The Fall of Mankind                 Painting by Michaelangelo, Sistine Chapel, Rome

Satan's Stealth Tactics

In Genesis 3:1-6 we see the way Satan disguised as a serpent succeeds in seducing Eve into disobeying the instructions God had given Adam in the previous chapter by using stealth tactics.

STEP 1: CASTING DOUBT ON GOD'S GOODNESS and love  (v1) Did God really say?
STEP 2: DISTORTING GOD’S WORD (v1)You shall not eat from any tree...
STEP 3: DENYING THE TRUTH OF GOD’S COMMANDS (v4)You will not die.
STEP 4: CAUSING DISBELIEF IN GOD’S TRUTH(vv4-5)You will not die.
STEP 5: CAUSING DESIRES THAT LEAD US AWAY FROM GOD (v6)
STEP 6: CAUSING DISOBEDIENCE OF GOD’S COMMANDS (v6) She took the apple and ate.    

Jesus on Satan's Character 

The Pharisees had been arguing with Jesus, saying they were God's children, because they were descended from Abraham as their spiritual father. They even had the audacity to claim that Jesus was illegitimate, because no one knew who his father was. In reply Jesus said:
“If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

In saying Satan was a murderer and a liar from the beginning, Jesus was referring to the way Satan had deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden by four lies he used in Genesis 3:3-4
•  LIE NO.1   YOU WILL NOT DIE - the basis of atheism, belief in reincarnation and the desire for immortality
•  LIE NO 2   YOUR EYES WILL BE OPENED - the basis of occultism & esoteric mysticism
•  LIE NO 3   YOU WILL BE LIKE GOD - New Age teaching to find the omnipotence of the god within
•  LIE NO 4   YOU WILL KNOW GOOD & EVIL - postmodern moral relativism & a scientific rationalism that claims to have all the answers to life

It is significant that two of man's aims to be God involve the desire for omnipotence and immortality, which Presidents Putin and Xi Jinping were overheard discussing at the military parade in Beijing in September 2025!

Satan's Strategy Against the Individual

Satan's Warfare Against the Church

Satan's Use of Persecution against the Church

The Word of God 

both Written and Spoken (rhema)   
   
Hebrews 4:12    
For the Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any two-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

The Holy Spirit

Ephesians 1:16-19

I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

The Blood of Jesus

Ephesians 1:7
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us.    
Revelation 12:10-11     
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our  God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before God day and night, has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death."

Warfare Prayer

1 Corinthians 14:14-16   
• Praying in Tongues 
• Praying Scripture
For this reason the one who speaks in a tongue should pray that they may interpret what they say. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. Otherwise when you are praising God in the Spirit, how can someone else, who is now put in the position of an inquirer, say "Amen” to your thanksgiving, since they do not know what you are saying?

Ephesians 2:5-6 Seated with Christ in heavenly realms far above all the powers of the enemy
It is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus
Arthur Mathews in Born For Battle uses the example of RAF pilots in World War Two using altitude as a major way of defeating the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain.

As Christians, we need to remember our position in Christ is far above that of the enemy as we read in 1 John 4:4 He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.

The Name of Jesus

Philippians 2:9-11

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Praise & Worship

Psalm 149:6-9

May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands, to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, to carry out the sentence written against them  —  this is the glory of all his faithful people.

The Christian Soldier's Personal Manual

Ephesians 6:10-18

Finally, be strong in the LORD and in his mighty power. Put on the whole armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the rhema word of God.  And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the LORD's people.

The Christian Soldier's Personal Manual

 
The Gates of Hell  - Pan's Cave at Caesarea Philippi   Photos: Rick Barker by kind permission

Satan's Plan To Exterminate God's Chosen People

In Matthew Chapter 16  Jesus takes the disciples on a forty mile hike to the foothills of Mount Hermon to a place known as The Gates of Hades, or Hell. It was thought to be the entrance to the Underworld and was entered by a vast cavern dedicated to the Goat God Pan! [ Note: What a coincidence that the Baphomet, or Goat's Horns sign beloved of ravers and heavy metal enthusasists should be the sign of the G.O.A.T aka Satan! ]  It was a centre of idolatry and the worship of several deities, including a Temple to the Roman Emperor Augustus. The disciples must have wondered why Jesus had taken them to such a centre of occultism.

Jesus' Statement of God's Power Over The Enemy

The reason was to make a statement about the Church and God's overall dominion over everything Satan might do. It began by him asking the disciples who people thought he was. Some said he was Elijah or one of the Old Testament prophets or John the Baptist raised from the dead. But when he asked them who they thought he was, it evoked the famous confession of Simon Peter, who said: "You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God!"

Jesus replied: "You didn't get that out of your head, Peter. That was my heavenly Father revealing the truth. And that's the rock of faith on which I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it."  In other words, "none of the other deities worshipped at this hellish place, nor Satan, will be able to withstand the growth of my Church, which will be birthed after I have been crucified and raised from the dead"  When Peter said he wouldn't let Jesus die, Jesus rebuked him by saying that was Satan's attempt to abort God's plan of salvation for the whole world.

Living In The 'Now & Not Yet'

When Jesus died and rose from the dead, he gave his followers all authority and power over the enemy's forces to go throughout the whole world making disciples and building his Church. But Satan is still "the prince of this world" (John 14:30) and "the ruler of the power of the air," (Ephesians 2:2), and awaits the final battle and defeat of his forces. when Christ returns to claim his own and to inaugurate a new heaven and a new earth at the Day of Judgment. Until then we live in what George Eldon Ladd called The Presence of the Future and 'The Now and the Not Yet.'

Levels Of Spiritual Warfare

Satan's Use of Persecution against the Church