Satan’s Schemes

Hey everyone!

I’m sitting at my computer this morning a bit agitated from reading the news and my social media feeds. Perhaps I’ve not drunk enough Bang (energy drink) yet but something in me is compelling me to write this morning and I think it’s going to be one of those unpopular blogs.

So, in Ephesians 6 Paul tells us to put on the whole armor of God. Yeah, everyone’s heard about it sometime or another. In fact, I think it has been preached so much that it’s lost its impact – you know, kind of beating a dead horse. However, that doesn’t make it less important. In fact, it is vital.

But this morning I want to focus on Ephesians 6:11-12 which says this”

^“11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

There are three important parts in these verses I want to zero in on:

1. We need to take our stand – as in the military concept of standing firm as the enemy rushes toward you. Think of that scene in Braveheart where William Wallace is telling his guys to “HOLD” right up until the English calvary is close enough to run into the Scottish lances.
2. The devil’s schemes are an important thing to know about! It’s his tactics against humanity in the whole and against each of us individually. Paul says in 1Corinthians 2:11 that we are not to be unaware of these tactics.
3. Our fight is against the hierarchy of demons. Paul here is referring to rulers, authorities, and powers/principalities as the sum total of evil in the world and their fight against God on earth and “in the heavenly realms.”

Let’s start with door number 2!

What exactly are the devil’s schemes or tactics? Let’s look at the macro and micro level here.

In the macro sense, the devil’s entire focus is opposing God. That means opposing God’s creation. And that means a special focus on God’s greatest creation – the one He crowned with glory (Psalm 8:5-8) – us! This cosmic battle is playing out for our spirits – remember that we are spirits with bodies not bodies with spirits. So, in the big picture Satan works to separate us from God so that he will not just control but gain our spirits for eternity. That’s where this rulers, authorities, and powers come in as Satan’s weapons in the fight.

(Editor’s Note: Some in the Jewish community believe that the rulers, authorities, and power refer to the Jewish leaders in Christ’s time given that when Christ died and rose He overcame Satan. However, that doesn’t track given that Satan still has power here that is subjected to Christ’s kingship until Christ returns to lock up the serpent. Why Jesus allows Satan to continue to act out is a whole other blog!)

Now, let’s take a look at the micro – the specific tactics of Satan to pull us away from God. I’ll just enumerate a bunch in no particular order.

• Inflaming Pride
• Inflaming Lust
• Inflaming Desire
• Creating Division
• Sowing Doubt
• Undermining Faith
• Instilling Hate
• Disrupting Relationships
• Instilling Discouragement
• Inflaming Oppression
• Inflaming Injustice
• Rewarding Opposition to God’s Ways
• Corrupting God’s Word

There’s more but this is just off the top of my head (because I couldn’t find any cool infographics on Google to steal!)

Did you notice anything about this list?

Satan and his demons are extremely active in our “spiritual warfare” battle but all of the tactics he uses are aimed at getting us to act in our fallen nature. In other words, we actually are the actor and Satan is just the tempter. James puts it this way in 1:13-15:

^“13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; ¹⁴ but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. ¹⁵ Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” (Emphasis added)

Okay, here’s where I’m going to call it like I see it by applying these tactics to today’s culture and pretty much call out how our American society is in “league with Lucifer” (to quote the great line from the movie Highlander!)

