Enemy's Strategy Against Christians

 

Enemy's Strategy Against Christians

    Have you ever had temptations and wondered why you failed? Why that happens more than it is supposed to happen? Have you wondered how the enemy attacks us? I used to think that the devil would come like thunder with an earthquake. In other words, the devil can't simply "hide" from you or "sneak up" to you. If he would tempt, it would be like thunder with an earthquake. (symbolically speaking) You would know for sure that the devil is tempting you or trying to get a hold of you and it would be the scariest thing you would ever experience in your life. 

    To your disappointment maybe, that is not the case. If the devil attacked the children of God like that, he would not stand a chance at all. I mean come on, the devil has over 5,000 years of experience of deceiving, tempting, and killing humans. I would suppose he got the "system" down already. So, how does this relate to us? To me? What makes a difference if I know some of the strategies of the devil? Well first off, when anyone goes to battle, the best way to fight is when you know the enemy's "weakness." The best way to fight is when you are trained and prepared to battle. When you are trained the correct way; because you can train in a way that will actually do you no good. Yes, the devil has a "weakness." We can say with full confidence that he has nothing on the Lord. His "power, efforts, and goals" will NEVER interfere with God's and will NEVER be able to conquer God. But how...? 

    

    In my recent blog post, I looked at something that is the foundation of Christianity. Something that must be present or else every believer is put to shame. That "thing" is the resurrection of Jesus! It is His sufferings and His death! You can check out that blog post here. I don't want to spend much time writing about it because I already wrote about it, but I would want to say a few things. (for those who will not read the other blog post) The power in the name of Jesus, His sufferings, and His death all conclude in one thing: His resurrection! If there would be no resurrection, there would simply be no power! This is because death would have "conquered" Jesus. In other words, the devil would be the true ruler and "winner." But we know, that is not the case and never would be the case! 

    Because there is real power in the name of Jesus and His blood, we are able to receive it in our lives. Before I get into our response to the attacks of the devil, we need to know some of his "tactics" or "strategies." Once again, if we want to know how to win our battles, we need to know why and how they come into our lives.

    So, why do we experience spiritual battles? Why in the world is the devil "after us (the children of God)?" Why doesn't he "mind his own business" and "chase" those that are in the world. Why doesn't he go after the lukewarm Christians? Right of the start, I want to say that whatever happens to us, whatever comes our way, was allowed by God. We need to understand one truth: that the only purpose of the devil is to accomplish three things; to steal, kill and destroy. (John 10:10) First, what does he try to steal? Well first, who does he try to steal from? Those that belong to the Lord. Those that gave their heart and lives fully to the Lord. This is why being a "lukewarm Christian" is very dangerous. The fact that we are not fully devoted to the Lord, gives an "advantage" to the devil over us. To be more precise here, he doesn't go after the lukewarm Christians as much as those who are fully devoted to God. This is because the lukewarm Christians are "comprising" with sin and the things of this world. The devil actually "likes" that. Why? Because if he can have his own little "corner" in our lives, he has succeeded. If we don't read God's Word daily and spend time in prayer daily; sincere fellowship with the Lord with faith, then we are "weak Christians." So, the devil goes after those who are firm in their faith, living for God, and bring damages to his kingdom. He steals our joy, peace, and our full devotion to the Lord. 

    The devil's "tactics"

    How does the devil attack? Let's look at one story from the Old Testament to help us with this. I will only look at several "strategies, techniques, or ways" the devil attacks the children of God. 

    2 Kings 18. This whole chapter is about King Hezekiah and how he served the Lord like David did. He took down the high places. He destroyed the enemies. But, there was a challenge given to him by King Sennacherib, King of Assyria. 

    The very first thing that the King of Assyria did was surround the cities of Judah and took them. (2 Kings 18:13) He caused the King of Judah to be "helpless." He "forced" the King of Judah into a corner which caused him to act the way he did; take the silver and gold from the temple of God and give it to King Assyria. (2 Kings 18:15-16) The first task of the enemy is to weaken us and to strip us from all "hope and help." We see this played out very well in this situation. The King of Assyria does not destroy the King of Judah nor the kingdom completely. He starts from the small things and works his way up. How does this relate to our lives? The enemy will try to destroy our "cities" before he gets to our soul/the root of it all. Little by little will he destroy our cities to then bring us to a place of helplessness and hopelessness. So the only way out would be to surrender to the devil. These cities may be good friends, our time, energy, attention, and anything else that makes us who we are. He will do everything to keep us busy so that prayer will fade from our lives. He starts off with the cities in our life. 

