I have been looking at many articles on satan. There definitely many thoughts and opinions on this subject. We hear things like the devil having the abilty put sickness on someone. I have even heard that he will heal someone so that he can put sickness back on them to cause them to lose faith. I think that's ridiculous. The Bible does clearly talk about him in the Old and New Testament. In the King James version the word devil is not in the Old Testament but is in the New Testament 57 times. The word satan is in 34 verses of the New Testament and 15 verses of the Old Testament. This does not include the times he may be referred to as deceiver, tempter and adversary. I think it's fair to say that if we believe the Bible satan does exist. I don't dispute that. But I was thinking about how much power does he really have?
Many times when things go wrong we either blame the devil or attribute parts of our problems on him. I have heard many teaching about this and how the he comes to kill, steal and destroy. We are taught about how the devil was the serpent who tempted Eve. We hear the teachings on Job and how satan needed to get permission to do anything to him. We know that satan tried to tempt Jesus but failed. We know about the parable of the farmer who scattered seeds and how satan comes to take the seed of the word away. Jesus even called Peter satan. I can on and on about this. So how much power does he have? What can we blame on him and what do we blame on ourselves? Does God make satan accountable for our sins or are we accountable for our own sins? I think we know the answer to that. Don't get me wrong I know that there are scriptures about his devices and temptations. Than why did Jesus die for us? It's funny how we only see satan tempt Jesus that one time? In John 14:12 Jesus said that we will do greater works than him. If that's the case than what chance does the devil have?
Satan is known as a tempter and deceiver. The funny thing is that he cannot tempt me with anything that I have not already made part of my life and if I made it part of my life than it was my fault. For example: Someone who is an alcoholic can be tempted with beer and liquor but cannot be tempted to smoke. They can be around someone who smokes but cannot be around someone who drinks. Why? Because smoking does nothing for him so there is no temptation for him. I feel that any part that satan has in tempting us we do an even better job of tempting ourselves. For the most part we know right from wrong but we are very good at fooling ourselves and it doesn't take much for us to convince ourselves. We end up doing what we want to do.I believe that if satan was removed we will still have a sinful nature. James 1:12-15 talks about how we are tempted by our own lust. Not once is the devil mentioned in this type of temptation. And 1 John 4:4 says that 'greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.' There is nothing more powerful than the Holy Spirit so if you claim to have the Holy Spirit than we should never give the devil place in our lives.
We are all responsible for our actions and have the tools available to overcome our issues. Discipline or lack of discipline ends up being one of our worst enemies not the devil. Let's stop battling the so called enemy so much and start disciplining the inner me instead. I think we will find out that we end up being our own worst enemy. Just look at Luke 10:16-20 which shows us what authority we have. It says we have ALL authority over the enemy. But I do believe that the devil is definitely a liar. What do you think? I really would like to know what readers think about this subject so all comments are welcomed.