Each lesson on spiritual warfare is complete in itself, giving you specific basic Scriptural principles which will help you as you lay hold upon them. These messages have this unique quality that they are building upon one another.
Satan’s tactics have to be understood. His tactics are to bluff, to roar against you as a lion, to accuse you (if he can come against you ragingly and violently), to make you back off or abandon your quest for God, or to accept some compromise instead of what you really set out to obtain. He’s constantly trying to get you to accept something less than what God has set before you.
We can see how successful he is by the fact that the promises of God are so great, and yet most people, even when they receive an answer, receive only a compromise. Unconsciously or consciously, they have accepted something less. Jesus said, “Be thou made whole,” and he meant completely and perfectly. We are complete in Christ. By His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness (II Peter 1:3). He has given us many, many promises, and yet how are they fulfilled? just a little bit short in most people’s lives. There’s nothing wrong with the promises. The problem is that Satan has bluffed us out of the position of faith, even if he has only made us budge a little bit. The thing that counts is when God answers with that exceeding, abundantly above all that we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20)—not just enough to get by with. It’s when the overflow comes that Satan is really defeated.
Even in the Egyptian Exodus this was true. Desiring a compromise, Pharaoh said to the children of Israel, “Let the men go out.” He wanted an end to those plagues. The Israelites said, “That won’t work. We must take our families, too.” He drove them out from his presence. After a few more plagues he called Moses back and said, “Take your wives and your children, but leave the herds and flocks behind.” The Israelites wouldn’t accept that compromise either. They said, “Not a hoof will be left behind. When we leave, everyone is going” (Exodus 10).
God continued to work with them, though I believe that a satanic force was working to constantly present an acceptable compromise until they would be tempted to say, “I’m ahead. I’m winning. I’ll pick up my winnings. I won’t let them ride any more.” But it’s the man who knows that he is rolling naturals from now on, who lets the winnings pile up. It’s the fearful in heart who grabs his chips and runs to the cashier, glad that he is a little ahead. Satan is always trying to bluff you out, always trying to make you accept something less.
Satan works to retaliate. I told one of the young upcoming prophets that the Lord had shown me Satan was attempting to destroy his voice. He is to be a prophet of God in the land, but he wouldn’t be able to speak. As he was standing there, trying not to strain his voice, I was fighting an assault against my own voice. It wasn’t transference. Satan had retaliated. He was furious because I gave a word to this young man, to save the word that God will speak through him. Retaliation is a constant thing, but we reject it.
Satan will work with pressures. He also tries to distract and hinder you. He tries to create delays until your heart becomes depressed or discouraged. He may create a paper dragon of circumstances. The circumstance looks so big and fearful that you just back off from it. Every day when you look at it, it looks worse. Satan will color circumstances until they have such an ominous cast to them that you lose heart; you lose the faith you should have. Through all these tactics he tries to shift your confidence from the Lord until you lean on something else besides the Lord. He knows that no matter what resources you have, if you lean on them, he can beat you.
David came to power at a time when the country was experiencing power and success. In I Chronicles 21:1 we read that Satan moved upon the heart of David to number the children of Israel. Satan did that. Why? Because David had put his trust wholly in the Lord. Satan said, “See how you have won victories over all the world? Why don’t you take a census and see how many able-bodied men you have to stand in the army?” When David did this, God brought great judgment upon him. The census was repulsive to those who took it. Today we would take a census without thinking about it because we accept it. But when God was supposed to rule over His people, that wasn’t to be done. They weren’t to trust in numbers. They weren’t even to take a survey or an inventory of their own resources, whether human or spiritual or financial. They were to trust God only. Even a few with God is enough—that was the principle. God brought great judgment to the Israelites because they numbered.
Satan’s effort is to try to shift your confidences from the Lord, and to depend on yourself, to depend on other resources, to depend on numbers or money rather than just relying upon the Lord. It was for this reason that the Lord sent out the seventy, two by two, telling them not to take any money or any purse. They were to take only their staff in their hand and trust God, because they would go commissioned and under His authority with absolute provision from the Lord. They would have to trust in that every single day of their lives (Luke 10:1–11).
