Question:

71.2—I was told that Satan cannot hear our thoughts, only the spoken words we say.  Is this found anywhere in Scripture?

Answer:

71.2—Yes, the Scriptures tell us that Satan cannot hear our thoughts but does hear the words we speak. Like all the angels, Satan is superior to other created beings, including man, and can do many things for they “excel in strength” (Psalm 103:20), but God has given him limits.

We know that he can hear our “spoken words” because he heard Eve speak to him in the Garden of Eden, but he cannot do what only characterizes God because he is not God.  No created being (including Satan) ever was “in the form of God” (Philippians 2:6), but Christ is and ever was in the form of God for He is the Son of God, the second Person of the Godhead.

The first characteristic of God mentioned in the list of God’s attributes in Psalm 139 is that God is Omniscient, which means He is “all knowing,” He knows everything (see verses 1-6). “Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off” (Psalm 139:2). “Afar off” means that God knows what we are going to think about, and not only what you and I are going to think about but what every human being is going to think about at any given moment! No other created being, including Satan has this ability. The Psalmists says: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it” (Psalm 139:6).

[Notice the other attributes of God in Psalm 139. He is Omnipresent, which means that God is everywhere at the same time (verses 7-12). And He is Omnipotent, which means that God is all powerful (verses 13-18).]

It might be helpful to mention a few more things about Satan: he is a creature, created by God for God says: “The day that thou wast created” (Ezekiel 28:15). We are not told exactly when God created Satan and all the angels but we know that they were present when God “laid the foundations of the earth” because “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (Job 38:4,7). “The sons of God” is a term used in the Scriptures for the angels who have not fallen like Satan has (Job 1:6).

God created Satan as an angel or “spirit” being for God made “His angels spirits” (Hebrews 1:7). Though Satan and all the angels can take on a body form when God directs them, as Satan did in the Garden of Eden when he appeared as a serpent, but he does not have a body as man does, but is a “spirit.”

As is true of all angelic beings, Satan is a servant, a “ministering spirit” (Hebrews 1:14), and therefore he can only do what God allows him to do (see Job 1:12). Also, as was true of all the angels, Satan was created perfect but he fell when he sinned: “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee” (Ezekiel 28:15). We are not told when “iniquity was found” in Satan but it was before he tempted the woman in the garden of Eden, and the iniquity found in him and what condemned him was “pride” (1 Timothy 3:6). He was not satisfied with the place God had to given him of being the highest of the angels: “The anointed cherub that covereth” (Ezekiel 28:14), but wanted to “be like the most High” (Isaiah 14:14).  What a lesson to us to not desire anything other than what the all wise and loving God has given to us! We do well to rejoice in the Lord for His bountiful blessings to us in every way, physically, mentally, emotionally, and most of all the spiritual blessings He has entrusted us with.