06/27/10 "Who is the Captain of Your Team?"

On this coming Wednesday night we will begin a new series on spiritual warfare based on the classic work “The Screw Tape Letters,” written by C.S. Lewis. Lewis’ work makes us more aware of satan’s strategies in his relentless efforts to keep people from coming to Jesus or discouraging and distracting them if they do receive Christ.

It is important for us to be aware of and recognize the tactics used by the enemy of our souls. Lewis used fiction as his literary devise and more specifically, he composed 31 letters supposedly written to a neophyte demon (named Wormwood) by his more experienced underworld “uncle” called Screwtape. The latter discusses “soul wrecking” strategy with his “nephew” even as he answers questions posed by the junior demon.

Screwtape can be very critical of his pupil, devilishly sarcastic, humorous yet deadly serious about his mission to “mentor” Wormwood. At times, as one reads these fictitious letters, it is necessary to be reminded that what seems to be mere “advice” is really an insidious approach designed by the enemy to undermine our spiritual walk. We are often unaware of satan’s devices and what seem to be our own disquieting thoughts are somehow really coming from an evil one. For example, satan will bombard us with self condemnation for not performing our duty. We may even attribute these guilt ridden thoughts to the Lord. By constantly reminding us of our failure, the enemy can cause us to dislike the good things we want and ought to be doing; see Romans 7:15-25.

If Satan could, he would immediately destroy all of us (see Job, chapters 1 and 2 and, of course, I Peter 5:8), but, thankfully, God does not allow that (Our Heavenly Father has big plans for us, see Ephesians 1). Even the unbeliever is shielded from immediate annihilation, but they are more prone to be “sitting ducks” because they generally do not believe the devil exists. Satan is our enemy because God has chosen us in Christ to be the means whereby Satan is crushed (Romans 16:20). God has used the weakest being in the universe to withstand satan’s assaults and continually expose him for the fraud and evil being he is. This will culminate in the exaltation of God’s saints even as satan and his slavish followers are cast into the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:12-15. We defeat satan because our elder brother and our Lord enables us. Jesus already, as the Ultimate Human Being and the Son of God, has personally defeated satan and all his minions (Colossians 2:15) and now shares that victory with every child of God; see Philippians 4:13, Galatians 2:20 and I Corinth. 15:57. Fellow Christian, aren’t you glad we’re on the winning team because Jesus is the Captain of our team (Hebrews 2:10 KJV).