Spiritual Warfare, Really?

According to a study done by George Barna and the Barna Group, 40% of Christians in the United States strongly agreed that Satan “is not a living being but is a symbol of evil.” An additional two out of ten Christians (19%) said they “agree somewhat” with that perspective. Only 26% of the Christians in the USA believe that Satan exists, the rest are not sure.

Before I get into this understand that sin came into the world through Satan and because of this we no longer live in a perfect world, which means there is going to be times of sickness, troubles and trials that arise from our own decisions.

But that does not change the fact that Satan is still active in the world and will attack believers. All that I know about Satan is found in the Word of God which happens to be the truth.

The Bible says that Satan was created by God as a cherub, the most powerful of God's angelic beings. Sometime after his creation and before the creation of mankind, Satan rebelled against God and took one third of the angels, now referred to as demons, with him into rebellion.

Satan was created as a perfect being. He is described as originally being wise and completely righteous. However, pride caused Satan to fall, Scripture says, "your heart was lifted up because of your beauty” since he wanted to receive the worship due to God alone.

At that point there was rebellion in heaven, when Satan convinced one third of the angels to rebel against God. Michael, an archangel of God, fought with God's angels against Satan and his angels, with Satan losing the battle and being cast from heaven down to earth.

However, Satan wasn't finished in his rebellion against God. Satan took on the form of a snake in the garden of Eden to tempt Eve.

He managed to convince Eve that God's instructions against eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were done as a way of keeping something good from her. She believed Satan's lie that she would "become like God."

We don't know where Adam was at the time of Satan's temptation, but he followed his wife's lead and also disobeyed God's instructions.

We know all of this through studying the Word of God. We also know that Satan continues in his rebellion today, since he hates God and His plans. We know that he wants people to worship him and follow his evil ways.

We know that he continues to oppose Jesus Christ, who is God and who took on the form of a man to redeem humanity from their sin, and restore their relationship with Him.

This was not God’s original plan. His original plan was for man to rule on this planet but when man forfeited that ability to rule, it became Satan’s to rule. That is why God sent Jesus to the earth. To give us the rule back. That is why we need to become kingdom men and women, living in the power that God intended for us to live in.

And we know that we as believers can overcome Satan when as he Apostle John said, "the word of God abides in you."

That is how Jesus, who was God in human form overcame Satan when He was tempted by Satan. Jesus cited scripture to him and sent him packing!

In addition, Paul tells us that the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, is our only offensive weapon against the Satan.

In the parable of the sower, Jesus said that there were those who heard the word of God, but failed to take it in; they were led astray by the devil, they were the seed that fell by the side of the road.

So Christians we can resist the devil by knowing and memorizing scripture so that we cannot be deceived by the lies of Satan. The Bible gives believers instructions about overcoming the devil.

Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. James 4:7

"In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Ephesians 4:26-27

In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Ephesians 6:16

You have often heard me say, “new level new devil.”

You have heard me say that “we are over the target so expect the enemy to not relent.” Why would I say those things?

Satan is not going to bother you if he already has you. It wasn’t until after Jesus came and died for our sins that Satan was even threatened.