The Spiritual Interfaces of Man
Nov 27, 2017 13:15:12 GMT -6
Post by Todd on Nov 27, 2017 13:15:12 GMT -6
God and Satan “interface” with man at different points. Satan interfaces with man, and thereby tempts him, by appeals to his flesh, his appetites, his desires. That is to say that Satan speaks to nothing other than our basest self-interest.
God, on the other hand, through the agency of the Holy Spirit, speaks to man through his conscience. The sense of right and wrong, the possibility of thinking of others first, or at least as being as important as we ourselves are, is the point of interaction between the Holy Spirit and man. It is true that God spoke in the Bible. But without the Holy Spirit communicating to us the importance and perfection of that book, we would be entirely incapable of understanding and utterly unwilling to apply its teachings.
Does this not go a long way in explaining why the voice of God always seems so faint, whereas the voice of Satan is so clear and familiar that we don’t even think it to be the voice of the enemy? The life of the flesh is nothing less than heeding the voice that tells us to do as we wish, to “follow our hearts,” that everybody does so, that it is normal, to be expected, and no big thing. Heeding the desires of the flesh is what every person ever born has done. Putting others first has historically been rare, strange, unpopular, and maybe even accidental.
So human beings are born able to hear Satan quite clearly. But God can only be heard by those who have heard and listened to the Holy Spirit. Their spiritual hearing is always poor, never as clear as might be wished. For God to speak further to man requires the development of the conscience. And this is slow going at best, even were it not obstructed at every point by the flesh. Can’t hear the voice of God? Neither can I very well. Guess why?
Let us pursue this little morsel of thought a bit further. If it is true that, aside from outright demon possession, neither Satan nor the demons have immediate, direct, personal access to a man’s mind, how has Satan been so successful? Almost universally, Satan’s voice comes to us from the outside, not like the “still, small voice of God” within us; but he speaks loudly, incessantly, zealously, and on virtually every subject known to the mind and appetites of man. Is it not Satan who, from classroom to evening news to marketing campaigns, claims that “everyone is doing it,” when it is time to try some new misadventure or sin? Does he not sing to us continually from soap operas to Hollywood movies, that one “should follow his heart,” knowing all the while that the heart is “desperately wicked?” Does he not proclaim without weariness from every major university and every psychologist’s practice that every sexual perversion “is normal?” Does he not claim, when the consequences of sin are falling into place that “it is no big thing?” Does he not, with every advertisement that proceeds from the mouth of Madison Avenue, whether in printed matter or on electronic device, assure us that we should “treat ourselves,” that we “deserve the best,” that keeping up with the Joneses on the bobsled ride to the bottom will give us one or another kind of appeal, power, influence, or advantage we simply cannot live without? Satan is called the “god of this world” because he holds a monopoly on culture and mass communication. He leads the powerful and influential, and they lead the rest. Even those voices that do not explicitly preach satisfaction of the appetites, assume the correctness of the position, and implicitly condone it by their passivity and acceptance of it as “the norm.”
On the other hand, why, if He is the God of creation, is God so seemingly ineffectual in cleansing society and keeping order in His world? Why are those who openly respond to Him clearly the counter-culture of all time? It is because He does not speak to the big, sensitive ears of the flesh, but to the weak, usually undeveloped, perhaps nearly deaf little ears of conscience. And why is that? Why does God speak to the sense least likely to hear His voice? Because whereas the flesh understands messages to the appetites, that is, those which begin with the phrase “I will . . . ,” or “I’d like to . . .,”, the conscience is capable of hearing only those messages that begin with the phrase “I should, . . .” or ‘I ought to . . .” It should be immediately apparent that every soul on earth prefers what it wants to what it ought. We of all ages should know this in the very deepest fiber of our being. We are the ones that do not want to hear anything negative, any criticism, any directive. We want to be told that “everything is alright.” Madison Avenue has told us to “say yes,” so we not only say it, we expect to hear it.
Any voice that expresses the viewpoint that we are not the very pivot point of the universe, that there are things we should and should not do, appetites to the contrary notwithstanding, is going to find a small and timid audience. And that voice will often be drowned out by the strains of the Piper’s songs, dances, and presentations.
If that were not bad enough, no conscience is completely trustworthy, even when greatly developed. But a conscience that remains undeveloped through application to it of the word of God and its constant exercise in daily life has a better chance of hearing a fish recite Shakespeare than of hearing the will of God. Turn off the voice of Radio Enslave Humanity, and turn on the voice of “thus saith the Lord!” Sound simplistic? Study the Bible, then take a very careful measure of American History, especially since 1890.
