Satan and Devils Part 2

E. Satan can affect the thoughts of a man's heart. 1. He can put thoughts into a heart. 1CH 21:1; MAT 16:23; JOH 13:2. 2. He can fill a heart. ACT 5:3. 3. The heart of man by nature is a receptive vessel for Satan's ideas. JER 17:9. 4. When we mentally embrace Satan's ideas and make them our thoughts, we will invariably act them out. LUK 6:45; JAM 1:14-16. 5. This emphasizes the need for us to make our thoughts captive to Christ. PRO 4:23; 2CO 10:5; PRO 16:3; PHIL 4:8. F. Satan and the devils can not force their will upon men. 1. They can only entice men to yield to temptation. JAM 1:14. 2. It is through yielding that men open doors to the devils' will. ROM 6:16. 3. Those who suffer from Satanic oppression or delusion have at some place left a door open and given him an ingress. a. Why is it that Catholics are most likely to see visions of Mary but biblically informed Christians do not see such? b. Why is it that apparent “possessions” are more common around those who have an inordinate fascination with the miraculous? c. Why is it that unscriptural prophetic visions are more likely to come to those who are captivated by the idea of secret knowledge beyond Scripture? 4. Satan and the devils have always been on a leash. They can do nothing without God's permission. JOB 1:11-12; 2:5-6. a. So much so are devils under the Divine government that God may even use them to accomplish His will against rebellious men. 1KI 22:21-22 c/w 1SAM 16:14. b. For various reasons, God may let Satan have his (limited) way with saints. 1CO 5:5; 1TI 1:20; 2CO 12:7. c. It should be emphasized that a devil cannot “possess” a saint in the sense of seizing complete ownership of his soul or even his body. (1) Saints are eternally secure in Christ. ROM 8:38-39; 1TH 5:23-24. (2) Satan may have license to trouble our flesh (JOB 2:4-7), but he can never Satan and Devils 12-13-23 Page 2  claim ownership of the body of a blood-bought saint. 1CO 6:20; ACT 7:22 c/w JUDE 1:9 c/w JOH 6:39. (3) Satan may only “possess” a saint in a limited sense as a prisoner-of-war, but the saint's heavenly citizenship and power to repatriate himself remains. 2TI 2:26. (4) The attacks of Satan upon the body and mind are really oppression. ACT 10:38. 5. As powerful and deceptive as Satan and his devils may be, the saint has an even greater power to overcome them. 1JO 4:4. a. Death and the grave were no match for the Spirit Who raised Christ. 1PE 3:18 c/w ACT 2:24. b. The same Spirit which overcame death and the grave abides in the saint. ROM 8:11. G. The Christians' main concern relative to Satan's devices and power towards our persons is not the influence he may exert upon the body. It is the influence that he exerts upon our minds/hearts. 1. A survey of the post-Ascension books of the N.T. confirms that countering Satan's devices against our minds/hearts is paramount. 2. Satan's entire operation is based upon one concept: the lie. JOH 8:44. 3. His power is in the lie; therefore exposure by the truth foils him. 4. Our battles against Satan, therefore, should not be power encounters (as the exorcists of ACT 19:13-16), but truth encounters. a. The power encounter was Christ’s in overcoming death. HEB 2:14. b. The power encounter is Christ’s in regeneration. JOH 5:25; EPH 1:19-20. c. The power encounter will be Christ’s on Resurrection Day. JOH 5:28-29. 5. It is the truth that liberates us. JOH 8:32. 6. Through the renewing of our minds to Christ's truth, we are transformed from bondage to Satan's will to the liberty of proving God's will. ROM 12:2; 6:17-18. a. Consider Paul. Laboring under deception, his thoughts were the product of bondage to a lie. ACT 26:9. b. Not only was he abusive to the saints, he was driving himself to the point of mental instability. ACT 26:11. c. Once Christ debunked Satan's lies with the truth, Paul was liberated to proving God's will with soundness of mind. d. Paul's conversion to a stable, godly mind via the truth was no less dramatic than the change wrought in the wild Gadarene by the sensational casting out of devils. e. The same power resides in every saint if he would harness it. 2TI 1:7. Satan and Devils 12-13-23 Page 3