​​Introduction

There was I, in the middle of a deep and highly productive personal bible research session, when I had several heavily impacting secular interruptions. It was as if Michael and Satan were having their heavenly war inside my head and roundabout my very soul. My work was disrupted and delayed but I, remaining unbowed, nonetheless soldiered on to complete my research later that day. So let us see what the Bible has to say about such personal battles.
 

The Attacks

Well, it certainly sounds like I am in the good company of Paul:

18 Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us. (1 Thessalonians 2 KJV)

The actual heavenly war is clearly confirmed in John’s Revelation. Having lost the war in heaven, Satan was then allowed to continue his evil ways on the earth as we can see in today’s world events. Apart from the world scene, I think we are also to expect that Satan and his horde will seek out the faithful ones in the earth to do battle with them to attempt to turn them from righteous behaviour:

7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
12 Therefore rejoice, [ye] heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man [child]. (Revelation 12 KJV)

There are several scriptures where Satan specifically asked permission to attack/tempt God’s faithful ones. Simon Peter is one such. I do not think that the Lord would allow such personal attention from Satan onto one of His followers were He not confident in that one’s ability to pass any such test:

31 Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat:
32 but I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not; and do thou, when once thou hast turned again, establish thy brethren. (Luke 22 ASV)

And then we have the famous example of God effectively inviting Satan to test Job’s faith. This ended up with an horrendous Satanic attack on everything that was dear to Job within his household, including his family's lives and his own physical state of health:

8 And Jehovah said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job? for there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and turneth away from evil.
9 Then Satan answered Jehovah, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
10 Hast not thou made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath, on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
11 But put forth thy hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will renounce thee to thy face. (Job 1 ASV)

However, Satan’s war is against the whole of mankind, not just the faithful:

12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O day-star, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, that didst lay low the nations! (Isaiah 14 ASV)

7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom [is] as the sand of the sea. (Revelation 20 KJV)

Satan’s propaganda war has certainly worked well, judging by the current state of the world due to physical war, greed and the lust for power, fame and fortune:

3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4 KJV)

So, what am I worrying about in a relatively small delay to my research? Or maybe I should be concerned for my future:

10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast [some] of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. (Revelation 2 KJV)

This is the really worrying attack on the faithful ones; the spiritual stealth attack that we are not even aware of until some damage may have been done to our faith or behaviour:

3 and I fear, lest, as the serpent did beguile Eve in his subtilty, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that {is} in the Christ; (2 Corinthians 11 YLT)

And, just for the record, it is worth referring to that very same first attack on mankind by Satan on an unsuspecting Eve. I have a fear that Satan’s latest lies will prove difficult to spot in the current state of the world. Mankind has been, and still is being, successfully subjected to the blatant lies and propaganda from the evil rulers of this world:

1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat:
3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: (Genesis 3 ASV)

So the ‘die’ was cast for the war between Satan and earthling man from the very beginning down to the present day:

14 And Jehovah God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Genesis 3 ASV)

The attacks from Satan rain down upon us also from his deceiving ministers:

13 For such [are] false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
15 Therefore [it is] no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (2 Corinthians 11 KJV)

24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if [it were] possible, they shall deceive the very elect. (Matthew 24 KJV)

Even King David was persuaded by Satan to carry out a census of God’s people, Israel, for which God dealt very severely with Israel:

1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. (1 Chronicles 21 KJV)

14 So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. (1 Chronicles 21 KJV)

I have to say that one would think that God has really overdone the punishment on this offense but it does us show several things. Firstly, God must have expected a much stronger resistance from His faithful King David against the wiles of Satan. It also shows to me the strength of feeling that God has towards His wayward son, Satan. Hopefully we can take heart that this strength of feeling will work in our favour for God’s protection of us rather more feeble faithful mortals.

