Dear reader, if you are not already a firm believer in Jesus Christ and His ministering spirits please hesitate before reading this document yet as we are going to delve deep into the spirit world. These spirits are very real and this document is going to expose them completely. If you are not a follower of Christ or you just don’t believe, this document may not help you in the way I have intended it to. I turn your attention instead to some of the other documents on this website and I encourage you to give your heart to Jesus.
Friends, I would like to discuss today the psychology of the devil. I believe if we can get into that head of his we may be better equipped to block his temptations. See friends, he works in a way that can make the strongest of us stumble, he has been around for many a year now and he has had plenty of time to hone his skills. He started in heaven working out the psychology of the angels and how best to get into their heads and turn them against Jesus. To a degree his plan worked, one third of the heavenly angels left when he did.
Revelation 12:7-9 “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”
Friends, I have written a few things against the devil now and they are on this internet site for your perusal, but today we are going deeper, so hold onto your hats, it’s going to be a bumpy ride. Satan hates it when his evil is exposed so he is not going to like you reading this but put your hand in the hand of Jesus and Jesus will keep you safe from the attacks of the devil.
So, let’s just do a quick recap of what we already know. We’ll take some excerpts from other documents. Starting with the document:-
The Devil You Know and The Devil You Don’t know.
“…Few people realise the subtly of the devil….Satan has created a atmosphere telling half the truth but never all of it. Satan presses your troubles upon you to the point of despair…Then comes the tug-of-war. Satan will stop at nothing to keep you deceived but we have a merciful Saviour who is much stronger than the devil…Friends, Satan’s subtlety knows no bounds. He often uses the truth against us, he distorts the truth always leaving out the part where Jesus saves. Beware friends of the wiles of the devil we know and the devil we don’t know for he goes about seeking whom he may devour”
Fighting With the Devil
“…Satan is a ‘dirty’ player. He uses deceit, dishonesty, oppression and a myriad of other undesirable ways to ‘catch’ his prey and then if the ‘prey’ has not managed to escape, Satan delights in devouring it. We are the prey, Satan always has his predatory eyes on us.”
Friends, let’s go to the Bible.
1st Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”
Friends, I’ve painted a picture of the devil that is his true character, one that he hides from us.He always portrays himself as a angel of light and unless you learn about him and know him, he can destroy you. Please heed this warning today and ever remember that the devil is always in the detail, but we need not be afraid as Jesus is always in the detail with us. So let’s start today’s document on the psychology of the devil.
Let’s paint a picture, via a allegory. The story is hypothetical but a very real possibility and while this is a allegory the theory and situation is very real and many of us have been here in one way or another, and if you are here or have been then I pray the document today does bring you peace. I seem to like the name Sally, I have used it extensively in my writing so let’s use it again here.
Sally was in pain. She had been in a serious accident and it had left her with chronic pain. She was still working but only a few hours a week. Well, on this fateful day Sally was asked to work a extra shift at a different store (same boss but different store chain). She said yes, but really didn’t want to as her pain was all consuming, but wanting to help she thought she’d drive herself through the pain and just plod through the day. Well, she went to work only to find out that the ‘parameters’ of the work place had changed. They had a new floor manager and while she was nice and accommodating Sally got the feeling that this manager didn’t want to cater for a ‘invalid’. Sally had taken extra pain medication just to be there and she found this manager’s ‘business-like’ approach a little hard to cope with. Sally struggled through the day, upon reaching home at the end of the day she put her head in her hands and sobbed uncontrollably. She just couldn’t work anymore, she’d have to start saying no to extra shifts, her pain was way out of control, but what hurt the most was she had no-one to go to, no-one to help, and no hope. See, Sally was alone, her parents had passed away early and she had no other family, no-one to confide in. But this wasn’t the end of Sally’s ‘bad day’. Her manager (back at her work place) had taken a ‘disliking’ to Sally and he made it quite plain that her working ability was not ‘good enough’, yes he acknowledged her disability but brushed it away. He said she needed to ‘up her game’ and increase her work efforts. In short Sally knew he was trying to get rid of her, he wanted her to leave on her own grounds as he knew it would be hard to sack her without any reasonable grounds for doing so. So if the manager couldn’t throw her out, maybe he could make her leave by using psychology. In despair Sally found herself in a impossible situation with nowhere to go, she didn’t know what she could do. In abject despair Sally turned to Jesus and this is where it became very interesting for her.
