What do you think, what does our adversary do more of, attempt to put thoughts into our minds, or trying to keep thoughts out? But I have another statement I would ask you to consider before we go any further, what would you say if, when you come to your day of accounting, (Romans 14:12) and you were informed that at not one single instance was there ever a demon of any sort ever within any distance of you, that you were never influenced at all by any of our adversary’s forces?
Nothing was ever put in or taken away from your thought processes, nothing intentionally directed at you personally, it was all simply the world and your interaction with it. To put it plainly, you were never attacked on a personal level, not once.
Who then would you be able to blame for all of your actions, or inactions? I believe this may be the case with what one might consider the “average” Christian, the ones who it is difficult at times to see the Holy Spirit in their lives, all of the blame they put on Satan is actually only their own internalization of the sinful world around them, as their world turns around them, so do their actions of it, they are affected only by their own responses.
Of course, I could be way off base here, but if we look at the lives of most of those that we would call our brothers and sisters in Christ, we would see that it is not demonic activity that has altered their actions, but simply the response to an action that has occurred, one that is “normal,” if you will, to this sinful world. You must understand that he who stands at the throne of God and accuses us (Rev. 12:10) must first ask for permission before he can come against us, this is clear not only from this verse, but from the account in the first chapter of the Book of Job. This ability, this “right” is not given unless the Lord allows it, and it would only come about because our faith, our trust in Christ would grow, or that His glory would be shown through us.
For those who have no real desire to walk the path that Christ has walked, these attacks will not come, but those who cannot understand these truths will inevitably blame our adversary when “bad” things occur in their lives, they will rebuke Satan when he is not even near them. Those who have fallen into the trap of the Charismatic movement are exceptionally prone to this, every instance of the negative thoughts that may come into their mind they will blame on Satan, for in their mind they cannot comprehend the original sin that rests within each of us, much less the ability to choose between right and wrong that Adam had before he ate of the fruit and received the knowledge of good and evil.
The “blame game” that most Christians play in this area is nothing new, it is simply the continuation of “And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” (Gen. 3:12) Also, “And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” (Gen. 3:13) We are personally attacked by the adversary much less than many who do not hold to these truths would like to accept. Most in fact, probably never will be attacked as Job was, most will only continue to fall due to their own sinful nature that they will not dispose of, most cannot comprehend that the nature within us is the nature of the world, and it is natural to want to live in ones own natural surroundings.
Thus, the command to be transformed, (Romans 12:2) for until we allow this transformation to begin, we will always seek that which is natural to us, we will not go against our nature, but we will most certainly blame demonic forces for what are our own responsibilities and the lack thereof.
When we die to self, (Gal. 2:20) when we strive for nothing but the glory of God, then the attacks may or may not begin, that is up to the Lord, but until that time, those of you who are blaming Satan for your own wrongful actions, for your inactions of obedience to the Lord God’s will and Word need to stop, for in actuality, you have no one to blame but yourself.
