The Ways of the Heart
Frank Allnutt

Section 5: The Ways of Satan vs. The Ways of God

Page 2: You Were Ransomed From Satan

Enslavement to Satan came to us by birth in Adam, and deliverance from Satan came to us through Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection and our crucifixion and resurrection with Him. You were separated—released and removed—from your unholy, sinful relationship with Satan. You were rescued from his bondage. You are no longer his captive, no longer his slave.

As a sinner you were dead to God. But when you received Christ Jesus as your Savior and Lord, you were spiritually baptized into Him, and this made you alive to God. You were bought with a price—the sacrifice of His life. You then belonged to Him (Galatians 5:24).

Jesus, speaking to Paul on the road to Damascus, appointed him to be a “minister and a witness” to both Jews and gentiles—“to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me” (Acts 26:18).

The writer of Hebrews pointedly tells us that we have been delivered from slavery under Satan as well as his “works”: “Through death He [Jesus] might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives” (Hebrews 2:14b, 15). And, in John’s first letter we read that, “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

All of Satan’s evil, enslaving works were destroyed by Jesus through the cross. For with His crucifixion came our rescue from Satan’s domain of darkness, and through His resurrection came our deliverance into God’s realm of light. We were reconciled with God, forgiven and saved, redeemed, justified, and sanctified. And now, we can experience freedom and victory in Christ Jesus, who is our Savior, Lord, and life.

The believer’s victory in Christ
Nothing could keep Jesus in the grave—not Satan, not sin, not the word order, not death itself. Christ rose from the grave in living victory over them all. And every one who places their faith in Him is united with Him through spiritual baptism, and therefore shares in His victory.

And yet Satan will remain the “god of this world” until Christ returns to remove him and to take His rightful place on the throne of David, from which He will rule the world throughout the millennium.

Satan can do nothing to harm our new spiritual hearts or to separate us from God. He can, of course, tempt us to sin, and he can bring harm to our mortal bodies. He can persecute us and even cause our physical death (but only with God’s permission, as indicated in the book of Job). But even this work of Satan has been destroyed in the sense that Jesus rose from the grave, victorious over death, which defeated the purpose and goal of Satan’s works. And the day is coming when our bodies will be resurrected unto glory, which will consummate our victory in Christ over death.

Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death (Revelation 12:10b, 11).

The Half-Hearted Christian Walks in the Ways of Satan
Not all Christians experience their victory over Satan. In fact, many walk in Satan’s enslaving ways and do not always realize it. They unwittingly set him up to be their false master and actually carry on spiritually adulterous affairs with him in their hearts and in their behavioral patterns and life-styles. The symptoms are Satanic pride, Satanic thoughts, Satanic feelings, and Satanic desires and intentions.

There are countless ways in which a believer can walk, live, or behave in Satan’s ways—name any sin and it is a way of Satan! But the one way of Satan that is followed by all who live a self-centered life is that they want to become self-sufficient. The heart that is set on self-sufficiency is a prideful heart that is tempted to eat forbidden fruit; a heart that eats forbidden fruit is a heart controlled by Satan; and a heart that is controlled by Satan is a heart whose soul is filled with the things of Satan and is thereby functionally separated from the spirit of the heart and from fellowship with the indwelling Spirit of Christ.

Figure 5-3:

When a Christian is prideful or lies, he imitates Satan, and to imitate him is to give glory to him. And when this happens, the believer is out of fellowship with, and grieves, the Holy Spirit.

There are many ways of emulating Satan’s prideful ways—rebelliousness, deceiving and manipulating or controlling others, tempting others, intimidating others...and on and on. All are forms of spiritual adultery with the Devil.

Every illicit affair with Satan begins in the soul of the heart, and is then manifested through behavior. Such sinful behavior develops into patterns. And those patterns can become a life-style. The Half-Hearted Christian walks in Satan’s ways because, in his state of conditional fleshliness, he is vulnerable to the Devil’s schemes and deceptions.

Figure 5-4:

Scripture tells us that “the Devil prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Satan has absolutely no power over who we are in Christ, but he and his demons can play mind games with us and make our lives miserable. Lions do not seek out the strongest and swiftest prey; they single out and attack lame and weak pray, and those foolish ones that stray from the shepherd. The Half-Hearted Christian is a lamb who wanders away from the Shepherd and becomes alone, lame, and weak. Satan is prowling about, on the lookout for such wayward and unsuspecting lambs.

I can imagine that Satan gloated over luring Adam and Eve away from God. And it surely must give him devilish glee to look upon Half-Hearted Christians and see them out of fellowship with the Holy Spirit and striving in life to manage their lives out of their limited, fleshly resources and conditional spiritual impotency.

The Whole-Hearted Christian has learned it is best for the lamb to walk with his Shepherd. Jesus is our Good Shepherd, and He has never lost a single lamb! We must keep our focus on Him, for as soon as the eyes of our heart wander, we will stray. And if we stray, we will fall prey to Satan and his demons.

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