To Follow Jesus Part 2: You can be led by the devil too

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27 NIV

To be a follower of Jesus is to be in the same way with Jesus and not mere movements with Jesus from one place to another as I discussed in part 1 of this article.

One important thing a follower of Jesus needs to learn is to listen to Jesus.

So then, what does it mean to listen to the voice of Jesus?

To listen means to hear intently to what someone says. However, to listen and do nothing doesn’t fulfil the meaning of this scriptural text, “My sheep listen to my voice…”

This is why Jesus quoted what Isaiah prophesied, “…and ever hearing but never understanding.” Mark 4:12

Therefore, actively listening to Jesus and never doing what He says is similar to James’ analogy of a man looking into a mirror and forgetting what he looks like (James 1:24). The evidence that you listened to Jesus is when you put it to practice thereafter you can have understanding.

However, just because you listen and follow Jesus doesn’t mean you wouldn’t hear the voice of the devil. Many believers forget that the devil still speaks and he isn’t afraid of speaking to them because they’re followers of Jesus.

Remember, Peter was physically following Jesus when the devil spoke to him through his mind which made Peter oppose the plan of Jesus to die at the cross. Jesus recognized the voice of the devil through Peter as written in Mark;

But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!.” (Mark 8:33)

Also, not only can the devil speak to you, he can still lead you. I know this is shocking to some believers, but it’s the gospel truth. To understand this truth is to study the temptation of Jesus in three of the gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke). But I‘ll focus on the gospel of Luke;

“The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.” Luke 4:5 NIV

“The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.” Luke 4:9 NIV

The scriptures didn’t tell us how the devil led Jesus whether through an animal (less likely as the case of Eve and the snake in the garden because no record of animals talking in the new testament) or through a man (less likely because he was in the wilderness and his disciples weren’t with him), through his mind (most likely just as he came to the mind of Peter as in Mark 8:32).

Nevertheless, whatever the case may be, it was the devil and he led Jesus as the scriptures say; “The devil led him…” This clearly affirms that “to follow” someone doesn’t always mean you are their follower, it may mean you only move around with them just like Judas Iscariot.

Likewise, when the devil led Jesus this simply means Jesus moved with him to where he suggested and that doesn’t make him a follower of the devil. So the point is, if Jesus can be led by the devil, any true follower of Jesus can be led too, as Jesus said a disciple is not above his teacher nor a servant above his master (Matthew 10:24 ESV).

Being ignorant of this gospel truth is what makes many believers fall for the devil’s schemes. And when they fall they cry out and say, “I didn’t know, it was the devil, he made me do it.” The real issue is not about being led by the devil but heeding to his request.

The full story of the temptation of Jesus tells how Jesus was able to overcome the schemes of the devil. And that strategy is available for all followers of Jesus to use through the word of God.

Yet, many believers are still ignorant of this truth even after reading the temptation of Jesus multiple times. Instead of them taking caution, be on guard as the scriptures warn, they prefer to blame the situation, you hear them say, “I don’t know how I found myself in such a situation I had to oblige.”

No, you don’t have to, though the devil led you into the situation notwithstanding you have the power to resist his offer. Yes, the devil likes to lead us to a place where it feels his suggestion is the only way out — but it is not true.

For instance, the devil suggested to Jesus to turn stone into bread. At first thought, it seems like a good suggestion because there was no food and probably many stones in the wilderness and Jesus had the power. But on second thought, that would mean heeding to the voice of the devil. And we know every suggestion from the devil is a trap to destruction.

This brings us to another important point, to hear the voice of the devil is not the same as to heed to the voice of the devil. And this is the reason many misinterprets the scriptural text of John 10:5;

“Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not hear the voice of strangers.”

Some may say, “The bible says, I do not hear the voice of strangers, that is it, only Jesus can speak to me.” So they run with anything they hear in their spirit because they believe they are filled with the Holy Spirit — no argument about that. But according to the scriptures, Jesus was led by the devil after He was baptised and filled with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, being filled with the Holy Spirit doesn’t scare the devil away, in fact, it draws his attention to you.

So quoting the scriptural text of John 10:5 or any similar text out of context is a pretext that is very misleading.

From the beginning to the end of the bible there is no place anybody could stop the devil from speaking to them. The only record we have in the scriptures is rebuking the devil after he has spoken. Even Jesus didn’t block his ears not to hear the voice of the devil, He only rebuked him after he spoke. Also, Jesus never gave us any power to block our ears from hearing the voice of the devil, through the book of James, He simply told us;

“Resist the devil and he will flee from you” James 4:7

How do you resist the devil if you do not hear him? Bear in mind, the devil is a spirit being, so you can’t see him with your physical eyes. Now obviously we see that “To follow or hear” in John 10:5 scriptural text isn’t literal. However, based on the context it means “To obey or heed.”

For example, as a business adviser, there are some people you give sound business advice and they listen attentively with excitement and thereafter you discover they never heed to any of your advice based on the result they produce later. In summary, they listened to my voice (advice) but never heed to it.

So for clearer understanding, we can rephrase John 10:5 as;

“Yet they will by no means follow and obey a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not hear and heed to the voice of strangers.”

Some may say, “No one is allowed to add or take away from the word of God (Deuteronomy 12:32)?” That is absolutely correct, I also believe that includes apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists, teachers and myself shouldn’t add or take from the word of God. And I have no intention to do that in this article.

But bear in mind, the original scriptures weren’t written in the English language. They were written in ancient Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek languages. It is also a known fact that translation from one language to another is not always accurate. This means the English bible we have is not the original text of the word of God, it is a translation gotten from multiple other translations. By the way, this doesn’t mean the English bible translations are wrong, it just has limited vocabulary options during the translations.

This is the reason we need to rely on the Holy Spirit to give us the true interpretation of God’s word.

This also means whatever you have read in this article cannot be taken as truth until the Spirit of truth(John 16:13) bears witness in your spirit that it is true, if otherwise throw it into the trash.

To conclude, no follower of Jesus should be ignorant of the devil’s ability to speak or lead them. But when that happens it doesn’t really matter, what matter is to not obey or heed to the voice of the devil in every situation.