Welcome to the In Touch podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, November 9th. God is always with us, and He has given us everything we need to stand strong in the spiritual battles of life. Continue with us in our series on spiritual warfare as we discover how to extinguish Satan's flaming missiles and live victoriously through faith in Christ. Why do you think you keep failing in the same area of your life over and over and over again?
Well, you say, well, I don't want to do that. I want to do what's right. I want to be obedient to God. I want to walk in His ways, but somehow I just can't seem to make it. There seems to be one area of my life I just can't seem to overcome.
Why do you think that happens? How long has it been going on? Do you understand how to respond to that, what to do about it?
Well, that's what I want to talk about in this message. And I want you to turn, if you will, to Ephesians chapter 6. And then we're going to read another passage of Scripture briefly. Ephesians chapter 6, beginning in verse 10. And this is the fourth and last message in the series concerning a satanic attack.
And we've talked about those attacks and how Satan comes at us. And this morning I want us to talk about it in a little different light. And beginning in verse 10, here's what he says. Finally, be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God so that you'll be able to stand firm against the schemes 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, 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 shudged your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Now watch this next verse. In addition to all of 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, 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. The title of this message is Extinguishing Satan's Flaming Missiles or his Flaming Arrows.
How do we do that? What's that all about?
Well, it's very evident that the Apostle Paul believes that somehow you and I can have victory in their life because he says four times, Stand firm, stand firm, stand firm, stand firm. And oftentimes we don't realize why we keep on being defeated. And there's a very specific reason why we are. And I think once you understand what that area of weakness is, how it developed, why it's there, and then you understand how you can have victory over that, then God's going to give you some peace and some victory in your life that you probably have not had, maybe some of you, since you were very small. And as you think about what he said, he said, stand firm, stand firm, stand firm.
Let's define what a satanic attack is. A satanic attack is a deliberate, willful assault upon a child of God or upon unbelievers. For the primary purpose of destroying, hindering in some fashion, your body, your soul, your spirit, or all three. Satan's objectives are very clear. He wants to draw you away from God, toward God's purpose in your life.
He wants to deny God the glory and honor that's due him as a result of your life, and he wants to destroy you ultimately. In essence, here's what Satan's up to, replacing God with himself in your life. That's his goal. He'll never be satisfied until at least he's making some headway in that line.
Now, when I think about that, I think about the question, well, how does he do that? In other words, if that's his goal, how does he do that?
Well, Paul very graphically explains that in this simple verse when he says in verse 16 that Satan is sending these flaming arrows. That is, he says we'll be able to extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one.
So we know what the source is. The source is Satan himself. Flaming arrows, what does he mean by that? Satan is continually firing his flaming missiles at you and me. What are they?
They are evil thoughts of seduction. That is evil thoughts of temptation. Because you see, Satan knows that our mind is the battlefield. And so, the way he attempts to penetrate our life and to destroy us is to send these flaming missiles just one after the other into our life into our mind The mind is the battleground He understands that And so it is our thought life that he after And so one after the other comes In those days when they were fighting a war, oftentimes they would send hundreds and sometimes thousands of arrows at a time when hundreds and hundreds of men, soldiers would fire them at the same time. And here they come like flaming torches.
Very, very difficult to avoid being damaged or hurt or injured or killed in some fashion. Satan is up to the same tactic in your life and mine, only what he does is he singles out for every single one of us that area of weakness in order to set up a stronghold. That is a fortress, as the Bible says, in your life and mine to defeat us.
Now, with that in mind, think about, for example, what you have to think about in your life, because the way we think is going to be the way we behave. And so Satan is going to fire those thoughts at us. And here's what happens. Listen carefully. When an evil thought or wrong thought comes to your mind, you can do one of two things.
You can either, knowing that it is not right, you can say, I refuse that, I shut that out. You don't have to accept it. Or you can entertain the idea. If you entertain the idea, what it means is you accept it to the point that you're willing to consider it. And when you start considering evil thoughts and you start considering and beginning to think about and inviting those kind of thoughts in your mind, you're headed in the very direction Satan wants you to head in because here's what happens.
When you do that over a period of time, Satan not only gets a toehold, after a while he gets a foothold, before long a stronghold or a fortress, and then what he has, he has a command post on the inside of your life, inside of your mind from which to harass you and to cause you defeat over and over and over again. This is why you fail in the same area of your life over and over and over again, because he now has a fortress or a stronghold. Instead of bringing these thoughts to the obedience of Christ, looking at these thoughts instantly, quickly, in light of what you know about the Scripture, you accept them. You entertain them. You begin to think about them.
