In the Words of the Enemy

This video pretty well sums up who you face every day. After the video I inserted a chapter from John Pipers Book. When I Don't Desire God
http://http//www.desiringgod.org/Store/Books/481
It is important to have a balance when exposing the character and works of Satan. And John Piper does a good job in the following writing.

GIVE THE DEVIL HIS DUE, BUT NO MORE

If you ask about the devil’s role in your darkness, I answer: Give him his
due, but no more. He and his demons are always at work, not just sometimes.
There is nothing extraordinary about the fact of his harassment.
Paul considers it a normal part of Christian warfare to “take up the
shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of
the evil one” (Eph. 6:16).
16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;

Peter counsels us, “Be sober-minded; be watchful.
Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking
someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Pet. 5:8-9).
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

All this is normal. But the quality of his harassment varies from mild temptation
to murder. Jesus calls him “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44).
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

He has the power to inspire painful persecution and even kill
Christians (Rev. 2:10).
Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

But there are three great comforts in the face of Satan’s attacks.

One is that Satan cannot do anything apart from God’s sovereign permission
(Job 1:12; 2:6),
12 And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand." So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
6 And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life."

which is governed by God’s infinite wisdom and covenant love. Thus Satan’s servants become God’s sanctifying envoys
(2 Cor. 12:7-10).
7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.


So even if Satan has a hand in your darkness, he is not
free to do more than your loving Father permits, and God will turn it
for your good (Luke 22:31-32).
32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." 33 Peter said to him, "Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death."

Second, the decisive blow against Satan’s destructive power was
delivered by the death of Jesus for our sins (Col. 2:15
15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Heb. 2:14).
14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,

This means that Satan can harass us and even kill us, but he cannot destroy
us. Only unforgiven sin can damn the human soul. If Christ has covered
all our sin by his blood, and if God imputes to us the perfect righteousness
of Christ, then Satan has no grounds for any damning accusation,
and his case against us fails in the court of heaven. “Who shall bring any
charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?
Christ Jesus is the one who died” (Rom. 8:33-34).
33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God,(D) who indeed is interceding for us.


THE DEVIL CANNOT ABIDE WITH THE LIGHT OF
CHERISHED TRUTH

Third, deliverance from Satan’s oppressing, darkening, and deceiving
work in the life of the Christian comes most often by the power of truth,
and only rarely by exorcism. I have seen demon-possession and have
been a part of one very dramatic exorcism. I don’t believe the person was
a Christian till after the deliverance. The complete takeover of the personality
by a demon is not something the Holy Spirit would allow in the
Christ-indwelt heart. But that distinction may not matter much to the
Christian who is being attacked and harassed from without on every
side. The battle can be fierce. What is called for usually is the ministry
of 2 Timothy 2:24-26.
24 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone,
able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with
gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a
knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the
devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
Gentle, loving, teaching of the truth is the process in which God himself
grants repentance and a knowledge of the truth, which results in an
escape from the captivity of the devil. The devil cannot abide truth and
light. He is by nature a liar and deceiver. He thrives in darkness.
Therefore, if, by God’s grace we can bring the full force of truth to shine
in the believer’s darkness, the devil will not survive the light. Good, solid
Bible teaching is a crucial part of deliverance from the darkening power
of the devil.

Last Mark of a Cult: Divide!

The last of this series is about how a group will divide themselves from all others and because of that will in the end separate themselves as God. Having the Last word. Now when reading this you may say that every church wants the last word. There is a healthily balance when to divide from other groups that set themselves as the "only" way instead of Jesus Christ alone as the only way.
Here is a message by A.W. Tozer to explain:

Divisions Are Not Always Bad
by A.W. Tozer

When to unite and when to divide, that is the question, and a right answer requires the wisdom of a Solomon.

Some settle the problem by rule of thumb: All union is good and all division bad. It's that easy. But obviously this effortless way of dealing with the matter ignores the lessons of history and overlooks some of the deep spiritual laws by which men live.

If good men were all for union and bad men for division, or vice versa, that would simplify things for us. Or if it could be shown that God always unites and the devil always divides it would be easy to find our way around in this confused and confusing world. But that is not how things are.

