Introduction
There is an assumption that is held by many Christians that at conversion, once the
Holy Spirit of God indwells their being, they will be able to do all that is required of a
Christian such as love, forgive, serve, witness, pray, disciple, and overcome satanic
attack. True, we are able to serve God and others with a new heart, and we are given a
new capacity to love and forgive the moment we are born again, but it is another thing to
believe that we are instantly capable of doing what a fully matured Christian learns as he
grows and lives as a believer. The demand and significance of the battle of satanic attack
in our lives, not to mention learning how to love and forgive others, takes preparation,
and time to develop. This is what God does in our lives as Christians he is growing and
developing each believer in preparation for eternity.
There are two spiritual powers in this universe, (i) YHWH the Creator God, and (ii)
HaSatan the Devil. Both seek to obtain the most valuable prize in the universe the human
soul. The human race is an extremely valuable prize, especially the souls of the
redeemed because of the measured price that was given for the salvation of our souls
which is the blood of Yeshua (Jesus). The price our creator paid for our souls (our
redemption) was very great and scripture tells us that we were bought with the "precious
blood of Christ, an unblemished lamb." We indeed are a valuable prize to be won,
never forget that fact; thus, the reason why HaSatan desires to destroy us and minimize
our walk and faith as believers in Yeshua Hamoshiakh (Jesus the Messiah) for we were
made after the image of God.
Satan is like a fisherman, he casts out bate hoping to catch us off guard. There are
many types of people, and many types of bate that Satan uses to draw the believer and
unbeliever into his clutches. I feel it is foundational (hayesod) for our walk in Yeshua
that we try to analyze the process of satanic attack. Let's try to break down exactly what
Satan desires to do in our lives as believers. Hopefully this will help each of us to
understand ourselves a little better, as well as understanding the nature of satanic attack.
Satanic attack is not what we see on the movie screen with shows like the exorcism of
Emily Rose and other demon possession type shows when it comes to those who place
their faith in Yeshua. Now don’t get me wrong, demon possession is very real, but those
of us who have placed our faith in Yeshua are not possessed by evil spirits. Satanic
attack for the believer deals with the deceiver influencing us and attacking us in our daily
walk and witness for Yeshua Hamoshiakh. It is true the more you desire to love God and
the more you desire to serve him, the more HaSatan will harass you. It is important to be
aware of HaSatan's tactics therefore, to begin our analysis on satanic attack lets begin by
breaking down exactly what Satan desires to do in our lives as believers.
Satan's Objectives
1. To draw God's glory away from him.
2. To draw us away from God.
3. To cause us to be thwarted in God's plan in our life.
4. To destroy us.
I have learned from studying the Bible and personal life experience that both the flesh
and satanic forces are involved in the spiritual struggles we deal with on a daily basis.
HaSatan's primary objective is to draw God's glory away from him, and to be worshiped
as God is worshiped. With this objective in mind, HaSatan desires to draw us away from
God, to cause Gods plan to be thwarted in our lives by attempting to get us to have other
gods such as money, material things, self image, etc, which is ultimately designed to
destroy us, our love and compassion for others, and our relationship with God. Satanic
activity is not just something that occurs with people who are involved dabbling in the
occult or some other religion, the devil is actively working having access to our lives in a
very real and influential way even as believers because of our sin nature. Since HaSatan
is trying to have an influence on our lives we should ask ourselves what kind of strategy
HaSatan is using to tap into that nature which so easily gives into sin in our lives. There
are certain techniques that HaSatan utilizes to influence us in our daily struggle with sin
what I call Satan's Strategy.
We will live in defeat if we do not know Satan's strategy.
Satan's Strategy
1. He directs our attention to a specific need or desire that we have at any particular
moment.
2. Satan chooses his time
3. Create doubt in our minds
4. To get you into a debate
5. He creates division
6. To destroy
We are physical beings created by God in a physical world, we have desires, wants
and very real needs all of which can be used to draw us away and enticed to sin. It is
clear from scripture the technique Satan uses does work. The first point in Satan's
strategy is that he attempts to direct our attention to a specific need or desire that we may
have at a particular moment in time. Satan works in the mind, in our imaginations, from
scripture we can get a few examples on how this works.
