SCT 7: Where God speaks, the devil speaks

by Darren Rusco

Note: I'm working on a book about hearing God's voice. The process of writing is a slog for me, so I decided to work it out through blog posts, hoping that would help me get ideas out to print, and also give readers a chance to feedback and help form the end product.

Chapter 7

Where God speaks,

the devil speaks

While there are seasons where God may be quiet, we must understand his heart is to communicate. Ultimately I believe silence is the exception and not the rule; and this may be a position many people need to flip. So when we are not hearing, we should check our ears before we conclude something about God’s vocal chords.

In a previous chapter we focused on the aspects of God’s voice that are in front of us, yet without our perception, such as a dream that we ignore, or a metaphor of nature. These are issues of ignorance .We simply did not know, and once we know, we will take note and hear. The answer to this problem is understanding.

However, it is important to identify those issues within us that literally block his voice. When we are no longer ignorant of his speaking ways, yet we still do not hear. Blockades have been set up against us. The answer to this problem is warfare.

The activity of the devil against believers is a big topic for another writing, but we cannot talk about hearing God’s voice without addressing enemy activity. Many will know God’s heart for speaking, but we should also know he has given a stewardship to us of resisting the devil.

It’s not an exaggeration to say the primary work of the devil towards the Christian is to dispute God’s voice to his intended hearers. When you scrape away everything the devil does, all the lies, deceit, turmoil; underneath is the motive to disrupt God’s voice. The introduction of the devil in the Bible is with this quote from the serpent: “Did God really say…” (Genesis 3:1). His first action was disputing God’s voice. The serpent is described as shrewd. This means the devil’s activity is tricky and requires discernment beyond the obvious. The devil’s voice has elements of twisted truth, making us prone to believe it. Previously we looked at Matthew 4, where Satan is in the wilderness tempting Jesus to make bread and ignore the voice of God he was seeking in the wilderness in the first place. The first temptation was a twist on Jesus’ identity as the son of God and his ability to operate in the supernatural. Shrewd indeed.

Jesus teaches in John 10 that he himself is a shepherd for the flock of sheep. The sheep will recognize and then follow the voice of the shepherd. There is a direct connection to the shepherd metaphor and hearing his voice. You can’t acknowledge that Jesus is the shepherd and ignore that we as sheep hear his voice - this is the exact purpose of this metaphor. But Jesus goes on to say there is a thief whose purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy the sheep. This description of the devil is in context of hearing the voice of Jesus. Like he tried with the Shepherd, the devil seeks to rob the voice of God from the sheep as well.

But how does he do it? It’s one thing to hold a theory of the devil robbing us but another to identify the common, specific means. Here are two most common attacks in my life:

1. Anxiety. For my life, this is easily number one. I can go back in time and map out seasons of life where anxiety was present, and those are the exact times where I was not hearing God’s voice. Anxiety is not a personality trait that some are born with. It is a robbing tactic of the devil. In fact, I believe that many children and teenagers who commonly battle anxiety are likely very sensitive to hearing God’s voice, and anxiety is the battleground.

Scripture confirms this principle. We looked at the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. Jesus gave examples of various soils of the heart. The sown seed is the revelation of God. One heart-soil is described as choked out by the worries of the world. In this soil the revelation of God grows at first, but the thorns choke out the coming fruit. I experience this as a spiritual roller coaster, up and down with little consistency. Perhaps I hear God today, but not tomorrow, strong today, but giving it back tomorrow. When that feeling is present where you spend most of your time under water, with quick moments above to catch your breath, only to go back under; this is the sign that anxiety is choking out the fruit of God’s voice.

Peter connects worry with the work of the devil in 1 Peter 5:7-9:

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares for you. Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him.

What does it actually look like for a Christian to be devoured by the devil? One overcome by worry.

Practically speaking, stress and anxiety take up the priority space in your body, soul, and spirit. All of our spiritual senses are taken over by sensing stress. Stress robs even our sleep, and our dreams convert from God dreams to stress dreams.