• Inflaming Pride
  • People today actually believe they don’t need God. God is a construct of the weak mind and a crutch. There is no God and in fact we are our own personal gods. Our culture has morphed into a self-absorbed, me-first and me-only society where what we want and how we think is all that matters. It results in no love for your fellow man, no empathy or ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and a serious lack of respect for life. Satan has convinced us that God is made for us not the other way around.
• Inflaming Lust
  • The very first thing that Adam and Eve notice once they are enticed to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is that they’re naked…and ashamed. From the very beginning Satan perverted sex and it’s been a plague on mankind ever since. Our lusts run rampant and sex rules our society. Sex sells as the old adage says so everything is sexualized from commercial ad and Hollywood movies to teaching kindergarteners about sexual orientation and having drag queen shows. I can’t even name all the crap TV shows where sex is the concept around which the show is formed. Sex has been mainstreamed including homosexual, bi-sexual, pansexual, polyamorous, and transgender sexuality. Heck, there’s even a push by pedophiles to normalize child rape! And here’s the crazy part: If you disagree with this hyper-sexualization you’re (choose your adjective) phobic and a hatemonger. Satan has absolutely destroyed God’s plan for sexuality by enflaming our fallen nature’s desire for sex.  
• Inflaming Desire
  • Who was it in the original Willy Wonka movie who said, “I want it, I want it, I want it and I want it NOW!” Was it the Veruca kid? YES! I googled it – it’s actually a song! Well, that’s what Satan has convinced us – to want it NOW! Greed is what it used to be called. Not only do I want it, but I deserve it! Americans have $841 BILLION of credit card debt in 2022, according to Lending Tree. There are only 330 million Americans! Individually we’re downing in debt and as a nation we are as well. Scripture tells us plainly not to go into debt! But here we are. Why? Satan has convinced us that we should gratify every desire we have. It has meant financial ruin for millions. But desire also includes things like escapism both in legitimate entertainment and illicit drugs. Even during this COVID period Americans spent $21.3 BILLION going to the movies this past year. The drug trafficking “industry” raked in $32 BILLION last year. And Americans spent a whopping $146 BILLION on booze. I want it and I want it NOW! Satan has convinced us to satiate our desires no matter the personal cost.
• Creating Division
  • I don’t even need to write about this one because it is so obvious in our society. Everyone has taken a side and demonized those with whom they disagree or those who disagree with them! This is a direct impact of Satan inflaming our pride and destroying basic respect in our approach to others made in God’s image. Even you don’t agree with one group or another you are demonized, canceled, marginalized, and attacked. Basically, we’ve been duped into believing that if someone disagrees with us, they are a bad person who has no right to use up the oxygen in the room. I remember the day where you could agree to disagree and still have a beer together. No longer – Satan has put an end to that in our minds. Now anyone who doesn’t agree with you is an enemy.
• Sowing Doubt
  • This is Satan’s direct attack on the church! Many people who grew up in the church leave the faith due to doubt. Satan begins to fill their minds with questions that seemingly have no satisfactory answer. We always have to remember that Satan and his demons are fallen angels – spirit beings who are “higher” than us, according to David. So, Satan is faster, stronger, and smarter than us. However, he is constrained by Jesus, and we are indwelt by an even stronger spirit – the Holy Spirit. Yet, we turn all that off and believe the questions put forth by Satan. Like Eve doubting when Satan said, “Did God really say…” So, what kinds of doubts does Satan put in our heads? Well, things like these:        
    • Is God really good?
    • Why does God allow all this suffering?
    • Why would a loving God send people to Hell?
    • God doesn’t really love you.
    • Why shouldn’t you do things God says not to?
    • God just wants to keep you from enjoying yourself.
    • Everyone else is doing it and they’re doing okay.
    • Why is God so intolerant and hateful?
    • You really can’t trust God because He really didn’t come through for you.
  • You can see how this sowing of doubt in your mind will incrementally pull you away from the faith and it’s epidemic in the younger generations (Millennials and Z folks)
• Undermining Faith
  • When doubt creeps in faith gets questioned. Undermining faith, however, is a more intense attack. Doubt questions who God is. Attacks against faith question if God is at all. How does Satan attack faith? He attempts to block your connection with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Your prayers seemingly go unanswered. You don’t “feel” God in your life. You see others who are “good” people that don’t believe, and they are better people in your estimation than those in your church who are hypocrites. You don’t really see God’s hand in things at all. Today’s science seems to answer the “Big” questions without including God in the equation. You’re miserable as a follower and desire joy that you believe can only be found outside the faith. These are all things that Satan pushes and I think he pushes these ideas on all of us honestly. Am I just praying to the ceiling? Why doesn’t God show me something tangibly? Satan takes advantage of our thoughts, our doubts, our questions, and our insecurities about God and works to convince us that there is no God. Scripture tells us many will fall away and we’re seeing it today with all its ramifications.
• Instilling Hate
  • Again, this is one that doesn’t need much explanation. People HATE one another! It wasn’t this way in the Garden, and it wasn’t God’s plan at all. This is from Satan. Everyone of us is made in the image of God yet we move from disagreement to hate so easily. History is filled with atrocities committee when one people group hates another. Our society today is filled with vitriol and violence as identity politics plays itself out on our streets. We seemingly are on the verge of a race war in America. God’s heart must break. Satan, on the other hand, just laughs at us.
• Disrupting Relationships
