The Devil's Deceit

In the book, Paradise Lost, Satan convinces himself and others that he will make a heaven out of hell. Not only does he deceive the others who have chosen to fall with him, but he also deceives himself. One of the key natures of Satan is that he is a great deceiver. Specifically, he creates in our minds a mental image of who we are and who we are not, as well as who others are and who they are not. He also boxes us in using fake limitations that ultimately do not exist. I believe that there is spiritual evil and I believe that this evil lends itself to what Eckhart Tolle describes as the "Ego" in the book A New Earth. The devil uses our thinking processes to snag us.

John 8:44 states, When he lies, he speaks according to his true nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Satan has allowed us to believe that our existence boils down to our jobs, our hobbies, our relationships, even our beliefs. In truth, we are children of God and can commune with him through the power of the Holy Spirit anywhere at any time. We are not our job. We are not out bodies. We are not our minds. We simply ARE. God is the I AM, not the I Was or I Will We can take refuge in that. We can be still, and know that Jesus is God.

The great Liar also tells us who those around us are and are not. We boil down their essences into categories: celebrity, maid, used car salesman, black, white, rich, poor, educated, uneducated, unwed mother, orphan, Jew, Muslim, Christian, racist, hippie, pothead etc. Yes, there is, I suppose, a need for classification in order to describe people. However, it is when we DEFINE people by external forces that we bypass who they really are. This leads to superficial relationships and conversations.

This is who God says we are:

“…we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” Romans 8:16-17

Satan wishes also to embed our brains with fear and cowardice, convincing us often that we CAN’T. Intertwined with this belief that we cannot is the subconscious tendency that most humans have adopted to only concern themselves with things that affect them. This has paralyzed humanity into a state of doing nothing. Not only do we fear, but we also do not care as long as ourselves or those closest to us are not affected. We have, in short, a NIMBY “Not In My Back Yard” mentality.

God does not want us to be incapacitated by fear or numbed to suffering around us because we remain unscathed. God tells us in the Bible to be strong, take courage and do the work. He also says not to fear for he has redeemed us. He has called us by name, and we are his. In addition, we are to love the Lord our God with all of our hearts, all of our souls and all of our minds and love our neighbors as ourselves.

It is hard not to be caught up in our thoughts and it can be even harder to pick out when the voice inside our heads is the Devil himself trying to steer us from the truth.