How satan speaks 4: Weaponized Truths & Truthful Lies -Tuesday Praise & Pray (for others) May 16 '23

The devil is a master at using weaponized truths to compel people to take steps outside of God's instructions and His will. A weaponized truth is something, typically an expressed communication, that is true on its face, it also looks and feels real at first glance. However, if you slow down and linger on the statement or idea, you quickly realize that its foundation is deception. It's mission is to propel action that disobeys the Lord and causes an individual or a group of people to sin and thereby deprive God of His glory in their lives. In this sense, it is very different from a Gibeonite Deception, which is a lie that is excellently packaged to appear true and cause sin.

Have you ever met someone who shares the issues they are facing, never once asking for help. Yet, somehow, by the end of the conversation, you've taken on their problems and added them to your to-do-list? In many cases, this individual is a friend or loved one, and you want to help them. The desire to help others is a good thing because Believers must apply the Royal Law. Unfortunately, those who lack the Holy Spirit can fall prey to those who share truths in order to manipulate them into an act that may not be God's will. Yes, what was shared was true but at the very heart of this exchange was coercion and manipulation. The need to take advantage of a person's emotions and sometimes their logic. This is not godly behavior because God does not abuse free will and does not seek to domineer any human being.

Satan, on the other hand, has used this technique coerce, domineer, and manipulate for centuries. It did so with Eve, suggesting that God didn't want her and Adam to eat from the tree so they would not be like Him (Genesis 3:5). This was true, but, there was a very good reason. God wants His creations to rely on Him and not their own intelligence (Proverbs 3:5-6). Sadly, Eve experienced what we now call the 'fear of missing out' and sought to have the knowledge of God without receiving it from the Lord. She thereby disobeyed God's instruction, ate the tree's fruit and suffered the consequences. Consequences the serpent knew would come but it never shared because its goal was to deceive. Had she taken the time to process what the devil said and even ask the Lord for guidance, the story would have ended very differently.

Consider when Jesus was tempted by satan in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). At no point did the devil lie during that exchange. It tried to trigger pride in Jesus by telling Him that if He was the Son of God, He would jump off a cliff. The devil went on to accurately quote scripture in order to goad the Savior into stepping outside of God's timing for His life and ministry. Instead, Jesus applied what He knew of the Lord and maneuvered Himself out of the devil's trap. If Jesus had been an ordinary man separated from the voice of God, He likely would have felt the need to prove Himself and His God. After all, the devil spoke scripture and essentially challenged Him with it.

However, Jesus did not fall for the serpent's tricks and neither should we. Jesus insisted that those who believe in Him would be able to do even greater than He did while on earth (John 14:12). Besides, Believers also have the mind of Christ according to 1 Corinthians 2:16. And, don't forget, Jesus said in John 17:22 that He gave Believers the glory He received from God, so the glory of God is upon each of us. Thus, each believer has the capacity to silence the serpent when it speaks. Every Believer is empowered by God's word in the Bible. One such scripture asserts that we are not unaware of the devil's tricks (2 Corinthians 2:11). This is something we cannot forget. Through the Bible we have the Armor of God (Ephesians 6:11-17) to protect us from the weaponized truths and the truthful lies sent by the devil to steal, kill, and destroy our lives (John 10:10).

In order to actually not be ensnared by the serpent, we must spend time in God's word and let God teach us how to distinguish His voice from that of the serpent. Especially because of the words of Jesus in John 10:27 - My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. He also said in John 10:5 - But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” We must want to be His sheep who hear Him and do not heed when satan speaks.

The Lord will help us all, IJMN, Amen.

For more on the How satan speaks series, please consider the following:

1. How satan speaks 1: Snake in the Garden

2. How satan speaks 2: Book of Job

3. How satan speaks 3: King Sennacherib

4. How satan speaks 4: Weaponized Truths and Truthful Lies

How satan speaks 3: King Sennacherib - Friday Praise & Pray (for others) May 12, 2023

As we move through life, we must remember that there are two categories of voices seeking our attention. One type belongs to God and intends to help us reach our heavenly home. Yet, there are other more insidious voices that aim to cause us to stray from the path the Lord wants us to walk on. These belong to satan.

The last few posts examined how the devil spoke directly in Genesis and in the Book of Job. We also considered the consequences and objectives of those evil communications. Today, however, we look at how the devil speaks but this time through human beings. Such communication is no different from when the devil speaks on its own. It aims to deceive those who believe in God and cause them to turn from Him.

This happened when the Assyrian army arrived at the wall of Jerusalem during the reign of King Hezekiah of the Kingdom of Judah. The army, led by the king's field commander, had pillaged through the neighboring country and was puffed up by its military successes. It reached Jerusalem's wall to find a remnant that inexplicably stood in defiance to the King of Assyria.

The field commander opened his mouth to share a message from his king - Sennacherib - and the conversation that ensued reflects how satan speaks. One of the first things the warrior did was to attack Jerusalem's confidence, saying in Isaiah 36:4 - The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: “’This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? This is a common tactic of the devil. It speaks a few words aimed at breaking the confidence of those who believe in the Lord and His might.

Sennacherib's man didn't stop there, continuing in Isaiah 36:7 - But if you say to me, “We are depending on the LORD our God"—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar"?