I have lived many seasons in denial of the stress in my life and its effect on my body, soul, and spirit. Growing in hearing God’s voice requires an honest assessment of the role of anxiety in your life. But anxiety won’t be overcome by turning your back on it. No, it must be fought and defeated. If you have it, call it out. Confront it and take authority over it. It is God’s delight to help you overcome.

2. Unbelief. Usually we don’t find ourselves in a place of unbelief overnight. No, unbelief is a slow creeper. I like to think of faith and unbelief as two separate gauges. Rather than thinking of faith as something I am high or low on, faith and unbelief can actually coexist, which is why a man once cried out to Jesus, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24) So much of the voice of God in our lives pertains to what God is saying about our identity and calling in his kingdom. The purpose is for us to come into agreement with what he is saying so that we can move forward with him. Unbelief in what he is saying causes delays and ultimately puts up more barriers around our ears.

While there are times to focus on increasing your faith, it might be worthwhile to focus on decreasing your unbelief. Unbelief is the cousin of worry. We usually worry because we imagine a distorted view of the future void of God’s presence in it. Unbelief is very similar. It involves guarding our hearts from getting our hopes up so that we can protect ourselves from the disappointment of unmet expectations.

How is this connected to hearing God’s voice? God is speaking so that we will align with what he says. So if he says to you like he said to Gideon, “Mighty hero!” and you disagree with that statement, you set a posture of unbelief of what God says. Over time, you close out your spirit from hearing such things, as you don’t believe that can be from God.

Intentionally allowing ourselves to have expectation for something will help us decrease unbelief. Because faith and expectation are inseparable. When we believe IN someone, we will believe FOR something from the someone because that’s the nature of the someone. Genuine faith in Jesus should breed the expectation for the manifested kingdom fruit of Jesus. The act of believing for something you cannot see requires the expectation of it. Therefore, walking in faith requires getting your hopes up.

Imagine the risk of a first century Jewish woman, suffering for years with a bleeding issue, barreling through a crowd of men with the hopes that if she could just touch the robe of this man named Jesus who happened to be traveling through, she could be healed (Luke 8). She had faith IN Jesus which led her to have faith FOR healing.

But getting your hopes up FOR something invites the potential for disappointment. As a result, many followers of Jesus have a theological version of faith in their hearts, while simultaneously not getting their hopes up for anything. By definition, this is doubt. James talks about this precisely, with eye-opening results (James 1:6-7):

But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

Yikes! The context of this Scripture is asking for wisdom, which is revelation from God. Faith is a requirement for hearing God’s voice. What is divided loyalty? James describes it as both loyal to God and loyal to the world. Meaning, with one foot you stand on God, asking him for something even though you cannot see him. You correctly have a faith in the unseen realm. Yet with your other foot you stand on the world, a natural place where you can see and touch, where the cares of this world will tell you another story of what to expect. Don’t expect anything from this divided posture.

Beware! We know that the devil is active in trying to rob the voice of God. Usually the devil is trying to plant seeds of doubt into what God is saying, and we can actually end up in agreement with what the devil is doing and not what God is saying. And there is power in agreement, for better or worse.

It could be time to reassess what God is saying so that you can believe. Check the fruit. God’s voice is edifying and comforting, qualifying and empowering, convicting and moving. The devil’s agenda is defeating and discouraging, disqualifying and belittling, accusing and stagnant.

When God revealed my anxiety

In March 2019 I joined some other leaders from my organization, Novo Mission, for a time of planning and prayer. My friend Lee shared part of his testimony with the group and great conviction from God entered the room as he spoke. God will often show up at surprising times to catch us with our guard down.

Earlier I shared part of my story where God was telling me I didn’t know how to pray and he wanted to teach me. In time, a man who I’d never met came to me and prophesied to me that God wanted to teach me to pray and give me a sword of intercession. In the years that followed, intercessory prayer became a big part of my spiritual life, but over time this type of prayer seemed to wane.

As Lee shared more of his story, God’s presence came to me with great conviction. I wept as God began reminding me that years earlier he had given me a sword of intercession, yet I had laid it down because of anxiety. I knew in my heart that I laid down that sword, but I had no idea why or when it happened. The connection to anxiety was a brand new revelation to me. God even revealed the exact moment I had gotten off track. My memory went to a fairly obscure moment many years earlier to the morning my son was starting a new school in a new country. I was filled with worry over this new season, hoping my son would make friends and prosper at his new school.

