8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Is the devil (Satan) after believers? Yes! It is obvious he is doing something.

Note: It amazes me that people claim that Satan can cast ideas into believers' minds. When I ask the claimants Where does it say that Satan can cast ideas into our minds? they ALWAYS answer with this verse. I ask But where does this verse say that he can cast thoughts into believers' minds? Notice this verse it does NOT say that Satan can cast ideas into believers' minds.

Then Peter says…

9 But resist him, firm in faith,

It is NOT our faith; it is firm in faith. Our faith could not resist Satan!

10 After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

The text tells us what Satan does to us. Suffering is a little bit too strong of a word; the word means various external hassles and problems of life. This would include external circumstances that bug us (make us mad) or people that bug us, including believers or [it could very well be] Satan (or his army) enacting hassles or problems at us through unbelievers that are indwelt.

We are going to look at this passage, look at other passages, and then look at this passage again to see if it makes more sense.

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the horrible day and having done everything, to stand.

14 Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

15 and having shod your feet with the preparations of the Gospel of peace;

16 In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Do you notice that these are all God's weapons, and do you see there are a lot of verbs here, such as put on; the key word is in verse 14: Stand.

What does it mean to stand? It does mean something, because it is:

1. Part of resisting, and
2. Part of that choice.

I think one of the stories in the Book of I Chronicles presents the best way for us to understand the following:

• How to defeat Satan, and
• What it means to stand.

The elders of Israel installed David as king over Israel at Hebron. David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, they captured the stronghold of Zion, and they took over the city of Jerusalem. Also, I Chronicles 11 lists the names of the heads of the mighty men whom David had. There is a little description of what these men did to become renown and great warriors.

In I Chronicles 11:22 we read of one of David's men, Benaiah, and what he did to become renown…

22 Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man Kabzeel, mighty in deeds, struck down the two sons of Ariel of Moab. He also went down and killed a lion inside a pit on a snowy day.

23 He killed an Egyptian, a man of great stature five cubits tall.

Five cubits is about nine feet tall, which was about the size of Goliath (Philistine giant defeated with a sling and five rocks by David who was under the divine guidance of the Lord of Hosts [see I Samuel 17]).

Do you see the three creatures Benaiah killed?

1. A Moabite. A Moab is a descendent of Lot through Lot and his daughters; Moab is a picture of the flesh.
2. An Egyptian. An Egyptian is a person from Egypt, which is a picture of the world.
3. A lion. A lion is a picture of Satan.

The text does not seem to explain how Benaiah killed all three. However, to a Hebrew and in Oriental literature, names were very important; one would analyze what a name meant to give meaning. So let us look at the names in this passage:

Let us combine the meanings of their names to get a picture of how believers get victory by standing — using God's weapon — and recognize that when a satanic attack comes, we have a choice:

NAME	MEANING OF NAME
Benaiah	God knows
Jehoiada	God is building something
Kabzeel	God is gathering [persons together]

How do we know when we are in the face of a satanic attack? A satanic attack can very well be external circumstances, difficult situations, annoyances, or people who are hassling us. Remember, Paul tells us in Ephesians that truth is our weapon:

What is our truth? God knows.

Again, to develop the theme of choice, we have a choice to get in on the satanic battle, or not.

Years ago, Darrell Royal was the football coach at the University of Texas (UT), Austin, Texas, USA. During the first half of the game, the UT team was getting badly beaten by the opposing team. At halftime, Royal gives a pep talk to his players and says Guys, there is a great fight going on out there on the field. Hey, I have an idea. This next half of the game, let us get in on it!

Application: During a satanic attack, God is always doing something; there is a fight going on, but the question is:

During a satanic attack, God could be gathering demons together to put them in a pit to see if we want to kill them. After all, why does Benaiah kill a lion in a pit? Did he jump in the pit on purpose? Was he just lounging around inside a pit and a lion came in?

It could be in a satanic attack that God is mobilizing the demons on purpose to zap them.

Paul says We are destroying demonic Fortresses, Rulers, and Authorities (see 2 Corinthians 10:4-5). Paul uses the royal we because he was modest; what he meant was I am fighting, one on one, mighty demons and I am whipping them. Why? Because:

Application: In a satanic attack, the first thing we want to ask is:

I do not mean by your behavior or by being nice boys and girls; I mean in your thoughts — Do I desire to follow Holy Spirit? By the way that is how you know if you are in God's will; your desire is to follow Holy Spirit. It is pretty simple.

Believers are not punished if they do not follow Holy Spirit; however, what does happen if believers are not in God's will? They are in the wrong place. Okay, if believers are in the wrong place, does God give up on them? No, He sends more angels to protect them, because God is stubbornly going to bless His children.

Let us suppose that our desire is to follow Holy Spirit; therefore, we are in God's will. At that point, a satanic attack comes. In this case, we have a choice [and this is very important]:

• We can say God get rid of it. If the conditions [which I will discuss later] are met, I believe that God will get rid of the satanic attack. Or,
• We can say God let it keep going, and You keep building whatever You are building.

You may think that second choice is a crazy option to take; however, as we will see, it may not be.

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