How Satan Works to Manipulate Us Daily, Ep 2-13
Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing 4 ways the enemy works to manipulate us in our day to day lives. Often times the topics we discuss seem separate and apart from our day to day lives because of the severity of what we discuss. There are other tactics the enemy uses that are subtle, like a slow burn. We may miss these tactics as we go about our daily tasks. These are very common issues that we need to be aware of, so we stop these tactics immediately.
Let's start off talking about how Jesus describes Satan. In John 8:44, Jesus is in Jerusalem speaking to the Pharisees, religious leaders. "You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. " So the father of lies is at the root of all the enemy tactics. When the root is a lie, everything he produces is a lie.
This week I was talking with a woman, we will call her Jane, and we were developing a prayer action plan over her son. The son is currently in an involuntary psychiatric hold and is saying some extremely demonic things right now with brief moments of clarity. Those brief moments gave Jane hope. At times he will claim to be Jesus and those are easy to recognize that the Spirit of the Anti-Christ is working in the words he is saying to her. Other times, there are some more subtle comments made that confuse Jane. She wants to try to figure out what he is talking about. There were accusations made against family members and I could hear it was upsetting to Jane and she was questioning if what was being accused was true of the accuser. We must remember in all situations where the enemy is working against us that we cannot trust in what is being said. We don't want to take an accusation and act on it based only on that circumstance. Satan is our accuser and what he does is all rooted in lies. This is not to say some accusations are not true, but we can't act on accusations given to us in this way.
In Jane's situation, she had a wide spectrum of demonic words spoken so there was no mistaking the enemy was at work. For us, in our day to day lives, it will be more subtle and because we are distracted, we may miss that it is actually the enemy behind some simple things, tactics, that begin to manipulate us.
So let's talk about 4 tactics the enemy uses everyday to manipulate us with lies. We will see what the Bible tells ureveals to us is the truth we need to live by. Life is found in truth and truth is found in life.
1. Eroding our confidence through doubt and fear
The spirit of doubt has a purpose to deceive us into questioning our decisions and actions. The goal is to lead us into inactivity. Doubt erodes trust. Doubt destroys creativity. Doubt builds walls. Doubt shuts doors. Doubt ends friendships. Doubt ends businesses. Doubt breaks contracts. Doubt builds fears. Doubt conceals talent. Doubt shreds love.
The spirit of doubt is dangerous because it is a counterfeit to logic and reason. The spirit of doubt works quietly. It doesn’t show up in your face, instead it slowly makes its way toward you taking every opportunity to exploit your struggles its advantage. It waits for a moment of weakness or takes the time to carefully craft circumstances to get you to a moment of uncertainty and then it begins to use your own words and thoughts against you. If we cannot maintain the integrity of our faith and recognize when the enemy is coming at us, it will crumble, it will be eaten away and what will you have left to stand on for support? Faith in our walk with Jesus is vital to our life in Jesus. We have to protect our minds and hearts, we have to protect our faith. The opposite of doubt is faith. Faith can hold you up through all things. Faith can build you in your hardest days. Faith can tear down the plans of the enemy.
In Matthew 14:31, Peter is walking in faith and gets our of the boat, but loses focus for a second and we see Jesus respond in this way, immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
Our faith has to be bigger than what the enemy is driving toward us. Our level of faith is a choice we make because of our relationship with Jesus. Doubt will only lead you to fear. When we act in fear, we make poor choices. Never let the circumstances you see, dictate your outcome.
2. Using our past against us with guilt and shame
Once you become saved and born again, the Bible tells us that we have now become new creations in Jesus Christ. Our past is no longer our past in Christ's eyes. He never will bring up your past as a way to lead you forward. He will guide you away from the ways of your past without bringing shame. We have to learn to let our past go. If we cannot do that then we are telling Jesus what He did is not good enough. We can learn a lot from our past. Our past can help lead others by your example, but we don't look back at it and let it hinder us from our future in Him.
The enemy will use our past to bring out our shame and guilt to keep you from doing anything for the Kingdom because you don't want others to know. I know with couples who are in second marriages this can be something the enemy uses to keep them from feeling that others are condemning them. Unfortunately, the enemy will use Christians against each other in this way. You don't see it often, but I've seen it recently and it was the enemy using a spirit of religion in another Christian to attack a number of people in second marriages. I had a pastor in the past who would not perform any weddings where either couple had a second marriage. There was not an attempt to understand the circumstance and evaluate each situation individually to decide if he would be involved, it was a belief that second marriages are not Biblical. Again, the enemy using the spirit of religion to create an environment that hurt those Christians who were in second marriages that were Biblical or were saved after the fact.
