The Devil Talks to You in Your Voice – Peggy Burghauser

That statement made by a Scottish preacher while we were visiting Northern Ireland hit me hard. I started thinking that if that’s true (and I know experientially that it is), when do you know it’s the devil? While the devil is speaking to me in my own voice, he’s probably telling me things that make sense and seem reasonable when I think it through logically or he’s bringing up my past and doing a good job of discouraging me about who I am in Christ. When I start to have doubts about my motives or start to doubt God’s love for me, sometimes I have to seek counsel with other Christians, sometimes I have to go to the Word and sometimes I have to pray and ask God what’s going on within my heart. No matter which avenue I take (and sometimes I have to take all three), I know the important thing is to have people around me that are good solid Christians that I can trust to help me sort things out. It’s not easy for an introvert like me to be in fellowship but as my husband always tells me, you’ll never get to know people if you don’t fellowship, and chances are you won’t get closer to God. We can’t always recognize the evil one’s behavior within us but I bet the people around us can. Wasn’t it Jesus who said to Peter “Get behind me Satan” (Matthew 16:23a) when Peter didn’t recognize that Satan had taken over his thought process and the conversation. I have to keep all this in mind when I don’t “feel” like fellowshipping or meeting with someone one-to-one because that’s the prime time when I invite the devil in to talk to me in my own voice.