Satan works in the mind, in the imagination.
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his
subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. (KJV)
(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God
to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and
every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and
bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; (KJV)
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of
this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine
unto them. (KJV)
The god of this world is HaSatan who uses our minds against us, blinding those who
are lost so that they are not able to understand and believe the truth of the salvation we
can have in Yeshua. There are some examples that we can find in the bible which can
lead us to determine how HaSatan directs our attention to our specific needs.
Example 1
The first example is found in the very beginning of the bible where HaSatan deceives
Eve into eating from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Examining the text an outline can be written:
1. HaSatan directs Eve's attention to a specific need or desire, very specific.
a. beauty of the tree/fruit
b. appetite
c. knowledge
d. being like God
Eve looks at the beauty of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and sees that it is
desirous to look upon. The first thing HaSatan wants us to do is to begin looking at the
thing which our heart desires. This is something we should try to guard ourselves
against. (Job knew this and made a covenant with his eyes that he would not look upon
any unclean thing) When we look at something, the image enters into our mind and
heart which is why Yeshua said:
The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole
body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be
full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how
great is that darkness!
The next thing HaSatan does is get Eve to think about her appetite, how the fruit will
taste and be delightful to the body. Our appetite can be a very strong emotion to contend
with. When people are starving, they will do almost anything to obtain food, from selling
their own birth right, like Esau did with Jacob , to violating the commandments of the
Lord like David did by eating the Holy bread that is lawful only for the priests to eat.
People will even steal and murder for their appetites.
HaSatan next appeals to Eve's desire for knowledge and to be like God; we were
created to learn and grow in knowledge. I do not believe it is evil to desire knowledge
and understanding; rather it is the route which we take that determines whether one is
disobedient to the Lord or not which determines what is evil. Eve chose to disobey God
and eat of the fruit to acquire knowledge in the shortcut method rather than seeking God
for his understanding and guidance. There is no shortcut method to quick knowledge.
Wisdom, knowledge, and understanding come only after the long arduous process of
study, personal experience, and patience.
HaSatan gets us to desire something that we want so that he can get us what he wants
us to have that will feed our sin nature. The focus is shifted from what we should be
doing, prayer, studying God's word, Godly discernment, to the things this world
considers are important such as finances, materialism, and our self-image, all of which
leads to the desires of the flesh and not spiritual things. Satan doesn’t want us to think
about future consequences.
The point is HaSatan is very careful when he chooses to strike. His objective is to
ultimately destroy us both physically and spiritually. One thing is for certain, he can not
be so obvious and blatant in his attacks that we as Christians would immediately
recognize what he is doing. He is very subtle in his provocation and thus he has to be
careful to choose the right time in tempting us.
Satan chooses his time
If HaSatan has defeated us in a particular area in our lives, he is going to continue to
come back to that point/area in our lives for the purpose of maintaining that stronghold.
Once HaSatan has a stronghold in our lives, he can use that as a battle ground to gain
further inroads for great and greater defeat. There are certain times in our lives when we
are most susceptible to satanic attack; times when we are more opt to give into our sin
than to stand strong in Yeshua. Since HaSatan uses our emotions, he waits until we reach
what I call four states of emotional distress.
Four States of Emotional Distress
1. Tired
2. Anger
3. Loneliness
4. Hunger
Under each of these types of emotional and physical distress we are more easily given
to commit a sin than when we are standing strong in the Lord. HaSatan knows this, and
we can see in the temptation of Yeshua in the desert, HaSatan chooses number 4, hunger
to tempt Yeshua into sinning.
Example 2:
After Yeshua was baptized by John the Baptist, he went into the desert to be tempted
of the Devil. After 40 days of fasting, Yeshua was probably quite hungry. It was then
that HaSatan came to Yeshua to give him his first temptation. HaSatan said to
Yeshua, if you be the son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. HaSatan
was using the physical emotion of hunger and the desire to eat bread to tempt Yeshua into
being disobedient to the commandment of the Lord.
