Satan’s Best Spiritual Warfare Strategy
by Jonas Clark
A tactic is a plan of action for attaining a particular goal. Satan has one goal, to steal, kill and destroy. Many Christians are interested in spiritual warfare strategies dealing with principalities and powers, territorial spirits and demons. Spiritual warfare is simply binding and loosing in prayer and attacking on purpose spiritual strongholds of opposition and resistance against the Gospel of Christ in your life (Matthew 18:18-20). It is taking up, in prayer, the authority of the believer that Jesus gave His disciples (Luke 10:17). Although spiritual warfare against powers in the unseen spirit world is important, most of your daily battles will be within your own mind and imagination. Satan understands spiritual warfare and uses man’s own ignorance of his delegated spiritual authority and the fertile ground of man’s unguarded imaginations to attack him. This is why it is important to renew your mind with the Word of God. Satan has no authority over you unless you remain ignorant of his tactic to use your imagination against you.
In the beginning man’s imagination was pure and produced mighty exploits. It wasn’t until the fall that sin entered the soul of man and altered his imagination forever. Let’s examine Satan’s tactics to defile man by corrupting his imagination.
Before the fall all thoughts and imaginations were centered on the mind of Elohiym, “all things possible to him that believeth.” Man was only capable of good thoughts and positive imaginations. When Adam named God’s creation he never questioned his ability to believe it possible to do so. God created the creatures and Adam simply named them. It was that simple. But one day the imagination of man was altered by the power of sin.
God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden. Eden was the kingdom of God on earth. It was man’s place of habitation and dominion. In the garden they were free to enjoy God’s creation and govern according to their divine, God created, yet, Godlike natures (2 Peter 1:4). In the garden were two trees, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Of all the trees they could partake excepting the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If they did partake the penalty was death (Genesis 2:17). Let’s go back in time and watch the Serpent deceive God’s greatest creation, our parents. Scripture declares, “And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die (Genesis 3:2-3). Eve knew the truth. She knew that God forbade the partaking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil yet the serpent challenged God’s command. The serpent answered, “You shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4).
Satan continued his attack against God’s word by creating opportunities to doubt. Everyone will find the enemy question God’s Word but it is how we respond to his challenge that controls the outcome. Eve didn’t handle the challenge well. Satan, disguised as a serpent, offered his perverted opinion of God’s decree. “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat” (Genesis 3:5-6). In this scripture we learn the process of Eve’s deception and Satan’s tactics to use her imagination as a weapon against her: She doubted God’s Word, gazed at the tree, took the fruit, ate and gave to her husband.
THE STRATEGY UNCHANGED
The devil hasn’t changed his strategy. The tactic that worked with Eve he will try with you by introducing doubt and focusing you on imaging the forbidden. Satan took advantage of Eve’s imagination. Eve did exactly as God had created her. She imagined the possibility. Like Eve our imaginations are designed to image “all things possible”, even wrong things. Eve took the bait by entertaining the possibility the tree would make her like God. The formation of that possibility was within her imagination. Just as God created her, she was using her imagination to create. It was, however, the wrong image. This is what happens in our lives too. Eve pondered Satan’s words within her imagination. To win the war against your life you must conquer the vain imaginations that attack your mind. When you receive a thought contrary to God’s word for your life don’t let it incubate within your imagination, bind it up and cast it down.
Sin is always conceived within the imagination of man. Good people are not impulsive sinners. They don’t just wake up one morning and say, “I’m going to destroy my life today.” Sin is formed within the imagination of man.
Elliott Spitzer resigned as governor of New York after allegedly being caught using the services of a prostitute. He attended Princeton University for his undergraduate studies and Harvard University for law school, was a successful lawyer and happily married to a beautiful wife and together had three children. He didn’t sin impulsively but was taken captive to sin because he continued to incubate lust within his imagination. Imaginations need to be cast down. Take note of this. It is one thing for you to have an evil thought it’s another to entertain that thought within your imagination. Be careful of lingering on ungodly imaginations. When you do that gives them time to conceive.
Sin is always formed within the imagination of man. The serpent came to Eve and challenged God’s Word in her life. That’s what the devil will do to you too. He will challenge God’s Word in your life and then try to pull you into the realm of vain imagination to mull over his words of doubt, unbelief and rebellion. That is the way he attacks you. Use your imagination in a positive way. Don’t let the realm of imagination be used to conceive sin. Know the difference between godly thoughts and ungodly thoughts and treat them accordingly. Incubate the good ones and destroy the bad ones. A sign of spiritual maturity is the ability to know the source of your thoughts and imaginations and deal with them accordingly.
@Jonas Clark
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Mon Apr 21, 2008 12:12 pm