Stratagems Against Those in God's Hand
His stratagem against those who are in God’s hand: "Jehovah said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job? for there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God, and turneth away from evil" (Job 1.8).
He shoots his fiery darts (Eph. 6.16). Satan cannot easily employ his strategy of either enticing surreptitiously or threatening openly those valiant Christian soldiers, for they are strong enough to war against him. So he throws fiery darts at them according to his murderous nature (John 8.44), expecting to inflict deadly wounds on them so that they may not recover. However, we have the way to destroy him, and this is in believing in the faithfulness of God: "taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one" (Eph. 6.16)—meaning, using faith as a shield to quench the fiery darts and not as a clamp to pull out the darts after being wounded. We place faith between ourselves and the Devil just as a shield can separate us from an enemy in battle. If the enemy wants to hurt us he has to penetrate the shield, but should the shield be sturdy enough, the enemy’s sword or spear cannot reach us. Likewise, then, in our battle with Satan, we take up our faith in God as a shield, so that when the fiery darts of Satan approach us, they are destroyed by this faith and thus cannot hurt us. Yet we who hold the shield need to be aware of the direction of the Devil’s attack—whether front, back, left or right. Trust in God and be watchful. Satan will not be able to succeed in his strategy.
He spreads his snares (1 Tim. 3.7). Believers press on towards the goal (Phil. 3.14), they do not travel in circles. Satan hates to see great progress made by believers, so he secretly lays snares along the way to cause them to fall. When a runner suddenly hits something, he easily falls and is hurt greatly. Hence Satan lays his crafty snares everywhere with the intention of causing believers to fall so far that they can never recover. The secret of regaining victory against the Enemy is found in Psalm 25.15: "Mine eyes are ever toward Jehovah; for he will pluck my feet out of the net." At first glance this verse seems to be worded rather strangely, for in running through the way that is densely laid with snares our eyes should be on the road in order to avoid these snares. Why, then, in the words of the psalmist, should our eyes be turned upward towards the Lord in heaven? For if we face heaven and run forward, will we not fall to our death in these snares? We need to know here that the nets spread by the Devil may not be physical in nature and hence are not easy to detect. And even if we should know where they are, the result will be that we will so concentrate our attention on them and exert our uttermost strength to escape from them that we shall be unable to press on. For this reason we must look to God, for He knows where the nets are and He will pluck our feet from these nets. He will watch over our every step till we reach the goal.
He practices his wiles (Eph. 6.11). If a person chooses Christ and abides in Him, the Devil has no wiles other than enticing him to depart from his position in Christ and to lead him away from Christ afterward. But we must follow the advice of Ephesians 6.13: “Take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day.”
He accuses believers (Rev. 12.10). Satan notices our every movement. He always seeks opportunity to accuse us that we may be judged along with him. But we should “overcome him because of the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 12.11). For “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us [continuing present tense] from all sin” (1 John 1.7). The blood of Jesus cleanses us today. His blood is our redemption price; it renders Satan’s accusation ineffective. If perchance a believer sins, he will not feel condemned if he has asked for the cleansing of the precious blood of Christ. Otherwise, he will give ground to the Enemy.
He corrupts our faith (2 Cor. 11.3). We ought to have a simplicity and purity towards Christ such as a pure virgin has towards her husband. The Devil tries to defile us by seducing us to be unfaithful to Christ and fall into sin. We may overcome him by using the word in 1 John 2.14: "the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the evil one." For God’s word is the Sword of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 6.17). Satan will be wounded if we counterattack with the Sword of the Spirit. When the Lord Jesus was himself tempted, He used the word of the Scriptures to overcome Satan. Hence let the word of God dwell richly in our own hearts (Col. 3.16) that we may overcome the Evil One. As soon as we are tempted and attacked, we can instantly recall some appropriate Scripture which we fully believe. And thus we shall defeat our Foe. This is what using the word of God to overcome the Enemy means.
He fashions himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11.14). If Satan should appear in his natural form, he would be recognized by watchful believers and thus be rejected. Hence he fashions himself as an angel of light in order to deceive believers into unconsciously walking a deceitful path. He pretends to be the voice of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit so that believers who are zealous to do the will of God will hastily follow it. He also counterfeits truth to make people accept him. This scheme of his seems to be quite difficult for them to overcome. Yet the Scripture teaches us as follows: "prove the spirits . . . Ye are of God, my little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world" (1 John 4.1,4). We can overcome false spirits by leaning on the Holy Spirit within us. And if we cannot decide whether the leading is of God or not, we should first adopt a neutral attitude and pray: "O God, I will do whatever comes from You; but I will reject all that is of Satan. Please prove to me where this guidance comes from." God will no doubt make it clear. Constant practice brings in healthy spiritual life.
He persecutes fiercely (Rev. 2.10). The wiles of the Devil are manifold. He will use all kinds of means to hinder the spiritual advance of the believer. When he finds he cannot block the advance, he will use persecution to put the believer in prison so that the latter is unable to work for the Lord anymore. He even expects this believer to fall. For this reason, all who love self and are mindful of themselves are no match for Satan; for as they are threatened with deadly persecution they shall lose the will to resist. But the faithful of the Lord have already put life and death out of their mind. Although they may encounter bonds and tribulations everywhere, even to the point of death, yet "they loved not their life even unto death" (Rev. 12.11). And thus shall they overcome Satan: "this is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith" (1 John 5.4). How, then, can any chains shake their hearts?
He hinders answers to the prayers of the saints (Dan. 10.12-13). "Fear not, Daniel; for from the first day that thou didst set thy heart to understand, and to humble thyself before thy God, thy words were heard: and I am come for thy words’ sake" (v.12). Even before Daniel’s prayer was finished, the answer was already on the way. "But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days" (v.13). This passage shows how Satan tries to block the answer to the prayer of the saints. Was it too hard for Daniel to pray and fast for twenty-one days before he got the answer? Today Satan is still using this delaying tactic to answered prayer in order to make the believer’s heart to faint. Let us overcome him by implementing into our lives the word in Luke 18.1: that we "ought always to pray, and not to faint." Let us hold on to our request, and if we do, we shall indeed overcome. Some may think if we pray in faith, then to pray once is sufficient. Though in certain instances this is true, it is also true in other instances that we need greater faith to pray without fainting. We should know that as we pray, the answer has already come from God’s throne. Yet at that very moment there arises great conflict in the spiritual realm. We ought to persevere in prayer, asking God to "destroy the works of the devil." And thus shall our prayer hit the mark. We maintain an attitude of not quitting before we have the answer. Though the Foe attempts to hinder, heavenly angels will fight for us.
