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Plainly Speaking
with Karl J. Forehand
Dealing with
Satan’s Attacks
by Karl J. Forehand
The other
reality is demonic oppression. Satan
absolutely does torment, tempt and discourage believers. Understand that Satan is not a little red guy
that sits on your shoulder, while the other angelic guy sits on the other
whispering in your ear. Satan is more
than just a bad conscience. He is
much more powerful than that. The
Bible describes him as one who “prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking
someone to devour” (I Peter 5:8).
We also
know that God does not tempt and test us.
James 1:13 says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being
tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does
not tempt anyone.” Who does Satan
tempt? Primarily, he tempts those
that are a threat to his kingdom. If
you are not serving God, you may not need to fear his attacks. In fact, if you are deeply entrenched in
sin, Satan is probably trying to make your life easier as long as he can make
it last – He is trying to help you enjoy your sin and make you uncomfortable
in your walk with the Lord. He is
like a lion that hides in the bushes, waiting for his opportunity.
The comfort we have from I
Corinthians 10:13 is, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is
faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but
with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able
to endure it.” In other words, God
won’t let Satan afflict you greater than you can handle, with God’s help.
Satan’s attacks can come in many
various forms: financial setbacks,
personal conflicts, and disappointments.
He knows how to afflict you where you are weakest.
Let’s look at how this was
manifested in Job’s life. Job was a
righteous man that loved God. Satan
approaches God and asks permission to test him. He says,
Does Job fear God for nothing?
"Hast Thou not made a hedge about him
and his house and all that he has, on
every side? Thou hast blessed the
work of his hands, and his possessions
have increased in the land. "But put
forth Thy hand now and touch all that he
has; he will surely curse Thee to
Thy face." Then the LORD said to Satan, "Behold,
all that he has is in your
power, only do not put forth your hand
on him." So Satan departed from
the presence of the LORD. (Job 1:9-12)
When Job doesn’t sin; Satan ups
the ante.
And Satan answered the LORD
and said, "Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man
has he will give for his
life. "However, put forth Thy
hand, now, and touch
his bone and his flesh; he
will curse Thee to Thy face." So
the LORD said to
Satan, "Behold, he is in
your power, only spare his life."
Then Satan went
out from the presence of the
LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from
the sole of his foot to the
crown of his head. And he took a
potsherd to
scrape himself while he was
sitting among the ashes. (Job 2:4-8)
I believe, in the book of Job,
we see several possible responses to Satan’s attacks.
Possible
Responses:
1.
Throw in the towel
This suggestion comes from
his wife. She says, “Do you still
hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!." Job’s response is almost as instructional. He says, “You speak as one of the foolish
women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept
adversity?" (Job 2:9-10).
When adversity comes, we often
mutter under our breath, “Geez, doesn’t God love me?” We very often abandon all responsibility
because things didn’t go the way we expected or planned for them to go. Many believers give up and check out of
the game. They are willing to accept
the blessings from God, but not willing to accept the adversity. They may even keep coming to church, but
for all practical purposes they are not impacting the Kingdom.
Inevitably Satan WILL sift
you. After he blind-sides you, you
will be tempted to do what Job did.
In chapter 3, he says, “Afterward Job opened his mouth and cursed the
day of his birth. And Job said, "Let the day perish on which I was to be born, And the
night which said, 'A boy is
conceived.'” (Job 3:1-3). In essence,
He said, “I wish I was never born.”
We may not say those exact words, but we might say, “I wish I didn’t
even have this job” or “I wish I wasn’t married” or “I wish God wouldn’t have
sent me to this church.” It is the
initial step to throwing in the towel – feeling sorry for ourselves.
Often, the very trial that was
supposed to prove and test us, is the one that wipes us out. Some stay home from church. Others just miserably exist in the
pew. We have a God that cannot be
conquered, yet we allow Satan to whip our tail often and we feel the urge to
“chuck it all.” Don’t tell me you’ve
never felt that temptation – I know you have!
We used to
play sand lot football. After a
while, you get pretty comfortable with the guys that always come out. You know who can knock you down and whom
you can beat. But, inevitably, a
group of guys from out of town comes home for the holidays or visits from
another town. This group of guys (or
girls) is bigger and stronger and faster than your group of players. You decide to take them on any way.
You decide to run the ball and
as you are rounding the corner, one of the other players flattens you. Of course, you immediately accuse him (or
her) of cheating. Your bottom lip
begins to quiver, then it pokes our defiantly and you grab your football and
stomp home. Our Christian walk can
resemble this. We begin to serve the
Lord sincerely and Satan blindsides us.
The temptation is to say “It’s not fair – I give up.” Job was certainly tempted to do this, by
His own wife.
The other option is even more
common.
2.
Fight him on your own.
This option
comes from Job’s friends. Did you
know that we are never instructed to fight Satan on our own. We are told to resist him – we are told to
flee from him, but never to fight him.
In Ephesians 6, we are told to put on the whole armor, so that we can
“stand.” In fact, the only offensive
weapon mentioned is the “Sword of the Spirit” ( the Word of God). When Satan tempted Jesus, he wanted him to
fight in human ways; but Jesus simply quoted Scripture (He said, ‘It is
written…”).
We often apply human skills and
energies to fight an adversary that is NOT human. We say that we will “try harder” or “work harder.” In the church, we often search for new
methods to fight. E. M. Bounds said
“God is not looking for better methods, God is looking for better men.” What makes a better man?
Let’s go back to the sand lot.
It doesn’t take long to realize
that this team is going to crush you.
As I said, they are bigger, stronger and faster. But, imagine you have a guy on your team
that cannot be stopped. You know that
if you give him the ball, they will never be able to tackle him. But something within you says, “I have to
do this myself. I don’t want to
depend on that guy. I think I’ll
carry the ball.”
Once again, you again pick
yourself up from the spiritual blindside, you are again tempted to curse at
God. Your mind says, “Isn’t God on my
team.” We might even utter, “Why didn’t
God send some angels or something to protect me from this.” And God whispers, “You never handed me the
ball.”
Job’s friends kept encouraging
him to “do something.” Even if he did
the wrong thing, they wanted him to do something to defeat Satan. But he was fighting a different enemy
(Eph. 6:12). Be careful of friends
that say “Something gotta be done.”
You will be tempted to say “Well…I guess I need to do something.”
On your own, you will lose the
battle against Satan every time!
What are we supposed to do?
3.
Depend on the Lord (hand Him the ball)
In 2 Chronicles,
Jehoshaphat faces armies that far outnumber him. He finally admits “For we are powerless before this great
multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes
are on Thee." (2 Chronicles
20:12) When Satan attacks, we must
often admit, “We don’t have the power to win this battle and we don’t know
what to do; but we are going to keep our eyes on the Lord.”
After Job argues with his
friends and finally questions God, he realizes what he need to do:
Then Job answered the LORD,
and said, "I know that Thou
canst do all things, And that no purpose of Thine can be thwarted. 'Who is this that hides counsel without
knowledge?' "Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know." 'Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask
Thee, and do Thou instruct me.'
"I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye
sees Thee; Therefore I retract, And I
repent in dust and ashes." (Job
42:1-6)
He realized that God can do all things. Do you believe that? If you say you do, do your actions reveal
that you believe it? Do you let him
work?
Job also realized that God’s purposes
reach their end. Often we don’t
let God’s purpose finish their course.
We interrupt God and take over for him. Often I wonder what we are thinking trying to tell a Holy God
what to do. Here’s how we do it: we pray “God this is what I’m going to do,
will you bless it.” Wrong answer.
Job also understood that man’s reference
points are off. We measure things
different than God does. We measure
by money and success and human standards.
We can’t keep doing that.
Job was beginning to understand that through
trials we go beyond knowledge about God to intimacy with God.
Lastly, he understood that it all
begins with repentance.
Right now, you are either in the midst of
a trial, just getting through one or about to enter one. You can either throw in the towel, handle
it yourself or turn it over to the Lord.
You have to admit that you don’t know everything. You have to accept that you might be able
to DO anything. You have to give up
control of the situation and let God do the miraculous.
I want to close with a verse for
meditation – study it carefully.
Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and
our shield. For our heart
rejoices
in Him, Because we trust in His holy name.
(Psalms 33:20-21)
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