Luke 22.31-32 observes, Satan has tried his best to separate all of you from Me, like chaff from wheat.
Simon, I’ve prayed for you in particular that you not give in or give out. When you have come through the time of testing, turn to your companions and give them a fresh start.
The goal of Satan is to separate us from Jesus. Not too complicated really. Why is this important? Jesus is life, Jesus is truth, Jesus is hope, Jesus is peace with God, Jesus is our Guarantor of life everlasting.
Without Jesus, we look for life in all the wrong places, pursuing our own pleasures to our own destruction. Without Jesus, we look for truth in the created rather than the Creator leading us to do, say and believe all kinds of things that lead to our own destruction and the destruction of others. When we separate from Jesus and no longer have hope we become desperate finding no meaning and no purpose regardless of how much money or popularity we supposedly possess.
How do we become separated from Jesus? First, we ignore Him. If we spend no time in the Scriptures, we will have no relationship with Him. He sanctifies us by His Word which is true through His Spirit, Who reminds us of what He taught us. The Scriptures are our life-line to God in Christ.
Second, Satan separates us from Christ when we refuse to connect to the Church. The people of God are His body, Jesus is the head, both body and head are necessary for being truly alive. The Church is God’s gift to us for encouraging, supporting and manifesting His love for us in a practical, tangible and understandable way.
Finally, the devil separates us from Jesus when we quench the Spirit by hiding sin in our lives. Repetitive, consistent, secret absorption of that which we know is wrong sucks life from us and eventually kills our intimacy with God and the power He provides for our protection through His Spirit given to us for forming us into the image of Christ.
To beat back the devil, to stay with Jesus, we must remain in His Word, stay connected to His church and flee from evil. In this way we will know God deeply and personally and the life abundant He promised those who follow Him.
