Question
Does Satan need God’s permission to touch a child of God’s?
Response
Yes; just as Paul points out in I Corinthians 10:13. However, not everything that is grievous, or hurtful, or detrimental, or that causes suffering, or is tempting, or is trying, or is afflicting and the like, is the direct result of something that Satan does. In fact, there are three main sources of the various sufferings, afflictions, and the like, that we can experience in this present dispensation.
First there are those that come under the category of “the sufferings of this present time” that Paul speaks about in Romans 8, which we can and will experience in our Christian lives simply as the result of the bondage of corruption that grips the world. Though it was through Satan’s success with Adam that sin was brought into the world, and in turn this brought the bondage of corruption upon it, the truth of the matter is that any of “the sufferings of this present time” that we experience are not the direct result of Satan bringing them upon us. In other words, Satan himself does not personally bring them upon us. They are simply the natural by-products of the bondage of corruption, and we share them in common with all men in this world.
The second category of suffering and affliction are those that come about from our own foolishness. In other words, they are ‘self-inflicted’ sufferings which come from making foolish (or poor) choices; or being negligent or reckless; or being unwise or imprudent, etc. As the saying goes, we really can be ‘our own worst enemies’ at times. When we are, we can bring various forms of suffering and affliction upon us. And we bring these things upon us by our very own doings. Hence Satan is not responsible for them, nor anyone else. They are the result of our own doings.
The third category of sufferings and affliction are those that actually do come from Satan’s policy of evil against us. However, these are limited to the things that the policy of evil is specifically allowed to do. And as was noted earlier they are also limited by God to the ability that we have through the effectual working of the measure of our “godly edifying” to be able to adequately deal with them.
So then even though Satan’s influence in the world at large is strong; and even though he does have a specific policy of evil against us during this present dispensation; he himself is not ‘in control’. His previously charted “course of this world” has earned him the right to be influential, and the world at large definitely prefers his “course of this world” rather than the truth of God and His word; but Satan’s influence and activities are only within the parameters that God Himself has allowed for in accordance with what He has designed for His creation to be, and with how He has allowed for it to operate.
Keith Blades
Enjoy The Bible Ministries
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