Satan has some special things he loves to use to twist men and women into doing as he desires. These things are like vultures that feast on our ‘self’ nature. They are the vultures of guilt and manipulation.
The voice of the Lord?
Have you ever heard a prophet, friend, or church leader say to you, “The Lord told me you must do this… ”, or “Jesus said you have to… ”, or “The Holy Spirit says you should…”? When we hear those words with the name of God in front, they impact us.
- Those words sound important, right?
- They sound compelling, right?
- They sound valuable, right?
- They sound deadly, right?
Wait… what? At the heart of these words lies something more sinister that we realize.
When someone speaks to us and uses the name of the Lord to add emphasis to their words, they may, or may not, be speaking on His behalf. How can we know the difference? Satan can mimic God’s voice and for an immature believer they may think it is the Lord speaking. When these words go out, they often have a dreadful impact on others.
Must, have to and should
As believers, we need to learn how to discern when someone is speaking on behalf of the Lord and when they are not.
To do this, we need to become familiar with satan’s modus operandi. As much as satan can mimic God’s voice, he cannot mimic God’s character or truth. Satan is a liar and a manipulator, so his words will reflect this. Satan will use his three vultures when he wants them to do his bidding.
The vultures of guilt and manipulation use these simple words: ‘must’, ‘have to’ and ‘should’.
Guilt and the free will
Now there is nothing remarkable about these words except they all have one thing in common; guilt. Whenever they are used, the context often involves some level of manipulation of will through guilt. These are from the enemy and are designed to bind us up.
At the very core of every person is a free will. The will can decide to love or to hate, to do wrong or do right. Our free will is God’s gift to us. He treats our will with respect and dignity; never violating its sanctity. God will never tell us we ‘must’ do something, we ‘have to’ do something, or we ‘should’ do something because this would violate our ability to choose. What God desires is that we willingly obey Him.
Only when we follow God will He free us from the vultures of guilt and manipulation so we can grow into spiritual maturity.
Avoiding the vultures of guilt and manipulation
Satan knows about the free will. He willingly and knowingly violates the free will with words like ‘must’, ‘have to’ and ‘should’ to get people to do his bidding. The enemy does this for it is only through guilt and manipulation can he keep people in bondage to do what he wants. Satan continually tells us we ‘must’ do things, we ‘should’ do things and we ‘have to’ obey him. His way is not God’s way.
Jesus leads by going before us. Satan pushes us from behind.
Today, as we listen to others using the name of Lord, do not accept the word if it contains satan’s fingerprints. God has given us a free will to exercise our uncompromising faith. Let us use wisdom and reject all guilt and manipulation that comes from the enemy in the name of God. When we do so we can follow Jesus of our own free will.
Blessings,
Homer and Wanda
This is so true..satan can mimic god we must be careful
Receiving your posts by email, Homer, but still not coming to my reader. Not sure that is problem. But if not coming to my reader they may not going to others who follow you. Just wanted to let you know. Blessings!
Hi G.W. I am looking into this as I am not sure why this is happening. I will keep exploring to find out. That may take me some time but so far God has been able to help me fix all the issues we have faced. 🙂 I do appreciate the heads up as I don’t want to have anyone miss out. Thank you kindly sir! 🙂
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I think I found something but it will take more conversation than I want to do here. Can you send me an email via my contact page? Thank you.
Beautifully said!
We are told to try the spirit if it is of God or not.
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world”. (1 John 4:1 KJV). God bless you.
Excellent post, Homer! As you rightly say, discernment is the key. We must be careful to test every spirit so we are not deceived.
Thank you Homer. This message is profoundly true. Great food for thought.
Amen. My Sheep knows my voice. He confirms His word..vw
Absolutely! Thank you so very much!