How to Overcome Satan — Zac Poonen

Overcoming Satan Through Christ’s Victory

Our subject is how to overcome Satan. Now, if you read through the Bible from the beginning, or if you look up a concordance, you'll find that Satan is hardly mentioned in the Old Testament at all, except at the beginning.

The first two books of the Bible are Job and Genesis. And there we do read about Satan, but very briefly at the beginning, not right through those books. But then throughout the Old Testament, we don't find him coming face to face with anyone.

There's a brief mention of his tempting David and a brief description of his accusing Joshua and Zachariah. But other than that, personal confrontation with Satan is zero, not even in the book of Job.

The only personal encounter that we read of Satan with a human being is in Genesis three, with Eve. And then there was nothing more. The next time we read of it is in the New Testament, where Jesus confronts Satan face to face.

Humanity’s Privilege of Sharing God’s Nature

Now, why is that? Because God does not allow us to be tested or tempted beyond our ability. And in Old Testament times, when Satan had not been defeated, it would have been terrible if man had to confront Satan.

So they only fought with human enemies and God helped them in Israel with their battle with human enemies. And there was never any direct confrontation with Satan. But when Jesus came, he had come to open a way for us to overcome sin, to overcome Satan, to overcome the world, the flesh, everything.

And so he is our forerunner, the one who has gone ahead of us, showing us how to live as God intended man to live. Please remember this always. When God made Adam, he made him in his image. No angel, all the millions of angels were not made in God's image.

No angel can partake of God's nature. It's a tremendous privilege that God has given to man when he made him in his own image so that man could partake of God's own nature. I wonder whether we Christians have realized the awesome privilege of that.

Imagine to partake of God's own nature. It would be like telling a worm that he could, that worm could partake of a human nature and communicate with us as a human being, even though that worm is so small.

It's absolutely amazing. Even dogs who are pets in the house, we would wish they could partake of our nature, they cannot, despite their love for their masters. I don't think Christians have understood what a tremendous honor and privilege it is that we can partake of God's own nature.

That is why Jesus came. That's why he sent the Holy Spirit. And that is why when Christ came to earth, a lot of people think of his coming to earth only to die for the sins of the world. That was one part of his ministry, a very major part of his ministry that was to clear the ground, to get rid of the old.

But there was something he was gonna build on that. Removing our sins is only removing all the garbage and rubbish. So after you remove the garbage and rubbish from a site, then you have to build a building.

And that a lot of people have not understood. To most Christians in the world that I've met, they're only occupied with clearing the garbage. More garbage comes in and they clear it up. Every day they accumulate garbage and ask Jesus to clear it up.

But is that all there is in the Christian life? Lots more than that. And I wanna encourage you today to open your heart, to hear and receive what the Holy Spirit has to say to you in this area. And Jesus has shown us the example.

Jesus’ Temptation as the Pattern for Christian Victory

Turn with me to Matthew and we read in chapter three, verse 15 to 17, that Jesus was baptized. Matthew three, 15 to 17, Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan. And he had lived for 30 years in a way pleasing to the Father that the Father gave a certificate of approval in Matthew three, 17 saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

Okay, what does the Holy Spirit now do with lead this beloved son? How does the Holy Spirit lead this beloved son with whom the Father is well pleased? Very next verse, immediately after he was anointed with the Spirit and the Father's voice of approval has come upon him.

The very next sentence is Matthew four, one. He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Is being tempted something to be avoided? Is being tempted something where the Holy Spirit is not leading us?

It says, yeah, clearly the Holy Spirit led Jesus where to? Into the wilderness, what for? With one purpose, to be tempted by the devil. Why does Jesus have to be tempted by the devil? He's almighty God in human form, but he had given up the privileges of being God.

He didn't cease being God. God can never cease to be God. Jesus was God in heaven for all eternity. When he came to earth as a baby, he was God. When he went into the wilderness here, he was God, but he chose not to use the privileges of being God.

A man can be a billionaire and he can go and live in a slum in some poor country and tell everybody there, I want to teach you how to live here, working like you work, living like you live to show you how with a limited income, you can live a clean life.

