Understanding Our Enemy
The purpose of this post is to provide an introduction into the subject of the powers of darkness, aka the devil and his demons. We have a very real enemy and it is very important that we have awareness of these evil forces and how they work and are actually used by God. What I am going to convey is all solidly based and referenced throughout the Scriptures. I encourage you to go study the passages cited, reading the Bible with full context that I cannot always convey here due to space constraints. I believe you will be enlightened and strengthened in your understanding.
I will be the first to agree that a Christian walk should not be focused on the devil but on Christ and seeking to do His will. But to not teach the truth to the sheep is not equipping them with the whole truth, something they need to endure and overcome the trials of life. Hosea the prophet told us God’s people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Paul told us we should not be unaware of the wiles of the devil. The fact is this knowledge is essential for walking as Jesus walked. It is time to awake from the slumber that has befallen the end times church.
Unfortunately Hollywood and other satanic forces have conspired to make talking about demons, evil spirits and deliverance to be either lunacy or so terrifying that Christians and Pastors purposefully stay away from the topic.
Jesus speaking to Nicodemus, just after the famous John 3:16 passage, said this about evil and the powers of darkness.
John 3:19-21 “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
Jesus is the light, He alone is the truth. The condemnation will come from Jesus and the words He has spoken will be our judge on the last day. The verdict will be that Men loved sin more than they loved Him. The condemnation comes when we do not obey God’s foremost commandment to Love the Lord with ALL your heart. If we don’t pass this love test, we love darkness in some way shape or form and will be practicing sin of some fashion. Without giving God our whole heart, we harden our heart to justify our sin and hold on to it and therefore do not truly come to Jesus who is the light. But those that love God with all their heart, fully surrender to the Lord, rid themselves of all idols (purify themselves) so that God may guide them and direct their paths. His Word is the lamp unto our feet and the light unto our paths. We can’t be following anyone else or thing.
My hope is to show you some basic truths that can help you understand how we stay walking in holiness before the Lord. Knowing thy enemy is critical to our journey. Adjustments in our life journey to the narrow gate are sometimes necessary if we stray or stumble into sin and idolatry. The activities of the powers of darkness, if understood by us, can be an alarm for us to alter course and come back to the Lord with all our heart. Without understanding of the enemy, we can be readily deceived and unwittingly harden our heart like Pharaoh did and blindly march down the path to destruction.
God Uses the Powers of Darkness
Jesus our Lord is the creator of everything that exists in the heavens and the earth. This includes Satan and all demons and evil spirits that follow Satan which I will henceforth call the “powers of darkness.” Yes God created evil for His good purposes as will be shown.
Colossians 1:16-17 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
This is a hard truth for many to grasp and is a topic that is rarely even mentioned in our end time churches — yet the Scriptures from the front cover to the back cover are full of words that tell us about evil and how God uses it in His plan.
The Book of Job is an exposé on how the enemy works with God to accomplish God’s purposes. This long Old Testament Book, especially the first two chapters and the last three chapters make it clear God is in control and gives Satan permission to attack, torment and destroy us.
Job 1:8-12 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” 9 So Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” 12 And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.”
There are many nuggets of wisdom in this passage. First notice that Job was blameless and upright — he obeyed God. As a result God had put a hedge or protection around Job and his family. While the message in this blog post may be hard for many to stomach, the good news is that if we obey God, He will protect us from the powers of darkness. The corollary is also true, that if we do not obey God, God removes the protection (the hedge) and allows the powers of darkness to attack us and afflict us with all kinds of trouble. God is not trying to kill us when He allows this, He is trying to bring us to true repentance and get us in compliance with His commandment to Love Him With All Our Heart.
Notice at the end where God gives Satan express permission to afflict Job in order to test Job. God put limits on Satan’s authority and told Satan not to touch Job’s person. Later in the next chapter, God expands Satan’s permission so he can afflict harm to Job’s body and his family but still never allowing Satan to kill Job. God is in control make no mistake, the powers of darkness answer to God and can only do what He allows.
At the very end of the Book of Job, when all was restored and Job was blessed abundantly, it tells us the community consoled Job for all the trouble the Lord had brought upon Job.
Job 42:11 They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the LORD had brought upon him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.
Yes that is right, God brought the evil upon Job. That is how it is clearly written in the Scriptures and this is confirmed by the many other passages, some of which I will show you below. God is not evil though as the Lord used this situation for His glory and for the greater good of man. God follows the same process recorded in Job on His children today. God tells us He will test our hearts to see if we love Him with ALL our heart.
