Discover how the devil uses people to pervert, delay or destroy your calling; and how to detect and deal with these agents.
After learning how to discover your purpose in life, it’s only fitting to inform you that the Adversary will try to stop you from fulfilling it. We know that our threefold purpose is to glorify God, become like his son, and help in the planting and maturing of souls for God’s harvest.
In this article, we’ll expose how the devil uses people to pervert, delay or destroy your calling and how to discern and discard these agents of Satan.
From your spiritual birth until Jesus’ return, there will be agents sent to destroy you. There’s no need to fear them for they’re just allowed to strengthen and test us; and we must believe that the God in us, is greater than the devil in them (1 John 4:4).
If you’ve seen the movie, The Matrix (if you haven’t, this article is full of spoilers), then you know what an agent was in that movie. An agent was anyone who was still asleep in the Matrix. One minute they would be minding their own business, another minute they’d transform into a suited, sun-glassed, sentry armed with guns and karate skills determined to kill anyone opposing the Matrix.
The children of God are those who are awake and unplugged from this evil world which is like the Matrix. The children of Satan are those who are asleep, dependent on, and in bondage to the Matrix. At anytime they can be transformed into agents to do the bidding of Satan.
There are 3 kinds of agents of Satan:
- The Saint
- The “Aint”
- The Sinner
The Saint
The Saint is a child of God who has allowed the enemy access by not walking in the Spirit. While in their flesh, the enemy can use them to say and do things to prevent the target (you) from staying on the path of righteousness.
An example of this was Saint Peter. In one breath Peter was confessing that Jesus is the son of God, through the Holy Spirit (Matthew 16:15-17), in another breath he’s admonishing Jesus not to die for the sins of the world. Jesus recognized the devil speaking through him and rebuked him quickly, saying:
Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me. For you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. (Matthew 16:21-23)
It wasn’t Peter’s idea to stumble Jesus or divert his calling, but because he was in his flesh, he was able to be used as an agent of Satan. The goal was to get Jesus to think about himself and forego suffering rather than fulfilling his mission of bodily sacrifice on earth thus preventing the salvation of mankind.
This is why we always have to be mindful of our thoughts and words to other believers because we don’t want to end up being used to stumble our brothers unintentionally.
The “Aint”
The Aint is a funny name used to describe a person who professes to be a born again, child of God but is not. They either know so, or they’re deceived into believing they’re of the kingdom of God. These people are rebellious, have no real respect for God, but have a form of godliness (2 Tim 3:5).
Some of these people attend your local church. I’ve talked about how to spot these fakes here and here, but I will expound on them more later. These people can be easily used by Satan because they belong to him. They were never converted and they’re the most deceptive people to deal with because they know all the church lingo, bible scriptures and mannerism of a child of God yet are of the seed of Satan. They’re like crooked cops playing both sides.
These people are what you’ll mostly have to deal with because the Saints can’t easily nor readily be used as much as Satan’s own children can. What makes these Aints even more sneaky is that they believe their own lies that they’re your brother or sister. So initial discernment will not detect deception because they truly believe their own lies. They’re delusional. At some point in their life they rejected truth to the point of God locking them into their own fantasy (2 Thess 2:11).
A example of an Aint was Judas, the one that set Jesus up to be killed. He was an Apostle, but was never really down with the Cause of Christ. We could say he was never a son of God even though he walked closely with the Son of God. He looked like all the other Apostles but he wasn’t. While this was ordained for Judas to betray the Messiah (Acts 1:16; Psa 41:9), and while Jesus knew in advance he would, we today must know who the Judases are in our lives.
The Sinner
The sinner is just the average person who hasn’t taken the call to repent and receive the salvation of Christ. Anyone of these people at anytime can turn out to be an agent. They are the children of Satan as well, but you’ll be on guard, or should be more on guard against them because they can be pretty obvious, and we’re taught to be aware of them from the start.
For newborn children of God, the Sinner agent, in the form of close friends or family, will likely be used to either prevent their conversion from happening or delay or degrade their purpose. Newborns have to quickly learn that the world and its citizens have nothing of value for them. The world isn’t their friend anymore and it will kill them if it gets the chance.
In the Matrix movie, Neo is being trained in a simulation as a woman in a red dress catches his eye. Neo looks a second time and she becomes an agent with a gun pointed two inches from his face.
