The Devil Wants You to see jesus

The devil hates you and wants to destroy your life (John 10:10). He also wants you to see Jesus. Yes, you read that right; the devil wants you to see Jesus…just not the Jesus of the Bible.The “prince of this world” hates humanity—and Christ-followers especially—because we bear the image of Almighty God in our very being. Our existence is an affront to him who sought to usurp the throne of God, for God has set His affection on humanity. As he has since Eden, the devil works to separate us from the Father and from the life He wants for us by distorting our understanding of God’s character and nature. The only thing as good, from the demonic perspective, as not believing in the God Who Is would be believing in “the god who isn’t.” In other words, if Satan can get us to see God (Father, Son and Spirit) as someone or something other than who He has revealed Himself in Scripture to be, then he has accomplished his hellish goal. Our worship then becomes idolatry, for, regardless of our Christian-sounding words, we are worshiping a false god…a god created in our own sinful minds under demonic influence.

The devil is a liar; he is the father of lies (John 8:44). He poses as “an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14), appearing as a good thing, hiding his true nature in order to deceive us. He does not create; he counterfeits, and the best counterfeit is the one that appears most like the real thing. This is the reason for the abundance and popularity of false teachers, apostate churches, and spiritual-sounding but empty songs.

Christian bookstores, Christian radio, even pulpits, are filled with things that seem like the Gospel on the surface, but are actually the enemy’s Trojan horses, designed by the deceiver to worm their way into the church, into our hearts and minds, and distort the truth. Books and sermons that promise a life of health, success, financial gain, and fulfilling relationships stain our thinking with a false picture of the life to which Christ has called us. Authors, leaders, teachers, and pastors who promote a “feel good” version of Christianity that diminishes or eliminates the concept of sin (often replacing it with the ideas of disorder, dysfunction, or oppression) lead those under their guidance away from the God of the Bible and toward a god of their own making…an idol fashioned in the image of self or society.

Sometimes it can be difficult to sort out the good from the bad. Since the devil is looking to tempt and deceive, naturally, his lies are appealing. They often sound like good things as they play on our weaknesses. Demonic deceptions target our natural desires, which are corrupted by our sin nature into twisted desires that war against God’s plan for our satisfaction in Him. “…Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.” (James 1:14)

For this reason, the wolves of false teaching come in sheep’s clothing. Books gain popularity with teachings that use “Christian” language but are much more like secular self-help books than sound doctrine; some even use Scriptures out of context to convince readers that their twaddle is supported by the Bible. Churches rely on secular marketing methods and emotional manipulation to gain followers and elicit responses, rather than accurately reflecting the hard truth that discipleship involves suffering and costs everything. Movie studios, record companies, authors, even pastors proclaim an appealing message that if you just believe hard enough, God will bring all sorts of good things into your life, He will turn every struggle into a victory, and He will remove the obstacles, pain, and hardship from your path. The problem is that this message doesn’t remotely resemble the clear and resounding message of Scripture.

Our enemy is in the “pain removal” business. He knows that the avoidance of pain is a strong motivator for us, yet God has called us to “consider it pure joy” when we suffer, no matter the source of that suffering, because it is working out His agenda for our ultimate good and His ultimate glory (James 1:2-4, Romans 8:28). If the devil can cause us to veer away from God’s perfect plan for us by selling us shortcuts, then we will not experience the joy, freedom, and peace that Christ has already purchased for us. The obstacles—the trials, suffering, and pain—are God’s tools to make us into who He designed us to be. God’s uses the obstacles to move us into the exact position we need in order to hear and receive His Good News, then He uses them to sculpt us as disciples into the likeness of His Son (Romans 8:29).

The enemy of our souls is perfectly pleased with our religious activities, doctrinal discussions, and emotional confessions, just as long as they fail to connect the reality of God to the realities of our everyday living. If actions are activity only, without the movement of the heart toward God, they have little bearing on anything resembling the eternal. If our flawless doctrine is merely academic and theoretical, rather than transformative in our thought and practice, it merely inflates our self-righteous pride. If our tears flood our singing, and we confess our sins with weeping, but our awe or contrition is as fleeting as the moment, then the tears and weeping are of no avail; they are hollow and worthless.

May we be ever aware of the enemy’s schemes (2 Corinthians 2:11), and may we combat his lies by taking our every thought captive and forcing it to conform to the truth of God’s Word (2 Corinthians 10:5).