Fullness

Matters Along the Way - Aware of Satanic Plans

#19Satan’s Game Plan 7.17.22

2 Corinthians 2:11 KJV Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

2 Corinthians 2:11 Phillips Translation We don’t want Satan to win any victory here, and well we know his methods!

Satanic Methods

1. Destruction -Satan’s first line of approach is obliteration. He generally seeks to achieve this through persecution.

• The seed by the wayside

• Revelation 12

• This is typified in Acts 4.

• This is his attempt to make us feel we have been separated from God.

• Romans 8

• These strategies may be sequential or concurrent. (For instance, we see persecution as a dominant theme throughout Acts 4 - 8.)

2. Deception -The second line of Satanic attack is to separate us from truth.

A. The Apostolic prayer during persecution pointed the Believers back heavily into God’s Word.

B. Jesus in the wilderness.

C. The attack on Hezekiah and Jerusalem

D. We see that things are made toxic by the embracing of half-truths and divided hearts.

E. Even legitimate ministry and good works end up carrying a certain toxicity when mixed with error.

3. When the first two approaches fail, the enemy brings in the trap of “distortion,” or “dilution.”

• Distortion is a blending of truth and error.

• Dilution is “the action of making something weaker in force, content or value.”

• We see this in the loss of purity.

• The loss of the Ark in the days of Samuel

• Typified in the scandal of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5

4. One of the most dangerous strategies is summed up in the word “Distraction.”

A. Illustrated in Acts 6

B. Sin is almost undetectable, and some of the solutions we see may appear to be “good business” in the flesh, but are actually portents of disaster in the spiritual realm.

Christian Life Lessons

1. Be aware of your surroundings.

- “Deliver us from evil.”

- “A weapon in one hand and a tool in the other.”

2. The enemy never has a day of mercy.

- When he leaves there are three things to remember:

1. He leaves because you have resisted him. (James 4:7)

2. He leaves because The Lord has rebuked him. (Michael - Jude 9)

3. He leaves to wait for “another opportunity.” (Luke 4:13)

3. Trust in the Lord.

- “Trust in The Lord, and be strong in His mighty Power by putting on His armor that will enable you to stand, especially in the day of evil.”

Note: Not every day is “an evil day,” but some are.

4. Stay in the Lord’s Presence.

- Desire

- Discipline

- Delight

5. Set your expectations upon victory.

- Ephesians 5:18-20 KJV And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; 20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;