Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. James 4:7-8.
So that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes. 2 Corinthians 2:11.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Today we start a new series and it is to be a manual for believers for easy reference. It is a very important manual to have if you want to live the abundant life of joy and peace that Jesus came to give you and that I planned for you from the start.
So what is this manual about? It is called: “What to do when Satan Attacks.” For he will, he is prowling about like a roaring lion looked for someone to devour, but his power is actually gone, Jesus brought him to naught. All the devil has is a big mouth and it is a deceitful mouth and a deceitful roar. Now, what he does with believers is actually more like a game of chess. He is trying to take the pieces of your life, as many as he can get, even to blowing them all off the board, but you can win, you can checkmate every time and he loses. In chess, check is an attack on an enemy king; this attack can’t be ignored. If the check can’t be neutralized, it is checkmate and the game is over. I do not want you to be unaware of his tactics and I want you to win the game every time and all the time.
However, do not underestimate his tactics. If you do not know how to respond you will have a miserable, tormented, and curse-filled life. I have told you the answer but people make it much more complicated than they should. When you understand My answer and do it, your life will become a rest rather than stress and you will enjoy Me and your relationship with Me, but I want to begin this manual with one of he biggest problems. Most people are not aware of who the real culprit is and they blame Me, themselves, and other people for what is actually the work of the evil one. Job, who was a firm believer in Me, did this and attributed what happened to him to Me and fought with Me about it instead of properly addressing the real enemy.
So we start with Life Lesson No. 1: “Uncover the Enemy.” For as long as you are unaware of the source of what is wrong, evil, and oppressive in your life you will never win.
First you must understand who the devil is and why he is roaming the earth. In the beginning I created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. I created the host before man by the breath of My mouth. Psalm 33:6; Genesis 2:1; Genesis 1:16. These are the angels, there are myriads upon myriads of them. They have a hierarchy and different assignments. They are spirit beings. They obey the voice of My Word. Psalm 103:10-11.
“Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Be on your guard before him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since My Name is in him. But if you truly obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.” Exodus 23:20-22.
I created them for roles of service, primarily to serve those who are heirs of salvation, that is, children of men, but particularly believers in Me and My Son.
“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?” Hebrews 1:14.
My holy angels are translucent with white light. They are not flesh and are not of any earthly substance, but they look just like you in their shape and form except they have six wings. With two they cover their faces, with two they cover their feet, and with two they fly. Isaiah 6:2. The wings all come out from behind the shoulders and look like one layered wing from the back but there are sets of three on each side. The middle wings that they fly with are the wings I call pinions with which they cover you. Psalm 91:4; 10-12. They can pass from My Kingdom to earth faster than the speed of light.
I sometimes speak of the luminous angels as “stars.”
As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. Revelation 1:20.
I am telling you this because the devil was created an angelic being. He is spirit but now he operates in the arena of the flesh, he crawls in that realm and eats the dirt of it. That is the only arena in which he can take you down.
He was not created for what he has become. He did that of his own free will. He was created of the hierarchy of the cherubim and he was anointed for worship. Before he fell from his position as a cherub, I called him a bright luminary (“helel,” in Hebrew) (Lucifer), a star, son of the morning. Isaiah 14:2. And as that the star of the morning he sang and shouted for joy as I created the world and laid its cornerstone in place. Job 38:7. And I revealed to My prophet Ezekiel that I placed him in Eden, My garden, as the anointed cherub who guards in the perfection of his beauty. Ezekiel 28:12-19. I placed him as a guardian to My first man and woman. But he refused to serve and sought instead to have them serve him as he took over their dominion authority that I had entrusted to them upon the earth. And he succeeded in this because they did not guard their hearts from his lies against My Words and believed a creature over their Creator. And the devil effectively found a shield in man with which to cover himself from My wrath because man had freely handed over the dominion I had given him to the devil and taken on a new master. Your master is the one you give your authority to and your judgment will be the same as his. The devil pulled mankind out of Me into himself and corrupted your life with sin, which always results in death. Your spirits became dead to Me and alive to sin. Subject to death, Adam had corrupted the seed so that all born from him and his descendants no longer had eternal life. And yet you still could take back your authority from the devil even then if you chose not to follow his directions but My Word, like Abraham and his descendants. But only a man with authority on the earth, one like you in all things but sin, who was born of the incorruptible seed of My Word had, as Adam had when first created by Me, an eternal life to give to redeem you and pay the price of your sin before Me. An eternal life for the eternal life that Adam murdered at the directions of the devil, who is a murderer from the beginning and a liar and the father of lies.