  • Nearly 50 percent of all marriages will end in divorce. Stats say 41 percent of first marriages, 60 percent of second marriages, and 73 percent of third marriages fail. Marriage is an institution God created that Satan perverted. Even Jesus said that divorce was only allowed by Moses because we are hard hearted, meaning that we can stay in a loving relationship with God and others as the greatest commandment teaches. (Matthew 19:8, Matthew 22:36-40) Satan gets in the middle of your relationships in a simple way: he makes you focus on serving yourself rather than serving God and the other person. And in our fallen state this is REALLY easy to do. My wife and I tell couples in our relationship and pre-marital counseling that the goal in any relationship is to please God. If you’re pleasing God, you’ll automatically be pleasing the other person because when both people in a relationship are committed to serving the other as God calls us to then we all get what we want! Does it happen? Nope. But it’s what we strive for in a Christian relationship. Satan, on the other hand, jumps in and makes you upset that you’re not getting what you want so you withhold from the other person creating a vicious cycle or what the Eggeriches call the “Crazy Cycle” in their book Love and Respect. Relationships are really easy to break when we’re self-focused instead of God-focused and that is what Satan works to do.
• Instilling Discouragement
  • Discouragement keeps you from accomplishing the things God has set out for you to do. Satan throws chairs at you – barriers that are meant to keep you from succeeding in life. And the more these chairs hit you in the shins the more discouraged you can get! Satan works to discourage us in our relationships, our professions, our faith community, our service to others, and pretty much everything else we do. When we get discouraged, we quickly move to believing that what ever it is can’t be done so we quit. And that is exactly what Satan wants us to do – quit. When we quit, we are harmless in the spiritual battle. Satan doesn’t mess with those who are the sidelines so quitting will actually feel like winning! But don’t be deceived by the liar that Satan is. Quitting means that you’re giving up on what God has created you to do and you’ll never be satisfied because of it. This is a main tool Satan uses to attack us. Stats say 13.2 percent of Americans take anti-depressants and 9.7 million Americans are taking anxiety medication. I think there is a correlation between discouragement and depression and anxiety, and you can see how Satan is affecting millions who are now not reaching their God-given potential in life.
• Inflaming Oppression
  • I don’t truly understand how one person can oppress another. It just seems so evil to me. But it happens on the macro and micro scale. People groups oppress each other – slavery is still a reality in today’s world if you can believe that! Some religions and nations oppress women horribly. Yet, in America, we repress each other daily on the micro scale. We look down on those of lower social status than us. Men completely objectify and sexualize women and they don’t even know it. Workplace dynamics are often hierarchical where “bosses” and those in positions of authority oppress those beneath them. To steal a term. I would call it “micro-oppressions.” Nobody is being subjected to slavery. But everyday people are being limited by others “above” them. Scripture tells us there is no Jew or Greek, free or slave, man or woman rather we are all one under Christ. (Galatians 3:28). However, Satan has perverted this as well because he’s inflamed in each of us a sense of superiority that naturally results in us treating others as “less than” instead of brothers and sisters in Christ.
• Inflaming Injustice
  • When pride, division, hate, and oppression are present, we will treat “the other” unjustly. We have seen it’s ugly consequences in America regarding race, nationality, sexual orientation, and more. As Christians, we are told that our job is to love people, tell them about Jesus, share the truth in love, and let God do all the judging. Satan says we judge people and if they don’t measure up to whatever standard we’ve set we treat them differently. And this knife cuts both ways. Take a look at the LGBTQ+ issue. 40 years ago, most had to stay in the closet or face serious persecution, including physical harm! Today if you’re not at least an “ally” you face persecution from the culture. And if you try to share the love of Christ by telling this group the truth about God’s plan for sexuality, you’re basically Beelzebub! So, today those who do not believe in that “lifestyle” are persecuted ranging from lawsuits to cancel culture. Everyone – and I mean EVERYONE – has the ability to treat other unjustly because of our fallen natures and Satan takes full advantage of our willingness to do so.
• Rewarding Opposition to God’s Ways
  • Thousands of years ago, King David questioned God in his Psalms asking why the righteous suffer while the evil prosper. That is a question I think we all feel deeply! The answer is clear: Satan rewards those who do his bidding with material gifts. The business shyster is a millionaire (billionaire?). A sex trafficker has his own island! Drug lords live in luxury. Liars and backstabbers climb the corporate ladder. Congress. This is the reason we are told not to envy – don’t want what they have, which is hard on our human nature. We’re also told two other important things: We will receive back 100-fold what we’ve given up for Christ, and those who seemingly do so well but are evil will be held accountable to God – there is justice in the end. Satan, however, will continue to make us look like rubes as evil reaps worldly rewards and we who play by God’s rules – well – suffer a bit.
• Corrupting God’s Word
  • Did God really say…from the beginning Satan has twisted God’s word. One of my pet peeves is people who will take a verse out of context from scripture and throw it out there as if they are making some great theological point. For example, “The Bible says you’re supposed to stone homosexuals!” Or “The Bible says you can’t eat shellfish.”  The uneducated and uninitiated buy into these soundbites to “prove” the Bible and its people are the problem. People don’t understand the Old Testament had three different sets of laws: Ceremonial, Ritual, and Moral. Both the ceremonial and ritual laws were just for Israel in the context of that period of time. In fact, you will read in the New Testament how God does not hold the Church to these two types of law. However, God’s moral law does not change and is meant for all people for all times. Satan wants you to believe that the law is one thing and all of it is nonsense from an antiquated time. Even the church has fallen into this trap believing Satan’s biblical gymnastics to basically reject God’s moral laws in favor of culturally appropriated doctrine. The end result? Many don’t believe scripture as truly God’s inerrant Word and thus they reject His moral law and the chaos that creates is obvious in our culture.

