When still a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, and he then went by the name of Lucifer, Satan and his minions initiated a direct confrontation against the Father. He lost that battle, but the war was far from over. He readjusted his strategy to include mankind, and has resumed his battle with God through those that God created. Although the end of the book has been written and he is aware of what has been foretold, it has not deterred him from diligently building up his forces over the centuries. Aided by his demonic army, he has been recruiting allies among the human race whose self-centeredness blinds them to his true identify. It is his intent that at the fullness of time to raise up his great army against God. It will be an act in futility! The hymn Onward Christian Soldiers denotes that we, as Christians, are part of the opposing army, the army of God. The word army suggests that we are in a war. As one involved in a conflict knows, it is essential in any successful campaign that you identify your enemy’s strengths and his weaknesses. You, then, chip away, repeatedly, at his strength for the purpose of wearing down his resolve, while at the same time exploiting his weaknesses. It is these three principles that form the bases of Satan’s strategy that he perpetrates on mankind, and because of his extreme hatred of God, he is VERY motivated and relentless in his mission! He will say and do anything to get back at Him, even if it means going through you!
 
Now there are many scriptural references naming and describing this enemy of our faith. What I have done here is not meant to usurp those references. On the contrary, my intent is just for the purpose of revealing to you my own personal revelations that have been exacted from my own battles with the enemy. As with many of you I have my own battle stories and some of the scars to go with them. I consider them my badge of honor because the learning process did not deter me from God, but brought me that much closer to Him. I pass on to you the discoveries I have made through my own life’s journey. I am sharing with you a different perspective of him through a contemporary lens. Just as we are known by him, we MUST know him! Please do not misunderstand this to mean that we should credit him in anyway! Nothing could be farther from the truth! I just believe that underestimating him could be just as big a mistake. To defeat an enemy, one must know his face and be familiar with his ways. It is my hope that these amplified descriptions may benefit someone in the heat of battle! Amen and Amen!!!

Some years ago I had the pleasure of writing a sketch for my church. It was a comedic illustration that attempted to show how Satan operates in the world. I depicted him as an averaged good old boy dressed in overalls and sporting a straw hat. His accessories were a cane-styled fishing pole, an oversized tackle box, and a large net. In the story Satan is a skilled sportsman who has a keen sense and understanding of fish, which he demonstrates by carefully choosing from his tackle box the right lure for catching specific types of fish. During the course of the sketch other actors—they played the parts of various fish—would fall prone to these individualized snares, and they would be reeled in to their eternal peril.The sketch drew a lot of laughter but the point was made that the evil occurrences in our life are not a random thing but a directed thing. Satan is literally out to get you through ANY means!As in the sketch, Satan is very much like a fisherman, and mankind in many ways IS like fish. Man swims along in his corner of the ocean—figuratively speaking, of course—seeking to fill a hunger that only God can fill. Then Satan dangles a lure in front of him that has the promise of satisfying that hunger. It is pleasing to the eye and arouses a blind desire. Man plunges at it in earnest, not realizing that just beneath the surface is a deadly hook. As he satisfies his hunger the reality of the hook draws ever so near to being exposed. Finally without warning Man feels its sting! Sudden feelings of self-abandonment mixed with guilt set in, making it easy for Satan to slowly reel in his catch.The nature of man is that he is drawn by that which is pleasing to his senses. He likes what he sees, he enjoys how it makes him feel, and it is pleasing to his taste. Remember the con he pulled on Eve, who bit hard, hook, line, and sinker? Okay, to that lady that I hear on the other side of my monitor, yes, Adam, too, bit hard! Satan always packages evil in something beautiful or desirable. Man would otherwise be repulsed if the true face of evil was exposed. So he sugarcoats it to make it appealing. Much in the same way that each individual responds differently to a certain stimuli because of factors like genetic code and dna, Satan has fashioned and positioned lures which are specifically intended for one individual person’s propensity for committing certain acts of sin. No two people’s reaction to any given lure is the same because no two people are the same.

