Devils listen to people

“Then Jesus called the crowd to Him, along with His disciples.  He said, “If people want to follow Me, they must give up the things they want.  They must be willing even to give up their lives to follow Me.  Those who want to save their lives will give up true life.  But those who give up their lives for Me and for the Good News will have true life.  It is worthless to have the whole world if they lose their souls.  They could never pay enough to buy back their souls.  The people who live now are living in a sinful and evil time.  If people are ashamed of Me and My teaching, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when He comes with His Father’s glory and with the holy angels.”  -- Mark 8:34-38

 

What does something look like if they are described as devilish?  Are they a shade of red, do they exhibit pointy facial hair, or do they carry a pitch fork?  We all have notions of how a devil should look like, but we should ask the better questions, what is the mindset of the devil?  How he thinks is how he is going to try and make things look.  What is he trying to do?  For actions speak louder than words. 

            In the passage we see a response from Jesus after He asked his disciples, specifically Peter, who He was.  The disciples gave the various answers and then Jesus turned and pointed the question to Peter, who answered marvelously…in the Father’s own words.  Proceeding this breathtaking event Jesus proceeded to talk about His betrayal, suffering, death, and resurrection and immediately Peter tried to prevent it. Jesus then proceeded to rebuke Satan and said, “you don’t care about the things of God, but only about things people think are important.” 

            So, taking this at face value we can see that being devilish is actually thinking like a human.  This is kinda scary.  Now, even though Satan wanted Jesus out of the way he was encouraging Peter to think and eventually say that in order to make himself better Jesus needed to be alive.  Peter was thinking selfishly and was confused, at what God wanted for godly gain and what he wanted for personal gain.  Satan actually listens to people and wants to do things that sinful humans want to do.  James, the half-brother of Jesus, talks about this in his epistle explaining what true wisdom is, where it comes from, and what it does.  For those who are thinking worldly are thinking devilishly…to sound more harshly…demonically. 

            What is the result of this spiritual bashing?  Can we prevent ourselves from thinking worldly, or demonically?  The answer is yes, Philippians 4:8, think on these things, think on the goodness of God, think on the promises of God, think on none other than the very words of God.  That is what Peter did when he answered Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  For flesh and blood did not reveal this, but our Father in heaven spoke it to Peter and he listened. 

            Jesus gives us the ultimate call, to give ourselves up, to give our lives to Him.  The beginning passage tells us of the cost, the value, and the results.  It will cost us our lives to follow Jesus, following Jesus has more value than owning this whole world, and it will all be worth it because Jesus has won, and we will sing and shout the victory.  All of this is the result of listening to Jesus and not listening to the worldly/demonic voice.  We are to look through the lens of Jesus and look for what God wants for us, we are too see through the windows that bring the colors of God in our lives.