What is the devil?
The devil is the name given to a fallen angel from God’s area. We have an enemy the Bible calls the devil, satan, or lucifer. He is always there to turn people from God and do their own thing. When we live according to ourselves we are following the devil.
What does the devil do?
Masquerades around not showing his true appearance. The devil doesn’t care weather one believes in him. Devil: slanderer Satan: accusations
The devil is a created being and is not equal to God. The devil is not omnipotent, omnipresent, or all knowing. The devil is more like a general than a soldier. The devil has minions to carry out his plans which may include people acting or not of their own fruition. Even if someone is being controlled by the devil, the real enemy is the devil not the person. The devil causes prosecution of Christians.
- What is he trying to do? The devil is trying to devour: Gulp down, one bite. He is trying to devour our faith; for us to question God. He doesn’t care what happens after that.
- How does he do it? He normally think he works through temptation. We don’t need the devil to tempt us however. We then get convicted by the Holy Spirit to get us back on track with God’s commands. While the Spirit leads us back to restoration, the devil is speaking accusations and slander into our life. He brings formal charges against us. He is trying to chisel us away from God still. The devil is removing our sin from being forgotten and will remind us of it again and again. Satan says that we’re not good enough for God. We might as well give up. He says God never loved us.
Even if the accusation is true, the end result is not true. God is not going to abandon us. 3. What should our response be? Morale of the story is we should’t retreat from the devil. We can’t back away or tun away in any way. We need to hold our ground with strength from God. We go to the Word to the cross for strength.
Resisting the devil
The only way the devil can eat our faith is if we let him. 2 Peter 5:6-11 The devil:
“…resist the devil and he will flee from you”