Can Satan read our minds or know our thoughts?

Answer

First, it is important to remember that Satan is not omnipresent—he cannot be in more than one place at a time. Only God is everywhere, and only God knows everything. Satan is finite and does not know all things. He must rely on his army of demons to do his bidding.

Can Satan and/or his demons read our minds? No. First Kings 8:39 says that God alone knows every human heart. There is no one else who has that ability. God knows what we will say before we can say it, while the thought is still formulating (Psalm 139:4). Jesus, being God incarnate, exhibited the divine quality of knowing men’s thoughts: “He knew what was in each person” (John 2:25; cf. Matthew 9:4; John 6:64).

The Bible does teach that Satan is powerful. Likely, he is the highest of all the fallen angels, and he was persuasive enough to convince one third of the angels to join him in his rebellion (see Revelation 12:4). Even after Satan’s fall, not even Michael the archangel dared to confront him without the Lord’s help (Jude 1:9). Satan is now the “the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Ephesians 2:2b). However, Satan’s power has its limits, and reading our minds is beyond his ability.

Not being omniscient, Satan and his demons cannot read our minds. God is the only One who can know our thoughts. However, Satan and his demons have been observing and tempting human beings for thousands of years, and they know human nature better than any human. Even without the ability to know our thoughts, Satan can make analytic guesses as to what we are thinking and then tempt us accordingly. The order of commands in James 4:7 is important: the first is, “Submit yourselves, then, to God” (James 4:7a), and the second is, “Resist the devil” (James 4:7b). Above all else, we must guard our hearts (Proverb 4:23).