See him for what he is

The devil never was and never will be an evil counterpart of God. Satan is a created being just like Michael the archangel. He has power, but he is way below God in the scheme of things. God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. The devil is none of these.

Satan is not omnipotent. If he were, he would have overthrown God and taken over heaven a long time ago. His ability in your life is limited to what you allow him to do. He will be tormented day and night forever in the lake of fire (Rev 20:10). He if were omnipotent, he would be able to get out.

Satan is not omniscient. He cannot read your mind. He only knows what you're thinking when you're foolish enough to give ear to his thoughts, or when you speak. If he had any idea what he was doing, he would never have incited the mob to demand Jesus' crucifixion. Look where that got him! Satan is a fallen angel, and angels do not know when Jesus is coming back (Matthew 24:36). 1 Peter 1:12 says that angels long to look into the gospel, so you probably have a better understanding of it than they do. Ephesians 3:10 says that the church will make the manifold wisdom of God known to the principalities and powers. That means that they don't know all of the manifold wisdom of God yet. So obviously, there is plenty that Satan does not know. Even his friends the psychics can only know what he tells them, and then many of these future events will only happen if you submit yourself to him by believing his psychics. Satan does not know everything about the future. He has the advantage of being in the spirit realm and being able to see some things coming. But your choices determine your future for you, at least to a large extent, and Satan can't control your choices.


Satan is not omnipresent. He walks to and fro on the earth (Job 1:7, Job 2:2). He cannot be in more than once place at one time any more than Michael or Gabriel can be at more than one place at one time. He will never "fill all things" like Jesus (Eph 4:9-10
). He will be physically confined to the lake of fire and will not be anywhere else.

When we "resist the devil," we are actually resisting his wicked spirits, since Satan himself will most likely not have time to pay you a personal visit. He's sort of like Santa Claus. He can't be at all the shopping malls at the same time. So when a kid asks how this can be, his parents often explain, "Santa has a lot of helpers." That is how it is with Satan and his helpers. He isn't everywhere, but he has cohorts everywhere who do his bidding. (I am not recommending that you lie to your children about Santa Claus, by the way. If you do, someday they will wonder how old they have to be before you tell them that there is no Jesus.)



Deal with him as a defeated enemy

Jesus defeated Satan for you. He stripped him and his principalities of their power, triumphing over them openly (Col 2:15). All angels and powers are subject to Christ (1 Peter 3:22). Jesus has all authority in heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18). You have been delivered from Satan's power (Col 1:12-14). Jesus, not the devil, now holds the keys of death and hell (Revelation 1:18). His atoning death has judged Satan already (John 12:31). The Greater One lives in you, so you have already overcome the antichrist spirits that are in the world (1 John 4:1-4). You have overcome the devil (1 John 2:13-14).


Ephesians 1:15-23

You sit with Christ in heavenly places (Eph 2:6), far above all principality, power and might. God has put all things under his feet. Jesus is the head. Where are his feet? On the earth, of course. Jesus, the head, is in heaven, and his Body (the Church) is on the earth. The feet are part of the body, not part of the head. So guess what? If all things are under his feet, they are under your
feet. Do you see that? Satan and all of his principalities are under your feet. That means that you rule and reign over them. You have authority over them.

Don't fight Satan. The fight is over. Jesus fought him and won, and you have the victory with him. You are called to enforce Jesus' victory over the devil, not to win the victory. Don't fight for a victory that's already yours!


Ephesians 4:27 says not to give the devil an opportunity. That shows that it's up to you to stop him. God promises that if you resist him, he will flee (James 4:7). Since God commands you to resist the devil, it is your responsibility, not God's, to do so. Your faith can overcome all the attacks of the wicked one (Ephesians 6:16, click Ephesians 6:10-18). Your faith is the victory that overcomes the world (1 John 5:4).


The name of Jesus

God gave Jesus the name that is above every name, and all things everywhere must bow at that name (Philippians 2:9-11). This passage is widely misinterpreted to be talking about some day in the sweet by and by when every knee will bow to Jesus. That isn't at all what this passage says! This passage is talking about the sweet now and now, and it does not say that anything will bow before Jesus anyway! Read it carefully. Paul said that everything must bow at the name of Jesus!


Who uses the name of Jesus? One thing is for sure, Jesus himself doesn't. Jesus bought your victory for you and sat down at the right hand of God. He is not visiting the earth and using his name. Believers use his name. Jesus said that in his name we would do many things, including laying hands on the sick. (See Mark 16:15-18.) Peter told the lame man at the gate Beautiful to rise and walk in the name of Jesus. Then he said that his name, through faith in his name, had healed him. (See Acts 3:1-16.) See The power in the name of Jesus for an elaboration of everything said here.


