The book of James was written to the believers. Verses 14 and 15 of chapter three say clearly what the relationship between the soul-life and the work of Satan is: "But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which descends from above, but is earthly, soulish, demonic." We see here that there is a kind of wisdom which comes from Satan. This kind of wisdom is also from man's soul. This causes us to conclude that this kind of wisdom is the result of the work of Satan in man's soul. This is very clear. "The flesh" is the factory of the devil, but the work of Satan on the soul is no less than his work in the body. These two verses tell us that envying and strife occur due to the believer's seeking of knowledge. This is because the devil works in man's soul-life. A believer may only know that the enemy can tempt man to sin but may not know that he can also give thoughts to man. The fall of man was due to man's love of knowledge and love of wisdom. Even now Satan still uses this to cause a believer to keep his soul-life as a machine for his work.
Satan's plan is to preserve a believer's "old creation," and the more the better. If he cannot make a believer keep his sin, he will use the foolishness and unwillingness of the believer to preserve the believer's natural life. Otherwise, the armies of Hades would soon lose their jobs. If a believer would join with the Lord more in his spirit, the life of the Holy Spirit would flow more into his spirit, and the cross would daily work more deeply. Thus the believer would be delivered more from the "old creation," and the devil would have fewer places to work. We should know that all Satan's temptations, attacks, and work are in our "old creation." Our "new creation" is the life of God Himself, upon which Satan will never waste his energy working. Therefore, Satan must devise a way to make a believer keep some of the "old creation," either sin or the good natural life, through which he can continue to do his work. Therefore, the enemy troubles the believer again and again and confuses the believer, letting him, although having hated sins, still love his own life.
When a believer was still a sinner, he was "doing the desires of the flesh." This refers to sins, especially those which are related to the body. "And of the thoughts." This refers to the soul-life (Eph. 2:3). However, verse 2 tells us that these two are under the operation of the evil spirit. Our purpose is to let the believer understand that not only is the body the place wherein Satan works, but also the soul is what the enemy likes. What we would now emphasize is that the believer was saved to be delivered not only from his sins, but also from his natural life. Oh, may the Holy Spirit open our eyes to let us know how important this step is. If a believer is delivered from the power of sin and the soul-life, layer by layer, the work of the enemy will be a great failure.
Simply because a believer is soulish, not knowing how to guard his own mind, the evil spirit can very easily utilize man's natural wisdom to make his scheme a success. He can easily put misunderstanding and prejudice into man's mind unconsciously, causing man to have doubts toward God's truth and man's honesty. The work of the Holy Spirit within man is greatly frustrated by an evil spirit's occupation of man's own mind. Although man's intention may not be wrong, his thoughts are betrayed by his mind. These good ideas resist the work of the Holy Spirit just as the foolishness of the worldly people does. The work of an evil spirit is not only this. Sometimes an evil spirit can give a vision or other wonderful thoughts to a believer, making him think that since this is supernatural, it must be of God, thus deluding him to the uttermost. Before the soul-life is put to death, it is impossible for the mind of a believer to not be curious, exhibiting such phenomena as "wanting," "grabbing," and "searching." Thus, an evil spirit indeed has the opportunity to work.