The Devil's Job Description— and How to say "You're fired!"

Satan's job description is given in John 10:10 where he is identified as a thief. Jesus is doing the speaking, and the KJV translates it this way:
    The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

There are many other verses that tell what Satan is: adversary, accuser, deceiver, destroyer, evil one, father of lies, god of this world, murderer, etc. If you want to see more with scripture references, there is a link in the footnotes. John 10:10 adds "thief"to that list, but this verse also includes three purposes for his coming, (a) to steal, (b) to kill, and (c) to destroy.

So while it may be true that "everything happens for a reason," too often the reason is that Satan is at work stealing, killing and destroying. This is particularly true in the life of a Christian who is trying to live a good life, for these are the targets that are most valuable in Satan's long war against God.  

That KatieLyn's mother would not consider that her daughter was under a spiritual attack appalls me to this day! And I chose the verb carefully there. I said she would not consider, not that she did not consider. It was an act of Gwen's will; a choice was made that decided her daughter Katie was not listening to Satan's subtle doubt-provoking lies.

I am appalled that Gwen would not consider it because scripture says that it can, does, and will happen. Practically everyone who has tried to walk a faith walk for more than a few consecutive minutes has experienced satanic attack and knows that it happens. The notion that "if it happens, then it must be God's will" is false.  This ideology, that nothing can be achieved unless Allah wills it, is Islam. It is not the Jewish Torah  nor the Christian Holy Bible. It is a doctrine of demons.

If KatieLyn was given counsel that "if it was God's will, then things would have worked out," her counselor was lying to her. Many, many things are God's will but man stubbornly opposes it and thwarts God's will. 

The classic prayer that nearly all public school students fifty years ago would memorize says in part, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  Jesus would not have needed to instruct His disciples to pray this kind of prayer if God's will had been a done deal.

As I explained in my last post, Satan operates by putting ideas in a person's mind and allowing them to react to it. And when we add that to his job description that we read today, we ca determine that it was Satan's job to break up a godly relationship. It was his job to rob KatieLyn of her faith that God had provided her a husband. It was the devil's job to kill off KatieLyn's hope, the anchor of her soul. It was the enemy's job to destroy this marriage before it could start, and he did his job. He fully succeeded.  KatieLyn caved in and ran away in the middle of the night.

The irony is that she believed that she was being strong to do the right thing! That is how Satan deceives though. If it was God's will that KatieLyn and Joe get married, and we had multiple confirmations that it was His will both before and even after KatieLyn ran off, then she had listened to the messages of devils and was being strong in opposing God.

As promised, we are going to inspect 2 Corinthians 10:5 more closely because it outlines the proper response for the times that Satan slithers up to trick you into opposing God.  Remember it said:
   We demolish arguments and every lofty thing that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.  2 Corinthians 10:5

How to Fire the Devil

Using Offense Maneuvers
The verb demolish is rendered in other translations as destroy, tear down, overthrow, cast down, and bringing down.  This is the role of we, the subject. God does not do this for us. We decide what to do with thoughts. 

The noun arguments is rendered in other translation as speculations, imaginations, and reasonings. These are things that have the appearance of being wise and true, but are not. 

The noun phrase every lofty thing that sets itself up is rendered in other translations as pretension, proud obstacle, lofty opinion, presumption, high thing lifting itself up, high thing that exalteth itself, arrogant obstacle that is raised up, intellectual arrogance, and stronghold that towers high in defiance.  These are things that are prideful. 

Using Defense Maneuvers
The verb take captive is consistently rendered with the word captive or captivity across multiple translations.  The original Greek carries the idea of "leading away captive," as opposed to holding in it a prison cell. Again, this is the role of we, the subject. God does not do this for us.

The noun thought is used in most translations. Douay-Rheims uses understanding, and the Aramaic Bible in Plain English renders it as mind.  It is the mental perception which must be addressed, or as Weymouth puts it, "we carry off every thought as if into slavery—into subjection to Christ."

The Lesson
They say hindsight is 20/20.  In hindsight, this is what KatieLyn ought to have done: demolished the arguments that rose to set themselves against the knowledge of God. Bur she was in an untenable place because Satan had confounded her mom into being a passive/aggressive enemy; one day she was picking a fight with KatieLyn and the next she was being ever-so supportive. That way Gwen could claim that she was supporting "whatever Katie chose," all the while keeping the tension on her apron string just loose enough that KatieLyn that KatieLyn would think she was freely making her own choice while keeping enough tension on it that Katie could not break free of their dysfunctional codependency. Never mind that "whatever Katie chose" was not lining up with the knowledge of God. 

In the end, KatieLyn decided that not losing her mother was more important than risking the unknowns of getting a husband. In the end, she did exactly what the devil had schemed for her. She got a measure of known safety and peace, but she threw away her victory in life to keep it. 


 Footnotes:
Names, Titles, Descriptions and Symbols of Satan in the Bible charted list by agapegeek