-Todd
God, on the other hand, through the agency of the Holy Spirit, speaks to man through his conscience. The sense of right and wrong, the possibility of thinking of others first, or at least as being as important as we ourselves are, is the point of interaction between the Holy Spirit and man. It is true that God spoke in the Bible. But without the Holy Spirit communicating to us the importance and perfection of that book, we would be entirely incapable of understanding and utterly unwilling to apply its teachings.
Does this not go a long way in explaining why the voice of God always seems so faint, whereas the voice of Satan is so clear and familiar that we don’t even think it to be the voice of the enemy? The life of the flesh is nothing less than heeding the voice that tells us to do as we wish, to “follow our hearts,” that everybody does so, that it is normal, to be expected, and no big thing. Heeding the desires of the flesh is what every person ever born has done. Putting others first has historically been rare, strange, unpopular, and maybe even accidental.
So human beings are born able to hear Satan quite clearly. But God can only be heard by those who have heard and listened to the Holy Spirit. Their spiritual hearing is always poor, never as clear as might be wished. For God to speak further to man requires the development of the conscience. And this is slow going at best, even were it not obstructed at every point by the flesh. Can’t hear the voice of God? Neither can I very well. Guess why?
Let us pursue this little morsel of thought a bit further. If it is true that, aside from outright demon possession, neither Satan nor the demons have immediate, direct, personal access to a man’s mind, how has Satan been so successful? Almost universally, Satan’s voice comes to us from the outside, not like the “still, small voice of God” within us; but he speaks loudly, incessantly, zealously, and on virtually every subject known to the mind and appetites of man. Is it not Satan who, from classroom to evening news to marketing campaigns, claims that “everyone is doing it,” when it is time to try some new misadventure or sin? Does he not sing to us continually from soap operas to Hollywood movies, that one “should follow his heart,” knowing all the while that the heart is “desperately wicked?” Does he not proclaim without weariness from every major university and every psychologist’s practice that every sexual perversion “is normal?” Does he not claim, when the consequences of sin are falling into place that “it is no big thing?” Does he not, with every advertisement that proceeds from the mouth of Madison Avenue, whether in printed matter or on electronic device, assure us that we should “treat ourselves,” that we “deserve the best,” that keeping up with the Joneses on the bobsled ride to the bottom will give us one or another kind of appeal, power, influence, or advantage we simply cannot live without? Satan is called the “god of this world” because he holds a monopoly on culture and mass communication. He leads the powerful and influential, and they lead the rest. Even those voices that do not explicitly preach satisfaction of the appetites, assume the correctness of the position, and implicitly condone it by their passivity and acceptance of it as “the norm.”
On the other hand, why, if He is the God of creation, is God so seemingly ineffectual in cleansing society and keeping order in His world? Why are those who openly respond to Him clearly the counter-culture of all time? It is because He does not speak to the big, sensitive ears of the flesh, but to the weak, usually undeveloped, perhaps nearly deaf little ears of conscience. And why is that? Why does God speak to the sense least likely to hear His voice? Because whereas the flesh understands messages to the appetites, that is, those which begin with the phrase “I will . . . ,” or “I’d like to . . .,”, the conscience is capable of hearing only those messages that begin with the phrase “I should, . . .” or ‘I ought to . . .” It should be immediately apparent that every soul on earth prefers what it wants to what it ought. We of all ages should know this in the very deepest fiber of our being. We are the ones that do not want to hear anything negative, any criticism, any directive. We want to be told that “everything is alright.” Madison Avenue has told us to “say yes,” so we not only say it, we expect to hear it.
Any voice that expresses the viewpoint that we are not the very pivot point of the universe, that there are things we should and should not do, appetites to the contrary notwithstanding, is going to find a small and timid audience. And that voice will often be drowned out by the strains of the Piper’s songs, dances, and presentations.
If that were not bad enough, no conscience is completely trustworthy, even when greatly developed. But a conscience that remains undeveloped through application to it of the word of God and its constant exercise in daily life has a better chance of hearing a fish recite Shakespeare than of hearing the will of God. Turn off the voice of Radio Enslave Humanity, and turn on the voice of “thus saith the Lord!” Sound simplistic? Study the Bible, then take a very careful measure of American History, especially since 1890.
-Todd