"Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons..." - 1 Timothy 4:1
The Bible tells us that the devil is working hard to deceive everyone: he will try to deceive believers into doubting God, and he will try to deceive unbelievers into thinking that there's no reason to believe God no matter what happens.
That's what he does - blinding people and preventing them from seeing the truth (see 2 Corinthians 4:4).
How does the devil deceive people? How does he succeed in doing this? In this article we'll talk about how he deceives Christians.
How the devil deceives believers
1) By presenting himself as "the Christ"
The devil will try to present himself as the solution to all our woes, the salvation we've all been looking for. The Lord Jesus Himself warned us about him, saying:
"Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There!' do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand." (Matthew 24:23-25)
2) By faking Godliness
A religious spirit is not of God, period. We can be religious yet still fail to know God. The devil knows this and uses a spirit of religiosity as a counterfeit to true Christ-likeness and Godliness.
2 Timothy 3:2-5 warns us,
"For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!"
3) By distracting us with worthless pursuits
Ever spent some considerable time doing something you regretted afterwards? If you have, then you've probably fallen victim to one of the devil's long-time favorite tactics: distraction.
Ephesians 5:15-17 instructs us,
"See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is."
Many of us fall prey to this third tactic. We can be very skeptical about those who present themselves as "God's emissaries" or "God's chosen." We can also be very skeptical about those who fake Christ-likeness.
It's not as easy, however, to spot a distraction especially when it's presented as something "good."
We could spend precious time fixing broken things when we should be preaching the Gospel. We could be spending time "bonding" with friends when we should be pointing them to the truth of God's word.
The moment we fail to "understand what the will of the Lord is," we will fail to see what's important. And when we fail to see what's truly important, nothing will be important. Not even prayer and the preaching of God's word.
