Satan is a liar. As a matter of fact, Jesus called him the father of all lies.

He has been lying and manipulating human beings since he slithered into the Garden of Eden and tempted Eve. It is the devil’s only quest—to destroy as many people as he can.

The best way to destroy us is to try and keep us far away from God, and the calling of God on our lives. In 1 Peter 5:8, we are reminded,

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

This is a warning that we must take very seriously. The devil is hiding in the bush, waiting for you to let your guard down so that he can pounce on you in your weakened state.

1. God isn’t listening to you.

This is one of Satan’s greatest weapons— to put doubt into your mind. You know that you are supposed to pray, but there are times when it does seem like God is not listening.

These times can be confusing for the believer. We find ourselves asking,

“Where are you God?”

“You said you would never leave me or forsake me, but I feel very alone.

“Just like the serpent in the Garden, with Eve, the devil whispers his hot breath in our ears and he asks us, “Did God really say?”

What God Says About Prayer

And if we are not careful, we can begin to question and doubt if God is hearing us and if he really cares. Look at the following scriptures related to how God feels about prayer.

• “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20
• “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer.” 1 Peter 3:12
• “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” 1 John 5: 14-15
• “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:12-13
• “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Mark 11:24

So, anytime you hear the devil try to convince you that God doesn’t hear your prayers, God isn’t listening, or God doesn’t care, you can read these scriptures.

Then, you can shut the mouth of that prowling lion.

Nothing defeats the enemy in the battle over your mind than you wielding the two-edged sword of the word of God.

God hears every prayer. He is listening. He cares.

2. You are too needy.

I went through a season a couple of years ago, where I went up for every altar call, every week for healing.

I was dealing with very serious chronic pain and all I knew was that I wanted to be healed.

After a few weeks, I started to feel a little embarrassed that I was up there every week. This is also a lie from the devil.

The enemy was telling me many things during that time. He was telling me that I will never be healed from this pain.

He was telling me that no matter how many times I go to the altar, this pain will never go away.

He was telling me that God is tired of hearing about my same problem over and over again.

Don’t allow the devil to plant these seeds of doubt in your mind.

Jesus doesn’t care how many times you come to him about your problem.

He doesn’t get annoyed when you come to the altar every Sunday. Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”

The devil wants to try to pull you away from God. Lysa TerKerurst says, “If the enemy can isolate us, he can influence us.” (From: It’s Not Supposed to Be this Way.)

What the devil wants is for you to fill your cup with the things of the world, but know this, Jesus is the only one who can truly fill our cups.

“If the devil can isolate us, he can influence us.”

3. You don’t have a calling from God.

I have had a lot of my Christian friends say to me, “I really don’t know what my calling is. I don’t think that I have a purpose.”

Perhaps it hasn’t been revealed to you yet, but we all have a purpose and God has a calling for us.

1 Peter 2:9-10 describes who we are in Christ, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, now you are God’s people.”

You belong to God. You are His chosen one, His child, His beloved, His possession.

This truth leads us to this certainty, that if He calls you his own, you have been chosen, you have a purpose, and you have a calling from God.

Let me remind you that the devil is seeking whom he may devour.

If he can convince you that you are not chosen and you do not have a purpose, then this can prevent you from stepping into all that God has predestined for you to do in the kingdom.

The devil would like nothing more than to stop that.

DON’T LET HIM! Fight the enemy with every ounce of strength that you have left. Even if your prayers seem to go unanswered, please remember that God’s ways are not our ways,

God’s timing is perfect, but it doesn’t always follow our desired timeline, and He is working even when you can’t see it or feel it—He is always listening and He is always working.

We walk by faith and not by sight.

You belong to God. You are His chosen one. You are His child. You are His beloved. You are His possession.

4. You are too far gone in your sin to be forgiven.

Every time that the hammer hit that cold, hard iron nail into His flesh.

Every drop of blood that poured from the thorns in his scalp, every time a new piece of skin burned raw from the stripes on his back, Jesus was saying to you, “You are forgiven.”

We need to look no further than the story of the prodigal son. When the son realized that it was time for him to return to his father, he rehearsed what he was going to say.

He knew in his heart that he had made a big mistake and that his father may not forgive him; may no longer call him his son.

His father forgave him because he loved him and he missed him. Before the son ever said a word the father was ready to celebrate.

This is the mystery of grace. God desires that none should perish. He longs for us to come home to him.

Any time the devil tells you that you have sinned too much, that you are too far gone, that there is no way that God could forgive you…it’s a lie, from the father of lies.

Every time the hammer hit that cold, hard iron nail into his flesh, Jesus said, “You are forgiven.”

5. You can do it, everyone else is.

This is unfortunately a trap that I have fallen into and I am sure that many Christians can say the same.

There is something that happens to us, psychologically, when we see that other people, or more specifically, other Christians are doing things that are biblically wrong, but culturally acceptable.

We start to doubt what we have been told by God’s Word and we believe the lie, because sinning is typically more enjoyable than not sinning. And so, we make justifications for sin.

It is the same thing that children do when they get into trouble, or when they get a bad grade on a test.

The child will say, “But everyone else…” Somehow, we convince ourselves that if many other people are doing something, even if it is wrong, it is acceptable.

Do Not Conform

Social psychologists have been studying this phenomenon of conformity for years.

The research is pretty clear that human beings are compelled to follow the crowd, even when it is clear that what they are doing is wrong.

Christians are not exempt from this phenomenon.

This is not a new tactic from Satan. He has been doing it since the Garden of Eden.

Remember how he coaxed Eve into eating the forbidden fruit, he said to her, “Did God really say?” Genesis 3:1.

Remember, one of his most successful weapons is to place doubt into our minds. It is our responsibility to tell the devil what God did say.

Don’t let the enemy convince you that you are immune from sin because the majority of people are committing the same sin.

Things That Are Not Easy For the Christian

It is NOT easy to be a Christian, to walk the narrow road, to follow Christ rather than the crowd.

2 Corinthians 6:17 reminds us, “Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean things; then I will welcome you.”

In a society where conformity is the norm, we are called to be non-conformists. We can be in the world and not of the world. Anything else is a lie from the devil.

Conclusion

We are called to be in the world but not of the world.The devil is a master liar and manipulator. He has been at this a long time.

Every time we believe one of the lies mentioned here, or the countless others that he throws our way, we only embolden him.

Do not let the enemy get the better of you. Prepare yourself, pray, know the Word of God, and be on alert. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” James 4:7

Read more about how to defeat the devil in my blog entitled “A Bruised Heel and a Crushed Head.”

Be blessed as you obey the voice of God!

Susie