Operational Plans

It might sound impossible to stand up to Satan and win, but you can and you must! Remember, God has already defeated him and will someday soon destroy him; he will be punished for all eternity while you enjoy God’s presence in heaven forever and ever. Until then, you have to learn to stand with God and do battle against the enemy of your soul. Here’s how to fight alongside God and win.

Stand with God

Apart from a relationship with God, you don’t stand a chance. Satan has been around thousands of years and has become really good at deceiving bright, well-intentioned people into thinking life without God will work just fine. God thinks the world of you; you are the apple of His eye! He already showed you how much He loved you by creating you and by sending Jesus to die on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin.

“Those who honor me I will honor.”

—1 Samuel 2:30

But like Adam and Eve, you have to choose friendship with God over friendship with the world. If you do, He will draw you into an amazing adventure. With Him you will win, because God is for you and never against you!

Part of having a relationship with your Heavenly Father means knowing that He will forgive you when you fail. He knew every sin you would ever commit before you were ever born. In spite of that, He was willing to send His Son to die for your sins. That should motivate you to sin less and less. But when you do sin, go to the Father in prayer, and He will forgive you. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Never let Satan’s condemnation make you run away and hide from God. Rather, run to Him for forgiveness, healing, and restoration.

God is your friend! Even when we struggle to be free from sin, His kindness helps us to become victorious. Paul wrote to the young preacher, Titus, that God’s grace “teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives” (Titus 2:11–12). Again, God is your friend. His kindness and long-suffering help us become strong and able warriors even when we don’t feel like it.

Be Alert

Never doubt it! Satan’s intentions are to take you out. Satan is subtle, more than you will ever know. There are times Satan shows his hand, and you can tell he is throwing everything he has at you. But more often than not, he wants to nudge you off course in ways you won’t recognize. In fact, he wants to camouflage his actions so that you will even begin to doubt he exists. That’s another lie he wants you to believe.

Today, Satan’s preferred cloaking device is familiarity. Rather than hide, he wants to be seen everywhere —games, movies, clothing, books, stores, and billboards—anywhere really. This tactic lowers your defenses. It portrays him as just another common villain when in reality he’s your mortal enemy.

Every good hunter knows the importance of not being seen, heard, smelled, or otherwise noticed. If a buck detects the presence of a hunter, it will snort and speed away while waving its tail in the air, alerting other deer in the area of danger. The hunter has been busted! When a wild African lion successfully takes down a zebra or any other animal for that matter, it is because the lion maintained the advantage of surprise. The poor zebra didn’t know the danger it was in until it was too late. That’s the position Satan wants you in. He wants to be totally out of sight or become so familiar that you don’t even notice him anymore.

“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

—1 Peter 5:8

Satan wants your defenses low to make you easy prey. If he can go unnoticed, he might even be able to make you conclude God himself is the cause of all the pain in your life and that God is against you. That makes you defensive toward God and blind toward Satan’s actions against you.

So be alert. Don’t let your defenses down. Be on the lookout! How is he accusing you? How is he condemning you? Look for it. It’s there. Don’t let yourself be easy prey.

Know God’s Truth

You must become very familiar with God’s voice of truth. The only way to recognize a lie is to know the truth. A lie can sound so inviting, but the truth protects you from falling for it. Satan is a very convincing liar. He will even include half-truths to make his lies sound sweet and difficult to detect. If you don’t know the truth, it’s easy to believe a lie. Everything will sound convincing.

You learn God’s voice, the truth, by becoming more and more familiar with His Word. John 10:27 says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” To prevent being deceived by Satan’s lies you must know God’s voice. He only speaks the truth in love.

The Bible is God’s Word. It is true from cover to cover. There are no errors. It is the only foundation on which you can build a solid and good life. It is the standard against which you measure the quality of your behaviors, attitudes, and choices. It is your road map for life. It defines what you should believe about yourself, about others, about God, about Satan, about your life, and about your future.

Our greatest defense against the devil is to learn to hear God’s voice in His Word and to do everything He asks. When we do, we build our lives on a foundation that is solid and true, the only one that will never crack or fall apart.

The Secret Service is charged with protecting the president of the United States, other high-ranking governmental leaders, and visiting foreign heads of state. You may not know that they are also responsible for protecting the American currency from counterfeiters. To teach them how to detect fake bills, agents are taught how to identify quickly and easily a real bill. When they know the real deal, it is easy to find the fakes. Therefore, if you are going to detect Satan’s lies, you must learn to recognize God’s voice by being a lover of His Word. Then you will be able to easily spot Satan’s lies and half-truths, and combat his accusations and his brutal voice of condemnation.

Never Yield Ground

One sin, even if it appears small and insignificant, can give the devil a foothold. “Go ahead, do it. You can get away with it. No one is watching.” That might be true, but who’s saying this to you? He’s known as the “father of lies” for a reason. He’s always looking for an opportunity to gain an advantage in your life.

While playing hide-and-seek, have you ever locked yourself behind a closed door? After time passes you think, It’s pretty quiet out there. I wonder where my brother is? You decide to open the door just enough to peek outside only to find your older brother was right there all along. He quickly slides his foot between the door and the frame. From then on, he has the advantage, doesn’t he? You are in a weak defensive position!

