Is It True That Only "breaking the Hedge" Exposes the Believer to Successful Satanic Attacks?
Direct Answer
Not exactly. The Bible shows two ways Satan touches a believer: (1) when the believer “breaks the hedge” by sin and unbelief, giving him a place; and (2) when God Himself permits a test. But only the first gives Satan a real advantage. When God allows a trial, it is limited and turns to the believer’s good—not to Satan’s victory.
Scriptural Explanation
- Job did not sin, yet Satan could afflict him only because God allowed it—and with strict limits (Job 1:10–12; 2:6). That was testing, not defeat. Job’s faith stood.
- “Whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him” (Ecclesiastes 10:8). That’s the warning: step out of the Word’s protection and you invite the bite.
- “Neither give place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27). Place is given by disobedience—anger, lies, lust, unforgiveness (see Ephesians 4:25–32; 2 Corinthians 2:10–11).
- “Be sober… resist… steadfast in the faith” (1 Peter 5:8–9). The hedge is faith and obedience. Submit to God, then resist (James 4:7).
- God’s tests are bounded and faithful: “He will… make a way to escape” (1 Corinthians 10:13). They refine, not ruin (1 Peter 1:6–7). And the sheep cannot be plucked from His hand (John 10:28–29; Romans 8:35–39).
- Dwelling “in the secret place of the most High” is the place of kept protection (Psalm 91).
Simple Clarifying Logic
- If the only way Satan could touch a believer were personal failure, what about Job and Peter? Job was upright, yet tested (Job 1:1; 1:12). Peter was sifted, yet kept by Christ’s intercession (Luke 22:31–32). Those were permissions for proving, not permissions for Satan to conquer.
- When we break the hedge—leave the Word, harbor sin—we open a door. Then the serpent has a bite, and Satan gains an advantage.
- When God permits a trial while we remain under the Blood, Satan is on a leash. He may afflict circumstances, but he cannot overthrow faith. God turns it to our strengthening.
Reinforcing Statement
Stay under the Blood, stay with the Word, and give no place to the devil. If God allows a test, it will purify you. If you break the hedge, repent quickly and close the door.
Final Conclusion
No. Satan can touch a believer either by our breaking the hedge (which gives him an advantage) or by God’s limited permission for testing (which cannot defeat faith). Only breaking the hedge grants Satan a real foothold; God-permitted trials are bounded and work for the believer’s good.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Proving His Word
64-0816 §82
Don't you realize, my dear precious friends, at this minute, that Satan makes you a promise for... He'll make you one of their best ministers in the association. He'll give you the front seat in every church and make you a deacon. He'll do anything, if you'll just get away from this Word. Now notice, make every ... give Him the world and all the kingdoms, He could take them. He was trying to get Him to break that Word, cause he knowed he had Him right there if he could. He made Moses break it, He made Eve break it,...
The reaction to an action
59-0810 §21
Isn't it strange how God does things? He will let us get right down to the last, the last mile of the way. You know, He likes to do that. He did it with the Hebrew children. He knew who He could trust, so He let them boys walk right up to the fiery furnace, till they could almost smell the fire, and He never moved. But when it comes time, He will move. He will move, but He waits till His own time. He wanted to see what kind of a reaction they'd have. He knew they'd made their stand. And when He knows that you make...
Proving His Word
65-0426 §27
if his children will only take His word so he can prove it by you. That's the only way He can prove His word. He doesn't prove it to unbelievers. They can't be proved. They are unbelievers. But it's not to unbelievers, it's not for unbelievers, it's to him that believes. And if he can find somebody who will believe His word, He'll prove His word by you. And sometimes sickness and things happen to us that way, that God can prove Himself. Do you remember the blind man that Jesus found. They said, "Who sinned, he or h...
Three kinds of believers
63-1124E §53
Cain did the same thing. Cain couldn't believe that that was right. He said, "God is holy; God is pure, and God is beautiful; so I will get me some flowers, and I'll take the flowers, and I'll make a fine great altar, and I'll show my reverence to Him. I'll get up before it, and I'll bow down before Him and worship that God. And I'll put flowers on the altar, because, you know, my father and mother eat some apples (some fruit) in the garden of Eden, and that's the thing that brought me out. And so that's ... I will...
Early spiritual experiences
52-0713A §7
I've never been ashamed and God help me, to always be man enough, to stand up and speak my convictions. For if I'm not, I'd be a traitor to Christ. I believe in the old-fashioned baptizing of the Holy Ghost. I believe that a man has got to be born again, or he's still a sinner. I believe it's only through the grace of God that he's called, in the Holy Ghost. We do not receive the Holy Ghost by faith believing. It's the free gift of God given to us by God's grace. That's where I differ with my own church. The church...