Deceitful Questions
The most common attack of the enemy is through his questions. The enemy will do all he can to make you question: 1) What God has said and 2) Who he says you are(your identity). When he succeeds in making you ask his same questions, it always leads to deception and unbelief. On the contrary, when God is in the mix, and He leads you to start asking questions, He will always lead you to revelation and ultimately greater faith. You can readily tell what the enemy fears about your life by what he attacks. When the Israelites were nearing victory in the Promised Land, it was then that the enemy attacked with fear, deception and unbelief. Sadly, only Joshua and Caleb had courage to fight for the promises of God. The others succumbed to fear and unbelief. With some of my own family conflicts, I’ve come to realize that what the enemy fears about my family life, is the incredible power and strength that unity would bring to our family. Therefore, the enemy attacks and tries to bring division wherever he can. When I focus on my own fears and listen to the doubting questions of the enemy, it weakens my resolve to stand for God’s promises for my family.
In Genesis 3, the enemy deceived Eve with his first question.
“Did God really say, You must never eat the fruit of any tree in the garden?”
“Did God really say?” was the first deception. Many people have fallen away as they begin to question the truth of God’s word. However, the Bible is the only book in existence where the author shows up when you read it. It’s alive and His words give life. Others have fallen away because they were confused by His word and don’t fully understand certain passages, so they reject the word and ultimately reject God.
I love Peter’s response to His lack of understanding in John 6:
Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day…
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
Many disciples left Jesus after that day because they couldn’t understand and they were frustrated by what he said.
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
That’s it folks! You have the words of eternal life! Even if we don’t completely understand the word, even if we don’t completely understand His time frame, His plans, and all the “whys” that can flow from our mouths,
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
To repel the enemy’s attacks, we must abide in God’s word. Abide means to let the word become us. We are designed to hear from God. We are designed to perceive Him.
In Luke 3 Jesus had just been baptized and God spoke from heaven saying: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” What an incredible moment! What an incredible word! Then Luke 4 states that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. In the wilderness, “The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
Note this phrase… “If you are the Son of God.” The last thing God spoke to Jesus before he went in the wilderness was “this is my beloved son.” Satan is attempting to make Jesus question His identity and to react defensively.
The devil can’t change “who” you are are but he can alter your confidence in who you are, which can lead you to doubt and unbelief. The devil wanted Jesus to prove that he was the Son of God by changing a stone to bread. But Jesus did not need to prove himself and certainly not to the devil! Sometimes when we set out to prove ourselves, it becomes more of a fleshy reaction, a defensive posture, because it’s born out of insecurity. The enemy is working hard to foul up people’s identity.
As we can see, our culture has really been listening to the wrong questions and it’s taking a toll on the body of Christ especially on our young people. “Did God really say?” “If you are a child of God?”. The enemy will do all he can to make us question these two key areas: 1) What God has said and 2) Who he says you are (your identity).
Lord, we pray that You would unlock our hearts that we might be fully alive to our true identity in You. Give us clear revelation to see ourselves the way You see us. Help us to stand in Your truth against all enemy attacks and guard our hearts with all vigilance (Proverbs 4:23). Help us to identify the lies, and reveal to us any places where we are chained to the past in a negative way. Teach us to hear Your voice and not believe the enemy’s destructive lies and questions about who we are. Thank You for our uniqueness and that we are made in Your image (Genesis 1:27). Help us to choose to believe the truth about how You see us. Help us to live a fruitful life and overflow with Your love to others. Give us greater authority in our prayer life. Thank You for the identity we have in You. Help us to live out this truth in our lives every day.
In Jesus’ name, Amen