HaSatan waited until Yeshua was hungry, then he brought the temptation to mind, to
make stones into bread. Something to notice was that HaSatan brought the temptation in
the form of an accusation questioning whether Yeshua really was the Son of God.
Yeshua answered HaSatan by repeating the word of God saying "man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word of God." This is an interesting point; Yeshua
answered HaSatan with the word, notice HaSatan did not attempt to further tempt him
with his hunger, he proceeded on to the next temptation. HaSatan is looking to establish
a foothold in our lives. Once he has that small foothold, he will then build upon what he
has making it into a full-fledged stronghold. Yeshua responded with the truth, the light
of God's word. It is the truth that sets you free, the truth and the light of God is his living
word within our hearts. This is why it is so important to be on a daily bible reading
program so that we can place the word of God into our hearts, so when the time comes
when we are tempted, we can respond with the truth and be set free.
Create doubt in your mind
When HaSatan tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, he tried to put doubt in Eve's
mind. HaSatan said "Hath God said: …" by creating doubt in Eve's mind, HaSatan was
bringing into question the word of God. The same type of technique was used when
HaSatan tempted Yeshua in the desert by trying to cause doubt of his being the Son of
God. If Satan can get you to doubt or misinterpret the word, he has gotten to the first step
in his plan of deception. The goal is to rationalize or ignore the word of God (scriptures)
in order to justify our disobedience. Then in doing so one moves further outside of God's
will and outside of his plan for our lives; which ultimately could lead to unbelief, just like
what happened to Eve. Notice the tautologos parody that seems to occur here. When a
person doubts the word of God, and stops reading the scriptures, they move further from
the will and plan of God in their lives. By doing so, one looses the desire to draw near to
God, to pray, and to read the scriptures. Which then leads to further distance from God,
from prayer, and from reading the scriptures; this leads to a vicious circle which
ultimately results in a total deadness in ones spirit towards God and spiritual things.
When a person is in this type of state, HaSatan can then bring all sorts of deceptions and
doctrines into the mind to further lead one away from the Lord. By creating doubt in
ones mind, HaSatan desires that we begin to debate with our sins and the scriptures
(God's will) in an attempt to justify our sin or life style we have gotten ourselves into.
To get you into debate
Satan wants you to start debating him over sin and whether or not it is acceptable to
sin. When you get tempted, ask what God has said about it (search the scriptures). Satan
doesn’t want you to think about the future consequences so he attempts to focus your
mind for today, the present "need", present day and nothing further. If we could see how
God sees sin and how sin leads to destruction we would never choose the path for sin.
By utilizing debate, HaSatan can create within us a division of spirit between what we
want to do to serve the Lord, and what our flesh desires to do which is sin. The apostle
Paul spoke a little about this division of body and soul in the book of Romans. For
further study, check out Romans chapter 7.
He creates division
HaSatan's purpose/objective in the Garden of Eden was to pull Adam and Eve away
from God and away from each other. HaSatan achieved that goal, and then took it one
step further by destroying their family through division. Cain and Abel; he separated by
jealousy which then lead to murder. Throughout history HaSatan divides marriages,
families, friends, and even churches. HaSatan loves to destroy the unity of the church
thus the reason there are so many church splits that occur. By creating division, HaSatan
is destroying relationships, happiness, and life which leads to the next topic, HaSatan
wants to destroy.
To Destroy
HaSatan desires to destroy your peace, joy, happiness, contentment and relationship
with both God and family members. His ultimate goal is to destroy us and God's
kingdom. Throughout the Tanach we can see how Yisrael lived according to the Torah,
but they would always fall short (sinned and turn from the Lord) which caused them to
fall into bondage as a result of the Lord's chastening them. HaSatan was clearly at work
causing the goyim (nations) to bring Yisrael to sin against God. The children of Yisrael
always fell back into sin, and turned from the Lord God because they did not have God's
indwelling Holy Spirit. God however had a plan, one that would resolve this problem by
bringing Yeshua into this world. John 1:1-14, states that Yeshua is the Living Torah, the
word that became flesh. Today, in Yeshua Hamoshiach, we have the Living Torah
literally living in our hearts. It no longer becomes something that "we do" but something
that "we live" because Yeshua lives in and through us. Yeshua has become our
righteousness, and he now lives in our hearts, and as a result our lives change, we become
righteous because of Yeshua in the Fathers eyes. So, in a sense, the Torah becomes a
liberating covenant which brings newness of life because Yeshua who fulfilled the Torah
is now living in our hearts, so we now have a desire to be obedient to the Lord and
literally live changed lives. This is why HaSatan desires to destroy us, our relationship
with God, and our relationships with others. But rest assured that we have victory in
Yeshua and can live victorious lives.
