Susan's Homeschool Blog

Today we will discuss how Satan seeks to gain control of the Christian. Yes, demons can influence Christians and rule over them in specific areas of sin. Even though Christians have the Holy Spirit in them, many Christians are often grieving (Ephesians 4:30) and quenching (I Thessalonians 5:19) the Spirit. Nowhere in Scripture are we told that Satan and his demons can’t control us.

Peter loved Jesus with all his heart, but he was controlled by Satan when he told Jesus not to go to the cross. I’m not saying that Satan stepped into Peter like he did to Judas. (“Satan entered Judas”–Luke 22:3) Instead, Satan had control of Peter’s thoughts by whispering into his ear. Spirits can place thoughts into your mind in a non-audible way. These thoughts sound like your own thoughts, but they are not yours.

Peter had no idea that his thoughts were planted by Satan into his mind. He spoke them to Jesus, and Jesus replied to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan.” The Son of God proclaims that the thought came from Satan. Satan was invisible and no audible sound occurred. Peter was bewildered that Jesus addressed him as Satan because he had no clue how demons whisper to people and plant thoughts in their minds.

See more examples in Scripture where we are told that Satan plants thoughts in people’s minds or hearts: Matthew 13:19, 2 Corinthians 11:3, Acts 5:3, 1 Chronicles 21:1, John 13:2.

Satan’s Strategy: Control

Don’t allow yourself to be controlled by the enemy. Take every thought captive and be filled with the Spirit. Renounce all sin in your life, because sin is the gateway that allows demonic influence. Do not give ground to the enemy by allowing him to get a foothold in your life.

Stay tuned for the next installment: “How to Resist the Enemy’s Attacks.” If you don’t want to miss this series, follow my Prayer page and subscribe to my monthly newsletter below.

Today we will be discussing Satan’s strategy of temptation. We are unmasking the enemy so that we will not be unaware of his schemes. His four main tactics are deception, accusation, temptation, and control. Each one is addressed separately, and we are focusing today on how the enemy places thoughts into our minds to cause us to fall into sin.

Satan’s Strategy: Temptation

• The enemy attempts to cloud our minds. He specializes in stirring up emotions and old thought patterns to cause us to go under and be discouraged and defeated. The enemy brings thoughts back that you’ve already handed to the Lord. If you are obsessing about something, this is always the enemy. Throw the thought out as soon as it comes. When the thought comes into your mind, you have not sinned yet. This is a temptation. Throw the thought out immediately, and you can walk in victory. You are not in chains any more. You are free. Walk in that freedom.
• Within the flesh (often described as the old nature) resides the worst forms of evil. You are capable of greater evil than you could ever imagine if you give yourself over to indulging your flesh. The enemy will have you compromise little by little so you don’t notice to what extent your depravity runs. Do NOT allow your sinful flesh to rule over you. You are a new creation with the desire to do right. Choose right. Do not walk in darkness.
• Suggestions are planted in the minds of Christians; we think they are our ideas, and we say them, little knowing they are straight from the enemy. (We give Satan control of our minds.)
• Satan is the attacker of our minds. “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” II Corinthians 11:3 NASB If you can capture the thoughts of a man, you can control him. If you can plant ideas in his mind, he’s yours. We are pawns or puppets in the hands of the enemy when we don’t notice what he’s doing to us.
• If Satan has the power to take the truth away, then he has access to put suggestions into our minds. “…the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.” (Matthew 13:19—the Parable of the Sower)
• Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?” Acts 5:3 NIV Satan can fill people’s hearts with evil.
• Besides Ananias and Sapphira, Satan also put thoughts into the minds of David (I Chronicles 21:1) and Judas (John 13:2).
• Satan uses Christian people to say things to other believers that stab them to the core or that tempt them to open the door to evil in their lives. It doesn’t even sound like them. That’s because it’s not them.
• When you catch yourself thinking evil thoughts beyond what you would normally think, know that you are being acted on from the outside, and that the thoughts are being imposed from the outside. For example, one time I was thinking of a woman who had hurt me deeply, and I suddenly felt hateful and venomous. I was shocked and bewildered at my own thoughts because that’s not my personality at all! I instantly recognized that these were not my thoughts. (Sometimes he does pander to your weaknesses and it does seem like your personality, and those are harder to detect.)
• Just because an idea pops into your head doesn’t mean you have to indulge in that idea. You don’t have to accept every idea that occurs to you. Gain discernment to see what would lead you down wrong paths.
• The enemy knows the secret longings of your flesh, and he will pander to them to make you fall into sin. You won’t resist them because you secretly want them. They key to overcoming is to be consumed with your love for the Lord. Desire holiness more than life, and you will be filled with a greater empowering of the Spirit, which will enable you to walk in greater victory. Do not let the enemy gain a foothold.
• Satan will even use godly ambition to get us to stumble. He will put a godly twist on our sin to cause us to think we are doing something righteous when we sin.
• “If you don’t conquer Satan’s temptation right at the threshold of your mind, you will begin to mull his thought over, consider it an option, and eventually choose to act it out.” – Neil Anderson
• “Their thoughts were speculations, empty speculations. Because they embraced them, these thoughts became strongholds of wrong thinking. As a result, they couldn’t believe or wouldn’t be convinced they were wrong… These are fortresses of wrong thinking which need to be torn down, destroyed.” -Kay Arthur. “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” II Corinthians 10:5 NASB Wrong thought > wrong action > appetite > weakness > habit > oppression

The printable about God’s voice vs. the enemy’s voice that I mentioned in the video is here: How to Hear God’s Voice.

