What’s a Satanic attack look like? Does everything turn a pale shade of red? Are there strange ghoulish voices and evil, maniacal laughs?
I’m going to suggest, No.
But am I qualified to make such assessments? What expertise do I have? Well, I do have a D.Min. degree. Quick, say that out loud if you’re reading silently. (D.Min.) Did it sound like “demon” a little bit? That’s what one of our deacons thought when I discussed my D.Min. classes one time. (It actually stands for Doctor of Ministry.)
But in all seriousness, I’m not sure I have expertise with demonic and Satanic experiences. I am not an exorcist, and I actually never saw those movies growing up, either. But I have benefited in the past few years from some people in our church who are willing to occasionally say, “This might be Satan attacking us, discouraging us, etc.”
One time, it was an elder’s wife who attributed a rash of health scares in our family to the possibility that Satan was attacking our church during a time of fruitful growth.
Another time, it was an elder who calmly said, “The enemy would like nothing more than to discourage us right now.” That was in response to a question from me, half-rhetorical, about what was going on, why we were having such a rash of funerals in such a short time.
On the one hand, you might ask, “How did they know that those things were Satan’s doing?” Simply put, they didn’t. There was a measure of humility and uncertainty in their voices. But if Satan is a prowling lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5), and if he does indeed have some power to harm us by the sovereign permission of the Lord (see Job, especially the opening chapters), then it is not too much to ask IF Satan MIGHT be attacking us at any one time, especially if the circumstances in question are harmful to the church as a whole and/or to significant leaders in the church.
I’ve said before that I do not enjoy preaching about Satan. Yes, it’s part of preaching, declaring the whole counsel of God. But there is a very odd “coincidence” that I notice on those weeks when I am scheduled to preach about Satan. When I’m scheduled to preach on Satan, I will sometimes be moody, irritable, anxious, and a host of other things that are not normal for me. After one such week, when I had been feeling horrible and out of sorts for several days, I mentioned to my wife, “By the way, I’m preaching on Satan this week.” Her response was basically, “Well, that explains a lot.” It wasn’t the first time we had discussed this phenomenon, and after that “aha!” moment we decided that I am obligated to tell her ahead of time when I’m supposed to preach on Satan.
I realize much of this is anecdotal. This isn’t hard scientific data that could be written up for a journal article or something like that. If that means you take all of this with a grain of salt, then fine. My main goal is for us to take a moment when life seems out of joint and ask what’s going on with us and around us. It might be that there are reasonable explanations for out of the ordinary occurrences. It might also be February 2021 Page 3 the case that Satan loves to capitalize on whatever circumstances arise, doing his best to make something bad out of what God intends for our ultimate good. (Think of that as a sort of corollary of Genesis 45:4-8; 50:20.)
And even if we can’t be sure that any particular circumstance is Satan’s handiwork, we still should be mindful of his possible presence and pray for protection against him. In fact, Jesus told us to pray this way. At least, I’m pretty sure he did. If you survey the different Bible translations of the Lord’s prayer, about half of them translate Matthew 6:13 like this: “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” The other half nuance that word “evil,” with many choosing, “Deliver us from the evil one.” I don’t need to solve that translation issue. (The alternative I mentioned is usually at least featured in a footnote as a possibility.) But I think if Jesus wants us to pray for deliverance from evil, then he probably also wants us to be delivered from the evil one, the source (at least indirectly) of much of the evil we might face in any given day.
So what’s a Satanic attack look like? Well, it doesn’t have to look like some scene you’ve seen in a movie. And it might look rather mundane. You may not know if it’s happening to you at any given time. But you should be praying for God’s protection against Satan and all of his schemes (2 Cor. 2:11), even if you don’t see him lurking around the corner.