Demonic self-sabotage (part 1): "thinking like the devil"
There are certain Christians that the devil cannot destroy in any way or form due to the protection of God that surrounds them.
However, Satan the devil can destroy them by tricking them into self-sabotage. You see my friend, many Christians cannot be stopped except by themselves. Since the enemy understands that crucial principle, he needs to instigate a protected Christian against himself/ herself.
Why am I saying that ‘many Christians can’t be stopped’ instead of saying that ‘All Christians can’t be stopped’?
The reason I mention it that way is because in reality, many ‘so-called Christians’ can be stopped by the devil due to mainly two reasons:
*A sinful lifestyle
*A life that does not serve God.
Let me explain those two reasons: ‘many Christians, though they attend church, are still practicing a sinful lifestyle that allows the devil to enter and cause ravages.
Furthermore, the passage of Isaiah 54:17 states that no weapon forged against us shall not prosper. However the Isaiah 54:17 promise is an inheritance to the servants of God.
As mentioned earlier, there is a category of Christians who cannot be destroyed by the devil. For that category, in order to destroy them, the devil needs to apply the strategy of self-sabotage on them.
The satanic self-sabotage strategy consists in making a Christian think like the devil. I will show you three examples:
Example 1: Eve and the serpent
"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
(Genesis 3:1-7)
Eve had a clear thinking and instruction regarding the forbidden fruit. Adam and Eve could not be destroyed. In order to destroy them, the enemy makes Eve think like him. Notice that the enemy wants Eve to think that she will become like God.
In Isaiah 14:12-16, the Bible describes the fall of Satan, also called the ‘son of the dawn’. Notice that the ‘son of the dawn ’intended on becoming like God. ‘Becoming like God’ is exactly what the devil wants. Notice that in Genesis 3:1-7, he manages to make Eve think like him. As a result, Eve self-sabotaged herself.
Example 2: ‘Get behind me Satan!’
“From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.’
(Matthew 16:21-25)
Notice that Jesus had in mind the pain and the death He would endure in the hands of his enemies. His predicted death was exactly what God had in mind for Him. In verse 23, Satan through Peter tries to act as a stumbling block. The tactic of Satan consisted in changing Jesus Mind and pattern of thoughts. Notice as well the demonic brutality that Satan uses through Peter. Satan knew he could not sabotage Jesus, so He tried to change Jesus' mind with the hope that Jesus would self sabotage himself.
Example 3: David and the census
‘Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.”
But Joab replied, “May the Lord multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord’s subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”
The king’s word, however, overruled Joab; so Joab left and went throughout Israel and then came back to Jerusalem. Joab reported the number of the fighting men to David: In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who could handle a sword, including four hundred and seventy thousand in Judah.
But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, because the king’s command was repulsive to him. This command was also evil in the sight of God; so he punished Israel.
Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly by doing this. Now, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”
The Lord said to Gad, David’s seer, “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’”
So Gad went to David and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Take your choice: three years of famine, three months of being swept away before your enemies, with their swords overtaking you, or three days of the sword of the Lord—days of plague in the land, with the angel of the Lord ravaging every part of Israel.’ Now then, decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”
David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”
So the Lord sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead. And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was doing so, the Lord saw it and relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.”
(1 Chronicles 21:1-15)
In the above passage, it is clear that God forbade Kings from having censuses on Israel. Since Satan knew that an ordered population census would provoke the wrath of God, he induces David towards a self-sabotage act by inspiring a census in David’s mind. The rest that ensued was an utter disaster.
As seen above, we ought to be careful not to let the enemy enter our minds to incite self-sabotage. In order to be successful in a demonic act leading to self-sabotage, the enemy needs to make his targets think like him.
Now that we have read the above examples, we should all have self-check to see in which we could be thinking exactly like Satan.
A good point to start is to recognize that ‘any thinking that contradicts the Scripture, is a demonic thinking.’
Here are a few examples of demonic thinking:
*‘Dismissing the teachings pointing towards tithing, offering and generosity.’ Such thinking is aimed at self-sabotaging the children of God so that they would not enjoy the empowering blessings that come with good stewardship.
*‘Once saved, always saved’, is a demonic thinking as well. That thinking is designed to make people believe that they can still have a sinful lifestyle after accepting Christ in their lives.
There are so many ways that the enemy can plant to sabotage our marriage, our businesses, our activities, our ministries, our relationships, etc…
Let's not allow ourselves to think like the devil. Let’s not allow ourselves to adopt a system thinking that contradicts the Scripture.