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Series: Strategies of the Kingdom

The Shape of the Enemy

"Know your enemy and know yourself, and you will never know defeat" (Sun Tzu).
When an army goes into battle, the commanding general will seek to know everything he can about the nature, capacity and intentions of his enemy. This is called "intelligence", and is just as imperative if we are to be effective in spiritual warfare. It is important for us to know our Enemy - his strengths and weaknesses - and also to know ourselves - our strengths and weaknesses.
"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" Ephesians 6:12.

Our Enemy's Origin

 The Bible doesn't go into great detail about the origin of Satan, the "Evil One", but it provides many hints. Read Isa.14:12-14; Eze.28:12-19.

From these verses we see a little of Satan's nature before his fall. The Bible says he was created in blameless perfection, with outstanding beauty and wisdom, but pride corrupted him and he rebelled against the will of God.

Although Satan is now a fallen creature, warped by sin, he still possesses the same essential characteristics that God created him with:

Satan's Character

 The character of Satan is summed up in the name given to him in Revelation 9:11: " Apollyon", which means "the Destroyer". Jesus said: "He was a murderer from the beginning..." John 8:44 (see also 10:10).

Satan's character of destruction is outworked towards mankind in three ways. He is a:

  1. Liar (John 8:44)
  2. Deceiver (1 Tim.2:14; Rev.12:9)
  3. Accuser (Rev.12:10).
Satan's character is the diametric opposite of Christ's:

Satan's Authority

 When Satan tempted Adam and Eve to disobey God, he acquired "authority rights" over mankind and everything that had been given to mankind - the earth (Psalm 115:6; Luke 4:6).

Ephesians 2:2 describes our Enemy as "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in those who are disobedient." This reveals three things about the Enemy's present authority:

Title: Satan is called a "prince" (Matt.9:34; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11).

Influence: The word here translated "power" is in fact the Greek word exousia, meaning "authority" or "dominion". Every action the Enemy makes against people's lives is from the authority base he has in that community (see Colossians 1:13- the exousia of darkness).

Altitude: Satan operates from the "heavenlies", in this case meaning the earth's atmosphere (see Luke 10:18; Daniel 10:12-13; Rev.12:7-12).

Disinformation

Disinformation is false information, fed by one army to another, in order to mask its true intentions and, if possible, its identity. Satan has five classic ploys of disinformation that disguise his identity and power:
  1. The-Devil-Is-A-Myth Ploy
  2. The-Poor-Misunderstood-Devil Ploy
  3. The-Devil-And-God-Are-Brothers Ploy
  4. The-Devil-Made-Me-Do-It Ploy
  5. Who's-Afraid-Of-The-Big-Bad-Devil Ploy

Agenda of the Enemy

 Satan is after four specific things: In order to accomplish this, Satan has a strategic (high-level) and tactical (low-level) agenda.

Satan's Strategic Agenda

"The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" 2 Corinthians 4:4.
The human mind holds a high priority on the Enemy's program, and this is his main battleground (2 Cor.10:3-5). In order to blind people's minds to the reality of the Gospel, Satan seeks to control strategic points in the community:
  1. Political/legislative institutions
  2. Religious institutions
  3. Financial Institutions
  4. The Media
  5. The Education System
  6. Science and Philosophy - "intellectualism"
Satan's desire is to mould community values in order to create more rebels like himself - "alienated from God and...enemies in (their) minds because of (their) evil behaviour" (Col.1:21). This strategic control is referred to as "Babylon" - the political, economic and religious system of the world (Rev. 18:2; 1 John 2:15-16).

His Tactical Agenda

 Our Enemy's tactical agenda doesn't target communities and nations as a whole, but individuals. Satan gains a foothold in individual lives (Eph.4:26-28) primarily through: Ultimately, demonic forces seek to control individual lives by demonising them - exercising direct control over parts or all of their lives.
"Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings" 1 Peter 5:8-9 (see also James 4:7).

Satan's Weapons
"(God's) intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms" Eph.6:10.
The Church is the vehicle of God's redemptive plan and is the one thing standing between Satan and his four-point agenda (2 Thess.2:6-8). Therefore the Church is at the top of Satan's hit list.

Satan has nine main methods of dealing with the Church, either by destroying it or rendering it ineffective.

  1. Direct (Physical) Persecution
  2. Indirect (Psychological) Persecution
  3. Deception
  4. Ignorance
  5. Division
  6. Apathy
  7. Introversion
  8. Leadership attack
  9. Mixture
Satan's primary weapon against the Church is not persecution (this simply serves to strengthen and purify the Church), but mixture! If he can mix up the two kingdoms in our lives we become ineffective in the purposes of God (2 Cor.6:14-7:1; 1 Peter 2:9-12; Phil.2:14-15).

Impact of the Cross

"And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross" Col.2:15.
The Cross of Christ was a death blow to the Enemy's authority base (see Rev.1:18; Gen.3:15). The Church's action against the Enemy's activity in our community is from the legal foundation of the Cross.

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