4 Marks Satan Sent Someone Into Your Life to Gain a Foothold

2 Corinthians 2:10-11

Here are 4 marks that appear when Satan has sent someone into your life to gain a foothold.

1. If Someone Has Come Into Your Life and Wronged You and Then You Are Tempted to Respond in Sinful Anger, This Is a Sign Satan Is Using that Person to Gain a Foothold Into Your Life

Satan’s goal isn’t just to hurt us emotionally. He doesn’t just want to make you sad. He doesn’t really care about your relationship status one way or the other. What Satan ultimately aims at is damaging your walk with God.

Thus, when he sends someone into your life to wrong you, it will be your response to this person’s wrongs that will determine if Satan will be successful. Notice what Ephesians 4:26-27 states, “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.”

When someone wrongs you, there is an appropriate use of anger. It’s right to be upset when someone sins against us. However, Satan will tempt us to use this injustice as justification to act unjustly in return. This is how we end up sinning in anger, which then gives the devil a foothold in our life through our unrepentant sin.

This is why, shortly after Paul warns us about the devil gaining a foothold through our sinful anger, he then instructs us to forgive, putting away all bitterness and anger (Ephesians 4:31-32). By refusing to get sucked into sin through the sins against you, you will block Satan from your life.

As 2 Corinthians 2:10-11 explains, “Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.”

2. If You Are Being Tempted to Forsake God’s Commands So You Can Be in a Romantic Relationship with an Unbeliever, This Is a Sign Satan Sent that Person Into Your Life to Gain a Foothold

Satan can work through other Christians who are backsliding and giving into his temptations. However, Satan’s main agents for evil are unbelievers. Satan’s power to gain a foothold into your life is often increased when you start having romantic feelings for this person. When you let someone into your life, you let all of them in, including the access to themselves that they have given to Satan.

Balaam was an evil prophet who sought to do harm against the Israelites. Notice what Moses said in Numbers 31:15-16 (NIV), which states:

‘Have you allowed all the women to live?’ he asked them. ‘They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the Lord’s people.’”

Just as Balaam instructed the Moabites to bring God’s people down by tempting them to get into unholy relationships, so too does Satan use unbelievers to tempt believers into unholy relationships that hurt their connection with the Lord (1 John 2:15-17). 2 Corinthians 6:15 (NLT) says, “What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever?”

As Christians, we should not view unbelievers as our enemy, but we should always recognize that unbelievers are vessels for use by our real enemy (Ephesians 6:12). Ephesians 2:2 states that Satan is “the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” And in John 8:44 Jesus said to unbelievers, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.”

Therefore, it’s clear that if Satan wants to gain a foothold in a believer’s life, he will often do so through using an unbeliever.

3. If Someone Is Tempting You Into a Besetting Sin Pattern, This Is a Sign Satan Sent This Person to Gain a Foothold Into Your Life

A “besetting sin” is a sin that you consistently fall into and you repeatedly do. This is the most dangerous type of sin for a Christian because it affects your walk (1 John 1:6). Of course we should avoid all sin, but besetting sin has the power to chip away at our connection with God because it hardens our hearts like nothing else, thus decreasing our desire to repent the more we do it. Eventually, we may stop repenting all together. If that happens, it means we were never saved to begin with (Hebrews 6:4-8).

This is why Satan will not just tempt you to sin, but he will work to get you to sin in the same way over and over again. Thus, if someone is being used by Satan to tempt you into a besetting sin like worldly partying, substance abuse, sexual sin, or even things like gossip, you are giving the devil a foothold through your relationship with this person.

Hebrews 12:1, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us . . . .”

4. If Your Desire for God Is Getting Distracted By Your Desire for This Person, This Is a Sign Satan Sent This Person to Gain a Foothold in Your Life

We never have to fear Satan as long as we are submitting to God. James 4:7, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Thus, to get a foothold in your life, Satan knows he must do something to decrease your connection and submission to the Lord.

Don’t give Satan a foothold by trading your desire for God for a desire for a person. When you meet the right person God has for you, you won’t need to choose between Christ and this person. A healthy relationship will help you focus more on the Lord, not less.