8 Ways Satan Wants to Wreck Your Life

WARFARE of the spiritual kind is something akin to territory known in the life of a spiritual person. The more connected to God we are, the more we’re shaped for his purposes, and the more situated to serve that we are, the more subversively Satan may try to wreak havoc in our lives. Not that I made the previous sentence a generalisation. Some may be more prone to spiritual attack than others.

Here are just 8 ways that Satan works to nullify the effect of God’s Kingdom:

1.     He deceives us through skewed truth: we are given a part truth and we begin to subscribe to that portion of truth as the whole truth. This always takes us entirely in the wrong direction of response. If we see the deception we’re able to opt only for the truth — some of which is probably going to be unknown or unknowable. We never know as much as we think we know.

2.     He makes us wish to do the right thing at the wrong time: as justified as an action may be, it’s still crucial that it’s timed well, that it’s done in the right way, for the right reason. Doing the right thing is not always enough, and many times it’s a recipe for trouble.

3.     Master of Discouragement, Satan makes little of the good we do: we begin to notice when encouragements for the good things we’re doing aren’t coming. Notice how Satan makes us notice even the little things we receive no thanks for.

4.     Master of fear, Satan makes much of our mistakes and failures: moral or not, our mistakes and failures are great fodder for Satan to needle us with, intuiting fear. Fear makes us doubt our competence, our role, our effectiveness, and our fit. It seeks and destroys at the level of our identity. Depression is not usually just about discouragement; there’s a very real source of fear embodying us.

5.     Satan first disarms us through ego: pride is such a nemesis to God in the human condition, and we’re all afflicted. There is only one source of rectification: humility. It never feels good to be humbled, but if we do so with a cheerful approach Satan flees.

6.     When relationships seem more caustic and ‘good’ people seem to be turning bad: watch for this one! Satan wants us thinking good people are wickedly motivated. He is more than willing to show us their wrongdoing. This is the type of ‘insight’ nobody really needs.

7.     Interrupting our prayer life, Satan will remind us how ineffective we are: Satan hates prayer. He hates it when we pray, because he knows he’s in his proper place; out of contention for a role of influence over our lives. He’ll do anything to make sure our prayer life is undermined in any way.

8.     Satan’s worst deed is to undermine our place in life: suicidal ideations can often be grounded in the enemy’s work. He is a spiritual troll; an angel of trolling.

Silently and slovenly the prowling lion preys,

The enemy’s attacks are cunning and cruel,

Satan seeks to devour every night and day,

The last thing we need to do is give him fuel.

A liar, a schemer, an accuser is he,

Discouragement and fear are his friends,

Satan seeks to enslave the free,

And get them to work for his very ends.

So, to recap, Satan skews our truth, confuses our love, is the master of discouragement and fear, exploits our pride, interrupts our prayer life, and makes us question even our existence.

Satan should we fear?

No, not when God is near.

© 2015 Steve Wickham.