If you are a true believer, Satan hates you because you bear the image of Christ, because you are the peculiar workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus unto good works, and because you were snatched from his power. You deserted Satan and fled his territory. By grace, you acknowledged Christ as your Lord and Master. You testify with Peter, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). Satan hates you because Christ is within you and because you love Christ.
Satan wants you back. As Jesus said to Peter, “Behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat” (Luke 22:31). Satan wants to sift you like wheat.
Do not overestimate or underestimate Satan. He is not God or even a fallen deity, and he is not almighty. He is only a fallen angel. Yet Satan is a powerful enemy. John Blanchard writes, “We are opposed by a living, intelligent, resourceful and cunning enemy who can outlive the oldest Christian, outwork the busiest, outfight the strongest and outwit the wisest.” [“John Blanchard, The Complete Gathered Gold (Darlington, Eng.: Evangelical Press, 2006), 555.]
Every true believer is engaged in what the Bible describes as spiritual warfare (Gen. 3:15; Rev. 12:7). John Bunyan called it a holy war. [“John Bunyan, The Holy War Made by Shaddai upon Diabolus, For the Regaining of the Metropolis of the World: Or, the Losing and Taking Again of the Town of Mansoul, in The Works of John Bunyan, ed. George Offor (1854; repr., Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1991), 3:245–373.] This spiritual warfare, or holy war, involves a perpetual battle against three enemies: the devil, the world, and the flesh.
Excerpt From
Fighting Satan: Knowing His Weaknesses, Strategies, and Defeat
Joel R. Beeke
