How the Devil Attacks Christians Eph. 6:10-18 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

We know that the devil has many devices in his arsenal and we are not to be ignorant of his devices [2 Cor 2:11].  Therefore, we are to understand how the devil attacks Christians.  We can tell how the devil attacks Christians by studying the armor that the Lord gives us to fight and protect ourselves in our spiritual battles.  Based upon the articles of our spiritual armor, we see that the devil will attack with:

Lies – Eph 6:14.  Your loins girt about with truth.  Jesus said I am the truth.  He said, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth [Jn 17:17].  He said, ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free [Jn 8:32].  One of the greatest weapons used by the devil is lies.  The devil tries to get you to believe his lies like he got Eve to believe his lie in Gen 3.  He lies to you about the words of God, he lies to you about the Spirit of God, he lies to you about the child of God, etc.  If he can get you to believe any lie then he can keep you from believing the truth in that area of your life.  The only way to fight back is with the absolute truth.

Sins – Eph 6:14.  The breastplate of righteousness.  Jesus takes up residence inside of you so that he can live his life of righteousness in you.  Therefore, we are to work out our salvation as he works inside of us [Phil 2:12-13].  When we yield to sin, the breastplate of his righteousness no longer protects us.  And you know what happens then… the wicked flee when no man pursueth.  Sin weakens and defeats you in your spiritual battles.  The way to fight back is with Christ’s righteousness.

Fears – Eph 6:15.  Feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.  The devil discourages us from witnessing with the gospel by fear of rejection, fear of ridicule, fear of confrontation, fear of inadequacy, fear of our past and so forth.  You know that God didn’t put that spirit of fear in you [2 Tim 1:7].  Thus we talk ourselves out of witnessing before we ever start.  When our feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, we are ready to preach the gospel, whenever and wherever the Lord leads.

Doubts – Eph 6:16.  The shield of faith.  The enemy of faith is doubt.  And the Bible tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God.  1 Jn 5:4 says, this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.  Like a preacher said, our commander in chief has defeated the world’s commander in chief.  So if the devil can get you to doubt, he can weaken your faith and when your faith is weak, victory eludes you.  You must not doubt God.

Thoughts – Eph 6:17.  The helmet of salvation.  Getting saved can straighten out your mind [2 Tim 1:7; Mk 5:15].  To keep you from getting saved, the devil will blind your mind [2 Cor 4:4].  So the devil will mess with your mind after you get saved [2 Cor 11:3].  He exalts your thoughts against the knowledge of God [2 Cor 10:4-5].  These could be wicked thoughts or negative thoughts or emotional thoughts or lustful thoughts… anything to keep you from thinking about the Lord.  So we should live by Phil 4:8.

Words – Eph 6:17.  The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  The devil gave you a modern bible and took away the sword of the Spirit.  When he did that he made you dependent upon men for understanding.  But the Bible tells us that we have an anointing that teaches us [1 Jn 2:27].  We have inspiration whereby we understand [2 Tim 3:16; Job 32:8].  We have the Holy Spirit to interpret his words [2 Pet 1:19-20].  When the devil printed those other bibles, he printed them without the Spirit’s anointing, and the Spirit’s inspiration and interpretation are not in those bibles.  You must have the sword of the Spirit [which is the King James Bible] in order to fight your spiritual battles.

Distractions – Eph 6:18.  Praying always with all prayer.  The devil has fixed it in the world so that everything else becomes a priority over prayer.  The more technologically advanced we have become in society the more spiritually powerless we have become in prayer.  All this attention to social media, television, internet, email, text messaging, and so forth has robbed the church of its power in prayer.  We must get back to praying if we are ever going to stand in the midst of spiritual battles.

Conclusion: to understand how the devil attacks Christians all we have to do is understand the spiritual armor given to us by the Lord.  These seven things [including prayer] are given to us to fight against the devil’s main arsenal of attack.  Use them well and stand in the battle.