Day: June 16, 2012

The Devil is nothing if not an excellent psychologist. He has had the whole of human history to apply himself to the study of our fallen nature. When we take into consideration the fact that he possesses an enormous, if perverted, intelligence we must soberly realize that Satan has an all too astute understanding of “what makes us tick” behaviorally.

This is critically important for Christians to fully recognize, for if we do not we will gravely underestimate our enemy’s power to wreak havoc on our lives in one of our most vulnerable areas, that of our psyche.

C.S. Lewis tells us that there are two equal and opposite mistakes we make about the Devil. One is to assume that he does not exist and ignore him and the other is to see Satan under every rock and become unhealthily obsessed with him. Depending on the wing of the church you belong to you will most likely lean towards one or the other mistake. Oftentimes the more “cerebral” denominations tend to dismiss spiritual warfare while the more emotionally-driven ones become obsessed with it. Conservative Episcopalians and Charismatic Pentecostals are, for instance, not likely to see eye to eye on how to best handle the reality of Personal Evil in our world.

But for the thoughtful and biblical believer in any denominational camp the spiritual obligation remains the same. We must know our enemy if we are to overcome him in Christ. As the Scripture tells us we need be aware of the Devil’s schemes and that means also being aware of his capabilities. This includes having some understanding of how He works in the psychological realm.

A capable Christian counselor, who has been well-trained in perceiving the environmental and genetic factors that have melded a particular human personality, can have a great deal of positive influence on a client’s walk with God (especially if that counselor looks at the many findings of psychological study through a truly biblical lens.) After a long period of therapy, and with the Holy Spirit’s help, such a counselor can come to sense much of what his or her subject’s state of mind and even soul are during any particular session. This is an impressive ability that comes into the possession of a good therapist after many years of prayer, training and field work.

The problem for us is that our spiritual enemy has had thousands of years of such “training and field work” and has, we can safely assume, applied his diabolical intelligence to his own knowledge of the human mind and soul. Today he uses his vast knowledge in this area to wage war on us, seeking only our harm. We dare not underestimate the implications of this aspect of spiritual warfare. While the Devil may not be able to read our minds he can perceive much about us and our weaknesses by simply observing our lives, or having his demonic underlings observe our lives in his stead. It is safe to state that such a supernatural being knows at least as much about our psychological weaknesses as does the best human counselor.

I say this not to give believers another reason to dread spiritual warfare, but rather to further equip “Christian soldiers” with vital knowledge of their enemy. With such knowledge we will not be blindsided by Satan’s attempts to attack our psyche and can apply the strong spiritual armor our Lord equips us with specifically to such attacks. With God’s help we can learn to recognize when a bout of depression, anxiety, or other emotional affliction is the result of satanic or demonic attack and how to defend ourselves against such attacks in the future.

The fundamental thing to remember is that when we are called “more than conquerors” through the unsurpassed power of the Lord Jesus Christ this as much applies to overcoming the Devil’s psychological assaults on our minds and souls as it does any other kind of assault. Once we know our enemy’s “schemes” we can come to know how to pray and act to defeat those schemes and if we, in faith, rely on the power of our Lord to do so defeat them we will.

So Satan may indeed be a great psychologist. He may, in fact, be many seemingly impressive things but because of the cross he still remains an ultimately conquered enemy for we who are the sons and daughters of God.