Know Your Enemy

Common war strategy says to know your enemy in order to be able to counter his attacks and gain victory--know his strategies, his strengths, his weaknesses. The Apostle Paul seems to assume that Christians become very familiar with their enemy--Satan (2 Corinthians 2:11)--and his methods.

We've been looking at our current RMMR verses--Ephesians 6:10-20--which give us our instructions for battle, so to speak.

There are countless ways in which Satan attacks the church, some of them are obvious, while others are more subtle. One of my college professors, Dr. Jerry Hullinger, has studied much on the topic of spiritual warfare and has listed five (of the many) ways in which Satan shoots 'fiery darts' in our direction. The following are notes taken from Dr. Hullinger's chapel message called "The Five Schemes of Satan."

Scheme 1: the lie which distorts the nature of the Christian life--no more battles, struggles, storms; thinking it abnormal to struggle with sin, go through hardships

Scheme 2: the lie of sensationalism--looking for a 'quick-fix' instead of consistently applying the first principles of spiritual health; can't seem to 'defeat' sin

Scheme 3: a series of lies which will get us, as God's children, to belittle the cross; tries to persuade us that we have committed a sin that God won't forgive (willful sin, repeated sin...); think we have to do something to merit God's forgiveness

Scheme 4: the lie that tries to persuade us that we are being short-changed in the Christian life; the original lie; exchanging the glory of God for the 'broken cisterns' of this world (Jer. 3)

Scheme 5: the slow approach (multi-year plan); Satan is content to plant seeds all throughout our lives and wait for them to germinate and grow; 'one sin doesn't matter,' 'I'm strong enough to be exposed to certain things'; nibble around the edges, develop a taste for sin

Have you ever been taken as a 'prisoner of war' by any of these schemes??? (I have--all five!)

It has proven an immense help to study Satan's strategies. I am more consistently able to recognize them when confronted by them. Satan never tires of developing new strategies so we must persevere in our battle against the wiles of the devil. And we know, we do it through Christ.

"May God help us to be ever vigilant, walking in the victory that Christ has already provided for us!" --Dr. Hullinger