Psalm 94:11 English Standard Version (ESV) the Lord—knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath.

Does Satan know what you are thinking? I said yesterday that when we speak Satan hears. When we act Satan sees. The only power Satan has in this world is influence. I am not saying Satan places temptation in our way. It is all a matter of statistical probability. When it comes down to temptation much of it is spread by the desires of others to gain something from us.

What catches our eye at the store counter where they have magazines lined up for us to buy? They target the most likely influences for their sale. If it is a food magazine, it is a picture of an appetizing meal. What makes that the picture of choice? Statistical probability.

Scandal rags place the celebrity of the week with defaming words. Who is their target? Those who judge quickly and love to gossip.

Diet books strike at the core of our deep seated insecurities. Glamour magazines do the same thing as fitness magazines, and it is all about statistics and how to sell their product. Is the devil behind that?

The issue here is thought control and how to avoid being used and abused. We are people who think and we have a past that cannot be undone. We must come to a point where our past no longer defines our thinking process.

Romans 14:1 ESV As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.

We all have opinions and some rationale for why we hold those opinions. It is not a subject for debate. So what does our opinion do to others? Do we become healthy encouragers or a distraction from what really matters?

That is Satan’s influence at work, distracting us from truth and that keeps us from having that abundant life in Christ.

Ephesians 2:1-3 English Standard Version

¹And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

I ended yesterday with the question of why the secrets of 2 Corinthians 12 revealed in the 3^rd heaven could not be shared with us in the 1^st heaven. The simple answer is that we are very bad at keeping secrets. As soon as we speak those secrets Satan will hear them. The secrets are being kept from Satan.

Satan is that prince of the power of the air. Whatever we say or do is known to him. What is not known to him is the future. If Satan had known God’s plan of salvation by the death of Christ on the Cross, Satan would have done everything in his power to prevent it. Since Satan did not know God’s plan he sought to put Christ to death.

Satan knows he will lose the final battle because we read it aloud from the bible and it is written for all to see. What Satan doesn’t know is the hour of Christ’s coming. Until then Satan will do everything within his power to stay in power as long as possible.

John 10:10 English Standard Version The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

The reason John 10:10 connects Satan’s objectives with Christ objectives is to tell us what Satan is attacking, life with Christ. There is nothing Satan can do to us within the dwelling place of Christ, our hearts, but everything else is fair game for him.