And I promise you, I will not use my credit card or my debit card where I have billions in the bank. That's how Jesus came. He did not use his credit card as God. He lived as a man with all the limitations that we have, tempted exactly like we are, otherwise he cannot be an example for us.

So Christ came to earth, not only to die for our sins, that was just to clear the ground, but then to show us how God wants man to live. And this is what Christendom has missed. The Bible says in 1 John 2, 6, if you say you abide in Christ, you must walk as Jesus walked.

Now I want to say that I've been preaching it for 46 years. Every Christian must hear that. Do you say that you're a Christian? What are you supposed to do? Be ready for heaven? No, walk as Jesus walked here on earth.

And if you're not even attempting to do that, if you're not even repenting that you're not doing that, my dear brother and sister, let me tell you very lovingly, you are disobedient to God, displeasing to the father.

God does not want you to live constantly defeated by Satan, constantly defeated by sin. In fact, he doesn't want you to be defeated by sin even once. He doesn't want you to be defeated by Satan even once.

He wants you to overcome Satan all the time. I'm so sad that in my life, when I was born again 62 years ago, the people who taught me, I was in a good fellowship of Christians, born again Christians, but they never, never taught me that God wanted me to be an overcomer.

They never taught me what it says in Revelation 3, 21. He who overcomes will inherit all things. He who overcomes even as I overcame, Revelation 3, 21, will sit with me on my throne. So the book of Revelation mentions overcoming a number of times.

God wants us to be overcomers. And I want to say that to each one of you who's listening. God wants you as a Christian, if you're not born again, then first of all, repent of your sins and receive Christ as your savior and Lord.

And then say, Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit. Jesus was filled with the spirit and then encountered the devil. You need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, very important. If Jesus himself needed that, where are you and I?

Don't devalue that. We need to be filled with the spirit every single day. I seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit every single day. And unfortunately, when I was first converted, my sins were forgiven.

Jesus had forgiven me, but I was not filled with the spirit for a number of years till I was so fed up with my defeated Christian life that I began to seek God. And I was frustrated, defeated in my thoughts, defeated with anger as a born again Christian.

And I was a preacher. I got so fed up that I said, Lord, I'm gonna stop preaching because I'm a hypocrite. I'm not an overcoming. And when I hit rock bottom of failure, the Lord met with me and filled me with the Holy Spirit.

That was 46 years ago, changed, completely changed the direction of my life. And after that, I began my real ministries. After that, the churches started in India and elsewhere. So I see the importance of that.

And I wanna tell you some other thing. It is only after that that I began to understand what it means to overcome Satan. I had never cast out a demon in all those 16 years after I was born again. But when I was filled with the Holy Spirit, I began to encounter people with demons.

And I could pass them out with one word, just like Jesus. In the name of Jesus, get out. And the demon would go. I understood the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, not everyone is called to cast out demons, but everyone is called to overcome Satan.

And here is Jesus as our example. He was tempted and you will be tempted. We are tempted through the lusts in our own flesh, as we read in James chapter one. We are also tempted by Satan from the outside, from within and from without.

Romans, Ephesians, and the Believer’s Position in Christ

And we are to be overcomers. So let me turn you now to Ephesians in chapter one. The book of Ephesians. Let me tell you two things about Romans and Ephesians. Romans is the one book that explains the gospel of salvation all the way from ground zero in Romans one, all the way up to chapter 16.

And it goes step by step by step by step, how we are justified, our sins are cleansed in the blood of Christ, justified, how we can overcome, saying Romans six, how we are freed from the law, Romans seven, life in the spirit, Romans eight, and in building the body of Christ, Romans 12.

And finally, if the gospel ends in Romans 16, verse 20 saying, Satan will be crushed under your feet. That's the ultimate end of the gospel, Romans 16, 20. Now in Ephesians, also Ephesians is a wonderful book that explains some more practical things of life on this earth as a Christian.

And there are three things mentioned in Ephesians, basically. One is our personal walk with God. Ephesians one, I pray, Paul says that you may be, that the eyes of your heart, Ephesians 1, 18, may be enlightened, and that you be strengthened with the strength of his might.

