Satan's Battle Tactic Part 6 Series

Satan’s Battle Tactics Part 6

Scriptures: John 10:10; Acts 4:1-21; Matthew 10:28

Last week we traveled home to bury Nikki’s grandmother. Grandma Bea was one hundred years old when she died and she never once that I know of ever lost her faith in God. In the worst circumstances that I witnessed her experiencing, she always gave God praise and was thankful for each day. She was unmovable in her faith in God and in her belief that He had her in His hands. I mention this today because she was of that old school that believed that God’s word did not change with society’s beliefs and if you asked her about what was happening and her thoughts, she would tell you. What I really want you to know about Grandma Bea is that God taught her through experiencing and hearing the Word. She never learned to read so she valued the Word that she heard as others read the Bible in Church and when she listened to it on CDs. Because she placed so much value on God’s Word and she believed so very strongly in Him, she could not be shaken, broken or threaten. This is part six of my series dealing with the Satan’s battle tactics and I want you to think about what I told you about my Grandma Bea as you listen and take notes this morning.

Today I will share the final tactic of this series and next week I will conclude the series with how we can defend ourselves against these tactics. The final tactic that I will cover in this series is his tactic of using threats to keep us silent. I want you to ask yourself two questions this morning: “Based on how I am living, can I be threatened; and “Am I being threatened?” I told you previously that Jesus said “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) If Satan cannot outright steal the Word from you he will try to get you to sacrifice it on his altar (making in null and void in your life)? When he can silence us through his utilization of threats we, not him, make the Word of God void in our life because we will not speak the Word in our circumstances and thus the Word lies dormant within us.

I want to share with you the definition of the word threat. Threat is defined as, “the declaration of intent to cause harm; a sign of something bad.” The threat of harm can include physical, emotional, and mental pain. Keep in mind that a threat is only viable if the person making the threat has the power to carry it out. Today Christians are threatened into silence by society (we no longer speak against what society believes when their beliefs contradict the Word of God) and we are silenced by the threat of our past and current sins coming to light. These are the two primary ways that our enemy is using to threaten us into silence making the Word void in our life. Let’s start with the threat of exposure from our past and current sins because I want to spend most of my time talking about the threats from society.

Last week it was in the news that a governor was indicted and charged with invasion of privacy. He had an affair with a woman and took pictures of her in a compromising position. He told the woman that he would release those photos if she ever spoke of their affair. He was threatening her to keep her silent about the affair. How many of us have things in our past and present that Satan has used to silence the Word of God in our life? I once asked someone why they would not speak out about the life one of their family members were living and they told me that they could not say anything because they used to do the same thing. Even though they no longer lived that life, they did not feel that they had a right to say anything because of their past. This is an example of how our enemy will use our past to nullify our use of the Word of God to help someone else come out of sin. It is hard for us to stand against sins that we ourselves have participated in. Luke 8:17 says, “For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light.” Our secrets allow Satan to keep us quiet unless we move beyond them. We must live in the Light so that when our past is used to threatened us, we are able to say “By the grace of God that was who I was, not who I am.” We must live our life in such a way that we cannot be threatened into silence. We can rise above the failures of our past and walk before God as His servant. Don’t let the enemy silence you when you could be the instrument that God uses to bring someone out of darkness into His marvelous light!!! Remember, it’s the Word of God that can change a life and that is why our enemy does not want us to have or use it! I was talking recently with someone who, like me, grew up in the Church and has attended Church all of his life. However, even though he was actively going to Church, he would still participate in the things of the world. After experiencing some difficult situations in his life, he decided to rededicate himself to God. He started reading the word and really giving God some quality time. Through this he lost his desire to do the things he was doing which included drinking, smoking, etc. He said through the Word God removed the desire! We have all sinned and in some cases lived lifestyles that we would never want others to know about, but the greatest mistake of all is to live in the shadow (threat of exposure) of those sins to the point where we will not rightly act on or walk in the power of the Word of God. So if there are things in your life that Satan can threaten you with, it’s time to get rid of them. Put them in your past and leave them there. Do not have anything in your life that Satan can use to threaten you into silence. Proverbs 28:1 says, “The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, but the righteous are bold as a lion.” If we are to be bold as lions, we have to walk in the truth of God’s word!