That is a picture of what it is like when curiosity gets us to open the door of our heart to sin. It gives Satan a foothold, and he pushes, continually applying pressure. If you don’t call out to God for forgiveness and help, the sin will gain an advantage in your life. As in sports, the best defense is a strong offense. Do right, fear nothing! Run from sin, even the small ones. Don’t let curiosity lead you to make stupid choices. Live in a way that pleases God. That will do for you what an old, fun song suggested, “Shut the door, keep the devil in the night. . . . Light the candle, everything is alright.”* In other words, “Do not give the devil a foothold” (Ephesians 4:27). Keep the door of your heart closed to the devil and open only to the things of God.

Advance Courageously

In the heat of battle, seasoned soldiers tell us they never feel courageous. In fact, they describe feeling vulnerable, weak, and often confused by the chaos of war. So they have to trust in their training, fighting the way they learned. James 4:7 spells out the two-step battle plan every time we go into a fight:

“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

—James 4:7–8

Step 1: Submit yourself to God.

Step 2: Resist the devil.

Submitting your will to God when you are tempted to sin is not easy. But do it! Fight! Just pray, “Jesus, I am being tempted to (name it—be specific), and I know that you would prefer that I (describe it—again, be specific). With your help, I choose to submit myself to Your will and to Your plans. I am Yours so I will do what You want. Satan, I resist your temptations, and I command you to leave me alone right now! In the powerful name of Jesus I pray, Amen.”

The result is that the devil will take off packing, but don’t be surprised if he quickly regroups and mounts a counterattack. Just keep doing the same two steps—submit to God and resist the devil—over and over. Train yourself. Each time you defeat him, you will get stronger, growing your courage and confidence in the Lord.

In summary, here’s your operational plan: Stand with God; going it alone will lead to sure defeat. Be alert, you have an enemy who has drawn a bull’s-eye on your back. Know Satan’s tactics and God’s truth. Never yield ground. Instead, advance courageously. God is with you and He is for you! Next, we look at battle gear you will need to win.

In My Experience:

I was a preteen. My parents were under a lot of pressure that night. It was already late and we were to catch an early flight the next morning from La Paz to Cochabamba, Bolivia. My dad needed me to help with those little jobs I could easily perform so he could finish the things only he could do. If I didn’t help, he might not get to sleep that night at all. But my attitude was wrong. I wanted to sleep instead.

In Bolivia we could only buy legal-sized paper that is three inches longer than the regular 8½ x 11” paper. He needed me to cut the extra off so it would work in our printer. Our large paper cutter was old and did a poor job if you did more than five sheets at a time. A feeling of despair rolled over me when I learned I’d have to prepare the entire ream. “Five hundred sheets of paper, five at a time. I’m doomed!”

I counted out the five sheets of paper just loud enough that my dad could hear my attitude. Once I placed them in the cutter I dropped the arm loudly. He ignored me. So I got quiet and started counting out seven or eight sheets, then ten or twelve. Instead of clean smooth cuts, the edges were jagged and slightly longer on one end. My dad could tell from the sound of the blade I was cutting too many sheets at a time. He warned me what would happen if I cut too many together. I acknowledged what he said, but ignored his instructions.

It’s not easy to submit when you are of a mind to do something else. I justified my disobedience: “I want to sleep. The fact is, I’m a growing boy; I need to sleep!” My attitude grew more and more sour by the minute. In James 4:7–8 where we are told to submit to God and resist the devil, we are being asked to submit our will to God’s wishes. That night I refused to submit my will to my dad’s instructions.

I finished and placed the newly cut paper where it belonged. My dad loaded the printer and just as he had warned, the poorly cut paper printed crooked and jammed up. I had ruined an entire ream of paper. Though I had gotten the job done quickly, my poor workmanship revealed a serious characters flaw—an unwillingness to submit to my dad.

It was one thing to hear my dad’s instructions; it was quite another to follow them. When God instructs us to submit to Him and resist the devil, He’s instructing you to actually do what He asks. That’s real submission. Unless you bring your will under His, you will lack God’s spiritual protection. If you pray, “I submit,” but continue to assert your own will, the devil will beat you until you fall and keep kicking you when you’re down. Your enemy will show you no mercy.

When you accept Jesus, you are choosing Him to be your closest Friend and the undisputed Leader of your life. You are joining His kingdom, and coming under His authority, to do whatever He asks. As a Christ-follower, He promises you friendship, protection, and strength. But if you also try toying around with worldly things, you are showing contempt. James 4:4 tells us, “friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”

We show our love and devotion to God by doing what He asks: “If you love me, keep my commands” (John 14:15). Submitting to God’s wishes is the ultimate battle.

If you are experiencing that struggle between doing what God wants and asserting yourself, you are not alone. I’m with you. We men are like wild stallions. Until we are bridled, we run aimlessly. But as we come under God’s covering we live real and full lives.

Without allowing the Holy Spirit to bring you fully under God’s leadership and authority, you remove yourself from His friendship, protection, and strength. Removing yourself from His covering makes you incapable of resisting the devil’s attacks. Like that paper I cut, your life will at best print wrong, but more likely get jammed up.

That night I repaid my dad for the ream of paper I ruined. And I learned a lesson: obedience costs less than sin. You gain power in your life to the degree of your submission and no more. Any journey to manhood without daily submission to God will miss the mark. Submission to God empowers you to win.

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* “Shut De Do,” Randy Stonehill, Our Recollections,

Nashville: Word Records, 1996.