3 Signs Satan Is Tempting You with Someone

Here are three signs Satan is tempting you with someone.

1. If Someone Is Being Used to Fulfill a Good Desire in You but in a Bad Way, Satan Has Sent This Person to Tempt You

Wanting to stop feeling lonely is good. Wanting to find the love of your life and get married is good. Wanting to have sex with the person God wants you to marry is good. And yet, these desires are also the doors through which Satan can tempt us into sin.

In fact, all sin is really a corruption of a good desire. Before the fall in Eden, God gave the human heart many good desires that were unmet but which we were to seek to fulfill in holy ways. For example, when God made Adam, he put a longing in his heart for a wife even though there was no woman for him yet. However, God then gave Adam a holy outlet to fulfill the desire within him (Genesis 2:18).

Satan, on the other hand, takes our good desires and tempts us into sin by giving us an unholy option to fulfill a good desire. It was good for Adam and Eve to want to eat food, but Satan tempted them to eat from the tree they were not supposed to eat from (Genesis 3:1-7).

The Bible doesn’t just blame Satan for the temptations that come into our lives, although he certainly does tempt us (Matthew 4:1). Rather, Scripture also points to our own mismanagement of our desires. James 1:14-15, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” Jesus was tempted by the devil but did not fall into sin (Hebrews 4:15) because he chose to allow God to fulfill his desires in the right way.

If you have a good desire but someone in your life is being used to tempt you to fulfill that desire in an unholy way, which is sin, that person was probably sent by Satan. Either way, let them go (1 Corinthians 10:13). God wants to fulfill your good desires in good ways (Psalm 37:4).

2. If Someone Is Being Used to Pull You onto the Large Road that Leads to Destruction, Satan Sent that Person to Tempt You

Out of the heart, the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34). Therefore, if someone says things like:

• “Everyone has sex before marriage. What’s the big deal?”
• “It’s okay to be unequally yoked as long as we can respect each other’s beliefs.”
• “We’re young. We’re supposed to make a ton of mistakes. Just have fun.”
• “We’re too old for all those rules. If we love each other, God will understand.”

. . . these are signs that someone is being used by Satan to tempt you into sin and away from God’s best. Just because something is normal, meaning most people do it, does not mean it is right. As Matthew 7:13-14 states, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

Therefore, if someone is tempting you to live like the rest of the world (1 John 2:15-17), this person was sent by Satan (Ephesians 2:1-2). Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

3. If Someone Is Trying to Convince You to Deny Your Own Conscience, Satan Sent that Person to Tempt You

When you are a true Christian, the Holy Spirit is within you (1 Corinthians 6:19); and once the Spirit is within you, he will lovingly prick your conscience when you are being tempted into sin (John 16:8). Sin isn’t usually the act of doing something you didn’t know was wrong. Rather, it usually occurs when we know what is wrong, but we somehow try to justify it as right:

• “I know the Bible says not to be unequally yoked. But if I’m trying to witness to this person, it’s probably okay to date them.”
• “I know sex is supposed to be just for a husband and wife. But if you believe this person is the one, it’s not so bad to sleep with them since you probably will get married one day anyway.”
• “I know I haven’t been going to church as much now that this person is in my life. But that will all change once we get married. Then we will start serving God together.”

When you have to deny your conscience to be with someone and justify the wrongs as right to make yourself feel better about a relationship, this is a classic sign that someone was sent by Satan to tempt you.

It’s not easy, but the path to freedom is simple. James 4:6-7 explains, “‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Related Article: 3 Signs God Is Testing You with Someone.