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I. Truths and tactics of temptation

A. We have a “Trojan Horse” problem. At some point in time, individually and collectively, we have opened
the door and welcomed something that appeared to be good, only to find out later that we had received an
enemy into our precincts.

1. This could have happened when we were unenlightened, before we were in Christ. It could have
happened through our patterns of un-repented sin. However it happened, it did happen, and now
we have a problem.

2. As soon as the enemy drops his disguise, we realize that we have an intruder on the premises.

 Now we have a double problem – we not only have to evict him, we also have to clean the place
up and rebuild our walls of salvation to keep him on the outside.

 One of the best ways to keep the enemy out is to learn about how temptation works; in
particular, what makes us vulnerable, and how we can better resist it.

B. Many of us stumble in the gray area between temptation that comes from the enemy and the testing that
comes from God. We do not understand the difference, if any, between them.

1. A foundational truth about temptation is that God tests but He never tempts (James 5:13). His
purpose in testing is to strengthen us and to sanctify us.

2. The purpose of satanic temptation is to deceive, steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10).

 God’s testing sets us apart as His children.

 Satan’s tempting separates intends to separate us from God.

3. All temptation originates in the flesh. Satan simply fans the flames (James 1:13-16).

13And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, "God is tempting me." God is never tempted to
do wrong,* and he never tempts anyone else. 14Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us
and drag us away. 15These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth
to death.

4. A second foundational truth is that temptation itself is not sin. It is merely part of the human
condition.

 A temptation only becomes sin when we accept it, we fondle it, and we enjoy it.
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 Martin Luther is quoted as having said, ”You can’t prevent the birds from flying over your head,
but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.”
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 The essence and strength of temptation consists of a twofold enticement:

o satisfying legitimate needs through illegitimate means

o pushing virtue to extreme religious legalism (which comes from a performance-based

desire for acceptance).

 Consider the temptation of Jesus: It was aimed at seducing Jesus into achieving divinely
approved ends by sinful and illegitimate means.

5. Another foundational truth is this: The more often you say yes to temptation, the more difficult it
becomes to say no. Sin is addictive.

 Sin almost always feel good, but it is producing death. (Hebrews 3:12-13)

12Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters.* Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving,
turning you away from the living God. 13You must warn each other every day, while it is still "today," so that
none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God.

 At the heart of sin is a lie, or a partial truth, and the more often you fall for it the harder it
becomes to resist.

C. Tactics of temptation

1. The devil likes to tempt people when their faith is fresh and vulnerable. A recently converted
Christian is an irresistible target for the enemy.

2. The devil also likes to tempt people when they are strong – or so they think they are. When people
feel invulnerable to sin, they tend to slip into living by their own strength. It’s easy for Satan to get a
hook in them.

3. Temptation lurks when people are in an environment that is new or strange to them.

 In familiar environments we are more in tune to the spiritual atmosphere and have learned to
resist certain things.

 In unfamiliar environments, the demonic assignments are different and at first we can be
culturally unaware of the devil’s schemes.

4. From time to time, each one of us will be afflicted – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual
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(Matthew 4:1-11; Job 2:1-10). While you’re being tested by fire, the enemy will come around to
whisper in your ear.
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5. Satan will also tempt you when you are not being tested and have instead just conquered a spiritual
mountain and are feeling great. (Example: Elijah’s depression in 1 Kings 18 & 19)

6. Perhaps Satan’s most effective temptation is putting his thoughts into our minds and making us think
they are his.

 We mistake his thoughts for our own because he so often speaks in the first person; i.e. “I feel
bad today; I am cut off from God.” That’s correct in his case, but not yours!

 He then blames us for having the thoughts that he put there (Matthew 16:13-23; John 13:2; Acts
5:1-3; 1 Chronicles 12:1).

 A related tactic is for Satan to launch his accusations as though they came from the Holy Spirit.
How can we distinguish between satanic accusation and divine conviction? By the fruit.

o The devil’s accusation releases shame, discouragement, and hopeless condemnation.

o God’s conviction brings godly sorrow, which unlocks repentance, and hope, and
freedom.

7. We will rarely be tempted to commit some flagrant sin, such as murder, robbery, or rape. These
temptations would be too obvious and we’d refuse to do them.

 Instead, his tactic is to tempt us to push the limit of something until it becomes sin.

