True or false: Satan has no power over you
The question on the table today is: Does the devil have power? If so, how powerful is he and where does the that power come from? Is it real power or perceived power? After many years of pondering and praying about this issue, and studying the Bible, I’m currently convinced that in this material world, which refuses to acknowledge God and His power, yes, the devil appears to have great power and influence. But this is not actual, real power because it’s based on deception. In the bigger spiritual picture, Satan has no power over you or anyone else.
Now, you may be thinking: Wow, that sounds really encouraging, but wait a minute James, doesn’t the Bible talk about Satan having power and being the prince of this world?
You’re absolutely right. Jesus refers to the “prince of this world” several times, which most people personify into Satan. Here’s one of them.
Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. John 12:31 NIV
Jesus is referring to the effect his coming crucifixion and resurrection will have on evil. Jesus’s victory over death effectively drives out, or disposes of, the prince of this world.
How many times have you heard a preacher say that because of Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection, the devil is a defeated enemy? I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard that from lots of different preachers.
My question for them is: If the devil has been defeated and has been driven out as Jesus prophesied, how can it still have power?
Here’s another verse we have to look at.
We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. 1 John 5:19 NIV
That’s a pretty strong statement. If you take it literally, it would mean God has no power at all in the world because “the whole world is under the control of the evil one.”
But what about all the verses in the Bible that talk about God’s power?
Why Satan has no power over you
The verse just before this one actually gives us the answer to whether the devil, the evil one, has any real power.
We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the one who is born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. 1 John 5:18 CSB
In effect, this verse in 1 John is saying when you are born of God, when you realize you are a child of God and not the flesh, the devil, or the evil one, cannot touch you, has no power over you.
If your eyes and heart are not open to the fact you are born of God, that you are created in God’s image and likeness, but instead you believe you’re just a product of the material world, influenced by all its ways of thinking, and not following Christ, then all the evil in the world and the devil with all his perceived power, will appear very real to you.
The key here is that, as a follower of Jesus, you know your spiritual origin and nature.
Jesus refers to our need of this when he tells Nicodemus
You must be born again. John 3:7 NIV
Until you have an awareness of your spiritual origin and identity, evil, the devil, or Satan, will feel very real and very powerful to you.
Either Satan has power or Satan has no power
But some Christians, who consider themselves as “born again,” still very much believe the devil has power. And as I mentioned in the introduction, many pastors are emphatic about how powerful the devil is.
So what’s going on here? Is the devil defeated and no longer powerful or is he alive and well, so to speak, and devastating the earth with his power? You can’t have it both ways, but this is what some Christians believe.
One of the things I like to do on The Bible Speaks to You Podcast is encourage you to think, pray, and love like Jesus did.
So, let’s look at what Jesus says about the devil and his power.
At one point, Jesus sent out 70, or 72 depending on which Bible translation you’re reading, to preach and heal. When they returned, he commended them for all they had done and then said,
I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. Luke 10:19 NIV
Jesus negates the “power of the enemy”
Jesus is referring to the “power of the enemy.” And most people would agree he is talking about the devil.
But look at Jesus’s own words here. He gives his disciples authority over all the power of the enemy. If they have authority to overcome that power, it basically takes away the power of the enemy, or the devil. And nothing shall harm them. The devil has no power to harm them.
Jesus said this to his disciples 2,000 years ago, but the spirit of the Christ is saying it to you today, with the same spiritual authority. Satan has no power over you. In fact, the exact opposite is true. Christ gives you power and authority over all the perceived power of the enemy.
So what did Jesus say about the devil? Did he describe him as a powerful presence?
Jesus’s definition of him proves Satan has no power
As I mentioned above, Jesus refers to the devil as the “prince of this world,” but every time he uses that phrase, he refers to the defeat of this so-called prince, emphasizing his ultimate powerlessness.
