Things Satan Can't Do- And His Lies

10 Things Satan Can't Do

CAN'T MAKE ME SIN



Jennifer Heeren
Crosswalk Contributing Writer

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).

If Satan can steal, kill, and destroy, how can I overcome him? He can steal the word and God’s promises right out of my head, leaving me with no way to fight. He can cause tragic situations to happen and even kill me. He can destroy relationships and things that I cherish. 
What can I do?


I can turn to Jesus and love God with my whole heart, mind, and strength. Then, those horrible things that Satan can do become less of a problem. God’s abundant and full love overflows within me and gives me the ability to withstand Satan’s battles.

Here are 10 things Satan cannot do:


1. Make Me Sin

“It’s my own lusts, desires, and selfish wants that make sin appealing enough to cause me to step into it. The more I justify my desires and wants, the more I will want to sin in order to get them” (James 1:13-15). 

My free will causes me to sin. The devil can’t make me do anything. Satan may place a bad idea in front of me, but it’s my own fault if I step into it. Sometimes, I only see the full consequences after I fall.


2. Make Me Fear Death

I don’t know what the length of my life will be and I don’t know how my end will come about. Fearing death seems natural; there may be pain and suffering involved. There will be pain from losing the good things on earth that I will miss. And there will probably be regrets regarding the times I didn’t live as a loving, good steward. 

But those negatives will only happen in the process of death, not afterwards. The sting of death is gone because of Jesus. He will wipe away my tears and I will be in a place of warmth and love that I can’t even fathom now.


3. Take My Stamina

 God will always give me the power to withstand temptation when I ask Him. But I need to remember to pray and ask God for that strength. 

I can sometimes think that I’m standing strong when I’m actually standing in my own pride and determination. Then, I will soon fall. But when I lean on God and His strength, He is faithful to help me to walk right on by any temptations that threaten me (1 Corinthians 10:12-13).


4. Pester Me After I Resist

Satan can whisper that I deserve better; he can invite me to get what I want the quickest, easiest way possible. He can even make lies sound truthful. 

However, once I make up my mind that I’m going to do it God’s way, Jesus will give me the power to follow through with my commitment and Satan has to flee. James 4:7 says that when I submit myself to God and resist Satan’s schemes, he will flee.


5. Control Me

Once I accept Christ into my heart, Satan cannot control me anymore. Yes, he can still pester me before I resist him in a given situation (refer back to #4). Satan can still whisper lies that sound true. But he can never control me. 

When I allowed God into my soul, He locked the door behind Him. I have to say yes to Satan’s whispers, lies, and temptations in order for them to have any power in my life. Unfortunately, sometimes I do still agree with those lies—at least in a particular moment. But even after I’ve stepped in the wrong direction, I can retreat, repent, and head back to the One that my soul really loves.


6. Be Everywhere at Once

Satan cannot be everywhere at once. He can only roam around (Job 1:7). He is not omnipresent, like God. The Lord fills the heavens and the earth (Jeremiah 23:24). I can never flee from God’s presence—day or night. God is there when I rejoice and worship Him. He is even there when I’m in trouble, regretful, and desperately needing help. 

Typically, Satan doesn’t show up during those times when I’m rejoicing or when I’m desperately in need of help. He doesn’t like it when I rejoice, but He loves it when I grumble. And he is glad when I desperately need help, for that is his goal—to get me into trouble.

7. Anything Without God's Permission

The Lord had to give permission for Satan to take away everything that Job had (Job 1:12 & Job 2:6). Even though he does rule the earth for the time being, Satan does so under a tight rein. 

God has to allow Satan’s tragedies and temptations. God also gives him limitations on those temptations and tragedies. God only gives him permission when He can bring something good out of it.


8. Steal My Faith

 Job lost everything:  friends, kids, wife, status, and health, but he never lost his faith in God. Sure, he had a lot of questions. He also didn’t understand why God had allowed such things. But he stayed faithful to God.

When I put on the entire armor of God daily (Ephesians 6:13-17), I am protected by a belt of truth as well as God’s righteousness. Shoes of peace cover my feet and help me to share the good news. A shield of faith stops arrows of lies that come at me. A helmet of salvation gives me confidence to go forward. And God’s Word is given to me as ammunition. Then, I can stand firm against Satan’s wiles.



9. Commandeer My Future

Although I am fighting in the great battle of good vs. evil, I am able to hold my ground because God is on my side. God gives me eternal life and I will never perish. Problems will arise in my life, but in the long run they will seem much smaller. 

No one can snatch me away from God’s love (including Satan), for my Father in Heaven is more powerful than anyone or anything. His Hand will hold me securely (John 10:28-29).


10. Win

Many battles will be won by Satan on this earth, just like the Confederate army won some battles in the U.S. Civil War. In the end, however, God will win the war. The authority of Christ will prevail by the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 12:10-11)!

You see, the blood of the Lamb creates testimonies of all the people that surrender to Christ. Every single time that I step away from temptation, a testimony to God’s power is formed. Each time that I retreat from stepping into sin, repent, and go back to God, another testimony is forged. And, every time that I go through a tragic situation with my faith in God’s goodness intact, another testimony springs forth. 

Satan is defeated by rock-solid testimonies of God’s love and grace!