 It can begin as something good, or at least neutral, and he pushes us to the limit. There are many
ways in which he can do that. These are just a few:

o Need for physical rest becomes laziness.

o The ability to turn a profit becomes greed.
o The gift of physical pleasure becomes sensuality.
o Enjoyment of eating becomes gluttony.
o Self-respect becomes pride.
o Realistic caution becomes unbelief.
o Judgment becomes condemnation.
o Freedom becomes an occasion for the flesh.
o Pursuit of goals becomes a driving compulsion.

D. Tactics for resisting temptation.

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1. First and foremost – know yourself and your weak points.

2. If you cannot eliminate the temptation in the first place, confront it and deal with it.
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3. Pray preventive prayers (Matthew 6:13)

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13And don't let us yield to temptation,* but rescue us from the evil one.*

4. Pray protective prayers (Matthew 26:41)

41Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is
weak.

5. Flee. Simply flee. (1 Corinthians 6:18; 10:14; 1 Timothy 6:11; 2 Timothy 2:22)

18Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a
sin against your own body.

14So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols.

11But you, Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things. Pursue righteousness and a godly life,
along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.

22Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and
peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.

6. Use your Bible. Jesus did. (Matthew 4 & Luke 4)

7. Resist (James 4:7)

7So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

8. Make yourself accountable to others (James 5:6)

E. You have to prepare for temptation, because it will surely come. And when it comes, it will be . . .
tempting. In other words, you will want to entertain those tempting thoughts. You will never be tempted to
do something you don’t like. You will be tempting to do what appears to be satisfying.

1. The lust of the flesh – any kind of craving that appeals to your physical senses.

2. The lust of the eyes – those things you covet and toss aside prudence to get.

3. The pride of life – desiring the spotlight, you promote yourself and exalt your reputation.

II. Battle plans for overcomers

A. You have to run over the enemy before he runs over you. You are standing in the middle of a battlefield.
You may be in the middle of an army, or you may be standing alone.

1. King David was a true overcomer – determined to make an end of his enemy but always aware that
he needed help.
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2. He gave us a psalm that should encourage us (Psalm 18:17-18).

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17He rescued me from my powerful enemies, from those who hated me and were too strong for me. 18They
attacked me at a moment when I was in distress, but the Lord supported me.

B. For each of us, the combat will not be over until the day we die. We are following our Commander-in-
Chief.

1. If you haven’t already realized it, now is the time to see that the battle is not about you; it is about
Him. He is the driving force behind every spiritual battle, as He retrieves and redeems and restores.

2. Transforming the redeemed ones as He leads them forward on every battlefield, He is making sure
that the entire Church, His Bride, will be beautiful for Him.

 As we engage in struggle after struggle, not only are we subjugating Satan, we are also being
transformed, individually and as a body.

 The whole Church is in metamorphosis, becoming a new creation in Christ, growing and
maturing and overcoming the darkness of the old regime.

3. Battle fatigue often hits in the midst of the fiercest fighting, but the Lord will always revive, restore
and return us to life (Isaiah 43:2; Psalm 138:7-8).

2When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will
not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not
consume you.

7Though I am surrounded by troubles, you will protect me from the anger of my enemies. You reach out
your hand, and the power of your right hand saves me. 8The LORD will work out his plans for my life— for
your faithful love, O LORD, endures forever. Don't abandon me, for you made me.

 Notice that He revives us in the midst of darkness. Light shines brightest in darkness.

 Remember that you are fighting an unseen enemy who is behind all of the opposition that you
can see and feel (see Ephesians 6:12). You have the authority of the One who called you. (Luke
10:18-20).

12For we* are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the
unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

18"Yes," he (Jesus) told them, "I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning! 19Look, I have given you authority
over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will
injure you. 20But don't rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in
heaven."
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 Remember that every battle you have with the enemy ends in victory.
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4. Since Satan cannot assault God directly, he attacks God’s friends. He tries to undermine the ground
under your feet.

 He tries to make you deny your Lord.

 He tries to paralyze your planning, abort your dreams, and dilute your hopes.

 He opposes everything that can help you stay close to God.

5. Satan is not very creative; therefore, he has some favorite tactics. He exercises his malice in certain
predictable (and therefore, resistible) ways. With his limited repertoire, he mixes standards tactics in
various ways:

 Delay. To weaken you and wear you out. To make you lose your way (see Daniel 10:2–14).

