Dear believer, your life is in great danger! Every day, and every moment of every day, you could be in trouble. If you aren’t already aware of this, then you must not continue on without being utterly convinced of exactly how perilous your position really is. You must know the terrible power that stands against you. You have to see how horrible it is, and how very cruel! But you can also live your life in peace. You can be richly blessed through depending much more on the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Saviour. You cannot manage – yet He will for you. You fail – yet He succeeds. You fall – yet He picks you up!

There is an enemy out there. He can even creep right in – now! You see, the war that was in heaven has been fought on earth as well. The vivid imagery of Revelation 12 pictures the intense, con­tinuing battle. That’s what we read of in Revelation 12:17. John says that after the woman was taken out of the reach of the dragon,

Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring – those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

This is where matters stand now. The dragon – who symbolises the devil – rages against the brothers and sisters of the Christ-child who was born. He’s going to get at all those who by faith are part of the Body of Christ – the Church. He gathers together all the forces of evil into battle against the Lord God.

Let’s not forget who we’re up against. In the words of Ephesians 6 verse 12, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against he powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. It is the devil who is the prince of this world; ‘he is ‘the god of this age.’ And so he’s also called ‘Beelzebub,’ which means ‘fly-lord.’ No wonder William Golding titled his book of human depravity as ‘Lord of the Flies.’ The name reflects the evil of the devil.

Let no-one misunderstand. It was the devil who incited David to sin in 1 Chroni­cles 21:1. This was the Satan who dared challenge God to let him test Job. Then he even asked him for more power to reduce that godly man to the most impoverished physical state imaginable. And he was the arch-enemy who stood accusing Joshua the high priest in Zechariah 3. Satan is only mentioned on a few such occasions in the Old Testament, but he’s always there!

The Devil is their Leader⤒🔗

Throughout the development of the line of salvation leading up to Christ, Satan is hovering around. He directs his forces from a distance at every turn. On rare oc­casions, though, he comes to the front. In the New Testament, he personally attacks the Saviour. Then, of all times, he shows himself most of all! Yet it’s never so much as to give anyone else a start on him. He’s not going to give himself away.

I’m sure Sir Arthur Conan Doyle must have had Satan’s character in mind when he described the worst arch-enemy of Sher­lock Holmes. In one scene Holmes asks Watson, his trusted companion, if he had ever heard of that most evil man. Watson replied in the negative,

Never. Aye, there’s the genius and wonder of the thing! Holmes cried. That man pervades London, and no one has heard of him. That’s what puts him on a pinnacle in the records of crime. I tell you, Watson, in all seriousness, that if I could beat that man, if I could free society of him, I should feel that my own career had reached its summit.

Watson asked further,

What has he done, then? Holmes replies, ‘His career has been an extraordinary one. He is a man of good and excellent education, endowed ... with a phenomenal mathematical faculty.’ He described the man’s achievements, and then said, ‘But the man had hereditary tendencies of the most diabolical kind. A criminal strain ran through his blood, which, instead of being modified, was increased and rendered infinitely more dangerous by his extraordinary mental powers.’

He moved on to describe what this man had become:

For years past I have been continually conscious of some power behind the criminals, some deep organis­ing power which for ever stands in the way of the law, and throws its shield over the wrongdoer. Again and again in cases of the most different kinds – forgeries, robberies, murders – I have felt the pres­ence of this force, and I have deduced its actions in many of those undiscovered crimes in which I have not been personally consulted... He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organiser of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this city. He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of the first order. He sits motionless, like a spider in the centre of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows every quiver of them. He does little himself. He only plans. But his agents are numerous and splendidly organised.

You Must be Aware!←⤒🔗

What an apt description for the devil. Doesn’t it bring out a little of the terrible evil he is? For he is still far, far worse! This is why you must be equipped to fight against the evil one. If you can learn to see him at work, he cannot continue. That’s why we must watch out. He is the world’s prime hidden persuader, the master of subliminal motivation. The most smoothest and inspiring commercial has nothing on him! Remember, the devil is their leader. That’s what we read in Revelation 12:9. He leads the whole world astray. He’s on this earth leading all those other fallen angels. Don’t become his slave!

The Devil is your Deceiver←⤒🔗

Consider this: where did sin come from? What was its origin?

Jesus tells us. In John chapter 8 he shows us through making an awful charge against the disbelieving Jews. He declares in verse 44 there,

You belong to your fa­ther, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

What was Jesus talking about? How was Satan the instigator of sin? In which way was he the deceiver? To find out, we only need to turn to Genesis chapter 3. There we read the account of the fall into sin of Adam and Eve. Verse 1 of that chapter says, ‘Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made’. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’

Did God really say...? Ah, that’s decep­tion. You know, you can’t be too sure ... you wouldn’t want to be black and white about things ... I’m comfortable with it ... God gave it to us after all ... caught! He’s got you – hook, line, and sinker! You try getting out of it now. The sinful trap has been cleverly laid. We become fixated in that sin.

The Devil Brings it All on Against the Lord←⤒🔗

But wasn’t the devil’s deceiving shown most when he tried to use all his deceitful wiles against our Lord Himself? At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, Satan ‘brought it all on’! How? By going against the Word. He wasn’t stupid enough to say it plainly, yet even now he attacks the believer in the same way we saw him doing it when he tempted our Lord in the desert. He attacks to interrupt our communion with God. He’s trying to cut off our supply lines, so he goes against God’s Word to us. That also affects our prayer to the Lord.