Prayer
Abba father, please forgive me of my sins in Yeshua's name. I give you all of the
glory, honor, and praise forever. I ask Lord you would help me to recognize the
attacks HaSatan throws towards me. Help me to trust in you and please
strengthen the relationship that we have together. In Yeshua's name I pray,
Amen.
Surviving a satanic attack
We struggle and wrestle with our thoughts, relationships, and finances on a daily basis
but are these the things we truly struggle with, or are the things we struggle with
spiritual? Scripture says we wrestle not with flesh and blood but with spiritual forces.
As we have seen, HaSatan uses our mind, our imagination, our emotions, and the
physical state we sometimes get ourselves into as a doorway to tempt us into sin. Satan
wants us to doubt, wants us to argue (that our sin is ok), etc. So the question is how we
survive a satanic attack. One way to begin is to take this issue of sin in your life very
seriously and to get a journal to start taking notes and writing your thoughts down. Start
by taking an inventory of your life.
Take and inventory of your life
a. What is going on in your life at that moment when you sin?
b. What environment are we most vulnerable in?
By taking an inventory of your life I am talking bout writing down the moments in
your life when you sin and then documenting the situation, emotion, or physical problem
that is going on at the moments before you sin. I believe we have a certain responsibility
to limit the opportunity to sin or be tempted. Let me explain, and example I would like to
use is from first Corinthians:
Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he
that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. (KJV)
The apostle Paul told the believers in Corinth to flee fornication. We need to flee
those opportunities that enable us to commit a sin, those opportunities that set up an
environment that can tempt us which HaSatan can utilize for his purposes. The
responsibility that we have as believers is that we should be on guard like Job making a
covenant with our eyes, or whatever it takes to minimize the opportunity to sin.
If you want to be victorious in your life over sin, start recording the circumstances that
lead up to your fall. HaSatan wants to steal our faith, hope, and love and is deceitfully
working in subtle ways to tempt us into thinking our sin is not so bad. Entrapment into
bondage is the goal. This entrapment is the repetitive sin that dulls the spiritual senses,
steals our souls, and is the most horrible form of slavery of trying to serve two masters,
either Sin or the Lord. There are two steps that can be taken to help in beginning to gain
victory over sin and to withstand satanic attack.
2 steps
In our fight to be victorious over the sin in our lives, and being able to withstand satanic
attack something you need to remember is that once you begin to penetrate Satan's
strongholds in your life he will begin to attack and not let up. Especially when you have
won a great victory, then is the moment, when we think we are strong that we fall.
1. Have to be able to identify the enemy.
a. Satan doesn’t show up and say to you, "I'm going to tempt you now" he
uses people, things, emotions, desires, etc. this is why our struggle is not
against flesh and blood but against the spiritual forces.
b. By keeping a journal of your thoughts, the circumstances, emotions,
situations, etc that lead to giving into sin, it is possible to identify the
enemy.
2. Standing firm
a. Don't give in, don’t give up, and don’t compromise. Many people don’t
stand firm because they have not prepared for the battle. The Apostle Paul
describes how we are to withstand using a simile by comparing Roman
soldier's armor to the spiritual preparation we need to do.
b. Key point: once ones eyes are opened to the gospels one can more easily
see the source in the spirit realm.
Be strong in the Lord, put on the full armor of God this is what is called dressing for
battle.
Dressing for Battle
In the introduction I mentioned the demand and significance of the battle of satanic attack
in our lives, not to mention learning how to love and forgive others, takes preparation,
and time to develop. This is what I mean by dressing for battle. We need to prepare for
the war like we are preparing for an exam or for competition in some form of sports. It takes a life long pursuit with many hours of steadfast commitment and dedication to becoming a spiritual warrior for the Lord.
