My wife and I were watching a movie a week or so ago. It was a clean movie, had some religious overtones, and a decent story. The main “star” in the movie is very well known in the movie industry, and is an excellent actor. A few days later I went on the Internet to obtain some additional information about the movie, and just prior to exiting noticed there were a few comments. One of the comments in particular caught my eye. Flavored with sprinkles of venom, the individual was apparently quite upset that religious overtones were interjected into the plot of the movie. Apparently, since the movie was a clean, decent movie that also had a religious flavor, the individual just couldn’t stand it. I’m thinking to myself, “What flew up his nose?”

Just the other day I was looking for Bible apps to download to my iPad and was reading the reviews for each Bible app. One of the reviews had morphed into a “let’s defame the Bible” commentary. Needless to say, the comments were quite derogatory against the Bible and anyone who would dare have the audacity to actually read it…the Bible that is. I’m thinking, again, “Who put a bug in his butt?”

Where do these clowns come from anyway? If they don’t like decent movies, why do they watch them and then denigrate them? If they don’t like the Bible, what in Heaven’s name are they doing even looking at Bible apps, let alone going to the trouble to post their crappy comments?

There is much more to this than meets the eye. We find ourselves again considering the real reason behind all this maliciousness toward anything and anyone connected with our Lord … spiritual warfare. We cannot completely realize the all-consuming hatred that Satan has toward God, but we can witness some of it on display in the actions of his followers.

Satan has blinded the eyes of so many people. Just as he did with Eve, he takes God’s words out of context and plays with the minds of those he wants to bring down to his level. It’s very easy to take one verse, or one statement, or one incident from the Bible and in the blink of an eye come to your own misguided conclusion. The Scriptures say,

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)

Here is where I need to take a deep breath and remember that they are being deluded by every lie that can come from the mind of Satan, and our puny little human minds are no match against his. I have written before about spiritual warfare, and this is where the real problem lies.

It is sometimes easy for us, well at least for me, to get very annoyed at the unjustified attacks that are hurled against anything good, especially anything with the remotest connection to God. I know the Lord does not want us to be malicious or stoop to their level, but neither does He expect us to be doormats. Even so, I know that Jesus is a much better General than I am a soldier, so praying for our enemies (ref. Matthew 5:44), at this point, becomes a huge factor.

We have to remember that perhaps there was a time when we were like those who are being led around by the nose by the most evil force in the world. Satan and all that embodies him is not a force that we humans can contend with. Only by the power of Almighty God, the ultimate and true omnipotent One, can we ever succeed in this life.

I have seen good people come to Christ, and so have you. I have seen bad people come to Christ, and you have too. We all must come to Christ before those scales of spiritual blindness can be removed. Even then, the Scriptures say,

“12For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 13And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” (1 Corinthians 13:12-13)

Our faith rests in Jesus Christ and Him alone. Our hope (ref. 1 Corinthians 15:19) is in Him and Him alone. Our love for Jesus and others can never be activated apart from Jesus Christ.

“19We love him, because he first loved us. 20If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 21And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.” (1 John 4:19-21)

Some may want to split hairs and say that, “We are only required to love our brother (fellow Christians), because it says nothing about those who are not my brother.” If Jesus loved us before we came to know Him as our Savior, would He expect any less from us?

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

Those who are lost are going through the same experiences we endured before coming to know Jesus as Savior. They are still enslaved to sin. We are free from it, only by the grace of God (ref. Ephesians 2:8-9). We have experienced Jesus Christ the Son of God as our Savior, now we need to live for Him as our Lord and Master.

“37Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38This is the first and great commandment. 39And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)

Let us not think however that being humble before the Lord and having love in our hearts for others mean that we keep silent. We should always speak out loud and clear in defense of the Gospel, with a humble heart yes, but not a bowed back.

“But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.” (Ezekiel 33:6 ESV)

Yep, these misguided folks will continue to spew their venom of hatred, but let us remember, it is not us they are spitting on, it is the Son of God, and even with all their hatred, He is willing to save their souls. If Jesus was willing to die for them and offer them eternal life through Him, I guess the least we can do is tell them that good news (Gospel) and pray for them.

Have you ever noticed the glassy-eyed look you get from some people when you mention spiritual warfare? It is especially alarming when talking to another person who claims to be a Christian, and they look at you like you came from another planet and need to be locked up for your own good. It is alarming because it corroborates the immaturity of a fellow Christian.

Satan uses a double barrel method of attack against us humans. With some he shows himself as evil and draws those (non-Christians) in to worship him. With most of us however, Christians and non-Christians alike, he works at making us believe that he really doesn’t exist.

I firmly believe that far more people than we even realize are possessed to one degree or another by Satan’s demons. At the very least, many, many more are strongly influenced by Satanic forces, and don’t even realize it.

The one thing that needs to be made clear is that Satan is not omnipresent; he can only be in one place at a time. He is not God, who is omnipresent. However, he has an untold host of fallen angelic beings in his camp. We know he seduced one third of the angels to follow him, but one third of what? We don’t know. Satan and all of his army of fallen angels, or evil spirits, are hard at work.

One of the many times the Apostle Paul was attacked by Satanic forces is told us in the following passage.

“16And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: 17The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. 18And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.” (Acts 16:16-18)

We know that the damsel, a young girl or young woman, did not come in a friendly manner to meet with Paul, simply by taking a closer look at the Greek word in verse sixteen that is translated as “met” in our English. The Greek word means “to meet in a hostile fashion.” Also, the verse clearly says that she was possessed by a “spirit of divination.”

