Have you ever wondered why some sports teams are just SO good (e.g. San Antonio Spurs & New England Patriots (both of which I detest…lol))? There are a lot of reasons but one of them is because they study their opponent. They know exactly what their opponent is going to do because they have watched countless hours of film. They know their tendencies, their weaknesses and all of their trick plays. Because of this they can anticipate their opponent’s next move and are seldom caught off guard. Well guess what? The devil has his own game plan against you. His first goal is to fly so far under the radar and make you think that he doesn’t exist. Unfortunately many of us are ignorant of his schemes and strategies against us. So, as a result he continues to trip us up and get the victory in our lives. The Apostle Paul encouraged us not to be ignorant of the devil’s schemes against us.

so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

2 Cor. 2:11

Paul tells us that the enemy fires arrow, or darts, at us designed to weaken our faith.

In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.

Today I want to share with you what I believe are the devil’s top 6 darts he will fire against you. As you will see he has been using these same strategies over and over again throughout the years.

#1 – DART OF DISCOURAGEMENT

Satan’s first aim is to discourage you. The word “discourage” simply means to remove your courage. He wants to remove your courage so that you live, think and operate in fear rather than faith and without faith it’s impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). If your mind is focused on being so afraid to do ANYTHING then you will accomplish very little in life. His goal is to get you to be consumed with thoughts such as…

“I’m not good enough!” “I’ve made too many mistakes to receive God’s best for my life. I’m paying for my past sins!”

“I don’t deserve to be happy because of what I’ve done!” “No one will buy into my idea that I have.” “What if I fail?”

“My kids are bad because I failed as a parent.”

Do you see how victorious he can be in your life when you are dominated by this type of thinking? Sometimes he does this by sending people your way that will discourage you on days when you feel so encouraged. So be careful how he may use other people to discourage you at the most opportune times. Beware of his DARTS OF DISCOURAGEMENT.

For more on DISCOURAGEMENT

read about Elijah (1 Kings 18-19)

#2 – DART OF DIVISION

Secondly, the enemy would like to cause DIVISION in your life. He knows that when you are in a community, a partnership, marriage or a team of people that there is great power within. Ideas begin to flow. The morale is high. Encouragement is going forth. Accountability is present. So, instead he wants to cause division and strife to rise up in your relationships, homes, teams, businesses, churches, at the job, etc. because he knows that you are nowhere near as effective by yourself as you are when you’re in partnership with other people. He will do this by causing you to focus on things that you differ on instead of celebrating what you may share in common with others. His goal is to get you by yourself because that’s where he can do his best work. Beware of his DARTS OF DIVISION.

For more on DIVISION

read about Job (Job 1-2)

#3 – DART OF DOUBT

The third thing the devil wants to do in your life is to cause you to DOUBT. What precisely does he want you to doubt? At the very least, he wants you to doubt the following things.

• God’s power – “God can’t really come through for me. He’s not able to bring this to pass in my life.”
• God’s provision – “God is not going to provide for me what I need. I need food. I need my bills to be paid. I need sex. I need companionship and I doubt that God is going to provide it for me. He’s taking too long. I better make it happen myself.”
• God’s providence – “With all that is going on in this crazy world God certainly can’t be in control anymore.”
• God’s plan – “I’ve made too many mistakes. God must not have a plan for me anymore.” He wants you to doubt God’s plan for your life. In other words, if God shows you something that He wants you to He wants you to doubt either that you are capable of doing it or if God can do really do it.
• Prayer – “What’s the point in praying? None of my other prayer requests have been answered. It doesn’t work.” 

Beware of his DARTS OF DOUBT.

For more on DOUBT

read about John the Baptist (Matt. 11:1-30)

#4 – DART OF DISTRACTIONS

Satan’s fourth strategy against you is to try to DISTRACT you. I’ll break this down into two types of distractions. One is short-term and the other is long-term. Regarding short-term, his goal is to distract you from spending unhurried and uninterrupted quiet time with God. Our power as Christians comes directly from spending time with God. The enemy will do anything within his power to distract you from that time. The more you walk with God the more subtle and innocent the distractions become. SO when you are trying to spend quality time with God expect text messages, phone calls, emails, emergencies, sickness, fatigue, etc. He will use anything to distract you from God’s presence, which is where you get your power. His goal long-term is to distract you from accomplishing your divine purpose (more on that in the next section). Beware of his DARTS OF DISTRACTIONS.

For more on DISTRACTIONS read

about Martha (Lk. 10:38-42 – short term distractions)

about Solomon (1 Kings 11:1-13 – long-term distractions)

#5 – DART OF DISCONTENTMENT

His next strategy against you is to influence you to become DISCONTENT. The idea here is that he wants you to focus most of your mental energy on what you don’t have instead of appreciating what you do have. He wants you to be so consumed with “what’s next” in your life that you fail to appreciate where God has you today. He wants you to be fascinated and fixed on the thrill of what is NEW. He wants you to constantly think, “there is something/someone better out here for me than where I am.” While there is nothing wrong with desiring more in life that is different than becoming ungrateful for what you already have. Beware of the DART OF DISCONTENTMENT.

For more on DISCONTENTMENT read

The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32)

#6 – DART OF DECEPTION

The devil’s final strategy against you is DECEPTION. The main way he does this is through temptation. He deceives you into influencing you think that short-term pleasures don’t have long-term consequences. He deceives you by causing you to feel like doing the right thing is wrong and doing the wrong thing is right. This is his oldest trick in the book. If he can get you to focus on that then it’s only a matter of time before you may yield to the temptation to act on where your mind has already gone.

For more on DECEPTION read

Adam & Eve (Gen. 3)

Jesus (Matt. 4:1-11)

SUMMARY

I know I said 6 things, but ultimately his goal is to DESTROY you. He knows that he cannot take your salvation from you but he can make you so ineffective by influencing you towards discouragement, division, doubt, distractions and deceptions that your impact is not much more than that of a non-Christian. My prayer today is that you would recognize the enemy’s game plan against you. Recognize when people have been sent specifically to discourage you. Combat doubt with faith. Recognize how he is trying to cause division in your relationships. Recognize how he is trying to deceive you and cause you to become discontent. And recognize the many ways he may be trying to distract you from your purpose. I encourage you to read the scriptures above and ask God to speak to your heart.