Day Twenty: What is Satan’s scheme?

Scripture: Mark 4:1-20

Principle: Satan resists God’s word.

One of Jesus’ favorite teaching methods is the parable. In today’s reading, Jesus teaches the crowd using the parable of the sower, in which he gives us a glimpse into the spiritual world. Have you ever wondered why two people can hear a gospel presentation and one get saved and the other not? Most people will hear God’s Word sometime in the course of their life, but it doesn’t have the same effect on every person. Why? This parable teaches us that where God’s Word is at work, Satan is also at work resisting it.

First, we see that Satan takes the Word away. He will not allow it to remain in the mind of the one who hears it.

Second, he will try to prevent it from taking root by sending trials into a person’s life. And if that doesn’t work, he sows some seeds of his own. He will attempt to choke out the Word by replacing it with the things of this world. He substitutes it with the cares of this world, or prosperity, or our own selfish desires or all of these things at the same time. The Word of God will lead to the demise of Satan and he resists it with all his might. So what should we or can we do about it?

Pray!

Application: E. M. Bounds says,

The Word of God is made effectual and operative, by the process and practice of prayer.36

Here are five things you can pray for concerning God’s Word.

First, pray that the Word of God would continue to move ahead quickly. This is Paul’s prayer request in his second letter to the Thessalonians. “Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you.” (2 Thessalonians 3:1, ESV)

The second part of his prayer request is for God’s Word to be honored. The way God’s word is honored is when people actually do it.

Third and fourth, pray God’s Word would increase and prevail. “So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.” (Acts 19:20, ESV) In recent years, we have seen the subtraction of God’s Word. It has been removed from schools, courtrooms and almost every area of public life. In 2019 families and members of our military were no longer allowed to have a Bible verse printed on their dog tags or other items with a military logo, ending a twenty-year tradition.  Our nation needs the Word of God to once again be multiplied.

Last, pray that God’s Word would be effective. Pray Isaiah 55:11, “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11, ESV)

36 Edward M. Bounds, The Necessity of Prayer (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1999).