Ephesians 4:26-27

26 When angry, do not sin; do not ever let your wrath (your exasperation, your fury or indignation) last until the sun goes down.

27 Leave no [such] room or foothold for the devil [give no opportunity to him].

Think about how so many teach these verses. They teach that we can allow satan into our lives through our own actions. If we had the power to allow satan in to harm us, then what kind of Shepherd would Jesus be? I don’t care how smart or stupid a sheep is, the Shepherd alone is responsible for keeping it safe. Also, if we could allow satan in to mistreat us, then what kind of Gardener would our Father be? The Bible teaches us that we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 4:30. So if we had the power to allow satan into our lives, the seal wouldn’t be that strong would it?  

So the question is, can satan be involved in our life’s? The Truth is that satan was created by our Father. He was created to serve our Father. Just because satan rebelled doesn’t mean that he no longer is a servant, he isn’t that strong to change what our Father created him to be. So for satan to be able to come against us, he has to be directed to or allowed to by our Father. And if our Father directs satan to come at us, he can only do what our Father allows him to do. The reality is that our Father does allow him into our lives from time to time to carry out His will. 

And to keep me from being puffed up and too much elated by the exceeding greatness (preeminence) of these revelations, there was given me a thorn ( a splinter) in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to rack and buffet and harass me, to keep me from being excessively exalted. 2 Corinthians 12:7

Our Father sent this messenger of satan here to deal with Paul. If satan on his own came to Paul, he would have caused Paul to be puffed up. Vanity and pride are the tools that satan would have used to cause Paul to fail. The Truth in all of this is that we can have peace even if satan is allowed to come to us. Our Father is still our Gardener and Jesus is still our Shepherd and we are still sealed with the Holy Spirit. Satan is still a servant of our Father and he can only do what his Master, Who is our Father, tells him to do. Our peace is that all things work out for our good! Satan does not have free range in our life’s and just because he rebelled didn’t release him from his service to our Father.

So if you are ever asked if you were attacked by satan this week, you can rejoice and loudly proclaim that if I was, it was because my Father allowed him and directed him to. Paul writes this in an attempt to have people live right. There is a wonderful scripture about satan and it is Luke 22:31. Satan had to ask to attack the Apostles. Now if he was so powerful and so free to do what he wanted, why did he have to ask? The Apostles were messing up all of the time and satan was not allowed to just come and get them. He had to ask first. Doesn’t sound like he is all of that powerful if he had to ask. Our Father is powerful and our Lord is powerful and through Christ we stand. Our own strength is useless, just as our own righteousness is useless. But we never stand in our own strength, we are always kept by Jesus’ strength and Jesus never fails