Do you realize that satan himself believes in God?
I mean, he used to serve God thousands of years ago. Our eternal enemy also knows the Bible - completely. The world system doesn't want us to believe that the devil even exists. The "father of all lies" has fooled a whole lot of people for a very, very long time.
When I sin, I don't blame the devil though - it's in my nature and I can do plenty of sinning without anyone's help. There has to be a balance when it comes to sin, darkness, and repentenance. IF the enemy was responsible for "making" all of mankind sin, then no one would be personaly responsible for their actions right? On the other hand, if we deny that there is a devil, then we rule out satanic forces at work in the world; influencing people, culture, media, etc.
The enemy is not omnipent like God, he cannot be everywhere all of the time like Father God. The devil and his minions (the fallen angels) cannot even read our minds - only God can do that! That is why the Bible says to guard our lips. It's our words and our actions that give place to the enemy and his horde to begin to entice us to CONTINUE to sin.
Tom's Formula:
1. We step into a sin and continue to wallow in it without repenting and turning away from it.
2. The demons take notice and take it as an invitation to "minister" to us. They tell us that we are doing isn't really all that bad.
3. The longer we stay in that sin, the more demonic influence we recieve, it gets stronger and stronger.
4. Our unwillingness to stop doing the sin, the fact that the lies of the enemy continue to bombard us - makes us end up being controlled by that sin and by the satanic forces.
Sin is a seed in our nature. If we nuture it and feed it, it will grow like a wild weed until it's wrapped itself around our entire soul.
Some folks need a little weed pulling, some need some hedge clippers, and still others need a high-powered weed-whacker!
