Christ Victorious

The devil is brought to our attention early in both Testaments and is presented as part of the reality of our earthly life.
I find it intriguing that many Christians live with serious doubts as to the reality of Satan and the power of his influence on their lives. Some do not recognize anything in their weekly routine that they could attribute to the devil. Although they acknowledge that the Bible says that there is a devil, they function as if he is not real.
Others cloak their doubts with mistaken theology, justifying their lack of deliberate action against Satan with erroneous thoughts about a supposed Christian “spiritual immunity.” In both cases, what results is a person who does not look like the Bible’s portrait of a Christian. Scripture portrays us as deliberately resisting the devil and as wrestling with unseen powers.
After over three decades of pastoral and missionary experience, I am no longer surprised to hear certain questions and concerns:
How can I tell if my temptation has a demonic element or is only because of my sinful self?
I know that we are told to resist the devil, but how do I do that?
How much influence can Satan have over a Christian?
Is there a way I can protect myself and my children?
Are my weird and frightening dreams because of evil spirits?
How do I recognize when I’m being attacked by the evil one?
This topic makes me afraid. Why can’t I just ignore it?
There are answers.
God has taken my wife and me through various experiences that made us aware of the conflict with the demonic and which have driven us to the Bible for answers. Because we spent eleven years ministering in East Africa, people often assume that our experience with the unseen realm was learned there. It is true that our African brothers and sisters taught us much, and that the situations in which we found ourselves there seemed to have been orchestrated by God to instruct us in this area of the Christian life. But our “baptism” into this arena occurred in America before we left, and we have experienced the reality of the unseen realm continually in the years since we have returned. Demons need no passports. Satan’s strategy appears to be somewhat different in America than in Africa, but he is active in America just as much as anywhere else.
Over these decades I have wondered why certain attacks happened to me. Why did God allow me to encounter the demonic early in my Christian life and regularly during my ministry? I certainly was not seeking it. I did not want these experiences. Fear, of course, was a constant in these encounters. Confusion also played a big role. But due to wise counsel from older Christians, and an impetus to go to the Scriptures and find answers, I have come out of those encounters with an increasingly firm approach to resisting the devil. The fear is less; the victory is more. I am obeying the injunction to “resist the devil,” and I am seeing him flee.
Maybe the fact that you are holding this book in your hands is part of the answer as to why God put me into those trying situations. It is my prayer that what I have learned through these many years of wrestling may be used of God to help you too.