So what caused Lucifer’s fall from this loveliness to sheer ugliness? From cherub to murderer and liar? He refused to serve because he had a plan to take the throne that I had placed in Heaven for man, a throne above the angels, second only to Mine, for you are in My image and according to My likeness and I created you to reign with Me forever and ever. Revelation 22:5.
He tried to make faith declarations but ones that were contrary to My Word and that did not work. I do not obey his word, he must obey Mine. Even in your mouth.
So what were his declarations, for he is still trying to accomplish this through you by taking you off your seat in Heaven in Christ Jesus,
“I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” Isaiah 14:13-14.
Do you see? He wanted to be like Me. He had an intense jealousy for man since he was not created as you are in My image and according to My likeness.
He wants to make men bow down in worship to him. And if he can’t bow you down in reverence to gain his hold over worldly glory from him, as he offered Jesus, he will attempt to bow you down in fear, depression, anxiety, addictions, and the darkness of an unrenewed mind. In other words destroy you by uncontrolled flesh in either the mental, emotional, or physical arena.
And once he had accomplished this with Adam and Eve, and at that time the vast majority of their descendants up to the time of Noah, he took the seat of the Son of Man in Heaven.
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. The LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.” Job 1:6-7.
But when My Son was born by the imperishable seed of My Word, he had met his match. Jesus, as the second Adam, took back the throne of the Son of Man, for He became Man, fully human and fully divine, and gave his indestructible life in the flesh to deliver you from My just punishment for your sins. I put, and He accepted, all your sins on Him, and once He accepted them, the wages of sin was death. He then was able to die. But after He had gone to the very depths of hell in your place, I raised Him as My born again Son in the beauty of holiness and the glory of the immortal body of the resurrection.
“I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your possession.’” Psalm 2:7-8.
“God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels did He ever say, “You are My Son, today I have begotten You”? And again, “I will be a Father to Him and He shall be a Son to Me”? And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, “And let all the angels of God worship Him.” And of the angels He says, “Who makes His angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire.” But of the Son He says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your companions.” And, “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Your hands; they will perish, but You remain; and they all will become old like a garment, and like a mantle You will roll them up; like a garment they will also be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will not come to an end.” But to which of the angels has He ever said, “Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet”? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?” Hebrews 1:1-14.
Jesus took back the seat that the devil had occupied, and cleansed it with His blood, Hebrews 9:23-28, and the devil had no more place in heaven. He was cast to the earth. And he was furious for he knows his time is short.
“The dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.” Revelation 12:7-12.
His time is short. Why? The leasehold given to Adam for the sons of men to have authority of the earth will soon be over and then My Son is worthy to break open the seven seals of the title deed and take back My territory and give dominion again to men, but this time only to those who are born again in Him from the imperishable seed of My Word for the devil’s earthly authority given him by Adam for the term of his leasehold will be over. Mark 12:1-12.
You must first understand that you have an adversary, but he is under cover for you cannot see him since he is spirit. And he was thrown down to earth when My Son took back the throne of the Son of Man which the devil had taken from Adam by deceit. He is the master of those who have not received Jesus as Lord, but for those who have, he is the accuser of believers. Revelation 12:10.
He is not like the holy angels in that they rejoice for each person who is saved, the devil is furious when you are rescued out of his realm of darkness into the Kingdom of My dear Son. And when you are no longer held captive by him to do his will, he will muster all the ammunition he has to take you down and get you back to obeying him even though you are saved.
The devil knows if you are saved and belong to Jesus with the Holy Spirit in you. He cannot possess you, as he can those who are not born again and do not have the Holy Spirit in them, but he will do his best to oppress you. And his joy is to see you cringe and the thoughts, words, or influences he tries to make you accept and adopt as your own. And if you do not know his methods of attack, you will be easy prey for him.
It is time for Me to teach you how to fight, or shall I say, to simply take the upper hand, for once you are in Christ, you already have the victory over sin and death. You just have to know how to enforce it. And it is not difficult once you have uncovered the enemy and make use of the weapons and armor I have given you to thwart every one of his schemes.
“Therefore, since the children share in [m]flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.” Hebrews 2:14-18.
There are primarily three ways the devil attacks you: thoughts, words, and influences. And all three of these will come and work together.