The Holy Spirit works differently in us. Again, the Holy Spirit uses conviction in our hearts to lead us from our sinful life, no matter how big or small, to Him. He does not use shame or guilt, but rather He uses His right and true ways to lead us to repentance and back in relationship with him. Guilt or shame, is not His way. He encourages and uses His loving ways to guide us on the right path.
If you have something that still hangs in the back of your mind, get rid of it. Give it to the Lord. Don't give the enemy anything to work with in coming against you.
3. Using others against us with lies, jealousy and paranoia
Remember, Jesus calls Satan, the Father of Lies so he will always use this as a way to get to us. We, unfortunately, don't think first in terms of having to judge or evaluate what words are spoken to us. We don't go around and question everything everyone says to us, so it's not something we think to do when the enemy is using lies to come against us.
Do you know one of the reasons Americans are such easy targets abroad? I think Canadians fall into this category as well. When we travel abroad to other countries, we have more of a tendency to think people are going to act the way we are used to acting and so we tend to be very nice. Too nice and someone looking to take advantage of you will use that niceness against you. Now we have plenty of people in every country that are willing to take advantage of us, but it's just a known tactic because it works. Europeans I have found are more aware in most cases. The enemy will work the same way against us because we generally aren't expecting it.
Jealousy attacks our self-worth, affects how we view others, the world, creates bitterness, harbors hatred, entices people to compromise their morals, and only serves to take us into a downward spiral that will ultimately produce rejection in our lives. All of that has an origin and it is all from satan.
Genesis 4 to see the first murder committed out of jealousy. In Genesis 4:7 we see God warning Cain, "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” Cain could not do what is right and he murdered his brother Abel. I doubt Abel ever expected that. No one had ever done it and most people would never think of such things, but for Cain, it was his answer and it was the influence of Satan.
Paranoia will break you down mentally and you will end up trusting no one. That will tear apart your relationship with the Lord. Which leads us to our next tactic.
4. Addiction Issues
Addiction issues run far and wide. This goes beyond the obvious involving drugs or alcohol. There are a lot of other unspoken addictions or rarely recognized behaviors we do that are actually addictions.
Why are addiction issues so damaging to us? Aside from the consequences that a lot of addiction issues present, there are underlying issues
Addiction extends to other areas we don't always acknowledge. E-cigarettes, going to the gym, shopping, sports, television, gaming or work. On the surface, many of these seem like a non-issue but when we move to a place of needing that addiction to function or where it takes over our time such that it interferes with our time with the Lord then we have a problem we need to address. We don't want to have anything that becomes an idol or that we cant function unless we have that in our life that is clearly not a necessity. If we can't turn it off and walk away, then we need to ask ourselves if this is an addiction. Does it take up our thoughts and drive our behaviors is a good way to gauge if we have an addiction.
So that is the top 4 areas of manipulation I tend to see people struggle with the most. If any of those resonate with you, rebuke it, kick it to the curb and focus on what the Lord has planned for you. Now let's move on to how to stop these tactics from working on us. I have 4 simple steps for that.
4 Steps to Stop Enemy tactics
1. Identify It: what occurred, what did the Holy Spirit reveal, how does it line up with the Bible or the character of God
2. Rebuke It: we always want that to be an immediate response when we begin to see the enemy is involved anywhere we are. It's as simple as saying : I rebuke that in the name of Jesus.
3. Root it Out: what triggered it to influence you, is it something from your past, is it something that happened to you that you have held on to, how did it get to you (what path did it take – person, location, etc)
4. Give it to the Lord and speak Truth over your life: once we have identified what it is and you have rooted out why it is being used against you, hand it over to the Lord. This is a good time to quote a scripture such as: "no weapon formed against me shall prosper" Isaiah 54:17, rarely is the second part of this sentence quoted but it really applies well here "and you will refute every tongue that accuses you"
Rephrased I would say, No weapon formed against me shall prosper and I will refute every tongue that accuses me. That's the rebuke part for our purposes.
I hope this has been helpful to you. If you know anyone who is experiencing any of the issues, please share this podcast. Addressing these demonic influences and getting them out of our lives is life changing if we are willing.
As always let’s recap Top Show Points:
Discussed how the enemy works to manipulate us in our day to day lives
4 tactics the enemy uses to manipulate us
1. Eroding our confidence through doubt and fear
2. Using our past against us with guilt and shame
3. Using others against us with lies, jealousy and paranoia
4. Addiction Issues
Steps to Stop Enemy tactics
1. Identify It: what
2. Rebuke It
3. Root it Out: what triggered it to have an effect on you
4. Give it to the Lord and speak Truth over your life
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