As we mature in Christ, as the Lord draws us closer to Himself, and reveals more of Himself to us, as we willingly submit more and more of our lives to the glory of God, the deceits and diversions of Satan, if he decides to notice us, become not more aggressive, but more subtle.
When we are first born-again, our old nature is enough of an enemy for us to deal with, it wants to return to what it has always known, it does not want to be hindered or denied that which it has always been the master of, it has no desire to share power. Of course, when the forces of evil notice this change in a man, when they see that another has been, as we shall say here, lost to the enemy, they will do just the opposite of what is spoken of in Luke 15:10, “Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” but I do not believe they rush to the presence of this new brother or sister in Christ, the old nature, the flesh, can take care of that, at least until the new servant of God actually begins to apply the Word of God to their lives.
I cannot say with any certainty, for I do not know the facts, but I would ponder a guess that men like Moody, Spurgeon, Tozer, McGee and countless others knew of these very subtle deceits when they began to be used mightily by the Lord. Abraham and the continual, if I may be so bold as to say, nagging of Sarah prompted the friend of God to go into Hagar, David looked out the window at just the wrong time, or right time, depending on the perspective, and saw Bathsheba, Peter said to the Lord, “Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.” (Matt. 16:22) and the Lord spoke to Satan when rebuking Peter.
The more the Lord desires to bless a man, the more Satan notices that man, but he is no fool. It would be useless in most cases to attempt to bring a man back to alcohol who was once a drunk thirty years ago, one who has devoted his life to glorifying God since he walked away from the drink. But there are other ways, there are always, as they say, tricks up Satan’s sleeve. And we will fall my friends, perhaps only for a short time, but we will fall, for 1 Joh 1:8 is truth, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
The sanctification of the one who is serving Christ for the glory of God does not end, there is no point in time while we breath the air of this earth when we can say, “I am completely sanctified,” that day will come when we are glorified. The day that our flesh and the power of Satan are removed from us will indeed be a day of rejoicing, but until then, we must always be on guard, and we must continue to wear every part of the armor of God that He has given to us. “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.” (2 Cor. 2:11)
But we do not know them all.
The roaring lion who is our adversary attempts to destroy with craftiness, with cunning deceits, with confusion and diversions, and many have fallen into the most subtle of them, hindering any further growth upon the path they have been placed on. As the Lord draws us nearer to Himself, we should expect the road to become more dangerous, not easier in this respect, if there is one thing I believe that Satan hates above all others in the arena of mankind, it is a man given solely over to the glory of God. He will test the boundaries placed upon him to the fullest extent, our responsibility is to keep our eyes on Christ.