Friends, we’ll leave Sally’s allegory here and continue our story in the ‘fact of the matter’. See, Sally was under attack by the devil, yes Sally was in a bad position at work but nothing is ever out of Jesus’ control and even if Sally had left Jesus would help her find another job. But Sally’s manager was in league with the devil and therefore under the devil’s control. And this friends, is where the psychology of the devil becomes dangerous.
So Sally (being a Christian) heard Jesus gently calling her (being familiar with the Holy Spirit’s voice) asking her to turn to Jesus. But Sally was in a state of utter despair and rejected the calling. This didn’t mean that Jesus was going to go away, oh no, Jesus came closer and again Sally heard the Holy Spirit gently calling. Sally finally yielded and gave in to what she knew had been right all along. Jesus was with her and He would lead her through. She couldn’t see a path out of this place, but resting in Jesus nevertheless. Peace came, the torment and distress was still there, but she now knew that Jesus was there with her. The devil friends, is a opportunist and in Sally he saw a ‘opportunity’ to attack a child that had chosen to be under the banner of Jesus. The fact that her manager was under the devil’s control didn’t go in favour for Sally. But what did go in favour of Sally was the fact that Jesus was by her side and it was Jesus that started leading her out, and walked her through this terrible experience. So this attack on Sally was of the devil’s design and it was all his doing. See, her manager walked side by side with the devil and this was totally orchestrated by Satan and her manager was his puppet.
Sally, via inspiration of Jesus was directed to the internet and like switching on a light realisation came with sudden force. She saw all the signs on the internet pertaining to her predicament and she started to see and realise the psychology of the devil. See, Satan is the master of disguise and he used his knowledge here. So, first the manager, under the direction of Satan sets the scene, this may take weeks, but Satan has the time. He goes around to everyone whispering doubts, base insinuations and lies into everyone’s ears. He is relentless and he changes the perception of others by just whispering a few words here and there. He points out the faults of the person he is targeting, in this case Sally, and he gets everyone to agree with him and put in bits of their own. Then he takes their words to someone else, repeats them and that person then adds their opinion also, always agreeing with the manager. And then the manager takes it back to the first person and the boss and he puts it all into a ‘package’ and he has a case against the person he is targeting. The truths of the matter he sweeps under the carpet and only the accusations against his targeted person are highlighted. He knows full well that the accusations are exaggerated but all of these ‘truths’ are hidden from view as they will mar his intentions.
And this friends, is the psychology of the devil. Let’s go deeper. We have read about the tactics of the devil. Let’s look at a excerpt from the document:-
Fighting With the Devil
“…Satan is very crafty, he will not knock at your door and politely request admission. No, that is not his style, Satan will climb the wall, crawl under the fence, or just barge in…Remember Satan often uses truth in his attempt to sink you, but also remember, Satan never tells all of the truth. Anything in the truth that might encourage you Satan omits and the truth he does use he twists to suit his evil schemes.”
How so much like the devil. Can we see the comparison here? (Jesus using truth and truth alone, then Satan taking that truth and twisting it into lies.) But what we haven’t necessarily come across is the devil using one of his ‘puppets’ against us directly, someone ‘visible’ using the devil’s tactics. Friends, in this life we are living, especially in this day and age, we have fought with the devil on many a occasion but it has all been ‘in our head’, so to speak. Now all of a sudden it is ‘visible’ and quite often we are not prepared for it. Jesus is beside us and He will carry us through but friends more than ever before we need to be able to recognise the devil in human form. We have to be able to recognise the devil working through his agents. The devil often uses truth which he turns to deceit, here is a excerpt from the document:-
Avoiding the Devil’s Tactics.