And Jesus has some pretty choice words when he refers to the devil,
He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. John 8:44 NIV
Jesus exposes the true identity and nature of the devil, or evil. He is a murder and a liar. The only way he can kill is to get you to believe a lie. He couldn’t push Jesus off the pinnacle of the Temple. He could only tell lies in an attempt to get Jesus to jump off himself.
Satan has no power over you. He cannot harm you. He cannot make you do anything. He can only tell lies about you, other people, and situations. The only way he has power over you, the only way he can kill your joy, your love for God and others, and your loyalty to Christ, is if you believe those lies.
Once you believe a lie, then you think it’s true and it has power over you. But it is not real power. It’s perceived to be power, but it’s based on deception.
When Jesus gave his disciples authority over all the power of the enemy, he was giving them, and that includes you and me as well, the ability to not be fooled by Satan’s lies. When you know something is a lie, it has no real power over you, unless to some degree, you fear or believe it.
Did God give power to Satan?
Many Christians actually believe God has given or allowed Satan to have power and they quote the story of Job because of the conversation Satan has with God in the opening chapters of Job.
Now, if you take this book completely literally, you have a powerful evil personality arguing and doing a sales job on a deity that is not omnipresent nor omnipotent and who allows evil so good will come. If that is your theological position, then you’ll reap the fruits of that theology.
Many Bible scholars instead see the book of Job as a literary device to explore the question of why bad things happen to good people and don’t consider it to be an historical event. You are free to read the book of Job any way you want to. But I like to look at it in light of all Jesus reveals about who God is and who the devil is and think for myself. I encourage you to do the sames.
Let’s come back to the question: Does the devil have power? Jesus says his power is to tell lies. Lies have no power unless they are believed, unless we are deceived.
Only the power to deceive
The Book of Revelation makes an interesting observation about Satan in Chapter 12.
This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels. Revelation 12:9 NLT
Satan, through his lies, is the ultimate and supreme deceiver. The material world, the worldly and material mindset, is easily deceived by these lies.
But the Book of Revelation also explains that this material world will pass away, even the material heavens will pass away and in their place a new heaven and earth will appear.
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Revelation 21:1, 4, 27 NIV
In this new heaven, the kingdom of God’s righteousness, there is nothing deceitful. No one can deceive or be deceived. There can be no lies told or believed.
In the new heaven and earth, Satan has no power
In other words, in heaven the devil not only doesn’t have power, he doesn’t exist.
Unfortunately, the human mind tends to believe this new heaven and new earth are way off somewhere in the future.
But heaven is not a time dependent, nor astro-geographical place. It is a spiritual realm which has always existed and always will. It’s the unchanging, eternal omnipresence of God, His glory, and His supremacy—His kingdom.
Jesus reveals the powerful spiritual truth that this kingdom of heaven is at hand and within us.
What does this have to do with whether the devil has power or not?
In God’s kingdom, the new heaven and new earth, which according to Jesus, is at hand and within us, the devil cannot enter and has no power. He is not there. To the degree you know this kingdom, understand it’s presence now and within you, and live in this awareness, it’s clear the devil is completely powerless here and now on earth as it is in heaven.
From which perspective are you looking?
If you look at life from Earth’s perspective of what is going on, you’ll see an alarming mingling of good and evil forces, with evil often seeming more powerful and having more influence than good.
But when you look at things from the perspective of what is true in heaven at this very moment, where there is no sin, pain, sickness, death, not even sorrow or tears, you’ll see there is no evil, no evil power, no devil, and not a single lie told or believed.
Jesus acknowledges this distinction between what’s going on in heaven from what we see on earth. He tells his disciples
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. John 16:33 NIV
When we follow Christ, when we embrace the mind of Christ as our own, when we are “in” Christ, which Jesus refers to in this verse, then we have peace because we are partakers of Christ’s victory over the world, his victory over materialism, evil, sin, and hatred of truth.
A healing
Let me give you an example.
A number of years ago, I was in a very divisive and contentious meeting where people on both sides of the issue expressed complete distrust of those they disagreed with. Each side accused the other side of being deceived and trying to deceive them.
