Satan’s Methods: Footholds
This next group of blog posts comes from the third book in the Basic Training! series: Stage 3 Spiritual Warfare. By this time in the Pureheart process, you’ve locked down your devices, identified your triggers, you’re getting your acting out cycle under control, established accountability with your B.O.B group, and “Severed Spiritual Chains”. Because it is vital to your healing and maturity, we’ve devoted all of Stage 3 to teaching you about Spiritual Warfare. Have you ever met the devil? Demons? Do you know how to stand your ground against the cosmic forces of evil? Do you know how to fight against demons? Or how to equip yourself with the life-saving armor of God? “Stage 3: Spiritual Warfare” offers you a specific strategy for winning the invisible war that rages about you, starting with the fundamentals as laid out in this introductory chapter.
Brace yourself—it’s time for battle!
I want to remind you of the 3 primary methods by which Satan attacks Christians:
Strongholds (Deception), Hearthold (Temptation), Foothold (Oppression)
Back to that old demonic 3-pronged pitchfork again. Satan has 3 primary methods by which he attacks Christians.
Strongholds represent the battle for a Christian’s mind.
Heartholds represent the battle for a Christian’s heart.
Footholds represent the battle for a Christian’s life.
Or to use other terminology:
Deception = teach a Christian lies;
Temptation = win over a Christian’s heart;
Oppression = control a Christian’s choices and actions.
Today we’ll take a look at Footholds (Control the Life).
If you continue to believe the devil’s lies and make forbidden fruit the desire of your heart, you will eventually act out your fantasies. This of course is exactly why Adam and Eve disobeyed God. The Bible doesn’t specify how long it took the First Couple to travel the process from mind to heart to the feet of action, but I can assure you, it didn’t happen all at once.
If you continue repeatedly to act on the basis of deception and give in to temptation, you will eventually be controlled (oppressed) by the devil. Every sinful choice we make is one step further away from God and one step closer to the devil’s fiery gut. Having sinned countless times, sex addicts illustrate perfectly how a Christian can slowly place himself or herself under the devil’s control. How sad that so many brothers and sisters spend so much of their spiritual life controlled by their sworn enemy.
We should not be controlled by demons; we should be defeating them! We don’t war against beings made of flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12). Paul is blatantly describing spiritual warfare. He says we wrestle against demons.
When’s the last time you saw a wrestling match? Did it look easy? Or was it sweaty, intense, and demanding? Remember, however, that demons are spirits; this means they are invisible. You’ll probably never see one with your eyes—think how dramatically your prayer life would improve if you started seeing demons! This in no way, however, lessens the reality or intensity of the wrestling match. Demons are limited but very practical. They’ll attack you with what has worked for them before. They use sexual temptations, depression, discouragement. They attack your finances, your health, your family, and so on.
Like any good wrestler, demons want to control you; they want to put you in a bind where you do their bidding. You, however, have to surrender that control. Demons can’t just up and decide to take over a Christian’s thoughts or habits—after all, they are only angels. They have to sweet talk you into voluntarily giving over your will. Repeatedly and voluntarily surrendering control gives demons permission to build footholds in your life.
Can a demon live inside a Christian? Or rather, Biblically speaking, can a deceived, devoured Christian live inside a demon’s belly? It’s the explicit teaching of Scripture—Christians who fail to remain alert and self-controlled (Peter just described every Christian addict that ever lived!) get eaten alive by the enemy (1 Peter 5:8). Or as Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:26, captured by him (the devil) to do his will (ESV). Note that Paul is referring to the false teachers opposing him. Many commentators assume that these teachers are unsaved, but I disagree. Satan doesn’t need to ensnare, much less capture non-believers, they are already his prisoners!
Keep willfully sinning over and over again, and you open the door to demons. In Ephesians 4:26-27, Paul speaks of giving the devil a foothold. In the original Greek, the word is topos, which means space or place. We get words like topography from this word. The passage in Ephesians 4 specifically mentions a foothold of anger, but the principle applies to all willfully repeated sin (like sexual sin). When you continue to sin time and time again, Paul says that you’re literally giving demons a place or a space in your life.
This is why overcoming sexual sin is so critical. What other sin is so often willfully repeated? When we lose self-control, we give over portions of our lives to demon-control. First the lie, then the forbidden fruit of temptation, and finally the controlling chokehold of oppression. If the devil can control you, he can destroy you. And along the way, he’ll use you to help him deceive and destroy others. Once he has squeezed you for every last drop of slavery, only then will he murder you, hopefully for all eternity.
Your personal enemy is a liar, thief, and murderer who wants to turn you into a demon-filled modern-day Jonah trapped in the belly of the ancient serpent. Wake up and smell the satanic stomach fluids!
Your Brother in the Battle,
Timothy
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Excerpt taken from Pureheart Ministry’s Basic Training! Stage 3: Spiritual Warfare
Copyright ©2023 Timothy Davis