Exposing Satan's Playbook The Perry Stone

Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God” (Matt. 16:23). The word offense in Greek is skandalon and indicates the bait placed on a trap to entice an animal to fall into a snare. Satan was using Peter to set some form of a trap for Christ that would confuse Peter concerning Christ’s future. Just prior to the crucifixion Christ interceded in intense prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, praying until His sweat became as great drops of blood (Luke 22:44). This intensive inner struggle was further enhanced by the fact that the “prince of this world” (Satan) was somewhere present but had no part with the suffering. Christ said, “The ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me” (John 14:30). The prince of the world is also the “god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4) and the “prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2)—Satan! The Bible indicates that Satan and the leaders of this world’s system were unaware of the conquest that Christ’s death and resurrection would initiate. We read: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. —1 C ORINTHIANS 2:7–8 Obviously had the adversary known his defeat was in the nail-scarred hands of the suffering Messiah (Isa. 53), he would