# 154: "The Devil Made Me Do It"

That has been the alibi of little boys and girls for centuries, when asked to explain why they did some naughty thing that mom and/or dad disapproved of. The funny thing is that, most likely, it is the truth.

This topic of why we do what we do, and who is behind our actions, is not a favorite subject of mine; that is the reason I continually hesitated to write about it. It is not a topic that will bring joy to the hearts of most, including myself. And yet, here goes.

It all started in the timeless heavenly realm, even before there was a physical universe that is governed by time and space. God created spiritual beings in His likeness, in an attempt to further the love and goodness that was locked up inside of Him. These beings are called angels. Of course, because of the desire of some to be like their creator, it was necessary to give all of them a free will to do as they see fit, even though God knew in advance that a large percentage of these spiritual creatures would live in defiance of what He desires. Nevertheless, He just couldn’t do it any other way. Anyone without a free will is no more than a robot. Who wants to be in the company of robots for eternity?

Well, those rebellious angels were continually encouraged to disobey God through the prompting of their chief (Lucifer). Check Isaiah 14:12-17; in the New International version, Lucifer is called “O morning star.” The King James and others give the devil the name “Lucifer.” Now, why God didn’t just decimate all these troublemakers is a mystery. Although, it could be that if He did, it would be a coercive and intimidating action toward the remainder of His holy angels—pure love can never display the slightest bit of force. To be more descriptive: The obedient angels would think twice before disobeying God, after He did away with the disobedient ones, for fear of getting the same treatment.

Even with the myriads upon myriads upon myriads of angels in the heavenly realm, both good and evil—Ephesians 6:12: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood [only], but against rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the HEAVENLY realm.” God still had the potential to create a different type of life since God’s ability to love and be loved cannot be contained by numbers or type of beings; His family will continue to grow for all eternity in its various forms. If God was to create a new breed of living beings that had the ability to live in a different realm (what we call the physical/material world), first He would have to create a physical universe to house this new potential family of His. And that is exactly what He did. And just how God created the physical is, at this time, beyond our understanding, other than He spoke the evolution process into existence starting from scratch, meaning the evolution of the physical universe and the evolution of physical life.

The Bible records the word “Satan,” meaning “accuser,” 34 times in the New Testament (NT) and 19 times in the Old Testament (OT). The world “devil” is not mentioned in the OT, but is mentioned 36 times in the NT. The phrase “evil one” (the devil) is mentioned 10 times in the NT, but is not mentioned in the OT. The phrase “evil desires/s” is mentioned about 6 times in the NT. All these verses must not be taken lightly; the devil is someone to be reckoned with. He is not a soft touch; he means business.

These are just some of the attributes of Satan the devil: a crafty trickster in the art of distracting and disguising, the father of lies, a cunning murderer, and all for one reason: to be the inventor and perfecter of deceit.

Many people don’t believe Satan the devil is an actual spiritual being, but just a symbol of evil. Let’s see what the Bible says concerning that: Job 1:6. “One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord said to Satan, ‘Where have you come from?’ Satan answered the Lord, ‘From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.’” In 1st Peter, verse 5:8, the apostle adds this somber warning: “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to DEVOUR. Resist him, stand firm in faith. . . .” Although I will say this: Everything and anything that is evil, including all evil desires, especially “survival of the fittest” (a seemingly necessary attribute), is inspired by him and his cohorts.

Some will think, “With about seven billion people on earth today, how can he potentially inspire such a large number?” Easy. Have you ever heard of “thought sharing”? If you get a chance, click on post # 69, “The Power of Thoughts.” There is no doubt that the devil gives special attention to certain people that are hard nuts to crack (to deceive). He gives this group of people special and individual attention. Otherwise the “thought sharing” principle works very well on the rest. Once a thought is generated by Satan, or whoever, it is available to everyone on this earth and beyond who is in tune with that particular thought. Something like the World Wide Web.

Just a quick rundown on “thought sharing”: Everyone has a specific wavelength, as it were; the only thoughts they receive are those that are identical to their wavelength. Also, the thoughts they give out are generally similar to those they are in tune with. Here is the scary thing: Once a thought is generated, either from human or spiritual entities, it will be around for eternity, for whomever to receive; hopefully God will eventually delete the self-centered ones. Where/how our spiritual antenna is tuned to will determine which ones we receive and give out.

This “thought sharing” principle was discovered in the first part of the 19th century. It was investigated by the U.S. Patent Office. Patents for the same inventions were being submitted within days of each other; their origins were sometimes continents apart. This was happening too often to be just a coincidence. This makes the old adage, “There are no secrets in this world” true. The Patent Office finally came to the conclusion that it wasn’t just a bunch of coincidences, but that thoughts can be transmitted from one person to another, thousands of mile apart; I also say that it can be done instantly.

Thoughts can be and are generated by a benevolent God, along with those that belong to Him; they also are generated by the evil one and those working for him. When someone says, "I was inspired to do this or that; good, bad, or otherwise,” they actually received a thought from someone else, or on rare occasions generated an original thought. This explains a lot about why many things are happening in the world today. To put it bluntly, we are controlled by the type of thoughts our antennas are tuned to. Some people attempt to forget or get certain thoughts out of their heads, but thoughts have some sort of glue so as to stick to our thinking process. Most of us know this all too well.

