Warren W. Wiersbe - The Strategy of Satan: How to Detect & Defeat Him

These studies originally appeared in another form in my book Creative Christian Living . I want to thank the publishers, Fleming H. Revell Company, for permitting me to adapt the material for this present book.

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The Strategy of Satan

Copyright 1979 by Warren W. Wiersbe. All rights reserved.

Designed by Mark A. Lane II

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible , copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from The Holy Bible , King James Version.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 79-63647.

ISBN 978-0-8423-6665-6

To the memory of

Peter Deyneka, Sr.

Introduction

What This Book Is About and How You Should Use It

This book is about Satan and the strategy he has to wreck your Christian life and (if possible) destroy you.

Four persons in the Old Testament had a direct confrontation with Satan. From their experiences we will learn

the targets Satan aims at in your life;

the weapons he uses to attack you;

the purposes that he wants to achieve; and

the defenses God has provided for you.

Please keep in mind that this book is a manual of arms for the Christian soldier. It is not a devotional reader for the believer who has gone AWOL. It is a deadly serious guidebook for the dedicated Christian who is on the battlefield and wants to know how to win.

Please do not speed-read these pages. Read them carefully, especially the many quotations from Gods Word. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand and assimilate these truths. There is no padding in these chapters. These studies represent the essentialsthe rock-bottom fundamentalsof what God has taught me about the Christian warfare through many years of studying and battling. I have proved these truths in my own life and ministry.

No doubt Satan will do everything he can to keep you from benefiting from this book. He will distract you and detour you. He will seek to confuse you, or perhaps make you critical. He will arrange interruptions. I suggest you ask the Lord for his help and protection as you study these pages. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). Positionally, you are in Christ and delivered from the power of Satan.

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. Colossians 1:13

My aim in this book is to help you experience this victory practically .

The truths in these pages will do you no good unless they are put into practice. Satan enjoys seeing Christians get a head knowledge of victory without a heart experience, because this lulls believers into a false security, and Satan finds them an easy prey. It is not the reading of truth, or even the enjoying of truth that brings the blessing. It is the doing of the truth. Therefore, determine with the Spirits help to put these truths into practice.

Remember: you are not fighting for victory, but from victory, for Jesus Christ has already defeated Satan!

When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities [Satanic powers] , He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him [Christ] . Colossians 2:15

Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world shall be cast out. John 12:31

And they overcame him [Satan] because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. Revelation 12:11

Now, on to victory!

He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies. John 8:44

And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. Revelation 12:9

But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:3

For many deceivers have gone out into the world. 2 John 1:7

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Indeed, has God said, You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?

The woman said to the serpent, From the fruit of the trees of the garden, we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.

The serpent said to the woman, You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. Genesis 3:1-7

1.1 Satans Target

Your Mind

When Satan wanted to lead the first man and woman into sin, he started by attacking the womans mind. This is made clear in 2 Corinthians 11:3.

But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.

Why would Satan want to attack your mind? Because your mind is the part of the image of God where God communicates with you and reveals his will to you. It is unfortunate that some Christians have minimized the significance of the mind, because the Bible emphasizes its importance.

Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him. Colossians 3:9-10

So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Ephesians 4:17-24

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2