Is this God or is it Satan

This morning someone sent us a verse – He who delights in Him, He will give him the desire of his heart. It is an amazing thought – the everlasting God – we can serve Him, be in His service, and He will look after us – even look after our desires.

Yesterday someone said, if you just look around, almost everywhere it is expanding. Not that this is the most important, the most important is that souls are won for Christ, but if God blesses His work, if He uses that, we give Him all the honour and glory. He does it in His way, but we can observe and thank the Lord for His faithfulness. May we also experience it in our personal lives.

Even though I want to speak about another topic, as an introduction I would like to say this: Let us read John 14. I read it this week and I thought it is as sweet as honey.

Read the whole chapter and see what it does to you. I trust that it will stir your heart and that will be a sign that you have a relationship with God the Holy Spirit.

John 14:16 – 17 (Amplified Bible)  And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counsellor, Strengthener, Standby), to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive [and take to its heart] because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He (the Holy Spirit) remains with you continually and will be in you.  

Doesn’t it stir your heart? It says here you will see Him. The world will see Him in you.

Verse 26 – 2  But the Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counsellor, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf], He will teach you all things. And He will help you remember everything that I have told you. 27 Peace I leave with you; My [perfect] peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. [Let My perfect peace calm you in every circumstance and give you courage and strength for every challenge.]  

His perfect peace He leaves with us. He will give us courage, we do not need to be troubled.

When you have a chance, go and read John 14 – 16. Our relationship with Christ and the Holy Spirit being alive in us must be the most important thing in our lives, so that we will know and see God through Him. It is necessary so that we can live.

The next point I would like to speak about is this: on the one side is the Holy Spirit, He speaks to us, He leads us, He guides us. But on the other hand, Satan the devil, works against everything that is good.

The Bible teaches us that Satan is constantly, all the time, working against God and humanity using deception, twisting God’s word, presenting half truths which become lies to lead people away from righteousness. That is the danger of seeking to be led by God and being ignorant of the danger of the deception of the devil who will come in every possible way to lead you astray. That is why it is so important to discern between God and satan.

It is a terrible thing if a person thinks I am doing the right thing, just to find out later that I missed the mark completely. I want to do the right thing, but because I didn’t discern between right and wrong, I am doing the wrong thing, thinking I am doing the right thing. By doing the wrong thing, the consequences can be terrible. Maybe even change the direction of my life, without me knowing that I have been deceived.

I remember the day I started making my life right in earnest. I wanted to cleanse my life so that there is nothing between me and God. And as I was doing that, I would remember something I had done, and I would go and confess it.

Suddenly one day, a lot of things came to mind. Even things I had already confessed. ike a flIt was like a flood, many things. I went to Rev Stegen and said that I had made many of these things right, now they are here again.

He told me the story of a man who began following Jesus Christ. He felt he had to go and pray, and he went to the foot of the mountain. When he was at the bottom, he felt he must go to the top, so he climbed the mountain to the top. When he was at the top, he said, I felt I must pray at the bottom of the mountain, so he went up and down the mountain, almost losing his mind. Rev Stegen said to me, learn to discern, otherwise you will go mad. I wanted to do the right thing and confess my sin, and devil jumped on the bandwagon, so you want to confess your sin, well, being the accuser, he brings everything you did to you, and more. And by that he tries to derail you. If we don’t discern, he will drive you to madness.

Turn to 1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

How do I know, is it God or the devil coming to me with his ideas?

It refers first of all to people, a false prophet. A person who comes to us: What about this, have you seen that, have you heard what that person did. You don’t need to do it like this, things said by a person.

I remember that time when I cleansed my life, I was reminded of a teacher at school that I had to return to, to make something right. After a long search I found the teacher. The teacher said, no, listen, listen, let me explain to you, you don’t need to go to this extreme. You see, people can advise you differently, but I knew I had to do it like this, and that is how I could get peace.

