The devil was being clever when God accosted him. “And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” Job 1:7 NKJV. Satan’s answer seemed innocuous enough, at the least on its face value. When you read from Peter, we get the idea that Satan was not just taking a walk; he is looking for whom to devour (1 Peter 5:8). Unfortunately many believers know practically nothing about this potent enemy. Some believers think we should not concern ourselves with demonology. They feel studying about the devil is like glorifying him. This is far from the truth. You cannot win against an enemy whose capability and strategy you are ignorant of.
“This is one of Satan’s strategies; he forcefully takes over people’s faculties and use against their will…A safeguard against infiltration is to constantly dedicate our faculties to God.”
Our text reveals an aspect of Satan’s modus operandi. We notice that it was a man that had an unclean spirit. When he sighted Jesus he cried out, “Let us alone”. If it was a man, why did he have to say let us alone? What happened here is that the spirits of the devil inside this man, which were many, took over his faculty of speech and spoke through him. They literally hijacked his speech. This is one of Satan’s strategies; he forcefully takes over people’s faculties and use against their will. Sometimes, the people involved do not even realize that anything is wrong until some damage is done. Have you heard people trying to exonerate themselves by saying, “I didn’t know what came over me”? A safeguard against infiltration is to constantly dedicate our faculties to God.
