IS SATAN REAL?

​I was conducting an inner healing session several weeks ago with a woman who had grown up in a denominational church. She had attended Bible studies and church services regularly all her life. I would have to describe her as one who was fully engaged in the church, not someone who just showed up on Easter and at Christmas. At the very beginning of the session, I explained the process we were about to engage in: we would be taking authority over the atmosphere to keep satan and his demons from interfering. She looked at me with a shocked expression on her face and told me she had never heard there was such a being! She questioned whether he was real. She challenged what I believed. I assured her that satan is real and the Bible is replete with references concerning him.

As a result of that encounter, I realized that not every church in the western hemisphere (generally, Canada, the United States and Latin America) understands, accepts or teaches the reality of a spirit realm. The eastern hemisphere (generally the Middle East, Africa, Asia, India, etc.) understands the reality of a spirit realm and that the spirit realm is actively engaged in everything going on in the natural realm. “On earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10) gives us a clue that what we see or are experiencing in the natural realm is actually occurring simultaneously or has already occurred in the spirit realm. Missionary sending organizations have learned how vital it is to prepare their “sent ones” for those encounters with the spirit realm they will experience during their time of service on the mission field.

Are you one of those who have wondered if Satan is a real being? Maybe you thought he was just a figment of someone’s imagination. Maybe you thought he was only a made up character for the purpose of producing horror films or that he was the stuff of hocus pocus - a slight of the magician’s hand. Maybe you think of him as an allegory. Or perhaps you are wondering if there is something more you need to know. Maybe you are wondering if he is a real being, and if so, where did he come from?

The answers are in The Bible. Let’s look at just a few of the scriptures concerning Satan that give us insight into what the Bible says about him.

Ezekiel 28:12-19 – You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you…your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you….So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings…I made a fire come out from you, and it consumed you, and I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching. All the nations who knew you are appalled at you; you have come to a horrible end and will be no more.

Luke 10:18 – “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”

2 Corinthians 11:14 – Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

1 Peter 5:8-9 – Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith.

Revelation 12:10 – For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.

Revelation 20:10 – And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur…to be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

First of all, the word translated satan means “accuser”. Secondly, these verses tell us that (1) satan is a real created being, that he had a beginning, (2) he is actively engaged in thwarting and misleading those who seek to live in a righteous way, and (3) he has a definite and fully described end. If the Bible contains this much detail about him (and these verses are by no means all the Bible has to say about him), that means he is a real being. That also means that the spiritual realm is even MORE REAL than the physical or natural realm because only the spiritual realm endures, while the physical realm will pass away.

Isaiah 51:6 – the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail.

Matthew 24:35 – Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Revelation 21:1 – Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.

The Bible tells us all we need to know about Satan, but in spite of the truth plainly spoken in whatever translation you may be using, it is amazing that there are still some in the church (as well as church leaders!) who do not think they have to be concerned about him!  Some people – and I am speaking of the church -  have never really understood what Jesus was doing WHILE HE WAS ON THE CROSS! Their focus has been on His being the Lamb whose blood was shed so that our sins could be atoned for. But that is not all He was doing! What they have never understood (and sadly is not being taught!) is that He was also actively engaged in overcoming the wicked rulers who had robbed us of our identity and our inheritance; He was subjecting those rulers to public humiliation; and He was taking away their authority over the earth so that He could give it back to us. We were the rightful owners of that authority until Adam and Eve allowed themselves to be duped into giving up the assignment, power and authority God had given to them in the beginning. 

Maybe it is because the work Jesus was doing on the cross was being done in the “unseen” realm – the spirit realm, that so many – even in the church – have allowed themselves to be blinded to the truth. They were looking for a PHYSICAL effect – something they could see in the natural. They have rejected sections of God’s Word with which they cannot allow themselves to agree; and they are left with no understanding. As long as we don’t consider the spirit realm as being a part of our everyday living, breathing, thinking, doing lives, Satan is overjoyed because that is exactly what he wants us to think. He wants us to be ignorant concerning the spiritual realm. He’s okay if we talk about angels watching over us as long as we think of them as only being benevolent, helpful, protective beings. But that is only one side of the coin. The other side is great darkness.

Colossians 2:13-15 – God made you alive in Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities (wicked rulers of darkness in the spirit realm, emphasis mine) he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Revelation 1:17-18 - I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

Revelation 12:9, 12 – The great dragon was hurled down – that ancient serpent called the devil or satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him…He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.

The truth is, we are engaged in a cosmic battle with a spiritual enemy who has nothing to lose, because at the Cross of Christ, he lost everything. That means he is in full retaliation mode, and he will stop at nothing to destroy what matters to God. Satan has an army of fallen angels which he directs with supernatural cunning in spiritual warfare operations against the blood-bought believers in Jesus Christ.

Satan’s Tactics
Satan’s most effective tool in getting us to take our eyes off of Jesus is the tool of offense. What works for us automatically works against satan. Forgiveness and repentance work for us and also work against the offenses satan wanted to use to destroy us.

2 Corinthians 2:10-11 (TPT) – Freely forgive anyone for anything, so that you will not be exploited by the adversary, satan, for we know his clever schemes.

Forgiveness and repentance are powerful spiritual tools that not only enable us (1) to live a life of holiness and wholeness, but they also enable us (2) to destroy all the works of our enemy. This verse in 2 Corinthians gives us yet another powerful motivation for forgiving: (3) so that we will not be exploited. To be exploited means to be used by satan to his advantage in his war against God! From the moment he was cast out of heaven (Ezekial 28:11-19), he has sought to destroy everything that belongs to God; and everything in creation – the spiritual realm, the heavenly realms, the earthly realm, and all sea creatures, birds, land animals and man – belongs to God (Psalm 24:1). He is the Creator and the Source of all life. When satan wars against us, it is because we belong to Jesus, and he is not happy about that. If he can get us to pick up offenses and refuse to forgive and repent, he can keep us dangling like a puppet while he pulls the strings.

In my previous blog covering the Gate of Lies we learned how subtle and clever his schemes can be for satan himself masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14) in order to steal, kill and destroy God’s creation. It was pride that caused his downfall; and he uses the gratification of our flesh, the allurement of the things of the world, and the obsession with status and importance (1 John 2:16, TPT) to manipulate our thoughts, so that we become focused on ourselves - which is the definition of pride: elevating self over God.

Satan’s pride won’t allow him to strike without warning. Just as the rattlesnake rattles before striking its prey, satan also announces his intentions before he strikes. He brags and struts and influences us to do the same thing. When he has us where he wants us -  when we are thinking we are doing so well - that is when he ramps up his attacks and bombards and lashes us with accusations that are intended to bring us down in misery and despair so that we feel like an utter failure and we just give up.

In inner healing ministry, we take authority over the atmosphere and the demonic realm, silencing their voices, canceling their assignments, separating them from the client, and placing them in a holding cell guarded by angels. That is because we are not interested in playing satan’s game of disruption, distraction, and disinformation.

Let me assure you that we are not here to focus on satan or any of his activities, because what you focus on you give power to. If we are constantly looking for demons in every situation and in every person, we will have missed the purpose God designed us for – to bring the broken person to a place of healing and wholeness where they experience their true identity in Christ, and understand and appropriate their God-designed destiny through the use of the power tools given to us in His Word. 

It is a common battle strategy to know your enemy: to know how he thinks, to know what motivates him, to know how he will respond to a perceived threat, and to know what methods he is most likely to use in retaliation to that threat. Knowing our enemy is not the same thing as focusing on him; rather this knowledge of our enemy’s tactics is the preparation we need in order to be victorious in the battle.

Therefore, we affirm that the demonic realm is real and the Bible gives us enough information to know we want to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2) while remaining self-controlled and alert; for our enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  We are to resist him, standing firm in the faith. (1 Peter 5:8-9)

In my next blog, we will expose the hierarchy of the demonic realm, a very real army with very real weapons and very real strategies that is set against the blood-bought believers in Jesus Christ. (Hint: when you read the back of the book, you find out that we win!). So do not be discouraged.

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)
​
Blessings,
Linda
© 2019 Linda Sue Harper