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SATAN CANNOT ATTACK CHRISTIANS - THE ATTACKS COME FROM WITHIN OURSELVES..........
Yes, Satan exists. He is real and evil. He is temporarily free to roam the world (Rev.12:12). But he is not omnipresent - can only be in one place at a time.
Satan, or his evil spirits, cannot attack those born of God through Jesus Christ (1 John 5:18, "We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him".) Greek=touch - bind, apply oneself to. God's hedge of protection is secure.
Satan can only get at someone if God allows it, and even then, it's on God's terms - compare Job.
Now, the spirit of Satan is still in the minds of new Christians after they come to Christ.... in the form of old baggage that the saved individual retains (old habits, old loves, if it feels good....etc.)
Remember, the Lord accepts us as we are. We're forgiven, but we must go through a sanctification experience as we are being conformed to Christ.
So, Galatians 5:16-17, " But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. (17) For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please".
I submit.......that when our old habits of the flesh, which is the world, which is the spirit of Satan, want attention.........it's like being "attacked" by him.......particularly for new Christians, who are still carrying a lot of the world into this new relationship with Christ.
Summation: Is Satan externally attacking us? No, not unless God allows it.
: Is he in us? Not in terms of "demon possession". But, yes in terms of residual
remnant of our old self......still existing as lust of the flesh...that continue to tempt
(attack) us.
The mind is the battleground for the heart.
What do you think?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rita Cullimore on
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Humans are triune. Spirit, Soul, Body.
At salvation our spirits are made perfect. Our spirit no longer sins.
Our body isn't protected. It was judged in the garden. There is no way to escape the death of the body.
Now we come to the soul. A most interesting part of our being...it is the part of us that requires the instruction of the Holy Spirit. It is what is either attacked by Satan or we allow it and not God to have authority over us. It goes both ways. It is the part of us that needs the most training and instruction. Jesus told us not to worry about what we would eat or wear because God knows our needs. Our main concern needs to be the training of our souls. While we are being instructed, our soul is pulled between our physical comfort and our spiritual comfort. If we are listening to the Holy Spirit's instruction, Satan will attack that. If we give in, we sin. However, Satan can still attack us. He knows our weak points and he will put the pressure on to follow him. We can't belong to him but we can be made to suffer through him.
It comes down to who we are going to believe...God or Satan. If our souls are being trained properly, we will learn to not give comfort to the body, not give in to bodily desires. If we desire to be rich...it is for our bodily desires...not our spiritual desires. The Holy Spirit is striving to teach us how to turn our souls towards spiritual things....not to give in to the wiles of Satan.
I believe we can blame all of our sins on Satan because he left us wide open to them...however...we need to take responsibility for not living up to the things the Holy Spirit is teaching us through the study of God's Word...for not working with the Holy Spirit to become mature in His instruction.
Blessings.....
Rita
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Permalink Reply by Richard L. Broch, Sr. on
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Once upon a time a young man named John Q. Public answered the invitation and gave his life to Jesus Christ. John Q. Public arrived at this point in his life as described in Romans 7: 4-5-6," Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God. (5) For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. (6) But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter".
So John Q. Public was converted to Christianity. But, this conversion is not a quick-time event. Conversion is part of being set apart from the world in what the Bible calls Sanctification.This is the usual experience a new child of God deals with in his or her beginning walk with the Lord.
The Apostle Paul talks about this matter in Romans 7:19-25, "For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. (20) But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.(21) I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good.
(22) For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man. (23) but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
(24) Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? (25) Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, my flesh the law of sin".
This continuous inner warfare could be rendered "attacks by Satan"....because where ever the word "sin" is..........
couldn't we insert it mentally with "Satan"? ..... Isn't Satan the epitome of sin?
So, as John Q. Public has this spiritual conflict going on in his mind, he must rely on the in-dwelling Holy Spirit to prevail (verse 25 above).
The mind is the battleground for the heart.
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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
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Richard,
Just a quick comment.
The Bible speaks of salvation in three tenses. It speaks past, present and future. Past relates to Justification and regeneration. Present deals with our ongoing sanctification or growth process. Future is looking forward to our glorification, new body.
Satan is the epitome of sin, but the human sinful nature does not need any help to sin, it is prone to sin as it is selfish in nature.
Lord Bless,
LT
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