 Deceit. To derail God’s purposes by making spiritual principles into legalism. To move you from
the stability of truth to the instability of error (see Revelation 12:9-11).

9This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was
thrown down to the earth with all his angels. 10Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, "It
has come at last— salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ.* For
the accuser of our brothers and sisters* has been thrown down to earth—the one who accuses them
before our God day and night. 11And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their
testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.

 Distraction. To break your focus. To make you concentrate on a side issue. A time of great
intimacy with God can turn into a time of great battle (see Proverbs 4:27).

23Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. 24Avoid all perverse talk; stay
away from corrupt speech. 25Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. 26Mark out a
straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. 27Don't get sidetracked; keep your feet from following
evil.

 Disappointment. To magnify the weaknesses of others; to offend you and to embitter you.

 All of these tactics are slow-acting, so you may not even be aware of them.

o We need to evaluate our life experiences to identify the weak areas where he works.

o However, once we strengthen a weak area, he looks for another in which we are
vulnerable.
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o He’s stalking us and looking for every opportunity.

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C. The devil works in cycles. He attacks and pulls back. He hits you and then he shifts around to the other
side. This could be disorienting (and he wants it to be) but you can anticipate his moves. You can predict the
seasons of your attacks.

1. There are two reasons why Satan pulls back:

 Because you won and he has to go off and regroup.

 He wants to trick you and get you off balance, so you will get your guard down.

2. Whatever the reason Satan pulls back, you need to be ready for the next battle – because one will
come!

 One of the best ways to prepare is to assess your own seasonal cycle of weakness; i.e.
depression in the winter, lust in the heat of the summer or on the beach.

 Some of Satan’s greatest attacks will come when you are tired and vulnerable. You are weak not
only physically, but also emotionally and mentally.

 Watch out when you have major changes in your life, especially geographical relocations. Crisis
often occurs on the eve of change.

 The enemy always tries to thwart the plans of God. Even with his partial knowledge, he knows
when someone is destined for greatness.

 The enemy hits specifically hard when a special miracle is leaving the hand of God (Daniel 10).

 When you make an effort to take a stand, the degree and intensity of spiritual warfare will be
proportional to the territory you are about to possess.

3. Although seasons of struggle are inevitable, it is possible to shorten them.

 You must know and speak the Word of God (2 Timothy 2:15; 3:16-17).

15Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does
not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.

16All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong
in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17God uses it to prepare
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and equip his people to do every good work.

 Let the Holy Spirit and the Word permeate your heart so your conversations reflect the mentality
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 Always remember the power of the name of the Lord (Proverbs 18:10; Philippians 2:9-10).

10The name of the LORD is a strong fortress; the godly run to him and are safe.

9Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

 Tap into the power of prayer (Isaiah 58:6).

 Get others involved in praying for you (Matthew 18:18-19)

 Keep praising God through everything (1 Samuel 16:23).

 Honor the veterans of spiritual warfare and learn from their failures and successes (Proverbs
1:5).

5Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser. Let those with understanding receive
guidance

 You must learn when to rest and not directly engage the enemy. The devil’s job is to wear down
the saints (Daniel 7:25; 1 John 4:3).

 Day by day, clothe yourself by faith with God’s spiritual armor (Ephesians 6:13).

III. Exercising kingdom authority

A. The subject of Kingdom authority is pivotal; everything about spiritual warfare depends on it.

1. The enemy’s plan was overruled by God’s plan.

 Although Jesus won the ultimate victory over the powers of darkness by His death and
resurrection and He introduced the kingdom permanently into the earth realm, He did not want
to terminate the spiritual battle until He reaped as many souls as possible for the Kingdom.

 As a result, the spiritual battle continues.

2. Now while we are here on earth God has invested us with two special responsibilities:

 To restrain Satan’s forces on earth until God’s purposes of grace have been fulfilled.
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 To participate in the heavenly wrestling match.

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o Sometimes, joining ourselves with other people who have been set free, we can dislodge
a territorial spirit over a geographical area, displacing dark angels so that the angels of
light can prevail.

o Walking in spiritual freedom, we can release the Kingdom of God into our present
environment, freeing more captives and giving glory to the King.

o Through us, Jesus Himself still walks the dusty roads, healing and delivering the captives,
assembling an army for His Kingdom one soul at a time.

