By: Colonel James Green, January 1985
IN ORDER TO BE VICTORIOUS IN OUR CHRISTIAN WALK, we must learn to do battle against the “world” (1 John 2:15-16), the “flesh” (James 4:1-7), and the “devil” (Ephesians 6:10-18). If we intend to possess our full inheritance (Canaan’s Land experience), then we must learn how to subdue our enemies. Jesus expects us to make His/our enemies a footstool (Hebrews 10:13). Inasmuch as Satan is still causing great havoc among the people of God, God expects His people to tread him and his demons underfoot.
I assume that you are already a born-again, Holy Ghost filled believer, and that you have a love relationship with Jesus Christ. I also trust that you are being dealt with in a Father-son or a Father- daughter relationship. With this established, studying about war and your enemies won’t adversely affect your walk with Christ rather strengthen you in the pathway of overcoming.
Some well-meaning but uninformed Christians can’t see the idea of war, let alone the need to study the tactics of the enemy. But, as for me, I’ve heard the BATTLE CRY in my own heart, and I know that God has called me into His Army; therefore, it’s a soldier’s duty to study war and the strategies of war.
As one advances in awareness of the destruction that Satan has sown and is reaping in human lives, one is quite capable of looking at the destroyer without losing out with Christ. To presume that to study the mechanisms of the enemy will deter one from Christ and His eternal purposes is as foolish as presuming that one can fight a war without any knowledge of the enemy (i.e., who he is and how he operates).
Far too many of God’s people are too busy being comfortable to face the reality that there is a warfare raging for the souls of men. Too many of God’s people don’t realize that when they refuse to engage in active warfare against Satan and his demonic hordes that they are like the children of Ephraim who, though armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. God did not give us the spiritual equipment that He has for it to lie dormant while we wallow in a fleshpot of compromising Christianity. No, He has given us the equipment to WIN the war!
Through the Spirit of God, we can come into a real working knowledge of how to outwit and overcome the devil. In so doing, we become the overcomers that God intends us to be; we begin to be masters over being mastered over by the evil devices of our deceitful foe. We need not let ignorance and fear keep us in the place of inferiority, but we can face reality and ask God to open our eyes and make us Victorious conquerors.
Satan is a master, an evil genius. His influence on humanity ranges from celestial (or spiritual) deceptions to gutter degradations to insanity and suicide. He works at penetrating into public and domestic life, into political alignments, into customs, rituals, religions, and even into the very minds of devout and sincere Christians. He maneuvers, manipulates, coerces, tricks, and seduces by his strong, wicked capacities. He promotes lascivious and ungodly lusts and fleshly desires. He entwines himself into the conversations of people, into music, sports, drama, art, literature, etc. He is able to transform himself to be as an angel of light, masquerading as a sheep while walking about as a roaring lion, seeking out those whom he can destroy.
Did you know that Jesus said more about Satan and demons than He did about heavenly angels? Did you also know that Jesus spoke more about evil than He did about good? Was He trying to catch our attention? He spoke more about Hell and its consequences than of Heaven and its rewards!
“God did not give us the spiritual equipment that He has for it to lie dormant while we wallow in a fleshpot of compromising Christianity.”
Should we as Christians hide our heads under our pillows and hope that the devil will go away, or should we face the fact that Satan is such a notable character that we need to sit up and take notice? Not only should we take notice, but we should begin to war
AGGRESSIVELY against him that we do not need to be ensnared in his deceptions! We will not defeat the enemy by pretending he isn’t there. We will defeat the enemy by using the weapons of our inheritance in JESUS CHRIST.
Satan’s names are many and descriptive of his condemning nature. In each of his characteristics we can find aspects of our society; all of his sinister ways, his lineage, his evil intentions, and his wicked activities are manifest. The term “devil” stems through the Latin “diabolus” from the Greek word “slanderer”. In the Septuagint and the Greek testaments, it is equivalent to the Hebrew “satan”, meaning the “adversary”, par excellence.
