Who or what is our opposition or opponent? The word Satan in the Bible means “adversary or opponent” he’s opposed to the people of God or Believers. You can spin all kinds of theological arguments about how, why, and where Satan came from. While those things may be interesting to know, the more important issue is that Satan wants you to be disqualified from God’s abundant life of blessings. For example, if you face a mugger who wants to do you harm, you’re not really interested in his socio-economic background of what his childhood was like. You just want to defeat your adversary any way you can. So it is with this spiritual battle that we all deal with.

Spiritual Warfare

In main-street Christianity, Spiritual Warfare is a topic that is not discussed enough. I don’t know why it is such a touchy or sensitive subject when the Bible is filled with so many references to your Adversary or Accuser, Satan. By the way, the term Devil is another word for Satan, they are both one and the same. Now Demons are those spiritual entities that do Satan bidding, his minions and I don’t mean the cute little yellow ones. 

Perhaps in our modern society, we have relegated evil spirits to myths and fairy tales. After all, we are far “too intelligent and sophisticated” to believe in such things. However, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the world is filled with unimaginable evil. To be sure there’s a lot of good in the world, but you must admit there are evil people out there doing evil things. You probably have experienced some of that for yourself. 

I don’t know where you fit in the spectrum of believing in evil and therefore evil forces, but let’s hypothetically agree that the root of evil lies with Satan. He is an extraordinary liar and can convince people to do all sorts of evil. 

So, the question arises, what has that got to do with me? What did I ever do to make him angry with me? 

The Bible teaches that God is good! I’ve heard it said many times “how can God be good and allow all the evil in the world to exist? It really is an honest question, but it is also a question that doesn’t take into account at least three important truths.

Truth number one– We live in a Moral Universe. Just as there are physical laws in the universe like gravity and electromagnetism, there are moral laws too. In Genesis 1:31 God says, “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good”. Well, what was good? God created a world that was perfect and complete in every way. That perfection was not only found in the physical world but extended to the relational realm (relationships) and the spiritual realm as well. Every part of nature was in perfect balance and there was a moral order. Nothing was corrupted by sin. From the beginning, God established universal laws of right and wrong. His laws have not changed with changing times or cultures. Because God made everything, including mankind, He knows best how we are to function successfully within the world that He created. These spiritual laws of nature are meant to protect us and provide opportunities for God’s blessings. 

Truth number two– God created everyone to be a free-will agent. This means that God will not force you to make the right choices or any choices for that matter. Every individual has the freedom to make their own decisions and act upon them. Even in the Garden of Eden, God allowed Adam and Eve to make the decision to disobey Him. As a result, they had to reap the consequences of violating the Moral Law. By the way, the Moral Law is best defined by the Ten Commandments. These Ten Commandments were condensed into two in Matthew 22:37-39. “Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself”. As Christians let these two commandments guide our life.

Truth Number three-There is a spiritual entity known as Satan and he has spiritual followers known as demons. Satan and his followers have the ability to try and influence you to disbelieve and disobey God. In essence to convince you that there are no consequences for violating God’s Moral Law. That’s like saying you can jump off a building and not fall downward, which would be violating God’s physical law! Well, what is true of the physical laws of nature are also true of Spiritual Laws. If you break them, you will suffer the consequences. 

On an individual basis, when a person violates God’s moral laws that person also impacts those around him, family, friends, and sometimes strangers too.

As we close keep this in mind, Satan has two goals the first is to convince you to reject God. If he can’t do that, he will try to destroy your fruitfulness in God and make you an ineffective Christian.