Conquering Satan in the latter days

“Satan trembles when he sees

The weakest saints upon his knees”

We are continuing the war in heaven here on earth. In the pre-mortal life there were billions of casualties. Satan’s strategy was to frighten people. He knows that fear is the best way to destroy faith. He is jealous of Jesus but he didn’t have enough righteous to save anyone now enough love to suffer for another.

Revelations 12 lists the two reasons Michael and his angels won the war

1.       Because of the blood of the Lamb or the Atonement

2.       Because of the testimonies of the faithful. Those are the ones who were sent to the House of Israel

Adam is still the leader of the angels – he is in charge of sending angels when needed on the earth.

The name Lucifer means “light bearer”. He was names that because he used to be an angel of light. He is also called the Son of the morning, which means he was one of the firstborn. Elder Faust said Satan “isn’t smart because he’s the devil; he’s smart because he is OLD.”

Why did he fall? In President Bensons’s talk on pride he said that Lucifer fell because of Pride. Also D&C 76 says it was because of PRIDE. Satan wanted to dethrone God. He rebelled against God’s plan because he wanted the throne. D&C 76 says the heavens wept because of it.

Lucifer (by that name) is only mentioned one time in the Bible, in Isaiah. John in New Testament uses lots of names for him: serpent, devil, dragon, Satan, destroyer. The name Satan means “accuser of the brethren”. He criticized the Priesthood brethren in heaven and still does. He inspires people to criticize the leaders of the church.

Satan and his followers were cast out of heaven and sent to this world, then Christ was sent here where it would be the greatest evil against the greatest good. D&C 29 says he was sent here to tempt us. At the end of the millennium he will be sent to outer darkness. At the 2^nd coming, he will be bound for 1,000 years. He knows that and is working harder now because he knows he has a short time left. He is miserable because he will never have life on earth or anywhere, never have a body, never have a family, never have joy. He wants all men to be miserable like himself, but he targets most those on the path to exaltation. The Prophet is his main target on earth, that’s why every temple prays by name for our prophet.

He has no veil – he knows us and has total memory of us in the pre-earth life. The battle that has continued from the pre-earth life is heating up now. In proportion to the growth of the Church, Satan grows his work. The temple gives the saints great advantage over the devil as long as we keep the commandments. Joseph Smith said, “Whenever we build temples, the bells of hell begin to ring”. Brigham Young said, “I want to hear them ring!”

A good object lesson to show the importance of wearing temple garments – put a peeled orange in water and it will sink; put an orange with its peel still on and it will float. If we don’t have or wear our garments, we are sunk!

Satan is the god of this world -not the god of this earth, but of the world. This is not a complement! “World” refers to society – the wicked andprideful. That’s why we are told to be in the world but not of the world. D&C 59:9 says to keep unspotted from the world we need to keep the Sabbath day holy. That’s why we’ve been given the ‘prophetic priorities’ for our lives:

1.  Sabbath Day Observance at Church and in the Home. As we more effectively worship on the Sabbath day, we will increase our faith in Heavenly Father and His plan of happiness and in Jesus Christ and His Atonement.

2. Hastening the Work on Both Sides of the Veil. The salvation of the dead is enabled, and individuals and families receive blessings of protection. Also, greater conversion and retention will occur among converts, youth, young adults, and adult members.

3. Strengthening Faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and His Atonement. True faith, saving faith, and enduring faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and His Atonement requires a correct knowledge of the members of the Godhead and an understanding of our eternal purpose and destiny as sons and daughters of Heavenly Father.

4. Teaching in the Saviour's Way. The Lord's hastening of His work and the unprecedented challenges faced by Church members worldwide require a more spiritually sensitive, doctrinally focused, home-centered approach to learning and teaching the gospel in the Saviour's way.

5. The Great Latter-day Work of Temples. It is desired that the number of youth, young single adults, and families participating in temple work increases and that members have uplifting experiences each time they come to the temple. 

Brigham Young said we need to study Satan’s tactics so we can recognize them and be able to fight and avoid them.

His tactics are:

1.       Direct temptation. He whispers in our ears, puts a thought directly into our minds – unclean thoughts and doubts like “I am no devil”. (2 Ne 28:22) We can resist them by recognizing their source and vocally send him away like Jesus did in Matt 4. First Jesus orders him to leave, then he quotes scripture. In the biography of Heber J Grant, he tells of when he got his patriarchal blessing. It stated that he would be called to serve at a very young age. He assumed that meant he would be called on a mission by age 15 or 16 like his friends. But he wasn’t. Years passed slowly and with each year he wondered why his patriarchal blessing was not being fulfilled. Finally after 8 years he realized that his doubts and sad thought were coming from Satan and said out loud, “Mr. Devil, SHUT UP!” A few weeks later he was called to be a Stake President at age 23.

This is also why we should memorize scriptures so that when we receive thoughts from Satan we can cast him out.

2.       Lies and deception: Satan is the father of lies. He says things like, “you never do anything right” “you will never change” “You are not a good parent” “you need to try everything at least once” “one time won’t hurt you” “the end justifies the means” “white lies are ok” “its better to tell a little lie so you don’t hurt someone’s feelings” “soft porn” “pro-choice”, “everyone is doing it and they are fine”, Etc.

·         We need to remember that all sin is addictive.

·         You can count on the Holy Ghost to tell the truth always. The devil is the great deceiver, the great counterfeiter. He knows that the opposite of white is black; Satan’s counterfeit for white is grey. The counterfeit of faith is superstition; counterfeit for blessed is luck. The counterfeit of love is lust, The counterfeit of Priesthood is priestcraft, The counterfeit of miracles is sorcery. What is the counterfeit of inspiration? The counterfeit of the law of consecration is communism.