Exodus 20:20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.” Notice here why God test us! To keep us in fear of the Lord so we will not sin.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 10I the LORD search the heart, I try (TEST) the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
God does not change. Jesus is the same today as yesterday. Even Abraham was severely tested when God told him to kill Isaac his own son. Make no mistake, God’s test all of us to show our true colors. True love on earth is confirmed only when it is tested in life. You can tell someone you love them but when the chips are down, that is when our heart shows itself. Know that God uses the powers of darkness that He created to test us. It is part of His plan. Our lives here on earth are supposed to turn out the same way it did for Job. We are to persevere and endure to the end and we will be immensely blessed and prospered by the Lord.
Peter encouraged the early church that the trials of live were inevitable and that have come to prove our faith genuine. These are test of our hearts as God allows so we can be refined by His fire and purified by the Holy Spirit
1 Peter 1:7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. All the fake Christians, the tares will be plucked up and thrown into the fire on the Last Day. Far better to go thru God’s fire now and prove ourselves worthy of His calling.
God told us of the blessings and the curses He would send upon us based on our Love for Him as demonstrated by our obedience. This isn’t about doing 1,000 things right, it is about loving God with all your heart. If we do not obey God, then look out, we will be chastised, punished and rebuked and God will use the powers of darkness to bring this about.
Deuteronomy 28:15, 20-23 However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: 20 The LORD will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.21 The LORD will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. 22 The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. 23 The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron.
I by no means am saying that all sickness is of the devil but I wanted to show that some of it surely is as God allows. Words like heat, drought, blight and fever are not to be always be taken literally in Scripture as many uses are allegorical in the context and refer to life circumstances such as stress, isolation, confusion, stupor, depression, and isolation from God. God does not want us to perish, He does not want to destroy us, He wants to bring us into communion with Him but we must repent from evil and walk in holiness with Him.
The devil promotes the false security of our modern-day apostasy. The devil loves to lie and tell us when we face trials that there is something wrong with us or that God does not love us. But as children of God we must endure discipline and chastisement. Consider this wonderful reminder from the Book of Hebrews.
Hebrews 12:7-11 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
If we are not disciplined we are fakes, tares, goats or said another way, we are not true sons of God, we are illegitimate. We are made Holy by God’s discipline, IF we respond to it.
Many people will blame Satan or the devil for all their afflictions and while that blame is understandable in human logic, in God’s wisdom there may be another responsible party. That responsible party is us and our rebellion and disobedience to His commands. When our heart is not pure, God sends in the bad guys to shake us up and bring us to repentance.
Revelation 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten (allows the enemy to cause trouble). Therefore be zealous and repent.
The solution in this case is not to yell at the devil but to purify yourself just as He is pure. Repent and God will restore the hedge or protection. While the powers of darkness do indeed go around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour, these same forces are allowed by God to bring affliction upon his people to test them and refine them with fire and prepare them for the heavenly realms.
The Many Schemes of Satan
John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy
Jesus spelled out the method of operation of the devil in John Chapter 10. The enemy will try to steal the Word of God from our hearts and turn us to evil desires and lusts. Boy did they ensnare me for most of my life. These evil forces are here to kill you literally through disease, suicide and the like which come upon us as a result of sin and the related curses of God. At the end of the day, the powers of darkness want us destroyed and kept from service to God’s kingdom. As we saw, God allows this and uses the enemy to work His purposes. We need to be equipped with the truth and be standing on solid ground to withstand the schemes of Satan. This is no joke and because the church by and large has either ignored the powers of darkness or made the opposite error of giving them too much due, many believers are in bondage and slaves to the resulting depravity. Oh how I could write a book on this!
Ephesians 6:10-12 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
To conclude this post I wanted to outline some specific schemes the devil uses to destroy us, all done of course with the permission of the sovereign Lord. Deception is always the MO of the devil that provides hidden cover for the following schemes.
1. The enemy steals the word of God from our hearts.
When we do not have a pure heart which means we do not love the Lord with ALL of our heart, the enemy comes to steal the Word we do have from our heart. Consider the Parable of the Four Soils as excerpted below.
Matthew 13:4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds (the powers of darkness) came and ate it up.
Jesus Explained v19 “When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one (power of darkness) comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path”.
Without understanding of the truth we are blind, naked, desolate and ultimately destroyed. Elsewhere we are told we cannot understand the Word until we repent of our wickedness and seek the Lord. Otherwise we will be ever learning but never able to come to knowledge of the truth. Our hearts must be pure to create the fertile soil necessary for the seed of God’s Word to take root and bear fruit of eternal life. I never got this until very recently; but this parable and the truth leaped out at me once I started to lay things down to the Lord and come to Him with a pure heart.