B. If you want to be on the winning side, you must surrender your allegiance to all other gods and idols
(including the idol of self) and follow the King. God is the highest authority. He always will be because He has
always been.

1. Everything has been held together by God’s supremacy and nothing can dislodge Him from His
position. He is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last (Revelation
1:17).

2. God can delegate His authority, but it must be delegated – not usurped – as man following in Satan’s
footsteps has tried to do.

3. Psalm 104 alone contains twenty-four assertions of God’s authority and sovereignty over the earth.
(Read: Psalm 104:1-5, 24, 30-31).

4. The more God’s people come into alignment with Him and exercise His delegated authority
wherever they go, the more He is able to “renew the face of the earth.”

C. The prophet Ezekiel gave us a picture of the angel that became arrogant enough to challenge the
sovereign Lord of the universe (Ezekiel 28:12-19).

1. Before the Fall, this amazingly beautiful creature was as bright as the morning star. But as soon as he
asserted himself above God, he was cut down swiftly like a dagger-flash of lightning (Luke 10:18;
Isaiah 14:12-15).

2. Forced to receive him, the earth acted with repulsion (Isaiah 14:16-17).

3. In the divine plan of God, Lucifer had been created to oversee a third of the lesser heavenly
creatures, leading them in perpetual worship.

 As he did so, he must have started comparing his role to the role of the One he was worshiping,
and eventually he rose up in pride, aspiring to rise above his delegated sphere of authority and
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to become an equal to God (“I will be like the Most High”).

D. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit had the authority to create and the authority to rule.
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1. They had the freedom to delegate that authority if they wished to do so, and that is what they did.

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2. They did not transfer the ownership of the earth to human beings, but they did transfer the
authority to rule over it, use it and take care of it.

3. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they created a separation between God and the people he had
made (Genesis 2:17; 3:6-11, 22-23).

 In effect, the man and the woman chose to proclaim the serpent as their new lord, thus ceding
their heaven-bestowed authority to Satan and becoming his slaves (see Romans 6:16).

 After that time, human beings belonged to the enemy.

4. Although Satan sometimes appeared to have become the owner of the world, he had not. He was
more like a magistrate or administrator, and by definition, his term of authority was going to be a
limited one.

 Nevertheless, the devil had become the “prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2), and he
had the legal right to control the visible realm from his position in the unseen realm.

5. Then Jesus burst upon the scene. The devil tried to thwart His entrance into the public eye.

 In the wilderness, Satan tempted Jesus with the very God-given authority that he had stolen
from Adam, saying, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered
to me, and I give it to whomever I wish” (Luke 4:6).

 Jesus, however, did not fall for the bait. He knew then what He later declared to His disciples,
namely, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18, NIV).

E. Within a little over a month of His death and resurrection, Jesus had transferred His authority back to
anyone who had become filled with His Spirit.

1. After the resurrection, the disciples received the same holy, sinless breath (pneuma), or spirit of life,
that He possessed (see Genesis 2:7; John 20:22) and the same power (dunamis) from on high (see
Acts 1:8; Luke 24:49).

2. From that point forward, the Spirit-led Church could move out, and wherever they went, they could
carry God’s seal of authority, the authority that prevails over all resistance (see Matthew 28:19–20).

 The power in them was greater than the power that remained in the world (see 1 John 4:4).

…the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.
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 Humbly submitted to their living Lord, all they had to do was resist and the enemy would flee
(see James 4:7).
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 Now they could pick up the keys to the Kingdom – and use them. Now they could set the
captives free from demonic custody (see Mark 16:17).

17These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they
will speak in new languages.* 18They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything
poisonous, it won't hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed."

Textbook:

Goll, James W. (2010-10-01). Deliverance from Darkness: The Essential Guide to Defeating Demonic
Strongholds and Oppression (p. 68). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

HOMEWORK:

1. What does the statement “We have a Trojan-horse problem” mean?

2. Discuss several foundational truths about temptation.

3. Contrast the difference between the temptation that comes from the enemy and the testing that comes
from God.

4. List several of Satan’s tactics for temptation.

5. List the tactics for resisting temptation.

6. What position and power does Satan hold today?

7. The devil attacks in cycles. He attacks and then pulls back. What are two reasons he does that?

8. We are to assert kingdom authority. Briefly discuss this authority that has been delegated to us.

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