During the discussion, I pointed out that the people in charge of running the meeting had not shared all the documents from the side of the discussion they disagreed with. Their spokesperson’s response claimed not to have done it on purpose, but his tone of voice said otherwise, at least to me.
It seems almost absurd now, but I was caught up in the whole thing and when I got home, I was furious because one side was willing to try to understand the other side’s perspective. But that side, the one withholding some of the documents, refused to admit the other side had any valid points.
I blamed the devil
I reacted viscerally. Basically, I succumbed to the temptation to be angry, judgmental, and self-righteous.
Within a day or so a small external growth appeared on my side and slowly grew bigger. I realized I had to heal the anger in my heart and called a friend to pray with me.
Over several weeks I found peace from our prayers. I was often tempted during this time to condemn the attitudes of the people I felt had been unfair. At times, I even blamed the devil for causing this division.
But I realized the divisiveness came because of the way I and others responded to the situation.
I was able to forgive everyone, including myself, for all the bad attitudes and behavior. But I needed to go deeper spiritually. The more I prayed about this situation, the more I realized that in the kingdom of heaven, no one could deceive or be deceived. In heaven, there was no devil to tell lies and there were no lies to be believed by any of us. The devil had no power to make us unloving or judgmental.
In heaven, Satan has no power or presence
In the kingdom of heaven, there was no divisiveness. We were all in tune with the truth and all agreed on what it was. And we all truly loved each other in this kingdom of heaven.
That all may sound a bit abstract, but it gave me a more spiritual perspective. And more importantly, it gave me a sense of peace.
All during this time that growth on my side grew bigger. It got to be about the size of a walnut. It was not painful, but it was ugly and rather frightening to look at.
But one day, when I was putting a bandage on it, I knew I had been healed of all the pride in my heart and resentment toward the others. I felt with great conviction that the anger I had felt and this growth on my side had no power over me. And I knew God had healed my heart and therefore my body could be healed as well.
In the next day or so, I noticed the growth started to get smaller and in a week or so it was completely gone.
For me, this proved, in a small way, that the devil could not have power in my life to make me believe the lies about the people in that meeting or about myself. The more clearly I saw what was true in the kingdom of heaven, the more peace I felt. And I believe that’s what eventually brought healing.
Don’t believe Satan’s lies
The devil did not make me angry and self-righteous or cause me to react. What happened was I believed the lies about myself and others. Once I believed the lies, the biggest of which was that the kingdom of heaven was not at hand and certainly not within some of the folks at that meeting, I reacted negatively to what was going on.
All too often we blame the devil for making us do something, when it’s really our fault for believing his lies. You cannot use Satan as an excuse for your own sins.
So the question really becomes: How do we learn to not be deceived by these lies told by the “father of lies”?
The Book of James simply says,
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7 NIV
It almost sounds too easy. But the real power in this verse is the idea of submitting to God, who is the source of truth. Because, truth is what destroys a lie.
Keep submitting to God. Keep surrendering to God, to His love, and what is true in His heavenly kingdom.
Jesus knew the devil had no real power. By “real power” I mean Satan has no power in the ultimate, spiritual, and eternal scheme of things, in the kingdom of heaven, which is at hand.
As I often say, look at everything Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, and make a sincere effort to do all he says to do. This will align you with Jesus and his way of thinking and loving. You’ll know the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This will help you resist the devil. You won’t believe his lies. And you will know with complete certainty that Satan has no power over you.
∞∞∞∞∞
Photo credit: Nadine E
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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and church mentor. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by learning to think, pray, and love like Jesus. Contact him here.
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Bible References
John 12:31 NIV
31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.
1 John 5:19 NIV
19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
1 John 5:18 CSB
18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the one who is born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.
John 3:7 NIV
7 You must be born again.
Luke 10:19 NIV
19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.
John 8:44 NIV
44 He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Revelation 12:9 NLT
9 This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.
Revelation 21:1, 4, 27 NIV
1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
4 There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
John 16:33 NIV
33 I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
James 4:7 NIV
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