2. The enemy brings trials to shake us out of faith
The powerful and IMHO the most important parable of Jesus is the Four Soils or the Sower, depending on what Gospel you are referencing. This parable defines how the enemy works in the world to destroy people. We saw the birds take away the Word above, now let us see the sun wilt away peoples faith.
Matthew 13:5-6 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun (powers of darkness) was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.
Jesus Explained v20 But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while (not to the end). For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles (falls away and is lost).
3. The enemy entices us into lusts and sin
Continuing with the Four Soils Parable, Jesus describes the thorns that choke out the truth and the love for good. This is where many churches are today (Babylon, the Mother of Harlots), teaching prosperity and peace & safety yet all the while raising up tares and foolish virgins that have the “Word” but have no oil in their lamps. These professing christians are adulterers that walk double minded thinking they can serve two Lords. Jesus does not have their whole heart, they are worshipping with their lips following doctrines of men/demons and their worship of the Lord is in vain.
Matthew 13:7 And some fell among thorns (powers of darkness), and the thorns sprang up and choked them.
Jesus Explained v22 Now he who received seed among the thorns (the enemy) is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
We cannot love the world or the things of the world otherwise we are an enemy of God. God does NOT want you to have a big house, a Mercedes-Benz, lavish vacations or anything such as that. While God may bless us with money and comforts, when we cross the line and make those comforts our idols and put our trust in money and things like such as success or fame, He is no longer our Lord. God demands our whole heart. Most of the church is hearing the Word but not doing the Word. Only the doers of the word will be justified before God (Romans 2:13)
4. The enemy is bringing a “flood” against us
Luke 6:47-49 Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: 48he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a FLOOD occurred, the torrent (powers of darkness) burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49“But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent (powers of darkness) burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”
We need to hear the voice of the Spirit of God and follow Him. You can be assured that you will hear constantly from the powers of darkness. They will entice you with all kinds of evil desires and sins. They could be pride, greed, selfishness, anger, lusts or whatever. These are temptations that we must resist. We can only resist them when we are standing on a rock solid foundation of truth, that being Jesus Christ the Lord. Anything else other than the true Jesus is a foundation built on sand and the flood from Satan will bring that house down into destruction.
Jesus told us His coming would be like the days of Noah. A flood destroyed and took away all those that did evil, everyone but Noah and his direct family. A different kind of flood is coming and is now already evident on earth. It is a flood of false words and deceit originating from the powers of darkness. The “flood” has been released by God, to bring tribulation, wrath and judgment upon the earth. The love of many (the vast majority per the Greek definition of the word) is waxing cold. Despite all the people supposedly coming to Christ, lawlessness or sin ins increasing. A false gospel and a different Jesus is being preached and many are deceived just as Jesus said would happen (Matthew 24:4-5).
5. Satan puts people in prison when they harbor unforgiveness and the vines that grow from it
Anger, bitterness and unforgiveness is a major weapon Satan uses to put people in bondage and lead them on the path to destruction. We are told very clearly, even in the model prayer Jesus gave us that if we do not forgive others, our Father in heaven will not forgive us. Jesus said do not resist an evil man and do not repay evil with evil. Jesus gave us the Parable of the Unforgiving Debtor in Matthew 18. At the end of the story, Jesus gives us the punch line as a stark warning about living with unforgiveness.
Matthew 18:23-35 Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ 34 And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers (the powers of darkness) until he should pay all that was due to him. 35 “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
If we do not forgive others and there are zero excuses, God turns us over to the powers of darkness to chasten us and bring us to repentance. If we do not repent we are destroyed and our sins are not forgiven. Are you starting to see a new reality in how the devil works?
If you revile against your brother you cannot be walking in Love or perfected in Christ. You have not died to yourself and you are on the broad road that leads to destruction. There is no peace and there is no safety on this road, the false sense of security from the “church” is leading you away from the truth. Repent and return to your first love Christ so you may be found worthy to stand before Him on the Last Day.
Conclusion
There are other types used to reference the powers of darkness in the Scriptures such as tree cutters, archers and fire. We need to be watchful and follow the voice of Christ and not the voice of the many antichrist’s that come to us in the form of false teachers and agents of Satan disguised as workers of righteousness. We are told the army of Satan will bring forth many false signs and wonders in the end, and will deceive even the elect, if that were possible. Beware of wolves that come disguised in sheep’s clothing.
