Welcome to the In Touch podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, November third. The devil is a powerful and relentless enemy, but God has given believers everything needed to stand firm and prevail. Join us for part two of Doctor Stanley's message, Satan's strategy, and learn how to fight and win spiritual battles.
Now, let me say this: if you're a father or a mother, or maybe a single mother. I want to encourage you to jot down what we're talking about today because your children need it. Listen, they're not going to get it at school. Most of the time, they don't go to Sunday school. Who's going to instruct them?
Who's going to teach them how to deal with their primary enemy, who is Satan? And we said here is his objective. His objective is to do what? Draw your children away from God, thwart God's purpose in their life very early. Deny God of His glory and honor as a result of their obedience, and ultimately to destroy them.
And we see it happening all over the place. If you don't instruct your children, you don't guide them, you don't show them what's really happening and how they're to feel and how to respond in temptation, then who's going to train them? And let's face it, most of us adults would have to admit, if you and I were growing up today, and we were thirteen, sixteen, eighteen, or twelve, or whatever it might be, in this world of absolute passion, sensuality, immorality, violence, lack of truth, compromise, corruption, where would you and I be today if we were growing up in the same age they grew up in? None of us know if we would have survived or not. Very important.
You teach and train your children with the truth.
Now I want you to turn back, if you will, to Second Corinthians chapter 10 for a moment. Look, if you will, in verses 4 and 5, because again he brings up this whole issue of warfare and deception and what we have to deal with when we face temptation over and over and over again. Here's what he says in verse 4 of chapter 10. For the weapons of our warfare, which simply says we are in war and we do have weapons, are not of the flesh that is of ourselves, but divinely powerful. That is, our weapons against Satan are divinely powerful.
It's the supernatural power of God working within us. He says, "For the destruction of fortresses, that is strongholds." Now, what does he mean by that? That if watch this carefully. If Satan can tempt you and cause you to be defeated in a specific area, he's going to come back to that area over and over and over again. Which says if he can set up a stronghold in your life.
It may be a toehole to begin with, a foothole, and then a stronghold. Is what he's going to do when he wants to get at you. He's coming back at the same place. This is why we find ourselves sometimes in an area of our life that is an area of weakness, and we think, "Well, why is it, and why does Satan come at me at this point, and why is that I fail in this same situation every time?" Why? Because Satan has found a toehole, he established a foothole, and now a stronghold, and he knows that in.
Certain situations we're going to talk about in a moment. Certain time in your life, at a moment he wants to get to you, and he knows exactly where to go to. And so he says here. The weapons of our warfare, not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations.
Listen to this: we are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. We are taking these thoughts captive for the obedience of Christ. And so, therefore, we have to control our thinking. We have to deal with our thinking. We have to bring these thoughts under the control of our Lord Jesus Christ, taking every thought captive to what.
Captive to the obedience of Christ. When our thinking goes astray, what happens? We're headed for trouble. Satan knows exactly how to get us thinking the wrong thing in order to get us to do what—to do the very wrong thing.
So, what is his strategy?
Well, the first thing is this: very simple, but very, very important. That is, he directs our attention to a specific need or desire. There's some things that Satan is not going to tempt you with because he knows that you have no desire and no need in that area, but he knows what our needs are, what our desires are.
Somebody says, "Well, is Satan omniscient?" No, he's not. He doesn't know everything, but he knows just enough.
So with Eve, he said, "You want to be like God?" Well, think about this. That's a pretty fantastic question. If somebody asked me, would I like to have the same knowledge God has? Yes, but what would it cost you? What did he say to Jesus?
Here's Jesus, been fasting forty days and had nothing to eat, and he was hungry and tired. What does Satan say to him? He says, "Bread." First thing he said to him, why? Because he was hungry. There was a need, there was a desire, and here's what Satan does: he takes those specific needs and desires, so manipulates our thinking that we think we have to have it and have to have it then, and he tempts us to listen to misuse our God-given gifts, our God-given opportunities in such a way to satisfy ourselves at the expense of the will of God's purpose and plan for our life.
It's the way he operates, and you look, think back in your life. What does Satan tempt you with most often? And isn't it something that has to do with some need you feel, some desire that you have in your life? That's the way he operates on Jesus. That's the way he operates continually.
Now, second strategy I want you to jot down is this, and that is that Satan chooses his time. This is a very smart tactic on his part, because you see, in any warfare, timing is very important. And one of the interesting things about studying warfare is that you'll you'll discover that sometimes so much would hinge on just a matter of a few hours or an hour, or sometimes minutes and sometimes seconds. Satan knows when you're your lowest moment. He knows when you're the strongest.
He knows when not to hit you. He knows exactly when to attack you, and what you have to ask is, do I know those moments? Do you know those weakest moments in your life? You say, Well, how will I find out? We'll take a little inventory of your life.
