Strategies Of The Devil

The Devil’s Hidden Army

     The devil uses evil spirits (demons and/or fallen angels) to influence us.  For example, evil spirits of doubt, unbelief, and skepticism make us not trust that Jesus is real and the Word is true.  Evil spirits of pride make us feel like we don’t need Jesus.  Evil spirits of anger, fear, rejection, and lust keep us distracted and focused on our own well-being.  Evil spirits of witchcraft pull us into idolatry and poisons our minds.  Evil spirits can cause diseases and infirmities that keep us focused on ourselves and open the door to self-pity.  

     The devil has done a great job in keeping his organized army of evil spirits on the down-low.  Most Christians not only lack the tactics to fight, but they don’t even know they are in a fight!  They are being overwhelmed and don’t even know it.  Yes, the devil is evil, but his strategies must be respected.  The devil is battling an opponent that doesn’t even know they are being attacked.  Sun Tzu would be impressed.     

     Just like in any army, the devil’s army has ranks.  The lower rank spirits influence individual people, whether from inside them or outside them.  These lower ranking demons are tactic focused.  They know the tricks of the trade to get us to hold unforgiveness towards someone.  To feel self-pity.  To harbor rejection, depression, and desperation.  They cloud our minds with doubt.  They know each of us well; therefore, they know our weaknesses.  These are the evil spirits we directly fight against.  We have power and authority over them.  

     As the rank of the evil spirits increase, so do their responsibilities.  The high ranks overlook larger things such as continents, governments, TV, radio, social media, and large corporations.  These spirits are strategy focused.  We fight these spirits by asking God to come against them.  We DO NOT attack them directly in Jesus’ name.  They are beyond our power and authority.  

     Only after learning about the devil’s organized army can we see how he's overtaking this world.  The lower ranking evil spirits influence individual people at the ground level to work together to carry out the strategies of the higher ranking evil spirits.  This is how individual people come together in an organized fashion to pull governments, the news, social media, and corporations away from the will of Jesus.  These individuals don’t know they are being controlled by evil spirits like a marionette puppet.

     The source of society’s decay aren’t the Democrats, the liberals, the government, the media, big business, or the illuminati…it’s the devil and his army!  Their goal is to pull us away from Jesus’ will.  We need to set our crosshairs on the devil and his army, not each other! (See Ephesians 6:12).      

 

     Now, let’s talk about some of the strategies the devil and his army uses to attack us.      

     

The Devil’s First Strategy

     The devil’s initial strategy is to prevent us from becoming a Christian in the first place.  The devil uses government, TV, movies, radio, news, social media, etc. to bombard us with what the world says is good.  Remember, the devil is the prince of this world.  This is why the world says supporting homosexuality, having wives rule the family, having sex outside marriage, and abortion are all good.  

     Evil spirits will use tactics to keep us more concerned with conforming to the world, rather than carrying out Jesus’ will.  The world will scoff at us as we carry out the Lord’s will.  Evil spirits of doubt tell us we can’t rely on God…that the Word isn’t true.  Evil spirits of fear and cowardice will tell us we need to conform to the world so we don’t get belittled.  Evil spirits of pride will tell us we are good enough and that we don’t need to desperately seek God.  

     Evil spirits will allow us to have worldly “success.”  This “success” will keep us distracted from making the great commission the goal of our life. 

Worldly success is usually like spiritual junk food, making us spiritually unhealthy and lazy.  We can then be easily marched into the slaughter house without even a fight. 

     To fight this first strategy of the devil, we must know that what the world says is good, is in fact usually bad.  We must learn God’s will and choose to be obedient to it.  We must NOT conform to this fallen world.  After all, if we don’t let Jesus lord over us…He really isn’t our Lord.  

     Know that when we are obedient, we show our love for Jesus.  We’ll then receive the Holy Spirit.  This is like being accepted into the martial arts school and receiving a white belt.  

 

The Devil’s Second Strategy  

     If we do become a Christian, the devil will try to get us to turn our back on Jesus.  The devil knows he can’t snatch us out of God’s hand, but the devil also knows that God doesn’t take away our free-will.  Therefore, the devil will try to lure us out of God’s hand through our own free-will.  

     To fight this strategy, we need to start allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us.  This doesn’t mean walking through life next to the Holy Spirit, it means walking BEHIND Him.  The Father will draw us to Jesus through the leading of the Holy Spirit.  We must start submitting our own desires to the Holy Spirit’s desires.         

     When we choose to submit to the Holy Spirit, one of the first things we will start noticing is His “conviction” - the yucky feeling we get when we are grieving Him.  Remember, the Holy Spirit only does Jesus’ will.  Therefore, if we are grieving the Holy Spirit, we can be sure we are being disobedient to Jesus.  We must become sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s grieving.  When we sense that something we are doing is grieving Him, we must stop doing whatever that is.  As we learn to submit more and more to His leading, we will start receiving our spiritual yellow belt, orange belt, green belt, etc. as we move up the spiritual ranks.    

 

The Devil’s Third Strategy

     So far the devil has failed at preventing us from becoming a Christian.  He has also failed at making us turn our back on Jesus.  Now he has a new goal…to prevent us from walking in power like the original disciples.  He’s going to do everything he can to prevent us from exercising our power and authority over his army.  He wants to keep us in the powerless state of a new Christian…a bad soldier for God.  

