Manifest Presence of Satan — E.A. Johnston

Satan Is Often Blamed for the Flesh and Circumstances

I reckon that the devil gets blamed for a lot of things, which he didn't do. We will say something like, the devil tempted me today, or the devil tripped me up today. We will say something to the effect, today the devil wouldn't leave me alone.

He hung out with me and caused me trouble. When the reality is that the person of Satan has more than likely never personally even visited you, he's got bigger fish to fry. Your own flesh and circumstance tripped you up because your corrupt nature has a bent towards sin.

When Ministry Draws Satan's Opposition

But there are times in our life where we can draw Satan's attention and opposition. The Puritan Thomas Brooks spoke of this while writing his book entitled, Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices. He acknowledged in his preface, the strange opposition that I met with from Satan in the study of this following discourse.

While I can relate to that, friends, as a Christian biographer, when I was conducting my research and writing my two-volume definitive biography on the life of George Whitefield, I soon learned that Satan was not happy about it.

When Whitefield was alive, he wouldn't leave the devil alone as he preached the doctrine of the new birth on two continents in powerful revival and spiritual awakening. And in the midst of my labors while writing that 1 ,200-page book, I faced strange opposition from the forces of evil, but Satan never personally visited me until one particular day, I really feel that he did.

Personal Testimony of Satan's Manifest Presence

Listen to me, friends. It was the day of my wife's suicide. A black day, indeed. All hell came against me that day, and as I was being questioned by a detective at the police station, I was told to sit in a waiting room while the detective ran a chemical test on a barbecue stain on my trousers.

The previous night, my wife and I had had dinner at a local barbecue restaurant, and it was my normal sloppy self. I spilled some barbecue sauce on my trousers, but the detective said it looked like blood.

He wouldn't believe me, it was a barbecue stain, and he wanted to swab it and run a test on it because I was suspicious to him. And so I had to sit in the waiting room. In this room had a police officer at a desk with a TV set next to him with about six other people in the room with me.

And the TV channel that day was tuned to a very disgusting talk show where the conversation was so perverted and sexually explicit, I had to hold my hands over my ears to try to drown out the perversion that I was being subjected to.

And while I sat there in the shock and trauma of grieving my wife's sudden death, and while I sat there while a detective was in another room unconvinced that I was not the murderer, and on top of all that, I was forced to listen to a perverted TV show where the talk was sexually explicit, it was there while I sat there with my hands over my ears squirming there that I suddenly felt the manifest presence of Satan.

He came beside me in an accusing and mocking tone, and he taunted me and mocked me for several minutes, and then he left me as suddenly as he had appeared. I don't know what I had done to make him so angry, but I felt his hot displeasure and mocking demeanor that day.

Spiritual Opposition in the Mission Field

Some of you may know something of which I speak. Maybe you're a missionary on the mission field, and things have gotten pretty hot against you. Perhaps some voodoo's been spoke against you in the part of Africa where you are, and you're facing the forces of the devil.

Perhaps your ministry has made a dent in hell, and you've drawn Satan's attention. The Apostle Paul's ministry had gotten the attention of Satan, as we see in Acts chapter 19, where we read,. Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preached.

And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

Paul's Ministry on Satan's Radar

Well I will stop there, friends, to say it was obvious from this text that the Apostle Paul was on Satan's radar screen, and was causing him great frustration and displeasure. I'm sure Wesley and Whitfield did the same.

I remember Leonard Ravenhill saying that he wanted to be known in hell. Well some of you may have a hell-shaken prayer life, or a hell-storm in ministry, and you have to dodge the arrows of Satan more than others.

Persevering in the Christian Battleground

The Christian life is not meant to be all honey blossoms and roses all the time, but to be a battleground, a battlefield, where a fight is fought, where hot lead is flying all around you. If you've gotten Satan's attention, then I want to encourage you, friend, with the following advice from Thomas Brooks, who wrote, Remember this, that your life is short, and your duty's many, your assistance great, and your reward sure.

Therefore, faint not, hold on, and hold up, in ways of well-doing, and Heaven shall make amends for all. Let us pray.