omnipresent—he cannot be in more than one place at a time. Only God is
everywhere, and only God knows everything, while Satan 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 us that Satan is powerful. Likely he was the
highest of all the fallen angels, as he was persuasive enough to
convince one third of the angels to join him in his rebellion
(Revelation 12:4). Even after his fall, not even Michael the archangel
dared to confront him without the Lord's help (Jude 9). Satan is 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 seems to be beyond his ability.
For Satan and his demons to read our minds would take omniscience,
which they do not have. 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. In addition, they can overhear our
speech when we talk to others (and to ourselves!). Surely, they have
learned a few things about us over the years. Even without the ability
to know our thoughts, they can make a well-educated guess as to what
we are thinking and then attempt to use that to their advantage. That
is why we are commanded to "submit yourselves, then, to God" (James
4:7a), before we are told to "resist the devil" (James 4:7b).
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