     He’s going to try to make us believe that the power and authority the original disciplines had, isn’t meant for today.  Even most of the current pastors and priests today don’t act like that level of power and authority should be sought by all Christians.  If we let the world, pastors, and priests lead us, rather than the Holy Spirit, it can be assured that we WON’T reach that level of power and authority.  We must ask ourselves, do we want to be formed in the mold of a disciple made by Jesus or in the mold made according to today’s world.  Let this determine your decision.       The devil will also try to prevent us from praying like a disciple.  Of course, we all pray to God for His help and guidance in all things.  The problem is that a lot of pastors and priests end there.  They say Jesus is the Healer so this type of prayer is all that is needed.  They also say Jesus is the Deliverer so this type of prayer is all that is needed.  But know this little gem of knowledge…powerful disciples also pray directly against diseases and injuries, commanding healing in Jesus’ name. Powerful disciples also speak directly to demons, commanding them to leave in Jesus’ name.   If we want the Holy Spirit to be unleashed, we must learn to directly confront illnesses and demons in this manner.  Jesus said He WANTS us to pray like this!  

The Devil’s Final Strategy

     Now let’s say we’ve learned to become a powerful disciple like Jesus wants us to be.  We might think that the devil can’t affect us any longer, but we would be wrong.  His demons might not be able to get in us and stay in us, but they can certainly try to influence us from outside us.  The devil’s final strategy is to make us suffer.  He’ll use people and circumstances around us to bring the suffering.  He’ll do this to keep us focused on ourselves rather than carrying out the great commission.

     To reach our spiritual black belt, like the original disciples wore, it’s going to boil down to how much fight is in us.  How much are we willing to suffer for God?  How many times are we going to get bloodied and knocked to our knees, and yet, stand back up and continue fighting?  This fight isn’t neat and clean.  It’s more like trench warfare - muddy, bloody, confusing, and exhausting.  At times we’ll lose, get discouraged, doubt ourselves, feel alone, and wonder if it’s worth it.  Subtle pride and self-pity will tell us we’re justified in wallowing in our worldly concerns.  We will feel as though we are trapped in a situation in which there is no way out.  

 

     Let’s pause here and talk about something else…  We are made up of body, soul, and spirit.  Our soul is the thing in our body that makes up our mind/thoughts, will/desires, and emotions/feelings.  Most people live to feed their soul.  Their soul rules them.  Our “spirit” on the other hand, only wants to do God’s will.  Our spirit is deeper than our soul.  Our soul usually dominates over our spirit, making the spirit hard to consciously connect with.  

     But when we start doing Jesus’ will over our own will, we receive the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit attaches Himself to our spirit.  The Holy Spirit then feeds and strengthens our spirit.  As we continue to submit more and more to the leading of the Holy Spirit, our spirit  becomes more and our soul becomes less.  As our spirit becomes stronger, it will start overriding our soul.  

     Evil spirits can influence our soul, but they CAN’T influence our spirit.  When we are driven by our spirit, we are being led by the Holy Spirit.  As we are being driven by our spirit, we aren’t being distracted by this world.  Remember, the Word says we can’t let the cares of the world distract us if we want to be a good soldier for God (2 Timothy 2:3-4).  

 

     Now let's get back to being stuck in a hopeless situation with no way out, aka - suffering.  We know if we stop following the Holy Spirit so closely and start conforming to the world, the devil will ease his attack on us.  Our suffering will decrease.  When we are about to throw in the towel…something deep in us encourages us to keep fighting.  We don’t really know what it is, but we know it’s real.  We know it’s good and it's true.  It’s on our side and we know it has our own wellbeing in mind.  It’s this deep guidance that allows us to pick ourselves up off the ground, bloodied and exhausted, and wade back into the battle.  This deep guidance is our spirit overriding our soul.  Our spirit that is fueled by and guided by the Holy Spirit, by God Himself.  It’s the “fighting spirit!”  Deciding to get back into the fight after being wounded, time and time again, is how God forges us into a mighty spiritual warrior.  Into a powerful disciple that He wants all of us to be like.      

     This is the thing about Christianity that seems to be a paradox.  Most people think that when we become a Christian, we will suffer less.  This may be true if we decide to not walk in power.  But if we choose to live the life of a disciple, cut from Jesus’ mold, we will suffer.  Our Lord Jesus suffered and we will too.  A real disciple doesn’t seek suffering, but knows it comes with the job…so be it. 

     Know this spiritual truth - God forges us into powerful disciples through the fire of our trials and tribulations.  The devil will attack us in ways that would crush anyone not given long-suffering by the Holy Spirit.  The suffering can be so intense that we wish God would just bring us home.  But know this, it’s only a season.  It’s ALWAYS only a season!  That season may be until we die, but it’s only a season!  We can use the devil’s strategy of suffering to turn the tables on him.  We’ll withstand the suffering…the fire.  We’ll let it burn the cares and distractions of this world from us, revealing our true essence.  It’ll purify us.  It’ll leave us more focused on Him.  Through suffering, we’ll be promoted from a spiritual white belt up through the ranks.  Through the fire, through trials and tribulations, we will be slowly forged into a mighty disciple.  A disciple that walks in power and pleases the Lord. 

     As we fight for the Lord, as we suffer for Him, the world will hate us…yet heaven will rejoice.  We will gain spiritual rank and heavenly rewards.  We must then be concerned with the recruiting and training of new soldiers.  This is the great commission…through the eyes of one of His good soldiers.