In the world of the spirit, there is a challenger, a
counterfeit, an opponent of God who knows his
business. But there is also the armor of
God, the Word of God and the power to defeat
this opponent. The Bible says to resist Satan,
and he will flee from you (James 4:7). But when
a man hesitates—not opposing, but wondering—
then Satan can easily defeat him. We must
clearly distinguish between what is coming
from Satan and not blame God for something
that is not His doing. This is why it is so
extremely important to rightly divide the Word
concerning this issue.

Whenever God reveals His Word to a man,
Satan comes immediately to steal the Word
from his heart. Jesus said that he would. He
said the sower sows the Word, and Satan
comes immediately to take away the Word
which was sown. (See Mark 4.)
Satan has no defense against the Word
of God. He has no defense against the lordship
of Jesus or the Name of Jesus. He has no defense
against the bornagain believer who is walking in
faith and acting on the Word of God. He has no defense
against these because Jesus said that all power
has been given unto Him both in heaven and
in earth (Matthew 28:18). Satan has been
stripped of his power.

The devil knows he is defenseless, so in
order to stop the revelation of God’s Word in
the believer, his only tool is deception. He
must sow a deception—something that sounds
good and looks good but is really a wolf in
sheep’s clothing, He usually does this most
successfully in the area of religion. He uses
religion to blind and deceive the people. By
sowing the seed of deception through religious
tradition, Satan has robbed the Church of her
power. He has no defense against our real
spiritual weapons, but he can easily defend
himself against our carnal, religious traditions.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries