Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

A Real, Personal, Evil and Active Devil

Job 2:1-2 – Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”

THEME OF THE DAY: A REAL, PERSONAL, EVIL AND ACTIVE DEVIL. Do we believe the devil is real? If we say, “Oh, yes. He is very real.” The next question would be, “Do we live like he is real?” This is extremely important if we are to be Christians living as salt and light in the world; if we are to be Christians growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus; if we are to be Christians enjoying the Lord and living with eternal priorities.

When it comes to the devil, every New Testament author recognized him. He was never far from the minds of the disciples. They lived in a conscious awareness that life in this world is primarily one of spiritual conflict in the unseen world. Granted, we do live in a physical world, but the words of the Apostle Paul need to be in the forefront of our thinking – “We look not on the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). If we learn to live with this type of spiritual mindset, we will work in our marriages from an eternal perspective. We will parent our children with eternal priorities. We will perform our earthly vocations motivated by eternal rewards. Basically should we begin to see all of life and our roles through the lens of eternity, we will quickly understand the devil is real. We will live knowing life is a daily battle with him that will not cease this side of heaven. And this type of spiritual-mindedness is not easy to obtain and maintain. The devil is crafty and a great deceiver. His tactics are more covert than overt. He is not going to bring the sin of murder and adultery knocking at our door with blazing clarity. No. His methods of snaring Christians are more subtle. With this in mind, let’s consider three of the devils most effective schemes he uses with great effectiveness to defeat Christians.

First, the devil will do a masterful job of getting Christians to simply forget he exists. How does he do this? Through our minds. If he can get us to neglect consistent, even daily time in the Word and prayer, and draw us away from spiritual fellowship with other Christians, especially on the Lord’s Day, we lose our perspective that life is primarily spiritual. And when that is gone so is our remembrance of our heinous foe. See if this is happening to us by this question – “How much have we thought this week on the reality of the devil subtly, but surely, drawing us away from spiritual things as the Word, prayer and church?” If we have rarely or infrequently been spiritually-minded, then this tactic of the devil has successfully made us a spiritual casualty. The scary part about this is we may not even know it is happening.

Another tactic of the devil is to persuade us to make friends with his chief soldiers – the world and flesh. And this is how the devil employs these enemies of our souls. He gets us to fill our lives with worldly activities and events leaving us too busy and exhausted to give quality and quantity time to the things of the Lord. How do we know if we are being slain by this strategy of the devil? Ask this question, “Are we choosing to give more of our available time to worldly things instead of opportunities for spiritual growth?” Or ask this, “Are we scheduling and participating in more temporal things than spiritual things, even placing worldly things above spiritual things?” If so, the devil is real and winning over us.

A final method of the devil to defeat us occurs when he gets us to reduce our understanding of Christianity to where we go and what we do. For instance, if church attendance is just a place we go and something we do, we are missing the point and likely our commitments are low and faithfulness sporadic. Christianity isn’t about going and doing. It is about being in union with Christ and living that union out in vibrant, self-denying spiritual relationships with other Christians in mutual service and sacrifice for one another. The devil rejoices of getting Christians to simply be going and doing. He knows these never produce spiritual depth in a person. Yes, the devil is real, personal, evil and active. Be on guard against the three strategies in battle he uses. To do so, will ensure a joyful and impactful life for the Lord.

PRAYER: “Father, remind me daily of the great adversary to my soul, the devil, and to fight Him with Your armor.”

QUOTE: “Many Christians are defeated by the devil simply by the fact they forget he exists and just live life that way.”