Spiritual Warfare. Part 4

WILES/SCHEMES/DEVICES

Ephesians 6:11 (ESV) — 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

Ephesians 6:11 (KJV 1900) — 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

§ Last week we began our first study of understanding how the enemy operates and the nature of spiritual attacks by studying the word devil derived from the word diabolos a compound of the word (dia and balos).

§ In this study we learnt how the enemy repeatedly comes after our minds to sow lies and negative thoughts with the intention to taking our minds captives and establishing a stronghold from where he rules and controls our lives.

§ Today we will look two more words that will help us understand further the operations of our enemy so that we can recognise when we are under attack and how we can push back to allow our minds to remain submitted unto God.

a) The word wiles or as other versions put it schemes shows us that our enemy is not random in his approach or attacks, he is a schemer and a strategist, he is very methodical in his approach, he has a procedure and a planned conscious approach

b) The word wiles or schemes comes from the word “methodos” a compound of the word (meta + odos), meta translates as “with”, odos where we get our word odometer

c) ODOS is where we get the word for road, single lane or method, combining these two words methodos helps understand something very simple and yet very important about our enemy, he operates “with a road, or single lane or operates with an avenue.

d) He doesn’t have many tricks or strategies; he operates primarily with one avenue of attack and has been doing so for the past 6000 years of human existence all the way from the garden of Eden he has been an adversary to mankind

e) If he operates on a road or single avenue where is this road headed to?

f) This single lane, single road and single avenue is headed to the mind, the mind is therefore the battlefield as we have already seen from his diabolic nature of repeatedly striking the mind until he penetrates

g) His single most tried and tested method/scheme/wile/strategy is that of creating or paving a road headed straight to the mind, he is the master of mind games, deception, lies, manipulation, and control

h) His strategy of attack is headed straight to the mind, will and emotions where he begins to strike, bombard, shell, pound, assail the mind with negative thoughts, assumptions, lies, reinforcements, echoes, welds, unbearable feelings, weakening the mind until he establishes a stronghold from where he camps and takes the believer captive.

2 Corinthians 2:11(KJV 1900) — 11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

2 Corinthians 2:11(NIV84) — 11 in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

2 Corinthians 2:11(ESV) — 11 so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.

a) The word devices/schemes/designs in this text sheds more light on the nature of the enemy’s method of attack

b) The word devices is taken from the word (noemata) which means a mind/brain that has been shelled, bombarded, penetrated from so many angles, so many times that it is now deceived or deluded

c) A mind that has been deluded and deceived so much that it has been taken captive

d) The enemy has succeeded to pave a road into the brain to build a stronghold

e) The only antidote to this is TRUTH, using truth to renew the mind

f) We have learnt that the enemy’s one tried and tested method is bombarding the mind with lies repeatedly until he takes the mind captive in order to build a stronghold as a base from which he controls people’s emotions, behaviours, character and destiny