Let’s offend the Devil! Jesus said “I will build my church and the gates of Hell will never prevail against it,” (Matt.16:18b.) Jesus referred to spiritual warfare, but many people don’t realize how much warfare is offensive. Last week, a radio pastor explained that Satan’s “gates of Hell” are not an offensive weapon to attack us. Gates are tools of defense to keep enemies out. Satan only has gates to try to protect himself from his enemy’s offense. We are his enemy and need to remember our offensive position. Too often we only think of defending ourselves against the Devil, but we must also attack him offensively.
Too many Christians (including me) have mainly just prayed for God to protect them and their loved ones. We may ask Got to protect our minds, Bible studies and times of worship. But the spiritual armor used in Ephesians 6:11-17 offers nothing to cover our backs, because we must never run from Satan. We must always face him. But we must do so much more than stand and face the devil defensively in battle. The sword of the Lord, an offensive weapon, must be used to run at Satan in offensive attack, just like David ran at Goliath (1Sam.17:48.)
Remember, Jesus used offensive warfare. For example, he rebuked any hypocrites who kept others from entering God’s kingdom (Matt.23:13, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.”) Furthermore, in Matt.21:13 Jesus drove out the money changers and told them “My house shall be called a house of prayer but you are making it into a den of robbers.” Jesus went into areas where more Gentiles (those totally controlled by Satan) lived, such as in Matt.8:5-13 where Jesus healed a Gentile Centurion’s servant. Jesus also healed a Canaanite woman’s daughter and remarked at her faith in Matt. 15:21-28. He also rebuked the demons in a possessed man in the Gerasene area where many Gentiles lived (Luke8:26-39.) Jesus entered into enemy territory and attacked it in a Spiritual sense.
As Christians, we must do this too. A sensible friend said, “Yes, but we cannot go to bars where the enemy holds captives and get drunk with them,” and I agreed. Just going to a bar would be wrong for me, a non drinker. And this would be wrong for many others, depending on their conviction. But a strong man could wait outside a bar and offer any drunken person the purchase of a round trip ride with Uber (with the return ride scheduled for a return to the bar in the morning when the man, once sober, could safely get his car home.) Offending Satan requires different planning and thinking than it does for our defensive prayers (for our protection) against Satan’s attacks.
We must go beyond defending our loved ones and asking God to soften unbelievers’ hearts. We need God to change us into offensive warriors in the spirit. We want to attack Satan and get him off of our loved one’s mind, because Satan has put a veil over their minds (2Cor.3:16 “Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord the veil is taken away.”) We must also pray against the veil Satan has put there. In its simplest form, I pray offensively against Satan by praying for the salvation of unbelievers. I pray “The Lord rebuke you, Satan off of…” and then I name the person. Then I pray for God to fill that person and send him or her Christian friends, (in addition to my friendship.)
This week’s radio message has challenged me to look at my view of spiritual warfare. I have held a too-timid view of defensive warfare against Satan. When I was younger I had a fiercer view of spiritual warfare. I joined a Christian mission, wanting to serve in Africa. But the mission I joined needed a writer in their California headquarters.
Soon I did face spiritual warfare, but not among foreign people from a far away land. Instead men, who were U.S. Bible translators and other members, had fallen into Satan’s trap and were sexually harassing us, the women members. Ironically, I fell into a scared, defensive mode, forgetting my need to take the offensive against Satan. I left the mission when the leaders decided to cover up, rather than condemn the ungodly behavior of the sinful men. Satan had weakened my desire to offensively attack his domain.
At times I took up the offense again. In stores I spoke of Jesus to clerks and some customers. I also boldly approached soldiers and offered to pray for them (in Jesus’ name) and they warmly appreciated this. But one day, at the grocery store, a soldier became very angry with his refusal and said he was too busy for prayer. When I asked his name so I could pray for him later, he became irate and growled his refusal in terse words and then scowled at me any time he saw me in other aisles. Unwisely I did not recognize Satan’s counter-attack, and for a season I stopped sharing the Lord in stores. Although over time, God convicted me, at that time I felt defensive and did not recognize this was Satan’s ploy to put me on the defensive side.
