All of humanity should know that satan hates it. According to John
Pipper, "All humans have a supernatural enemy whose aim is to make us
blind, stupid, and miserable—forever." Until this enemy is known, he
cannot be escaped. But satan's worse enmity is reserved for those who
are united with Christ. His hatred for the believer is unparalleled. An
enemy that is not well known for who he is and what he does, is an enemy
that cannot be overcome effectively.
Satan's master trump is not entirely what many of us think it to be:
it is ignorance of the truth, and misinformation about the truth.
Misinforming the Christian about himself (satan), God and the believer,
are three areas where satan targets the believer the most. First, he
misinforms him about who his real enemy is, and points him to people who
may have truly wronged him as his real enemy. When he succeeds at this,
he hides behind the scenes and carries out his heinous works of evil.
Satan is a master at undercover activity.
At other times, he
causes the believer to overestimate the capability of himself (satan),
and when he succeeds, he makes the misinformed to think of satan as
being in the same rank with God. If he doesn't do this, he makes him
believe that satan is an illusion to be ignored.
His mater trump is what he does with regards to the knowledge of God.
He will never tell a believer that there's no God, but he can use
circumstances in the believer's life to create a question in his mind
about the love and faithfulness of God. In the Garden of Eden, he sold
this lie to our first parents and got all of mankind into trouble.
Finally, he endeavours to misinform us of who we are. He will either
aid us to think of ourselves more highly than we are, and by it cause
pride that lands us in trouble with God, or instigate us to believe of
ourselves less than we are, and by it create a failed personality trait
in us. In whichever of these ways that Satan succeeds in misinforming
us, lies his unfailing trump against us.
Toni