Throughout the movie, ordinary people, from a homeless man to security guards, and helicopter pilots morph into agents used to prevent Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity from completing their mission.
Being that all sinners are children of the devil, no matter how nice they may be, or good they may look, they are his pawns and can be used to destroy you at any moment. You have to get this in your mind: If they aren’t children of God, they are your enemies because they are already enemies of God (James 4:4).
The sinner can be as subtle as the Aint, but will usually be direct with their opposition and willingness to harm you. I will use the Pharisees as an example. They hated Jesus and were his direct opponents. They were often found trying to trip Jesus up in his words, push him off a cliff, spreading lies about him, and they eventually got him crucified. It was known by most that they hated Christ and wanted him dead.
The Pharisees can also be used to illustrate false brethren or the “Aints” because they too had a form of godliness and were considered family in the house of God. They were like the teachers of churches today. Just imagine a bunch of renowned Christian pastors plotting to kill you. That’s what Jesus was dealing with.
I mention the fake Christians again because these will be your biggest foes. Once again, we’ve been taught that we have three enemies: our own flesh, the world and Satan. But I’ve rarely heard that there’s a fourth enemy that looks like a brother or a sister. So I’d say again, your biggest enemies are false Christians, pseudo saints, fake church folks, unregenerate, holier-than-thou-thugs, and whatever name you feel like calling them. Stay away from them.
These are the most deceptive and most despicable people on the planet because they pretend to love God with their mouth while hating him in their hearts (Matthew 15:8). And when they’re used to harm you just know they do it with gladness because they hate you too.
Blood family
Agents are often within your own blood family. We’ve all received mistreatment from families after we were converted. A mother, or a father or those closes to you since your earliest years of life will be used if they too haven’t switched to the side of righteousness.
No one is off limits. Satan will use colleges, co-workers, past friends, old flings, and once again, CHURCH PEOPLE! I can’t stress this enough. But have no fear, the Holy Spirit will give you discernment as to who is who.
If you’re apart of a strong church fellowship, these false brethren are constantly being removed. A good pastor can spot these wolves in sheep’s clothing. The pastors of God care for the health of his church and will expel those who are really there to harm sheep.
But if you find yourself in a fellowship with a lot more evil going on than usual and nothing is being done about it; and even the pastor seems suspect, you’re pretty much in the den of lions and anyone of those people can be used to bite you. This is why it’s important to be in the right fellowship.
My experience
From day one of my rebirth I had agents assigned to me. Most of them operated in the spirit of Jezebel. The same man who led me to my first church membership was the same person used to hinder my growth, pimp my talents and pollute my soul. I can count at least three other people, including a female that was setup for my downfall.
Their message was simple:
“You can’t be a man of God. You’re too young to be used by God.”
It’s something about these people who try to dwarf you into a little child and hold you back from moving into your purpose. They’ll manipulate you into believing that your purpose is really to serve in their ministry. They get you to think you’re serving God when you’re really supporting their selfish ambitions and false ministries.
If you ever start talking about what you see God doing through you and that so-called “brother” replies, “Well, you need to be servant first before you can be a leader“, mark them. While this is a true statement, if that servant hood ends up being more to them than to God, they’re an agent diverting you from your mission in Christ.
These people like to come off as mentors, pastors, teachers, spiritual parents, “disciplers”, big brothers/sisters and other titles that put themselves over you. They place themselves above you and then pull you away from Christ. You’ll notice that you’ll feel oppressed, depressed and stressed. This is because they’re vampires sucking your life source to your demise. They are agents of Satan.
Waking up to it all
Waking up to agents in your life for the first time can be angering to say the least. After seeing the damage their doing, your talents and time wasted, peace stolen and your soul polluted with sin, you can and will want to seek vengeance.
And that is just another tactic of the enemy to now bind you to bitterness, resentment and unforgiveness. But don’t let it happen. Learn to forgive as I do and watch how God destroys your enemies.
God will avenge you for these agents’ attempts on your life. But holding on to unforgiveness will only put you in the same place most of these people are going. What a worse thing to end up spending eternity in the lake of fire with these same people. I made up in my mind that that won’t be me. Always forgive.
Here’s an article on how to forgive. Forgiveness is not letting someone get away with something, it’s giving them to God so he can judge them. As far as I’m concerned, my agents aren’t sinning against me, but my God.
