6 Ways Satan Defeats Believers
Many Christians blame Satan for the breakdown of our culture.
They decry the works of the devil through drugs, abortion, perversion, immorality, and a host of related evils. Yet Satan is perhaps gaining as much advantage through the unforgiving spirit of professing Christians as he is through all of these malignant vices combined. Satan knows men will sink deeply into the mire of overt sin on their own with little urging from him. But if he can defeat and mar the testimonies, health, and relation- ships of believers through unforgiveness, he will seize every opportunity he can. Paul warned the Corinthians how Satan gains an advantage over us through unforgiveness. (See 2 Corinthians 2:10-11.)
Relationships are the very crucible of life. They are among the most difficult yet enjoyable experiences we have. It is impossible to escape relationships. Because all of us are sinful by nature as well as by choice, it is only a matter of time before each relationship encounters a challenge. At times, we are deliberately offended. Other times, we are hurt and disappointed by the failure of the other party to meet our expectations.
All relationships tend to progress through at least four levels. Beginning a relationship with someone, we tend to see only the good and feel idealistic about the relationship. Soon, however, reality sets in, and we begin to wonder, Hmmm, I didn’t realize he was like that. This level is quickly followed by feelings of resentment, a sense that we have been profoundly let down. We find ourselves disliking the way the other person is. If we are not careful, resentment sours into hatred and a desire to get out of the relationship altogether. But this exit may not be God’s way.
When the issue of unforgiveness confronts us, we find ourselves acting like pitchfork Christians. We take our complaints and fling them over our shoulders, hoping so-and-so is listening and will get the point. But we must lay down our pitchforks, stop advertising our pain, and allow God’s Word to penetrate us deeply. Failure to do so is costly. Refusing to forgive never ends well. It plunges us into a downward and spiritually destructive spiral.
Ephesians 4:31 details this harmful plummet. We must appreciate the context of this verse to grasp the gravity of the situation a lack of forgiveness generates. Ephesians 4:26-27 warns, “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.”
Allowing the sun to go down on our wrath simply means that we harbor unforgiveness; we go to bed angry with someone. When that happens, we leave the door ajar for Satan. Ephesians 4:30 says we grieve God’s Holy Spirit when we permit unforgiveness to fester. An unforgiving spirit is the devil’s legal camp- ground. It gives him a place of entry into our lives where he can war against us from within. Verse 31 describes the downward spiral: “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.”
Bitterness
Carefully notice the phases of Satan’s attack once we give him ground. His first tactic is that of poisoning. The word bitterness simply means poison. Bitterness is the direct result of an unforgiving spirit. A bitter person is someone who has been hurt. Someone has wounded him, neglected him, abused him, rejected him, slighted him, or cheated him—or, at least, he feels these hurts have happened to him. Rather than admit- ting the hurt and going to others to settle the matter, he harbors the hurt. Like a poison injected into the body, bitterness is a poison of the soul. The longer it stays, the more deeply entrenched it becomes, and the more it permeates the entire life.
The analogy of poison in the body is striking. Scripture refers to the “gall of bitterness” (Acts 8:23). Medical studies have demonstrated that bitterness of the soul is a factor in cholecystitis or gall bladder disease. Bitterness creates a chemical imbalance in the body, causing cholesterol to develop in the form of gallstones. The relationship is direct. Bitterness is an acid that eats away its own container.
Usually, bitterness is hidden under the surface. Hebrews 12:15 refers to it as a root. During biblical times, one of the shepherd’s duties was to prepare a field for his sheep by carefully digging up any poisonous plants. Failure to do so resulted in sick or dead sheep. Likewise, we must dig up unforgiveness before it develops deep roots in our lives. No one can harbor any degree of unforgiveness without becoming bitter. Though we may mask bitterness before others and before ourselves, it is always destructive. Someone once said, “Bitterness is like shooting yourself with a shotgun so the recoil will hit the other party!”
Bitterness shuts off the flow of God’s life through our lives. Our prayers are hindered, and our lives become joyless and fruitless. One day, a mother disciplined her little girl. The angry girl knelt by her bed to say her prayers while her mother waited to tuck her in. The little girl prayed for her dad, her brothers, her sister, her aunts, her uncles, and her grandparents. After she said, “amen,” she turned to her mother and announced, “I guess you noticed I left you out.” The problem is, she had left God out too! Prayers from an unforgiving heart rise no higher than the ceiling. Praise and worship become a mockery, and life is poisoned at its source.
