See Satan has no power if there is no inclination to do or think something. It's only if the seed is already in our mind, that he has a perch in our lives.
Jesus described the devil as the "father of lies." In Christianity, Satan is the devil.
The father of lies plays the opposite role to God who is the "Father of truth." This is perhaps where we get the modern Christian concept of Satan, where God and Satan are binary opposites.
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speak his native language, for he is a liar and father of lies. John 8:44
I think we have to put this in literary context. It is interesting that Jesus calls the devil a "murderer" as if he were out to kill people. The metaphor is that the devil kills people by leading them astray and making them believe in lies, preventing them from seeing the "truth" that would lead to the heavenly paradise he offered.
He also called him the "father of lies" as if every lie was a person, a person who was also one of the devil's children. Lies are personified as living people, personified as being alive and having a life of their own.
I suppose this is one of the places where Christians get the idea of the "cosmic troublemaker," a concept that I've been told doesn't exist in Judaism and Islam and is unique to Christianity.
Here is a little more on what he said.
If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do belong to God. John 8:46-47
The "father" that Jesus describes and that you find in the epistles of John as well as the Gospel of John seems to play the role of a teacher, whereas the child plays the role of a student. The "child" is a "follower" of the "father."
The Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees his own Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. John 5:19
I believe the idea that the child is a follower of his father is found in the Old Testament as well. Elisha calls Elijah his father just before he is taken up into heaven (2 Kings 2:12).
Jews and Israelites are the Children of Israel. Adherents of the Abrahamic faiths are Children of Abraham, either by blood or spiritually by being followers of the Abrahamic faiths. Noahides are the Children of Noah, descendants of the survivors of the Flood. Some way or another, we are also Children of Cain and universally, Children of Adam. A "child" inherits the life and agenda of his "father." Because Adam obeyed the Serpent, it means that we are also Children of the Serpent (and thus the devil and Satan).
That's our connection with Satan in a literary context. I think the concept and the associated phenomenon is more important than whether Satan actually exists.
The idea of calling the devil a "father of lies" adds a sense of heroism and adventurism in that you no longer just view your life as a challenge to obey the Law of Israel. You also see it as a cosmic struggle between good and evil where the so-called "father of lies" is your enemy and adversary.
You start seeing yourself as a hero (ie. a child of God) rather than just another descendant of Israel/Jacob. This heroism and adventurism was a product of Hellenism which had a fair amount of influence over Judaism (more like a fad) in the first century and which also influenced Christianity's early development.
It becomes a question of the identity of your "spiritual father." ie. Is it God or the "father of lies?"
