What is the most important thing Satan wants to do?
What Satan wants most of all is to weaken Christians, to make them ineffective witness for Jesus Christ. It is true that Satan wants the ultimate destruction of all people, but he does not have to work that hard for those who have not asked Jesus to forgive them of their sins. They are already going to be punished in hell. It’s those Christians, the children of God that Satan is focused on. Satan works very hard at convincing Christians not to take the Word of God seriously. If Satan can get Christians away from knowing Biblical truth, away from understanding how to live a life that pleases God, away from church where Christians can encourage teach, and serve one another, then it is very easy to make them shallow, self-serving and ineffective. Then sin is not such a big deal, but just a mistake or bad judgement. Or worse; it is not a sin at all. You can get drunk, just don’t do it often. Live together before marriage, everybody else does it so it can’t be wrong. Steal money out of the cash box at work; that’s fine as long as it’s under 10 bucks. And you can swear if it’s only 20 times a day.
Satan knows that God uses the body of Christ, Christians, to bring Him glory and bring others to salvation through the work of Jesus. That can’t happen if His children do not know scripture, think praying is boring, and have no problem with sin. Yes, Satan tempts all people to sin, but nonbelievers are easy game. Satan really enjoys tempting Christians and is succeeding.
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith…
1 Peter 5:8-9b
Another way Satan weakens Christians is to plant false Christians among real ones. These false believers try to offer a false gospel to turn people’s hearts away from Jesus. These false Christians will also steer our minds away from the truthfulness of the Bible. Christians need to know His Word so well that when false teaching comes Christians will know that it is false. Unfortunately some of these false Christians teach at our colleges and write books that are read by millions. Christians need to question all teaching and compare that teaching with what is taught in the Bible.
Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
Acts 17:11
Christians need to realize that there is a spiritual battle going on. God wants strong, faithful and knowledgeable children and Satan wants weak, fearful and ignorant Christians. Satan does not want the world to know God and His plan of salvation, he does not want God to be honored by the love Christians share. So Satan fights and attacks Christians by convincing Christians that God is small and His Word is not needed.