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Many times people will attribute to
God the actions of the devil. They will ask, "why is
God doing this to me?" In fact God is not capable of
sin, doing evil, harming people, or causing someone pain.
God loves us and wants all of us to be spared these things
in our lives. This is why it is important to know
who the devil is, what he is doing in your life, and how
you can combat him. We need to know what to look for
from our enemy so that we can seek out and accept only
that which is from God. Call it "combat
intelligence".
What are the characteristics of
the devil? The devil is a liar, cunning, a tempter,
deceitful, totally evil, a thief, an adversary, wicked,
cowardly, a murderer, without principles, rebellious,
fierce, cruel, a sower of discord, a destroyer and proud.
Whenever you see these things, you can be sure you're
dealing with the devil. God is never in any way
involved in these things. Satan may point his finger
at God and say, "he did it", but don't believe it.
Some people, particularly the new
age movement, believe that Satan is the negative
equivalent of God, or just the opposite extreme of the
same thing. The truth is Satan is nowhere near being
God in any way. He's nothing more than a fallen
angel. He's not even as powerful as a good angel.
We are falling into his own trap if we believe that when
Satan fell from his position of power he somehow got
stronger. In addition to his fallen angel status,
Satan was defeated by Jesus Christ. Just the mention
of Jesus' name terrifies him.
Thou believe that there is
only one God. Good! Even the demons believe that and
shudder. James 2:19
To demonstrate how fallen and
pathetic Satan really is, it only takes one good angel to
cast Satan into the pit at the end of the tribulation.
And I saw an angel coming down
out of heaven, having the keys to the Abyss and holding in
his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that
ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him
for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss
and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from
deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years
were ended. Revelation 20:1-3
Satan is the father of lies (John
8:44). He is an expert at tricking us when we get
away from the protection of God's Word. He knows
just how to push our buttons and present temptation in an
appealing light.
The good news is, Christians have
total authority over Satan through Jesus Christ. We
have the power to keep Satan in his box.
No, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I
am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels
nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any
powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord Romans 8:37
One of Satan's favorite lies is
to convince you that sin, pride, money, lust and other
forms of evil will bring you more pleasure than a
relationship with a loving God who wants the best for us.
To expose this lie all you need to do is ask the devil
what sin did for him. It cast him out of heaven into
the pits of hell where he will be separated from God
forever.
We may see evidence of Satan and
his demons attacking us in life, but if we have accepted
Christ as our savior, we can be confident. The devil
was the one who was defeated, not us (Colossians 2:14).
We need not be afraid because "perfect love casteth out
fear" (I John 4:18), and God loves us. If we stay
close to God, walk in truth, and pray for God's help in
our lives, we are protected.
Dealing with the devil when you
have not accepted Christ and have not received the holy
spirit, is another story. Christians will be tempted
and they will sin, but they have protection and authority
over Satan's devils. Not so with the person who does
not have Christ. The next study in this series will
examine demon possession, why it doesn't apply to
Christians, and how Jesus did Spiritual Warfare.
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