And the longer you think about them, the greater hold they take on your life. And here's what I want you to notice. these arrows, these flaming missiles, are usually aimed at some desire we have, some need that we have, some weakness that we have in our life. Usually, he points it to something we don't have so strongly that we forget all the good things that God does for us, and the only thing we can think about is what we don't have, and naturally, that's part of his deception. Remember, his whole idea is to deceive, divide, and destroy.
If he can deceive us into thinking that, listen, Listen, God is depriving us of something we ought to have, or we certainly aren't getting our share. If he can deceive us into thinking that we can manipulate our circumstance in some fashion, some way, then he's established a stronghold in our life.
Now, somebody says, well, now, how would you define a stronghold? A stronghold is that hold Satan gets on your life and your thinking that prevents you from walking obediently before God in a certain area. And so, listen, all he wants is one. He may come to you in many areas, but listen, ultimately, if he can just get a stronghold in your thinking somewhere, that stronghold is a thinking of darkness. It's a darkness in your mind and your thinking.
It ends up in being something that is compulsive, something that you feel like you have to do. And oftentimes, it's a recurring thought. In fact, the truth is, ultimately, that's what it becomes. that is a series of recurring thoughts about the same way. Whatever that area of weakness is, if he can get you thinking the same way over and over and over again, then before long he has a stronghold in your life.
That's the way you think. And so you feel this compulsion to do it. You just feel some obsession in your life, some addiction in your life. And somehow you find yourself, that's where you are, and you just can't seem to break out of it, no matter how hard you try.
Now, this is the way he does it. He fires, for example, and we'll give you some examples in a moment. He fires one of those arrows into a certain area. He comes back and he fires another one and another one and another one. And what happens is after a while, if you have opened your mind to it, he has poured into your mind a very, very convincing list of reasons why you ought to do a certain thing.
why you should, why you must, why you can, and it's all right. Each one of those arrows, listen, has as its objective to convince you more thoroughly that what He's saying to you is right and okay and profitable and in the long run you be better off all of which remember each one is a lie Jesus said he the father of lies He not going to tell you the truth He's not going to talk about consequences. He's only going to talk about what you think is good for you at this moment. That's the way he operates.
So as you think about what gets you headed in that direction you know you ought not to be headed in, what is it that happens when you begin to move in an area of your life that you know I don't have any business going there, but you go anyway. You say, I just can't help myself.
Well, the truth is probably in your own strength, you can't help yourself. But each time, each time you move in that direction, it becomes stronger and stronger and stronger.
Well, let's take a list, for example, of some of these. Let's say, for example, fear. Once Satan can interject into your life, once he can fire one of those arrows in a certain situation, all of a sudden, he gets you afraid just for the moment. You entertain that. He's going to fire another one to say, this is the reason you ought to be afraid.
Suppose this happens. Suppose that happens. What about what she thinks? What does he think? And suppose this happens to you financially.
Suppose you lose this. And suppose, in other words, he's just firing one arrow after the other. Each one, listen, digging a little deeper into your mind until you end up beginning to think the way he thinks. You ought to think the way God thinks. He wants us to think the way he thinks.
If you entertain that thought for a moment, you know what? He'll fire another one and say, and this is the reason you should. And another one, and you can. And on and on and on it goes. What does it do?
Steals your joy, your peace, your happiness, your contentment in life. That's what he's up to. He cannot destroy your soul as a believer, but he can play havoc with your emotions, havoc with your thinking, and havoc with your life. Can't take your life from you, but he can make your life so miserable sometimes you wish you weren't alive. Remember, what he wants to do is to replace God in your life.
And the reason you keep feeling weakness and failure in this particular area, you, listen, he fired a missile. You accepted it. You began to think about it. You began to consider it. You got into some debate with him about it.
Next thing you know, he's got a toehold, foothold, stronghold. And now he has a command post in your thinking. And now you're thinking in that area the way he thinks. And you wonder, why do I keep being defeated? and that's how he destroys people.
And that's why Paul said these flaming missiles, these flaming arrows of the evil one, they all come from Satan. A satanic attack is all about how we defend ourselves from these flaming arrows of seductive evil thoughts, wrong thoughts. How do we handle them? And you look around today and you can tell that most folks haven't handled it very well. And you see people living in all kinds of sin and all kinds of addictions and all kinds of habits, and they defend what they do and defend how they live.
