Don’t Glorify the Devil

We want to live and preach in a way that lifts up Jesus, not Satan.  However, some well-meaning people unwittingly act as Satan’s publicists when they should be broadcasting what Jesus is doing.

One trap involves preachers who have visited demonized areas.  Demon manifestations are common in some places, and they can be downright shocking.  I’ve been to such places.  But when preachers keep “talking up” the bizarre things that demons are doing, they can get people into fear instead of faith.  Never major on demonic manifestations, despite the temptation to come across as the cool dude of the things of the Spirit because you can report things that most people don’t see or hear about.

Because so many people don’t know much about spiritual things, a demonized person might feel the need to make videos of manifestations to prove that he should be taken seriously.  I’ve encountered that.  I don’t enjoy watching the Satan Channel.  I refuse to make a big deal about what some demon did.   It is likely something I’ve seen before at this point, and I’m not impressed by demons – I’m impressed by Jesus.  There are demonic activity videos on the internet, but I’d rather watch videos of people getting miracles in the name of Jesus.

Another more minor way in which people glorify the devil is by giving devilmonies.  Many of us have heard “testimonies” where 90% of it is all the bad stuff that Satan did by tormenting someone with sickness or something else and the last 10% is about how Jesus fixed the situation.  I really don’t like to sit through the 90%.  You can let people know how bad your condition was without going into almost endless detail about it.  You can unintentionally build people’s “faith” in how badly the devil can beat you up and possibly leave the impression that Jesus only comes through after Satan has had a heyday in your life for a long time.  That is certainly not the case – everyone has the right to be completely healed and free RIGHT NOW.

Because I was involved in the occult and I was dramatically anti-Christian before I was a Christian, I was more likely to get asked to give my testimony in certain meetings because it was a “really good” testimony.  But really, I don’t have such a great testimony.  A great testimony would be that someone was raised a Christian and served Jesus all his life.  That might not be as much as a “draw” when advertising a speaker, but such a person lived a better life than I have, because my early years were wasted without Christ, while the other person’s early years counted for something and will be part of that person’s heavenly reward.