The term “devil” is a synonym for “satan”. In the plural, the expression, “devils” generally refers to the diabolic ministrants. In many of the books of the Old Testament, “satan” is termed “Belial” (“Belial”: Deut. 13:13; Judg. 19:22; | Sam. 1:16; Il Sam. 16:7; I Kgs. 21:10, II Chr. 13:7; see also the N.T., II Cor. 6:15). The definition of the Hebrew word “Belial” in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance says, “without profit, worthlessness; by extension, destruction, wickedness [translated as the following: evil, naughty, ungodly (men), wicked].” The New Testament word for “Belial”, found in II Corinthians 6:15, means, “worthlessness; Belial, as an epithet [i.e., a word expressing a personal attribute] of Satan”,
There are related spirits that stem from “without profit” and “worthlessness”, such as slothfulness, laziness, ugliness, sluggishness, cowardliness, dumbness, wrong diligence, insufficiency, folly, foolishness, failure, inferiority, shame, self- rejection, self-pity, insecurity, inadequacy, pretension, passivity, listlessness, lethargy, hopelessness, dejection, and defeatism. (Sad but true, many of these words could describe the condition of today’s comfortable, compromised Christianity.)
The devil is referred to as “Tchart” by the Russians. The Persians,call him “Dev”. To the Islamic he is “Iblis”. In Syria he is called “Beherit”. The Arabs call him “Al Shaiton”. In Egyptian mythology the devil is identified as the evil “Set”, who destroyed his brother Osiris. In Japan, he is referred to as “O Yama”. The Koran refers to him as “Satan”. In the folklore of Mesopotamia he is “Namtar”. In India he is “Mrtya” or “Mora”. In Brahmanism belief, he is the “Demon of Hironykosha”. And in the Greek legends, he is “Typhon”. In the folklore of many lands, the devil is likened unto a serpent, a goat, a cat, a wolf, a ghost, and a dragon. What is interesting to note is that every culture had some sort of identifying word or words for him and his activities. How could anyone believe there is not a devil?
Going back to the word “devil” which means “slanderer”, we certainly see that his nature is working in the human race. [And the New Testament purposefully speaks much of him and his minions.] The word “devil” is mentioned some 60 times in the New Testament, the word “devilish” one time, and the word “devils” is mentioned 55 times.
Along with the word “slanderer” is the word “accuser” or “false accuser”. If you would take the time to search out the Scriptures on this subject, you would see that Satan slanders and accuses the believer. Slander means “to utter slander against; to utter false charges or misrepresentations which defame and damage another’s reputation; a false and defamatory oral statement about a person”. The word accuser means “to charge with a fault or an offense; to blame; to bring an accusation”. Think how many times the devil utters false charges and brings evil accusations against us! Too many times we think it’s our own mind, our own thoughts. We, in turn, get condemned and lose our joy. Satan also sends others our way to slander and condemn our Christian walk.
“We will not defeat the enemy by pretending he isn’t there. We will defeat the enemy by using the weapons of our inheritance in JESUS CHRIST.”
There are many spirits that work along the lines of accusation and slander.
They are these: accusation, fault finding, criticism, judging, condemnation, Cursing, blasphemy, jesting, gossip, backbiting, mockery, belittling, reviling, murder, deceit, liar, falsehoods, hypocrisy, dispute, backlashing, contempt, and spite. These are all enemies that we must learn to subdue, take dominion over, master. How do we do it? First, we must recognize them as enemies: second, we must exercise our God-given power to bind them (Matt. 18:18; 16:19) or cast them out (Mark 16:17-18).
If you’re plagued by any of these spirits, go to war against them. Satan will send a host of demons our way to destroy our faith in God, vex our souls, and ultimately try to get us to backslide. We have the power to tread upon their heads and grind them to dust!!
So, when the old slanderer, the accuser, comes your way, take the sword of the Spirit and the Word and attack him. Don’t be another casualty on the battlefield. BE AN OVERCOMING VICTOR!! In part two we want to expose more of the characteristics and workings of Satan.