I want to discuss a subject that has become so controversial. Many people think of it as cheesy, fictional and just plain lame to talk about. Many atheist I’m sure think of Christians as pretty pathetic when they give all the credit to him for their continual mistakes instead of taking responsibility for their actions, respectively. Some on the other hand have become maybe overly fascinated with him, doing exactly that. Some want to know all about his tactics, his ways, even wishing to see his "army", and some have chosen to worship him, thinking of him as the master of rebellion, who gained freedom after standing up to God. But I think it’s time for all of us to know the truth, the truth about him; who he is, who he is to us, and what exactly he does, to us.

   First of all I want to state a basic knowledge up front first so that doubt may decrease about his existence. But this only works for those who already believe in God. Just think about this: If God is real, then the devil is also inevitably real, because we find out the truth about God in the bible. That means that the entire bible, all of the scripts found, is true, which also contain information about him. But why God is real and how one can prove it is a whole different subject, so I’m not even going to get into that. Suppose that you found evidence that you need to know that God is real, personal evidence that only you know God had to show you. Then know that the enemy is real too.

   I don’t want to get into detail to much about who he is by himself, I’m sure you’ve heard the story. He was a beautiful angel who went against God and lost. Now he’s on earth (and ruling over hell) and is trying to get as many people to be with him forever in hell, because he knows he has nothing else to do while he waits for the end of the world. But one might ask, "why does he do that, why us, what did we ever do to him?" The answer couldn’t be simpler, we are God’s beloved, all of us; we are "the apple of His eye." If somebody really wants to hurt somebody they go for what is the most precious to that being, like their kids or their best friends, especially if they can’t really get to that particular being himself/herself. Why does God love us so much? Because he created us to be like him, "in the image of Him" and He blew His spirit into us. First He created us as spiritual beings, and then put us into a humanly body. No one was ever created like that. Not the animals, not the angels, not the aliens, that’s why we’re so special. He also loves us because He is love. When you have love "oozing" out of you you don’t care who it is in front of you, what they look like, what they think of you; you just do it because that is your nature.


   So the devil hates you and the Lord loves you. What about it? Think about what love is and what hate is. Hate wishes to destroy. That’s it’s biggest goal. Love is too big a subject to write about on this one because I want to write about the devil right now, but just know it’s there. So here’s a concept that I think helps everybody to see the other side how it’s like from somebody else. Pretending to be in their shoes. So you are the devil. You hate every living being on the earth. Your hate is so real and so overwhelming that it is almost your very being. Everything you do, every step you take, and every thought you think is hate, how to destroy. What are you gonna do?? The people are the ones you are against. Of course, you’re gonna raise up an army of other haters like you, you’re gonna strive to find out everything about your enemies, everything there is to know about every individual personally. You’re gonna wanna study their weaknesses, all of their secret desires, and of course their needs, even their strengths and talents. You’re gonna want to use and pervert everything they do, and everything they are.

   That is exactly what the devil does. He doesn’t create, he is not a creator. But he is a pervert; he perverts and changes everything. He uses everything that there is already, everything that the Lord and people made, he flips over and turns everything upside-down. What has he done that hasn’t already been there, but differently? The Lord has given us sex, which is beautiful, meant to be a way for committed couples to show each other how they feel; but he has shown people a way to make it into something different; just another way to abuse power and ridicule, a way for people to hurt and judge each other, if you know what I mean. I’m sorry to say this, and I hate to offend, but homosexuality is also another example of how the devil perverted things. I personally don’t know why God did this, but He created a man to be only with a woman, and a woman with a man, maybe so that they can strengthen each other with their differences, but he has done it this way, and the evil one turned it around, just for people to rebel against God’s initial choice. Even think about the animals; the bats and the spiders, the rats and the snakes. All creations of God right? And beautiful creatures too, but he has made them to be some sources of fear for people. Now I’m not sure if that about the animals is completely correct, that’s just my opinion, I just thought of that, but it very well may be true don’t you think?



   So basically the devil works like this: he uses what we’ve got against us. The very things that we need and are he uses to destroy us. Every one of these factors would be too much to write about in one post, so I’ve formed a short and very basic list of our needs, which is like examples; what God and we have created, and a second very broad and somewhat confusing list of what exactly Satan uses to overpower us. Hopefully they are all self-explanatory. I think I doubled some of them in different words.

Us:

the need for justice
the need for love
the need for respect
for personal well being
(physical, emotional financial, intellectual)
for excitement, variety
for forgiveness
for food
for goodness
the media
all technology
animals
emotions/feelings: sadness, joy, anger...etc

His tactics

thoughts
images
memories
words
guilt
fear
pain
sickness
death
music
insecurity
pride
hatred
unforgiveness
self-pity
poverty
wealth
obesity
depression
ambition
boredom
mid-life crisis
mistreatment
revenge
vanity
money
love
passion/lust
envy
drugs/alcohol/pills
animal attacks



   I think that I could find a lot more tactics if I dig into it. But the salvation from all of this mess is that God can give satisfaction and joy in all of a human’s basic needs, whether practical or emotional, when we choose to get it with the help of Him.