The battlefield is always in people’s minds and Satan’s goal, knowing this, is to corrupt the mind.

My pastor (Richard Jordan) says Paul’s statement in II Cor. 11:13 sums it up perfectly: “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

“I think that’s one of the great statements about the Christian life,” says Jordan. “I’ve noticed through the years that people want the Christian life to be so complicated. Go to the bookstore and there’s all these how-to books—how to pray, how to have victory over this problem or that problem.

“I’ve actually had people tell me, ‘I worry about worrying.’ They get all balled up, so they want answers that are complicated. Sin complicates life. You know the old thing about how if you tell a lie, then you’re going to have to tell another lie to cover it up and another lie to cover that up and pretty soon you can’t remember the lie you told? Pretty soon you don’t know the truth from a lie? It just gets like a ball of string that’s all tangled up.

“You never find an answer to your problems talking about your problems. All you’re talking about is your problems. You want an answer—talk about the answer. The answer is, ‘It’s not I but Christ.’ Any questions? Well, let’s stand for the benediction. That’s all there is to say.

“You know that’s all you’re ever going to learn in your Christian life, you’re just going to learn it more thoroughly; learn it a deeper level? All the premises of all the psychologists and sociologists and economists and politicians; all their theories are wrong. The answer is in Christ so it’s not I! When you find problems in your life you’re going to find it’s going to be because it was you and the answer’s always going to be, ‘It’s not I, it’s Christ.’ ”

*****

When Satan quotes scripture to Christ in his 40 days and 40 nights of testing in the wilderness, he uses exact words to try and trick Jesus. He misquotes Scripture passages and that's been one of Satan's primary tactics since Adam and Eve in Genesis 3.

“He's using the Word with Christ, but he's corrupting it and handling it deceitfully to try to get done what he wants done,” explains Jordan. “He's just using it to get by with. He doesn't have any convictions that it's God’s Word. He uses it to get done what he wants done.”

To see exactly how he does it, look at Psalm 91:11 (“For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways”) and then Matt. 4:6 (“And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.”)

“Notice what Satan does,” says Jordan. “First, at the end of verse 11, see where it says ‘keep thee in all thy ways.’ Satan omits this from Matt. 4:6. If you commit your ways to the Lord, are you going to be doing what the devil asks you to do? So you see why he’d conveniently leave that out?”

In Matt. 4:6, Satan says ‘lest at any time,’ which is his addition to the verse from Psalm 91.

Jordan explains, “He took away something he didn’t want you to hear and then added something to make it sound more enticing.”

Further, notice how Satan completely ignores Psalm 91:13, which says, “Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.”

“Who's the lion, who's the dragon, who's the adder (or serpent)?” says Jordan. “He left out the verse that says Israel's going to destroy him--crush his head. So he omits that. He ignores it all together.”

Now, if you go over to Genesis 3, you'll see that (Satan and Eve) subtract from the Word, add to the Word and distort the Word, and the result is Adam and Eve fall. But when Satan comes against Christ, you can't shake Christ.

In Matt. 4:7, Jesus says to Satan, “It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Basically, Satan says, “It is written,” and Jesus comes back with, “Yeah, but you missed a verse, brother. It's written again."

Jordan explains, “You don't shake the Lord; He just comes right at it. And what He quotes there from Deut. 6:16 is, ‘Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.’ The point is He comes back at Satan the same way Satan comes at him—quoting Scripture.

“There isn't any way for you to stand against the Tempter unless you've got sound doctrine; an understanding of where you are in God's program resident in your soul and operative there. Unless it reaches down and takes root and governs everything you do, you'll never stand against the Tempter. He's too slick, too wily, too tricky, too crafty for you.

“You'll think you've got him beat because you don't smoke, cuss, lie, steal, cheat much or do other sins of the flesh. He's got you all balled up doing something that's good, but it isn't the best and it isn't what God would have you do at that time.

Every time Christ quotes Scripture to Satan in Matthew 4 He quotes the book of Deuteronomy (first chapter 8 and then chapter 6).

Jordan explains, “There’s a reason for that. He's taking his place right where God is working. God's forming that faithful remnant inside the nation, and Christ is standing right in that place with that ‘little flock’ as the true vine: as the faithful Man in the earth. And when He does that, the Adversary can't touch him.

“If you'll stand in the place God's given to you today—not in Israel's place but in your place in the Body of Christ, the position God's given you in Christ today—you'll find your ministry is attended with power when Satan tries to come against you.

“Every heresy is based on Scripture and one of the most dangerous things is to be scriptural and not dispensational, and that's what Satan's doing there in Matthew 4 with Christ: Tearing up the Bible, changing it, pulling things out, sticking things in and then getting it all out of its dispensational setting.

“Satan says, ‘C’mon Son of God, be scriptural, do what the Book says, but just don't do it at the right time. Don't do it dispensationally.’ ”