·         We can discern the counterfeit – D&C 50 – if it doesn’t edify. The one thing Satan cannot counterfeit is peace. You can always trust that peace comes from God.

·         Harold B Lee said every time we hold a General Conference, Satan holds one, too.

·         Satan likes to deceive by appearing as an angel of light as in the story of Korihor. D&C 129 tells how to know if it’s the devil.

Satan has limitations!

3.       Contention – Where there is contention, the Spirit departs. This is regardless of who caused the contention. If someone yells at us and we did nothing, the Spirit still leaves us. He tries to get children, married couples, and missionary companions to quarrel, especially right before church, before going to the temple, before FHE. When there is contention, we need to pray and seek to make peace.

·         Laurel told of a time when she was a small child, her neighbor came over and demanded to speak to their mom. When the mom came out, the neighbor yelled at her for a long time telling her that her children should be playing with another neighbor, shouldn’t be watching tv,, that she was teaching her children wrong things, and on and on. She yelled for a long time. When she finally finished, her mom thanked the lady for her concerns and said she was sure it was coming from a good heart, then she left. After she left, everyone felt really bad; the Spirit had gone. The mom went to another room and got pencils and paper and gave each kid one of each. She told them to write down all the things they like about that neighbor. She said she thought for a long time and couldn’t think of anything. The mom kept encouraging them to write something nice. When they all finally did, she took the papers over to the neighbor. It totally changed the spirit in their home. Later the girls made her a cake and took it over.

·         Laurel told of a favorite game she plays with small children. She calls one up to her and whispers in their ear. They have to tell who is whispering, Jesus or the devil. She will whisper things like, “go kiss your father” or “go take a toy away from your sister”. Kids love the game and want to play over and over.

·         Satan makes us feel self-righteous, that we are better than others. He points out the faults of leaders, especially of Joseph Smith. He wants to discredit Joseph Smith because the whole restauration hangs on the truth of Joseph Smith. Lyman Smith was one of the early apostles who left the Church. He later said that he would give his right hand to feel what he used to feel; that where he always felt happiness and pure joy, now there was only darkness and he had not had a day of happiness since he left. If you lose faith in Joseph Smith, you will never find happiness anywhere else.

·         We need to protect ourselves from contention. We can have good music, study and memorize scriptures, and always attend church and temple. We can hang a picture of Joseph Smith so that our children get a testimony of him. WE need to teach about him and make sure children know about him and gain a testimony that he is a true prophet. We are told that the way to know if a prophet is of God is to look at their fruits. Some of the fruits of Joseph Smith are the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, the welfare program, answers to where we came from, why we are here, where we go when we die, etc.

4.       Discouragement – This is the most used and biggest of all used on faithful saints. Larry Lawrence said it makes him mad enough to just cheer up!

·         President Benson gave a talk on discouragement. These are the things he said to avoid depression and discouragement:

·         Serve someone else

·         Work

·         Practice healthy habits of diet and exercise

·         Seek a Priesthood blessing (we should dedicate our home through a Priesthood blessing against the power of Satan)

·         Listen to good music

·         Pray always. The evil one teaches a man not to pray; we need to keep praying

There are limits placed on Satan

·         He does not have the power to tempt little children

·         He cannot ever appear in the form of a dove, which is the sign of the Holy Ghost. He can be a snake, take on the body of pigs, etc., but cannot be in or in the form of a dove.

·         He does not know our thoughts unless we tell him out loud or through our actions. (but he does know us from the pre-earth life and knows our weaknesses) This is why we should not murmur or criticize. We should smile more often to confuse him.

·         He cannot take the life of a righteous person before their time.

·         “... we never began to build a Temple without the bells of hell beginning to ring.’ I want to hear them ring again. All the tribes of hell will be on the move, if we uncover the walls of this Temple. But what do you think it will amount to? You have all the time seen what it has amounted to” (Discourses of Brigham Yong, page 410).The more spirits that are released, the less influence he has.

·         When a righteous member dies while on the correct path, Satan can never tempt him again. He is safe from Satan’s temptations. That’s the way we have ‘eternal rest’ in Paradise – it is a rest from Satan.

·         We have to remember that the armies of God are larger than the armies of Satan. 2/3rds compared to 1/3^rd. there are myriads of righteous – Christ is the Lord of HOSTS.

·         We need to remember always that we are in the middle of a war. In the hymnbook see how many hymns refer to the war. They help us remember we are going to be victorious!

Quote from  from Elder Lyman Johnson (early apostle who became disaffected with Joseph Smith and was excommunicated for unrighteous conduct):   "I would suffer my right hand to be cut off, if I could believe it again.  Then I was full of joy and gladness.  My dreams were pleasant.  When I awoke in the morning, my spirit was cheerful.  I was happy by day and by night, full of peace and joy and thanksgiving.  But now it is darkness, pain, sorrow, and misery in the extreme.  I have never since seen a happy moment."

“... we never began to build a Temple without the bells of hell beginning to ring.’ I want to hear them ring again. All the tribes of hell will be on the move, if we uncover the walls of this Temple. But what do you think it will amount to? You have all the time seen what it has amounted to” (Discourses of Brigham Yong, page 410).

“Every foundation stone that is laid for a temple, and every temple completed according to the order of the Lord has revealed for His holy priesthood, lessens the power of Satan on the earth, and increases the power of God and godliness, moves the heavens in mighty power in our behalf, invokes and calls down upon us the blessings of eternal gods, and those who reside in the presence (George Q. Cannon, Logan Temple Dedication, 1877).

“The Great Imitator” James E. Faust OCTOBER 1987 https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1987/10/the-great-imitator?lang=eng&cid=email-shared

"The War Goes On" Larry Lawrence APRIL 2017 https://www.lds.org/ensign/2017/04/the-war-goes-on?lang=eng&cid=email-shared