I’ve been writing about how God speaks. I initially thought I could get everything into one post, but the subject grew to four posts and I still didn’t cover all the ways God speaks to us. We saw that not only are we living in God’s speech, we are God’s speech. We truly “live and move and have our being” in God (Acts 17:28). We also saw that God has spoken in history “verbally and propositionally,” as Francis Schaeffer has said, in the Bible and in his Son, Jesus Christ.
But the thought has crossed my mind that there is another spiritual being who is speaking to us. He’s someone we need to be very aware of and very wary of. His name is Satan. He is a actual evil person who, along with his demonic horde, sends us a constant stream of messages intended to contradict, thwart, obliterate and obfuscate the life-giving communication God has surrounded us with. This is how he does it.
Satan Speaks in a Fallen Creation
Just as God speaks in creation, Satan does too. The problem with the natural world is that it’s fallen because of our sin. It’s now abnormal and Satan capitalizes on that. Creation contains, not only amazing order and beauty, but also a huge amount of suffering and chaos. Satan’s message is simple: “Look at what God has allowed! How can a good and all powerful God allow pain and suffering like this? If God is good, then he must not be all powerful, because he would certainly stop all this evil. And if God is all powerful, then he must not be good, because he has caused all this evil.”
Satan Speaks in Corrupt Human Culture
Satan loves to seduce people with worldly culture by appealing to their pride and pleasures. “Look at what the world can do apart from God!” Satan says. “Look at all the accomplishments of humankind. Isn’t it amazing what the human mind can accomplish on its own? You don’t need God! You have only this one life to live. Don’t waste it dreaming about eternity. Live your life in the now.”
Satan Speaks in our Lusts, our Guilt, Our Fears and Our Shame
We are only physical animals in a physical world, Satan tells us. Therefore, pleasure is the chief aim of life. If it feels good, do it. This lust for pleasure is an extremely powerful tool Satan uses to control us. And then, when we give in to our lusts and do awful things, Satan uses our guilt to instill a fear of being discovered and publicly shamed to enslave and destroy us.
Satan Speaks through Demons and Demonically Controlled People
Satan is not omnipresent, fortunately. But Satan does have thousands of demons who do his bidding. Satan and his demons can actually inhabit and control individual people. I’ve run into a couple of demonically controlled people in my lifetime. They made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
How, then, should we respond to this cascade of misinformation Satan sends our way? Here are some suggestions:
- Know the Word – When Jesus was confronted and tempted by Satan, Jesus responded each time by quoting Scripture (Matthew 4:1-11). The better we know the Word of God, the better we will be able to respond when Satan tempts us.
- Walk in the Spirit – Living in fellowship with the living God moment by moment through his Spirit enables us to overcome the lusts of our sinful flesh. “Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).
- Be strong in God’s love – Satan does everything he can to persuade believers that God doesn’t love them. Our response to those “fiery arrows” is to take cover behind God’s “shield” by believing his promises, like the one in John 3:16 – “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”
- Get around other believers – If you take a burning hot coal and put it in a refrigerator, eventually it too will become cold. I don’t care how on fire you are for Christ, if you go it alone, eventually the world will invade your soul and you will be completely compromised. Nourish your soul with consistent fellowship in a local body of believers.
- Get real – Find someone you can share your struggles and failures with. Satan hates transparency. God loves it (John 14:24).
Christian, you and I are in a life and death struggle with Satan, the world and our own sinful flesh. Fortunately, God has saved us and given us every means necessary to fight back. May we stand firm to the end and be able to say with Paul:
I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:7-8)
Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus!
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
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