you live what you wear he
points out the one thing you don't have what about suppose you had that he's a liar he's
a deceiver and he uses the same tactics he used in the garden you think by now we would have caught on
How does he operate he points out the thing you don't have so that if you want to be complete
you'll have it did it satisfy her no and doesn't satisfy people today he creates this desire in
order to get people off base off track if you only had that listen carefully you can ever have enough
of anything that is not the will of God for your life to ever make you happy ever make you feel
complete but ever make you feel content you'll just go from one thing to the other believing
one lie after the other you find yourself in self-destruction I think satan is happy with
convincing you to worship anything or anyone short of God if he can convince you to worship
a girlfriend or a boyfriend if he can convince you to worship a career or a retirement account
if he can convince you to give everything you have to get that lake house or that boat or whatever
you see when we worship something we depend upon that thing or person for our identity
and strength that's what worship is and we align ourselves with that thing or that person so the
devil knows if he can get me to worship a bass boat then someday that bass boat is
going to rot and I'm going to be disappointed and he'll just chalk that up to another victory
the reason God wants our worship please hear this the reason God wants our worship is not because
God has an ego problem but because he knows if we worship small things we'll be heartbroken
we'll go from defeat to defeat to defeat we'll worship that person only to be rejected
will be heartbroken we'll worship that career career only to be dejected and be heartbroken
we'll go lurching through life up and down up and down and finally when we get to the final days
of our life we'll be cynical and disappointed we'll say life wasn't all it was cut out to be
For our own good God says worship God worship the endless strong powerful loving radiant king
of kings let your mind be consumed with heavenly thoughts let me indwell to you and empower you
because that is the bread of life satan chooses his timing he knows when we're the most vulnerable
and that's when satan will attack he knows exactly when to attack us how to attack us he knows our
weakest points everybody has a weakness at least one or more that's the way he operates we know for
example that satan will attack weak spots first if you want to fill in blanks that's your cue
so the rule of thumb is take your weak spots to Christ before the devil uses them against you
acknowledge this is a struggle that I have this is a challenge that I have Lord I give it to you
so that when the devil tries to take it or take advantage of it you've already given it to Christ
Here's what you need to understand about the nature of the devil he's an opportunist
when you're the weakest he's the most evil the devil doesn't control our thoughts but he
influences our thoughts he he wants to whisper thoughts of fear to us so we'll accept them
and he can control our lives God God will never use fear to control your lives and when you read
the bible it says the fear of the Lord that means a reverence of God that does not mean a negative
emotion it means a positive emotion a reverence for God God will never never bring fear into your
life to cause you to do anything the devil wants you to believe that God's always kind of mad at
you and he really doesn't like you that's the concept of God the devil wants you to have your
high priest is madly in love with you and when you go to Jesus and you say Jesus I'm tempted and I'm
feeling fearful Jesus says this I experienced that I know exactly what you're feeling
let me help you overcome it fear is expecting the devil to move faith is expecting God to move
and we choose you can put your eyes on the devil or guys on God
And I think that fear is the main thing that satan uses to try to control people
fear keeps you from going forward how many things do you think that the enemy has stolen from you
or kept you from doing just because of fear don't let fear steal your life don't let fear
steal your relationships don't let fear steal your joy God wants you to have a good life
but one thing's for sure you have an enemy his name is satan or the devil and he does
not want you to enjoy your life he wants you to be afraid all the time the devil would love
for you to live by fear because when you're afraid you run away fear makes you want to run away from
from what you need to run to the bible gives you two tools number one pray
pray pray when the devil knocks at your door turn to Jesus and say would you please answer that
you don't need to deal with the devil on your own you don't need to go into some odd hocus
exorcism closet and do some type of mystical stuff that all you got to do is turn to God
glance at the devil but gaze at Christ glance at the devil he is around but gaze at Christ pray
and number two arm yourself with God's word
arm yourself with God's word load your pistol with scriptures and keep a finger on the trigger
Jesus reacted and responded to temptation by quoting scripture
Jesus responded to temptation from the devil by doing what you can do and that is he quoted
scripture take that devil it is written it is written it is written in his book God's book
is enough Jesus overcame temptation not with special voices or supernatural signs
but by remembering and quoting scripture that's it you just need a bible to read it and receive it
God's word is an indispensable weapon in the same way prayer is essential
in this ongoing warfare pray long and hard pray for your brothers and sisters
so according to the apostle Paul what are the two tools God's word and prayer
and this conviction that God's spirit who is in you is greater than the devil who is in the world