“…Satan uses truth and subtly turns it into deceit. So while what he is ‘saying’ may ring true trust me, he has used God’s words against Him and turned it into deceit and he is so crafty many people cannot tell the difference and too late they are rolled by the devil….The devil is using the truth as deceit in this, his current warfare and he is trapping so many souls in his web of truth/deceit. See Jesus uses truth and truth alone, Satan is twisting this truth into deceit…”
We need to be so aware, often the devil ‘butters’ us up with ‘praising’ words before tearing us down, yes you are loyal, experienced, or whatever accusation he is throwing against you, but then he drives his arrows home with painful accuracy, his barbs are quick but precise, targeted to inflict the most pain and cause the most intense grief. He used a measure of truth to make us believe what he is saying but he also used other people’s words against them.
This is the psychology of the devil. But I said earlier that Sally via the impression of the Holy Spirit went to the internet. Let’s take a look at what she found there. What Sally found is a awful lot of information about psychology and how people use it against someone. So let’s take a look, let’s go to the psychology of this attack and exactly how do we manage it.
Let’s start with the part about psychological harassment, yes it is all due to Satan and his tactics. It is a terrible tactic and it has sent many a person mad, or broken in despair, some even taking their own lives, it is used by many of Satan’s agents and also by people in power. This type of psychology comes in the form of challenging someone to the point of breaking them psychologically, mentally, or emotionally. There is a term called ‘Gaslighting’ which is a form of psychological abuse where someone will actively try to undermine their victims and to make them doubt themselves so that they lose all self-confidence and self-esteem and are therefore easier to manipulate and push toward the mental health pathway. Gaslighting is one of the most destructive forms of abuse.
This is the tactic of the manager in Sally’s (and many other’s) scenario in a attempt to force her to leave. If he can break her confidence and enforce her to lose her self-esteem he can drive her out a broken person. But friends, we do have a choice, to believe them or not to believe them. With Jesus’ help friends, we can choose not to believe this and with Jesus’ help we can say “I am stronger than this and I will fight it.”
This is a psychological tactic. The goal of the boss is to totally break our confidence in ourself and our work ability and to make us leave of our own accord preferably broken and defeated. What these people do is they feed thoughts to the others in the group to entice them to agree with them. Then the boss quotes or rather misquotes what they say to others to build his case and use what others have said against us, bringing us down again.
Friends, this tactic has been introduced into our world by the devil. What was the very first evil tactic that the devil introduced to our first parents, Adam and Eve? Yes, it was what the internet term has given to the psychological attack – gaslighting. Satan started his psychological attack on the very first inhabitants, Adam and Eve.
Genesis 3:4,5 “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
2nd Corinthians 11:3 “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty…”
Luke 22:3 “Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.”
And down through the ages the devil has honed this so evil tactic and introduced it so craftily that man has not seen it coming and he has not stopped it from developing, till we get to where we are today, with a violent, horrific way to make people break. No-one blames the devil, the victim is blamed for being weak and the perpetrator more or less goes free. Terrible, absolutely terrible, but let’s continue.
So, let’s go to how do we manage these violent attacks that are especially orchestrated by the devil. There are ways to beat the devil at his own game but friends, we cannot do it alone. In the warfare we are fighting the devil head on, face to face. These people using this psychology against us are the devil’s agents in human form. No-one and I mean no-one standing for Jesus in His true spirit of love would do this to anyone, it is a cruel tactic of Satan and Jesus is a God of love.
In most cases, but not all, the manager (as it is in this allegory) is digging his own grave. See Satan doesn’t care about his subjects and just uses them to gain his base designs therefore if ‘manager’ is driven into the pit of his own design Satan doesn’t care and will not lift a finger to help him. This is a physiological attack Satan is using (in this case) to make Sally believe that she is worthless and not performing as well as she could be. This brings about a feeling of doubt in her own ability and makes her lose self-esteem, it is designed to bring her down and make her leave on her own terms. Very cruel indeed.
Mark 5:2,8 “And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.”
Matthew 16:22, 23 “Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.”