Belt of truth (Eph6:14)
If you are not committed to living a Godly life, HaSatan already has a foothold. You
will not live a Godly life if you haven’t made a commitment to do so. If you come under
satanic attack and you haven’t committed your life to live a Godly life and to serve the
Lord, I guarantee you will fail.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, I commit my life to you today to serve you and walk as a Godly
Man/Woman in your righteousness. Please create in me a new heart, one that is
full of love and joy so I can serve you better. Help me to walk in the path of
righteousness and honesty and to stop living a hypocritical life. Please help me to
forgive those who have sinned against me and to have understanding without a
judgmental attitude. I give you all of the honor and the glory and the praise in
Yeshua's name I pray. Amen.
Breastplate of righteousness (Eph6:14)
When you trust in Yeshua, you are given the gift of righteousness.
For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which
receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in
life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment
came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one
the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. (KJV)
The gift of righteousness is something that will reign in our life because of Yeshua,
but we also can cause our life to be less than righteous. Even though we have Yeshua in
our hearts and his righteousness we are still capable of sinning grievously before the
Lord. Be careful what you allow into your heart for evil comes from the heart.
Let me illustrate for example why it is important to guard what we allow into our
hearts. I had gone to the movies one Saturday evening with my wife and on the movie
screen there was killing, foul language, and some partial nudity. It wasn’t the best
decision I had made by choosing to watch such a movie however, the images, and
language that was in the movie I had allowed to enter into my heart though my eyes and
ears. The next day during church services, I was praying and suddenly something from
that movie from the previous night entered into my mind and instead of thinking and
praying in agreement with the preacher, I was fighting the thoughts and evil inclinations
of my own heart. If I had not watched the movie the night before, I would not have had
my thought life under attack. Here I had given myself over to watch a show that is less
than righteous in nature and it clearly had an effect upon me.
If we are going to try and resist the devil, our hearts must be clean. If we are
compromising to sin in our lives, like what I did when I watched that movie and allowed
sinful images into my heart, we are going to have more difficulty resisting and more
likelihood of giving into the sin.
Shoes (Eph6:15)
Feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. This verse is referring to
studying the scriptures. Know what the scriptures say and remain standing in the word.
One of the ways we can stand firm is if we are rooted and grounded in the word, and we
have the peace of God within out hearts.
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (KJV)
If a man's feet are in such a condition that he can not walk, he is totally ineffective, in
other words, No bible reading, no bible study, no church, (iron sharpens iron) one
can become very stale and ones Christian walk becomes ineffective.
Shield of faith (Eph6:16)
The stronger your faith and trust in God, the quicker you will be able to answer
HaSatan saying "NO" or "thus saith the Lord." Our faith is strengthened by getting
involved in a ministry, in church, in classes, bible studies, and daily bible reading. I can
not stress enough the importance of studying the bible. It is through the bible God
reveals himself to us, shows us his will for our lives, and the way we can understand the
great love he has for us in providing for our salvation.
Helmet of Salvation (Eph6:17)
The helmet is a hard or padded protected hat. Within this context the helmet is placed
upon the head because it is in our minds the battle begins when it comes to temptation.
However, there is another purpose for the helmet of salvation. According to 1
Thessalonians:
But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith
and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. (KJV)
The helmet is the hope of our salvation, the hope in the expected return of our Lord
Yeshua Hamoshiakh. God has created us for the purpose of salvation in Yeshua. If you
are saved in Yeshua ask the Lord to deliver you from wrong thinking because the battle
does indeed begin in the mind.
Sword of the Spirit which is the word of God (Eph6:17)
Do what Yeshua did when HaSatan tempted him, answer with scripture. I have heard
people say "well I don’t really know what the bible says" and if that is the case it is time
to start reading the bible. When we place, the word of God into our hearts by reading the
scriptures, the Holy Spirit will help us to remember what is needed when the time is right.
