The 3 Pronged Attack
We Should Expect from Our Enemy Satan
Although Satan is
cunning, he is not creative. He uses
the same three-pronged attack plan
against everyone’s faith. In
addition to his three-pronged attack,
Satan, who is described as a lion,
preys on three human weaknesses
to make him victorious over our
faith: (1) Our ignorance of
God’s Word and the power that is
ours as His adopted child (2) our
pride (3) our fear
We should expect him
to use tormenting spirits to:
(1) Attack the
Author of our Faith
(a) “Look at all
the terrible things God lets happen
to good people.” If we are ignorant
of the Word of God missals like
that one will destroy our belief in
God’s goodness. When we are
ignorant of what God’s Word
says, we will believe Satan’s
lies.
Truth: Romans 8:28
“All things are working together
for good to those who love
God,...”
(b) “You are
smart enough to work this out on your
own.” Our pride wants to
believe that we do not need God.
Satan’s pride causes him to deny
the Sovereign power of God at this
moment.
Truth: Proverb 3:5 warns
us, “Lean not on your
own understanding.”
(c) “God could
stop this but He isn’t. He likes
it when you suffer.” If we
believe God creates our pain our fear
will cause us to pull away from Him.
Truth: Lamentations 3:22: Because
of the Lord’s great
love…His compassions never
fail.”
(2) Attack the
Evidence of our Faith
(a) “You would be
able to see some progress by now if
this faith thing really worked.”
If we are ignorant of God’s
Word our faith will waver when a
tormenter points to the absence
of physical evidence that God is
going to do what hw has promised; our
faith will waver when the tormenter
points out the circumstances are the
opposite of what we have asked God
for.
Truth: (NIV) Hebrews 11:1:
“Now
faith is…being certain of what
we do not see.”
(b) “No one
should be asked to trust blindly in
circumstances like this. You deserve
to have seen something by now.”
Satan knows Pride wants to be
in control. Satan’s pride caused
him to rebel against God’s
authority.
Truth: Psalm 20:29:
“Blessed are they that have not
seen, and yet believed.”
(c) “Look at how
much time has passed with no change
in your circumstances. You have no
reason to believe they will ever
change.” Satan knows a fear of
being unhappy will tempt us to look
for satisfaction apart from God.
Truth: Hebrews 10:35
“…do not cast away your
confidence, which has great
reward.”
(3) Attack the
Outcome of our Faith
(a) “You are
reaping exactly what your choices
deserve. There is no happy ending for
you.” Demons pervert truth. An ignorance
of God’s Word will cause us
to believe their distorted truth;
damaging our faith.
Truth: Psalm 103:10:
“He does not treat us as our
sins deserve or repay us according to
our iniquities.”
(b) “God may
bring an outcome to your situation
but it won’t satisfy you.”
Satan knows pride only cares
about satisfying itself. We are all
suffering today because Satan put
himself first.
Truth: Psalm 17:15:
“As for me…I shall be
satisfied when I awake with thy
likeness.”
(c) “You may as
well face it; you are going to have
to live this way forever.” Satan
has no problem telling us bold-faced
lies. He knows fear destroys
hope. Fear will cause us
to create our own outcome.
Truth: Psalm 34:17:
“The righteous cry out and the
Lord delivers them out of all their
troubles.”
The battle will be
over when we see Jesus. Until then,
the darts will continue to fly. We
must hold on to the shield of faith,
our continual trust in God’s
Word and promises to us, to defend
against Satan’s attack on our
thoughts. If we do we will continue
to stand.