Wrath
Unresolved bitterness eventually leads to wrath, the next phase in this deadly spiral. Wrath, an interesting word, has the idea of heat connected to it. Wrath is that slow burn inside. It is an inward seething against the offender, a smoldering resentment. The word resentment means “to feel again.” We delight to feel again the hurt and sorrow of wrongs done to us. Resentment provides a bittersweet pleasure. Wrath is the fire set by the initial hurt that was never resolved. It is akin to tossing rags into a trash can, setting them aflame, and placing the can in a closed closet. The rags burn slowly but surely.
Anger
When we fling the closed door open, the rags of smoldering wrath burst into flames. That picture describes anger, the third stage of Satan’s assault on the unforgiving soul. When something happens to reveal the wrath and bitterness in someone’s life, the person explodes in a fit of anger. Less-than-minor differences may develop into a full-scale war on a personal level. Such a display only reveals that a root of bitterness ignited the inferno.
Anger also carries the idea of something outward and open. Perhaps you have surprised yourself with an outburst of anger. You may not have realized how irritated or smoldering you were inside until an annoyance set you off. Your response was likely a root of bitterness displaying its fruit. We like to stonewall and wear a facade, pretending nothing is wrong. But it is impossible to purify the water by painting the pump. Bitterness eventually finds an outlet in anger.
Clamor
When anger bursts forth, it is frequently followed by clamor. You begin to verbalize. The word clamor itself suggests speech. Maybe you shout. Perhaps you argue at a high decibel, or you simply cry. The poison has so corrupted and filled your soul that it overflows through your tongue. The Bible describes such a tongue as “a fire, a world of iniquity” (James 3:6).
Evil Speaking
Clamor turns to evil slander. You say words you never imagined you’d utter. “I hate you!” “I wish you were dead.” “I’m sorry we ever had you for a child.” “I hope I never see you again.” Don’t forget that often-repeated phrase, “I want a divorce.” We say things we don’t mean, all because of an unforgiving spirit, which arises out of a bitterness we never resolved. Someone once said, “Your venom poisons you more than your victim.”
Malice
Finally, evil speaking boils into malice. Malice is the desire to harm someone. Never be deceived about the depths to which Satan can take you when you yield him ground through failing to forgive. You may punch someone out. You may take a gun, knife, or another weapon and threaten him, or you may actually harm him. You may destroy someone financially. You may so maliciously slander him and assassinate his character that his reputation is ruined.
Satan is systematically demolishing the lives of many through their unforgiving spirit. Alexander Pope said, “Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As, to be hated, needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.” Forgiveness is the basis of our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Therefore, failing to forgive others is a serious sin, an affront to God. This sin will especially take us farther than we planned to go, keep us longer than we planned to stay, and cost us more than we planned to pay. We have only two outcomes. Either, by God’s grace, we dig up the root of bitterness, or we allow it to ruin us.
Reflections
Bitterness will take you farther than you planned to go, keep you longer than you planned to stay, and cost you more than you planned to pay.
Bitterness is like a root. It lies beneath the surface. It is not easily detected.
Bitterness bears harmful fruit. Once Satan is given ground in the human heart, his influence spirals out of control.
“Let all bitterness…be put away from you.” (See Ephesians 4:31-32.) Once you detect a root of bitterness and discern the fruit, you must give it the boot!
Study Questions & Points of Application
Unhealed hurts morph into bitterness. Unchecked bitterness gradually produces resentment against God. Can you recall Bible characters who became bitter?
The children of Israel came to the bitter waters at Marah. To heal the bitter waters, God instructed Moses to cut down a tree and cast it into that polluted pool. The only tree that can heal the bitter waters in the human heart is a tree called Calvary!
Carefully read Ephesians 4:26-32. Take note of the downward steps through which Satan leads someone who has failed to forgive. Are you experiencing any of these steps in your life because of your unforgiveness?
If so, recall the author’s statement that forgiveness is a deliberate choice of the mind and will. Realize that you have yielded ground to Satan. Confess your sin to God and ask for His forgiveness. Pray in the name and through the blood of Jesus Christ that God will restore to you the ground you have given to Satan.