    The following thing that the King of Assyria does is attack what he stands on. Hezekiah put his trust in the Lord. But, that did not stop the King of Assyria to attack Hezekiah. The King of Assyria states with full confidence that his "God" will not save because no other god has saved anyone before. He re-assures his victories and how he was able to win other nations who put their trust in their "gods." Another "strategy" or "tactic" of the enemy is to put doubts in us regarding the Bible and our relationship with God. The enemy will bring to mind other so-called "Christian" who lived a sinful life. He will bring to memory our past life and the sins we committed. After all, he is our accuser (Revelation 12:10) His purpose is to keep reminding us of our sins and keep showing us that we don't deserve God's love. That we can't be loved. He will point to times in our life when we failed to put our trust in the Lord. Or when maybe we put our trust in the Lord, but it did not go as we wanted it to go. The whole point is so that we would take our trust off of Christ and put it towards ourselves or someplace else; just anything but Christ. When people start to doubt if God is really for them, they began to take actions on their own. If someone does not place their trust in God, then it must be someplace else. But, we know from the Word of God that nothing but Christ will stand. (Matthew 7:24-27)

    King Assyria then goes on to say that even if he gave them his own 2,000 horses, he would still defeat them. He tries to make them feel very weak and hopeless. We see that from here, the enemy does not show any "mercy" towards us. The devil isn't playing games like we sometimes are. He doesn't waste his time like we often do. He has a goal (John 10:10a) and he pursues it. Yes, he will not succeed in whole, but he will steal, kill, and destroy those that do not belong to God. 

    What if someone came to you one day and told you that your dad told them to kill you? Would you believe them? It's hard to believe, but King Assyria nearly does that. He comes to Hezekiah and tells him and the people, "Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it." (2 Kings 18:25 ESV) Part of what he says is true. The Lord did appoint King Assyria to punish Judah. But, it wasn't to destroy it completely. It did not give the King of Assyria an "excuse" to destroy them and then say "it was God's will." Also, God did not tell King Assyria to go and destroy Judah, but He let him do so. God does not have anything to do with wicked people. He doesn't speak to them nor hears their prayers. We see here another two tactics from the enemy. The enemy makes it seem that the whole world is against you even God. The fact that he said "God told me" makes it seem that God is on the enemy's side. If God is on the side of the enemy, then there is no hope whatsoever. If the devil can deceive us into believing that God is against us, then he succeeded. The other tactic we see here of the enemy is to use the authority of the Word of God to go against us. If the devil has tried "everything" to deceive us and to take us off the path of righteousness, then there is only one option left: to show us that God is against us and does not love us through His own Word. When the devil tempted Jesus, what did the devil say to Jesus? He said, "“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,..." (Matthew 4:6) Did Satan make up the bible verses? No. Did he twist them? Yes. We already looked at it, but the devil is our accuser. He will accuse us with our thoughts, through other people, circumstances, and through God's own Word. 

    The final thing that King Assyria does is tell the people about all the "benefits and pleasures" they will have in the land of Assyria; the enemy's land. He tries to convince them to follow him by saying,
"Each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you may live, and not die" ( 2 Kings 18:31b-32) This may be the most used tactic by the devil. We like to be our own "bosses." We like to have our own personal things. He tells them "his own vine, own fig tree, and own cistern." What is more satisfying and pleasing than to own all that you have? A lot of us (including me) have access to smartphones and wifi. We can do whatever we want to do. The devil through that, throws, what seems to be "unending" arrows, of temptations. The devil would lie to us by telling us that we are missing out. God may be actually hiding something from us; like in the garden of Eden. (Genesis 3)

Our Response

    What should be our response/s to the attacks of the devil regarding the listed "tactics" above? Well, before we get into practical ways of dealing with each one, let's look at how Hezekia responded to all of this. We read in 2 Kings 19:1 "As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. 2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz." We also read that he " prayed before the Lord..." (verse 15) He sought God's strength and help. He sought His wisdom of what to do. Our very first response to anything that comes our way in this life is to seek God. If God answers a prayer of ours, we praise and thank God. If there is a problem that arises, we also turn towards God in prayer. When we are faced with temptations or attacks of the devil, we MUST seek God in His Word and in prayer. Ask a brother or sister to pray for you. We must realize from the very beginning that we have nothing on our own to defeat the enemy. We have no strength, wisdom, or power to win or battles. The only way is through Jesus. (Romans 7:24-25) It's by His sacrifice do we have victory. 

