We must be careful not to attribute to satan the abilities and honors which belong to God and Him alone. The Bible says the Devil does not have unlimited power; he cannot be everywhere at once and he does not know everything. He is a created, limited being. He depends upon God for his existence. He was unable to tempt Jesus without the permission of the Holy Spirit. He also could not tempt Job without God's permission. And he cannot take a human life without first getting God's permission.
Job 1:10 reads, "Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land"
1 John 5:18 says, "We know that those who are born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them, and the evil one does not touch them"
Satan cannot read our thoughts. He does not know us like God does. However he gets to know about us little by little through our idle conversations with friends. So if our talk is worldly, we give him plenty of ammunition to use against us. But if our words line up with God's, then satan has nothing to hold against us.
Most of us already knows the description of Satan's identity and capabilities. One thing I would like to add to all these is the fact that satan also leads us to success. Though he doesn't do it directly and knowingly, but if we understand how he gets even more desperate as we approach a blessing, we can easily tell where we stand in relation to our blessing by his desperate attempts to ruin its delivery. He'll do anything to keep us from worshipping God and praising his holy name.
Let's be honest; every time we stumble due to the adversary's plot to hurt our relationship with God, we end up angry and ask God why He has allowed us to get hurt or why did He not protect us from the evil one. I believe as a child of the most high God, we qualify to ask certain similar questions.
But does it ever occur to us that the plot satan had concocted to hurt us is the complete opposite of what God has in store for us? So knowing the blessing we're about to receive, satan plans something that looks, and sounds, and smells just like it; and makes it look like it has arrived with a heavenly postage. And when we unwrap the package and see its true source, we must wait on the Lord with even more conviction.
So the next time we think God is finally blessing us with something good but it turns out not so; we must believe that the real package is right around the corner. And instead of letting go of the vision, we must cling to it even more because if it weren't God's plan for us in the first place, satan wouldn't have a reason to stir things up.
Blessings...