But the second thing referred to here is the spirit of Satan, the evil one. Now it says, test the spirits. How do I test it, how do I know that this thought that has come to me is from Christ. Yes, over time we learn it. But I can test it using God’s word. To gossip, is that wrong, or to not love a specific person, what does God’s Word say? It’s necessary when a thought comes to just think for a minute – is that God’s word? If it is not in line with God’s word it is not from God.

I can also test it, by going to a man of God. A counsellor, someone who walks with God. This is what I am thinking, can it be right?  Even if it is to just pray together for clarity. You can test it by prayer. Sometimes you don’t have the opportunity to go to someone to pray with you, then pray: Lord is this from You?

I remember, I think I told it once before, but let me tell it again. It is a typical example of where the devil came with his plan. I remember in 2010, when we buried our four-year old son. We believed God could raise him from the dead. We believed it with all our hearts. I would not have been surprised if he would have. But at the graveside, we carried the coffin to the grave and we put it down. Something came to me to say: the Lord can raise him, if you can open the coffin, He will raise him.

I stood there and thought, is this from God, is it not? What if I open it and it is not, it can be a terrible thing. But something I remembered is that this, whatever you call it – voice, feeling, thought, was an urgent thought of “do it now, do it now, quickly”. And that is often how the devil speaks ,“now, now, do it quickly”. No time to consider, “do it now”.

When the Lord told Elijah to stand at the entrance of the cave and the Lord told him, I will come past – there was a mighty wind, and even the rocks split and tore from the mountain, but Elijah knew it was not from God. There was an earthquake, there was fire, but Elijah knew it was not from God. Then there was a still wind, a light breeze – Elijah covered his head, and he knew, this was God.

Very often the devil comes with a quick, do-it now, urgency. Then we go wrong because we react to it.

So we were at the grave. I couldn’t first run to a counsellor and ask what must I do? But there and then, I prayed: ‘If this is from You and You want me to open it so that You can show Your power, I will do it’ – but then I said,’ but Lord, if this is not from You, if this is not You speaking, please take it away.’ Immediately that thought, that feeling, left me and I knew it was not from God.

We can test it by praying and saying, Lord is this you? You can even say, Lord please make a way if you want me to do it and He will do it. He is faithful, He doesn’t want you to do the wrong thing and if you turn to Him, He will do it.

We need to discern between good and evil every day. King Solomon said, Give me a discerning heart to distinguish between right and wrong. And so in this world, we will hear many voices. There is the voice of the world calling me. ‘Look how nice it is, how tempting, you can be free’, the voice of the world.

There is the voice of my own desires. That which I want. I get to a situation, I know what I want, and then I don’t pray and say, Lord what do You want? That which I want becomes more important than what the Lord wants. And that determines what I do. There I go wrong.

There is the voice of the flesh. Call it a temptation if you will. The voice of the flesh, look at that girl, that boy. If the Holy Spirit and Christ is not the most important, that voice of the flesh will overrule.

There is the voice of my knowledge, my experience – maybe I have done this thing for many years, I know how to do it, I know, I have done it, and that voice rules me and tells me, and I do what that voice says.

There is a voice of pride. Maybe I am too proud to admit that your plan is better than mine. Maybe that voice tells me, don’t admit that you have made a mistake because they will look down on you. So I listen to the wrong voice. Not God’s voice, not the Holy Spirit – it is another voice. And I go wrong. God is not pleased with me.

Have you ever been there where for whatever reason, someone says something, and somehow you feel the devil is close. God the Holy Spirit can warn you.  But why don’t you pray? Lord, here is the devil, he is on my doorstep, he is knocking at my door. I might lose my temper now. When you feel that coming – pray. Lord, here is the devil knocking on my door, please help me. Don’t react quickly. Don’t rush to that voice that says, do something, just be quiet. Lord, here is the devil knocking on my door, please help me. And He is faithful.

I want us to turn back to 1 Samuel. It is the story of Saul. Now listen to Saul. Listen to how it started with Saul.

