Right at the beginning of the Word of God is the story of creation, and in Genesis 3 we read of the first interaction between Satan and mankind.

The strategy of Satan in the Garden of Eden is the same strategy he uses today to

disarm men from the authority and headship that God bestowed on him.

1.    Satan uses flattery

Everyone knows that abrupt rude intimidating behaviour is unacceptable and eventually gets you into trouble or out of favour. You can’t get into trouble if you make someone feel good, so a more clever strategy to win power over someone is through flattery … tell them how great they are and what they can achieve for themselves. Envy is inherent in the human soul, and flattery is a powerful tool to stimulate it. People love being told how great they are or how good they are doing.

When someone flatters you they are being a Satanic channel to gain power over you so you will do what they want. The flatterer may not even be aware of their flattery; to them it’s normal behaviour to try and make someone feel good, but the flatterer is making you feel good to gain an elevated position over you. Like Satan, flattery is always for one’s personal value, not for the receiver.

Flattery and envying a better deal are the carrots for the pride of elevating yourself up to the little god position. From this position you will try and pull other people down to your sin level and thus unwittingly aid the plan of Satan to bring down the God-given authority assigned to man to spiritually defend his family, and instead sign it over to Satan.

The power of positive thinking is a tool for flattery and getting a swollen head about your own greatness to achieve whatever your mind can design. There are few Christians around today who are willing like Moses and Abraham and Noah to wait on God for His plan with patience and faith and to live an insignificant life for God’s greater purpose. Everyone wants to be elevated to greatness in the eyes of others, John 12:42,43.

Jesus lowered His position and waited for God’s plan. Satan envied Jesus’ position and initiated his own plan against God.

Doing something proactive to make yourself a better person is really a camouflage for elevation above your fellowman. The question is … Jesus gave up His position, are you trying to elevate yours? The question is … what’s your motive and your driving force? Is it to look good and to get more, and to feel more valued? Then it’s not God, it’s Satan, and most people are so entrapped they can’t answer that question honestly.

2.    Satan’s argument is … you’re missing out; it’s not fair

Satan flattered Eve with the carrot of a better deal which God was holding back from them and he used the argument of unfairness to manipulate her thinking. Any time unfairness is your defence you are arguing from Satan’s side. God’s argument is you sinned and made yourself god.

The current argument of defence for homosexuality is that it’s unfair not to allow them to have the same love for each other as heterosexuals. They argue that their love is just as valid as heterosexuals. That’s a satanic argument based on fairness.

God’s argument is … homosexuality is sin based on making yourself the centre of the universe instead of God. Homosexuality isn’t love, it’s rebellion against God. If you tolerate sin long enough you will eventually cause an aberrant genetic dna with which science will justify the sin.

The church is trying to save homosexuals from going to hell, but that’s not its job. Homosexuals are going to hell unless they repent, Romans 1:18-32 & 1 Corinthians 6:9,10 , but they can’t find repentance because there are no Elijahs standing against Jezebel to build a wall of defence for them. So homosexuals have deduced that they can’t help their inherent trait and they’ve deduced that God made them that way so they are Christian and normal. If it’s normal then why did God destroy Sodom as an example?

The real truth is, homosexuals don’t want to repent, they want to be homosexual and Christian too, and the reason this sickness is propagating is because the salt has lost its savour. When Elijah stood up against Jezebel and even called fire down from heaven to prove where he stood, no one joined him; everyone preferred their sin.

The church’s job is to stand for righteousness, but it can’t because it itself is unrighteous, sin tolerant and soft, selfish, love twisted, deceptive, a merchandising business machine and hypocritical. The church is Laodecian. Homosexuals argue that if you allow divorce (Matthew 5:32) then it’s hypocritical to disallow homosexuality. That’s a justifiable argument of unfairness, and the church hasn’t got a leg to stand on.

3.    Satan lies with the truth

Satan uses the truth to tell a lie. “You won’t die” seems to be true but it’s not, they eventually did when they shouldn’t have. It’s not the words that come out of your mouth it’s the motive behind the words that is the real you, Mark 7:20-23.

People under the influence of Satan often develop the technique of sweet talking; they learn how to speak nicely and act sweet, but you know it’s a lying spirit when you don’t speak sweetly back and you get judged as arrogant. The judgment exposes the true motive and the true spirit of the person. Jesus didn’t always speak sweetly; He derided the Pharisees, He offended His own disciples, He implied the Syrophenecian woman was a ‘dog’, He told His mother off for interfering, He picked up a whip and got very angry, and He told Peter off publically for failing to walk on water.

