When Satan Attacks
When Satan attacks we need to remember, it means we have gotten his attention, and we are an important vessel to God. Satan has been known as a liar since the beginning and the father of lies. His mission is to steal us away or keep us from coming to God. He is jealous of God, and he wants to destroy God’s kingdom. He is searching for those that he can deceive or hold back from receiving the blessings of God. He does this many times through our emotions. He knows how to use our strengths and weakness against us. If he can burden us or weighs us down with regrets, worries, and fears to the point that we forget about the love, mercy, and peace of God, then he has us in a weakened state and can try to go in for the kill or keep us so weak that we don’t enjoy the goodness of God. If he weighs us down with false accusations, worries, regrets, condemnation, and fears, then we will not have what it takes to win lost souls to the kingdom or to spread the love of God. In this state we are unhappy and probably grumpy. Why would anyone who is not sanctified want what you have? An unhappy Saint is not a good advertisement for the Kingdom of God. As I write this I can just picture Satan in my mind using this against those of us who are feeling burdened to add more guilt or burdens and to needle them by saying, “See, you are a failure and worse than useless,” “You are actually hindering God and the Church,” and many other false accusations. Again, Satan has been a liar since the beginning: everything he says is a lie, or twisted, or not the whole truth. Take the story of Adam and Eve as an example, since Satan is the father of lies, he has years of experience in deceiving God’s most precious creation; he knows how to make lies seem very real and accurate. Again, take Adam and Eve as an example. If you are still saying to yourself, “But it still feels like he is right.” Please keep reading.
Earlier I said that Satan will use our strengths against us, and I want to explain that a little better. We all have a desire to please God and do what is right. We want people to have confidence in us and see Jesus in us. I consider this a strength. What Satan wants to do is use that against us by saying things like, “You don’t measure up,” “Look what you did or what you said,” “If you were truly sanctified, then this or that.” Because we are so eager to please God, this kind of rhetoric works well against us. I first want to say that is not the way God works with us. God does chastise us for our good to help teach us and to help us not stray away. Although this doesn’t feel good to us at the time, it later allows us to flourish and be fruitful. In my experience, what Satan does is quite the opposite. He needles, pounds, and adds more and more guilt and pressure to us. He weighs us down with condemnation. God does not weigh his children down with condemnation. On the night of August 9, 1988, I was not sanctified, and I knew it. It was not Satan that told me this, in fact, he would have liked to have told me the opposite or distract me from the truth. God did not replay all my misbehaviors, tell me how bad I was, or lay out all my sins in front of me. Yet I knew I was guilty of sin, and I felt the love (so important to understand this) of God calling me. This feeling that I was receiving from God was much different than what Satan uses when he tries to work on me.
A few months ago, I woke up on a Sunday morning and from the very moment I opened my eyes, Satan started in on me. I had a responsibility at church that morning, and I feel like Satan was trying to weigh my spirit down. Although I don’t remember the exact accusations from him (I do remember the feeling very well), it was something like this: “If you really loved Jesus like you say you do, then you would have kneeled down when you were talking to Him this morning.” “If you really were taking your responsibility seriously, you would have put much more time into studying the Bible this past week.” “At church Friday night, you had your mind on work situations and didn’t focus on God.” Even if it were true, there is no way I could go back and fix these situations. That’s where Satan thrives. The last accusation he threw at me, he went too far. He said, “If you were truly Sanctified…” I don’t remember what he said after that, but I said to myself “this is enough. God is love, compassionate and merciful. I know how to fix this.” I fell on my knees, feeling like I was sanctified, but I prayed to God. I knew that if there was something not right between me and God. He would reveal it, and we would get it straightened out, but if not, this would put an end to that. Either way, I would have a victorious spirit. I went to church that morning feeling so strong and confident. This was not the first experience I have had like this, and it will most likely not be the last. I love the verse to the song that says, “and thus by frequent little talks (with Jesus) I gain the victory and march along in cheerful song enjoying liberty.” continued on There are other times when Satan attacks us by weighing us down with negative “what if” scenarios or by constantly reminding us of negative situations in our life, especially things that we feel like we have no control over. During these attacks, we must remember that God has a plan for everything. Our life story is still being written and all things (big and small) work together for good when we are serving God. We must trust the promise of God and not trust our feelings and emotions because they are too fickle and they are unreliable.
If we will do all we know to live a Sanctified life, be submissive and obedient to God’s word, then we will have better ground to stand on and will be more confident when Satan attacks. If we frequently give our personal experience testimony both in church and outside of church to all that will listen, it will affirm to you and Satan that you are in this way to stay! Brothers and Sisters, let’s band together, help one another out, and fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life.
-Bro Todd Curry