As a student of humanity, he knows your heart’s desire. If diplomas were given out, he would hold several degrees in YOU alone! He knows your nature and your weaknesses, and his sales pitch is made up of things that he knows will attract you or that you cannot say no to. Like a fast-paced talking salesman, with almost a religious fervor, he throws out word pictures in quick succession to overwhelm your mind, stimulate your passions, and weaken any remaining resolve that you have. The fact that you do not close your ears, divert your eyes, and walk away, encourages his continued verbal barrage. He knows that if he can hold your attention long enough, he will breach your integrity, and you will buy into whatever he is selling, only to later discover that the item he sold you was not all that he promised. And what a high price you paid for a worthless piece of goods.

Sometimes Satan appears as a pusher, and as in the case of a pusher that exploits a person’s addiction to drugs for his own greed, Satan exploits people’s weakness to sin for his own pleasure. He knows exactly what his client, YOU, are yearning for and is more than willing to provide user specific fixes he says will ‘sure to please’. And it does, for a while. But the affect of sin is temporal. It is not designed to satisfy a need but to amplify a hunger. As the rush of the excitement of sin begins to fade, you double your efforts in the attempt to restore it, but it no longer gives you the pleasure or satisfaction that you once derived from it. Yet you continue to do it more out of habit than of release. You cannot stop yourself. You feel lost to yourself. You feel out of control. You are now dependent on something that no longer satisfies!

When a particular sin has lost it flavor, Satan dons a new face with a specific purpose. He now wants to take you to a new level, to p_mp you out to newer sensations and excitement of related sin. Sin is a building block of relational threads, tightly woven, and acts much the same as an ocean’s undertow. It is designed to take you farther and farther away from God with every wave. So when the excitement of sin begins to wanes, he is quick to proposition you with something else to entertain your thoughts and your desires. But all roads eventually lead back to him being your pusher and the vicious cycle is repeated. You are beset with an even deeper sense of hopelessness, self-doubt, and guilt, which will eventually lead to callousness and self-loathing. Sometimes it may even lead to a hatred of God.

Satan can also be likened to a terrorist. He keeps surveillance on you from the cradle to the grave, documenting your behavior and your actions, while he lays and waits for the opportunity to present itself to orchestrate destructive acts in your life. Some credit his knowledge of how and where to strike to mind reading, but scripture do not support the notion. Through close scrutiny of your life and by observing your triumphs and your failures, your doubts and your fears, your whole history, he does not need to read minds. He has, in a sense, peeked at your holding cards, so he knows in advance how to play his hand against you. He blows up your life with tragedy, misfortune, and pain to evoke his desired responses. He is the leader of many supernatural cell groups. Some are easy to spot and hide in plain sight; others are stealthily disguised to appear righteous and good. Human resources such as will, selfishness, callousness, and greed help fund his operations. No one is immune to his led attacks.

Satan not only wears a face to deceive and manipulate individuals; he and his corps of engineers—demons and the ACLU, perhaps one in the same—are the architects responsible for changing the face of our nation. In America, his handiwork has resulted in such atrocities as: the destruction of marriages and families, the erosion of morality and traditional family values, the redefinition of marriage, the legitimization of sexual preferences, the desensitization of human life, free expression and style over modesty and good taste, racial discrimination and class envy, and liberalism. He is an anarchist who revels in social disorder and in causing disharmony!

This is the enemy I have learned through my own personal skirmishes with him on this battlefield we call life. And as I have found, it is not enough just to know your enemy. That is a good beginning, however, it is vitally important that you also be equipped to do battle with him! Knowledge alone will not sustain you in the midst of combat. Only the means in which to fight and the skill and willingness to use them will defeat an enemy. The spiritual directive from the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6: 10-18 addresses it this way: "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."

Brothers and Sisters the enemy is attacking! Are you suited up for battle? Well let him hear your battle cry! (JESUS!!!)

AMEN!