4.    A person under the influence of Satan can still hear the voice of God (v.8).

Hearing the voice of God doesn’t mean you are saved. King Saul and Samson, Peter and Nebuchadnezzar are other examples.

5.    A person under the influence of Satan will try and pull you down and into the same web.

Such a person is happy to see you fall because it makes them feel superior to you. People under the influence think they’re better than you, but at the same time live in the fear of what you think of them. They cope with what you think by thinking they’re better and by pulling you down so they’re up.

6.  A person under the influence of Satan will think that they are the wise one (v.6), but because of their pride won’t be able to see that they are so foolish that they actually hide from God (v.8).

7.  A person under the influence of Satan will lie, blame, and intimidate you with fear, especially the fear of what they think of you. Evil spirits hate being told they’re wrong; rather they love to tell you you’re wrong.

8.  A person under the influence of Satan will sit as judge over your weaknesses so they can pounce on you to elevate themselves above you. If you show a weakness, such a person will use it to their advantage to feed on it for their superiority, and you will sense it.

9.  Very often a person under the influence of Satan will learn to perfect their outward character so you can’t correct them or pull them down.

Satan didn’t approach Eve as a flaming dragon; he came as an angel of light and deceived her. In the same way, such a person will use their false quality of character to drive you to show a weakness of character so they can elevate above you. The fact is, a lying spirit can block human emotions so the person feels no pain of put-down but at the same time the person loses the ability to sense repentance.

There’s only one way out of the influence of Satan and that’s through repentance of your sin. Adam and Eve did not repent, they blamed and they argued on the basis of fairness. They came under the curse and were separated from a personal relationship with God.

Signs of Satan

In the same way Satan sweet-talked Eve, every time someone takes the carrot of elevation they become a channel of demonic destruction, the objective of which is to pull down male authority and ultimately defame God.

When you choose to righteously stand for God, Satan will oppose you and try to pull you down. The object is to put Adam into guilt so he has no authority over Satan. You can be alert to his attacks and tricks by understanding the pathway God has exposed in Genesis 3.

• You will be tempted to elevate yourself via flattery and envy.
• You will be attacked by fear (v.10). Fear is always from Satan. It’s not a characteristic of Holy Spirit. There is no fear in love, 1 John 4:18.
• An evil spirit will make you feel guilty so you’ll be tempted to fear what they think of you. The Holy Spirit convicts; He doesn’t condemn.
• You will feel blamed. Blame is always from Satan. It’s not a characteristic of the Holy Spirit.
• You will have to dig for the truth because the person will be lying and deceptive.
• An evil spirit will lie to make God look the baddie.
• The evil spirit will tell you what’s right and wrong especially in relation to how you are to treat them.
• The evil spirit will argue the defence of unfairness.
• The evil spirit will drive you to expose a weakness and then hypocritically judge you for it.
• The evil spirit will try to pull you down to promote itself above you.
• The evil spirit will get miffed if someone else gets a better deal.
• The evil spirit will tempt you to forgive them and just let it go and forget about it as the church has taught you to do. But God didn’t forgive Adam and Eve; He separated from them. A Christian is not required to always forgive and cancel everyone’s debt; God doesn’t (Matthew 6:15). A Christian is required to not be in debt by sinning against his neighbour and not to hold an offence against his neighbour.

When you sense one or all of these things, know that God is informing you that you are under attack from a Satanic spirit, and training you how to stand.

The trap

The trap will be to defend yourself or to take the pride carrot. The only escape is repent of elevating yourself and trust God’s plan of humility. You will be tempted to fight back and put them in their place. Don’t resist the evil (Matthew 5:39), but rather don’t move from standing on the truth by faith in God, trust God’s will and purpose, and like Jesus, let God address the evil spirit in His time and His way.

Your aim is not to win; your aim is to stand by relying on God. Modern Christians don’t want any storms in their life, that’s why the prosperity doctrine has so much appeal, and why fighting for God’s principles is out-dated. But even Paul who could heal with his shadow, faced shipwreck. The reason we want to be our own god is so we don’t have to be told what to do and so we can arrange our life according to what suits us best. That’s not God’s strategy, it’s Satan’s.

We’re called to weather the storm, not get a free ride. We’re in a battle with Christ against principalities and powers both within the church and without, and we’re called to stand, but few can be bothered and most think they are anyway.

May God give you His grace to stand righteously.

Pastor Peter White