Recognize how God uses the powers of darkness to serve His purposes. If you know this truth it will help you discern truth and if enemy strongholds may have been established in your heart. The devil gets way too much blame for the ills of this world when the source of those ills is our sin and practice of idolatry. When we do not obey God, God takes away the hedge that protected us. When we think we are being attacked by Satan, we are likely right but don’t yell at the devil, examine yourself and ask the Holy Spirit to show you where your heart really is. It may very well be God calling you to repentance and using the powers of darkness to bring that about.
We must come through the fire of suffering and chastisement. Unless we are refined with fire, we are not standing on a solid foundation, instead we are standing on sand. We must remain faithful and stand in the grace of God to overcome and be found worthy of the Lord. Hallelujah!!! We too can do it just as Job did it but we need to know the truth about God’s Word and how the powers of darkness operate.
The world can feel like a lonely place right now. There are few that grasp these truths and even fewer churches that are teaching it. It would give me great joy to have fellowship with anyone that truly loves God and is seeking to be partakers of His divine nature.
May God Bless You Richly!!!
Pete,
This article provided much information and awareness as to the forces of darkness, thank you
Spiritual Authority
I was directing traffic as a law enforcement officer many years ago, when Gods Word revealed the following spiritual reality. I would put my hand up to stop the traffic, and then I would wave other vehicles in the direction that they needed to go. It occurred to me that I had the authority by wearing a uniform and having vested powers by the state of Fl. to stop vehicles that weighed several thousand pounds more than I did, because “they recognized this authority”. If I had not been vested with these powers, I would have had no business trying to stop these powerful vehicles, because they could run over me .We need the vested powers/ authority in the spiritual realm by faith in Gods Word, so that we can command respect in this dark spiritual realm. Nobody wants to mess with a guy six foot five, 250 pounds of muscle: we need to project like wise strength in the spiritual realm by faith in Gods WORD. As always, because of the importance of not getting distracted by this literal world, we can look at the spiritual application, in regards to stopping traffic: it is a natural example, of a spiritual reality as it pertains to the dark spiritual forces of this world trying to bring, fear, doubt, hatred, a religious controlling spirit, etc into someone who is lacking spiritual substance of Gods WORD within. These demonic forces will try and run over top of us in the spiritual realm, if they do not recognize or see the power of Gods WORD “in us”. Remember in the book of Acts, when some uncommitted “believers’, who were evidently void of Gods internal WORD, tried to cast out demons? The demons replied back to the men and said, Jesus we know, Paul we know, but who are you? After these Words, the demons who controlled this man, gave those guys a good old country tail whipping because of the lack of presence of Gods WORD spiritually within them. You maybe tired of me saying this, but I don’t, in relation to the presence of Gods WORD within the believer. Gods WORD by faith within us will be recognized by these dark spiritual forces, because it needs to be spiritually recognized, not only by demons and a lost and dying world, but by God himself. Faith in Gods WORD brings the baptism of Power into your life, if you can believe Gods WORD for it. All those who waited on the spirit of power and truth on the day of Pentecost, had internal faith in Gods WORD, and not just simple acknowledgement of it. The demons trembled at Jesus, Gods WORD, because they could recognize the spiritual authority that he possessed within him. I believe, if we could look into the spiritual realm when the Roman soldiers came for Jesus, and they all fell back initially because of his authority, we could see the following: these demons saw the great “I AM” and recognized his authority like always, until the following spiritual event occurred:. In the spirit world at that moment, we would have seen Jesus lay down his sword, and his armor, to allow the attacking demonic forces to influence those soldiers in arresting him, and eventually crucify him for the perfect sacrifice. The Holy Ghost that empowered Gods Word appeared gone, but if they only knew what the crucifixion of the Lord of Glory would accomplish, they would not have killed him. It must have been like seeing the power turned off of an electric fence to the demons in the spirit world, when he laid down his spiritual sword and armor, like a lamb led to the slaughter. Considering the dark spiritual forces of this world being released in these end times, we need to bring as much of Christ, the living WORD, into our spiritual kingdom within. With faith in Gods Word ruling and reigning, the indwelling of his Spirit empowers and leads us in to all truths. We should know how protective his WORD can be, within the spirit of the believer. God truly does want you to focus on bringing his WORD/ appearance, within you: just like a loving natural father gives his words to his children who wisely take his words inside for protection. We must be wise, obedient Sons and Daughters and receive what Christ has made available for the spirit of man, his life saving WORD. There are internal spiritual realities that are being manifested like never before, they are for the benefit of Gods Sons and Daughters to ensure their safety. Bring the tree of life back into the garden of your heart, in the form of Gods WORD. His true Sons and Daughters will never again preference it over their own self will. The below link helps brings more understanding in this area. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lvZlHyY8sg&feature=related
God bless, Jer33:3