How to resist the devil

The devil never shows up with a red suit, horns and a tail, eating a deviled ham sandwich and devil's food cake and saying, "Hi, I'm the devil. I'm here to steal, kill and destroy." Instead, the devil and his cohorts use thoughts to try to get you out of God's will and into sin. The battleground is your mind, and you decide who wins. As far as God's concerned, you have the tools to win right now, but you have to use them. Your mind is the arena where you wrestle against wicked spirits.


Do not argue with the devil. Speak the Word to him and command him to leave you alone. Your own thoughts, apart from God's, will be ineffective. The devil's realm is reason. He's been defeated in the spirit realm; that is why he can't take you on there. He has to try to win his victory in the mental realm. That is why you MUST "renew your mind" (Romans 12:1) with God's Word. God's Word is your defensive armor against the devil's mind games.


God's weapons

Ephesians 6:10-18

Your "weapons" all concern the Word of God -- in particular, who you are in Christ. As Jesus did in Luke 4, you use the Word to run the devil off. Confess who you are in Christ, not what the devil says. Notice especially that Paul did not tell you to "pray against the devil." He told you to "pray for all saints." There is a difference! The silly idea of trying to make ruling spirits leave cities using these weapons (5 out of 6 of which are defensive) is covered under "How NOT to deal with the devil."


There are many other absurd ideas based on this passage. One is that you must "spiritually dress" yourself every morning with the full armor of God. Well, I suppose you need to if you took it off the night before. Actually, this is not talking about any kind of mystical spiritual force field around you. To put on God's armor is to renew your mind with his Word concerning your salvation. It is not some strange ritual that you must practice in prayer so that the devil won't get you. You don't have to try to "see" a belt of truth around your waist -- you know the truth, and the truth makes you free (John 8:32). You don't have to "see" a breastplate of righteousness on you -- you have to know that you are the "righteousness of God in Christ" (2 Cor 5:21) when Satan tries to condemn you and make you feel like an unworthy little worm.


If you took this armor stuff literally, Satan could get you just by sneaking around your backside, where you don't have any armor. He is not omnipresent, but he is at least mobile enough to do that. No, the point Paul is making is that instead of natural weapons, you use spiritual weapons against the devil. In modern-day terms, he is saying, "Take the bulletproof vest of righteousness and the submachine gun of the Word of God (etc.)." There is no deep spiritual significance to the placement and meaning of each piece. In 1 Thess 5:8, you are told to "put on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation." Oops. Guess you hyper-spiritual folks will have to "put on" and wear two breastplates every morning, because the Ephesians 6 model is "righteousness," and the 1 Thess 5 model is "faith and love." For the rest of you, realize that Paul is speaking allegorically!


2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Here we see that God's weapons cast down imaginations and bring thoughts into captivity. That is because thoughts are the devil's weapons. These thoughts can become strongholds in people's minds. (That is the kind of stronghold Paul is talking about, not demonic strongholds "in the air" over cities.) It is the gospel, which is "the power of God unto salvation" (Romans 1:16), that has the power to destroy the mind games of the devil in people's lives. The things we destroy by sharing the gospel are those thoughts (propagated by devils) which "exalt themselves against the knowledge of God."

I am not saying that there are no demonic powers over cities. I am saying that they are already defeated and powerless as far as the Church is concerned. Their strongholds are not in the air over cities but in people's minds. Because they are defeated, they cannot stop revival or any part of the work of God with brute force. Their only strategy is deception. If they can deceive the minds of men on the earth, they can get those men to cooperate with them to resist the gospel. The Word of God is alive and active and destroys the strongholds in people's minds that these evil principalities plant. They have no effective counter-weapon to God's Word when it is preached. God's Word is unstoppable. Paul said that the Word of God is not bound (2 Tim 2:9)!


It is not necessary to make these defeated principalities and powers leave an area to have revival. It is also unnecessary to "defeat" them; Jesus Christ already did that! You can walk in his victory over them. You can go ahead and have revival right under their noses because they are powerless to stop it! If we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that we, not the defeated demonic powers, are the real hindrances to revival! If we sow the Word of God, that Word will produce a harvest!


Respect him

What? Respect the enemy of your soul? Yes! I'm not saying to make friends with him, but you must give him respect, since he has a right to be here. Do not use railing accusations against him. There is no point in talking to him anyway, unless you are going to do what Jesus did in Luke 4 (and elsewhere) and speak the Word of God to him when he tempts you. According to Jude 8-9, it is wrong to insult the devil.


See also:

How NOT to deal with the devil