To divide what should be divided and unite what should be united is the part of wisdom. Unions of dissimilar elements is never good even where it is possible, nor is the arbitrary division of elements that are alike; and this is as certainly true of things moral and religious as of things political or scientific.

The First Divider

The first divider was God who at the creation divided the light from the darkness. This division set the direction for all God's dealings in nature and in grace. Light and darkness are incompatible; to try to have both in the same place at once is to try the impossible and end by havng neither the one nor the other, but dimness rather, and obscurity.

In the world of men there are at present scarcely any sharp outlines. The race is fallen. Sin has brought confusion. The wheat grows with the tares, the sheep and the goats coexist, the farms of the just and the unjust lie side by side in the landscape, the mission is next door to the saloon.

But things will not always be so. The hour is coming when the sheep with be divided from the goats and the tares separated from the wheat. God will again divide the light from the darkness and all things will run to their kind. Tares will go into the fire with tares and wheat into the garner with wheat. The dimness will lift like a fog and all outlines will appear. Hell will be seen to be hell all the way through, and heaven revealed as the one home of all who bear the nature of the one God.

For that time we with patience wait. In the meanwhile for each of us, and for the church wherever she appears in human society, the constantly recurring question must be: What shall we unite with and from what shall we separate? The question of coexistence does not enter here, but the question of union and fellowship does. The wheat grows in the same field with the tares, but shall the two cross-polinate? The sheep graze near the goats, but shall they seek to interbreed? The unjust and the just enjoy the same rain and sunshine, but shall they forget their deep moral differences and intermarry?

To these questions the popular answer is yes. Union for union's sake, and men shall be brothers be for a' that. Unity is so devoutly to be desired that no price is too high to pay for it and nothing is important enough to keep us apart. Truth is slain to provide a feast to celebrate the marriage of heaven and hell, and all to support a concept of unity which has no basis in the Word of God.

The Spirit-illuminated Church

The Spirit-illuminated church will have none of this. In a fallen world like ours unity is no treasure to be purchased at the price of compromise. Loyalty to God, faithfulness and truth and the preservation of a good conscience are jewels more precious than gold of Ophir or diamonds from the mine. For these jewels men have suffered the loss of property, imprisonment and even death; for them, even in recent times, behind the various curtains, followers of Christ have paid the last full measure of devotion and quietly died, unknown to and unsung by the great world, but known to God and dear to His Father heart.

In the day that shall declare the secrets of all souls these shall come forth to receive the deeds done in the body. Surely such as these are wiser philosophers than the religious camp followers of meaningless unity who have not the courage to stand against the vogues and who bleat for brotherhood only because it happens to be for the time popular.

Wise Sheep

"Divide and conquer" is the cynical slogan of Machiavellian political leaders, but Satan knows how to unite and conquer. To bring a nation to its knees the aspiring dictator must unite it. By repeated appeals to national pride or to the need to avenge some past or present wrong the demagogue succeeds in uniting the populace behind him. It is easy after that to take control of the military and to beat the legislature into submission. Then follows almost perfect unity indeed, but it is the unity of the stockyards and the concentration camp. We have seen this happen several times in this century, and the world will see it at least once more when the nations of the earth are united under Antichrist.

When confused sheep start over a cliff the individual sheep can save himself only be separating from the flock. Perfect unity at such a time can only mean total destruction for all. The wise sheep to save his own hide disaffiliates.

Power lies in the union of things similar and the division of things dissimilar. Maybe what we need in religious circles today is not more union but some wise and courageous division. Everyone desires peace but it could be that revival will follow the sword.



This article is part of A.W. Tozer's book God Tells The Man Who Cares

Aiden Wilson Tozer was born in Pennsylvania, in 1897. In 1919 he began pastoring the Alliance Church in Nutter Fort, West Virginia. He also pastored churches in Morgantown, West Virginia; Toledo, Ohio, Indianapolis, Indiana; and in 1928 came to the Southside Alliance Church in Chicago. Here he ministered until November 1959, when he became pastor of the Avenue Road Church in Toronto. A sudden heart attack in 1963 ended his ministry.