God has to trust us with certain things. Three different times in my younger years in the ministry I had the Lord deal with me. I never spoke of it until years afterwards. He would move upon me to take everything I had (which was precious little), and give it to the Lord. You ask, “What was the purpose of it?” I don’t think it helped the Kingdom very much, but it did something for me. It brought me to the place where I had to continually rely wholly upon the Lord. Finally I grasped the truth in my heart that no matter what came, I was never to lean upon any resources. I was never to trust them again. The work was done, and since then I have paid very little attention to any resources or assets. I’m in a position where I could be fearful, and lay up resources for a rainy day. The trouble is when God’s people do that, God lets it rain on them. The quickest way to make it rain is to lay up for a rainy day. If you hold back and count your resources, or lean on something else besides the Lord, you lose a lot of your immunity. All of these things we have to learn.
We must understand Satan’s tactics. Satan will emphasize the wrongs and the hurts. He will let the little gnats bother you until you’re busy straining at them, and you swallow a camel. Little wrongs or hurts can so distract you that you get your mind off the goal. Do you remember the story from mythology of Atlanta who could run as swiftly as the deer? She had promised to marry the man who could defeat her in a race. Anyone who tried and failed would be put to death. Hippomenes devised a wise plan to defeat her. When he took his place beside her, he had three beautiful golden apples in the front of his robe. As he ran along he tossed out one golden apple after another. She stopped to gather the golden apples, and it slowed her down enough that he won the race. That’s the thing Satan will often do. He will try to throw enough little distractions at you—good things, or bad, such as hurts, bitternesses, or problems—to distract you and get you off the track. How effective Satan can be, when you are moving right in to lay hold upon the victory, to throw little things in the way that you will think about, that will distract you so you will deter from the course a little and not be the winner God ordained you to be.
Satan can emphasize your own unworthiness and short comings to you, too. If he can’t succeed in making you feel utterly inadequate so that your faith is destroyed, he’ll emphasize the inadequacy or the shortcomings in someone else. If he can make you stumble over someone else’s faults and problems, he’s succeeded there, too.
Satan may use another tactic completely. He may inspire religious pride and give you some beautiful religious goals that look fine, but are not the will of God for you. The book of Mark says of John the Baptist that he preached that Herod should repent because it was not lawful for him to have his brother Philip’s wife. The Scriptures say that Herod heard him gladly and did many things (Mark 6:18,20). I can just see Herod sitting on his throne, saying, “That man is righteous. It would be good to have a man like him in the kingdom.” He had respect for him. He listened to his word, and immediately he started making reforms. But one thing he didn’t do—he didn’t kick Herodias out of his bed and send her back to her husband. That’s one thing he didn’t do, though he did many things. He heard John the Baptist gladly, but because he failed in that one thing, the time came when he had the head of John the Baptist cut off and served on a platter (Mark 6:27,28).
I don’t know whether you grasp the meaning of that or not. Satan can give you such beautiful religious goals, so many noble works. People out in the world, who know they should accept Christ, feel better when they write out a check for the Community Chest, or an orphanage, or some other charity. People do many things, but they sit back and refuse to repent of the thing that God has put His finger on. That is Satan’s tactic. Do you understand what I am saying? Satan gives people many lesser goals to follow.
Before we proceed, let’s review these tactics of Satan. One of his tactics is to bluff you. He’ll roar against you and do everything he can to bluff you from that place of trusting wholly in the Lord. He doesn’t do it simply by saying, “I’m the devil. I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down.” Satan doesn’t use that approach. But the minute you set your course, he’ll use the people who are all around you: your family, your friends, your relatives, people in the church and at work, or those at school. All of them come at you in such a way that you are bluffed out of your course.
