SATAN ATTACKS PASTORS
One day a young man was out for a walk. As he walked, he saw a sign inviting him to sign up to see the world for free. Food, lodging, everything would be provided. In fact, he would be paid a salary, too. It sounded wonderful, so he signed his name. He joined the army! He was handed military weapons to fight. Now he realized there was an army of soldiers that were his enemies and swore to destroy him. He was not expecting that!
When Christians accept Jesus as Savior, they are surprised to find they have an enemy. Perhaps they expected life to be perfect and easy, with no more problems. Salvation doesn’t end the battle; it is just the start! When you accept Jesus as your Savior, you also accept Satan as your enemy! You deserted Satan’s army to join God’s army. Satan opposes God and us who are His people. Now you are in the middle of a war you don’t want, don’t like, can’t understand and seem unable to win. This is especially true for pastors and church leaders.
The position of a pastor or leader is a great privilege, but we have an enemy, Satan, who opposes us. Satan tries to oppose all God does. He wants us to think he is as great as God but He isn’t. Before God created the world, He created angels to serve Him, but one of the angels didn’t want to serve. He wanted to be worshipped. He wasn’t able to defeat God so God cast him out of heaven. One third of the angels followed him. We call them demons and the one who leads them we call Satan. Their whole purpose is to control the world and be worshipped. He isn’t as powerful as God, but He is more powerful than us. The only people he doesn’t control are Christians who are living for Jesus. We are the only ones who can bring light into his darkness. For him to succeed he must stop the church. In order to stop the church, which Christians do you think they try to stop first? Pastors and leaders. Pastors and leaders are the ones they would like to destroy. God is greater, but we must know how to have victory in Him.
Many Christians don’t know there is victory over Satan and his demons through Jesus. They believe Satan’s lies that he cannot be defeated and is someone to be feared. These beliefs of helplessness lead to defeat. God has provided for us to win this spiritual war. Jesus’ victory on the cross has destroyed Satan’s power (Hebrews 2:14-15) but he is still free to attack those who serve God. God has given us power and authority to command demons, in Jesus’ name, to stop their work (Luke 9:1-2). It is God’s power which works through us, not our own power (Luke 10:17-20). In the future Satan and all demons will be bound in hell forever (Revelation 12:7-11; 20:7-15; Matthew 25:41). Until then we must not fear them, but stand against them in Jesus’ name. We must learn how to have victory over them (2 Corinthians 2:5-11).
(There is much more information about spiritual warfare on my web site https://www.christiantrainingonline.org/our-ministries/spiritual-warfare/ For a free copy of my book on Spiritual Warfare, go to Https://www.christiantrainingonline.org/our-ministries/india/ and click on “Download Books.” To listen to an audio recording, watch a video recording or read the manuscript of the session click on “Conference Sessions.” Or you can email me at jerry@schmoyer.net and I will send you a PDF copy of my books on Spiritual Warfare.)
cto Rev. Dr. JERRY SCHMOYER
Christian Training Organization
Jerry@ChristianTrainingOrganization.org
(India Outreach, Spiritual Warfare, Family Ministries, Counseling, World View)
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