Here is what determines the type of thoughts we receive and give out: The DESIRES we have will do the trick. If we are generous, we will receive and emit thoughts concerning that category. If we are self-centered, we will be able to receive and give out like thoughts. The nasty thing is this: Some people secretly live deceptive lives: acting like angels outwardly while attempting to cancel their devious motives (their incoming and outgoing thoughts); that is scary. How do we know who to trust? Now we know why we and others sometimes do the things we do.

Getting back to the one responsible for the majority, if not all, of the trouble in the world (Satan the devil) . . . If a person gets nothing else out of this unique post, let it be this: the 3 D’s. The devil is a Deceiver, and loves to Distract, and Disguise. He has it down to a fine art. What I mean is this: Those who are overtly evil—and there are many of those in the world—he doesn’t bother much with them. He knows he has them in his corner. The ones that are his treasured possessions are those who are evil but conceal their evil or selfish and greedy ways by giving them benevolent names, such as “normal,” “decent,” “loving,” “Godly,” “sacred,” “blessed,” “equal rights,” “freedom,” “religion,” “Jesus,” “humanitarian,” “alternative lifestyles,” “freedom of expression,” “porn is a form of art,” along with many other benevolent and Godly names, which could be endless.

Here is where “Religion’s Crime Against God” comes to the rescue. I will tell you a secret: the devil’s holy grail is to make it so not a single person on earth will be with God in eternity. He has failed in that quest so far, but continually is using new strategies to keep any more from God’s eternal bliss. There are only two categories of people on earth: the very few that are obedient to God through faith in Christ (our part) and those that are not. This is where religions in general, including the organized Christian religion per se, have failed miserably.

How is that possible? There are about a billion people who claim to be Christians and a good share of those attend their churches weekly. One big problem: Satan has infiltrated the Christian church through men and women who have a voracious desire for prestige, power, respect, wealth, security and an easy life, and all in the name of love for God and Jesus Christ.

Some may be saying, “althinker, you must be wrong.” If you believe I am wrong, prove to me and to other bloggers by quoting your version of New Testament verses that contradict the above. There are hundreds of verses that give more than ample warnings of the wrong and correct way to God.

What does the clergy do with these hard-edged New Testament verses (those that are unnatural to our human nature) that tell us our part of Salvation, which is obedience to all God commands, with no ifs, ands, or buts? As demanding as it may seem, once Jesus saves us completely because of our belief in what He did on the cross, our obedience to his commands only CONFIRMS our belief in what God did for us through Jesus Christ. Click on # 127, “Silently Forbidden New Testament Verses.” In most cases, church leaders give these tough-to-live-by verses a benign interpretation of one type or another, so as to delete their importance.

If anyone completely follows what the New Testament unequivocally dictates, without taking the easy way out, Christianity won’t look anything like what it is being hailed as today’s, as I have said previously, feel-good, nice-and-easy-does-it, anything-goes, material prosperity Christianity. 1st Peter 4:18. "And, if it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinners?" The ONLY WAY to outwit the devil is to stick to and live exactly how/what Jesus Christ teaches. This blog may also help. Get onto His wavelength. It may not be audible; most likely His instruction will come loud and clear through thoughts. Then, what He will be able to tell you will blow your mind.

If you get any instructions that are contrary to the New Testament, it most likely is that great liar, deceiver and impersonator, Satan the devil. He loves to play the part of Jesus Christ. In fact, that is his favorite hobby. He knows all the ins and outs of how to impersonate our blessed Savior. We can easily verify that fact by all the disciples he has in the organized church. Satan very seldom tells religious people to commit overt sins, like to steal, kill, etc. What he may say is that God wants them to enjoy life, eat, drink, and be merry, by doing what comes naturally, along with things that feel good and bring pleasure. He says, “Remember, God knows no one is perfect, so fear not; God’s grace will cover it all.” He has millions of different gimmicks, and each one fits a certain desire/lifestyle. Mind you, this angel is brilliant; don’t underestimate his persuasive power. No human is a match for his cunning deceptions, unless Christ is one’s only mentor and role model.

To God, this is the most distressing part of all: Not one in a million people, unbelievers along with those who call themselves Christians, would ever believe their lives and thoughts are being or have been influenced by Satan the devil. This problem is that serious.

Living the way Jesus Christ commands won’t be easy; it will most likely cost us most of what we now value. Again, don’t count on your church leaders to guide you to the COMPLETE gospel message; they have devious and ulterior motives: $ $ $, # # #.

In ending, I truly believe that the vast majority of the clergy are not aware of Satan's ability to influence/control the thought life of prominent religious leaders. You would never catch any of them saying or even thinking “The devil made me do it.”

NOTE: Since I published this post on July 5th, about 9 days ago, I realized several activities in my life that were relaxing and pleasurable, but had nothing to do with glorifying God–these were not sinful things, but nothing less than the Devil's distractions from keeping my mind on Godly matters. Guess what? I substituted them for activities that better my life in ways that God receives glory. Thank you, Lord Jesus!