Welcome to the In Touch podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, November fourth. Spiritual warfare is real, and Ephesians chapter six provides God's strategy for standing strong against the enemy. Don't miss Doctor Stanley's message: "How to Survive a Satanic Attack." A satanic attack is a deliberate, willful assault by Satan and his evil forces upon an individual for the purpose, primarily. Of harming them either physically, in their spirit, in their soul, their body, their mind, every aspect of their life, he can possibly harm. That's exactly what he'll do, and his objectives are very clear.
He wants to draw us away from God, thwart God's purpose in our life, deny God the glory and honor that is due Him, and finally to destroy us. And oftentimes we wonder why we wrestle and we struggle. Over temptation, relationships, finances—so many aspects of our life seem to be so troubling, and we wonder why. And there'll never come a time in your life where Satan decides to leave you alone. The only people that feel like that they don't have any problem with Satan are those whom he already has in bondage.
And so they don't think anything about him. In fact, he's so blinded them to the reality of his existence that, as far as they're concerned, there is no such thing as the devil. That's just something you Christians believe, and you believe that somehow the Bible teaches that. We don't just believe it. Jesus said and recognized and spoke to the devil.
The apostle Paul believed it all through the scriptures. It's very evident there is a satanic force in this universe that's trying to deceive, divide, and to destroy, and he's being far too successful. The question is not whether he exists or not, and the question is not whether we have warfare or not, and the question is not whether we feel tempted and tried and have broken relationships and all the rest. The issue is this: How do we survive a satanic attack when there are forces arrayed against us to assault us for the primary purpose of doing us harm, our relationships harm? Every aspect of our life, harm, bodily harm.
How do we withstand? How do we survive a satanic attack? And that's what this message is all about.
So I want you to turn, if you will, to Ephesians chapter six, and let's begin reading in the tenth verse because this is exactly what Paul is talking about, and he gives us a very clear answer. He gives us a very clear answer as to how to survive, how to be victorious. We don't have to yield. We don't have to surrender. We don't have to compromise.
We don't have to get any any kind of debate with him. We can survive and be victorious when he assaults us, and he does it in a very clever way.
So, look if you will, beginning in verse ten of Ephesians chapter six. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you'll be able to stand firm against the schemes, the maneuverings of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, because of that, take up the full armor of God, so that you'll be able to resist in the evil day.
And having done everything to stand firm, stand firm. Therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert, with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. And then Paul talks about and asks them to pray for him.
Now, with that scripture in mind, let's look at this whole issue of how do we survive when Satan comes at you with some awesome, strong, penetrating, appealing temptation? What do you do? When he attacks you, and would have you to be angry and bitter and resentful and unforgiving towards someone else, when he would have you to retaliate against someone who has wronged you, how do you respond to these things? Or when you feel doubtful or depressed, and when you look around, you say nothing's happening for me, and in my behalf, God must not love me, because if He did, He would not let this happen or that happen or the other.
Well, God does love you. He does allow things to happen, but oftentimes what's behind so much of what happens is not God but the devil himself.
So here's what I want you to look at. I want you to listen carefully. Satan will attack you with everything he has, and he doesn't let up. But the simple reason you are his enemy. And we are indeed the enemies of the devil.
If you don't remember what Jesus said, the gates of hell will not be able to withstand the onslaught of the people of God. And too many times we're on the defensive, and because we are so often defeated by Satan's assaults upon us from every aspect of life, how do we deal with it?
Now, the Apostle Paul says there are two answers.
Now they seem to be very simple at first, but I want you to stay with me because they're not all that simple. They're simple to state, not all that easy to live by. The first one is this: any time you're going to battle, the first thing that's the most important of all, and that's this: you have to be able to identify the enemy. And that is, if you don't know who the enemy is, then how you going to fight? How you going to stand?
How you going to be victorious? And you see, our problem is this: our real, true enemy is invisible. The forces of evil—that is, those forces, satanic forces—cannot be seen.
Now, here is the problem in identifying the enemy. Here is the ploy of Satan. Satan doesn't show up and say to you, "I'm going to tempt you." Satan doesn't show up and. And make you angry. Here's what he does: Satan will use other people as his vessels.
So when someone comes to you and abuses you, and misuses you, and criticizes you, and gossips against you, your first response is to blame the person, look at the person, and accuse them. What you have to ask is, who's behind this? It doesn't make a difference what they say or what they do. The issue is this: Who is the enemy? Brothers and sisters in Christ are not each other's enemies.
We're not each other's enemies. And oftentimes churches split, marriages split, and and children and their parents split, and each other seems to be the other's enemy. That's not true. The enemy is the devil. The enemy is the forces of evil.
