I can't tell you how many prayer meetings I went to during my university years where the following things were said in one prayer or another: "Satan you're a wuss, you're under our feet, we rebuke you in Jesus' name, you are bound, you are defeated, small, deaf, dumb, stupid..." and down the line it goes. Well-intentioned worshippers and eager new believers alike stoke themselves with vim and vinegar, convinced they are armed to the teeth and ready to take the devil on! But is this an accurate depiction that we have created about him? Or does he merit a certain level of respect(and I don't mean in a fond way)?
  The foundation on which to examine these questions lies in what we learn from scripture about the enemy of our souls. In the interest of abridgement, I'll forego belaboring the painfully obvious aspects of this study, such as his goal to become "like the Most High" and his tempting of mankind (with a couple of perhaps notable exceptions). In this part of the examination, we will focus on some of the less touted characteristics of the evil one.

He is crafty, subtle, and exceedingly intelligent! We have been persuaded to the idea that our archenemy is this drooling dweeb of a being. While I would agree he is ultimately a fool for rejecting God's plan and managing to cement his fate of eternal condemnation in the process, his machinations run seamlessly through the fabric of humanity, in a way that leaves many undiscerning people destroyed in his wake.
 1 Peter 5:8, "Be self­-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."
   Lions, like many jungle predators, scope out the sick and the weak for their kills. Likewise, Satan is seeking those who are in a similar malaise...inside as well as outside of God's kingdom! He is not choosy in whom he will "steal, kill, and destroy"...as long as they cannot stand against him when the times of temptation and trial come.
 2 Cor. 11:3, "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."
   Paul is referring here to the potential of Satan to shift a balanced viewpoint ever so slightly as to create sufficient confusion to lead people astray. In the example used here, it could be speculated that since God created man in His image, Eve was successfully convinced that the next logical step was godhood itself based on the serpent's words. Paul remembered well Jesus' words to become like little children in terms of faith; to entertain rationale that would violate this faith was to invite deception.
 
He possesses great beauty
 Isa. 14:12, "How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!"
   At one time, Satan was one of the most beautiful and radiant beings in heaven. Jesus is called the Morning Star later in scripture, which has caused some to suggest that Lucifer was originally intended to hold this position until Jesus' ascension:
 2 Peter 1:19, "And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts."
 Revelation 22:16, "I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star."
 2 Cor: 11:14, "And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."
  This beauty is one of the most deceptive elements of his character. We really are not told in detail what his minions, or demons, look like...but his own beauty is made very clear in Ezekiel: "Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings." (Eze. 28:17)

 He knows scripture very well. We see this in how he tries to manipulate Jesus by twisting truths in the desert. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: " 'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone." (Matt.4:9-11...the quote from Satan is found in Psalm 91:11-12). While he is not omniscient, he has had many more millennia to perfect his knowledge of the scriptures than we have. He knows it inside and out, forward and backward. His time in the Kingdom of Heaven and interaction with it gives him an automatic edge in terms of knowing God's plan, which he uses to take full advantage of the unlearned.
 
Coming Up Next - Part II: His Methods