- Deception
- Distraction
- Disbelief and Unbelief/doubt. Satan attacks our faith in God.
- Distrust (of God and others)
- Offense*- Taking offense/offendedness / Getting easily offended.
- Unforgiveness
- Fear
- Pride
- Adversity
- Conflict** with others
- Temptation
- Condemnation/Blaming/Accusing believers.
According to thefreedictionary.com, Disbelief is a “refusal or reluctance to believe.” Unbelief, on the other hand, is a “Lack of belief or faith, especially in religious matters.”
*Offense
Offended by God; offended by others; offended by self
Two types of offenses: Offended by something real that someone has done to hurt you vs. offended by something you think someone has done to hurt you when in fact they haven’t. In both cases, God doesn’t want you to take offense.
Taking offense is different from unforgiveness.
**Satan incites conflict, anger, rage, and unforgiveness among people leading to family splits, church splits, divorce and the pain that goes with it. Jesus is the prince of peace. As much as possible and as much as it depends on us, he wants us to live at peace with all people. But Satan sows seeds of conflict and uses deception, distrust, etc to create conflict.
Jesus says, Satan is “a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
Proverbs 6:16-17: God hates a lying tongue. Deception is Satan’s primary weapon. He used it in his first strike against humans in the garden of Eden and has used it ever since.
In the book Evangelism Is, authors David Wheler and Dave Earley discuss spiritual warfare in Chapter 19. In it, they talk about the following devices that the devil uses.
- Deception (John 8:44). He lies to believers to try to put them into bondage.
- Distraction (Mark 8:31-33). In this passage, Satan puts thoughts in Peter’s heart to try to get Jesus not to go to the cross. He tries to divert us from the goal.
- Defilement (1 Thess 3:5; Matt 3:1-11; Gen 3:1-6). Satan tempts believers into sin. He is the original tempter.
- Denunciation/Accusation/Condemnation. 1 Pet 5:8; Zech 3:1; Rev 12:10; Job 1:9111). Satan is the accuser of the brethren.
In simple terms: Satan 1) Tempts us to sin, 2) Accuses/blames us when we sin, 3) Deceives us and, 4) Distracts us/Diverts our attention to something else.
Neil T. Anderson, author of The Bondage Breaker, says that deception is the devil’s primary way of working.
How did Jesus resist the devil’s temptations? Using the word. Notice that Ephesians 6 also lists the word of God as one of the key pieces of our spiritual warfare.
How do you overcome the devil when he accuses you? The word of God (the word of truth).
How do you overcome Satan’s deception? The truth shall set you free. That truth comes from the word of God.
I love mnemonics and acrostics. Here is one that I came up with to remember the schemes the devil commonly uses in spiritual warfare.
- A – Adversity. Dr. Jerry Rankin, president emeritus of the International Mission Board and author of Spiritual Warfare: The Battle for God’s glory, says that adversity is Satan’s most effective weapon.
- B – Blame.
- C – Condemnation.
- D – Deception. In Satan’s first strike on humans, he used his weapon of choice, deception. Then he guilted us into hiding, denial, and blame-shifting. Neil T. Anderson, author of the Bondage breaker says that deception is the devil’s primary way of working.
