The Devil Unmasked

     In a famous book written in the 5^th century entitled “The Art of War” the author advocates the strategy of “feigning inactivity” and “simulating absence” to win a battle.   He may have learned this wisdom from recognizing the Devil’s continued and successful scheme of convincing people in this world that he does not exist. The Bible says that one way he does this is by disguising himself as an angel of light.  This means that although there is a Devil and he works to destroy and corrupt the lives of men in this world, he does it by hiding behind means and methods that often seem innocent and even at times virtuous.  

While working with a group of teenagers in San Diego County, the Lord pulled the curtain one night on one of those seemingly innocent activities. There was no preaching or teaching that night, only a prayerful presentation of some music we knew the Devil was inhabiting.  The Spirit of the Lord did the work by removing the veil from the eyes of those who were present.

I had been working with two young men, both in their early twenties, who had been members of a Satanic rock band. They sang songs worshipping the Devil and both of them possessed large accumulations of statues and other paraphernalia (skulls, candles, coffins, etc.)  that served to further their devotion to the Devil. When they had an experience that exposed the depths of darkness that they were involved in, both gave their lives to Christ and entered into a time of discipleship.  I would stay up late several evenings each week grounding these two young men in the Word of God and in the understanding of the Holy Spirit’s work in their lives. Several months later when they were sufficiently grounded, they began helping me with the large number of teens attending our youth meetings. Both of these men had a burden to reveal to the teens what they had learned regarding the music they had been entrenched in.  We had numerous teens who like these men were very devoted to the dark and dangerous influence of this music.  We were waiting for the Lord’s timing to do this. 

When the time was right, we put together a program, using many of songs and groups that were part of their dark collection. One night, we covered our youth room with the albums and posters from these dark music groups. When the teens had all entered, we then played recordings of the most popular of these songs. We also provided the teens with a written copy of what lyrics the groups were actually singing.  Still, we provided no commentary of criticism. 

When the presentation was over, the room was ominously quiet. We all then trouped out to a campfire area on the church grounds.  There, with the entire group of teens silently looking on, my two ex-Satanic band members, piece by piece, put their many albums and paraphernalia into the campfire.  The result flabbergasted us all. As the items burnt, shrieks could be heard coming up out of the fire as multi colored wisps of smoke curled and swirled above the fire in frightfully demonic forms.  At first, a few of the young girls screamed, while most everyone backed away from the fire. Betsy and I, along with our two new helpers, stood throughout the group praying and encouraging them that the Lord was there protecting us. Without a word or suggestion from us, the Lord was exposing Satan’s presence in the music that many of these young people were listening to.         It was at this time that I noticed a young man walk away from the group and into a stand of pine trees that forested that corner of the church property. This young man, named Chris, was visiting our group for the first time that night.  Chris was a handsome and charismatic sixteen-year-old. I can best describe him as the “Fonzie” of his peers.  The girls all ooed and awed over him.  I followed Chris into the trees, and found him standing there clearly in anguish, with teers streaming down his face.  

When I asked Chris what was going on, all he could blurt out was “I never knew, I never knew”.  Chris was deeply intrenched with the very music we were showcasing that night.  What he saw brought complete terror to him.  Standing there in the trees that night, I led Chris to the Lord. It did not take a sermon or even a criticism of his music, only a revelation from the Lord of what was truly happening in the spiritual realm.  Chris ran from the darkness that night and gave himself fully to the light of Jesus Christ.  

Many other teens were convicted and even transformed that night. All of them were anxious to run back into our youth room (we called it “The Cave”) and tear down all of those demonic albums and posters, so they could burn them also in the fire. 

One of the most assuring and comforting events relating to that evening came to pass a week later while I was at the church setting up for a youth meeting. I answered a phone call from a woman who was looking for “Pastor Larry”.  “You found him” I told her. After a momentary pause, I heard a weeping voice begin to thank me over and over again for giving her back her son. This was Chris’ mother.  His devotion to this dark music had alienated him from his family and had left his mother in despair.  She said he had come home last week, torn down all the evil posters that covered the walls of his bedroom, and had become an even more loving and caring son than he had in years before his dark music obsession.  She thanked me over and over before I was able to hang up the phone and return to my duties.

The campfire revelation that night marked a turning point in the youth ministry there in San Diego.  Our numbers had been growing, but now the depth of devotion to Jesus began surpassing the growth of numbers. Many of these teens were set free from an unseen foe that night, a foe that torments and deceives souls in this world every day. As long as Satan succeeds in convincing souls that he is not real, or even not active in their lives, he will continue to hold those souls in a bondage that will lead to Hell and death.  The Bible says to not be unaware of the Devil’s schemes.  His greatest and most successful scheme is to convince you he is not there!