Our enemy is the devil, who tempts us and desires our destruction. He hates God and all those who follow Jesus. There is nothing he desires more than to have you and everyone else in Hell with him. If we are to win at spiritual warfare we have to both know who the true enemy is (the devil) and the tactics of how he fights against us. In order to unveil his battle plans, I have highlighted some of them below.
3 Tactics Of The Devil During This Crisis
1 - The devil is lying and twisting the truth about it all. He will lie about it all to drag us from truth. He will lie about our identity, about what will make us happy, and about his very existence, and about goodness. He will tempt you with money, pleasure, power, etc. by whispering that these things will bring happiness, when they won’t. They can’t. Only God can. But, the devil can’t help himself – he very nature leads him to lie. He NEVER speaks the full truth to us. He twists it in order to tempt us to believe his lies.
During this crisis, his lies include:
-Your very identity is wrapped up in a job you lost or can’t do. You are nothing without it.
-Your family is a deterrent to your happiness.
-You can conquer the pain and hurt with alcohol, porn, etc.
-The things you are living without are necessary for happiness.
The truth is - God holds the key to our happiness, identity, and healing. God is the one we need to seek and follow. God can provide. God can renew.
“He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” -John 8:44
2 - He is stirring up division, disobedience, and enmity in the Church. He may use personality or communication issues. He sometimes uses our own sinfulness to play on our weaknesses. He also uses politics, hatred, pride, etc. No matter the tool, he can’t stand that the Catholic Church might stand united with each other and Jesus. Since Jesus came to unite us to the Father and one another, the devil hates unity, because our unity is a sign to the world of God’s love.
He wants us to doubt our leaders and cast aside our obedience to them. This is currently being magnified by some Catholic commentators who grow Catholic angst by either peddling conspiracies or setting themselves up as the ones with “truth” about what is “really going on”. Many have monetized Catholic angst and frustration for their own benefit, all while sowing seeds of doubt on our true spiritual fathers. There is a kind of gnostic secret knowledge that pervades some of the comments on the internet. They sell a kind of insider knowledge that tells the dark secrets of the Church being taken over by those that disagree with them. We need to guard against such ideas.
I am not saying these Catholic commentators are evil themselves (even if I believe them wrong and misguided - and in some cases sinful), but he is certainly tempting some Catholics toward disobedience, doubt, angst, and frustration through their work. It is causing division and discobedience in some Catholics and this makes the devil happy.
“I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” -John 17: 20-21
3 - The devil is tempting us to be afraid and discouraged. If he can get your heart to question whether you are really loved, whether you really can conquer a particular sin, whether anyone cares for you, whether you are worthy, etc. – then he wins over your heart to fear and discouragement. This is why one of the most popular themes in the Bible is to have no fear. Faith, hope, and perfect love cast out fear, because we rest in the truth of Jesus, not in the lies of the devil.
Right now, many Catholics are afraid of having the Mass being inaccessible for a longer period. They worry about how long social distancing may last. They are scared about what the future might hold economically or politically. This is right where the devil wants you, in fear and discouragement. God wants you to hope. Hope that heaven is real. That God is in charge. That suffering can be redemptive and is always temporary. Hope and be at peace.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” -John 14:27
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I leave you with this quote:
“The most important thing that the Christian faith has to tell us is not that demons exist, but that Christ has defeated them. For Christians, Christ and demons are not two equal, but rather contrary principles, as certain dualistic religions believe to be the case with good and evil. Jesus is the only Lord; Satan is only a creature “gone bad.” If power over men is given to Satan, it is because men have the possibility of freely choosing sides and also to keep them from being too proud (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:7), believing themselves to be self-sufficient and without need of any redeemer. “Old Satan is crazy,” goes an African-American spiritual. “He shot me to destroy my soul, but missed and destroyed my sin instead.”
“With Christ we have nothing to fear. Nothing and no one can do us ill, unless we ourselves allow it. Satan, said an ancient Father of the Church, after Christ’s coming, is like a dog chained up in the barnyard: He can bark and lunge as much as he wants, but if we don’t go near him, he cannot harm us.” -Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa