If I ask you, what do you give the devil, what would you say? Well, I think the first thing that will come to a Christian’s mouth would be, “I don’t give the devil anything, how could I? He is my enemy!”.

But in life, we should never be too fast to form opinions or state things as fact, without first pausing to take a 360 view or review. And the best way to review things, is through the lens of the word of God. The first thing I want to mention is, that we can give the devil positive things. For instance, we can give him a spiritual rebuke as noted in the following scripture in Luke 10:19.

“Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Applying the above scripture is a positive action from us, which negatively affects the devil. However, the reverse can also apply, in that we can give negative actions, that positively helps the devil. You will note that in both scenarios there is giving, but the end effect on Satan can be different. But, for the purpose of this blog, we will focus on the latter, that is, the things we give the devil that affords him an advantage over us. Now, let’s start the crux of our discussion by highlighting the following 3 points.

  1. LETTING ANGER GO UNRESOLVED GIVES SATAN A FOOTHOLD.

Being angry is not a sin, for the bible says that we should be angry and sin not. However, if we leave our anger unresolved, then it can fester and result in huge problems.  Having unresolved anger places a believer at great risk of the enemy coming and taking a foothold in their life. Ephesians 4:26-27 states;

“In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold”

Yes, there it is, anger in a Christian’s life has an expiry time. If we don’t dispel anger by the end of each day, then the devil will gain a stronghold in our lives. I would even go as far and say, don’t even hold dislike for anyone, because such a seed can blossom into the fruit of anger. Maintaining anger is like opening all the doors and windows of your home and saying, “Satan please come in and dwell”.

2. WITHHOLDING TITHING GIVES SATAN YOUR FINANCES

Experience has taught me that we don’t take God’s word as literally as we should. God said in Malachi 3:10-11

“10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven,
and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground;
neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.”

When we don’t give tithes to the Lord, we are giving access for the devil to ravage our assets and resources. Yes, by not giving, we are giving. We are giving full access for the evil one to destroy our hard-earned dollar. Therefore, we must learn to take God literally at His word.

3. WE GIVE SATAN ACCESS TO OUR FAMILIES

The heading above might seem a bit strong, but let me explain because there is direct scriptural reference to this.

In 1 Corinthians 7:5 God instructs the following:

“Do not deny yourselves to each other, unless you first agree to do so for a while in order to spend your time in prayer; but then resume normal marital relations. In this way, you will be kept from giving in to Satan’s temptation because of your lack of self-control”.

God states in this passage that if you deny your spouse, the devil will see an opening and exploit it. The devil can operate like water, he just navigates and effortlessly flows to the smallest of cracks and uses his force to push on through. It’s like this, if you have a break down a huge strong wall what would you do? Well, the best place to start is by searching for the loose brick. That’s what the enemy does, he examines us, and if he cannot get to us directly, he looks for the loose brick in our lives, and most times this loose brick is someone love and care for.  

Writing this blog had me thinking about how easily it is to leave our partners exposed by not praying for them or encouraging them thus causing the enemy to gain an upper hand.  This can even apply to our kids when we don’t pray for them as much as we should. Indirectly, we are giving them over to be more accessible to Prince of Darkness. I would have had a recent example of this with my own children.

I can also cite examples such as Philippians 4:8 which states we should think about the things which are true, honest, just, pure, and lovely. The opposite of this is that when we don’t meditate on good things, we are giving access of our minds to the enemy.

Along with the list above, I am sure you yourself can identify some of the things that you consciously or unconsciously give the enemy of our souls. But I don’t want this blog to be primarily about making a list of scripture. My intent is to help us raise the level of our consciousness about the harmful things we do daily. In this moment by moment walk, “We must not only consider what we do, but we must also consider what we didn’t do, for both are just as detrimental”.

You see, sometimes we can give things to the devil and other times he can take things from us. But in both cases the result is the same, the devil gets a stronger foothold in our lives. That’s why I must echo again, we must always examine what we are doing, and also not doing, when it comes to serving God.

We can be praying and God can be granting our petitions, but if in turn we are giving up ground to our enemy by allowing him easy inroads, then we are deliberately hindering our progress.  The devil uses any break or kink in our armour to gain access.   Therefore, we must patch the holes in our bucket so when God pours in, there is no self-made holes causing His blessing to leak out.

As I close, I would want us to guard against the things listed earlier and anything else you can think about which allow the devil to gain a stronghold in our lives. For spiritual strongholds compromise us and restricts the flow of God in our lives.

PS: Dane Miller was last seen with a good bucket, repairing a loose brick on a wall.

Your Brother in the Lord,

Dane Miller | Authored Book – “God is the Author, I am the Pen”

PS: I welcome your feedback on this blog post and encourage you to leave a comment below or subscribe/follow for new blog releases via email.