Verse 19, that you see Christ who has been raised from the dead, verse 20, Ephesians 1, 20, far above all rule and authority, and how he has put, verse 22, Ephesians 1, 2, everything under his feet. That's understood.

Everything's under his feet. Now, here's the amazing thing. And he has given him to be the head, Ephesians 1, 22, 23, of his body, the church. Where are your feet? Not in your head. It's in your body.

And it says here, we are the body of Christ. Connect that with verse 22. Everything is to be under his feet. That means, and we are his body, it's to be under our feet, Satan especially. From there, it goes on a little more to speak about our personal walk with God.

Ephesians 3, 17, to be filled. First of all, Ephesians 2, 6, he has raised us up with him and made us sit in the heavenly places in Christ. No one in the old covenant could experience this. We are united with Christ on the cross, crucified, buried, raised up.

2 ,000 years ago, I died with Christ on the cross. You say, how can that be? Because, as it says in Ephesians 1, 4, I was in God's mind before the foundation of the world. Zach Poonen was in God's mind.

And you, if you're a born again Christian, you were in God's mind before he created the world. Genesis 1, 1. Ephesians 1, 4 teaches that. And therefore, he could put you and me into Christ when Christ was crucified on the cross.

And therefore, we are crucified with Christ. And when Christ was raised up from the dead, we were raised up with him. And it says here, when he went up into the heavenly places, where's Ephesians 2, 6, we were raised up with him and we are seated with him in the heavenly places.

Now, remember, we are working towards understanding how to overcome Satan. But you've got to understand all this foundational truth of your position in Christ. If we do not understand our position in Christ, forget about overcoming Satan.

We have no power in ourselves to overcome Satan completely out of the question. We're too weak. But when we are in Christ, believe it or not, Satan is scared of us. I remember once the Lord spoke this to my heart.

For so many years, I was afraid of Satan. One day, the Lord spoke this to my heart on the basis of scripture. As you were afraid of Satan, from now on, Satan will be afraid of you. Wow. I said, thank you, Lord.

Not because of who I am. I'm still made of dust. But Christ has come into me, filled me with the Holy Spirit, made me his child, given me authority, put all things under my feet, under his feet, and I'm part of that body.

And he wants Satan to be crushed under my feet. Romans 16, 20. And therefore, I see myself, Ephesians 2, succeeded with Christ in the heavenly places. And that's why it says in Colossians, if you are, we turn there for a moment before I come back to Ephesians.

Colossians 3, 1. If you are risen with Christ, if, and it is true, what it means is Colossians 3, 1. If you recognize that you are risen with Christ, then set your mind first to on things above. The mind is a very, very important part of our being.

And if you want to be an overcomer, allow the Holy Spirit to control your thinking. That's why we have to really battle in our minds. Ask the Holy Spirit to control your thinking. Make sure there is no unforgiveness towards somebody there.

Satan will get far over you if you haven't forgiven somebody. Yes. Set your mind on things above. Be as God is, who forgives everyone as soon as they turn around. And as Jesus was on the cross, even when people did not repent, the people who killed him did not repent.

He said, Father, forgive me. Can you say that to people who have not repented of the evil they did to you? Say that. Right now, say, Lord, I want to forgive every single person who has done harm to me in my entire life.

I'll tell you honestly, I live like that. A lot of people have done harm to me through my life, mostly because I'm a servant of the Lord and the devil instigates them to kill me. I've been a servant of the Lord and the devil instigates them to trouble me in so many ways.

Many, many evil things. But I say before God, I have forgiven every single one of them. The memory of what they did is in my mind. I'm not bothered about that. Even Jesus remembers all the evil that people did to him, but he forgave all of them.

You may remember what people did to you, but is your attitude one? Lord, I forgive them. I do not wish evil to them. I wish good for them. I wish they'll be born again. Very, very important. Set your mind on things above.

Forgiveness as Protection Against Satan’s Schemes

And if we are like that, then we can overcome. Turn back for a moment to Ephesians chapter four. Now, before we get to Ephesians, I wanna show you a verse in 2 Corinthians 2. I was speaking to you about forgiveness.

Listen to this. We're talking about overcoming sin and the importance of forgiving everybody. 2 Corinthians 2, verse 10. If you forgive anything, and there was someone who had done some harm to the church in Corinth, I also forgive.

2 Corinthians 2 .10. And what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sake in the presence of Christ. That means I'm not playing the fool when I say I've forgiven somebody. In the presence of Jesus, I say, I have forgiven that person.

And he says, if you don't do that, listen to this. If you don't do that, verse 11, Satan will take advantage of you. Forgive so that Satan cannot take any advantage of you. Because he says, we are not ignorant of his schemes.

What are his schemes in the context of this verse? His scheme is to get authority over you. He will keep an unforgiving spirit in your heart towards someone. It may be one person. That's enough. You know, you need only one hole in a vessel for everything in the vessel to leak out.

Everything in your life will leak out through one single hole. You don't forgive somebody. One human being, you have not forgiven. That's enough. You'll never be able to remain filled with the spirit.

Everything will leak out. We are not ignorant of his schemes and devices. And therefore, we don't want him to take any advantage over us. We don't want Satan to take any advantage over us. Therefore, I forgive.

And if Paul needed to say that, you and I need to say that too. My dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you in Jesus' name, in your interest, certainly, but much more interest so that Christ can be glorified through your life.

Forgive everyone. You know, every one of us as human beings, somebody or the other has done us harm in this earth. If you're more than five years old, you've faced harm from somebody or the other in the world.

We have to forgive. You may remember, let me repeat, but make sure there's no bitterness in your heart against that person. Say in the presence of Jesus, Lord, I forgive that person. I'm not gonna hold anything against him from now on.

I will not allow Satan to get any advantage over me. Maybe this is the reason why you've had so many problems in your life, why Satan's been able to trouble you so much in your life. Because you wouldn't forgive someone.

Personal Holiness, Love, and the Holy Spirit

Very, very important. It's only through sin that Satan gets power over anyone. Okay, let's turn back to Ephesians. I was saying that in Ephesians, you're seated with Christ in the heavenly places in Ephesians 2, 6.

And then he goes on, he's talking about a personal life. Now, all this, chapters one to three is about our personal life in Ephesians. Then he goes on to say about, I pray, he says that you'll be strengthened, verse 3, 16, that you'll be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner man, Ephesians 3, 16, that Christ will be rooted, dwell in your heart, and thus you will be rooted and grounded in love.

This is the next thing I wanna say. What does it mean to be grounded in love through the power of the Holy Spirit? I can't do it without that. It doesn't mean I have to help every human being I know. That is impossible.

There's a very limited number of people who we can help. And the degree of help will also be more according to the circle we are in. For example, my immediate family, my wife and children. Those are the ones I will help the most.

And then outside that will be brothers and sisters in the church, and then other human beings. So there are circles, and I will not be able to help the brothers and the sisters in the church as much as my own family first.

God has made it that way, and I don't have to feel guilty about it. And I won't be able to help other human beings as much as I help people in the church. That's also okay, I don't feel guilty. But it says here that I must be rooted and grounded in love.

Grounded in love means, grounded is a picture of a house, strongly grounded in a particular place. And like all of us, I've got a mailing address. You've got a mailing address. If somebody wants to write a letter to you or an email to you, there's an email address you have, or a mailing address.

Your email address must be love. You'll always be found there, always. Your mailing address must be love, the love of Christ in my heart. You'll always find me there, brothers, sisters, always. No matter what happens in the world around me, no matter how other people treat me, no matter what other people say about me, no matter what I've heard, evil that other people have said or done to me, my house is grounded on love.

God loves me, and that love is in my heart towards every human being. Very important, grounded in love. This is God's will for us. It was impossible before the Holy Spirit came. Now, Peter could not love Jesus.

Even on the night of his crucifixion, he was ashamed to acknowledge it. But boy, when he was filled with the Holy Spirit, what a different person he became. Just six weeks later, that's what happens when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts.

Great verse in Romans 5 .5, many people ask me, what is the mark of being filled with the Holy Spirit? Now, there are many dear friends of ours in Pentecostal charismatic circles who will say speaking in tongues.

I don't agree with that. 1 Corinthians 12 says very clearly towards the end of that chapter, all do not speak with tongues. But I'll tell you what the Holy Spirit does. Romans 5 .5 is my answer. When the Holy Spirit fills us, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts.