He’ll accuse you and get you to back off unless you know your position with God. He’ll get you to abandon your quest or to accept some compromise. You have to say in your heart as Moses did, “Not one hoof will be left behind” (Exodus 10:26).
Satan will retaliate when you move in to claim something that he has usurped. Retaliation can be a very vicious tactic. He’ll bring pressures to bear on you. They will build up out of nowhere. He can manufacture them. He will try to distract you from the goal you’ve set by bringing so many problems, so many little things to distract you. All of a sudden you are swamped with distractions that try to hinder you.
Satan will delay answers until you become discouraged. He’ll create paper-dragon circumstances that seem so big and formidable that you could never get around them. Satan may also color the circumstances so that they look differently than they really are. Have you ever noticed that? You face a situation one day that looks as if all hell had boiled over on you, and you pray about it. The next day you look at all the facts and the entire situation again, and it looks completely different. Don’t tell me Satan can’t color circumstances and create illusions. He is the lie and the father of it (John 8:44).
He will also get you to shift your confidence from the Lord, as David did when he numbered the people in Israel. Satan will make you put your confidence in your bank account, in some security, or in a job you have. Hold everything very loosely. Put your confidence in the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding… Proverbs 3:5.
Satan will also try to get you to reason things out instead of trusting God. That is probably one of the most audacious statements that could be made. The process of reason of the carnal mind is enmity against God (Romans 8:7). It will not lead you to the conclusions of trust. If reason could do that, there wouldn’t be a textbook or science class in school that didn’t end up teaching people faith in God, absolute trust in God. Why do they teach just the opposite? Because the process of reason of the carnal mind, which is enmity against God will not lead you to trust in God. Reason will lead you to doubt. Blessed are they who refuse Satan’s temptation to reason, who abandon the process of reason for the process of trust. You must say in your heart, “I believe.”
Satan has another tactic and that is to emphasize wrongs. Someone does some wrong to you and that does it. Have you ever noticed that when you are trying to walk with God Satan gets to you? I don’t know how he does it. He uses some negative form of acupuncture. Acupuncture is the ancient Chinese practice of piercing parts of the body with needles to treat disease or to relieve pain. Satan works the other way. He knows where to stick a pin in you in order to create an irritation that bothers you no end. Satan will emphasize the wrongs and the hurts done to you. He creates little gnats that come to disturb and distract you all the time.
Satan will also emphasize your own unworthiness and create a false humility until you say, “Oh, I’m so unworthy. I’m just no good.” I get so disgusted when I hear that kind of talk. It’s a far cry from true humility. True humility abandons a dependence on self and places the dependence on the Lord and says, …in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing… Romans 7:18. But I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengtheneth me (Philippians 4:13). Those statements are not inconsistent with each other. That is the consistency of faith and humility combined, as it should be.
Satan will get you to emphasize your unworthiness and your shortcomings. If that doesn’t work, he’ll get you to emphasize the unworthiness and shortcomings of someone else. If that fails, he generally has a beautiful religious goal to set before you in lieu of doing the will of God. Someone receives a call of God to go out and do a great work for the Lord, and immediately he gets an invitation to take some high post in the church or the denomination. He says, “I take this to be of the Lord.” I saw this happen in the walk several times with people whom God really had His hand on. The next thing you know they were offered a denominational promotion, a chance to go to a bigger church, or some other desirable promotion. They accepted it saying, “This must evidently be the will of the Lord because I am going to receive more money and I’ll be preaching to more people. I will have a more important place and will be more effective working for God.” God wasn’t in it at all. Soon you find them out of the walk completely and not walking with the Lord. Sometimes it’s a trick of the devil to inspire religious pride and give people beautiful religious goals that are outside of the will of the Lord.
To be aware of Satan’s devices is very important. Now let me give you five truths concerning your position. Knowing Satan’s tactics, there is no answer to counteract them except by correctly positioning yourself. It’s like going to a court of law. You have to know what your position is or you can be bluffed out of your rights and pushed into situations. If there are certain valid contracts or legal documents that establish your position, you will go into court with a greater confidence, and you will be able to frustrate a great course of things that may be coming against you. Understand that it is your right position that counts.
I Corinthians 15:57 describes our position. …thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 1:3–6 we read: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus.
Our position through the vicarious victory of Jesus Christ has to be understood. We do not go into any spiritual battle to win the victory. We are aware that legally we have had a victory won for us. Christ won it vicariously for us. He took our position on the battlefield, and He won our fight. It wasn’t His fight; it was ours. His going against Satan was not because He was defeated; it was because we were defeated. He won a victory for us! This has a legal technicality to it. If you refuse to fight for something you have only to accept, you have learned one of the greatest principles of warfare that could ever be taught to you. Refuse to battle for something as though it were yet to be won. Merely accept the thing that God has brought for you! It becomes a matter of faith. The New Testament never says that we wrestle against principalities and powers. When it speaks about our fight, it says, Fight the good fight of faith… I Timothy 6:12. Remember, our battle is to believe God. Our fight is not to rise up with some bitterness or anger against Satan and curse him. Our fight is to believe in Christ’s victory, to believe this word, that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings. This is the battle ground—the fight of faith. Don’t be moved from that place into another position where you are struggling to get something you only have to accept—something that is already done, completely and perfectly. It is a package that is handed to you because Christ won the victory vicariously for you.
Secondly, you have a position in which you belong to Christ, and are sealed by His Spirit. To position yourself in this is very important because it’s a matter of possession. If you hold in your mind that you are your own man, and you can do whatever you please, you are going to be defeated by Satan. You will do nothing right. You’ll not even be pleasing yourself. The only way you can win is to position yourself in God, and say, “I’ll do everything the Lord wants because I belong to Him. I am His possession. I was purchased by God. He put His seal on me—He branded me as a little maverick that belongs to Him forever! When the devil comes around I’ll say, ‘Look at my brand! I’m sealed unto God.’ ”
In Ephesians 1:9–14 we read: …He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fulness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
Everything is going to be summed up in Christ. He has redeemed us. In redeeming us He had in view possessing His possessions, possessing His inheritance in the saints. With that in mind, after you have believed and you belong to Him, He seals you with the Holy Spirit of promise. When the devil comes around roaring against you, talk in tongues to him and say, “See? I have the seal of promise. I belong to the Lord.” That’s the seal. That’s the earnest. That’s the guarantee.
Have you ever noticed the reactions of a married woman when some man starts to make a pass at her? She puts out her hand with her wedding ring on it. What is she doing? She is showing him she is married. If he is perceptive, he spots that wedding ring and her use of it. The Holy Spirit within us means that we belong to someone else. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, until the redemption of God’s own possession, and to the praise of His glory. Until He takes possession of the whole thing, He places His seal on us. This is one of the greatest guarantees you will ever have in fighting the devil in spiritual warfare: know who you are and know whose you are!
Thirdly, we are protected as we position ourselves in submission. …and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Ephesians 5:21. The portion of Scripture which follows (Ephesians 5:22–6:9) describes many things about our being submissive one to another. It talks about wives being submissive to their husbands and children being submissive and obedient to their parents. It speaks about slaves being obedient to their masters. This passage is interesting because it is not just casually inserted here. It is the prelude to the greatest passage on spiritual warfare in the Bible, Ephesians 6:10,11: …be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God…. Before you can enter into warfare, you must take a position. I am protected by His strength through my submission to His order. When I have come into conformity to His divine order, and I am submissive to it, I have protection. Then I can effectively wield the weapons of the Spirit. I am effective in the armor that protects me. I am effective in the things God sets before me to accomplish. I am not positioned where I will receive a lot of attack because I am out of the divine order and not submissive to it. There is a great deal to be understood in this.
