195 Satan and His Kingdom scious of His Presence in a peace and joy unspeakable. In any case the glorified Christ now becomes a living reality to the soul. What are the wiles of the adversary now but an attempt to personate the Lord! The believer must know that the evil one can fashion himself as an angel of light, and work with all “power and signs and lying wonders” (2 Thess. 2 :9 ) to lead astray the very elect. We need to walk carefully with God at this stage of the spiritual life, not coveting wonderful experiences, but rather an ever-deepening conformity to the death of Jesus (Phil. 3:10), so that the life of Jesus may be manifested (2 Cor. 4:10, 11) to all around. “Visions and revelations” are not given to the soul for its own enjoyment, but for some definite purpose, as with the Apostle Paul when he was stoned in Lystra; called to Macedonia; or needed clearer guidance to remain in Athens. The wiles concerning the voice o f God. “The sheep fol- low Him, for they know His voice . . . they know not the voice of strangers” (John 10:4, 5). The Lord does speak to His children, and makes them to know His voice from the voice of strangers. They know it as a babe knows its mother’s voice, but like the babe they may not be able to say how or why. When the believer is brought by the Spirit into the Spirit-sphere, and Christ is manifested to him, one of the first results is a knowledge of the voice of the Lord, in a way the soul has never realized before. The adversary knows that the believer has but little knowledge of his foe, so the wiles are soon planned to counterfeit the voice of the Lord, so as to confuse or to mislead the soul, either to destroy his faith in the guidance of the Spirit, or else to lead him in obedience to the voice of the devil, and in strong delusion to believe a lie. The believer who would overcome must now know how to distinguish the voice of the Lord from the voice of the foe. This may be done by its effect, and by its object. The voice of
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker