How the Devil Deceives the Children of God

How the Devil Deceives the Children of God

By Apostle Felix

10  If you freely forgive anyone for anything, then I also forgive him. And if I have forgiven anything, I did so for you before the face of Christ, 

11  so that we would not be exploited by the adversary, Satan, for we know his clever schemes.

2 Corinthians 2: 10, 11

The devil has clever schemes that he uses to trap the children of God with. These are schemes that he has been using since the fall of man. He has not changed the tactics though he may use different scenario and approach. The garden of Eden template is the same he uses with everyone. It is the same template he used to tempt Jesus with. The devil tempts in three areas, namely; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 

16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 

1 John 2: 15, 16

The devil has not changed his strategy of bringing an upright man down. He tried it with Jesus but failed. He succeeded with the first man Adam, but with the last Adam, he failed. His strategy is the same of convincing man to doubt the integrity of God’s Word. The devil made the first man to believe that God’s work of creation was incomplete. God said, ‘It is very good,’ when He had finished making man.

31  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. 

Genesis 1: 31

The deception, satan used with man was to convince him that he was incomplete. The devil talked thoughts into man’s mind that there was an unfinished business that he was supposed to finish by eating the fruit. The lie had more to do with man’s identity. Most of the temptations man faces have to do with identity. Satan tempted Jesus with the question of identity. ‘If you are the Son of God, turn the stones into bread’, satan suggested to Jesus.

3  It was then the devil said to him, “If you are really the Son of God, command this stone to turn into a loaf of bread for you.” 

Luke 4: 3

Jesus was the Son of God when He was here on the earth. But why did the devil go that route to tempt Jesus with His identity? It was because, if Jesus had succumbed to the temptation, he was going to sent a message that salvation could only be attained by works. Salvation by grace was going to be frustrated and man was going to be doomed forever. The fall of man was due to the attempt of wanting to become like God through human effort. Man was already like God. He was already made in the image of God and His likeness.

27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 

Genesis 1: 27

You have been delivered from satan’s hold and translated into the kingdom of dear Son, Jesus Christ. Any other message trying to convince you otherwise is not of God. Jesus has done a perfect work in your life and it is complete. You have been delivered from satan and his cohorts, and you cannot host satan and Jesus at the same time. The devil’s scheme is to convince believers that they still need deliverance from demonic powers. And that kind of teaching is a direct attack on the finished work of Christ. It is a scheme of the devil of convincing the delivered that they are still bound. Today’s deliverance conducted on children of God cannot be found in the New Testament church of the Bible. The first apostles never conducted deliverance services in the manner it is done today. Jesus only commanded believers to cast out devils, and never did He say that believers shall cast out devils from fellow believers. Where then did this practice come from?