Unveiling the ‘powers’ of Satan.

 Article by Pastor Sam Oluoch -  Grace Baptist Church-Kisumu, Kenya.

The Bible has a lot to say about the unseen world, so much so that we cannot afford to sit back and wish it away by a sweep of the hand. The following passages could not have their meaning if the unseen world was just a mere myth and scare craw to errant men: John 8:44, Revelation 12:4, Job 1:7,2:2, Romans 8:38,1Cor. 15:24-25, Eph. 1:21, 3:10, 6:12 and many more. Writing from African context, I do not have to labour much to prove the existence of the unseen world. Africa is not the only professor of the knowledge of this world; it has been proved that the world at large, in their beliefs and practices, in one way or another, approves the existence of the unseen world, especially the spirit world. The major player being the head of these demons, identified as the Devil (diabolos).Sometimes referred to as the adversary in the Bible.

Having pointed to the fact that the Devil and his agents the demons exists, we must ask ourselves what their duty in the spheres is. Chaos is their duty. Lies is their work (John 8:44) and causing fear and terror in people. In Africa, this is very much real as it can be seen from African worldview and the resulting epistemology and axiology. No doubt, the devil and his agents are powerful beings. But where do they get their power over humanity from? Under good scrutiny, one can argue convincingly that Satan has no power of his own; his power can be seen in two lights. One, is the ‘permitted power’, and secondly, the ‘opportunistic power’.

Permitted power:

From the book of Job cited above (1:6-12, 2:2-7), we see who actually wielded the power over Job’s life. It is God who permitted Satan to visit Job with his troubles (for good reason). Also, when we believe the story of creation in Genesis; we will see that this world actually does not belong to Satan, not even an inch of it. The entire world belongs to God and He controls all that goes on in it. No stranger enters in to God’s affairs in His Kingdom earth without Him knowing. God therefore places limits on the activities of this fallen angel, whom he created like any other creation, but rebelled (Revelation 12:4). Satan has no power of his own in this world of God, except that which is permitted him by God.

Opportunistic power:

In this I will spend more time because it is the core of this article. When I talk of ‘opportunistic power’ I put the blame squarely on you, man, and not Satan. Why? It is man that gives Satan food to feed on so as to continue with his disturbing activities on earth. Think of it. What was life like in the Garden of Eden before the fall? Yes, you are right. It was good! No family squabbles and no fear of ever so besetting evil we see on earth. Because of rebellion of man from God, man has become the work shop of Satan. Man gives him the medium of sin to thrive on and Satan seizing the opportunity sin affords in our lives maximizes his destructive activities.

Allow me to illustrate this. For a period of eleven years, I worked for the government of Kenya as an Agricultural officer and was deployed in Kano plains of Kenya to reclaim swamps for rice growing. Before you reclaim a swamp you have to do a reconnaissance survey, i.e. physically walk around the intended field (it does not matter how big it is or how deep the swamps are) and plan your work accordingly. This I dreaded. One, not only because of the deep swamps which we often slipped and plunged in to neck deep, but the huge water snakes that was a common sight and cases of them biting was ever so present. Now, if these farmers wanted to keep themselves off the snake bites the swamps had to be cleared, the reeds and water weeds done away with. The reverse had its deadly consequence because the fields remained not only breeding ground for the snakes but also feeding ground-hence giving the snakes the opportunity to harass the local people. The environment provided a good welcoming ground for these reptiles.

Secondly, let us bring in the dreaded HIV/AIDS in the picture. Medics will tell you that it is actually the opportunistic infections that end up killing HIV patients. They take the advantage of the opportunity afforded by the weakened immune system to bring down the sick person. If the immune system remained strong and healthy, there would be no room for opportunistic diseases.

This illustrates what I am saying about Satan and sin in man. He will continue to thrive in his activities in and around us so long as we provide the conducive ground, which is sin itself. So long as sin remains in one’s life, Satan will attach himself on to it and continue his activities in man.

This brings me to the important question. How can one be delivered from influence of Satan? Dear reader, this question cannot be answered by advising one to start attending exorcism meetings that goes on in the church next door. Neither can it be well addressed by flocking the so called deliverance meetings every Wednesday. No.

Like Apostle Paul, please allow me to digress a bit here. I have heard of reports praising the rate of church growth in Africa. If church growth is reported in terms of people walking into the church buildings then I half agree with the statistics. Kenya is said to be 80% or so Christians. Do not believe such statistics which do not have any biblical basis. Read about revival times in the USA and UK (I mean TRUE revival) and tell me what you see in people’s changed life. As I have said, church growth today is measured by the number of people walking into churches on Sunday and not those who have experienced true conversion. In Africa, I attribute the church influx to two things: First, is the confused unbiblical way of presenting the gospel of Christ and attached to it the claim for wealth and health. What does one expect of a poor continent when you tell them, do this and you will be rich and enjoy good health. The positive response will not be due to the ‘blood of the lamb that takes away the sin of the world’ reconciling sinners to God but the pursuit of the promised health and wealth. This is no gospel at all. Secondly, and closely linked to our topic of Satan and his powers, is the promises of deliverance and protection from the evil spirits that harass Africans. This sells in an animistic society like ours. People then ‘come to Christ’ not as sin bearer but as charm keeper who is able to protect them from ancestral curses and other things. We better be careful here, throngs of people walk in to these churches every Sunday  with no knowledge of Christ Jesus as the saviour hence have a comfortable ride to hell.

We must now address that dogging question. ‘How can one be kept safe from the powers of Satan?’ I draw your attention to Colossians 2:13-15 among many other passages. The fact of the matter is that before we are saved, we live in the Kingdom of Satan and serve him as our master. He rules unrepentant sinner. At the moment one gets saved, I mean, realises that he is a sinner before a holy God and he puts his trust on the righteousness of Christ alone to be saved from the anger of God, that person is transferred from the Kingdom of Satan to that of God (Colossians 1: 13-14, 21-22, Romans 6:15ff). He is no longer within the reach of Satan’s activities. The undisputed result of what Paul describes in Colossian 2:13-15 above is that victory over powers and authorities of darkness is found only in the death of Christ (Genesis 3:15). His death on the Cross and forgiveness of sinners who believe in Christ is the real defeat of Satan and his trickeries. The strong man is and can only be bound, and rendered useless through gospel preaching (Luke 11: 21-22) and acceptance of Christ as the Saviour. The human sinful living that gave Satan a medium to thrive on is shattered by salvation which is able to deal with the problem of sin in us. It is folly then to claim deliverance where there is no salvation. It is also folly to run around with Satan in the art of exorcism where the Gospel is not preached and accepted. Once sin is dealt with, the power of Satan to cling on it is removed.

Think of it, why Christ boldly claimed that ‘the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold of me’ (John 14:30). Well, he cannot feed on Christ who had no sin. But when he bore our sin to the Cross, surely the enemy tried hard to feed on him and even to the point of discouraging Christ not to face the Cross against the Father’s will. It is our sins that gave Satan medium to feed on Christ but not sin of Christ, He was sinless. To defeat Satan is to live a life free of sinful.

Conclusion

1.      So long as Africa (and other nations) continues to thrive in sin and reject the Saviour Jesus Christ, they will be a very easy target of the Devil and sin/evil will continue to multiply.

2.      We must reject health and wealth kind of Gospel; it is the devil’s trick to lull people to sin and to chase after the perishable of the world other than true eternal happiness while he still rules them.

3.      True Gospel of Jesus Christ and receiving him is the true exorcism (Luke 11:21-24).