In our daily meditations, we are looking at Satan’s schemes or strategies of attack against humanity. He wants to influence as many people as possible into being slaves of darkness and control their lives with compulsions and slavish desires. His plan of attack is to prompt you to submit to ever-increasing sinfulness. Here’s the principle that Satan operates with:
Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Romans 6:16)
Let's talk about how a man can defend himself from being enslaved by the enemy. Jesus spoke about what spiritually corrupts a man, saying:
14Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’” 17After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18“Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’? 19For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”) 20He went on: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ 21For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean’” (Mark 7:14-23, Emphasis mine).
One of Satan's primary ways of attack is to sow thoughts into a person's mind, thus affecting their emotions and, ultimately, their will. Our mind can be thought of as a seedbed that receives seed thoughts from three different sources: God, Satan, and your spirit, i.e., the real you that occupies the tent of your body (2 Corinthians 5:4). Satan would love for us to believe that our thoughts are our own and that we should act on every idea that comes to us. Those who have suicidal tendencies may be suffering from demonic oppression from listening to the enemy instead of rejecting such thoughts. We know that Satan comes to kill, steal, and destroy. Jesus said He came that we “may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). Evil spirits will try to convince a person that there is no hope and cajole him into self-destruction. Of course, demons are not content with just destroying individuals. They often want to express their personalities or use people as a tool or as "food." The enemy seeks to acquire a beachhead or a foothold in a person’s life.
In writing on this theme, the Apostle Paul said, “In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold” (Ephesians 4:26-27). Paul implies that if you become angry toward someone and allow yourself to carry a grudge or harbor unforgiveness, you can give territory and ground to the devil. Giving in to temptation becomes a demonic foothold, and if not checked by confession, repentance, and forgiveness, it can become a stronghold in your life that seems to have a power all its own. The English word "foothold" is translated from the original Greek word topos, which means "place," the thought behind the word is that we can allow Satan to gain further territory than his beachhead or foothold. Our irritability and anger can go over the top to be resentment, bitterness, and unforgiveness. For goodness sake, repent and turn to the Lord that He may uproot those character bents out of your life. Keith Thomas
This meditation is from the series The War Against Satan and Demons, a shortened version of the more in-depth study: Satan's Schemes.
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