Christian Living

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The Master Manipulator Loosed

I Kings 22:20-22
And the Lord said, who shall, persuade Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead? And one said on this manner and another said on that manner
And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him
And the Lord said unto him, wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets
And he said, thou shall persuade him and prevail also; Go forth and do so

God loosed the master manipulator to go forth after he asked permission to be sent to finish off Ahab by defeating him and putting him finally to death. There were four hundred prophets; that are presumed to be a part of the false state religion first instituted by Jereboam and the one Micarah appeared to be a true prophet of God. Micaiah gave the King the words that he wanted to hear but Ahab expected his vision to be harsh and wanted him to speak of the truth. He told them of Israel forces trying to find there way after being defeated. Then he told them again of Ahab’s sure defeat and death at Ramoth-Gilead.

We find here the power of manipulation and how God loosed Satan to be a manipulator, one who manipulates, operates or controls by skilled use of the hands, handle, to influence or manage shrewdly or devilishly, to tamper with or falsify (financial records) for personal gain.

He allowed him to use his power of persuasion, the act of persuading or the state of being persuaded; the ability or power to persuade, to cause someone to do something by means of argument, reasoning or entreaty; or to win over someone to a course of reasoning or inducement. To make someone believe something, convince, a strong conviction or belief.

He also gave him the control to exercise authority, or dominating influence over, direct, regulate to hold in restraint, to check.

Now you see the power of manipulation, persuasion and control is very strong and can cause you death.

We look at the story of Ahab and Jezebel to see the power of manipulation. I’ll lie to you and say what you want to hear to make you happy, as did the false prophets to the king. Because they believed the prophets, the prophets could tell them what they wanted to hear, to appease their minds. Jezebel, Ahab’s wife exercised her power of control over him. She even went as far as to take authority over him and signed his name to an order that brought death to many.

Now Ahab had married Jezebel, whose name means where is the prince (Baal). Where as Ahab was to bring Israel to its full spiritual depth, he married a woman of the world, (a whore). He married outside of the will of God. Jezebel ran a whorehouse, worshipped Baal. Ahab to please her reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. He provoked God to anger more than any other King of Israel before him.

Jezebel was a Phoenician princess and she enticed Ahab to sin. She was a tyrant who corrupted her husband as well as the nation with pagan idolatry. She was a worshipper of the Phoenician god Baal and a zealous missionary. She sought suppressing of the worship of God. She was Elijah’s formidable adversary and she even instilled fear in him in I Kings 19:2. Her influence in Israel was strong during the reigns of her husband Ahab and of his sons, Ahaziah and Jehoram. Her power extended to the southern Kingdom of Judah. Jezebel was such a strong manipulator that Elijah prophesied that the dogs shall eat her by the wall of Jezreel and it was fulfilled when Jehu seized power.

The Devil used her with the power she had to bring destruction to Israel, but it was only for a time. God will always reign. She was manipulative, full of persuasion and she was in control.

The power of persuasion is to cause someone to do something by means of argument reasoning or inducement, or to make someone believe something, convince, a strong conviction or belief. Romans 14:5 tell us to be persuaded in our own minds. Whether it is to do, believe, to eat, to judge, rather to stand, to live for the Lord or whether we die unto the Lord, we have to make up our own mind. We shouldn’t do things because someone else wants us to.

People will try to persuade us, sometime in good, sometime in a bad way. If they persuade us as II Corinthians 5:11 says, to fear the Lord with a deep reverence for God, it is good persuasion. If we persuade in goodness, better things come to us, and the things that accompany salvation. God is not unrighteous to forget our work and labor of love, which he has shown toward his name. We should be persuaded, not as Jezebel persuaded all to do wrong, but to be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promise. We should be working as Paul did. To persuade someone to come to Christ, get saved and stay with God.

A timely and fitting word is precious and pleasing. Patience is ultimately persuasive, and a gentle answer gets the desired response. Sometime we are persuaded to answer to quick thereby talking us out of our blessings. We must be persuaded to wait on God. Isaiah 40:28-31 say, hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth, faint not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding. He gives power to the faint and to them that have no might he increase strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.

But they that wait on the Lord, shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.

Apart from the Lord, there is no hope. Produce you cause, said the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, said the King of Jacob. God says we don’t have to prove our case, but our adversary must produce it. They try to persuade us that we need to bring forth our reasons, but God challenges them to bring it on. We don’t have to be challenged to do, to predict, and to explain. God has already proven our hope. All we have to do is trust God.

According to II Timothy 1:12, we have to be persuaded in the things in which we believe and that God is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. We have to stay persuaded, be assured so that one day, we will stand before the judgment seat, if we are not persuaded otherwise by the great manipulator.

The master manipulator uses his power of control against us because we aren’t being controlled by the spirit of God, nor being led by the spirit of God. To be spirit led is to be spirit controlled. God has given order to our lives. He says that the man is over the woman and the parents over the children, a Pastor over a flock and a Priest over a congregation, a Bishop over a territory. God has order to everything in the earth. He also gave man dominion over the animals. He gave Christ the head of man and over the Church. Man and the church leader subject to Jesus. He gives us control and he trusts us to do what we are supposed to do. He has given each of these a measure of dominion. They should not lead to manipulate, persuade wrong, or control God’s people, but teach them, lead them, direct them, watch over them and do it with a spirit of humility to a higher calling in Christ Jesus.

If they manipulate, control or persuade us to do wrong, they will be held accountable before God. After all, we know that there is a spirit loosed to lie, prevail, and to go forth. There are people, men of leadership who hold much respect in the world that will lead you contrary to God’s word. They are cunning, shrewd, crafty, artful, delicately pleasing, cute, pretty, deceptive, skill or adeptness in performance, expertness. They are conniving, feigning ignorance of a wrong, and implying tacit encouragement or consent. To cooperation secretly or conspire. And they are crafty, skilled in underhandedness and deception shrewd, cunning. They are skillful, ingenious and dexterous.

The Devil is an expert manipulator, loosed in the earth and he has perfected his job, even enough to fool the very elect. According to Genesis 3:1-13, we see that the Devil’s job is to manipulate you so that you will walk away from what God has promised. He makes you sin and look away from God.

Whatever costume he has to put on, he will wear it, he is skilled in deception, a master, and expert. He knows just what to do, to drive you away from wherever your blessing is. But God has also put power in us to be a master manipulator of souls.

According to Jude 24 & 25, the power works in you if you would just release your will into his will. He will not let you fall, and he will present you faultless and Ephesians 3:20 says he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think according to the power that works in you. God made you and broke the mole and he will work only in you like he will.

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