If that has not happened, you are not filled with the Holy Spirit. I'm not against the gift of tongues. I've spoken in tongues for 46 years, but that's not the primary thing, and I do not use in public.

Like Paul said, I'd rather speak five words in English rather than 10 ,000 words in a tongue in a church. But that's in private. Paul says I speak in tongues more than all of you, but that's not the main thing.

The Holy Spirit fills us, He fills us with love, fervent love for Christ, willingness to do anything that He wants us to do. And as far as our capacity is, our capacity is different. It grows as we walk with the Lord, love for others.

I believe by the grace of God, I love other people more today than I did when I was first filled with the Spirit, because our capacity grows, and it must be like that with you. Don't be disturbed if you can't love everybody.

The ones whom God has given you in the little circle, love them, and don't remain there. Let that grow, let that grow, let that, your capacity grow just like you want a child to grow. God wants you to grow in love.

Won't you be concerned if your child is not growing in understanding and in physical growth and in intelligence? Well, in the same way, God wants you to grow in love. Romans 5, 5, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, and that is what we must concentrate on.

So remember these two things I mentioned to you, forgiving everyone, very, very important, and asking God to fill our hearts with love for everyone to a different degree according to the circle in which we know them.

Family Life and Building the Church

So that is our personal life. Then the next thing that Ephesians speaks about is our family life, and that is in Ephesians 5, 22 to 33, not to 33, sorry, up to chapter six, verse nine. In the family in those days, there was husband and wife, parents and children, and in those days, they even had servants in the home, like many, many homes today in many countries, even like India, there are servants who are in the home.

And so that is the whole family, and there we have to manifest Christ. First of all, we saw Ephesians 1 to 3, our personal life, then our family life, the Holy Spirit fills us in order to build up our family life.

Now, why am I saying all this? I'll tell you in a moment, because at the end of this description, okay, let me come to that later. Personal life, family life, that is wives, husbands, how you should relate to each other, Ephesians 5, verse 22, wives subject to your husbands, verse 25, husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the church.

Chapter six, parents, fathers, bring up your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, and if you're a master, treat your servants graciously, graciously, nicely, don't threaten them, Ephesians 6, 9.

The other thing, the book of Ephesians, letter to Ephesians talks about is building the church. Three things, our personal life, we saw that in chapters one to three, our family life, we saw that in chapter five and the early part of chapter six, and the body of Christ, in Ephesians 4 and 5, he speaks in Ephesians 4, 16 about the last part of the growth of the body, of building up of itself in love.

To build the body, he has given Ephesians 4, 11, some apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers to equip the saints, verse 12, for the building up of the body of Christ. So there are three things mentioned in Ephesians right up to chapter six, verse nine.

What are those three? Our personal walk with God, filled with the Holy Spirit, secondly, our family life, and thirdly, building the body of Christ through apostles, prophets, evangelists, and through each joint fulfilling its function.

That's what we read in Ephesians 4, 16. The body is built by what every joint supplies. A joint is your relationship with one other believer, your relationship with your wife, your relationship with your husband, with your children, with your fellow believers in your church, those joints, there must always be a supply of life, that's the body is built.

So every weakest brother or sister in the church has a part to fulfill. Now, once these things are emphasized, then he says, I'll tell you why, because our battle is against Satan. And that's how Ephesians 6 ends.

Ephesians 6, finally, brethren, be strong in the Lord, Ephesians 6, 10. Put on the armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. Now, you see what I've built this up for. Our foundation is that God loves us perfectly.

The first story is our personal walk with God, cleansed from all sin and seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The second story is our family life. The third story is we build the church. Then we can stand against Satan.

The ultimate purpose is that we overcome Satan in our personal life, in our family life, and in our church life, in all three areas. The three areas mentioned in Ephesians 1 to 5. So all this is leading up to standing against Satan in the full armor of God and having done everything, Ephesians 6, 13, in the evil day, resisting and standing firm.

The Church’s Conflict With Satan

So you must be assured that God wants you to overcome Satan. And for that, you must be careful about your personal life, your family life, and your relationship in the church. You cannot overcome Satan if you're a lone believer who is not bothered about fellowship with any church.