1 Samuel 10:6 Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.  

That was Saul’s experience with God. He was changed into another man.

Maybe you say, I serve the Lord, I put everything on the altar. I do everything I should do. Here is Saul – the Spirit of the Lord came upon him – and he was a changed man, a godly man. God blessed him. Samuel put His hand on him, anointed him as king. One is tempted to think: With such an experience, how can things go wrong?

Now if you read further in chapter 13, we can see it.

1 Samuel 13:8 Then he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him.  

Here is a man on whom the Spirit of the Lord was, the Lord’s hand was upon him, but in this moment something went wrong, one feels like asking, how did this happen, how did you get here? If we are not aware and conscious of the fact that this can happen, we will make the same mistake.

1 Samuel 15:13 – 1413 Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord.”

14 But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?

The Lord told Saul to destroy everything. He didn’t destroy everything. But yet, when he met Samuel, he says, I have carried out the command of the Lord. I did everything I was supposed to do.

You see, in his mind, he thought he did what he had to do. In his mind, he followed the right thing. But in God’s eyes, he did the wrong thing.

Saul, how could you have gotten here. How could you have made that mistake. How could you have done this, thinking you were doing the right thing, but you missed the mark.

If we are not aware of it, we will make the same mistake, thinking I am doing God’s work – I am doing His work a favour. I am doing what I should do – God told me to go and fight, and I did that, but I didn’t do it as God wanted me to do it.

Spurgeon says: discernment is not simply a matter of telling the difference between what is wrong and right, rather it is the difference between right and almost right.

In a Christian’s life, discernment is the difference between right and almost right. We can do it almost right, listening to my knowledge and experience, that which I think – but like Saul we can miss the mark completely. I will bear the consequences of that because God wanted it like this and He wanted it exactly like that – and if we mix it with what I think – yes, God did tell me, and I did go, but I change it a little bit like this – then we miss the mark completely.

I remember when I began working, that is just by the way, before I started, Rev Stegen said I must come and see him. Before my first day. He said to me, now I will teach you how to work. He said to me, if they ask you to wipe the table like this, he demonstrated it, he said, wipe it just like that, not differently. Then he said, now go and work. That is all he taught me. I never forgot it.

There is no difference in doing this direction or that direction – what is the difference? But God wants us to do it His way – not according to our thinking that it makes no difference whether it is this or that way – but God’s way. To do that, we will need an ear to hear. We can’t discern between good and evil, I can’t, without the Holy Spirit. Humanly, we can never discern – but with God and the Holy Spirit, He will help us to discern. That is why we need the Holy Spirit.

I was trying to find out, when Jesus was tempted in the desert, whether the devil was there in person, physically or whether it was a spirit. I couldn’t find anything in that text, but there is one text in Hebrews 4:14. That verse says, when He was tempted it was like we are tempted.

The devil never appeared to me in person, but all I can think of, is that the devil must have spoken to Him as a spirit. I don’t know what the answer is, but what I am trying to say is that even Jesus who had no corruption, no sin, the devil, Satan, spoke to Him.

The devil spoke to Him. Told him do this – I will give You that. Why wouldn’t he speak to me, a mere sinful man, I will give you this, freedom, the world. If the devil spoke to the Lord Jesus like that, what makes me think he won’t do it to me? So, dear friend, reckon with it that it is there. The devil will try to deceive us. He will bring things to our minds, things that look good, he’ll make promises, but learn to discern so you’ll know if something is from God or not. Let us follow that which is from God.

1 John 4:4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.  

God is stronger than Satan, if we turn to God, the Bible says we have already overcome. Don’t fear, call upon the Lord, He is faithful. He will direct us to do the right thing, not “almost” the right thing, but the right thing.

And then God will work, and we will see it, we will experience it and it will be a wonderful thing. There wherever you are, no matter how far away you are, if God works through you, it will be a wonderful thing.