The Father of Lies

With all the demonic movies that come out of Hollywood, people assume the enemy comes into our lives like a screaming demon. That he possesses people, while they scream and levitate. He attacks people by jumping out at them or hissing at them in the middle of the night. I think these Hollywood movies lull us into a state of complacency. Unless, the enemy is physically attacking us, he’s not here, wrecking havoc on our lives, so we think.

But the enemy comes as an angel of light. He uses people, to come into our lives. These people flatter us, “love” us, and deceive us. The enemy’s moves are subtle, extremely subtle. He puts people into our lives to seduce us. And ever so slowly, he wraps invisible chains around our legs until we are completely under his control.

When someone enters the believer’s life and the believer now spends their time lying or deceiving others, the enemy has a foothold. God is not the author of chaos. The devil is. When disharmony and discord enter into a believer’s relationships, you can count on the fact that the enemy is working in that person’s life.

The enemy is the father of lies. He lies to his victims, telling them whatever they want to hear. He tickles their ears with compliments. Compliments are hard to resist.

There’s this mud, on Alaskan beaches that acts like a heavy duty vacuum cleaner. To the unsuspecting person, the mud looks solid. But once you take one step onto its surface, it will suck your boot right down and it will take a herculean effort to pull it back out of the mud. The enemy acts just like the mud. It looks innocent at first, but right away, a person can get sucked in.

God warns us in scripture, over and over to stay awake. To be on the alert. God knows how the enemy works, so He warns us constantly. He tells us to be aware, to look out, to stay awake. We’re in a war and we can’t afford to let the enemy have the upper hand.

For me right now, the enemy is bringing me down with discouragement. I’m in this waiting time and when I let my guard down, I can get so discouraged. I can let doubts invade my brain. I start feeling hopeless. If I catch it, I quickly quote scripture in my head. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. That’s what I must do. There are so many times I want to feel sorry for myself. But then I remember my God. I remember that He loves me. I remind myself that He’s heard my prayers. When I do this, the discouragement begins to fade away.

But I’m not going to lie to you. It’s hard. Like a soldier, during a war, I need to stay awake, stay alert, just like God tells us to. I need to look around, so the enemy can’t take me by surprise.

If you are going through something right now, let scripture be the balm that comforts your soul. Start quoting scripture in your head like God loves us. Because God does. The enemy doesn’t love us, he hates us. Only God loves us. Remember that!