To realise that the devil is your deceiver is to understand that deceiving someone is to persuade them of something which is false. It’s misleading. What he’s doing distracts us from our Christian walk, and he’s the master of that. Satan deals with confusion and lies. Put the truth in front of him, and he’s gone!

This means that when we become caught up in sin, you live a lie – a false­hood which has taken us over. And how intricate is the web of deceit we spin around it! We go to extreme lengths to avoid any accountability. Even to say ‘the devil made me do it’ is to deceive our­selves. I did it! I should have followed the words of the Lord in James 4:8! I should have resisted the wiles of the evil one by submitting to God!

The Ultimate Deception←⤒🔗

However there is yet another angle to this deception which Jesus was tempted with as we are. We noted that Eve allowed herself to be seduced by ‘Did God really say?’ But the temptation was made that much stronger when the devil told yet another lie to her. He said to her in Genesis 3:4-5,

You won’t surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

You will be like God! We have here the philosophical rationale for the way of the world today. Everywhere we see the grow­ing signs of man worshipping himself. It’s in the jingle of a song, ‘They said you’d never make it...’ You hear it in the slogan of the commercial, ‘For the most important person in the world – YOU!’ And it’s in the no-blame provisions of present divorce laws, where it doesn’t matter what you do because you’ll get the benefits anyway.

With this kind of influence from society, we shouldn’t be surprised that this fixation on self has touched Christians. But then it is a surprise as to how much effect it has had on the Church! Or is it? The great deceiver is at work. Even in books written to warn believers about the work of Satan and his forces, there is the teaching that people have the power in themselves.

One example is found in the novels of Frank Peretti. Two of his books, This Present Darkness and Piercing the Dark­ness, have promoted the prayer warrior movement amongst Christians. So what is wrong with these books, and others like them? Aren’t they right to warn us against the forces of evil? Isn’t prayer vitally important? We cannot disagree with that. But these books also contain one significant error – for while they contain a brief paragraph about the saving work of Jesus Christ, they say much, much more about the prayer support that angels need from believers.

Yes, you heard me right! Before forces of good can come down and fight the bad, you have to do something. As one angel said to another in This Present Darkness, ‘You mean he could lose? Let’s hope someone is praying.’ (p.102)

Further on it comes up again. The angel says, ‘We won’t fight, not yet. Not until the prayer cover is sufficient.’

Now, it could be said that this is an encouragement to pray – but for what reason? How can you be the one to de­feat Satan?

The Devil is in Christ’s Power←⤒🔗

It is Jesus alone who has brought the devil and his forces of evil under control. He won the Great Battle. There on the rugged cross at Calvary He offered Himself as the once-for-all sacrifice for our sin. When He cried out, ‘It is finished,’ all was done that needed to be done. He paid in Himself the complete price.

Therefore, to now hint that something is needed besides that – to relegate the turning point of divine history to a mere paragraph in a novel about the struggle between good and evil – is devilish! It is falling for that old temptation, ‘You can be like God.’

Certainly, we must take Satan seriously. The apostle Peter says so in chapter 5 of his first letter. In verse 8 we read,

Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

His malice and cunning make him pretty scary! But then Peter continues in verse 9, Resist him, standing firm in the faith. Call on the name of Jesus! Jesus beat him! And we will beat him too, if we resist with the resources our Lord supplies. In the words of 1 John 4:4, The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

Martin Luther said the same in the words of his famous hymn, ‘A mighty for­tress is our God.’ In one of those lines he sings about Satan, “One little Word shall fell him.”

So, what word could that be? How could the one who directs that massive operation of manipulation against the coming of God’s Kingdom ever be stopped like this?

Exactly the way Jesus did it. He quoted Scripture. He spoke His own Word – the Truth – against the lie.

The result was clear. Three times Jesus pointed Satan back to the opposite of what he is. And all that the evil one could then do was go – he didn’t belong! In the same way, each time you depend on God’s Word you are blessed. The devil’s power is limited, and his end is destruction.

For now, the struggle may be long and very fierce. This world under Satan has developed the sophistication of evil into an incredibly elaborate attack. As Luther also wrote in his hymn, ‘For still our ancient foe Doth seek to work us woe; His craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal.’ But then the next stanza sings, ‘Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing; Were not the right man on our side, The Man of God’s own choosing.’ All power has been given to Jesus! He has bound Satan over to eternal condemnation. The judgment has been made, the sentence passed, and now the punishment is due.

Where are you Looking?←⤒🔗

Revelation chapter 20 is graphic in its symbolism about this. There the verses 10 and 11 say,

And the devil, who de­ceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.

Dear believer, look to Jesus! Fix your eyes on Him, the Author and Perfecter of your faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and who sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. These are the words of Hebrews 12. They state emphatically the triumph that is Christ’s, which we cel­ebrate in His ascension and soon-coming return. The writer brings it home to you in Hebrews 12:3 when he declares, Consider him who endured such opposition from sin­ful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Let’s not be in any doubt. Satan is the leader of evil, and your deceiver, but he is in Christ’s power! Your Lord and Saviour has it all in hand. It’s working out accord­ing to His plan, not Satan’s. That’s why all things will work for the good of those who love Him (Rom.8:28).