A Brief Tutorial on the Devil

1 Peter 5:8 (KJV)
⁸ Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Below are listed several important things that will help you know enough about the devil that you can keep him where he belongs – under your feet (Romans 16:20).

1. The devil is real. Sad to say much of the world and even some in the Church don’t acknowledge that the devil actually exists. He is a spiritual being who gained authority and power in the earth as a result of Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit (known as “The Fall”).  The Bible calls him the “prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2). But that is not the rest of the story for a believer (a person who has made Jesus the Savior and Lord of his/her life).
2. All bad things find their root in the devil’s kingdom. John 10:10a gives a clear picture of what the devil does – “¹⁰ The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.” (NLT) But that is not the rest of the story for a believer.
3. The only tool the devil has is deception. His power rests in convincing people that the Bible is not true. He does that by presenting to them situations or circumstances that are contrary to the Word.  But that is not the rest of the story for a believer.
4. The target of the devil is the mind. A well-known minister of the gospel coined the phrase, “Where the mind leads, the man follows.” If the devil can get you to think wrong thoughts, he can control you. But that is not the rest of the story for a believer.
5. The devil makes his presence known “as a roaring lion.” His real power comes by convincing the world (and too often the Church) that he is a “roaring lion.” But that is not the rest of the story for a believer.

As a well-known journalist used to say, “And now for the rest of the story…

While all the above information is true, as a believer none of the things mentioned needs to control your life. Consider these truths:

1. God and the devil are not in the same league. The devil is a created being; God is the Creator. Before the foundation of the world, God had a plan to get back what the devil had been handed to him in the Garden. The rest of the story for the believer is found in trusting that our God has a good plan for each of us because He is a Good God and a Loving Father.
2. Jesus defeated the devil through the Cross, the Empty Tomb, and the Ascension. What was lost in the Garden of Eden was restored in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus declared, “not My will, but Yours be done.” The rest of the story is found in the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross where He took all of the judgment for our sins – past, present, future – on Himself. He satisfied God’s wrath against sin. When He ascended, Jesus “sat down” at the right hand of the Father, indicating that there was nothing left for Him to do to bring us into right-standing with God. As believers, we can now live our lives free of shame and condemnation in the times in which we fail.
3. The Word of God is Truth. Experts in detecting counterfeit money do so by focusing on what real money looks like. The rest of the story for a believer is that we are not subject to the deceptions of the enemy when we choose to know what God’s Word says and act on it.
4. We have been given the “mind of Christ.” (I Corinthians 2:16) Unlike the world, believers know that what is not seen (the spiritual realm) is more real than what exists in the natural realm. The rest of the story for believers is that when we renew our minds to the Word of God (Romans 12:2) it is like placing a “no trespassing” sign that the devil sees when he tries to deceive us. When we focus on the Word of God, the devil has no access to our minds.
5. The devil is truly the “Wizard of Oz” of the spiritual realm. When the Wizard of Oz was finally exposed, he was found to be a puny little person hiding behind a false identity that he had convinced others to believe. The rest of the story for believers concerning the devil’s power in their lives is found in Colossians 2:15 (TPT); “¹⁵ Then Jesus made a public spectacle of all the powers and principalities of darkness, stripping away from them every weapon and all their spiritual authority and power^[a] to accuse us. And by the power of the cross, Jesus led them around as prisoners in a procession of triumph. He was not their prisoner; they were His!”  Jesus defeated the devil. What remains for us to do is to enforce that defeat by using the BLOOD, the NAME, and the WORD against him every time he attempts to make an inroad into our lives.  Against those three things He has NO defense!

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