That's who the enemy is, and so oftentimes we become very deceived. We are blinded by Satan's powers to do so, and we begin to find ourselves fighting one another, when the real enemy is the devil and his forces. And listen to what he says in this passage. He says, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood. That is, our struggle is not against people." He says, "But really, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness." He says, "In the heavenly places." He's identifying for us who the enemy is, and oftentimes we don't realize that, and so we become angry with other people.
We get bitter, resentful, hostile. We lose our testimony, and we wonder what in the world's going. Because Satan has deceived us into thinking the real problem is between us and somebody else, when the real problem is the devil who creates animosity and divides. Remember, we said he he deceives, he divides, and he destroys.
So naturally, what he's going to do, he's going to get godly people upset with each other about something. And often times, it isn't worth anything, and yet that's exactly his plan. That's his maneuver. Remember what he says? He says, "Beware of the schemes of." Watch out!
Stand against the schemes, the maneuvering, the trickery, the cunning craftiness of Satan. And so, step number one is to identify the enemy. Step number two, listen, is to stand firm.
Now, listen carefully. When we think in terms of standing firm, we have to ask the question. How do I stand against Satan when he comes at me with this temptation or this trial? When I'm tempted to become discouraged and give up and quit and walk away, how do we respond? How is it possible to stand firm?
Well, that's what I want us to explain in this passage because this is what it's all about. In fact. It's very simple. He says, "You want to have the victory? Be sure you have an accurate identity, an accurate identification of the enemy." And secondly, he says it four times to stand firm.
Now, watch what he says. Look at him for a moment. He says in verse eleven, "Put on the full armor of God." Why?
So that you will be able to stand firm. Against the schemes of the devil, not just stand and wobble and and compromise and try to make up your mind, but he says stand firm, and he's going to show us how. Second, look in verse thirteen. Therefore, having described the wickedness, take up the full armor of God. For what reason?
So that you'll be able to resist in the evil day. And having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm, therefore, four times he uses it.
Now, you say, well, one times he says resist. The word resist comes from the same Greek root meaning and Greek word as the word standing firm.
So the truth is, he's saying four times, stand firm, stand firm, stand firm, stand firm. How do you defeat the enemy? You identify him accurately, and then you stand firm.
Now the issue is, how do we stand firm? Many people, when they are tempted, do not stand firm because there are certain things they probably have never thought about. They're not prepared. You see, the truth is, what Paul is getting ready to tell us is this: you have to get prepared for the battle. And because the battle comes oftentimes, and the temptations come oftentimes when we least expect them, you can't get ready after the battle started.
You get ready and stay prepared before the battle ever hits you. If you just wait and start getting your thoughts together after you've been hit with something, that's the wrong time. And so here is what Paul does, knowing them so well, he takes the analogy of a Roman soldier who is fully equipped and fully armed with all of his armor on, and he describes what you and I have as a believer. He describes how you and I are to withstand the onslaughts of Satan, and what he does here is he uses the Roman soldier's armor. To describe what our armor is like—that is, how do we defeat him?
How do we stand without giving up and giving in and walking away? And the truth is, we're all going to be hit—not one time, but many times. Satan's not going to let up on you. And I can tell you this again: the holier you live, the more godly your walk, the holier your conversation, your conduct, and your character, the more you can expect Satan to chip away at you. They hit you with one surprise after the other.
They come up on the blind side of you, attack you in all different kinds of ways that you would never expect. Why? Because his desire—listen—deceive you, divide you, that is, draw you away from God and destroy you. But we don't have to be destroyed. We don't have to give in.
We don't have to quit. We don't have to give up, and there's a way. And I want you to listen to what the Apostle Paul says. And I'd like for us to go through this because this is his answer, and his answer is absolutely correct, and his answer is absolutely true, and it works. And I think anybody who has come to that place in their life realizes that you cannot be passive if a person says, "Well, I don't believe in the devil." You know what?
He has total control. If you don't believe in the enemy.
Well, you know what? There he is, and you don't believe in him. Then he's got you. And you may ask yourself the question: Maybe you're not a believer, and you've said, "Well, sometimes I've wondered why I do the things I do." I'll tell you why: Because the one who rules you is giving you direction. The one who rules you even empowers you to accomplish and achieve those things that he knows ultimately will ruin you and wreck your life.
He opens doors of opportunity. He cleans out the path he wants you to walk. And so, if you think, well, you know, I don't, I don't seem to see that there's any any devil here. Oh, yes, there is. Once your eyes are open with the gospel, you're going to begin to see the source of all this.