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in
my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. (KJV)
Standing Strong
We stand strong by submitting ourselves to God, putting on the full armor of God, and
place our complete and total trust in Yeshua for the forgiveness of our sins. How can we
do this if we are not reading the Bible and memorizing scripture?
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee
from you. (KJV)
Notice the first thing the apostle James says is to submit to God and I believe this is
similar to what I explained earlier on committing our lives to serving the Lord.
The most powerful tool we have as Christians is the power of prayer.
Pray at all times in the spirit
1. The apostle Paul wants us to understand the supernatural power of God to help us.
2. This power is available to us so that we can stand firm.
What do you do when he attacks you? The apostle Paul says to stand firm and resist the
devil, we don’t have to attack because the victory has already been won. We stand on a
firm foundation of Yeshua Hamoshiakh. We sin because we have yielded to some
temptation, or attack of the devil. Be strong in the power of his might, power of God,
might of God, strength of God. Satan is after your testimony to destroy your obedience,
your Christian walk, and to destroy relationships. The most powerful tool we have as
Christians is to pray in Yeshua's name for the purpose of breaking down the strongholds
in our life and the lives of others. We need discernment to know what is good and what
is evil and this discernment comes from the Holy Spirit of God and reading the scriptures.
So you may be asking yourself "How do I get the strength of the living God in my
life?" The answer is Through Prayer!
How do I get the strength of the living God in my life?
Through Prayer!
Through prayer we can see things in the spirit, warnings in the spirit, and even coming
temptations in the spirit. HaSatan hates, despises and targets those who preserver in
prayer. Persevering in prayer sends HaSatan running. In the book of Daniel, Daniel felt
prayer was so important, that even under the direct order of the King under penalty of
death, Daniel continued to pray to the Lord God Almighty. Even though Daniel was a
busy man, he still took the time to pray. Remember, HaSatan will try to make us to busy
to pray.
Becoming a prayer warrior
1) Start a prayer list, and begin to pray for the people and things you place you’re
your list daily if possible.
2) Ask for divine direction.
3) Be specific in what you pray for.
4) Ask that God's will be done.
5) Our understanding of the scriptures is directly related to our prayer life; therefore
do regular bible reading each day.
6) Holiness and righteousness is directly related to our prayer live
7) Pray at all times, a lot of Christians only pray when they are in need or in trouble.
To stand firm in his strength
We are prepared in our prayers and I believe we are most vulnerable to attack when
we are not praying. I have found in my own life there is a sequence of events that occurs
which lead up to my falling into sin. The following is a summary of those events.
Sequence of events
1. Prayerlessness - Caused by busy life, distraction, television, movies, radio, etc.
2. Burden Bearing – When we begin to worry rather than trusting in the Lord, things
get heavier, prayerlessness starts to burden and bear. You stop praying, you start
carrying more and relying less upon God. Then after a while you get discouraged,
then you become weary and warn out and then very weak. It usually begins by
being physically weak, which leads to emotional weakness and finally spiritual
weakness.
a. Physically weak
b. Emotionally weak
c. Spiritually weak
3. At this point our guard is dropped and then HaSatan attacks
I have to reiterate that HaSatan hates when we pray, and also God moves when we pray.
A person who knows how to talk to God has such an awesome power available to them.
Pray without ceasing. (KJV)
We should be able to talk to the Lord at all times, in other words, praying without
ceasing. By praying without ceasing, we can be living in God consciousness. We would
always be thinking upon the Lord, and communing in prayer with him. Living in
communion with the Father, a relationship where any moment day or night were you are
talking to him being always in his presence.
On the other hand, I have talked with some believers who say "I have never heard
from God" how can this be? This is possible if one is not listening for the Lord and is too
busy with the things in this world. God created us for himself to have a relationship with
him. If you are not hearing from God, if he is not answering your prayers, then there is
something drastically wrong that needs to be looked at in your life. At this point in ones
life it is important to make an assessment of ones relationship with God. It is quite
possible everything you have been taught is wrong and your approach to prayer, and
relationship could be all wrong having been taught improperly in church. We are
supposed to sense in the spirit by walking in obedience to him and praying in the spirit
which means the spirit agrees. By being spiritually sensitive to what is happening around
us, there are times when God is about to answer us while HaSatan is saying over and over
to just give up.
