Whose Voice Are We Listening To?

The challenge that all of us have is to avoid listening to the voice of the enemy. However, at times he is very subtle, at least to begin with. This is the approach he adopted with Eve in the Garden of Eden. He started with a question to try and engage her in a conversation. At times with us, he does the same thing; a ‘thought’ questioning what we believe, perhaps because something has happened to us that we didn’t expect and find difficult to cope with.

Jesus warned us what the true purposes of Satan are. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10, NIV). Whenever you get a voice or a thought that is stealing your peace or attacking the promises of God for you as God's child, you can be certain that it is from the enemy. Let’s take a brief look at each of these approaches by the enemy in John 10:10.

He comes to steal. First and foremost, he wants to steal people away from God and uses our lack of trust to do so, the same way he deceived Eve. None of should think ourselves immune to the wiles of the enemy. He isn’t a creator; he’s a plagiariser. Satan famously quoted from Psalm 91 to Jesus in such a way that, if Jesus had followed his twisted interpretation, it would have destroyed God’s plans for our salvation. If he is prepared to try that on with the Son of God, then none of are immune. He also likes to use false spiritual teachers to steal God’s truth and replace it with a lie.

He comes to kill. The devil and his followers are obsessed with death. He is behind every suicide attempt and the dehumanising of people, encouraging people to look down on and despise others. He is out to kill our hope and our joy. Without both the world begins to seem like a place we no longer want to be in – exactly what our enemy wants us to believe.

He comes to destroy. False spiritual teaching is also naturally destructive. Interestingly, a metaphor Paul uses for false teaching is gangrene (Timothy 2:17), which causes the death and decomposition of an area of the body when blood circulation is cut off from it. By its very nature it spreads throughout our lives and also into the Church. At heart, the devil is a taker not a maker. In short, his voice is usually a voice of fear, condemnation, self-hate, shame, doubt, jealousy, envy and hatred.

Praise God that Jesus has come to bring us life and life in all its fullness. Whose voice are you or have you been listening to? It’s time to tune out the enemy and tune into the Holy Spirit; the gentle loving voice that always agrees with His word. That’s the plumbline we must always revert to in order to discern correctly. Does what we hear agree with the Bible?  If it doesn’t, no matter how appealing (or not) it sounds, reject it.