And the truth is, deep down inside, you can mark this down. Deep down inside, they're miserable. I don't care how much they laugh in public. I don't care how famous they may be or how rich they may be or how secure they may feel. All of these things, the truth is this.
When Satan gets a stronghold in your life, you are captive to the devil. And you may say, well, you know what? I've got freedom. I can do what I want. And oftentimes the wealthier a person is, the freer they think they are.
And the truth is they're absolutely captivated.
Well, what I'd like to do is to take a couple of examples and show you in the Scripture just how Satan has done this and what happens. Go back to Genesis chapter 3 for a moment, and this is Satan's encounter with Eve. Listen and notice what happens. Here we have Eve in the garden, and Satan comes along and he said to her, Indeed, has God said, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden.
Now what kind of a flaming missile is that? A flaming missile of what? Doubt. In other words, is that really what God said?
So she responded, 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. She should have said slam to the door and walked away. She didn't do that.
So Satan, he fires this next missile and he says to her, oh, you'll not really die. Uh-oh, we're in trouble. Toho. You'll not really die.
Now listen to this next missile, what happens? He sends another one. He says, for God knows that the day that you eat from it, your eyes will be open. You'll be like God, knowing good and evil.
Next missile says, God's depriving you of something that you ought to know. Because if you ate of that tree, you'd be like God. You'd know the things that God knows.
Well, you say, well, that should have been enough. No, he fires another one. He says, by the way, the tree, look how beautiful that fruit is. And you ought to taste of it.
Next missile. And besides that you be smart like God You know what Toe hole foothold stronghold defeat What he does now watch this because he doing it in your life This is the way he operates. He's always operated this way. He gives you just enough. And if you listen to that, he'll give you a little bit more.
And what happens? He leads you down this path of destruction and addictions and habits until finally your life is destroyed. You say, well, now, that doesn't necessarily destroy my life.
Well, it'll teach you out of your joy, peace, happiness, and contentment. And besides that, if you, because you see people who are addicted in bad habits and they have these cycles of thinking that are wrong, they wake up every single morning and they have to deal with it. There's no peace and joy and happiness in that.
Now, I want to give you one that's more graphic than that. Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 11.
Now, watch this one, 2 Samuel chapter 11. Listen to what happens. I'm going to read you this passage and then let's look at it because I want you to see the pattern. This is the way Satan works. Look at this.
Chapter 11 of 2 Samuel, verse 1. Then it happened in the spring at the time when kings go out to battle that David sent Joab his servants with him. And all Israel, they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem.
Now, when evening came, David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house, which he'd probably done many times. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing. And the woman was very beautiful in appearance.
Now watch this.
So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite? Then David sent messages and took her. And when she came to him, he lay with her. And when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house.
And she was pregnant. Then, here's what David does. David finds out who her husband is, calls him and tries to manipulate the circumstance that he'll go home to his wife.
Well, this man is so loyal, he won't do that. And so what happens is, 14th verse, Now in the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. he had written in the letter saying, place Uriah in the front line of the fiercest battle and withdraw from him so that he may be struck down and die. What happened? David is taking his natural, normal, innocent walk around the balcony of his castle.
He happens to look down and he sees this woman bathing. this is David who wrote the Psalms this is David who knows the truth this is David who knows what lust is about he looked and instead of moving on knowing that he should not have stood there here's what happened in his curiosity he invited Satan's thoughts so what does he do he's wondering who she is Curiosity. Sends another error. You can find out you're the king.
So he finds out a messenger who she is.
So what does he do? Satan sends another fiery error. You're the king. Can't you have what you want? And so what does he do?
He sends for her. He sends another fiery error. After all, you're the king. Can't you do what you choose, what you please? And he commits adultery.
Here's this David, this godly man. And here's what happens. He manipulates the circumstance so that her husband is killed in battle. And then he sends another arrow.
Well, here's what you do. You tell Joab, you tell your commanders, after all, this is things just happen in battle. This is life. He sends another arrow.
Well, her husband's dead.
Now you can really have her. He takes her to be his wife. and did he ever mess up his kingdom and foul up God's plan and his work. It's just that simple and just that graphic. That's the way Satan operates, whether it's money, fame, position, sex, you name it.
It's this way he operates. And so the whole issue of a satanic attack is this. Deceive, divide, and destroy. Thank you for listening to Extinguishing Satan's Flaming Missiles. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station.
And 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.