For example, as you think about when you're the most temptable in some situation in your life, ask yourself this question: When I get in that position, what's going on around me? What's my environment like? Is it when I have not eaten for a while, or is it that when I'm angry because I've been mistreated or criticized or gossiped about? Is it when I'm just feeling lonely? You may not even be alone, but you can feel lonely in a crowd.
Is that when he hits you the strongest, or just when you are physically tired of it? Watch this. You can serve the Lord God with all of your heart. And one of the dangers every pastor and every person who serves God has to watch out for is this: just simply because you serve the Lord doesn't mean that you're immune to Satan's attacks. The more effective you are, the more obedient you are, the holier your walk before God, I guarantee you, Satan mounts his most vicious attacks.
Because he wants to bring you down, he wants to divert God's purpose and plan for your life, whatever he can do.
So Satan's timing is very important to him. It's very important to us. There's the third aspect of his strategy, and that's this: to create doubt in your mind. One of his primary tools is to create doubt. If he can create doubt in your mind, he's on his way to defeating you.
Now you say, "Well, I believe the word of God, and I don't think Satan could get me to doubt God's word." You know what? Watch this carefully now. Remember, we said that that he's cunning and crafty. He's not going to say to you, "Don't believe the word of God." Here's what he's going to say. This is how crafty and how successful he is.
He's going to tempt you with something. And he's going to say the same thing to you. Are you going to sense this in your spirit? He said to Eve.
Now, is that really what that means? Is that really what that means? If Satan can get you to doubt one truth of the Word of God to the point that you are willing to manipulate some interpretation of it in order. To rationalize your conduct, if he can get you to do that in one area of your life, I'm telling you, you are on a slippery path for a long time. But the simple reason, listen: if he can get you to misinterpret, If he can get you to rationalize a passage of Scripture that has to do with something in your life that you know that that that God's dealing with you about it, so every weakness in your life, some sin that keeps cropping up, and finally you get so tired you say, "I'm you know I'm going to look at the Word of God for myself.
I'm not going to listen to pastors and preachers and all these folks. I'm going to find out for myself." So I can tell you exactly what you do. Because here's what Satan will lead you to do. Satan will lead you to go to some other passage and see if you can't find some other passage that gives you a little bit of leeway, and then he will say to you, "Well, after all, this is a different culture. This book was written thousands of years ago.
This is a different culture, and therefore, you don't have to really translate it that way or interpret it that way." Listen carefully. If he can get you, To deliberately, willfully misinterpret any principle of the Word of God, just one. You know what? He knows that the misinterpretation, the disobedience, and rationalization about the second principle in His Word is coming soon because you've already opened the door to doubt and unbelief. Legitimizing the second disobedience is easy, and the third one is easy, and the next thing you know, you are on your way to defeat.
And here is the problem: Satan has blinded your eyes to the truth of what you are doing. You are doing what you would have sworn before you would never do, and that's rationalized the truth of the Word of God. You cannot afford to do that. I'm telling you, my friend, with all of my heart. You start manipulating, misinterpreting, deliberately the word of God, and you are in for some awesome, awesome pain and suffering in your life.
Well, the fourth one is this.
Now watch this carefully. This is one of Satan's tactics in his strategy, and that is to get you in debate. The last thing you want to do is to debate with the devil. Because you can't win. The only person who wins that battle is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Don't get in a debate with the devil. For example, if you find yourself facing some temptation, don't start talking about it. Say, "Well, now I got to think about this." Well, what is it you need to think about? Thou shalt not. What do I need to think about that?
And so Satan says, "Well, but there are different views." I'm telling you, you can't defeat the devil in debate.
So you say, "Well, if I don't debate with him, then what do I do?" Here's what you do: it's real simple. You say, "It is written." You say, "This is the word of God." Anything beyond that in your conversation with the devil, you're going to lose. Do not debate with the devil. Here's what you do: when you attempted. Here's what you do.
What does God say about this? You say, "Well, yeah, there's some situations that God hadn't spoken to. Name me one, just one." Now, they may not be a single verse of Scripture that says, "Thou shalt not" about everything, but the principle is there. The principle is that God's not going to give us an incomplete book. You can't face any situation or circumstances which God will not give you wisdom to do the right thing and show you what the right thing is all about.
So one of those tactics is get you in debate, and if he can, he will destroy you. Another one of his tactics is deception.
Now we've said a lot about it already, but deception is his style. Deception, in essence, is this: to get you to believe something that appears to be true when it's not true; to get you to believe something is true when it is a lie. This is the way he operates. You say, "Well, how can I keep from being deceived?" The only way you're going to keep from being deceived is to know the truth. How you going to know the truth?