    The very first "tactic" of the enemy that we looked at was how the enemy seeks to destroy our cities. Our response to this on a practical level is to have that support. That is by having good Christian friends by your side that will pray for you in time of difficulty. Surround yourself with godly people. Have friends that are able to keep you accountable consistently. Also, instead of surrounding yourself with all of the entertainment/s of this world, surround or fill yourself up with godly things; prayer, God's Word, and fellowship with other believers. 

    The second "tactic" of the enemy that we looked at was how the enemy seeks to put under doubt our trust in the Lord. He points to our failures and also the failures of other believers. He accuses us. But, we cannot "fall into his trap." We cannot accept this deception. The way we need to respond to this is by the Word of God. Every person who believes that they are a Christian. must ask this question today: How much time and effort do I put towards reading and studying God's infallible word? What is my response to God's word? There are several different "ways" one can do this. First, one can spend little time in God's Word and take it lightly. For whatever reason, they don't believe that it is that important in their lives to give it so much time. Also, one can read God's Word and maybe sometimes memorize verses, but never actually apply the Word to their life. They may read it, but never actually think about it during the day. It's done possibly to check it off and to ease the conscience. Finally, one can set sufficient time apart to read and study God's Word. Then, this person applies the Word to their life and lives their life according to the Word of God. It is the main authority in their life. Also, one should go to a church where sound doctrine is preached. This is so that by hearing the Word of God preached, our faith would grow. (Romans 10:17) Also, through the fellowship of other believers, we grow in Christ; by sharing our struggles, victories, and experiences. 

    The third "tactic" of the enemy that we looked at was how the enemy seeks to put us in a place where we "feel" very weak and hopeless. Our response to this is to look to Christ. We first admit that we are weak and sinful people. But, we look at Christ and what He has done on our behalf! (Look at Isaiah 53, 1 Peter 2:21-25, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 5:1-11) We need to see who we are in Christ. And when we are in Christ and He in us, we are able to say similar words to Paul's: "I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13 ESV) We can't win on our own, but by the blood of Jesus, we do. (Revelation 12:11, 1 Peter 1:18-19) By His strength to we win or overcome our battles. If we do fall, let's return back to God. Believe in His love, forgiveness, and hope. 

    The third "tactic" of the enemy that we looked at was how the enemy uses the Word of God to come against us. When the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus used the Scriptures to go against the devil. When the devil tempted Him about falling down, using the Word of God to "back himself up", Jesus replied, "“Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test."(Matthew 4:7) We are to respond the same way; with the word of God. Just because the devil used the Word of God against Jesus, it did not mean that the Word lost "power" or "authority." It has power, we just need to use it properly. We need to believe that what we read (God's Word) is true and has the power to change our lives through the Holy Spirit. 

    The fourth and final "tactic" of the enemy that we looked at was how the enemy tempts us through the "pleasures and benefits." It may be similar to Sennacherib's way of doing so. It could be more based on what we value in this life. The devil through other people may tell us how "awesome" it would be to do this or that. It could be done even though our "good friends"; or we thought they were "good." Our response to this should be to remember what we have in Christ. When you ever get tempted with some kind of pleasure or benefit, memorize and say this verse to yourself: You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." (Psalm 16:11 ESV) I encourage you to read (and how much you can memorize) these passages: Psalm 63, Psalm 73, Romans 6, 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, and 1 Corinthians 10:23. We need to understand that our satisfaction is only found in the Lord. We should be content only in the Lord. So, when we have an opportunity to sin or partake of a pleasure that will drain us spiritually, let us choose Christ. If I am bored, instead of going to social media to waste my time away, I should pray, read God's word, or do something more useful and meaningful in life. Before you do anything, think of it this way: Will this bring me further away in my relationship with God? Does it bring any use/value in the future? Will this or can this bring me into sin? Of course, anything I do can turn into "sinning", but some are much easier. 

    In the end, remember who you are in Christ (if you are saved and belong to Him). When the deceiver, tempter, and accuser begin to attack you, stand on God's Word. Depends on when and where this is happening, get on your knees and pray! I have had countless times when the temptation to sin was so strong all I was able to do was get on my knees and pray. I would also open the Word and start reading it. And EVERY TIME God would be faithful and deliver me from the temptation/attack of the devil. It just amazes me every time! There are no words to describe God's love and patience with us. What we can do though is always be thankful to God with our hearts and lives. 

Psalm 136:26

Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever.