How do we fight Satan, our great enemy - the enemy of God?
As believers, we can make two big mistakes - overlooking the power of Satan altogether or giving him too much attention.
If we forget Satan, he can insinuate himself into our lives and destroy churches and render believers impotent.
If we give him too much credit, we can spend all our time fighting the enemy without paying attention to our great Saviour and Lord, Jesus Christ.
I really like the approach taken by Guy Chevreau in his book Spiritual Warfare Sideways: Keeping the Focus on Jesus.
As the title suggests, Chevreau says we should concentrate on our victorious God in praise and worship. Satan can't stand worship of the Lord.
Many of David's psalms are prayers of worship to God. They have the power to strengthen us and to force the Evil One to flee.
Chevreau tells a story of missionaries Nev and Mo in Malawi praying for sick people in a village. One of them was a young teenager, drooling at the mouth and evidently afflicted by epilepsy.
It turned out the boy was wearing a witch doctor's charm. So Nev and Mo insisted that he remove the charm and, reluctantly, his family agreed.
"Nev declared the victory of Christ over the destroyer," Chevreau says, "and spoke freedom from all that was cursed in [the teenager's] life, blessing him in the name of Jesus."
The boy's eyes came into focus, he smiled, and he said: "Jesus loves me."
The family was overjoyed. The local village pastor later reported to the missionaries that the teenager remained in good health.
Chevreau's book is sprinkled with other stories of the power of praise and worship in combating satanic attacks.
The apostle John says in 1 John 4:4 that "the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world". The Spirit of God is within us and Jesus triumphed over Satan on the cross.
People often talk today about "our identity in Christ", the privileges of being a child of God. We are justified, united with God, forgiven of our sins, citizens of heaven, God's co-workers.
We can spend time reflecting on these truths daily, praising the Lord and worshiping him.
And, as Chevreau suggests, we can declare God's victory when we face satanic attack.
I am aware that I need to use these weapons in times of trouble - trouble seemingly created by Satan. It is even better when I can band together with others in this fight.
After all, I am "more than conqueror" (Romans 8:37) because God is on my side.
As believers, we can make two big mistakes - overlooking the power of Satan altogether or giving him too much attention.
If we forget Satan, he can insinuate himself into our lives and destroy churches and render believers impotent.
If we give him too much credit, we can spend all our time fighting the enemy without paying attention to our great Saviour and Lord, Jesus Christ.
I really like the approach taken by Guy Chevreau in his book Spiritual Warfare Sideways: Keeping the Focus on Jesus.
As the title suggests, Chevreau says we should concentrate on our victorious God in praise and worship. Satan can't stand worship of the Lord.
Many of David's psalms are prayers of worship to God. They have the power to strengthen us and to force the Evil One to flee.
Chevreau tells a story of missionaries Nev and Mo in Malawi praying for sick people in a village. One of them was a young teenager, drooling at the mouth and evidently afflicted by epilepsy.
It turned out the boy was wearing a witch doctor's charm. So Nev and Mo insisted that he remove the charm and, reluctantly, his family agreed.
"Nev declared the victory of Christ over the destroyer," Chevreau says, "and spoke freedom from all that was cursed in [the teenager's] life, blessing him in the name of Jesus."
The boy's eyes came into focus, he smiled, and he said: "Jesus loves me."
The family was overjoyed. The local village pastor later reported to the missionaries that the teenager remained in good health.
Chevreau's book is sprinkled with other stories of the power of praise and worship in combating satanic attacks.
The apostle John says in 1 John 4:4 that "the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world". The Spirit of God is within us and Jesus triumphed over Satan on the cross.
People often talk today about "our identity in Christ", the privileges of being a child of God. We are justified, united with God, forgiven of our sins, citizens of heaven, God's co-workers.
We can spend time reflecting on these truths daily, praising the Lord and worshiping him.
And, as Chevreau suggests, we can declare God's victory when we face satanic attack.
I am aware that I need to use these weapons in times of trouble - trouble seemingly created by Satan. It is even better when I can band together with others in this fight.
After all, I am "more than conqueror" (Romans 8:37) because God is on my side.
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