The Enemy Knows Who You Are

I recently started reading Kenny Luck’s book fight: Are you willing to pick a FIGHT with EVIL?[1]    There was a passage I just could not get out of my thoughts.  Luck says, “Satan knows who you are.  Get that. Then, as every God’s man must do on a more urgent basis, you need to accept what that means.  What’s that, you say?  Simple: You cannot ask for a hall pass to get out of this fight.  You must also stop living in ignorance and denial.  Instead, you need to understand and get to know Satan’s ways.  Why?  Because you are in play á la Jason Bourne.  You are an asset on assignment to neutralize evil wherever and whenever it rears its insidious head.  You are to be feared by the Enemy, not laughed at.”[2]  I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that most of us are passive aggressive at best when it comes to fighting Satan and the evil he brings to the world around us.  Yet God has given us every resource we need to fight Satan’s efforts.  Second Corinthians 2:11(b) says “in order that Satan might not outwit us.  For we are not unaware of his schemes.”[3] Here are some things we need to keep in mind when we think of the foe we are taking on:

• The New Testament mentions Satan in 19 of its 27 books.
• Every New Testament writer refers to Satan’s existence.
• Jesus Christ mentions Satan 15 times
• Satan is mentioned 34 times in the New Testament.

As I thought about this passage and the facts above, I was reminded of C. S. Lewis’ book The Screwtape Letters, which presents a series of letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, a junior demon named Wormwood, attempting to advise him on methods of destroying an earthly man, known only as “The Patient.”[4]  One particular letter from Wormwood had to do with the “Patient” becoming a Christian.  Uncle Screwtape responds with a letter that says “I note with grave displeasure that your patient has become a Christian. Do not indulge the hope that you will escape the usual penalties; indeed, in your better moments, I trust you would hardly even wish to do so. In the meantime we must make the best of the situation. There is no need to despair; hundreds of these adult converts have been reclaimed after a brief sojourn in the Enemy’s camp and are now with us. All the habits of the patient, both mental and bodily, are still in our favor.

One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do riot mean the Church as we see her spread but through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans. All your patient sees is the half-finished, sham Gothic erection on the new building estate. When he goes inside, he sees the local grocer with rather an oily expression on his face bustling up to offer him one shiny little book containing a liturgy which neither of them understands, and one shabby little book containing corrupt texts of a number of religious lyrics, mostly bad, and in very small print. When he gets to his pew and looks round him he sees just that selection of his neighbors whom he has hitherto avoided. You want to lean pretty heavily on those neighbors. Make his mind flit to and fro between an expression like ‘the body of Christ’ and the actual faces in the next pew. It matters very little, of course, what kind of people that next pew really contains. You may know one of them to be a great warrior on the Enemy’s side. No matter. Your patient, thanks to Our Father below, is a fool. Provided that any of those neighbors sing out of tune, or have boots that squeak, or double chins, or odd clothes, the patient will quite easily believe that their religion must therefore be somehow ridiculous. At his present stage, you see, he has an idea of ‘Christians’ in his mind which he supposes to be spiritual but which, in fact, is largely pictorial. His mind is full of togas and sandals and armor and bare legs and the mere fact that the other people in church wear modern clothes is a real—though of course an unconscious—difficulty to him. Never let it come to the surface; never let him ask what he expected them to look like. Keep everything hazy in his mind now, and you will have all eternity wherein to amuse yourself by producing in him the peculiar kind of clarity which Hell affords.”[5]  This excerpt is a very good word picture of the efforts Satan and his servants will go to accomplish the mission which is to “kill, steal, and destroy.”[6]

Peter makes it very clear when he says “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.  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.”[7]  God’s men must stand strong in their faith and use the power given to us through Jesus Christ.  Paul tells us “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”[8]  The Holy Spirit is our readily available partner to battle Satan and his servants.  “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.”[9]  So we must be prepared and at the ready because the enemy is capable of espionage and unusual warfare.  God gives us these instructions: “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”[10]

The day of evil has come. God’s men must stand their ground.  You and I must dare to pick a fight with evil.  Are you ready?  We must pray for one another, be diligent in our study of God’s word and surround ourselves with spiritual warriors who are ready to go to war!