Secret security 

Years ago, a major Atlanta department store was known for its sharp store security personnel. They wore bright red blazers with the store security emblem monogrammed on the breast pocket. 

Once while my wife was shopping, I struck up a conversation with one of the security officers. I mentioned that surely no one would attempt to shoplift with him anywhere in sight. He chuckled and asked if I’d noticed the young mom with the infant in a stroller to his left, or the elderly lady behind him. I hadn’t. 

The young mom was also security and the baby was a doll. The elderly lady was an off-duty policewoman who wasn’t as old as she appeared. While I was paying attention to the people in the red blazers, I was oblivious to the other security officers who were right next to me.

The deception of spiritual warfare

Spiritual warfare is much the same way. It’s about deception. 

Jesus tells us in John 8:44 that Satan is a liar and the father of lies, that there is no truth in him and when he speaks it is a lie. The one aspect of spiritual warfare that we may be certain of is that it will seldom if ever, come where we expect it. 

The Apostle Paul warns in Ephesians 6:11 that we are to “put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Other translations of the word wiles are schemes, strategies, tricks, or tactics.  

A definition of wiles is “a strategy or trick intended to deceive or ensnare. A disarming or seductive manner, device, or procedure.”  Spiritual warfare always begins in the mind as a battle between the Lord’s Truth and the devil’s lies. It’s first seen in the Garden of Eden when the devil asked Eve “did God really say that?”

Your adversary

The Apostle Peter understood this well, hence his warning in 1 Peter 5:8 that we are to “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.”

Notice Peter said your adversary, making it intensely personal, and those he may devour, that his intent is to kill. 

A recent poll of professing Christians found that while the majority believe in a personal God and a literal Heaven, as few as one-third believe in a personal devil and a literal hell. This explains why so many Christians are living defeated lives, and why the church has and is losing much of its influence.  

If the devil can deceive us into believing he doesn’t exist the battle is over before it starts. Like the security guards in the red coats, if we expect the devil to ring our doorbell wearing a red suit and carrying a pitchfork, we’ll be oblivious to the coworker who understands us better than our spouse, or the friend at work who offers us a pill to help with our anxiety.

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled

The Apostle Paul also tells us in 2 Corinthians 11:14 that “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.”

In all probability, he will not tempt a Christian to commit a heinous act of blatant sin (not that he won’t occasionally try a long shot.) As Pastor Johnny Hunt so often says “most Christians who fall don’t have a blowout but a slow leak.”  

What the devil will do is sit down beside us, fully empathize and commiserate with our problems, and then offer a very unbiblical solution that seems so very right.  Because Eve didn’t know what God did say she was totally vulnerable to Satan’s attack.

Studying the genuine article

Those in the banking industry are taught to recognize counterfeit bills, not by studying counterfeits, but by studying the genuine currency issued by the Department of the Treasury. 

In the same way, Christians must deliberately, intentionally study the Word of God so that when the devil does sit down beside us and ask his questions we will know what God did say and on the authority of the Word of God we can submit ourselves to God, resist him and he will flee.  

Biblical illiteracy is an epidemic in the Church today, causing untold casualties on the battlefield of spiritual warfare.  God has done His part in providing all that we need for life and godliness through His Word and in the power of His Spirit.  Our part is to take up the whole armor of God and learn to use it well.

In his book “The Art of War” written some 500 years b.c. the Chinese General Sun Tzu wrote:

“If you know your enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
If you know yourself but not your enemy, for every victory gained you will suffer a defeat. 
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

The Bible alone will equip us to know ourselves and our enemy with 100% accuracy.