There is a war going on. No, not with the opposite political party this election season or even with Russia (at least at this point). But a war for your soul with a very real enemy. Yes, I’m talking about Satan himself.
Tragically, many of us are unaware this battle is even taking place (let alone how to fight it). Even though Satan seems to be making a comeback in popular culture, many Christians live as if he doesn’t exist. And they are unaware of his schemes. But Jesus believed he’s a very real enemy to be resisted. And so should we.
C. S. Lewis wrote in The Screwtape Letters that Satan’s main tactic is to get us to either overemphasize him, “He must have kept me from getting that parking spot close to the mall!”—which makes it easy to write him off when we hear people blame him for such silly things. (Maybe God just wanted you to get some exercise after all.)
Or he wants us to ignore him altogether and underemphasize his influence.
If you’re like me, you often fall into the latter camp.
We may underestimate his power because we put Satan and his demons in the “Santa Claus” category. Even though it’s inaccurate, the medieval caricature of the devil in a red suit with a pitchfork bossing people around in hell makes it hard to believe he exists.
Or maybe it’s because any belief in the supernatural is looked down upon in intellectual society, and we really want to be well thought of in those circles. Someone once said you can tell what a church might be teaching about the enemy by looking in the church parking lot. If it’s full of expensive cars, you won’t hear much about Satan. But if it’s full of old pick-up trucks, you can bet he will be preached regularly.
Or, maybe, we’ve brushed up on our theology, so we question whether the enemy is still a problem for us. Didn’t Jesus defeat Satan on the cross with his death and resurrection? Isn’t the war over and the battle won? And isn’t my greatest enemy my remaining sinful flesh and the pull of the world that I’ll still battle until I get to heaven?
Well, yes and no.
It’s helpful to understand Jesus’s victory over the devil by considering what took place on D-Day in World War II. On June 6th, 1944, over 150,000 American troops landed on the beaches of Normandy. With American troops now fighting the Nazis from the west and Russians from the east, the war was essentially over. D-Day marked the beginning of the war’s end. But there were still many battles to fight and miles to cover before the troops reached Berlin.
In the same way, Easter marks the “beginning of the end” for Satan. We now fight him from a place of victory. But there are many tough battles we must still fight before Jesus returns.
In the meantime, the devil’s mad as hell. He’s a wounded animal, as dangerous as ever, and prowls around looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). He's the mastermind behind so much of the evil that we see in the world and in our souls. He’s the destroyer of all that which is good.
We start by knowing the truth. Jesus called the devil the “father of lies” (John 8:44). His main strategy is deception, so our main weapon of warfare is to believe and combat his lies with God’s truth.
As a pastor, I often get a front row seat to hear what people are struggling with. Although this isn’t exhaustive, here are three lies people often believe. Maybe you can relate.
Shame is a powerful defeater belief and causes us to think we are unlovable. And Satan often whispers in our ears, “How can you think that God could forgive or use someone like you with your past?”
And you know what? He’s right. We don’t deserve good things from God. The good news is, it never was about our past, but Jesus’s. He lived the life we should live and died the death for our sins so that we can be forgiven by God. He truly paid it all. And we need to be continually reminded that there really is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).
The cross has the final say in our lives and in how God thinks of us. We are loved as his children, and he wants us to be a part of God’s bigger story going on in the world.
This is the lie that God is withholding something good from us that we need to flourish in this world. It’s the original lie that Adam and Eve believed, and all hell broke loose because of the sin that followed.
It shows up in our lives in the form of comparison, envy, and jealousy of others. Saul’s life was destroyed because of his jealousy of David. Asaph says in Psalm 73 that he almost walked away from the faith because he envied others. Story after story. And, almost always, Satan is the one feeding the lie.
Envy eats us up inside, makes us miserable, and kills gratitude towards God. And we combat the lie of envy by looking to our heavenly father who says he will withhold no good thing from our lives for us to accomplish his will (Luke 11). He gave us Jesus, after all.
Has there ever been a lie that’s done more damage to people’s souls? From pornography, sex outside of marital commitment, adultery, etc.—we so often believe the lie that satisfaction in life is found outside of following Jesus and his will for our sexuality.
We must resist these lies from the enemy with the truth. There is no other way. The weapons of our warfare are spiritual, after all. And our minds need to be continually renewed by God’s word (Romans 12:2).
There are many resources out there to help you resist the enemy by hearing God’s word on a regular basis. Sermons, podcasts like With You in the Weeds, and group Bible studies are all means of grace that God gives us to fight this battle.
But don’t overlook another effective weapon in your arsenal: prayer.
Sometimes we want to pray, but we don’t know what to say. That’s why having a written prayer can help you stay focused and be reminded of truths that are so easily forgotten.
Use A Powerful Prayer to help you get in the fight. This guided prayer will help you remember that God has ultimately won the war and given everything you need to fight your battles with the enemy (and you can download a PDF of the prayer in the show notes to refer to later).