How To Deal With Direct Satanic Confrontation

In the Christian life, there are three F’s, and they go in a certain order: fact, faith, feeling. The basis is fact. That’s the facts of the Word of God. On that, you act by faith, and your feelings follow. But never let your feelings dictate to you because they’ll mislead you.

Matthew 4 tells us the temptation of Jesus. Notice, this temptation came to him after the Holy Spirit had come upon him. And normally, you will have temptations after you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit that you would never have had before.

If you study these temptations, none of them could have come to Jesus before he was moving in the supernatural realm. Every one of them involved the possession of supernatural power. And the same is true: after you are baptized in the Holy Spirit is the time you will really be tempted.

I meet many Christians who are not quite sure whether there’s a personal devil or not. But I hardly ever meet a person baptized in the Holy Spirit who doesn’t know the answer to that one. That’s one of the things you find out quickly when you’re baptized in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit reveals the identity of the enemy. That’s why a lot of lukewarm churchgoers don’t like Holy Spirit religion because it brings too much out into the open. They’d rather have it all kept undercover. The Holy Spirit doesn’t keep things undercover. He forces the enemy out into the open. Another thing I’ll say about the baptism of the Holy Spirit is, many people don’t know they have demons ‘til they get baptized in the Holy Spirit.

That sounds strange. I know some theology just doesn’t fit in with that, but I’ve been in that theological position that some of you are in, and it isn’t relevant to experience. Furthermore, it has no support in Scripture. Demons get stirred up when the Holy Spirit comes in. They don’t have it all their own way any longer. If they haven’t been driven out prior to your receiving the baptism, then they’re going to kick up more trouble and make more fuss than you’ve ever experienced in your life before. Now, I believe, ideally, the scriptural order is,

“These signs shall follow them that believe.”

Number one,

“In my name they shall cast out demons.”

Number two,

“They shall speak with tongues.”

But lots of places, and CFO camps are one of them, it ain’t being done that way yet. Let’s hope one day it will. At the moment, it really isn’t possible to do it that way because most professing Christians today, until they’re baptized in the Holy Spirit, wouldn’t believe in demons. See? So, although it’s not the ideal, we have to work on the level on which we find ourselves. All right, when Jesus received the anointing of the Holy Spirit, then, for the first time, so far as we know, he was subjected to direct satanic confrontation and temptation.

And in dealing with Satan, Jesus used only one weapon. What was that? The Scripture, the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Each temptation, Jesus began his answer with the phrase,

“It is written.”

“It is written.” “It is written.” And you must do the same. This means you must get acquainted with the Word of God. Jesus didn’t have a concordance up there in the desert. Probably didn’t even have the Scripture. But he had it inside him. David said,

“Thy word have I hidden, treasured up in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.”

If you are baptized in the Holy Spirit, the next most urgent need in your life is to get to know the Scriptures thoroughly and have them available. You have to live by the Word, not by church traditions, not by what people say, not by your feelings, but by the written Word of God.

The next principle is found there in the fourth statement, “Put on the whole armor of God.” Let’s look at Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6, and we’ll read verse 10 through verse 18. These words are written to every believer, not to a special group like missionaries, or preachers, or evangelists, but to every believer.

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”

You are going to be confronted with the wiles, the deceptions, of the devil.

“For we wrestle”–we’re in a wrestling match–“not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this present world, against spirits of wickedness in the heavenlies.”

Our wrestling match is with spirits, not with flesh and blood.

“Wherefore”–and you remember what Charles said about wherefore and therefore? When you find a therefore, you find out what it’s therefore. Well, because of this, therefore, verse 13, “Take unto you the whole armor of God.”

Notice, you have to take it. God doesn’t drop it on you. You have to acquire it. You have to take it to yourself.

“That ye may be able to stand, withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

There’s going to come the evil day. Don’t be upset about that. It comes to every believer. There’s the evil day. There’s the day of pressure, the day of testing, the day of misunderstanding, the day of opposition, the day of loneliness. You’re going to go through it. Every child of God does. We “must,” the Scripture says, “through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of heaven.” I don’t believe that just means get to heaven. I mean, it gets into living in the kingdom of heaven right now. It’s through opposition, it’s through trouble, it’s through testings that we come into that kind of living.