Am I cooperating with the enemy?
An outline of Satan's strategy against you
This is part 2 of a 5ish-part series on spiritual warfare. In last week’s post, we discussed understanding in greater detail that the enemy is real, and now we’re examining what he seeks to do. Each week, I pray you feel more and more confident in your battle against the enemy.
As much as I want to believe I hate the devil and am fighting back against him, I all too often cooperate with his plan against me without even knowing it.
He’s winning these unmerited victories, all because I didn’t know it was him and fell right in line with whatever he told me.
He didn’t win a battle in my life because he’s strong. He won because I let him.
And as much as I whine about the devil interfering in my life, the effort I’ve made to understand his tactics in comparison is emmmbarrrrassingly little.
I feel like a crazy person, expecting different results in certain areas of struggle in my life, when I just keep attempting to muster the same willpower.
To my complete shock, it hasn’t been working.
However, (and this is big!) we have pretty significant access to his schemes.
It’s like watching game film of your opponent before a football game. You understand their favorite plays and patterns in advance. Much better than going in cold, right? When you’ve watched the game film, you can anticipate their next moves and plan your own next moves ahead of time. You can also stop looking bewildered when you get whooped with basic plays and do some whooping of your own1.
So let’s stop wondering if we’re helping out the other team. True story, my husband did this. When he played basketball as a kid, he didn’t realize they had switched baskets and thought he was Michael Jordan making a wide-open shot when, really, he scored a point for the other team. It’s funny when it’s rec basketball, but not when it’s the Father of Lies we’re assisting and helping win.
So let’s examine his strategy and ask God to search our hearts and reveal all the areas of our lives. Let’s specifically ask God:
Am I cooperating with the enemy?
And if so, what do I need to understand so that I can start resisting him instead?
The devil's goal, as laid out in John 10:10, is to “steal and kill and destroy,” but what does that look like in our lives? Here are four ways he tries to defeat us. And stay with me. This is a meaty one!