With this statement, he twisted the truth with a lie. Yes, Hezekiah did remove many high places and altars of worship. However, these were places where citizens bowed to false gods and idols. What Hezekiah did was cause his people to return to worshipping the one true God and Him alone. Yet, the war commander sought to create confusion and division in Jerusalem. That could create enough disunity to cause someone to open the gates and let the enemy into the city. After all, Mark 3:25 states, If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. Satan is no different. It twists truth with lies in order to rock a person's confidence in the Lord. It will present very logical arguments but if you agree with them, you then would be rejecting what God has said and open the door for satan to come in.

In Isaiah 36:8, the war commander also made an offer, saying, “’Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! Did you catch the disrespect in that statement? Sennacherib's field commander insinuated that the city was so weak, it didn't even have up to 2000 soldiers remaining. Similarly, the devil cannot control itself, it will surely include a veiled or not so veiled insult in its statements. It's just a matter of waiting for it to reveal its true self. How many of us know people who can't speak without including a dig at the person they're conversing with? If not that, they must make a disparaging comment about someone else? These types of people have no godly love in them and so their hate comes out as insults and other expressions that are contrary to God's word. We must be careful to not be these people and to avoid them.

Isaiah 36:10 - Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the LORD? The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’” Here, the field commander claimed to be there because the Lord Himself had sent him and the Assyrian army. Satan is known to pretend to be a representative of the Lord. It is for this reason that counterfeits exist - to maintain deception. The Bible reveals this as a ploy of the devil in 2 Corinthians 11:14 - And no wonder, for satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. In pretending to be a servant of the Lord, the devil presents lies with the aim of derailing and destroying people. And that was the case with this war commander and it's untruth that it had been sent by God.

In case you are wondering how things ended, let me tell you. God promised King Hezekiah that He would keep Jerusalem safe (Isaiah 37:35). And He did. Sennacherib was killed by his own sons in the temple where he served his false gods (Isaiah 37:38). They couldn't protect the Assyrian king from his own flesh and blood. Yet, the God he'd insulted through his field commander was able to protect the people of Jerusalem without any of them lifting a hand to fight. All because they trusted in Him and didn't succumb to the lies of the devil.

God intends to do the same for all of us who would believe in Him and dismiss the devil's evil communication, whether it is spoken by satan itself or a human being. We must therefore invest the time in becoming familiar with God's voice by studying the Bible and asking God for grace to hear Him clearly. This way, we won't fall for the lies satan peddles. The Lord will help us all, IJMN, Amen.

For more on the How satan speaks series, please consider the following:

1. How satan speaks 1: Snake in the Garden

2. How satan speaks 2: Book of Job

How satan speaks 2: Book of Job - Tuesday Praise & Pray (for others) May 9, 2023

Most of us struggle to distinguish between the voice of the Lord and that of satan. This is a problem because believers must learn to dismiss the devil's voice and listen to God alone. Failure to do so could lead to the same mistake Eve made in the Garden of Eden - momentarily forgetting God's instructions and succumbing to the serpent's words instead. The consequences of that interaction continue to bear unfortunate fruit today. By the grace of God, none of us will listen to the enemy and thereby leave behind fruit that causes future generations to suffer, IJMN, Amen.

Today we consider what the devil said in the Book of Job so we become more aware of evil communication and the need to avoid it.

In Job 1:7, satan tells the Lord that it had been "roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.” What these words fail to reveal is the reason why the devil does indeed roam the world. However, the Lord does not leave us in the dark on this because 1 Peter 5:8 instructs that the devil is like a roaring lion seeking whom to devour. Also, John 10:10 tells us satan's objective is to steal, to kill, and to destroy.

And yet, knowing that the devil was in need of a challenge, God recommended Job. Why would God do this to someone described as a "blameless and upright" man who "feared God and shunned evil" (Job 1:1)? It is likely that since Job had these very qualities, the Lord knew he would not be crushed by whatever the devil threw his way. Indeed, by the end of this encounter, satan's return on interest for bothering Job was zero. It gained nothing, while Job had everything he'd lost restored doubly (Job 42:10).

While in the presence of God, satan tried to manipulate Him into doing its dirty work, saying in John 1:11 - [b]ut now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” Notice, satan wanted the Lord to hurt Job with His own hands. This is something it does well, manipulate others to do evil. Thankfully, the Lord in His unlimited understanding didn't 'strike' Job, but only allowed satan to trouble him for a while.

The statement reveals one more thing: that satan wanted Job to curse God. This remains an objective of the devil. It wants you and I to slander and blaspheme God. Blaspheming the Creator is to speak irreverently and insult Him. To do so is to create problems, for the Bible warns in Exodus 22:28 - “Do not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people.

At a later encounter, the Lord boasted of Job's faithfulness because despite all the trouble he'd experienced, he hadn't turned from the Lord. This triggered the enemy and it reacted in Job 2:4 - “Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life. Rather than accept defeat, satan dismissed God's words, unable to hide its hate. It did the same thing to Eve in the garden. Although that technique didn't work on God, the devil continues to dismiss God's words as irrelevant so others will do the same and run afoul of the Lord.

Therefore, children of God must be aware of these tactics and watch out for when the devil uses them. It could pretend to be the voice of God while in fact, it is a counterfeit. It could speak through a human being, maybe even someone near and dear. No matter what form it takes, it is imperative to become familiar with God's voice and His word. It is also crucial to receive the Holy Spirit, whose job it is - as the Spirit of Truth - to reveal deception. Knowing God's voice, His word, and aligning with His Spirit becomes easier the more the Bible is studied. The Lord will help each of us to hold firmly to Him, His ways and His word, so that we don't fall prey to the schemes of the enemy, IJMN, Amen.