The Devil wants you to believe that he does not exist. In fact, he will do anything to make you look silly if you actually do believe he exists. Others will make fun of you and people will think that you are crazy if you talk about the influence the evil one has in this world but as I sit here today I can attest and guarantee you that the evil one exists. He wants nothing more than to destroy you and your family, so that he can have dominion over this earth (1 Peter 5:8). I would like to share with you two truths about the evil one. Number one, he does exist. He can make a mess of our lives, and that is his sole purpose. Second, and most importantly, the devil can’t do anything without our permission or permission from God (Job 2:6). This is key to understanding how we can resist the devil and he will flee from us.
Permission Must be Given
For the evil one to sift us like wheat, the devil has to have permission because very much like a court of law, he is bound by regulations or as God Calls them, convents. (Luke 22:31). Knowing this, gives me great peace. I always felt like I was powerless against the temptations that ruined my life, but when I understood that I control those and I have the power of the Holy Spirit to help me resist those, I took that power back and so can you. You might be asking how do we give the devil control of our lives or permission to influence our thoughts and our decisions? That’s a great question that I hope to try to share what I have learned on that topic. Sin is the answer.
Sin
All of these items that I will be talking about, are classified by God as sin but for this example, I want to talk about more generic sin. What should be the most obvious way that we give permission for the evil one to influence and to do bad in our lives. This is also the area where most people don’t believe is a big deal. But God says, “none of you are righteous, and every single one of us sin”, and fall short of the glory of God (Roman’s 3:23). God doesn’t define levels of sin like we do. For example, we will say “well, I sin, but at least I’m not as bad as that guy”. God says that all sin leads to death (spiritual death). This is because after each, and every time you sin, it becomes easier to sin and it separates us from God. We cannot serve our flesh as serve God at the same time. God says the penance for every sin is spiritual death. Therefore, after every single sin, you must repent. In the Bible, it is written that every single person has a guardian angel that looks over them once they accept the Holy Spirit into their life (Hebrews 1:14). The Bible also guarantees us at the opposite issue as well. The evil, one studies our behavior and knows exactly how to tempt us. The best analogy I ever heard on this was from Dr.Tony Evans. He said that the “evil one has game film on us like an NFL team does on their opponent and they study that game film to know your weakness”. I think if we all viewed it, that way, we would understand that the sin we put out there in the world is being taken notice of in the spiritual world and it should scare us. If you are guilty of sin, and we all are, you must repent. Otherwise, you open yourself up for more attack and worse sin to occur in your life (Mark 1:14-15)
Transgressions
Transgressions are the next thing that I have learned about. Honestly, this is probably the most dangerous type of sin because they are the most long lasting and always the most hurtful. When we transgress against the Lord and cross a boundary that He sets for us, the Lord views that as the same type of transgression that Lucifer, a.k.a. Satan did against God (Isaiah 14:13-15). If that isn’t serious, I don’t know what is. This is also pretty much the only type of sin that can get passed down from generation to generation. The most infamous sins in this area are adultery and fornication. There are many others, but these two are the most easily understood simply because every person in the world knows that cheating on your spouse is wrong and yet people continue to do it and make a conscious choice to do it. Same with fornication, every believer should know that it’s against God’s law to sleep with somebody that is not your spouse whether you are single or not. Simply put, transgression is a sin that you continue to commit, knowing that it’s wrong, and knowing that it violates God’s law. It can be so serious, if not repented for that it can actually turn into blasphemy, which is the only unforgivable sin mentioned in the Bible. In the Old Testament, this type of sin was typically referred to as it related to worshiping idols. God is very clear throughout the Bible that transgressional sin can carry down from generation to generation (Exodus 20:5, Deuteronomy 28:16-47). Take it from me, do not take transgressional sin lightly. Ask god to forgive and remove the sin by Jesus said, “go and sin no more otherwise something worse may happen” (John 5:14).
Iniquity
The Bible describes iniquity as “guilt worthy of punishment”. (Micah 2:1). It also mentions being twisted or perverted sin through a family history in your bloodline (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). From what I have studied on this topic, this is the type of sin and grievance that the devil uses more than any other to continuously torment us without ceasing. There’s a great series about this called The Courts of Heaven where it outlines all of this in great detail. A perfect example of this should be in Daniel 9:16 Where Daniel is praying for God to intercede and to remove the sins of his family so that God can answer their prayer. I have never heard anyone speak about this type of sin or how the devil uses that sin to allow God to give him permission to interfere and meddle in our lives before this year. But once again, just like everything else, Satan can only do what we gave him permission to do so remove the sin from your life, resist the devil, and he will flee (James 4:7).
Deceit
The last type of sin that the evil one uses against us is deceit. Deceit is a sin against others. All of the other sins mention our sins against God and his law, but these are sins knowingly committed against people by other people. Quite simply, this can be listed or defined as a sin of doing damage against people on purpose. (Micah 2:1-3) explains this in more detail. One of the most egregious sins that we can commit against other people is providing false witness against them (Exodus 20:16). The Bible each, and every time this is mentioned in the Old Testament, the punishment was death. Actual physical death. The New Testament refers to it more in the realm of spiritual death, because it separates us from God. If you were guilty of sinning against other people, this is also a serious situation with God and needs to be rectified through repentance. Do not bear false witness, do not gossip, and do not slander others or you open the door for the evil one to enter.
Summary
The devil does exist. He doesn’t wear red and have a pitchfork. He exists in the spirt realm and has total ability to affect your thoughts and your actions when you give him and open door. When I learned that my sin was opening the door for more and more attack against me and my own family, I had to learn everything I possibly could learn on how I could stop it. I was exhausted in life trying to get God to bless us and the work that I was doing, but God was not able to because of active and past sin. I spent the last year studying and getting advice and interpretation from biblical scholars that I have Bible study with helping me understand how to resist the devil and to get him to flee. If you are in a similar position struggling with the same things where your prayers are being unanswered, and that you’re under constant calamity, I encourage you to find out more. The easiest way to do that would be the courts of heaven, video series by Robert Henderson ministries. Get right with God, repent, and then sin no more or even worse may happen!