He will present you with a thought which will either plunge you into fear, anxiety, depression, and darkness or will entice you into gratifying your flesh or your emotions by something that is harmful and he knows will enslave you. And this thought can just come to you when you are not really thinking on those things, or, if he is not successful there, he will have you hear a newscast, a commercial, see the cover on a magazine you would not read or buy otherwise but your eyes fall on it at the market, some book or story with pornography in it, or from the words of a co-worker, fellow student, or multiple other people, even family members and friends, will say to you that you pick up on that either angers you, makes you doubt your own abilities, terrorizes or tempts you. But with these thoughts and words, and then with the thoughts and words you hold onto and speak, he will bring different spirits of influence to act on your flesh, such as fear, sensuality, greed, gluttony, and a host of other spirits that are demonic followers of his that also made up about one-third of the angels. These are what Jesus called “unclean spirits.”
But actually these are not difficult to cast out and deal with. But you have to be aware they are not originating in you and they are not you. And you must not entertain them but answer them. You cannot fight them without opening your mouth and answering them with the truth of My Word. But once you discern them by what you are feeling and thinking answer them immediately and do not allow them to stay.
For example, one tactic, since he is the accuser of believers, he reminds you of your sins and failings, and even invents things such as speaking to you of giving large sums to people that I did not tell you to do and putting fear into you to do it immediately or I am displeased and you lost your opportunity to prosperity, and you will think this is your own thought, and he will then get you to speak words calling yourself unclean, a sinner, reprimanding yourself, unfaithful, and begging Me with tears again and again to forgive you and let you into My good Will again for your life. And with this he will send the spirit of fear of judgment, punishment, and the loss of your salvation or if not that, just of your destiny on earth. He will tell you that you have lost the promised land and will wander in the desert wilderness of the rejected all your life, unqualified to go forward.
Let Me help you with this and we will discuss this fully in the lessons to come, but just know you go out with joy and I lead you with peace. I am not in a hurry to push you into big decisions and I tell you to examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil. I am a God of peace and not of confusion, I will complete the good work I have begun in you if you stay firmly rooted and grounded in the truth of My Word. YOU ARE SAFE IN MY WORD. There is great reward in keeping My Word in your heart and using it or words in agreement with it in answering every fiery dart of the devil. And what is the reward? Joy and peace.
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13.
“The law of the LORD is pure and perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; let them not rule over me; then I will be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.” Psalm 19:7-14.
I am faithful who calls you, and I also will bring it to pass if you will stay in My light by rejoicing always, praying without ceasing, and giving constant thanks. You are secure and safe in Me, in My Word.
“For I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea and its waves roar (the LORD of hosts is His name). I have put My words in your mouth and have covered you with the shadow of My hand, to plant the heavens, establishing the earth, and to say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’” Isaiah 51:15-16.
“As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the LORD: “My Spirit which is upon you, and My Words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says the LORD, “from now and forever.” Isaiah 59:21.
And next time the devil reminds you of your sins that you have already repented of before Me just tell him that won’t work because you don’t remember them. But you may be thinking that you do and still feel bad you did them. But that is not agreeing with Me and the witness of My Spirit in you. For I remember your sins and offenses no more. I have made you a new creation in Christ and the past is rewritten and so is your future.
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:17-21.
You are free. Don’t return to slavery a second time. Answer the thoughts, words and influences of the devil with My Words and with thanksgiving to Me for your freedom in Christ. Perfect love casts out fear and I have perfect love for you.
I am showing you how to be a discerner of spirits. You must check the devil’s attack every time. In chess, an attack on a king by either an opposing piece or an opposing pawn is called check. When you have checked in activity there are only three avenues of escape for him and if he can’t get one, it is checkmate, you win and the game is over. When in check, as in the game of chess, the devil must do one of the following: move so that he is no longer under attack (flee from you); block the attack by interposing a piece between himself and the attacker (try using another person or stepping up the attack by contrary circumstances), or capture the attacking piece (wear you down and get you into doubt and fear or offense so he can take you captive to do his will or entice you to an easy way out that indulges your flesh). Now you know so you can take him captive to do your will. Checkmate.
I love you. I did not give you a spirit of fear, or of lust, or of doubt, or of pain, or of sickness, or of poverty, or any other unclean spirit, I gave you the Holy Spirit! Answer those other spirits and tell them that you do not entertain strange spirits no matter how familiar you were with them in the past, that association is over, and declare what you really have– a spirit of righteousness, love, peace, health, prosperity, wisdom, joy, and a sound mind. For they are yours now in Christ. You have been redeemed from the curse and no longer have time to spend with those lies. Enjoy your new life in Christ. It gets to be fun to answer everything contrary and see how fast they depart so that you have a good day and night.
“Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.” Leviticus 19:31.