When I was in high school one of my many adversaries was a kid that was obsessed with the WWF (World Wrestling Federation, now WWE). He was also obsessed with my girlfriend. It just drove him mad that I was with this girl, and for months he told everyone in the school he was going to end me (you could do that in the 80’s).
He was actually quite specific about how he was going to destroy me. He was going to do a pro wrestling maneuver on me called a “piledriver” which is defined by Wikipedia this way:
“A piledriver is a professional wrestling driver move in which the wrestler grabs their opponent, turns them upside-down, and drops into a sitting or kneeling position, driving the opponent head-first into the mat.”
The problem I foresaw was that this would not be happening on a mat. It would either be on the cement or the hard tile floors in the school. Either meant my skull would be crushed! He was the kind of kid that might not understand that a piledriver could kill someone.
I was terrified for months. Butterflies the size of bats appeared inside me every time I got off the bus to head into school. I’d think, “this could be my last day alive.” It didn’t help that people came up to me constantly saying things like, “Dude, he’s going to kill you.” I really didn’t like high school.
Axtmann!
Well, it finally happened. After school, I scurried onto the bus before everyone else but then heard my last name screamed out—“Axtmann!” I looked out the window and there he was, filled with rage, coming up onto the bus. I wasn’t a praying teen but I’m pretty sure since I was about to die I whispered something to God for help. As he came up the stairs of the bus I swung my right arm around his head and put him in a headlock and squeezed as hard as I could for about ten minutes. Kids surrounded the school bus, peering through and pounding the windows cheering. Then the center of the football team, who must have weighed 350 pounds, came on the bus and broke up the fight. Even though I was convinced that my bully was stronger than me I realized he wasn’t. He never bothered me again after that.
The Devil
I want to talk to you today about a much more sinister enemy, namely, the Devil. Just like my high school enemy, the Devil uses intimidation to convince us that he is stronger than us. But I want to show you that he is not stronger than us—when we depend on God. Other names in Scripture for this invisible foe are:
Son of the Morning
Ruler of Demons
Angel of Light
Father of Lies
The Evil One
Old Serpent
Beelzebub
Murderer
Deceiver
Accuser
Dragon
Lucifer
Belial
Satan
An army
But our enemy is not just a single creature. There is a whole army of demonic spirits that are arranged under Satan like a military operation.
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
— Ephesians 6:11-12
These creatures who hate humans are essentially fallen angels. They are superior to us physically and in intelligence. They especially hate Christians. These “spiritual forces of evil” aim to blind us from seeing God clearly and seek to draw us away from God. They are quite skilled at what they do and are often successful.
How they operate
Their strategy is to get us to think wrongly about who God is. It’s a lot like slander in human relationships. When someone hates a person, they sometimes campaign against the person, by spreading terrible lies. They try to persuade everyone they know that this person is a monster. Sometimes there is some truth to what they are saying, but often, it is grossly exaggerated.
This is what Satan is trying to do to God’s people. He works furiously to paint a distorted picture of God. He did this to Eve in the Garden, remember?
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." — Genesis 3:1-5
Did you catch it? Satan causes Eve to question the good motives of God. He contradicts God and tells Eve that she won’t die. That God isn’t being honest with her. God is just lying to her because God doesn’t want her to have this wonderful exciting forbidden fruit. Sadly, Eve bought into it.
Objectives
In this war on Christians, the aim of evil forces is to harm our relationship with Christ. These adversaries will do whatever they can do to pull us off track and cast us into shame. They seek to bring us back into captivity to sin. They don’t want us to be fruitful and effective. They don’t want us to be joyful and passionate about spreading the gospel. They don’t want us to speak the truth, and they don’t want us to be men and women of prayer. They especially target high profile leaders and draw them into secret sin, knowing that eventually it’ll be exposed and it’ll bring shame upon the Church of Jesus.
Some of the more specific objectives of these evil forces are to keep our faith merely intellectual and devoid of power, to make us afraid of the Holy Spirit, to make us bitter, to create divisions, to ensnare us with idols and addictions, to get us to neglect the Word of God. He loves to intimidate us and make us fearful. He condemns us and makes us feel insecure in our relationship with the Lord.
Jesus said to Peter, “Satan desires to sift you like wheat.” The Evil One is not playing games. Peter in his epistle said,
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. — 1 Peter 5:8
A roaring hungry lion seeking to devour is a terrifying image. We cannot take a day off from being hunted. This is happening. Today. Tomorrow. Until the end.
Offense versus defense
Often in war, the two opponents are each seeking to protect their own territory and gain the territory of the other. Some days might be a loss, other days a gain.
As we climb the Mountain of God, advancing to know God—Satan meets us along the way. He tries to block our path. He stands in our way at every juncture. He comes with temptation, accusation, condemnation and affliction. At every point, he is contending with us. We come upon what seems like a safe landing and we find thirty fallen angels ready to push us back. We take a different route and are ambushed. We go up the side of a cliff and get assailed with fiery darts in the back. As we aim to advance, the enemy aims to push us back down the mountain. We are in a war.
How to overcome
How in the world can we stand up against these superior beings that have so many advantages over us? Not only are these fallen angels stronger and smarter, but they can see us, and we can’t see them. They can hear us, and we can’t hear them.
The secret to overcoming the forces of evil is to depend on the strength of God.
Consider how the Lord used a man with a stick (Moses) to topple the mighty Egyptian army. Gideon was a weak man with just a tiny army of 300 but they defeated the Midianites. Joshua was greatly outnumbered and had inferior weaponry but was victorious. David as a young boy (maybe 15) went up against the giant Goliath and slew him with a slingshot!
Victory happens—even against overwhelming odds—when God’s people humble themselves and cry to the Lord in dependent prayer. When David confronted Goliath it wasn’t in his own strength as a “tough guy.” He said to Goliath, who towered over the ruddy handsome young boy,
“You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head.” — 1 Samuel 17: 45-46
Don’t be afraid
We must understand in this pursuit of God that we are in a spiritual war. There are very real forces of darkness that hate us and who seek to prevent us from getting close to Christ. Jesus said the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy. These verses in the Bible about war are not merely metaphors. These are actual invisible spiritual beings that are trying to do one thing in the life of a Christian: pull us away from God. That’s why Jesus and the Apostles urge us to be sober, be alert, be watchful, be prayerful. We can’t pretend like the war isn’t happening. We have to be aware of the schemes of Satan and learn to live in dependence upon the Lord.
While the reality of evil forces can be intimidating—listen!—we are not called to be afraid. Our God is mighty and gives us authority over the evil one. We are not fighting alone. Our God goes before us in battle. He is our strength and our shield. No one can stand up against us when God is with us. We are more than conquerors! As we stay humble, obedient, and dependent on God through prayer—we will triumph over Satan and the entire realm of demonic foes. “Greater is He (Christ) who is in us than he (Satan) who is in the world.”
We don’t have to be scared of them. They are scared of us! Selah
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. — Matthew 16:18