Satan wants to scare us so we back away from defeating his vile work. He wants to scare us so we don’t fight him. He does not want our attacks against him and will put up with our fear and defensiveness. But Scripture affirms he is a defeated foe, (1John5:4 For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith,” and Cols.2:15 “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”) When he scares us, Satan puts us on the defensive so we only pray for God to protect us. We stop praying to attack Satan. We end up only thinking of ourselves and our loved ones. We forget to pray for those outside our closest circle, including forgetting our pastors and missionaries, elected rulers in our land, and unbelievers and persecuted Christians worldwide. Even if we pray for others, when we are weak, our prayers may be weak and generic such as saying, “Bless this person,” and saying nothing more.
In spiritual warfare we need to consider much more than a generic blessing. We need to pray against any demonic spirit that blocks unbelievers’ minds from hearing the Gospel. We must pray against any programs and people, used by Satan, that would thwart the Gospel. In a spiritual sense, we need to leave our safe, comfortable place and go into the realm Satan is occupying in his vile rebellion. Our entire world should be God’s realm, not Satan’s. So if you have felt concerned about any issue in life, this can become your area of concern in the spiritual realm. Instead of worrying, make this a consideration where you pray against Satan’s powers that cause trouble in this place, program, or people group.
We can change our fear and worry into a fighting prayer against Satan’s realm. Satan wants us to worry and also to back away when we do fight him. Oh, how he will fight us. Satan will cause people to oppress us, as I was oppressed at the Christian mission where over a dozen of us were sexually harassed. At other times, people will directly insult us, as happened when I tried to pray for the soldier in the grocery store. Satan may disturb our sleep, cause us to have nightmares, disrupt our family relationships, and do anything else he can to cause us to fight with others and worry and become defensive and self protective. For when we fear and try to protect ourselves, we no longer think of attacking him. But don’t let this stop you, because Jesus will help you survive all of those attacks, (John 16:33b “But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”)
We must realize Satan has “Gates of Hell,” not machine guns of Hell. Jesus never mentioned powers of Hell that overcome us. Jesus has already defeated Satan, and now we must continue in the fight Jesus began. We can pace our battle as we rest and step aside to recuperate or even grieve. But after we rest, we must step back into the fight of spiritual battles.
So of course we need a good night’s sleep. We need proper nutrition and also daily rest for our minds. We need proper exercise and self discipline so our minds and bodies are well cared for. This is true of physical soldiers, and it is true of us as spiritual fighters too. But we must not stop fighting, even when we are scared or discouraged. We can do like David, did, “David found strength in the Lord His God,” 1Sam.30:6. When he got discouraged, he talked back to his disquieted thoughts, “Why are you cast down, oh my soul. And why are you disquieted within me? Put your hope in God for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God,” Psalm 42:11.
We need to keep our minds alert and remind ourselves that this is a battle. Satan wants us to forget our battle and think life should be easy. But remember, “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit,” Romans 8:5. The battle begins in our minds, so we must fight our flesh’s desire to have an easy life. Jesus did not promise a life of ease: John 16:33 “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” Perhaps there will be more trouble when we fight Satan, offensively. But our joy will be greater too: John 16:24b “Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy.”
I promise you, it is worthwhile to fight these battles. God actually changes our hearts and minds as we submit to his will and do this kind of offensive spiritual fighting. I have more peace and have a more forgiving heart now. I have found some very harsh people less repugnant, even despite their insults, threats and cruel words. I am seeing them for who they are, sad and scared people who hide behind their anger. I have compassion for myself, but I am finding compassion for these people too.
One last caveat: I do not address Satan directly. I never try to boss Satan around and tell him what to do. I only speak to Satan indirectly by following the Scripture and saying, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan,” (Zech.3:2 and Jude 9.) Paul also said, “I command you, in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her,” (Acts 16:18b.) I personally do not cast out demons, but I do pray against their power. I have a strong, committed faith in Christ. I have surrendered my whole life to him and I do not hide my sins but confess them daily. In Acts chapter 19, seven sons, of the High Priest Sceva, tried to cast out demons in Paul’s name, briefly mentioning Jesus. But these men did not have a saving relationship of faith in Christ, and the demon, using the demon-possessed man, attacked these men and beat them badly. We cannot attack Satan’s realm unless we are committed Christians. And we do not lay a hand on anyone. This is a spiritual realm, and it is our lives and words of prayer, given earnestly, that offensively attack Satan (“The prayer of a righteous man {woman} avails much,” James 5:16.)
We can and must rest at times. But otherwise, let us gear up to partner with Jesus in offensively attacking Satan’s realm. Many of our unbelieving loved ones can be saved.
Thanks for joining us in this week’s post. Please let me know what you think.