Discipleship Lesson 2

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE RECEIVE CHRIST? WE BECOME SATAN’S ENEMY

I. INTRODUCTION

If you were fighting and trying to hurt your enemy, yet you could not get close to him because he was so well protected, what else would you do to harm him? 

You probably would agree that your next move could be to cause your enemy pain by destroying something he held in value, something close to his heart.

This is the position that Satan is in. He cannot touch God. Therefore, the next best thing that he can do is to cause Him pain by attacking His children.

The day you received Christ as your Savior, the heavens celebrated the event. But Satan’s demons trembled in pain and desperation. No doubt, some of them were severely scolded for permitting you to come to the knowledge of the Truth. It was their responsibility to keep you away from Jesus and His forgiveness.

Since we became children of God, our enemy’s tactics against us have changed. Their responsibility is now to prevent us from growing spiritually by keeping us tied up or occupied with things of the world. 

They do this to keep us from growing and becoming strong warriors and from showing others how to find freedom from their evil grasp. They will do everything they can to ruin our testimony so that we will be in the way instead of a blessing to our Lord’s cause.

  1. SATAN IS OUR FATHER’S ENEMY

Satan was not always the evil entity we know him to be. Initially, he was an angel – the most beautiful angel in Heaven. He held the highest rank in God’s celestial army. 

But ISAIAH 14:12-15 tells us that Satan was not happy with his rank, and he used his position to attempt to exalt himself and be like God the Creator.

REVELATION 12:7-9 describes the political campaign that Satan launched in Heaven. 

He was able to convince one-third of the angels to join his army (JUDE 6). Because of his rebellion, the archangel Michael was given instructions to throw him and his army out of Heaven. Michael and his squadron of angels accomplished their mission, throwing Satan and his followers to earth. There he quickly set up his headquarters, and the earth became his domain.

The devil was not able to overtake God’s throne, so he has purposed in his heart to destroy all that God has created. He descended on the earth with great hate, realizing that his days were numbered. He hates God, but cannot get near Him. He has spent his time here going after everything close to God’s heart.

III. SATAN WANTS TO HURT THE FATHER BY HURTING HIS CHILDREN

We are the most important part of God’s creation. Everything on this earth will one day pass away. But there is something very different about man. He has a soul. Man’s soul is eternal. (we will study that in another lesson). 

It is because man is special to God that Satan tries to deceive him and cause his soul to be sent to Hell for all eternity.

Despite all of this, you must understand that Satan is not interested in you. The only reason he is against you is that he wants to hurt God. Satan is willing to offer you the whole world to prevent you from serving God. 

He is even willing to do some good things for you if it will serve his purposes and ultimately cause our heavenly Father some pain.

You are already saved. Therefore, Satan cannot send your soul to Hell. Your soul belongs to God because you accepted His Son as your Savior. NO ONE can take your soul from God! To do so, he or she would have to be bigger than God.  Satan is certainly not big enough. 

However, he can use you to hinder others from coming to God for salvation. When you allow yourself to be manipulated by Satan, you betray God and His desire to work through you to spread His salvation plan. This is a victory for Satan, and you can only imagine that he laughs at God when he has his way in your life. One day, however, God will have His way, and Satan will be destroyed.

IV. CONCLUSION:  

It is essential to realize that because you are a child of God, you are also Satan’s enemy. 

If Satan is your Father’s enemy, he is also your enemy. You must not ignore this truth. If you do not take it seriously, you will regret it, because Satan will use you for the rest of your life here on earth as an obstacle to hinder the advances of Christ’s kingdom.

To fight your enemy effectively, you need to be disciplined spiritually. One way you can accomplish this is by keeping your Spiritual Notebook. Doing the activities in your notebook will keep you alert to the spiritual battle that is going on around you.

SPIRITUAL NOTEBOOK

BIBLE STUDY: (One verse per day)

1. Matthew 4:1-11 Who did the devil tempt in these verses? How many different ways did the devil tempt Jesus? What did Jesus use to defeat the devil?

2. Luke 8:4-15 In this parable, what is the seed being sown by the sower? Who tries to take the seed from different people’s hearts? How does the devil try to do this?

3. James 4:7 To who should one submit to make the devil run? What does “Resist the devil” mean? Will the devil run from a child of God who is being disobedient?

4. Ephesians 6:11-17 What should the Christian wear to protect himself from Satan’s attacks? Why is it necessary to wear ALL the armor of God? What are the different pieces of armor?

5. REVIEW…Go over the four Scripture readings of this week and write down what you have learned in general from all of them.

PRAYER: Write down the person or things for which you prayed for today.

FELLOWSHIP: Write down the name of the believer you had fellowship with and what you did.

WITNESSING: Write down the name of the non- believer you witnessed to and how you did it.