To whom shall I be submissive? Everyone has to be submissive to someone. Much emphasis can be placed upon a woman’s lack of submission. I think it has emphasis for one reason: the woman’s lack of submission also throws something completely out of gear where the man tries to be submissive. He should not be allowed to shift the blame on the woman, but he does have a very difficult time being submissive to the Lord, struggling every step of the way, if he has a wife who is not submissive.
You can have other problems, too. A man and a woman can also have a great struggle when they have children who are not submissive. It places them in a very difficult position. Every time someone is out of step, the whole divine order reacts to it and suffers from it. May God teach us the arrogance of rebellion and its far-reaching effects. It is not just that you retain the right to your own decisions, your own will, and your own feelings; it goes beyond that. It affects the whole order. You need to be submissive to the apostle, to the prophet, to the pastor, to the bishop and elder, to the deacon, to the husband, to the parent. You say, “I can’t, because my husband is demon-motivated.” It’s true, you can’t be submissive to demon power; you can’t be submissive to rebellion against Christ; you can’t submit to that. But on the other hand, neither can you be rebellious. We are protected in our submission.
The fourth point: we position ourselves and function in Christ’s attributes. This is very important. Unless we put on Christ and appropriate Him, unless we clothe ourselves with what He really is, we aren’t able to meet Satan properly. Ephesians 6:10,11 says, Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God…. As you go on and read about the various pieces of armor, for example, “the breastplate of righteousness,” remember—it is His righteousness that you put on. It’s not your righteousness. It’s His. Never do we work up righteousness. It is always His righteousness. The shield of faith is His faith. Read about every piece of armor and you will find these are attributes of Christ that you are appropriating, and they become complete armor. Then it speaks about the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. This same thought is carried over into the book of Revelation: He comes on a white horse, and out of His mouth goes a sharp two-edged sword, which is the Word of God (Revelation 19:15). He had the name written, the Word of God. His words in our mouth and His attributes surrounding us give us our great protection. The more we appropriate Him, the more we are positioning ourselves in the Lord. This means that every time Satan comes against you, you must refuse to rise to debate, to meet him in your own strength, in your own feelings, and in your own qualifications. Meet him in Christ. When the Devil comes to the door and knocks, let Jesus answer the door. When the Devil sees Jesus, he’ll run away.
The fifth point deals with our position before His throne in prayer. After the Word speaks of the armor of the Lord, it continues: With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel… Ephesians 6:18–19. Prayer is the channel through which God works. Always remember that prayer turns on the faucet of divine provision. Prayer is effective to the extent that the other four positions are real to us. If we stand in these positions, praying continually with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, just crying out to God continually for all the saints because we have positioned ourselves in God all the way through these various steps, then the prayer is sure to be effective. Otherwise it is just the whines of people who are entreating and begging God, trying to get some leverage out of their own feelings that maybe God would arbitrarily decide on their behalf. These other steps position you in the fullness of God’s provision for you. I think Satan is very pleased with some people’s prayers because they pray as though God had never made any provision for them. “Please give me this Lord. Please give me that.” They pray as though they were persuading God to give them something that His Word has told them hundreds of times He has already given them. He’s already provided it for them! When we are correctly positioned in God, we will continually pray as those who have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
If you remember this lesson on spiritual warfare your prayer life will change tremendously and be much more effective. Don’t feel like, “Oh, I can’t pray today because I got wiped out.” That’s a favorite new expression, part of the terminology that belongs to the walk. We’re sorry you got wiped out, but did that have any significant effect on the situation? I have learned that I pray most effectively when I am wiped out. I go before the Lord and say, “Lord, Your Word says this. Your Word says that.” As far as the Devil is concerned, it doesn’t matter if I feel wiped out or not. As far as God is concerned, the fact remains that I have a position in Him. As I position myself before the Lord, my prayers can be very effective.
The whole key of this message is positioning yourself in the Lord. Once you have done that you have the leverage to move all hell from coming against you. It’s the key of all victory and all warfare.