Interestingly Paul is, sagely, thankful of the Satanic attacks upon him to remind him of his imperfections; something we must all be conscious of lest we become too full of ourselves in our faith:

7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. (2 Corinthians 12 KJV)
 

Resistance

Against these attacks from Satan, the faithful ones are expected to provide at least some resistance from their own resources in fighting the good fight. I am not sure that James’ letter was intended to cover the situation mentioned in my introduction, but I do think it has some bearing on the matter. There is no doubt that Satan’s secular interruptions slowed down the progress of my bible research, however, I remained steadfast in ensuring that I completed that piece of God's work albeit a little later than I had planned for. Hopefully this was a case of Satan fleeing from me: 

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4 KJV)

Peter, similarly, warns of the attacks from Satan on all faithful ones. Again, we are told to resist him:

8 Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,
9 whom withstand stedfast in your faith, knowing that the same sufferings are accomplished in your brethren who are in the world. (1 Peter 5 ASV)

Paul, in his letter to the congregation at Ephesus, symbolically represents our individual spiritual battles with Satan in physical terms by telling us to don the full body armour of war in our fight to resist evil:

11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places].
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: (Ephesians 6 KJV)

Paul also makes it clear to the congregation at Corinth that we are waging a spiritual war against the forces of evil:

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage warfare according to [what we are in the] flesh.
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but powerful by God for overturning strongly entrenched things. (2 Corinthians 10 NWT)

John warns us to be wary of false prophets. In these last days those ones can take on many forms of deception. But John would seem to believe that the faithful ones should have the wherewithal to recognise the false from the true:

1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (1 John 4 KJV)

Christ certainly leads by example. Even He came under attack by Satan but in resisting him the devil left Him.

10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him. (Matthew 4 KJV)

As if to reinforce this, John reminds his followers that the faithful ones will not be held accountable for their earlier sins and will be untouched by Satan in the midst of an increasingly evident evil in the world:

18 We know that whosoever is begotten of God sinneth not; but he that was begotten of God keepeth himself, and the evil one toucheth him not.
19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the evil one. (1 John 5 ASV)

However, the faithful ones are expected to have a certain amount of self-protection in being able to spot Satan’s deceptions:

11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. (2 Corinthians 2 KJV)

Good advice coming here from Paul, but I think this is easier said than done:

27 Neither give place to the devil. (Ephesians 4 KJV)

And rather than being complacent in our faithfulness, we must always remember our frailty when under attack from the evil one:

17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know [these things] before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. (2 Peter 3 KJV)
 

The Protection

Should we come under physical or spiritual attack from Satan and find our resistance is weak, then we still have the assurance that God will not allow Satan to try any of us beyond the ability that God has given us to withstand the evil one:

13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear [it]. (1 Corinthians 10 KJV)

And, of course, we have this famous verse from our Lord’s prayer asking for our deliverance:

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. (Matthew 6 KJV)

Also, we can expect help from the Holy Spirit to strengthen our frailties in the face of these Satanic attacks:

26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. (Romans 8 KJV)

As well as help from Jesus Christ Himself:

3 But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and guard you from the evil [one]. (2 Thessalonians 3 ASV)

10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. (Revelation 3 KJV)

The final protection came to the 1NC Saints when they received the gifts of the spirit to enable them to repel demons under their own power. I look forward to the day when these gifts will once again be given, this time to the 2NC Kings that will need to withstand Satan’s attacks in the end-days to come:

17 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.
18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. (Luke 10 KJV)

 

Synopsis

1. This paper was conceived as a result of what felt like a concerted series of attacks to prevent or delay my writing one of my more important and recent papers: Mysteries.
   
2. The scriptures clearly tell us that there has been war in the heavens and there will be attacks from the demon horde on the Earth and its inhabitants; Satan is not alone in his attacks upon mankind.
3. ​There have been recorded, in the scriptures, specific attacks on named righteous individuals whereby Satan was given permission to visit personal attacks on them to test their faithful withstanding of them.
   
4. ​It is also clear that Satan's horde have been enabled to seduce all the world's population into believing the lie. That lie began some 6,000 years ago, with Satan's deceiving of Eve, and has continued down to this day.
   
5. ​However, the immediate concern is with the faithful ones being under attack and their need to defend themselves by any God-given means.
   
6. ​The faithful ones are told that if the devil is resisted then he will desist his attacks upon us. From my own personal experience this is true when monitored against a specific attack or series of attacks. However, this does not seem to prevent further later attacks, since I have just had a similar occurrence of an interruption to my writing this paper.
   
7. We should not forget that even Jesus Christ Himself suffered such temptational attacks from Satan.
   
8. ​The faithful are forwarned as to the prospect of physical and/or spiritual Satanic attacks upon them and are expected to defend themselves up to a point. God will not let us be tempted beyond our ability to withstand such temptation and will protect us from the attacks appropriately.
   
9. Our final protection will, be when we are given the gifts of the spirit that give us power over the demons.​​

 

Date of Publication: 28th May 2022.

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A Personal Heavenly War