The Devils Are At Work

Demons are working hard on the minds of people to cause division and conflict everywhere. If we know this we can refuse to respond to their tactics.

If the devils can draw us into senseless arguments over unimportant matters, they can effectively negate our Christian walk and make us look discredited in the eyes of others.

1 Timothy 4:1 "4 Now the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons, "

Acts 5:3 "3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and withhold some of the proceeds from the land? "

When we see people who are acting irrationally mad, even claiming you acted a certain way but you didn't, we know we are watching a narcissist, who is assigning their own bad behavior to us.

I notice in this part of the country there seems to be an increase in this irrational thinking. Many are treating reasonable and kind people with contempt when there is no good reason to do so.

The devil will fill a person's mind with trash to influence them against believers that they actually believe. Often the narcissist senses something about us that they don't like, that is the Holy Spirit and will react in anger toward Him, thinking it is us they rail against.

I was in conversation recently with someone who believed that just being friendly to people will make them come to Christ, "it's love that matters", was his argument. I asked him what his definition of love was, to clarify things and he became enraged, flailing his arms, throwing back his head and mocking me saying; "the Holy Spirit ya right", as though he thought the Holy Spirit was just an excuse to pretend we are doing the right thing. My point was going to be if I had been allowed to finish a sentence, that it is the Holy Spirit Who determines our delivery and there are many ways we have to deal with people, not just one way.

Having been trained in psychology this person was deeply invested in the humanistic forms of relating to people to gain their friendship. When we are more concerned about being friends with people than we are about the gospel, we will use a watered down gospel instead of the one that truly snatches people from the fires of hell.

It has been years since I encountered this sort of manipulative intimidation. I did not react to it and soon after excused myself because of the time. It was clear that I had been thrown back in time 50 years to my childhood, when no one was allowed to speak an opposing view without serious demeaning and mocking.

The point of this discussion is that the devils are causing irrational thinking in people who believe they are doing their own thinking. These people have no defenses against the wiles of the devil because, even though they read their Bibles, they do it with a twisted understanding based on psychology rather than being guided by the Holy Spirit.

The hostility to the mention of the Holy Spirit was a very big clue, it demonstrated a lack of belief in the workings of the Holy Spirit and lack of faith to believe the truth of the Bible while at the same time claiming they do. Our mindset, whether worldly or Spirit filled will determine our interpretation of the Word.

Romans 1:38 "28 Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. "

One can justify every sin if the mindset is love man's way. The love that tolerates sin in order to be happy. God's love will anger people because it brings truth that convicts of sin.

Galatians 4:16-17 "16 Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 Those people are zealous for you, but not in a good way. Instead, they want to isolate you from us, so that you will be zealous for them.…"

The narcissist is zealous for our attention, but only to be able to control us as they are controlled by the devil in their thoughts and purposes.

When you say something good and right from the Word of God and there is rage as the response of the hearer, we know there has been conviction, we have no need to feel anything about that.

We are not responsible for the reactions of others over the truth. The narcissist will attempt to make you feel as though you did something evil by speaking the truth. If they cannot challenge the actual words you used, perhaps because they were scripture, they will attack your character or your delivery to divert the attention away from them.

The answer to this dilemma, is to completely ignore the character assassination, the lies about your delivery and repeat what you said or make the choice to exit the conversation gracefully. If we do not suck into our soul the foolishness imparted by the narcissist we will have control over our own responses and best of all, they will not have one thing to point to that we did. It is better to let them lie against you than to be able to tell a lie in the form of a half truth.

Proverbs 14:6-8 "…6 A scoffer seeks wisdom and finds none, But knowledge is easy to one who has understanding. 7 Leave the presence of a fool, Or you will not discern words of knowledge. 8 The wisdom of the sensible is to understand his way, But the foolishness of fools is deceit."

The key to all of this is that when we know we are dealing with devils, we can consider the source and respond in a godly manner.

Matthew 16:23 " 23 But Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me. For you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” "

It is interesting that Jesus Christ addressed the devil that was affecting the mind of Peter. This is the case of all of our encounters with irrationally charged rages from narcissists. We are encountering the effects of devils on the person, there is no need to take any of it personally.

Hallelujah, knowledge is power and power is Jesus Christ!