Who's this Speaking?

It is true! The enemy uses God's Word to try to trip us up! This happened to me yesterday, and I would never say that the enemy is clever, but I’m not going to lie, he almost got me this time!

Before you begin reading, I want to warn you that I am about to speak about the reality of Spiritual Warfare and the strategies of the enemy to disarm and debilitate God's children. My intention is NOT to bring fear, but to develop an awareness of what we are facing and how to identify and overcome it. But remember, we are more than conquerors in Christ (Romans 8:37). Jesus has already overcome and defeated the devil - He has trampled the enemy beneath His feet and has given us the authority to do the same (Luke 3:15; Malachi 4:3). In all situations, if we declare the name of Jesus, the enemy will flee. This is the promise and the freedom that we have in Jesus Christ.

Romans 8:31-39 (NLT)

What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What Happened Yesterday

In this season, God has been speaking to me constantly. He has been dropping scriptures in my head at random times throughout the day, leading me to the Word, and speaking to me through songs and other people. Each time I have heard him speak I have been obedient to His prompting and have searched the Scriptures further to more deeply understand what He has said.

Well, let me tell you something - the enemy has been watching every second, waiting for the most opportune moment to attack.

In this season, I have experienced spiritual opposition, or attacks, to my mind – bringing doubt and confusion – and to me physically through disturbing dreams and hostility from other people.

But I was not prepared for what happened yesterday.

In the morning, I had a random name from the Bible drop into my head. As God had often led me in this way, I thought it was Him and immediately went to the Word and started to read about who this person was and what God was trying to say to me through it. When I first read it, I was a little bit startled as it was quite a severe message that was coming across. Typically, if I feel that God is speaking to me through the Scriptures, I get a deep sense of knowing – it’s almost like the words are alive and jumping off the page. However, as I read through the passages highlighted, I wasn’t resonating with anything that I was reading.

Normally, if I didn’t feel that it was God, I would move on with my day and recognise that perhaps, it was my own thoughts. However, what I was reading somewhat related to the situation I was in, and thus, had captured my attention and raised my curiosity. Plus, I had this voice in my head urging me to figure out more.

I spent my whole afternoon searching all throughout the Scriptures and researching the name to identify what this meant for me. I even called my pastor to ask him what it could have meant! As I started to go down the rabbit hole, I began to fix all my attention on this one detail. I just HAD to know what, if anything, God was trying to tell me!

As I continued to delve deeper, the message that I was receiving only brought more confusion and fear! And I’m not just talking about a little bit…but OVERWHELMING confusion. So much that I ended up face down on the kitchen floor, speaking in tongues, crying out to God in repentance and asking Him to reveal to me where I had possibly gone astray.

You’re probably wondering what the message I was receiving was…

Well, from what I was reading I was ‘being told’ that I was manipulative, deceitful and deliberately using God’s word and the prophetic to lead people astray from God. I was being fed this lie that I had been the one to lead people into sin. I was being told that I was operating under a particular spirit, and that that spirit is by nature unrepentant and couldn’t recognise that it was doing wrong. This caught me, as I genuinely couldn’t see that I had done wrong [which I hadn’t! It was a big, fat lie!]. I had never intentionally been manipulative or deceitful and I had never deliberately used God’s word in a way that led others into sin.

I wasn’t feeling God’s conviction, which I know is gentle and rooted in love, not hate. Instead, I was feeling full-blown condemnation. I began to feel so much fear and worry.

As I went to bed that night, my mind was running wild. I could not stop thinking about this name! What’s more, is I began to be convinced that I quickly had to go and confess all of this and warn others about this spirit. It was a sense of urgency, like I HAD to tell others the next day or I wouldn't get another chance.

That whole night, I was tossing and turning. It was on my mind even as I slept! I would wake up at random times throughout the night and it would be the first thing that came to my mind. I would wake up at these times in a state of confusion and fear, feeling like I had to declare things to stop the spirit from moving. It was completely tormenting me.

At church the next morning, it was still on my mind. I was so distracted that I couldn’t focus. I just wanted to pull out my phone and keep researching. I wanted to KNOW if this was truly what God was saying. Was I really just a manipulator, a deceiver? Was I really just making up things and not hearing from God correctly? Was I really under the influence of an evil spirit? 

Not only was I distracted, but I couldn’t connect with God during worship. All that was going through my head was “God, I can’t connect with you right now because I feel like there’s something that possibly I’m holding onto, or I’ve been completely disobedient to you.” I was so confused and felt that I had gotten God completely wrong and was really just an awful, evil person who didn’t know God at all. I was condemning myself for the things that God had told me to do and believing that they were just me being manipulative and deceitful. I was convinced that I had made huge mistakes in my walk with God and had completely stepped outside of His will because I was under the influence of a different spirit.

I approached a friend and brought it to her. As I began to speak out what had been happening, it dawned on me. I suddenly realised, “oh my gosh, this is the enemy using God's word to try to trip me up!” I finally could recognise the fruit of it – fear, condemnation, confusion, worry, doubt and distraction.

The enemy was attempting to distract me from my relationship with God. He had completely diverted and captured my attention.  He had tried to steal my confidence and hope in God and how I have heard from God. He was trying to destroy my relationship with God and bring separation. He had tried to lead me to do things in haste and confusion that would not have had a fruitful outcome if I hadn’t of had my eyes opened to the strategy of the enemy.

When I was finally able to realise this and turn back to God and say “God, I'm so sorry for listening to and being deceived by that voice. Thank you for saving me from that enemy and from doing things that would have been damaging,” my peace and clarity of mind was instantly restored.

When I later brought my realisation of it being a spiritual attack to my pastor, he too confirmed that he felt a sense of unease within his spirit when I called him the night before (as he felt that there was something more sinister behind it).

We Must Learn to Test and Discern Spirits

This story may be overwhelming to hear. But these things do happen. The enemy's ultimate goal is to steal, kill and destroy. And he is watching, waiting and strategising the best approaches to use at the most opportune moment.

John 10:10 (NLT)

The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

1 Peter 5:8 (NLT)

“Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”

Throughout my walk with God, I like to think that I have learnt to discern between Heavenly and evil spirits. I had become so familiar with the evil one’s strategies that I could identify them easily when they arose. However, he had exhausted his strategies and needed to use a – new - very deceiving strategy on me.  

He recognised that the only way to trip me up was to twist and use the Word of God to send me in a spiral of confusion.

Here’s the thing though, the enemy WILL use and distort God’s word to trip us up and lead us astray. We see this in Matthew 4 in the temptation of Jesus.

Matthew 4:1-10 (NLT)

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry. During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”

But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’”

Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’”

Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.”

“Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”

I have experienced times in the past when the enemy has used a similar strategy on me. Many times, it has sounded like:

“You can do it this once. If you sin, God will forgive you.”

To which I have had to fight with

“That is taking advantage of grace!”

Romans 6:1-2 (NLT)

Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

Therefore, with that said, we MUST learn to test and discern the Spirit. That is, the spirit we hear internally – through our thoughts and feelings – as well as the messages and prophecies that we receive from others.

1 John 4:1-6 (NIV)

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. [Italics added].

Like I said before, every attack from Satan will be revealed by his fruit – bad fruit. Even if it seems to be of God at first, give it time and eventually he will be exposed. This fruit – particularly when he is speaking through our thoughts - looks like confusion, impatience and doubt. He will attempt to separate us and divert our attention away from God and sow seeds of fear, anxiety, shame, condemnation and worry.

This spirit almost tripped me up, but as I gave it time, there were telltale signs that gave it away:

• The immense confusion and condemnation that I was experiencing.

• A lack of peace.

• How distracted I became; my attention diverted from and doubted what I know to be True.

• How it negatively influenced and affected my relationship and ability to connect with God and others.

• How it was pushing me to make rushed, unwise decisions from a place of confusion that could have ended in division and hurt.

 

How can you discern whether the voice is from God or the devil?

Now, I am in no way an expert it the discerning of spirits, and I encourage you to search the scriptures and speak to others, but this is what I have learned and what helps me to distinguish between the voice of God and the voice of Satan.

In summary, Gods voice will always:

• Align with His word

• Express the fruits of the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

• Work slowly and will never push you to rush or make a decision in haste.

• Convict in love

• Encourage and reassure

• Lead and guide

• Have a sense of stillness and steadiness.

• Bring clarity and confirmation

• Bring comfort and calm

Whereas the enemy’s voice will bring the exact opposite. His voice will:

• Bring confusion, doubt, shame, fear, worry, anxiety, haste etc.

• Bring guilt and condemnation

• Discourage and frighten

• Push you to rush and make decisions in haste

• Cause you to obsess and grow distracted

• Steal your peace

• Encourage you to sin

We must always look at the fruit attached to the messages we are receiving!

Matthew 7:15-20

“Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.