As believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, we do well to live according to what the scriptures tell us. We also do well to understand our source of strength and the strength of our enemy, Satan. Nowhere in the Word of God do we find where someone has ‘bound’ Satan. Nowhere in the Word do we read that someone proclaimed, “In the name of the Lord, Satan, I bind you.” There are certain scriptural principles we need to know when dealing with Satan.

Even though we may be faithful believers on the Lord Jesus, we ARE NOT stronger than Satan. We have neither the strength nor the authority to command him. Let’s look at an event concerning Satan and Michael the Archangel in Jude 1:9, “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.” It appears that after Moses had died and was buried, Satan wanted to use his body. Perhaps he wanted to present it to the Lord’s people in hope they would highly esteem or even worship Moses’ body. Michael was sent to stop him. An archangel is a ‘chief angel’ having greater strength and authority than the other angels, yet he would not, in his own strength speak evil of Satan and make accusations against him. No, he simply turned this over to the Lord by saying, “The Lord rebuke thee.”

If we are not as strong as Satan, how are we supposed to resist his temptations and live free from his influence? 1 John 4:4 tells us, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN YOU, THAN HE THAT IS IN THE WORLD.” The one who is in the world is Satan. The one who is in you (as a believer) is Christ. Christ, who is in you, is greater than Satan. There is our source of strength and victory. Christ is in us. We read in Colossians 1:26-27, “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of glory.” Christ is the One who has the strength and authority to defeat Satan.

I cringe whenever I hear people address Satan in their prayers. Have you ever heard someone praying and then say something like, “Satan we bind you in the name of Jesus”? This is something that is not found in the Word of God. To go from addressing the Lord in our prayers and then start speaking to Satan is wrong, unscriptural, and dangerous! If we were to do that, it would just prove to Satan our ignorance and weakness. Let’s look at a strange event in Acts 19:13-16, “Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”

Look what happened here. Men, thinking themselves to be greater than Satan took it upon themselves to try to exorcise demons by using the name of Jesus and Paul. The sad result was that the demons beat them up and caused them to run down the street naked and wounded. Satan is too strong of an enemy for us to take him casually and move towards him with no scriptural authority.

James 4:7 tells us, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Here is the proper scriptural instruction on dealing with Satan. FIRST, we must submit ourselves totally to the Lord, THEN we will be able to resist the devil and he will run away from us! We cannot bind Satan, but in the Lord’s strength, we can resist him. (274.10)