Let me say that to you. If you're a lone wanderer saying, I've accepted Christ, well, the measure in which you, you may overcome sin, but you will not be able to overcome Satan and accomplish God's purposes on earth.

I'll tell you why. Turn with me to Matthew 16 and verse 18. Please turn to Matthew 16 and verse 18. This is the first time that Jesus ever spoke about the church in the New Testament. And the very first time that Jesus speaks about the church, by church, I don't mean a building, I don't mean a denomination, I mean the members of the body of Christ who are under the headship of Christ, that's the church, around the world or in your locality.

And the first time that Jesus spoke about the church, he spoke about the church's conflict with Satan. Isn't that interesting? He didn't speak about the church in relation to preaching the gospel first.

That comes later in Matthew 28. But the first thing he said was, the church that I built will overcome Satan. When he says the gates of Hades, it's speaking about the powers of spiritual darkness. And the church is going to attack the gates of Satan.

When you think about, many people think that Ephesians, sorry, Matthew 16, 18 is referring to the, Satan attacking the church and the church is sort of holding on inside the fort and saying, oh, help me Lord.

Like there's a song that says, hold the fort for I'm coming. And we are inside the fort being attacked by Satan. All around, we're scared. And we say, oh Lord, please come and deliver us. That is not the picture.

That is a false picture of the church. Read carefully. Really, a lot of our problems are because we don't read the scripture carefully. It's not the church sitting in a fort, crying out to the Lord to help us.

And as if the Lord is saying, hold the fort for I'm coming and the devil's attacking us all around. I repeat that, I repeat that because we need to understand that. A lot of people have got that idea.

Satan is attacking all around and I'm trying to survive somehow or the other. No, we are to attack him. See what it says. The gates of hell. Can gates come and attack you? When you think of the Old Testament, the city used to be surrounded by a fort and there'd be a gates.

The gates have no power to attack. The enemy forces are coming and attacking and breaking through the gates and occupying that city. Picture that in your mind. A city with strong gates and the army is coming and attacking the gates and the gates are not able to stand.

So when it says the gates of hell will not be able to overpower it, who's attacking who? Is the church attacking the gates of Hades? The gates of hell. We are to resist Satan. Satan will come and tempt us, but we stand against him.

We stand against Satan in our life. We stand against Satan in our home life. We stand against Satan in the church and Satan will not be able to overcome. Now, if you're not convinced about this, it's no use proceeding.

Don't even try. If you're not convinced about this. So remember this, I cannot overcome Satan if I'm a lone individual. Jesus was a lone individual, but he was the full body of Christ. Don't forget that.

To the body of Christ in Jesus, he was the full body of Christ, he defeated Satan. Today, the body of Christ is not you and me, but the church, the brothers and sisters. I have to be in fellowship with the church in order to overcome.

Unity, Church Discipline, and Spiritual Authority

Turn with me now to Matthew's gospel. The second time Jesus spoke about the church. First, we saw in chapter 16. The second is chapter 18. And again, the emphasis is on conflict with Satan. You know, he says about if a brother sins, that means he's been overpowered by Satan in some way.

Matthew 18, verse 15. You have to try and bring him back through repentance and convict him. And if he doesn't listen to you, Matthew 18, 17, tell it to the church. This is the second time he spoke about the church.

About disciplining a brother who's gone wrong and he doesn't listen to you, tell it to the church. And then in relation to the church, listen to this what he says. As a church, Matthew 18, verse 19, what you bind on earth will be bound in the heavenlies.

The heavenlies means where Ephesians 6 speaks about the powers of evil in the heavenlies. Satan was cast out of the third heaven many years ago and into the second heaven. And that's where he is now. And that's where he bind his power.

And if I bind Satan's power in the heavenlies, he will not be able to be active around me on earth. So that's, again, in relation to the church. And the church is described in verse 20 as two or three gathered together in my name.

This is one of the clearest definitions of the church. Not 200 ,000 and 300 ,000. Don't think a mega church is the place where Christ is. Christ is where two or three, even two, even a husband and a wife, gathered, not they gathered themselves.