Satan And The Mind

How much control if any does Satan have over a believer's thoughts? Does he have any influence at all?
How does Satan tempt the Christian? Certainly, we are tempted by our own flesh and our own sinful desires. But Satan can have an influence. How does this happen? The Bible says that Satan has the ability to blind the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4).  It also speaks of unbelievers following Satan (Ephesians 2:2) via some influence presumably to the person's intellect. Does he have the same access to believers? If he is able to tempt it must be through some mental influence within the subject being tempted. What other mechanism is there to our temptation from outside ourselves? So it seems Satan can bring thoughts into our minds from outside of ourselves that are unwanted or uninvited. All of us have experienced ideas and images popping into our heads unwanted. Not that these all are from the "prince of the power of the air." Our flesh also I believe can bring this about. So the scripture says we are to "take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5)." Why? Because thoughts which arise, either spontaneously or through Satan's influence, can be disobedient to Christ. We do not have control over every thought that pops into our heads, but we have control over what we dwell on mentally. And temptation is not sin....although Satan would like us at times to believe otherwise.

Some thoughts I found from other believers on the subject:

These thoughts, if you hate them, are none of yours, but are injections of the Devil, for which he is responsible, and not you. If you strive against them, they are no more yours than are the cursings and falsehoods of rioters in the street.  C. H. Spurgeon

Amongst all the devices that Satan makes use of, there is none by which he grieves the children of God worse, than his troubling you with blasphemous, profane, unbelieving thoughts; and sometimes to such a degree, that they are as tormenting as it is to be physically tortured. G. Whitefield

Let me just see if I can clarify it now. We believe that Satan is not omniscient. He does not know everything. I believe he is subject to the revelation of God, and he is subject to objective observation within whatever objective means within his sphere. He can perceive what is going on, but I don't think there is anything in the Bible to indicate he is omniscient. He is infinitely intelligent, tremendously intelligent. But, intelligence is a capacity that is fed by revealed information. Do you know what I mean by that? God is omniscient in the sense that He intrinsically knows everything, and it does not have to be any information. But, Satan knows what he knows because God has revealed that to him within the framework of his intelligence. So, I don't think there is anything to indicate that Satan can read your mind. But, Satan can influence your mind. But, I think, primarily, it is by external things that may trigger thought patterns. But, it is also true that demons can come in and Satan can come in. And if they can come into a believer, there is a sense in which they must be able directly to affect the thinking process somehow, but that is for one who is given over to Satan to some extent.  John MacArthur

From The Gospel Coaltion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqzj_TKosG8