The First Manipulation

The first act of manipulation against a human being was perpetrated by the devil in the garden with Eve when he enticed her to question God and ultimately come against the very God Who created her.

He caused Eve to believe God was bad, withholding from her and, lying to her. She began to believe the lies and distrust God and assigned to Him what was a lie.

The devil uses other people to do this to us too. His tactics have not changed, we just have a hard time recognizing it because we can not see him with our eyes, he is invisible to us.

Those who are kind and loving have a hard time believing someone is acting wickedly toward us because we are not that way with others, so we assume we must have done something wrong to deserve this ill-treatment.

When we mess up we should feel badly, confess it and continue to do better with the help of the Holy Spirit, this is what causes spiritual and emotional maturity.

However, there are many people now who hate believers and will attempt to place false guilt on those who are living for Christ. The Holy Spirit can show us what is true and what is not, we must know the Word and depend on Him. We can know if we are guilty of something or if we are not.

The devil accuses us of his own sin, confusing those who have a sensitive conscience toward God. False wordly guilt causes doubt even causing us to shrink from thinking and acting righteously.

The devil wants us to believe we are evil for doing what is right. He wants us to feel timid about speaking boldly the things of God.

Romans 8:1 "1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

2 Corinthians 7:10 "10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death."

Romans 5:9-10 "9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life."

1 Peter 2:24 "24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed."

Those who have been reconciled to Christ and changed into a new creation by Him do not live a lifestyle of anger and rudeness. It is those who live according to their own mindset and rebelliousness who accuse us of their own stuff.

Satan has always been a master of manipulation, starting fights and blaming the victim when the victim responds.

We are living in the last days right before the church will be raptured and the tribulation begins. It is as in the days of Noah when the world is full of deceit and anger sparing no one in their pursuit to be superior and powerful over others.

These facts comfort me when I know how the devil operates and how much more powerful the Holy Spirit is in protecting us against him.