I don’t believe in the devil.

You may not believe in the devil, but the devil believes in you, meaning he wants to use you.

The devil isn’t confused about God

Not believing in something doesn’t make it go away. The devil and his demons know exactly who God is: “the devils also believe, and tremble” (James 2:19). When Jesus cast them out, He “suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him” (Mark 1:34).

He wants to use you

“Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). He works through people who don’t even know he’s there. Paul calls him “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2), and says people get caught in “the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will” (2 Timothy 2:26). At his will. That’s what being used looks like.

He also keeps people from seeing the truth: “the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ... should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Not believing in him helps him

A soldier who doesn’t believe there’s an enemy is the easiest one to take out. The French poet Charles Baudelaire wrote in 1864 that the devil’s best trick is convincing people he doesn’t exist. Paul said the opposite about believers: “we are not ignorant of his devices” (2 Corinthians 2:11). The real fight isn’t with people: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).

He doesn’t show up looking evil, either. “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14), and he lies by nature: “he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44). See Aren’t we all God? for the oldest lie he tells.

Jesus took him seriously, and beat him

Jesus spoke to Satan directly: “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matthew 4:10). He came “that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

You don’t have to be afraid. God “hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:13). “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

Say it like this

“You may not believe in the devil, but the devil believes in you. He wants to use you. The Bible says he takes people ‘captive by him at his will,’ and he loves it when you think he isn’t real. Jesus didn’t treat him like a myth. He beat him. Submit to God, resist the devil, and he’ll flee.”

Keep reading: Aren’t we all God? · If Satan came to kill, steal and destroy, isn’t God doing the same? · How do I actually get saved?