Have you ever noticed how easy it is to make someone start doubting? Doubt enters into our minds quickly when we are challenged by others, especially when we view them credibly. One researcher from the University of Georgia found, “So much of changing someone’s mind is in the way you position your questions or statements and the emotional tone of your voice, as well as your body language”(1),
Satan is the master at this tactic. God says truth, Satan suggests partial truths to pervert and deceive us (John 8:44). This is how Satan took advantage of our orginal parents in the Garden of Eden. God clearly said, “Don’t eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil”(Gen. 2:17). Satan enters the garden and suggests, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?'” Satan casts doubt on the Word of God. He causes Eve to doubt God and her ownself.
Centuries later, Christ is baptized by John. God, the father’s voice, booms from heaven, “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). God clearly proclaimed Christ as His son. Satan comes along soon afterwards during Christ’s testing in the wilderness and says, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread” (Luke 4:3). Later he repeats the conditional statement, “If you are the Son of God” (Luke 4:9). Satan sought to put doubt in the mind of Christ of his own identity before the Father.
Satan acts the same way to us today. God says to us through His Word the truth. He clearly expresses His commandments and His will. He defines our true identity in Christ as a beloved and adopted child. But Satan suggests opposing ideas. He casts doubt on the specifics of God’s commands. He suggests that we don’t really have to follow them. He gets us to rationalize our obedience away. Satan suggests that we are good for nothing, always destined to failure, and nothing more than a wretched sinner.
Satan’s methods are not new, rather they are tried and true. God says, Satan suggests! He gets us to doubt the truth of God’s word. It worked on Adam and Eve. In fact, it worked to some degree on everyone else that ever lived with the exception of Jesus Christ. It works on you and me. We must wise up and and shut the devil’s voice out and only listen to God’s truth!
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(1) – https://www.bustle.com/p/9-genius-ways-to-change-someones-mind-according-to-science-2307178
