4 Marks of a Man Being Used By Satan to Tempt You Away from God

Ultimately, Satan doesn’t care if you’re in a relationship or not. His main goal is to hurt your walk with God.

If a man would help your walk with God, Satan will try to keep you away from him. If a man would hurt your walk with God, Satan will tempt you towards him.

Therefore, here are four marks of a man being used by Satan to tempt you away from the Lord.

1. If Your Thoughts Are Being Consumed By Him, That Is a Sign He’s Being Used to Tempt You Away from God

You might think that a man being used by Satan to tempt you away from God will have a dark presence to him. Perhaps he will be overtly worldly, openly disrespectful toward women, and a vocal enemy against Christianity and biblical standards.

However, sometimes Satan will take even godly men and use them as a temptation to pull you away from the Lord. These men are not the problem. Rather, Satan will tempt you to start idolizing a man like this. He knows that something good rather than overtly evil is actually a much stronger temptation to usurp God’s rightful place in your life.

The main way you will be able to identify this attack is through being honest about your thought life. It’s healthy to think about a man you’re interested in. You should pray about him and consider whether pursuing a relationship with him would be wise.

The problem arises only when he becomes the main topic at the forefront of your mind for most of your waking moments.

In fact, sometimes you might even start dreaming about him. You might think this is a sign from God that you two will be together. But it’s also possible your dreams are a sign that you’re thinking too much about him while you’re awake. Oftentimes our dreams are simply an overflow of our thought life from the day before.

Either way, only allow the Holy Spirit to consume your mind completely. Never give your thought life over to a man, even if he’s a very godly man.

Colossians 3:5, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

2. If Your Motivation for Every Decision Is Being Governed By Your Desire for This Man, That Is a Sign He’s Being Used to Tempt You Away from God

What you do is extremely important. But why you do it is just as important. Scripture is clear that God weighs the motives of our hearts (Proverbs 21:2). God, not a man, must be the main motive for what we do.

Satan will try to tempt you away from God by tempting you to revolve your every decision around this man. For example, you might say to yourself:

• “Should I change my convictions about certain biblical issues because I know he disagrees with me?”
• “I’m going to change my appearance because I want this man to find me attractive.”
• “I should probably start enjoying the things he enjoys, even though I know they don’t honor God.”

It’s not necessarily wrong to consider how your career, conversations, appearance, and behavior may come across to a man. The real issue is when you allow your desire for him to outweigh your desire to please God (Matthew 6:1).

As a Christian, you have to reverse these motives and use your desire for a relationship as another way to glorify God. You don’t have to forsake your desire for a man to put Jesus first. Rather, you have to learn to put Jesus first in your desire for a man.

It pleases the Lord when you seek to love a man well. But Satan wants you to love this man more than God, which dishonors the Lord

3. A Man Is Being Used By Satan to Tempt You Away from God If Your Relationship to Him Is a Door to Worldliness

God loves marriage. He wants you to pursue it if you have that desire. But who you marry will make all the difference.

Not only will a worldly man lack the character to be a godly husband, but your relationship with him will also serve as a portal to worldliness.

If he wants to watch movies you normally wouldn’t watch, listen to music you normally wouldn’t listen to, spend money on things you normally wouldn’t buy, and be around people you normally would avoid, then that’s strong evidence he’s being used to tempt you away from God.

Perhaps you start compromising your convictions because you don’t want to lose him. Maybe you become less involved in church because he doesn’t prioritize it. Maybe you start doing things you know are wrong because you want to fit into his lifestyle. 1 John 2:15-17 explains:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

4. He’s Being Used to Tempt You Away from God If Sin Is Increasing the Closer You Get to Him

Ultimately, sin is not the root problem. Rather, sin is a symptom of the root problem.

Sin is a sign that your heart is disconnected from God. The closer you are to God, through Jesus, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, the more good fruit will be produced. Likewise, the further you drift from him, the more bad fruit will be produced (Matthew 7:17-20).

You won’t be sinless on earth. But you should be sinning less as you walk with God and are being sanctified.

If you notice that you’re becoming more dishonest, compromising your sexual purity, neglecting your relationship with God, or allowing resentment, jealousy, and other sinful attitudes to grow as you spend more time with this man, that’s a serious warning sign.

A godly relationship should encourage you to grow closer to Jesus, not give you more opportunities to drift away from him.