Satan's Greatest Hits!

by David Kyle Fosterfrom "Mastering Life" Newsletter # 23
Satan is a mobster - a hit man - and he wants nothing more fervently than to rub you out. He's a murderer, a liar, a gangster, and he's got a contract out on your life. His final days as god of this world system are spent manically battling the angels of God for the souls of men. And if he can't have your soul, he'll settle for desecrating your call as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God.
As children of light, we have no business even dabbling in Satan's kingdom. We have no business sleeping with the enemy in compromise and sin. Everything he lures us with is a lie. It's darkness. It's cursed. Church of the living God, we've got to wake up and declare, "No more! My life of compromise is over. I am going to serve the Lord and walk in His ways and bring glory to His name with every breath that is in me! I am through playing games with evil. I am going to develop an intimate relationship with my Father in heaven and live in humble dependence on Him to keep me from falling and to walk in His ways. May God Almighty, this day, write across my forehead, 'Holy unto the Lord' and may it never be erased again!"
It is dangerous to focus on Satan too much. However, the Bible clearly teaches that we should be aware of the ways in which he operates. The Apostle Paul indicated in his second letter to the Corinthians (2 Cor 10b-11) that they were not to be unaware of Satan's schemes, so that the devil could not outwit them. Again, in Ephesians 6:11 Paul refers to "standing against the devil's schemes". That, of course, presumes one knows what his schemes are!
Satan's most effective devices, by far, are those that operate unseen in people's lives. They are subtle schemes, that take on the appearance of being natural, normal, unavoidable and sometimes godly. They're effective because they are so integrated into the norms of our culture that they don't appear to be contrary to the ways of God. Consequently, we allow them to remain a part of our lives. Long term, these are the sins that provide a foundation for more obvious acts of rebellion.