Don't Be Foiled by the Devil! Part 2

Set it down that Satan's power lies in his ability to deceive. If he can keep us preoccupied with lesser things, then he can keep our minds off of God. If he cannot do that, he will attempt to persuade us that what we have IN Jesus Christ isn't really all that important. Either way he wins. Granted, he wins far, far more in the former, but . . . he wins. Continuing with Tozer's, "I Talk Back to the Devil," we get a glimpse of how he loves to intimidate believers. See if you have fallen prey to this device.

SATAN LOVES TO INTIMIDATE

Satan has been in this business of intimidating and silencing and oppressing the people of God for a long, long time.

The armies of Israel experienced this kind of fright in the valley of Elah when Goliath and the Philistines were camped on the opposite mountain. King Saul was leading Israel, but he was sour, fearful, intimidated because of Goliath, that giant of a man who daily shouted his taunts, “I defy the armies of Israel this day!” (1 Samuel 17:10). So the army cowered in fear.

But a little fellow by the name of David came along, and he was in right fellowship with the Lord. We are told that the spirit of the Lord came upon David, who said to the Israelites, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:32). This was the first word of encouragement to come to these ranks of soldiers who had been able only to gaze in fascinated fear at that great giant who taunted them daily. David was confident and serene because he knew and trusted the Source of all strength! The recorded result was one of the great, miraculous “turn-arounds” of history, David and his sling disposing of Goliath in a way that brought glory to the God of Israel as well as victory to the armies of Israel.

I am sure that it is not glorifying to our God that Christians should be so intimidated and silenced in our day. It was Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, who came down and took our human body for Himself. He was a man, born of a woman, a man wearing our own nature—but He was also God!

He went to the cross and they sacrificed Him there. The Father, God Almighty, accepted His sacrifice as the one, last, final fulfillment and consummation of all the sacrifices ever made on Jewish altars. After He had been dead three days, He came forth—raised from the dead and out of the grave. After a few days He ascended as Victor over all the forces of death and hell and sat down amid the acclamations of the heavenly hosts!

There He sits at God’s right hand—a living man, our representative and advocate and great high priest. Believing this, we ought to be the most fearless, the most relaxed, the happiest and most God-assured people in the whole world!

But Satan is an old dragon who defies us to [this] hour. He is saying to Christians, “I defy you—what can you do about it?”

Tomorrow, Part 3, "We must get free!"