Whew – that was a lot of writing! But I’m not done. We have to go back and deal (hopefully quickly) with points 1 and 3!

So, we’re told to stand. I get how hard this is. Standing firm in the faith means that Satan is going to attack us with everything he has. He’s going to attack our minds, he’s going to attack our relationships, he’s going to attack our faith community, he’s going to attack our professional career, he’s going to attack anything and everything that could create a crack between us and God and he’s going to do it by using people and circumstances around us. Standing firm means weathering the blistering attack. It also means winning the war even while we may be losing battles. We stand firm regardless of the cost which can include loss of friends and family, loss of income and opportunities, loss of respect and reputation, and loss of social acceptance. Many can’t “drink from the cup” from which Jesus drank. The cost is high but that is what happens in a war and believe me we’re in one!

Point 3 should be obvious to you right now – we’re not fighting people we’re fighting evil. People are just the pawns in the game that Satan uses when they go to the dark side (Star Wars reference – 10 points!). The hardest part of this battle is loving others who seem so unlovable and clearly don’t love you back! I’m not trying to “humble-brag” but I have friends who are gay, transgender, atheists, pagans (actually freaking pagans!), socialists/communists, liberals, Trump-types, gun nuts, felons, sinners of every flavor, and more. And you know what? I love them all! Now here’s the really interesting part for me: They love me, too – at least I’m pretty sure they do! And all these friends know that I’m a God-guy and where I stand on God’s moral law. Yet, they see how I love them even if I think God’s got a better than for them than what they are choosing. They love me even though some think I’m just nuts for being a Jesus freak.

That, my friends, is the way it’s supposed to be. Peter tells us this: Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. (1 Peter 2:12). This is how we live if we want to defeat Satan as the war rages! Only light can defeat darkness. Only love can overcome hate.

Satan wants us to wage war the way he wages war. I’m telling you this morning in this extremely long blog that we need to wage war with the weapons Jesus has given us! Love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, non-judgmentalness, bearing with one another, and putting on the whole armor of God to stand against Satan and his demons.

Thanks for attending my Ted Talk! See you soon!