Friends, in these situations we need to step back and let Jesus do the fighting for us.
Exodus 14:14 “The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.”
Isaiah 41:10,13 “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.”
So let’s go to tactics. The devil is using his, but what about us? Well, firstly as I mentioned above our first tactic is to hold onto Jesus and let Him lead. Then there are a few other ‘tactics’ that I believe are helpful here. Now I just need to put in a disclaimer here. I am no psychologist and I have absolutely no training in this field so please, these ‘tactics’ that I am putting forward today are basic ideas that I believe would help. Ever remember friends the Bible verses:-
Psalms 32:8 “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.”
Isaiah 48:17 “Thus saith the Lord-, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.”
Jesus is with us and He will give us strength and wisdom.
So what can we do? Well firstly, using Sally’s circumstance as a example (as many a person’s ‘example’ will be in this circumstance). Let’s go in point form.
- Do not take on board anything the manager has said. Do not take it ‘to heart’. Now I do just need to mention here that we are talking about the psychology of the devil and not the day to day work. Sometime instruction is needed and we do need to listen and take it to heart but that is not what I am referring to here. In this document we are referring to downright harassment in this psychology of the devil.
- Do not on any account let him ‘break’ us. We know that we have worth and we know we are good at our jobs. There is a saying “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” but friends, this is so far from the truth. Words do hurt, especially when used in this context. We need to harden our hearts and block the cruel words before they enter the mind and body. These words only hurt if we believe them.If we can recognise the evil attack for what it is we may be able to stop the words from hurting. Friends, this is a very important tactic as it is the pain from those words that causes our downfall. Remember the attacker is working for the devil and it is the devil’s aim to hurt.
Friends, I am walking a fine line here as not all psychological attacks mean that the attacker is in league with the devil. Some people are just dogmatic and use these tactics to bully others into doing their bidding, they are not necessarily ‘in league’ with the devil. So we do need to be careful in addressing these issues, but today friends, I am referring to the people who are especially hand in hand with the devil.
- In these moments it is a waste of time trying to defend ourself, we are wasting our breath. These people are not interested in our ‘defence’ as they are only trying to bring us down.
- And lastly friends, we have a choice, please friends, choose not to believe them, choose to have confidence in yourself and your ability. If Satan can get us on this point then he has more or less won the battle. Friends, we have a choice,we can choose whether or not to believe the lies of the devil. Please put your hand in the hand of Jesus and choose not to believe Satan, especially as we know now that he is only out to destroy us.
Friends, there is another matter that is vital here that I would like to briefly mention and it is what I believe to be a dangerous circle. See this is how the mind works sometimes when in distress. We have a cause (a psychological harassing manager for example), then we have a symptom of the cause (distress) then our mind goes into a spin looking for a reason for the distress and guess what it finds? that’s right – the manager. So the mind goes looking for something to pin our pain and distress on and it finds the manager. Then we become distressed because of the manager then the circle starts again – the mind goes looking for a reason and round and round we go again. Friends, this circle needs to be broken, something in the circle needs to be addressed to stop the mind from going into a spin.
Friends, Jesus will help you, put your faith in Him and let Him guide you out of the circle. Let’s look at it like a staircase. A staircase that leads to heaven. I believe that many of us have been in positions of severe trial and while we cling to Jesus I believe the only way is up. Picture a staircase, a staircase leading to heaven. We only need to climb one step at a time, stabilise on that step then take another step upward toward heaven, step by step we can make it. Those ‘steps’ are placed there by Jesus, they are our guardian angels tenderly helping us to step out of our problems and climb up the staircase to heaven.
Friend’s, we are not going to ‘bow’ to the devil’s dictations and it doesn’t matter what the ‘ransom’ note says – we will not pay. It doesn’t matter where we are these days as Satan has his agents everywhere and as children of the King we are his especial targets. We need more than ever before to put our hand in Jesus’ and let Him guide the situation. Friends, Jesus will guide us safely through the ‘Psychology of the Devil’.
Isaiah 30:21 “And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.”