Do you love anyone enough to call their name before the Father
daily and watch and wait for God to work in that persons life?
Part of having a relationship with God is continually communing with him in prayer.
However, this is something HaSatan hates and thus is shooting flaming arrows in an
attempt to thwart our relationship with God, the love we have in our hearts toward others,
and the joy that we have in Yeshua Hamoshiakh.
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus
concerning you. (KJV)
Dodging the Flaming Arrows of HaSatan
Satanic attack by definition is a full assault upon a child of God to destroy him/her and
to replace God with himself in our life. HaSatan is continually shooting his flaming arrows.
Flaming arrows
1. Evil thoughts of temptation (eph6:10-18, 2Cor. 10:4-5)
2. Doubt
3. Other gods (material wealth, anything in substitute of God).
4. Busyness of Life
5. Fear
Our weapons are spiritual (prayer, word of God, faith, etc) and we are under spiritual
attack/warfare. Take every thought under captivity unto the obedience to Christ, captive
to his word. When a thought comes hold a scripture up and pray. The way we think is
the way we behave, therefore it is of utmost importance to condition the way we think by
seeding our mind with the word of God daily.
Two things to do when evil thoughts come
1. Say I refuse and shut out the thought, pray and replace the thought with scripture.
2. Entertain the idea, in doing this you begin to think about it, and then the longer
you think about it the more it grows until it gives birth to sin.
There are two things which one can do when evil thoughts come. One is to rebuke the
thought, shut it out, pray, and then replace the thought with scripture. Filling our minds
with scripture pushes out the evil thoughts that our sinful minds will think about. When
HaSatan begins firing the flaming arrows of doubt, "what-if" scenarios, fear, and evil
thoughts, he is trying to prevent you from walking in a certain area in your life that God
wants you to walk in; his arrows are attempts to bind you up spiritually and physically.
We can fight back by trusting in Yeshua, prayer, and supplication continually, and
studying the bible daily.
Why do I keep getting defeated?
Like many believers, our passions are strong, our behavioral patters run deep and we
truly have a desire to love and server God but we are always falling back into that habit
such as eating to much, overcome by sexual lust, or the victim of negative attitudes
among other sins. You wonder what is wrong with you, why do I keep failing and falling
back into the same sins. We have such great victory in Yeshua and then turn around to
have another great defeat in our lives and our witness for Yeshua. Well don’t think you
are alone, we all have this very same problem. Every believer from the day they place
their faith in Yeshua has struggled with sin, the war that wages between the spirit and our
bodies. HaSatan uses our sin nature to work out his plan for destroying our lives.
Sin nature
1. Conceit: (Check out 1 Timothy 3:6 )
2. Discontentment: (Investigate this further in Genesis 3,4)
3. Self-deception: (i.e. Hebrew 3:13; James 1:22-25)
4. Envy: (Example: Cain & Abel, Genesis 4, compare with1 John 3:12)
5. Willfulness (The battle of my will versus God’s will)
6. Arrogance: (You may explore this in Luke 22:31-34)
7. Rebellion: (rejection of authority, autonomous living
For further study, do a comparison between James 3:13-16 and 1 Peter 5:5-6, 8-9, and
James 4:6-7.
It all comes to us little by little as fiery arrows … once you let one in; HaSatan gets a
foothold in your life which can be used to continue keeping you in bondage and
eventually destroying your life. Satan leads you down a path of addiction and bad habits
until you are destroyed (his ultimate goal). The pattern is designed to get us into
repetitive defeat such that we begin to focus upon our daily pattern of defeat rather than
focusing on serving the Lord. In fact, once we are in this pattern of defeat, we begin to
believe we could never teach others, or give advice to others because of the hypocritical
lifestyle we are living in.
Pattern: Deception → Toehold → Foothold → Stronghold → Repetitive defeat
Satan can not make you do anything; we have the power to turn away in Yeshua
Hamoshiakh. Don’t allow HaSatan to set up a train of thought (thought pattern) in your
life. You don’t get delivered and remain delivered unless you know how you got to
where you are today (defeated).
