I am reposting this article because of an epiphany that I just had in a discussion with a dear minister friend.  In this conversation, I realized that Satan operates from the same bag of tricks.  The tools used against me, as a Black man, by institutional racism, by friends, family, and The Black Community, are universal tools.  

As the cliché says, Same Devil, Different day.  Kevy

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When I refer to Satan, I don’t think of a red naked man with horns and a pitchfork. That is a fairy tale that I haven’t believed since maybe the age of 5 years. I included such images in this post, only because everyone can relate to these images of evil, as they relate to “images” of Jesus.  I don’t believe in the White image of Jesus either, though pictures of White Jesus and Virgin Mary hang on my wall, left by my dear mother. 

I don’t believe that Satan unto himself is of flesh. Satan is simply a spirit, an evil one that wants to separate us from God, and therefore prevent our access to the Kingdom, and to blessings while here on Earth.  He wants to distract us from our beauty and power.  He infiltrates the flesh.  He overcomes the minds of the weak and convinces them that they act on their own accord.  He is cunning and baffling like The Lobster is with coronavirus.  Or, like America treats Blacks.  Or, deception in our families, amongst friends, and humanity.  Satan’s spirit is enmeshed in our destruction of the planet, the once-was paradise that God granted us.  This is where Satan manifested resides today.  

Satan doesn’t want us to know how powerful we are through the Holy Spirit. That is why he’s anxious to block our access to God. He (his spirit) wants us to think that he is more than a mere spirit, a thought, an imagining. He wants us to believe that he has power over us.

But he doesn’t, provided we don’t surrender to him.

Though Satan is powerless, he is still phenomenally successful in inflicting evil. That is because he must transform into human form so that he becomes more relatable and likable to us. I have no doubt that not only does Satan’s spirit reside in your circle, but he also finds a home in your spirit from time to time, mine too.  But I fight him as if my life depends on it.  It does.  Satan is so successful because he cunningly gets a hold of those closest to us. He also cleverly uses various lures to entice us into his web.

Because we are unknowingly hypnotized like a zombie, he easily appears in the people around us, and manipulates us, if we fall for it. Under his baffling spell, we are decoyed, and oblivious, because we are only alerted by the image of Satan with a pitchfork, that has been burned in our minds.

But, that clever dude, in disguise, congenially sits at our dinner table, in our homes, at our jobs, in our communities in the form of friends, family, bosses, clergy, politicians, neighbors, and even loved ones. …In the president.  His spirit appears in a form that is anything but the deceptive ‘red devil’ we have come to look out for.

When I hear people say that Satan is real, or that Satan is walking the face of the Earth, I interpret that to mean that he has infiltrated the minds of people surrounding and interacting with them.  I don’t know if it’s just me, but he seems to have shown tremendous success in recent years.

So, when I state with conviction that ‘Satan walks the face of the Earth’, now you know what I mean.

When I refer to Satan, I do not think of a red naked man with horns and a pitchfork. I think of the people around me and observe them and their deeds very carefully.

Kevy

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Quotes On Satan

“I do not fear Satan half so much as I fear those who fear him.” – Saint Teresa of Avila

“He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” – 1 John 3:8

“Satan works through human agents.” – Ezra Taft Benson

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” – James 4:7

“The world of demons, Fallen Angels, is very real – a fact we need to know. We have to face up to this terrible reality so that we do not fall unsuspectingly into their hands and come under their tyranny.” – Basilea Schlink

“The more useful we are to God, the more we will be attacked by the enemy.” – Zac Poonen

“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.” – Matthew 16:23

“The fiend in his own shape is less hideous than when he rages in the breast of man.” – NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, “Young Goodman Brown

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places].” – Ephesians 6:12

“Some He guided, while others are committed to straying. They have taken the devils as their masters, instead of God, yet they believe that they are guided.” – [Quran 7:30]

8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, [b]“Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” – Matthew 4: 8 — 10

“God is the Creator; Satan is the counterfeiter.” – Edwin Louis Cole

“Does a thief enter a house in which there is nothing? That is what belief is.” – (Muslim, Iman, 211)

“If you scratch some saints you will find the devil.” – AUSTIN O’MALLEY, Keystones of Thought

“The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather for the devil.” – C.S. Lewis

“When God lifts you up, Satan can never put you down.” – Woodrow Kroll

“Believers are encouraged to put on the full armor of God in order to deal with our common enemy: Satan.” – Crystal McDowell

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“If the Pope’s advice is accurate, I am making a grave mistake by arguing with the devil in the various forms as he’s appeared in my life. I accept that I must mature in this aspect of who I am.” – Kevy

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Don’t argue with the Devil – he’s much more intelligent than us, says Pope Francis – The Telegraph – Nick Squires – 13 December 2017

The Devil is more intelligent than mere mortals and should never be argued with, Pope Francis has warned.

