Preparing for Victory

"Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, ¹¹ lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices."

2 Corinthians 2:10-11

In his second letter to the church in Corinth, Paul spoke of the importance of recognising the tactics of Satan to prevent him from taking advantage of believers.  Unforgiveness is a snare Satan lays at our feet when we have been offended or after we heard about what others said or did.  When we allow malice and envy to abide in our hearts it leads to greater sin.  In William Gurnall's book The Christian in Complete Armour, after a detailed explanation of various satanic tactics, he counsels believers in good actions to take.  In light of God's sovereignty and goodness, there are things we can do to be prepared:

1.  Take God into thy counsel.  Heaven overlooks hell.  God at any time can tell thee what plots are hatching there against thee.  Consider Satan as he is God's creature; so God cannot but know him.  He that makes the watch, knows every pin in it. He formed this crooked serpent, though not the crookedness of this serpent; and though Satan's way in tempting is as wonderful as the way of a serpent on a rock, yet God traceth him, yea, knows all his thoughts together.  Hell itself is naked before him; and this destroyer hath no covering.  Again, consider him as God's prisoner, who hath him fast in chains, and so the Lord, who is his keeper, must needs know whither his prisoner goes, who cannot stir without his leave.  Lastly, consider him as his messenger, for so he is.  An evil spirit from the Lord vexed Saul, and he that give him his errand, is able to tell thee what it is.  Go then and plough with God's heifer; improve thy interest in Christ, who knows what his Father knows, and is ready to reveal all that concerns thee to thee (Job xv. 15).  It was he who descried the devil coming against Peter and the rest of the apostles, and faithfully revealed it to them, before they thought of any such matter (Luke xxii).  Through Christ's hands passes all that is transacted in heaven and hell.  We live in days of great actions, deep counsels, and plots on all sides, and only a few that stand on the upper end of the world know these mysteries of state; all the rest know little more than pamphlet intelligence.  Thus it is in regard of those plots which Satan in his infernal conclave is laying against the souls of men; they are but a few that know anything to the purpose of Satan's designs against them; and those are the saints, from whom God cannot hide his own counsels of love, but sends his Spirit to reveal unto them here, what he hath prepared for them in heaven (1 Cor. ii. 10), and therefore much less will he conceal any destructive plot of Satan from them.

2. Be intimately acquainted with thy own heart, and thou wilt the better know his design against thee, who takes his method of tempting from the inclination and posture of thy heart.  As a general walks about the city, and views it will, and then raiseth his batteries where he hath the greatest advantage, so doth Satan compass and consider the Christian in every part before he tempts.

 3. Be careful to read the Word of God with observation.  In it thou has the history of the most remarkable battles that have been fought by the most eminent worthies in Christ's army of saints with this great warrior Satan.  Here thou mayst see how Satan hath foiled them, and how they have recovered their lost ground.  Here you have his cabinet-counsels opened.  There is not a lust which you are in danger of, but you have it descried; not a temptation which the Word doth not arm you against.  It is reported that a certain Jew should have poisoned Luther, but was happily prevented by his picture which was sent to Luther, with a warning from a faithful friend that he should take heed of such a man when he saw him, by which he knew the murderer, and escaped his hands.  The Word shows thee, O Christian, the face of those lusts which Satan employs to butcher thy precious soul.  "By them is thy servant warned,' saith David (Ps. xix. 11).  (Gurnall, William. Christian In Complete Armour. Banner of Truth Trust, 2002. Pages 84-85)