Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Amen - Mane - Mean - Name (07/10/25)
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TITLE: Recognizing Satanic Manipulation | Previous Challenge Entry
By Doug Laird
07/14/25 -
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The classic example of this took place during the one-on-one confrontation between the devil and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Lord had been led out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (1), after being baptized by John, identifying Himself with the atoning Work (2) that He had been sent (3) to do.
The devil could do nothing against His Deity, but by accurately quoting and isolating selected passages of Scripture, it was the devil’s objective to deceitfully convince Him to take actions that would either disqualify or destroy the Humanity (physical nature) of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Had He changed the stone into bread (4, He would have been operating independently of the plan of God. Had He jumped off the high point of the Temple (5), He would have destroyed His humanity (the means through which He was to be the sacrificial Lamb of God on the cross). Had He taken up the offer of rulership over the devil’s domain (6), He would have sinned by worshiping Satan.
Any one of the above scenarios would have resulted in a satanic victory over God’s plan of salvation.
Note that Jesus’ response to each Biblical quote that the devil cited was to quote other passages of Scripture.
From this event, and from the Biblical record (7) of interaction between the serpent and Eve, we learn how the devil, and those who do his bidding, will misuse the spoken and written Word of God to deceive us.
It is our rejection and or our ignorance of what the Bible is actually saying that sets the stage for spiritual shipwreck (8).
Again, by accurately quoting, but i-s-o-l-a-t-i-n-g verses of Scripture, the Bible can be made to appear to say or suggest anything that a manipulator desires.
Failing to take into consideration all of the verses that apply to any given subject, can result in unfulfilled expectations of promises that God never made.
The devil will be right there to take advantage of the accompanying disappointment when it appears that God did not come through for us, after having made prayer requests “in Jesus’ name.”
If it is not the assurance of getting what we prayed for, then what does John 14: 13, 14 mean, when it says that we WILL be given ANYTHING that we ask for in Jesus’ name?
What can cause the answer to such prayer requests to be “No”
The short answer is that all prayer requests are answered in accordance with the will of God.
Jesus taught that when engaging in prayer (which would include making our prayer requests), we are to pray for God’s will to be done here on Earth (9). The answer to our prayer requests will therefore be YES when they are consistent with His will, and NO when they are not.
Having benefitted by my own prayer requests, and by the prayer requests made by others in my behalf, I would be the last person to dispute the power of prayer.
But I have also lived long enough to experience enough tragedy, heartache, disappointment, and tribulation to know that not all prayers, concluded with such phrases as, “In Jesus name we pray,” will receive the divine response that we desire.
The advancing disciple will learn the wisdom of following our Lord’s example, and begin all prayer requests with the phrase, “If You are willing… (Luke 22: 42 NASB2020).”
The advancing disciple will learn not to presume or assume what the undisclosed will of God is going to be.
But in an act of faith, an advancing disciple will live with the assurance that whatever the outcome turns out to be, it IS in fact His will, having placed the matter in His hands.
The more spiritually-mature a born-again believer becomes, the more his or her prayer requests will be about what God desires, and less about what we want, until like the Apostle Paul, we can whole-heartedly say, “For me to live is (for) Christ, and to die is gain (Phil. 1:21 NASB2020 parenthesis mine).”
Praying in the NAME of Jesus means to acknowledge the direct access to the throne room in Heaven that Jesus has authorized and bestowed on every born-again, Church Age, believer (10)
(1) Matt. 4: 1 (2) 1John 2: 2 (3) John 5: 36 (4) Matt. 4: 3 (5) Matt. 4: 6 (6) Luke 4: 6 (7) Genesis 3 (8) M11att. 7: 27 (9) Matt. 6:10 (10) Eph. 2: 18
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