Satan’s Fake News Campaign

Neutralizing Churches by Twisting Their Prayers

By Kyle Davison Bair

“What’s the point of resisting the devil?” Darren asked. “Isn’t he ten trillion times more powerful than we are?”

He had a point. The devil is an incomprehensible spirit being with legions of demonic soldiers to command. Horror movies depict demons as well-nigh invincible.

But Darren was missing something.

“You’re half right,” I said. “If it was just you and me against the devil, we’d be toast. But it isn’t. We have the Spirit of God inside us. That makes us stronger than the devil can ever hope to be.” Darren leaned back in his chair and smiled.

“With one exception,” I continued.

He lost his smile.

“If the devil can trick you into thinking there’s no point in resisting him, then he neutralizes you.”Darren looked puzzled. Then his face brightened. “It doesn’t matter how strong you are if you don’t fight back.”“Right,” I said. “Satan can’t match the Holy Spirit’s strength, so he attacks us by lying. And he has many more lies ready.”

Original Fake News

Fake news began long before modern media. Before humans ever sinned, Satan was already spinning less-than-factual reports about himself and God. Satan sought to destroy humanity, but he didn’t dare come against Eve and Adam with outright attacks. He came disguised as a friend. He focused their eyes on what seemed to be good.

He used the same strategy against Jesus in the desert. It seemed the devil’s best chance to destroy Jesus, so he brought one of his most potent attacks to bear: he tried to end Jesus’ suffering.

Satan saw Jesus wasting away, going six weeks without food. In the most concerned manner possible, he said, “Jesus, aren’t you the Son of God? Why deny Yourself like this? Speak the word and fill your belly. You don’t deserve all this suffering” (Matt. 4:3, my paraphrase).

The devil loves to lie about himself. He insinuates that real spiritual warfare consists of demons hiding in shadows, waiting to pounce, or demon-possessed people twisting their heads around backwards. We fear these creepy images, but when Satan puts a comforting arm around us and offers to fill our hungry bellies, we don’t recognize him. By pressing this fake-news campaign, Satan blinds the eyes of believers. Entire armies of Christians don’t realize they were ever fighting these battles, let alone how badly they’ve lost.

James, the half-brother of Jesus, wrote to defeated Christians:

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures (James 4:1–3).

These believers refused God’s authority. They bowed the knee to nothing but their own greed. Satan had no need to attack them openly. They were destroying each other just fine on their own.

Spiritual warfare is subtle. Often a defeated Christian is not one who experiences overt demonic activity, but rather one whose life looks identical to the surrounding culture. The defeated Christian ignores God’s vast resources and Spirit-empowered transformation. Divine guidance goes unheard. Supernatural abilities from the Holy Spirit go unused. The destiny for which God designed that believer goes unfulfilled.

Selfish versus Spiritual Desires

Satan came to these believers as a friend. He pointed out all the cool stuff they could get now that they could ask God for anything in prayer. Greed did the rest.

Because of Satan’s fake news, we think we’ll notice when he attacks us. How hard can it be to spot a demon crouching at your door? In the movies you can’t miss ‘em.

But the devil tricked these Christians into self-destruction without ever realizing he was there. Selfish desires reigned in their hearts—yet they saw themselves as spiritual. After all, they still believed in God. They prayed constantly. They possessed great faith; they never ceased asking God for more and more stuff.

But they didn’t pray for other people. They didn’t pray to know God intimately, to love His people better, or to share His Name more effectively with a hurting world. Instead they prayed only for themselves and all the stuff they wanted.

This set God against them. If God gave them what they demanded, He would only drive them deeper into greed, selfishness, and civil war. God had to refuse their prayer requests. He loved them too much to destroy them. God wanted to give these believers His supernatural abilities, gifts, and guidance. Yet they wanted none of it. They looked exactly like the world around them: selfish and greedy, limited to their own natural abilities. Their prayers accomplished nothing.

They maintained the outward appearance of Christianity. They gathered together and put on a service, but they had no supernatural power.

When Satan Comes Knocking

Satan has been bringing these kinds of attacks for thousands of years. He shows no signs of stopping. The question for us, then, is how to handle him when he comes knocking.

The first step is to reject Satan’s fake news. We’re not fighting Hollywood monsters. We’re fighting deception, which means we’re fighting ourselves. If the devil can’t trick us, he can’t do anything to us. The only power he has for neutralizing us is the power we give him.

The second step is to cling to the truth. Jesus saw through the deception and killed the temptation in one stroke. But to understand the truth that Jesus claimed, read the account of Satan’s attack carefully and note what his attack targeted. His trap reached further than satisfying a craving: “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread” (Matt 4:3).

In other words: “Jesus, use Your supernatural power only on Yourself, only to gratify Your desires.” The believers James was writing to heard this same temptation and agreed lustily with the devil. They seized the supernatural power of prayer and used it only on themselves, only to gratify their desires. And all the power fizzled.

In contrast, Jesus heard that temptation and refused. He denied far more than a single desire. He reoriented the entire issue: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matt. 4:4).

In other words: “God gave Me more than supernatural power. He gave Me purpose. I will only use My power according to His words. He did not send Me to serve Myself but to serve others.” Defeated Christians look just like the world around them. They focus on their desires first. And all their supernatural powers vanish.

Victorious Christians look just like Jesus. They focus on what God gives and the reason He gives it: to serve others. These are the Christians God delights to lavish His gifts upon because He knows they’ll use His gifts as He desires.

God’s Yes!

God is eager to fill every believer and every church with supernatural power, especially the power of prayers that transform lives. Our Father in heaven longs to say yes! to every prayer we offer. Jesus promised it directly: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:23–24 esv).

God longs to say yes!—but that does not mean He always will. As with the believers James addresses in his letter, God will refuse selfish prayers that would only drive the church further away from Him.

Our Father will say yes, but here is the prerequisite of the promise: asking in Jesus’ name.

This means we ask God to grant Jesus’ desire—not our own. It means making a request Jesus Himself would make. How do we know how to do that? By spending time with Jesus and learning what He desires. Then wherever our desires conflict with His, we lay ours aside.

What, then, does Jesus desire? Which prayers does the Father delight to say yes to?

• Prayers for obedience to His first commandment: to love our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. Make this your first and most eager request.
• Prayers for obedience to His second commandment: to love our neighbors—especially the ones we least want to love—as we love ourselves.
• Prayers to know God as Father and to grasp the love He has for His children.
• Prayers for God to magnify His Name and to satisfy us as we glorify Him.
• Prayers for His Kingdom to come and to make our world more like heaven.
• Prayers for His will to be done on this earth so we live our lives to the fullest.
• After focusing our requests on Him, then we can ask for personal requests and watch as He eagerly supplies our daily bread.

Don’t listen to Satan’s fake news. When we’re not hindering God’s Spirit within us, we have great power over the devil. God wants each of us to live a supernatural life. He wants our prayers to move nations. And as we surrender our desires and pray for His desires, we can watch His power through us grow.

–KYLE DAVISON BAIR is prayer ministries pastor at New Hope Church in New Hope, MN. He is also an active participant in a network of Twin Cities prayer leaders.