To keep up with this series, like my Prayer page and subscribe to my monthly newsletter below. The next video will be “Satan’s Strategy: Control,” in which I will address how the enemy tries to rule our lives in specific areas of sin where we grant him jurisdiction.

When Christians accuse other believers, they are doing the work of Satan. We become deceived by the enemy, since the accusation sounds true to us because we are already trying to find fault with that other person, especially if they did something against us.

Even though we are not to accuse, God commands us to rebuke sin in other believers. So what is the difference between a rebuke and an accusation?

• A rebuke is when you see someone sinning, and you love them enough to treat them with honor and kindness as you point out their sin. If you see someone sinning and do not rebuke them, you are accountable before God for their sin (Matthew 18:15-17, and Ezekiel 3:18-21). When you rebuke, you love that person and know that they are a person of integrity except for the one sin that they are blind to.
• An accusation is when you malign someone as a person. Who they are is despicable, or they are a liar, etc. If you are saying these things against a believer, you are being used by Satan to accuse. You have hatred for that person, and your face contorts when you think of them. Accusation brings death. It never brings repentance. It has the appearance of truth because the accusations may be technically true with backed up facts, but you are saying that a true believer is evil, and that is not possible. All true believers are a new creation in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Satan’s Strategy: Accusation

Here are some of the main points about Satan and accusation:

• Satan is called the accuser of the brethren, who accuses us night and day before God. (Revelation 12:10) (Zechariah 3:1-3) Satan enjoys hurting the people of God; by hurting the church, he hurts Christ.
• Satan is the tempter, and when we fall, he then turns around and is our accuser. He also keeps bringing back to mind sins that have already been repented of. If you have been forgiven by God, He removes the sin as far as the east is from the west. It’s gone. If you can’t tell the difference between conviction and condemnation, read True Guilt and False Guilt.
  
• God wants us to choose what is right so that He can reward us. Satan wants us to choose evil so that he can accuse us and ensnare us and keep us in bondage.
• “He is called the accuser of the brethren because he does not believe that even a child of God has a higher motive than self-service.” – Neil Anderson (& the book of Job)

How do you overcome accusation?

If you are the one being accused, you must be silent. Do not defend yourself because everything you say will be twisted and used against you. Fast and pray for the believer who is under the clutches of Satan. Feel sorry for the person who is accusing you because he is sinning and is harming the body of Christ. Ask God to defend you and clear your name. I have seen over and over again, God restoring falsely accused people.

If you are the one doing the accusing, stop. Ask God how you can make restitution for the wrong you’ve done to another believer. Go to the people you gossiped to and repair the reputation of the believer. This is one way to make amends. Just telling God you’re sorry is not enough. You need to humble yourself to your enemy and ask for forgiveness that you believed the enemy in taking a position against them. Even if that person sinned, the way you went about accusing them was wrong. Because you were vicious, you made it impossible for them to repent, and you hardened them in their sin. This is why accusation is so wrong and why rebuke is so much better when you find sin in another person.

Stay tuned for the next installment: “Satan’s Strategy: Temptation.” If you don’t want to miss this series, follow my Prayer page and subscribe to my monthly newsletter below.

Satan’s main strategies are deception, accusation, temptation, and control. Today we will be dealing with the first one: deception.

This is the second installment of our 7-video series on “Unmasking the Enemy.” Christians must be aware of Satan’s strategies “so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.” 2 Corinthians 2:11 NASB

Satan’s Strategy: Deception

• Satan is a deceiver. He is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44) Revelation 20:3 also says about Satan: “that he should not deceive the nations any longer.” He distorts truth so masterfully that we are easily manipulated. Everything Satan says appears to be true and has evidence, in a sinister and twisted way. Logic is a tool of Satan. He can logically maneuver you into rationalizing any sin as being harmless or good. Satan will even twist Scripture to rationalize your sin.
• Satan depends on secrecy and darkness. He can be exposed by shining light. We are attacked in our minds at night more than any other time, especially as we fall asleep. Take every thought captive, and be aware that this window of time is the main attack time.
• Satan makes evil to look good and good to look evil. (This is how he tempts us.)
• Satan is a counterfeiter. He will lure you with counterfeit happiness. Don’t take the bait. Satan is the source of our affliction.
• Satan causes us to surrender to him because he will pander to our lusts and desires. If we surrender to him, we give him permission to exercise dominion over us in that area.

This is crucial for you to understand! Here is the progression of Satan’s deception:

1. Things that are technically true are said by the enemy.
2. Those technical truths are backed up by actual evidence, making his claims facts.
3. The conclusions derived in this way are false because the actual facts are manipulated in such a way that the truth is hidden and the lie is believed.

Stay tuned for the next installment: “Satan’s Strategy: Accusation.” If you don’t want to miss this series, follow my Prayer page and subscribe to my monthly newsletter below.