People today do not realize just how dangerous it is to play around with weegie boards, tarot cards, séances, etc. You are entering an area you know nothing about and the only thing on the other side is evil. We call this evil Satan, and he is very real.

The Lord tells us by the pen of Paul to:

“11Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:11-12)

A Christian cannot be indwelt by an evil spirit. Why, you ask? The Holy Spirit resides within the Christian and will not allow it. However, that does not mean that Satan, via his demonic army, will not attack us in some way. He will try to trip us. He will try to influence us by any means possible. We are his enemy, and this is not a game. It is war.

There are three groups of people that Satan attacks, and I believe he does so by the following methods.

Non-Christians

Left to our basic nature or instincts, without laws, human beings would be like a pack of wild rabid dogs, attacking others and even those within the pack.

God had to give us a set of laws to obey in order to protect society. He provided them by a fellow named Moses. Consider what happened to Noah’s generation. They were so defiled, God had to destroy them all, except Noah and his family.

It is my opinion, but I believe a correct opinion, that many today would do things that would shock even the person doing them, if it were not for the law of the land. As we well know and observe, many do them anyway. How many more murders, robberies, rapes, etc. would there be, if there were no law?

Satan knows man’s nature, and he uses it for his benefit.

If you don’t agree, consider the following verses.

“9What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; 10As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:14Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16Destruction and misery are in their ways:17And the way of peace have they not known: 18There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:9-18)

Weak Christians

This group of people would include those who have not been saved very long, and those who have, but are just too lazy to put on the whole armor of God. Read Ephesians 6:10 through the end of the chapter.

One way Satan will attack these Christians is by loading down their time with other activities.

He will try to make them dependent on others to spoon feed them on the Word. There are a bunch of these folks walking around.

He will provide them with excuses to avoid their prayer life and time in the Word.

He will tempt them with the “goodies” that the world has to offer.

Maturing Christians

Christians, who are students of the Word and try to live for the Lord on a daily basis, will most definitely be attacked in some way by Satan, because they are a menace to him.

Their intent is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in their lives by how they live, what they do, and what they say.

They speak out for Jesus.

They love His Word. They won’t bend by going against what the Word says.

When they sin, and they will, they are on their knees in repentance, not to get saved again, but to restore the fellowship that they broke between themselves and their Heavenly Father. They are always His child.

The more wicked the world becomes, and it’s getting quite vile, Satan induces others to hate and mock them. Hopefully with pressure from their peers, they will crumble under temptation.

As I write this article, I have been tempted throughout to do something else and come back to it, but I am determined to stay the course. Satan does not want me to write this article. Any pastor who has preached very many sermons will tell you that it never failed when the reality of Satan and his forces was the subject matter, a negative force was present.

Conclusion

As I look through the window of politics, I see Satan hard at work. In this country alone, the political field is bleak, to say the least. There are some, and I emphasize “some,” men and women in the political arena who are desirous of following our Constitution and actually serving the citizens in the manner designed by the Constitution. Most however are servants of greed and other satanic forces. These servants of Satan have the populace so blinded, they continue to retain their offices election after election, and therefore continue to dismantle the greatest nation ever assembled by God-fearing patriots.

As I peer through the window of Hollywood, Satan is pulling out all the stops to reveal just how disgusting he is. Again, there are a few even within the Hollywood scene who have character. For the most part the lifestyle of Hollywood would be like comparing pigs wallowing in slop while wearing expensive jewelry and tuxedoes (or evening gowns). Could there be a more corrupt people all gathered in one place? There is a possibility of close ties with our nation’s capital, each with an equivalent lifestyle, but generating a different type of filth and garbage upon the common folk.

As I gaze through the stained glass windows of the churches, Satan is sitting on the front row, cheering on his puppets. All that glitters is not gold. Many so-called shepherds of the flocks are actually hirelings. Their master is not the one and only true God, but one who wants to be God. His name is Satan. Jesus said to the Pharisees,

“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44)

Satan is real. He took with him an army of fallen angels from Heaven, and is always in combat fatigues. It makes no difference if we accept this as fact or not. It remains true. We are at war. It is a spiritual war, but it is war no less.

One last time, I observe through another window, the window of the family, the first institution established by God at the creation. Within the first family of Adam and Eve, Satan interjected jealousy, greed, and murder. It has gone downhill since. Today, the family, as God meant it to be, is in the minority. If someone attacked your family, would you fight for them? Of course you would. Would you lay down your life for them? Of course you would. Satan is attacking your family, and he wants their soul. What are you going to do about it?

We are supposed to be living in the age of knowledge. We say we are more civilized than any generation before us. Is that so? In reality, we have become as they were in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot. Does that ring a bell? Consider the following verses.

“26And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: 27They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.28Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; 29but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. 30Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.” (Luke 17:26-30 NKVJ)

Just prior to this day spoken of in the above verses, approximately seven years, Jesus Christ will remove His bride, the true Church, from this earth. Are you ready? Satan is pulling out all the stops. Are you being blinded by his lies, or are you heeding the Truth? Do you scoff at the mention of a spiritual warfare? Are you one of those who roll your eyes and under your breath says something like, “Oh, here we go again?”

Jesus warns us through the pen of the Apostle Paul.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

The war will soon be over. Whose side will you be on when the dust clears?