Don't Be Foiled by the Devil!

The following comes from the pen of A. W. Tozer. We have often remarked that despite the fact that he died in 1963, one would imagine him peering around the corner, nothing today catching him by surprise. He was God's gift to the church in the first half of the century. He continues to be today. Hear him well. Here, he speaks to the perennial issue of Satan's deceptive trap that keeps so many Christians entangled in the lies of ignorance. The truth indeed sets them free who believe in Christ. 

“The devil makes it his business to keep Christians in bondage, bound and gagged, actually imprisoned in their own grave clothes!”

Why doesn’t the old Devil, Satan, give up and bow out of the picture when a person becomes a believing Christian?

Although he is a dark and sinister foe dedicated to the damnation of humans, I think he knows that it is no use trying to damn a forgiven and justified child of God who is in the Lord’s hands.

So, it becomes the devil’s business to keep the Christian’s spirit imprisoned. He knows that the believing and justified Christian has been raised up out of the grave of his sins and trespasses. From that point on, Satan works that much harder to keep us bound and gagged, actually imprisoned in our own grave clothes.

He knows that if we continue in this kind of bondage, we will never be able to claim our rightful spiritual heritage. He knows also that while we continue bound in this kind of enslavement we are not much better off than when we were spiritually dead.

This is one reason why the Christians in today’s churches are behaving like a flock of frightened sheep—so intimidated by the devil that we can’t even say “Amen”!

I admit that occasionally you find a few who are just childishly happy about everything, but that is not what I mean. Often these are just like children playing in the market places, having never been seriously engaged in the conflict on the spiritual battlefield.

Show me an individual or a congregation committed to spiritual progress with the Lord, interested in what the Bible teaches about spiritual perfection and victory, and I will show you where there is strong and immediate defiance by the devil!

Learn of the devil, that we must neither be dismissive of his trickery, nor daunted by his power. "The Lord will fight for you" was not just words of comfort for Moses (Exodus 14:14), but belong to us as well. 

Tomorrow, Part 2 . . .