What is Satan doing now?
Question 08123
It would be a mistake to think of Satan as a figure confined to the opening chapters of Genesis and the closing chapters of Revelation with nothing much happening in between. Scripture presents him as active, purposeful, and relentlessly engaged in opposition to God’s work in the present age. Understanding what Satan is doing now, between the cross and the consummation, is essential for every believer who wants to live with spiritual awareness rather than spiritual naivety.
Accusing the Brethren
Revelation 12:10 identifies Satan as “the accuser of our brothers” who “accuses them day and night before our God.” This is not a past activity that ceased at the cross; the passage places it in the context of ongoing spiritual conflict that continues until Satan is cast out of heaven at the midpoint of the Tribulation. Satan’s role as accuser echoes what we see in Job 1-2, where he appears before God’s throne to challenge Job’s integrity, and in Zechariah 3:1, where he stands at the right hand of Joshua the high priest to accuse him. The pattern is consistent: Satan takes the real failures, sins, and weaknesses of God’s people and presents them before God as evidence that they are unworthy of His grace.
The pastoral significance of this is profound. The believer who is crushed by a vague, generalised sense of condemnation, who feels unworthy of God’s love in a way that produces paralysis rather than repentance, may well be experiencing the accuser’s work rather than the Spirit’s conviction. The Holy Spirit convicts with specificity and leads toward confession and restoration (John 16:8; 1 John 1:9). The accuser condemns with a blanket of shame and leads toward despair and withdrawal from God. Recognising the difference is a critical skill in the Christian life.
Deceiving the Nations
Paul calls Satan “the god of this age” who “has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4). This blinding is not a physical or mechanical act but a pervasive deception that keeps people from recognising the truth of the gospel even when it is presented to them clearly. The entire world system, in its opposition to God, operates under the influence of the one John describes as holding the whole world in his grip (1 John 5:19).
This deception takes countless forms: false religions, distorted versions of Christianity, philosophical systems that exclude God, moral frameworks that invert good and evil, cultural narratives that make the gospel seem irrelevant or foolish. Satan’s most effective deception is not the obviously wicked but the plausibly good. Paul warns that Satan “disguises himself as an angel of light” and that “his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness” (2 Corinthians 11:14-15). False teachers who sound spiritual, movements that appear godly, and theologies that feel right but contradict Scripture are all consistent with this pattern. The more closely a deception resembles the truth, the more effective it is.
Opposing the Gospel
In the parable of the sower, Jesus identifies Satan directly as the one who “immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown” in hearts that hear but do not respond (Mark 4:15). The enemy is actively at work wherever the gospel is proclaimed, seeking to prevent it from taking root. Paul experienced this personally: “We wanted to come to you, I, Paul, again and again, but Satan hindered us” (1 Thessalonians 2:18). The opposition to gospel advance is not merely cultural or intellectual. It has a spiritual dimension that operates behind the visible obstacles.
Satan also works to corrupt the gospel from within. Paul’s alarm over the Galatians turning to “a different gospel” (Galatians 1:6) reflects the reality that the enemy does not need to destroy the church if he can distort its message. Adding works to grace, replacing the cross with prosperity, substituting experience for truth, redefining love to mean affirmation of everything, diminishing the seriousness of sin: all of these are forms of gospel corruption that serve the enemy’s purposes while wearing the clothing of Christianity.
Tempting and Attacking Believers
Peter’s warning that “your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8) is addressed to believers, not to unbelievers. Satan’s interest in Christians is not diminished by their conversion; it is sharpened by it. A believer who falls into sin, who becomes ineffective in witness, or who drifts into compromise is a far greater trophy for the enemy than an unbeliever who was already in his domain. Paul’s instruction to put on the full armour of God (Ephesians 6:10-18) assumes ongoing, daily exposure to the enemy’s attacks. The command to “give no opportunity to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27) presupposes that opportunities can be given and that the enemy is looking for them.
So, now what?
Satan is not idle, and believers should not be either. The response to the enemy’s present activity is not fear but vigilance, not panic but the steady, deliberate use of the resources God provides. The accuser is answered by the blood of Christ and the word of testimony (Revelation 12:11). The deceiver is countered by the truth of Scripture held firmly and applied carefully. The tempter is resisted through submission to God and the active putting on of spiritual armour. The enemy is real and active, but he is operating in an age whose end is certain, and his ultimate defeat is not in question. The believer lives in the tension between “it is finished” and “behold, I am coming soon,” and in that tension, the call is to stand firm.
“And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” Revelation 12:11