The Word of God. How you going to know the Word of God? Time, spending the Word of God, meditating upon the Word of God, listening to messages that lay out. Listen, the principles based upon the Word of God, and then applying them to your heart. If you don't know the truth, you're going to be deceived.
And you know what? He wins that way. If he can get you to believe a lie, then you're defeated. That's part of his strategy. That's just the way he operates.
So you cannot expect a debate with him and come up with the truth, because anyone who's the father of lies is not going to tell you the truth.
Now, this is one of the most subtle parts of his deception.
Now, watch this. Here's what he says. Don't worry about all that. What now? What is it that you really want?
What is it that you desire? Isn't this a need in your life? One of his clever tactics and his deception is: don't think about the future.
So what does he do? He covers the future consequences of what's going on. He just wants you to think about today, now, satisfaction, indulgence, enjoyment, flash—you name it. Don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself.
It's sure will it'll destroy you. You have to remember that he majors on present moment. He camouflages, covers, and overshadows the future. He doesn't want you thinking about possible future consequences, because if you do, you'll start backing off and thinking, "Wait a minute, where's this going to lead me? What path is this going to lead me down?" You see, one thing he doesn't want you to ask when you attempt it is this: If I move in that path.
Where is it going to ultimately lead me? It isn't what you ask him that question. That's why he blocks your mind to today, present need, present desire. Because if you look down the path now, watch this. Listen carefully.
If you and I could see down these paths of our life, the way God sees them all the way to the end. You and I would never choose to walk the path of deception and sin that ends in destruction of all different aspects of our life. The issue is: Are you going to believe the deception of Satan? Because he doesn't want you thinking about the future, only the present, and that can have consequences beyond your fondest imagination. For good, when you trust in God, because He's got great things for the future.
Detrimental if you're living disobedient to Him. Another one of those tactics exists. He creates division.
Now you think about this. What what was His purpose in the Garden? To pull Adam and Eve, God's first two created beings, away from the Father, to divide them, to separate them from God, and He succeeded. What happened in their first family? Cain and Abel.
He divided them. What's been happening down through the centuries? Dividing people, and one of the worst things he does, he divides churches. Satan loves to divide a church. You know why?
Because so many hundreds and sometimes thousands of people's lives can be affected by it. And the unbelieving world says they can't even get along. Why don't want to join one of those organizations? Satan loves to divide the church. And that's why the unity of the body is so very important, and that our love for each other, our care for each other, our understanding of each other, our building up of each other, our encouraging one another is so very important, because Satan is a divider.
And down through the centuries, and looking, we live in a world that's divided. We live in a divided world. Why? Because Satan is behind it. This group, he's deceived this group to believing this, and this group to believing that, and they fight each other and kill each other and war with each other.
What do you have when it's all over? Bloodshed and the loss of life and pain and suffering and hurt, separation, and nothing good. That's one of the tactics he has, and this really is his ultimate, and that is. To destroy. You say, "Well, now I know a lot of people who are not Christians who are just happy as they can be and have peace and contentment." No, you don't.
No, you don't. You know a lot of people who put on a big front. You know a lot of people who have some sense of satisfaction in life and some sense of happiness in life. Here's what Satan does: he destroys your peace, your joy, your happiness, your contentment. And you see what happens is he creates greater desire to cause you to sin.
He creates want in your life. He creates all kinds of menus for you to try, in order to do what—to ultimately bring you to destruction. Satan's ultimate goal, listen, draw you away from God, destroy us. Cheat God, deprive God of the glory and honor that all of us need to give to Him and desire for Him, to destroy the kingdom of God.
Now the problem is this: Satan knows he is a defeated foe. He knows he's going to spend eternity in hell.
So therefore, listen: he can't take a single one of child of God's children with him.
So what does he do? He tries to destroy our witness and our testimony, causes us to be useless and miserable in our Christian life. He knows that he ultimately. Is had it, he's had it for all eternity. What he's trying to do is to destroy everything he possibly can that can bring glory and honor to God, including you and me.
These are his tactics, and you know what? He's using every single one of them against every single one of us. And when you understand what the tactics are, and you begin to understand what he's up to and how he approaches you. Once you understand that and begin to listen to become sensitive to your environment, what's going on when you feel these things, you're going to be able to live in a greater sense of victory than ever before. But let me simply say this to you: If you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your savior, friend, you're having to do it alone.
You're having to live your life apart from His help and strength and guidance and knowledge in your life. God will change your life. He'll give you a victory to walk you've never had before, a sense of confidence and assurance that no matter what He throws at you, you will be able to survive. You will be able to bring honor to God, and He will not be able to destroy your peace, your joy, your contentment, and the wonderful assurance God has given you as one of His children. Thank you for listening to part two of today's podcast titled "Satan's Strategy." If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by in touch.
dot org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
