From 2011

As I stated in part 1, most of us remember this line made famous by Flip Wilson’s character Geraldine on the 1970’s TV program “The Flip Wilson Show.”

But is this really true? Does Satan make us sin? It was a funny line on the TV show but a not-so-funny subject.

From part 1 last week we now know that there is a spiritual war taking place, that the enemy is Satan and his legions of followers, and how they attack.

#1 – Lets go back to how Satan attacks, his strategy to defeat us. Satan’s army studies us to discover our personal weaknesses, so its warriors can custom design our temptations – those that fit our wants. And they are the same attacks over and over until we defend ourselves.

Today is Championship Sunday in the NFL and in those games each team has a game plan to defeat the other team, the enemy if you will. And each team will go after the teams’ weaknesses and they will continue to go after those weaknesses as long as they are successful. Satan uses the same strategy – he will go after our weaknesses as long as he is successful. We all have weaknesses (pride, lust, anger, apathy, selfishness, etc) and we are all vulnerable to them unless we have a plan, a counterattack plan, to win the war

So what does that counterattack plan look like?

#2 – It starts with being ready. Back to Ephesians, verses 13 – 17 “¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Verse 14 talks about the belt of truth – His Word, His love letter to us. We need to not only read the Bible but meditate on it, “hide it in our hearts,” then call on His words, and rely on God’s supernatural protection to defeat Satan. We cannot do it on our own, but we need to do our part. It’s like a warranty we purchase – the warranty will work but we have to do our part. We have to buy the protection and then when something goes wrong we have to call the warranty company. The company will then take action.

This is the same with Satan’s attacks. In this case we don’t have to buy anything we just accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. Then we read His Word, hide it in our heart, and then call on those words when we are attacked. God will then defeat Satan on our behalf. That is how we win the real war that is taking place against 24/7. We can’t do it on our own but we have to do our part.

#3 – Using pride an example go find a verse or verses about pride and meditate on those verses every daily – put on belt of truth. 1 Peter 5:5 “…All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.””

Another example – anger. James 1:18 – 21 “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ²⁰ because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. ²¹ Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.”

You can apply this to any sin to defeat Satan.

Next week part 3 will be about the role of prayer in winning this war (for a preview continue reading Ephesians 6 verses 18 – 21).

In His Service,

Ed