1 Thessalonians 3:5
Here are 4 common signs that often mean Satan is secretly attacking you.
1. If You Are Being Tempted Into Sin Because You Are Finally Receiving What You Always Wanted in This World, This Is a Sign Satan Is Secretly Attacking You
As I was email coaching one of my AGW University students, he wrote, “It would be so easy to fight Satan if he were dressed up with horns, red fur, and a pitch fork. But NO, he shows up disguised as everything you thought you could ever want.”
Wow, so true! As was the experience of this AGW University student, oftentimes when we look back at out biggest regrets in life, we were actually led into those sinful seasons through the good desires of our hearts. When we want something good too badly we are often an easy target for Satan to manipulate us from the shadows.
James 1:14 states, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.” But then 1 Thessalonians 3:5 says, “For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.” So who tempts us? Satan or our own desires?
It seems clear that both are biblical truths. Not only that, Satan will use our desires to lead us astray. Our desires are often not bad, but Satan can secretly control us through our desires when we want something more than we want God.
Remember, it would be easy to fight the devil if he attacked you while wearing horns and carrying a pitchfork. But he doesn’t. Rather, he often disguises his attacks with everything you’ve ever dreamed of having in this world.
2. If You Are Being Led Astray By False Signs, This Is Evidence that Satan Is Secretly Attacking You
As I’ve talked about before a lot on this channel, the word “signs” can be tricky for Christians to use because there are different types of signs – some are good to look for and some are unbiblical to look for. Basically there are three types of signs Christians need to be aware of:
1. Signs and wonders – which are acts of God that he uses for a specific purpose whenever he chooses to. These are biblical but as Christians we are not supposed to demand signs like these or expect God to use these all the time in our life.
2. Evidence for what God wants you to do – this is the type of “sign” Christians should always be looking for. God is continually speaking to us through his word, through the Spirit, and through the events in our lives. We need to pay attention to what God is saying if we want to follow his will for our lives.
3. Superstitions and horoscopes – these are the types of signs Christians should not try to use. These are when we attach our own meaning to unrelated events or symbols that have no biblical grounds for being interpreted in any particular way.
My point in reviewing this content is that Satan wants you to abuse the first and third type of signs and ignore the second type. Satan wants you to demand a supernatural sign from God, for as Jesus said in Matthew 16:4, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” Satan also wants you to play around with dark magic and superstitions in an attempt to get meaning from things God is not speaking through.
For more on this topic, you can review my article, 5 Things That Will Happen When Satan Is Sending You a False Sign.
3. If You Are Being Tempted to Live Only for This Moment Rather That Preparing for What’s Ahead, This Is a Sign Satan Is Trying to Secretly Tempt You
In Mark 14:26-31 Jesus warned Peter that he would betray Jesus. But Peter wouldn’t listen. He said emphatically, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you” (Mark 14:31). Jesus, on the other hand, respected the seriousness of the trials ahead of him and thus he spent the night praying. Peter and the other disciples did not and slept instead. In Mark 14:38 Jesus said to Peter, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Satan wants us to relax in the present so he can pounce on us in the future. He sets us up for failure through playing on our pride in the peace we are experiencing at present. If you are at peace in life right now, you must always remember that peace on earth is not built to last. We are at war on earth. If we pretend like we are peace we will fall to the devil’s ambush.
Later in life Peter wrote this verse from personal experience, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). So if you are being tempted to lose focus of the battle you are in because you are being lulled to sleep through peace in your present, this is a sign Satan is setting you up for an attack in your near future.
4. If You Are Indulging in Any Type of Pride in Your Heart, This Is Often a Sign Satan Is Secretly Attacking You
Satan knows biblical truth better than most Christians, but he seeks to use that truth against us. For example, Proverbs 16:5 states, “Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished.” Is it any wonder why Satan wants to make us arrogant in heart?
Pride is so helpful to the devil’s purposes because it blinds us to our own sins. Pride causes us to point the finger at everything and everyone besides ourselves. Taking personal responsibility is foundational to success in life. Even when all the good in life is by God’s grace, his grace works through human agents (1 Corinthians 15:10). Satan wants us to avoid personal responsibility and play the blame game. He wants us to see everyone’s sin but our own.
In 1 Timothy 3:6 Paul warns about the dangers of pride when listing the characteristics of a mature believer who is equipped to lead as an elder. He said, “He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.”
Pride will keep the devil hidden because he will use the sin in your life that you can’t see because of your pride to manipulate you. Therefore, one sign that Satan is trying to secretly attack you is if you have pride in your heart.