Twisted

I've been thinking about spiritual warfare a lot lately (cue the Twilight Zone music). It seems like it's generally okay to talk about God, but when you mention Satan people start wondering what you've been smoking. I guess that's why most people go to one of two extremes: they either see the devil hiding behind every bush or else they assume that the spiritual realm is the stuff of fairy tales. But the same Bible that makes all of the promises that we love to quote also says that Satan is very real. And his strategy today is the same as it has always been.

The Bible says over & over that Satan is the ultimate deceiver. He twists the truth just enough to trip us up, but not so much that the lie is so obvious that we'd reject it. In John 8:44 Jesus says of Satan: "When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." He'll distort the truth just enough to make us believe it. He'll twist our appetite into addiction. He'll twist our desire into greed. He'll twist our view of God into anger and blame for whatever we don't like. And the ultimate goal of the deception is destruction. So if we're going to avoid his traps, we've first got to recognize that they're real.