Satan means adversary
Satan is firstly God's adversary
Satan 's main objective is
to oppose God's will. The activities
of Satan are always directed against God, His plan, and His people.
Satan also opposes the work of the Holy Spirit in the world which
is to guide men and women into the truth of the Word of
God.
When the day came for the
heavenly beings to appear before the LORD,
Satan was there among them. (Job 1:6 GNB)
the field is the world;
the good seed is the people who belong to the Kingdom; the weeds
are the people who belong to the Evil One; and the enemy who sowed
the weeds is the Devil.
(Mat 13:38-39 GNB)
Satan is also man's adversary
Satan tries to keep the Word
of God from influencing the hearts and lives of men and women. He
will attack them in the areas of worship of God, the Word of God,
their Christian walk, and their work for God.
In another vision the LORD
showed me the High Priest Joshua standing before the angel of the
LORD. And there beside Joshua stood Satan, ready to bring an
accusation against him.
(Zec 3:1 GNB)
Satan's attributes
Even though Satan is a
spirit, he is a real person and displays a real
personality.
Satan is deceitful
I am afraid that your
minds will be corrupted and that you will abandon your full and
pure devotion to Christ---in the same way that Eve was deceived by
the snake's clever lies.
(2Co 11:3 GNB)
Satan is angry and vindictive
The dragon was furious
with the woman and went off to fight against the rest of her
descendants, all those who obey God's commandments and are faithful
to the truth revealed by Jesus. (Rev 12:17 GNB)
Satan is as wily as a wolf and full of evil
tricks
Put on all the armor that
God gives you, so that you will be able to stand up against the
Devil's evil tricks. (Eph 6:11 GNB)
Satan is as terrifying and aggressive as a hungry
lion
Be alert, be on watch!
Your enemy, the Devil, roams around like a roaring lion, looking
for someone to devour. (1Pe 5:8 GNB)
Satan is deceptive and sneaky
"Well, no wonder! Even
Satan can disguise himself to look like an angel of light!"
(2Co 11:14 GNB)
Satan blinds the minds of the
unbelievers
But also if our gospel is
hidden, it is hidden to those being lost, in whom the god of this
world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving ones, so that the
light of the glorious gospel of Christ (who is the image of God)
should not dawn on them. (2Co 4:3-4 MKJV)
Satan forces his will upon unbelievers
And then they will come to
their senses and escape from the trap of the Devil, who had caught
them and made them obey his will. (2Ti 2:26 GNB)
What Satan is not ...
Satan is not omniscient. He is limited in
knowledge.
Unlike God, If Satan
could foresee the future he never would have allowed Jesus to die
on the cross. He would have known that the death of Jesus would
overthrow his power and provide a way of escape from the bondage of
sin for all mankind.
Satan is not omnipotent. His power is limited by
God.
You have always protected
him and his family and everything he owns. You bless everything he
does, and you have given him enough cattle to fill the whole
country. But now suppose you take away everything he has---he will
curse you to your face!" "All right," the LORD said to Satan,
"everything he has is in your power, but you must not hurt Job
himself." So Satan left. (Job 1:10-12 GNB)
But you belong to God, my
children, and have defeated the false prophets, because the Spirit
who is in you is more powerful than the spirit in those who belong
to the world. (1Jn 4:4 GNB)
Satan is not undefeatable, his rule will be
overthrown
Now is the time for this
world to be judged; now the ruler of this world will be
overthrown.
(Joh 12:31 GNB)
Satan's domain
Satan deceives the world
through "spiritual wickedness in high places." This is how he works
in the religious structure of the world. He deceives through false
doctrines, ministers, teachers and religions.
Satan is the ruler of the spiritual powers in
space
At that time you followed
the world's evil way; you obeyed the ruler of the spiritual powers
in space, the spirit who now controls the people who disobey God.
(Eph 2:2 GNB)
Satan is the
ruler of the world
We know that we belong to
God even though the whole world is under the rule of the Evil
One.
(1Jn 5:19 GNB)
Satan is the
deceiver of the whole world
The huge dragon was thrown
out---that ancient serpent, named the Devil, or Satan, that
deceived the whole world. He was thrown down to earth, and all his
angels with him.
(Rev 12:9 GNB)
Satan is the
deceiver of nations
The angel threw him into
the abyss, locked it, and sealed it, so that he could not deceive
the nations any more until the thousand years were over. After that
he must be set loose for a little while. (Rev 20:3
GNB)
Satan is at war against the believers
Satan wars against the mind,
the tongue, the spirit and the bodies of believers. He attacks
through family, friends, associates, finances, and circumstances.
He tempts through the worldly atmosphere and the social environment
around us. He encourages a love of the world in the hearts of men
and women. He is only able to overcome believers who yield control
to him.
Satan is the
accuser of the believers
The huge dragon was thrown
out---that ancient serpent, named the Devil, or Satan, that
deceived the whole world. He was thrown down to earth, and all his
angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, "Now
God's salvation has come! Now God has shown his power as King! Now
his Messiah has shown his authority! For the one who stood before
our God and accused believers day and night has been thrown out of
heaven. (Rev 12:9-10 GNB)
Satan puts
believers to the test
Don't be afraid of
anything you are about to suffer. Listen! The Devil will put you to
the test by having some of you thrown into prison, and your
troubles will last ten days. Be faithful to me, even if it means
death, and I will give you life as your prize of victory. (Rev 2:10
GNB)
Satan plants
doubt in the minds of believers.
Now the snake was the most
cunning animal that the LORD God had made. The snake asked the
woman, "Did God really tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in
the garden?"
(Gen 3:1 GNB)
Satan incites
persecution of believers by the world.
Don't be afraid of
anything you are about to suffer. Listen! The Devil will put you to
the test by having some of you thrown into prison, and your
troubles will last ten days. Be faithful to me, even if it means
death, and I will give you life as your prize of victory. (Rev 2:10
GNB)
Satan tries
to prevent the believer from effective Christian
service:
We wanted to return to
you. I myself tried to go back more than once,
but Satan would not let us. (1Th 2:18 GNB)
Satan uses
the appeal of the world to entice believers to
sin.
Do not love the world or
anything that belongs to the world. If you love the world, you do
not love the Father. Everything that belongs to the world---what
the sinful self desires, what people see and want, and everything
in this world that people are so proud of---none of this comes from
the Father; it all comes from the world. (1Jn 2:15-16
GNB)
That is why I had to send
Timothy. I could not bear it any longer, so I sent him to find out
about your faith. Surely it could not be that the Devil had tempted
you and all our work had been for nothing! (1Th 3:5
GNB)
Satan works through the flesh
If Satan cannot "blind your
mind" and keep you from accepting the truth of the Gospel, then he
tries to keep you in bondage to the flesh after you receive the
Gospel. The body, soul, and spirit of man are closely related.
Because of this, Satan accesses the soul and spirit through the
flesh. This strategy is evident in the first temptation of man.
Satan used fleshly senses and desires to gain access to Eve's soul
and spirit.
The woman saw how
beautiful the tree was and how good its fruit would be to eat, and
she thought how wonderful it would be to become wise. So she took
some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband,
and he also ate it. (Gen 3:6 GNB)
Satan uses
our fleshly lusts to war against our souls
I appeal to you, my
friends, as strangers and refugees in this world! Do not give in to
bodily passions, which are always at war against the soul. (1Pe
2:11 GNB)
Satan uses
the flesh to affect our minds.
But I see a different law
at work in my body---a law that fights against the law which my
mind approves of. It makes me a prisoner to the law of sin which is
at work in my body.
(Rom 7:23 GNB)
Satan uses
the flesh to affect our spirits.
All these promises are
made to us, my dear friends.
So then, let us purify ourselves from everything that makes body or
soul unclean,
and let us be completely holy by living in awe of God. (2Co 7:1
GNB)
Satan uses
the flesh to corrupt our lives.
If you plant in the field
of your natural desires, from it you will gather the harvest of
death; if you plant in the field of the Spirit, from the Spirit you
will gather the harvest of eternal life.
(Gal 6:8 GNB)
Continued
willful indulgence in fleshly sins can result in bondage to
Satan:
And then they will come to
their senses and escape from the trap of the Devil, who had caught
them and made them obey his will. (2Ti 2:26 GNB)
God warns us against Satan
Don't give the Devil a
chance. (Eph 4:27 GNB)
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