Your adversary has an arsenal of weapons at his disposal which he uses to trap you in his schemes. In an earlier post (Your Adversary the Devil) I revealed two words that describe the schemes of the devil toward your life.
The first word describes the overall thoughts that the devil has toward you and his evil intent to steal, kill, and destroy all the good things God has planned for your life. The devil has a continuous hatred toward you and everything that he plans for your life flows out of his hatred of God.
The second word describes the systematic and logical steps the enemy takes to bring about your destruction. He has many weapons and tactics that he uses to bring you under his authority.
Paul warns us in Ephesians 4:27 to not give the devil a foothold in your life. A foothold is an opening in your life that is made available to the enemy through your thoughts and actions, Your sins open the door for the enemy to come in and take residence in your soul. Demons cannot forcibly enter your life. They come in when you choose to disobey God’s word or when your family opens the door through sin.
This post seeks to reveal some of the common weapons the enemy uses to impact your life for his purposes. There are many more that I can list in one short post, but it will get you thinking about how the enemy works in your life. The more you understand how he works, the more effective you will be in overcoming your adversary.
As I go through this list be sure to take note of the most common ways you see the enemy work in your life. Then sit down with the Lord and ask Him for insight into how to combat each area in the strength of the Lord.
Deception
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’? (Genesis 3:1)
3 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. (2 Corinthians 11:3)
I believe deception is one of the key weapons the enemy uses. It is not a direct approach that might be rejected outright. It is a devious and crafty attempt to get you to believe a lie as the truth.
It is his attempt to get you to question something God has said and act in a way that will contradict the word of God. In the case of Eve, the serpent’s words lead her to believe that God was holding something very valuable from her which caused her to blatantly disobey God and eat from the fruit.
The only thing that can keep you safe from deception is a correct view of God and an understanding of His truth. Things definitely would be different if Eve would have looked at all the good things God had given her and she simply trusted in the goodness of God.
Accusation
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. (Zechariah 3:1)
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. (Revelation 12:10)
The devil is called the accuser of the brethren. He constantly seeks to accuse you before God and points out all that you have done wrong. He is making formal claims to God as a persecuting attorney. The word even carries an underlying emphasis that this is being done because of an adversarial relationship.
The devil not only comes to God and accuses, but he also comes directly to you to remind you of your failings and seek to beat you down for what you have done. He will say things like, “You call yourself a Christian? Look what you’ve done. You’re a hypocrite. You’re a failure.”
The devil relentlessly attacks you to try and get you to look more on what you have done than on what Christ has done on your behalf. The good news is that Jesus took care of every accusation on the cross. His blood cleanses us from all sin and when we do sin we can confess our sins and instantly be forgiven. An understanding of this truth silences the accusations of the devil.
13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (Colossians 2:13-14)
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
11 And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. (Revelation 12:11)
Condemnation
Along with his accusations, the enemy brings condemnation. To condemn someone is to judge them and definitely find them guilty and worthy of punishment. Feelings of condemnation weigh you down and you are always waiting for the judgment of God to come upon you. You are always looking over your shoulder for the wrath of God to fall.
I know many people who constantly feel condemned. When they read the Bible they do not see the precious promises of God made available through Jesus Christ, they only see the verses that speak of God’s judgment and wrath. They can only think about the things they have done and how God will get them for it.
It’s a tragic way to live. Because there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (see Romans 8:1) Jesus Christ took all your sin upon Himself at the cross and along with it the wrath of God. Condemnation is designed to have you so focused on yourself that you do not feel qualified to serve the Lord.
9 For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10)
Intimidation
8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)
Another favorite weapon of the enemy is intimidation. He seeks to come into your life like a roaring lion. If all of his verbal attempts fail, the devil will try to intimidate you through fear. He will try and make you back down and cower before him.
The goal is to paralyze you and cause you to be cautious and not press into the promises of God. It takes courage to enter in and possess all that the Lord has made available. One of my favorite sections of Scripture is Joshua chapter one. In it, God tells Joshua that he is going to bring help the people possess the land that He swore to them. Then He says,
7 Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. 8 This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:7-9)
7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV)
Persecution
The enemy will move through people to bring persecution upon you to try and squash the movement of God in your life. This can come from family members, people in the world, or even those from other religions.
The ultimate goal is to silence you and if possible make you give up and quit. This persecution comes in varying degrees. Some may be verbal pressure, ostracizing, imprisonment, beatings, confiscation of property, or death.
The Bible clearly warns us that this type of persecution will come to those who are godly. We are encouraged to rejoice in the fact that we are able to suffer for Christ’s sake. Suffering is not abnormal for a follower of Christ.
12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; 13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. 14 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. (1 Peter 4:12-14)
Jesus said:
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. (John 15:18-20)
Temptation
The devil is a master tempter. He is constantly looking for a way to tempt us to do evil. Temptation seeks to find a desire in us that’s in us and causes us to make a choice that goes against the will of God.
It is not a sin to be tempted, because Jesus was tempted every way we are but He never sinned. He always remained true to the Father. He never once did anything on His own initiative apart from the will of the Father.
Sin takes place when we look at the temptation and so strongly desire it that we choose the temptation over God’s desire for our lives.
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. (James 1:13-15)
I always view temptation as the devil being a fisherman. Every fisherman knows that he has to have a variety of bait to tempt the fish to bite. He starts fishing with worms but gets no bites. He then decides to switch to leeches, still no bites. Then he tries shiners and “Bam” the fish start biting.
The enemy will try one temptation after another until he finds something that works. The good thing to remember when you are tempted is:
13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)
In order to make this post a reasonable length, I’m going to give an abbreviated list of some of the other weapons the enemy uses to fight against your life.
Doubt - the enemy wants to call into question the truth of God’s word and cause to waver back and forth between two options.
Discouragement - he wants you to feel so discouraged that you will give up.
Helplessness - he wants you to feel like you are not able to change your circumstances or situation so that you don’t even try to change it.
Hopelessness - he wants you to feel like there is no answer to your problem so that you just accept life as it is.
Division - the enemy wants to bring division and strife to your relationships.
Isolation - the devil wants you alone so that you do not gain strength or encouragement from others.
Pride - he wants you to be proud and arrogant because it will keep you from submitting to God and receiving His goodness.
Rebellion - the enemy wants you to join Him in his rebellion against God.
Self-Sufficiency - the devil wants you to totally depend upon yourself and think that you can do what only God can do in your own strength
Self-Centeredness - your enemy wants you focusing all of your attention on yourself rather than on serving others.
Self-Righteousness - the devil wants you to rely on your own good works instead of the righteousness that comes from faith in Christ.
As we can see, there are many weapons the enemy of your soul will use against you in order to take any advantage he can against you. His ultimate goal is to bring as much of your life under his control as possible.
The good thing is that God has made a way for you to overcome through His life, death, and resurrection.
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