God decides what the enemy can do to us and what schemes will succeed.¹ We are told not to be ignorant of Satan’s schemes. God wants us to understand that the enemy will fight us with thoughts, people, pain and disease.² Only God’s Spirit can deliver us from these spiritual forces of evil.³ Apart from God, we are inadequate to fight demons, they are smarter, stronger, and have more abilities than we do.⁴ Because our battle against the enemy is more complicated than a game of chess, we could never figure out all the enemies tactics, and even if we could, the enemy has over 6000 years of experience on us. We have to be careful that we don’t try and stand against the enemy without God’s help, if we do, the enemy will defeat us.⁵ The Holy Spirit may have given us the gift of discernment and the ability to overcome the enemy in the past, but unless we rely on God in the present, we don’t stand a chance. God is currently sustaining us, physically, emotionally and spiritually.⁶ When we ask God for help, we are walking in the truth of our need for him. The only way to stay out of the traps of the enemy is to walk with God, and do what he says. If we remain in God’s will God promised to use any evil or pain the enemy causes us for our good.⁷ God let the enemy do evil and painful things to Jesus, but he testified that the end results made the evil and pain worth it: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”⁸

① 1 Kings 22:21-23 / Job 1:9-12 ② 2 Corinthians 2:11 / Mark 8:33 / John 8:44 / Job 2:6-7 ③ Ephesians 6:12 ④ Hebrews 2:6-7 / John 15:5 ⑤ 1 Corinthians 10:12 / James 4:6-7 ⑥ Matthew 6:31-33 / Galatians 5:22-23 / John 4:34 ⑦ Romans 8:28 ⑧Hebrews 12:2 / 1 Corinthians 15:54-55