Jennifer Heeren loves to write and wants to live in such a way that people are encouraged by her writing and her attitude. She loves to write devotional articles and stories that bring people hope and encouragement. Her cup is always at least half-full, even when circumstances aren’t ideal. She regularly contributes to Crosswalk.com. She lives near Atlanta, Georgia with her husband. Visit her at www.jenniferheeren.com.

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8 Lies Satan Tries to Tell You
Dr. David Jeremiah
Turning Point
https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/8-lies-satan-tries-to-tell-you.html
 8 Lies Satan Tries to Tell You 
Fatigue. Anxiety. Stress. Temptation. Fear. Despair. Lies. Revenge. Sound familiar? These eight lies are the devil's favorite schemes for distorting our view of reality. He wants us to believe that it's okay to stay in a place of suffering forever, okay to believe there isn't anything that can be done, okay to live in defeat. Perhaps no other temptation is as easy to embrace as a simple lie, yet accepting even one of the enemy's most innocuous deceits initiates a slippery slope downward from the reality of God's Truth to the pit of despair. (The truth is, Christ has made us Overcomers! Discover how to overcome Satan’s lies with the spiritual armor God gives us in Ephesians 6).
 The Father of Lies 

The Father of Lies
The enemy wants you to believe his lies. But keep in mind who the enemy truly is. In just three simple verses, Scripture gives us an accurate picture of his character, of his tactics, and of his goal.

His history tells us he is a murderer and has only one desire. In John 8:44 Jesus tells his followers, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning.”

His strategy tells us how he intends to deceive us. Jesus paints a picture of this plan as he continues in John 8:44: “[The devil] does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”



The Truth in Scripture
The enemy’s power reveals his goal for us as we try to keep our eyes on Jesus. Peter explained this vividly to the Church in 1 Peter 5:8: “Your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

If we know who the enemy is, the reasons why he is our enemy, and how he intends to defeat us, why are so many of us still choosing to believe his distorted version of reality? Why would we accept his lies about stress, anxiety, despair, and all the other struggles we have, making us think they can’t be overcome?

Doesn’t it seem far better for us to believe the truth found in Scripture? The truth that tells us the enemy has no true leg to stand on, that he’s already been defeated, that our struggles have already been resolved—that we possess the tools to be Overcomers?


The Truth Behind the Lies
As I mentioned above, sometimes the struggles themselves are manageable. We can manage our fatigue by getting a bit more rest. We can manage our stress by decompressing on the weekends. But sometimes the struggles go much deeper and are bolstered by the lie of justification. We’re afraid of this relationship breaking down, stressed out by the sheer amount of work we have to get done, or anxious about things that just haven’t fallen into place yet. The lie is this: we’re justified to stay fearful, stressed, anxious. Nothing could be further from reality.

God doesn’t want His children to stay stuck. The truth we find in Scripture tells us we should never believe the lies the enemy tells us, and we should be guarded against him. There are far better things God has in store for us, and our part in the matter is to trust in Him and His truth, believe His promises to us, and rely on how much He loves us. Consider this verse from 2 Corinthians: “We have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Corinthians 4:2).


Resisting the Lies
Justifying the lie and believing it’s the easiest way to get us through our struggles is living in shame and walking in craftiness. It’s not what God wants for us. We know God wants us to live in truth, to hold truth close, to stand on it. But other than the truth we can find in Scripture, what other truth is there? Well, we are told multiple times throughout Scripture of the God of truth. He can be trusted for this reason. David wrote in Psalm 31:5, “Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.”

Consider Isaiah’s words on the God of truth, “So that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from My eyes” (65:16).


Christ as the Source
We are also told that God Himself is truth and life. “And the Word [Jesus] became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). We see further affirmation when Jesus reminds us He is “the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Christ is our source of truth. We are assured of Christ’s desire for us to live in truth and our ability to live in truth.

Ephesians 6:14 commands us, “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth.” A couple of chapters before this, Paul wrote that “the truth is in Jesus” (4:21). The truth we are meant to stand on—the truth of who God is, what Jesus did for us, and the lives He intends for us to lead—is meant to permeate who we are and everything we do, including the choices we make concerning the enemy’s lies. We can believe them or reject them.


The Encouragement of Truth
If we know truth and its ability to strengthen us, gird us, how can we plant the truth in our hearts so that we are prepared when the lies are aimed at us? When we are discouraged in relationships, stressed from work, or longing for revenge, we need to stand in the truth of God’s sovereignty as it enables us to overcome.

Resist the enemy's lies. Stand on the truth of who God is: He is truth, He is grace, He is strength, He is mercy. He is the one who has already overcome, and by extension we have the tools and ability to overcome as well.  Satan's eight greatest deceptions—fatigue, anxiety, stress, temptation, fear, despair, lies, and revenge—can be overcome when we live in truth.

Discover the eight pieces of spiritual armor God gives us to overcome the lies of Satan and how to use them in Dr. David Jeremiah’s exclusive online video course. Accept the Overcomer Challenge today and put on the full armor of God.

Dr. David Jeremiah is one of America’s most trusted Bible teachers. For more than 36 years he has helped millions deepen their understanding of the Bible through 8,761 daily Turning Point Radio releases and a weekly Turning Point Television program that reaches millions of people