Prayer
Abba Father, each day, help me to listen to your counsel. Give me
discernment and wisdom to live in the fullness of Yeshua Hamoshiakh and
gain victory over the sin that is in my life for the sake of your son. Help
me to bring every thought into obedience in Yeshua, so I can be an
effective witness for you. I pray all of these things in Yeshua's name.
Amen.
Conclusion
All believers are in a war, the war with the devil and his evil spiritual forces. The
scriptures say that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against the principalities
and powers and rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenly places. HaSatan seeks to establish long term strongholds
in our lives, one which enslaves for the purpose of dominating and holding captive the
believer to minimize his/her effectiveness for Yeshua. HaSatan's primary strategy is to
disguise his activities so that it appears as if someone else or something else is
responsible. He wants us to get our attention upon our own sins and his instruments so
that we are wrestling with this physical world by getting us to thinking our battle is
against this world "the symptoms" instead of the real source of our warfare (spiritual).
Like the common cold, one can mask the symptoms but you will not end the problems
until you deal with the source of the problem which is spiritual.
All believers have authority over HaSatan in Yeshua Hamoshiakh. God has equipped
us to overcome HaSatan's power.
(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God
to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and
every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and
bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; (KJV)
When Yeshua sent out the seventy disciples, they had returned to the Lord rejoicing.
They reported "…even the devils are subject unto us through thy name." Notice
Yeshua points out the reason for the victory over the evil spirits were because their names
were written in Heaven. In other words, these seventy disciples were saved because of
their relationship with Yeshua they had authority over HaSatan in the name of Yeshua.
Therefore, we can conclude, that Yeshua has given all of his followers the authority to
use his name to expel, throw out, bar, ban, debar, drum out, oust, remove, get rid of, and
dismiss the forces of evil. Yeshua said "And these signs shall follow them that believe; In
my name shall they cast out devils; …"
Finally, how to achieve victory over satanic attack is by five basic principles (i)
Authority, (ii) Intercession, (iii) Displacement, (iv) Resistance, and (v) Occupation.
Every believer is given the authority to use the name of Yeshua to find HaSatan's
activities.
No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except
he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house. (KJV)
In order to first find victory we need to command HaSatan in Yeshua's name that he is
bound, that you have victory in Yeshua's blood, and that HaSatan can no longer influence
you and must leave this stronghold in your life. The second principle is intercession, this
is prayer. Remember the power that we as believers have in prayer. We need to also
come together with other believers in prayer and intercede against the strongholds until
we see results. There is greater power when two or three believers come together in
prayer, especially a husband and wife praying together. Fasting can be added to prayer to
increase ones faith and demonstrate ones dedication through sacrifice of a basic need to
devote more time and attention to prayer. Fasting can be the making or breaking factor
when one is interceding for another, or to break a stronghold. (Note: Matthew 17:19-21)
Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast
him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I
say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto
this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and
nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but
by prayer and fasting. (KJV)
Principle three is displacement, which is to establish the presence of God where
HaSatan had once had a stronghold. HaSatan can not remain when the Lord is present,
that is why I claimed earlier that as a born again believer we can not be demon possessed;
however we can be influenced by the deceiver (HaSatan). The presence of the Lord
displaces the devil.
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship
hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light
with darkness? (KJV)
Principle four is resistance; we are to submit ourselves to the Lord God because
HaSatan flees from humbly submitted believers in Yeshua.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from
you. (KJV)
The fifth principle is occupation. Leave no vacancy for HaSatan to work with. Be on
guard with your spiritual life. Provide no measure of corruption, rebellion, or immorality
in which HaSatan can use to gain refuge to build his influence and strength.
Finally strongholds, suppose you have one right now, how do you deal with it?
Acknowledge it to the Lord and cry out to the Lord in genuine repentance. Ask the lord
to set you free by the power of the Holy Spirit in Yeshua's name, (John6:37 he who
comes to me I will in no wise case out. (KJV)), and the lord will set you free!
Blessings in Messiah Yeshua