Satan is not a metaphor or a nebulous concept, but a real person armed with dark powers, the Pope said in forthright remarks made during a television interview.

“He is evil, he’s not like mist. He is not a diffuse thing, he is a person. I’m convinced that one must never converse with Satan – if you do that, you’ll be lost,” he told TV2000, a Catholic channel, gesticulating with his hands to emphasize his point.

“He’s more intelligent than us, and he’ll turn you upside down, he’ll make your head spin.

“He always pretends to be polite – he does it with priests, with bishops. That’s how he enters your mind. But it ends badly if you don’t realize what is happening in time. (We should tell him) go away!” he said.

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Here are tricks in Satan’s bag to which I am very perceptive in some of the people that I’ve encountered.

After having each of these tactics used against me, I am alerted to the following signs:

• Fear – Provoking fear so that you make irrational and foolish choices that end up undermining you.
• Guilt – Making you feel guilty about something though you have no reason to feel guilty. For instance, Satan will attempt to make you feel guilty about things you’ve done in your past, from which you have grown years ago.
• Anger – Satan provokes you to lash out at him in his many forms, just to make you appear as who you are not, and to ‘flip the script’ making you the antagonist.
• Character – Satan will fabricate and even invent a negative characterization of you so that the spotlight is no longer on his character, which is the flawed one.
• Instability – Though standing on a strong foundation of God’s understanding, Satan will attempt to make you feel that you are not mentally or emotionally stable and that your ship is about to sink, while all the while God has your back.
• Cohorts – Satan recruits well. He likes to have compadres behind him. In my case, he recruited an army of soldiers, in New Orleans.
• Staging – Satan will set you up, lurking you through emotional triggers, then goes in for the kill. I know this one well. I’ve been set up too many times.
• Lying/Gossip – Satan is a liar! He cleverly takes a sliver of truth and dresses those slivers with blatant lies.
• Stress – Satan will work you relentlessly to stress you and cause you to become physically, mentally, and spiritually worn and ill.
• Religion – Religion, the Bible, and scripture are some of Satan’s biggest lures. Oh yea, Satan is in the church!
• Empathy – Satan makes you feel as though he understands and cares for you. This causes us to let down our guards, then he goes for the kill.
• Justification of Bad and Destructive Behavior – Satan will justify its deceptive behavior, making you feel that what they did is alright, therefore implying that you can do as they do with no moral compass.
• Generosity – Evil people will be generous and will reward us to trick us into thinking they are kind, loving, and of God.

With my family, religion was used to lure me into Satan’s evil. With my sister Felicia, I stayed away from her cult religion. Its darkness was boldly apparent.

But I was tricked by my sister-in-law Leona, and my stepsister Paige because they knew how to spit bible verses and because they participated in church ministries. They were ideal targets for Satan to infiltrate for ‘who would have ever thunk’ that they would do evil, surely not me. And I was tricked like a damned fool.

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“The Devil is not afraid to sit on an altar.” – AUSTIN O’MALLEY, Keystones of Thought

“He promises them and entices them; what the devil promises is no more than an illusion.” – [Quran 4:120]

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Videos

6 Tricks of the Devil You Need to Know – 1,434 views – Random Catholic Thoughts – Published on Aug 16, 2017

Vigilance is needed . . .

Searching the Scriptures: How Does Satan Know What To Tempt Us With? (S3E48) – 472 views = East End Church of Christ – Published on Aug 31, 2015

How Does Satan Know What To Tempt Us With? If you have any questions that you would like answered, email them to torontoeastendchurchofchrist@gmail.com or place them in the comment section below. You will be contacted when your question is answered.

How does the devil trick us into sin? What is spiritual warfare? – 571 views – Coptic Orthodox Answers – Published on May 15, 2018

How Satan tricks us. (Kashmiri) – 2,479 views – Islam Channel – Published on Jun 11, 2015

O Allah, forgive my sins for me and open for me the doors of your bounty. O Allah, protect me from the accursed Satan…..

How Demons Can Cause Negative Thinking – 855,820 views – God’sTruthBeingTold – Published on Jun 20, 2014

A part of a Derek Prince video called, How to Be Delivered from Demons and Demonic Oppression.

Tricks of Satan – Nouman Ali Khan – Quran Weekly – 151,519 views = Quran Weekly – Published on Jun 30, 2014

Sponsored by Zakat Foundation Shaytaan will not immediately convince us to commit a major sin, instead, he will encourage us to take small steps towards that major sin. It is our job to fight his whispers and our temptations.

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