Now, in thinking of all that, I think about. What he says in this passage, when he says, "Notice," he says in verse thirteen, "Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you'll be able to resist in the evil day." What does he mean by the evil day? He's talking about those times when he hits you the most intense kind of temptation, a trial. Those times when you think your life is hanging in the balance, those are moments that you know are critical moments for you to make the right decision. And God has shown you His will for your life, and Satan comes in to offer you this very appealing kind of alternative.
These are those evil moments, treacherous moments.
So let's look at it for a moment, because this is the first step. That is having identified the enemy. And then standing, how do we stand? There are three things involved in standing, and we'll deal with one of them today. One of them is dressing for the battle.
Notice how he begins in verse fourteen: "Stand, therefore," he says, "having girded your loins with truth." Now, what is that about?
Well, let's look at the Roman soldier for a moment, because that's what his analogy is coming from. A Roman soldier had a belt. Around him, he had a tunic that he placed them had a hole in the top and place for his arms. And so, in order to keep that around him close, he had a belt. On that belt, he also attached his dagger if he had one.
And if naturally, a place for his sword. And so he says, having girded ourselves, belted ourselves, put the belt around us, the belt of truth.
Now, what is that?
Well, remember who the enemy is. He, Jesus said, he was a murderer and a liar. And that the only thing he did was lie, and so we're dealing with someone who would deceive us if at all possible. The girdle of truth speaks. Listen, not only of knowing the truth about ourselves, knowing the truth about the Lord and His promises to us, it also deals with the issue of truth to ourselves.
For example, you have to ask yourself this question: When you attempt it with something, do you find yourself saying, "Well"? I don't know that I really want to resist this or not. If you find yourself in a position where you are not committed to living a godly life, you are not committed to listen to being obedient to God. Satan already has a tow hole in your life, and you see, there are a lot of people who are saved. They trusted Jesus Christ their Savior, but they've never come to a place in their life where they have said, "I am committed to living a godly life." Have you ever come to the place in your life, since you trusted Jesus Christ as your savior, where you looked at your life, you looked at the Word of God, and then you made this decision?
I am going to live an obedient life before God. Does that mean you are going to be perfect? No, but it means that you understand the seriousness of the Christian life, and you willing to commit yourself. I am committed to living a godly life. I am committed to living a holy life.
I am committed to walking obediently before God. I am committed to living the will of God as best I know how by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the truth that God wants us to have. No soldier would go to battle with no belt because his tunic would be flapping around, no place to hold his sword. And the truth is, you can't live the Christian life.
You will not live the Christian life. And your life won't count if you've not made a commitment. Listen, you made a commitment to trust Jesus as your savior. At some point in time, here's what you said: You said, "Having recognized my sinfulness, recognizing that I'm lost, I'm placing my trust in Jesus Christ as my personal savior. And from this moment on, He is my savior.
He is my Lord and my Master." You made a commitment. Have you ever said? Past that, because we knew so little when we were saved. Have you ever said, having lived in the Christian life long enough to look around and see how things really operate? Have you said, have you made the commitment?
I choose, Father, to walk obediently before you, no matter what. Once you make that decision, things will be different. That is a very essential decision when you're being attacked by Satan. Otherwise, that's what you're doing. Satan hits you with something, and your response is, "Well, everybody's doing it.
I mean, I'm not perfect. God doesn't expect me to." You see, and all you know where all that comes from? Do you think God's? Did you think God sends that kind of stuff in your mind? No, He does not.
You say, "Well, can Satan send thoughts in your mind?" Absolutely. He is. He's a master at it. He knows exactly what to send and when to send it.
Now, do you have to believe what he says? Absolutely not. You don't have to believe it, but does he send fiery darts of doubt and rationalization into your mind? Yes, he does. If you come to some attack with Satan and you haven't decided.
That you're going to live godly before Him. I'm here to tell you, you are going down in defeat because He's going to put pressure on you. He's going to throw all kinds of rationalization at you, fire those flaming arrows of rationalization and doubt, and all the rest. And you know what? Before long, you'll say, "Well, you know what?
Can't be perfect." So after all, God understands. God understands the belt of truth. Do you really and truly want to live a godly life? Have you committed yourself? Listen.
Do you want to be the person God wants you to be? If you haven't settled that issue, then you already listen. You are already facing your foe, and you are partially defeated because listen, you've never decided to say no to what doesn't fit your life. Thank you for listening to How to Survive a Satanic Attack. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or Intouch Ministries, stop by intouch.org.
This podcast is a presentation of Intouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
