"If I was the devil" - It will make Every Christ-follower think!!

Our pastor, Bill Elliff, did a sermon series a few months back called "The Wind". It was all about the Holy Spirit, as Bill termed Him, the "nearest God", and how the Spirit is supposed to work and be seen in the life of a Christ-follower. Here is one of Bill's thoughts from that sermon series. Enjoy!

If I was the devil, I would have a simple, primary agenda. My plan would be to do whatever necessary to confuse people about God. I would attack this in multiple ways, of course, because nothing works for every human.

First, I would try to make some believe there simply was no God. That everything was by chance. And, that we are in this brief life on our own. There might be a few takers on this, but not many because it takes an enormous amount of faith in light of all of creation to believe such a lie.

If that didn’t’ work, then I would confuse them about God’s character. I’d tell them there is a God, but He’s bad. I would blame every evil thing on God. I would whisper in their human ears that He must be very unloving to not fix the problems in this world in the way and the time that we think is necessary. This would assure that they would never trust God because who in their right mind would trust somebody so evil?

If humans did decide to believe in God and did think that He was good, I would tell them that God is distant from their everyday lives. That He was not concerned about the details and so they must be in charge of all decisions of daily living. That God is really nothing more than a dottering, old, distant relative who shows up on Holidays and at weddings and funerals. Nice, but inconsequential.

If I was the devil, there is one thing that I would avoid at all costs: the notion that God is good AND near. My greatest fear would be that followers of God would somehow discover that God is living, in full personhood, right inside of them. I would shudder at the potential of Christ-followers being unleashed who knew and believed in the nearest God, the Holy Spirit living right inside of them, and that He could explode through their lives in power and love and truth.

I know the devil’s not that smart, but that’s what I’d do….if I was the devil.

By Pastor Bill Elliff, The Summit Church, North Little Rock, AR, Feb. 2011, from Sermon Series “The Wind” on The Holy Spirit – The Nearest God.