In hindsight, this worry wouldn’t be that big of a deal. It’s fairly common for a parent to feel this. But that marked a day when, instead of aligning my faith with Jesus for an outcome that he wanted, I aligned my faith with an outcome of hopelessness. And that led to doing it again for other matters. And again. And later again. And without really realizing when or why, I had laid down something powerful that God had given me.

But on this day at the meetings, God began to restore the sword to me. I heard him ask, “Do you want to pick it up again?” For a moment I felt unworthy, like a bad steward. But his pleasure in me quickly washed away those feelings. In truth, I do want to be a good steward. But God’s voice is merciful again.

I left those meetings with a new understanding that anxiety was a weak point in my armor. This had been an easy way for the devil to build a stronghold in my life. I wish I could tell you that was the last time I had anxiety and permanent victory followed. In reality, the greatest anxiety in my life had not even arrived yet.

Only months later, in the autumn of 2019, I allowed anxiety to rear its ugly head once again, this time related to finance. Once upon a time, finance was the greatest place of faith in my life, but in this season, anxiety found a place. God’s voice was far off, not because he left, but because I was not stewarding my spirit very well. But again, God’s voice broke through despite all this.

Over the previous years before this, my good friends Andy and Adam had strongly recommended a couple of books by Pete Greig called Red Moon Rising and Dirty Glory, but I never got around to reading them yet. In late September 2019 I saw Pete Greig on a social media post and I heard God say loudly, “Read his books now.” This was one of those moments where I was not even praying or trying to hear God, when suddenly his voice burst forth. There was something in the tone that made me think that “now” meant immediately. I immediately downloaded the audio of Red Moon Rising, popped in my earbuds, went for a walk and started listening. God spoke to me continuously while I listened, and just like that, I was over the anxiety and walking in faith again.

That October I turned 45 years old and really pressed into God in faith for some things that I believed would come about in the following year. I dropped my guard and got my hopes up for specific promises that I believed God would deliver that year. 2019 ended and 2020 came and we all know what came next. As the autumn of 2020 came a pandemic and election season drew new dividing lines within Christianity. Prophetic error was in abundance in the church. Relational stress wound high. The clock ran out on everything that I had faith for. Unfortunately, I became disappointed with the church and disappointed with God, so I checked out. Anxiety mixed with depression was present in my life and God’s voice was gone, but this time I didn’t care.

You’d think I would learn and you’d think God would give up. But in the summer of 2021 I was at another meeting with Novo friends. Lee was there again and I told him the story of the previous year of unmet expectations. He grabbed another friend, Kevin, and summoned me to a private space where they could minister to me and ask God to show up. I agreed, although with low expectations. As Kevin prayed, he told me God revealed to him that there was a black demonic presence with its hand over my mouth. Hmm. He prayed against that and informed me it was now gone. Ok. I didn’t feel anything, but I appreciated the effort.

That evening during a worship and prayer time, I heard God’s voice again. When I returned home, God’s voice was loud and abundant. I had a new energy to pray and commune with God. I happened to go back through my journals of the previous years and to my shock, I had recorded a dream where a black demonic presence struck my mouth and took away my voice, very similar to what Kevin saw when he was praying for me. This dream happened just as all the anxiety began earlier.

But now walking in some new freedom, the first thing I heard God say to me was to once again have faith for all the things I had faith for in 2019. This was a challenge. I had gotten my hopes up and got nothing but disappointment. But God was not having anything less than full expectation. I would come into agreement and believe. But then God would say, “Do you believe those promises could come in the next five seconds?” Probably not. And so he revealed to me that I could have faith to receive things in the future because the future was far off - there was safety in believing things for the distant future. But he wanted all the guard rails off! So faith for delivery in the next five seconds it is.

In that season I had gotten myself down in a pit where I couldn’t get out on my own. I needed help and God knew and sent help. We need to minister to one another. I am so thankful for friends who minister to me in this way. And I am so thankful for a God who does not give up on me. Every time I drop the ball, he is willing to pass it to me again.