All glory to God, my Lord and savior Jesus Christ and welcome to Salt and Light Commission! God has placed on my heart to share with you this lesson. Today we will be looking at Satan, that serpent of old, the devil, Lucifer. Whatever his name he has a proven attack plan he uses to get you to sin against God. We are going to look at that attack strategy and then look at ways to defeat it and come out on top. How Does Satan Attack You?
Ephesians 6:12 New International Version (NIV)
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
To figure out how does Satan attack you, let’s start at the beginning… Genesis. The first book of the bible. Here we are taken through the breath-taking imagery of God creating everything that we experience with our five senses and we are introduced to His loving and tender hand as he creates Adam and Eve. According to God’s own acknowledgement everything He created is good. It’s interesting to note that while everything that He created was spoken into existence, with Man He crafted us with His very hands—forming us out of the dirt and breathing His Spirit within us. Amazing! This shows God’s desire to be close to us—to have that intimate relationship us.
He places Adam and Eve in a beautiful planted garden, with every kind of fruit-bearing tree for their food. He gives them free reign to enjoy what He has created, but like a good parent, He gives some boundaries. He has one rule…to not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and furthermore don’t even touch it, for if they do they would surely die.
Seems like a no-brainer, you got 499 trees to eat of and 1 you can’t.
In Genesis we are also introduced to the adversary. Satan. He once was a glorious angel, but his pride led to his downfall. Casted out of Heaven, by God’s authority. Now his only mission of his existence is to tempt as many people from God as possible.
Satan knows that in the end days, God will send him to the lake of fire, to be tormented for eternity (Revelations 20:10). He reads the scriptures, he knows his fate is sealed. God wins. He now wants to take as many people as he can with him. So we catch up with Satan in the garden disguised as a serpent. He approaches Eve and he starts his subtle assault. Genesis 3: 1-7 (NIV)
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
In these verses we see the formula of Satan’s strategy. The strategy he uses time and time again to separate Mankind from God. He never changes it, because frankly…it works. He knows how we as humans are wired. He uses what I like to call The Three L’s of Attack. So how does Satan attack you. It’s right below.
Which are:
- The LUST of the flesh
- The LUST of the eyes
- The pride of LIFE
Let’s examine it closer in the verses. When Satan had finished speaking to Eve, look what the scriptures say starting at verse 6:
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food (Lust of the flesh) and pleasing to the eye, (Lust of the eyes) and also desirable for gaining wisdom, (Pride of Life) she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
And as the story goes Man falls and sin enters the world that was once all good. All because Satan used his strategy to attack at human-beings greatest desire—to be like God to self-exalt. He even said it in verse 5.
And this is not the last time Satan used this tactic. He even used it on the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Let us turn to Mathew Chapter 4 (NIV).
4 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”
7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
Did you catch them? The very same Satan attack strategy, The Three L’s of Attack. Let’s dive into the verses a little deeper starting at verse 3:
3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” (Lust of the flesh)
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” (Lust of the eyes)
7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” (Pride of Life)
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
Now at this point you might be saying, “I see the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, but I don’t see the lust of the eyes in verse 6.”
Let’s dig in. True, the Lust of the eyes is a Satan attack and is a little more subtle in the attack against Jesus, than it was on Eve, but it is there. Look what Satan says. He basically tells Jesus, if he throws himself down from the top of the temple, He will SEE God’s angels coming to his rescue and catching him before He hits the ground. He will see the splendor of God’s heavenly protection saving him from harm. That is why verse 6 is the Lust of the eyes. Who wouldn’t want to see the supernatural hand of God in any day and age?
So, there you have it, Satan’s attack strategy to tempt you to sin against God and ultimately drag you down with him to the lake of fire. But as always God has provided, in his word, a time-proven method to stop Satan’s attacks right on the spot. If you study Jesus’s response to the Devil’s 3 stage attack, He always quoted a scripture that countered Satan’s tempt.
That’s what we must do as well. We must have God’s word written on our hearts to know a lie from the Devil when we see or hear one. Quote the counter scripture to remind you of God’s truth. A scripture that is good to remember in times of tempting it this one from 1 Corinthians 10:13(NIV)
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
Look for your way out, God has promised there is one. Like Jesus, His way out was to quote counter scriptures.
But what if you are not good at quoting scriptures? What then? Paul gives us the answer in 2 Timothy 2:22a(NIV).
22 Run from temptations that capture young people.
And in the Genesis story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife in chapter 39, it reads starting at verse 6(NIV):
6 So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.
Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7 and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”
8 But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. 9 No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” 10 And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.
11 One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. 12 She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.
Check out the very last verse. He ran out. If all else fails and you can’t remember a single scripture to help you fight this temptation you always have the option to run. Don’t walk, run away from the temptation! There is no shame in that. Don’t be fooled by the 3 step Satan attack plan. He might come at you like he cares, but he does not have your best interest at heart. He wants to see you destroyed with him. Don’t give him the satisfaction.
Now I want to hear from you. Write in the comments below about an experience you had with temptation, past or current where you now see the 3 L’s of Attack being used. How does Satan attack you? And true to God’s word there was a way out and if you took it let me know how you got away. Be blessed and remember you are the salt and light of the world!
