Recently, my phone rang and the caller sounded not only familiar but friendly too. He called me by my first name, all in a hilarious way. Now, I can count on my fingertips the people who call me by name. I didn’t sound as excited as he thought I would, despite all his posturing. He fired back to make me feel guilty: “Aha ha! You have forgotten me!” he said. Through discernment and experiences gathered from similar incidences, I already knew he was a fluke, a con man. In the Nigerian parlance, he was a 419! I played along for some time, wasting his airtime. When he wasn’t making any progress with me, he hung up.
To say Satan is a schemer is stating the obvious. It is equally obvious that all his schemes are tailored to one purpose – to get an advantage over the Saints of God. What is not quite obvious, however, is the particular guise Satan would employ at any given moment. Here is Satan’s device number one: he comes to you as a friend! No one can rip you off except if they first secured your confidence. Normally, we confide in our friends. That is what the enemy tends to do. Most people who have been overtaken by the devil mistook his voice for a friend. Pray to God for discernment to separate the genuine from the fake among the diverse voices that come your way daily.