Don’t worry, God will get’em and get’em good. I’ve seen my enemies uprooted and rejected before my very eyes. And their end will be eternal destruction in the lake of fire (if they don’t repent, of course).
God is a God of Justice. No one gets away with attempted murder. When they mess with the children of God, they’re messing God himself. Sadly, most of these agents of Satan have no respect for God so they don’t even fear the consequences of their actions.
Lately, I don’t have as many agents trying to oppress me like earlier in my life. Instead, I get knuckle-headed fake Christians who seek to bring frustration, unclean spirits and discord in my home. And I continue to reject and cut them off as the Spirit leads.
The Tactics
With that said, I just want to expose the activity of these agents some more. Look at the list below and see whether or not any of these things are happening in your life since certain people came in. You could be dealing with an agent.
1. Frustration, lost of peace, anger
Peace is one of the attributes of the Holy Spirit, but when an agent comes into your life, you may begin to see that stillness and quietness start to leave. Some people can bring all kinds of drama and noise into your life, or do things that frustrate your basic activities. If they can keep you in that state, you won’t be able to hear God properly.
2. Second guessing yourself, low esteem, lost of confidence
If you were once a person who was going places and had the confidence of God on your side, but lately you’ve been feeling low, and it seems to be that every time you get through talking with that particular person you feel demeaned or just plain weak, you’re dealing with an agent sent to suppress your godly zeal and cause you to slump into depression.
These people often speak with back-handed complements. They lift you up in one sentence and demean you in the next. Their flattery is meant to open you up just so they can poison your spirit. They’re no good for you. Even if you’re being rebuked for an error on your part, God doesn’t leave you feeling worthless.
3. Confusion, questioning core beliefs, not feeling anchored
If you come away from a conversation knowing God for so long and now questioning if there even is a God, you were dealing with an agent of deception. Beware of new doctrines with poorly backed scriptures, mixed with more emotion than actual facts. This is an agent sent to destroy your faith.
4. Oppression, suppression and depression
If any of these comes on your life while dealing with a new friend, it may be a spirit of Jezebel—a type of agent sent to destroy you. Usually they bring along confusion, belittlement and this next thing on this list…
5. Sexual thoughts
If you know you’re living holy, not entertaining filth on TV or the Internet, your gospel music is clean, but this new Christian friend of yours got you feeling all sensual, coupled with intense sexual dreams, that new friend of yours is probably into fornication and lust. The spirit of Jezebel will often bring these kinds of dreams and thoughts as well. The goal of this agent is to get you to stumble into sexual sin, then away from God, thus losing your protection from God. The dreams aren’t your fault so you shouldn’t feel guilty for them, but you must cast those imaginations down and get rid of that freak before you fall into sin (2 Cor 10:5).
6. Exhausting your time
Some people, usually family members or that person who always needs you help (which usually takes more time than necessary) is just there to exhaust your time and tire you out. After dealing with them, you don’t want to study, pray or do nothing but go to bed. Some people just talk too much and want your ear so they can drown out God. They come off as if they need your council but they really don’t. Drop these people quickly. I don’t care if it’s some little old needy lady. If she’s blocking your prayer and study time with your God, she’s an agent, get rid of her.
How to judge them
With all this awareness now, we want to take preventative measures. We don’t want to just go around getting beat up only to realize we’ve got an agent in our lives. No. God gives us wisdom to avoid these people and reject them before they do any damage. Here’s how to judge:
1. Judge them by their fruit (character of love)
Jesus said you’ll know them by their fruit (Matthew 7:16). A real saint has the character of Christ. This is expressed in love. If you don’t know what real love is, check this revelation of it here. Love is honesty, humility, patience, kindness, loyalty, selflessness, and more.
You must understand love in order to discern good from evil people. When you find people being deceptive, or arrogant, or boastful or selfish and they don’t seem to see the error in it, or really want to repent, you could be dealing with an agent. Agents are exposed by their bad character, they can’t hide it for long, it’s in their nature.
As Jesus said, a good tree doesn’t bear bad fruit. They can’t be lifting you up in one breath and cursing you the next. They can’t be saying they’re your brother or sister but practicing what your Father hates. You must know the character of Jesus because it is this character that must be seen in the people that call themselves your family. If not, these people are the offspring of Lucifer.
2. Judge by what they believe (their doctrine)
Discovering what people believe can give you a clear indication as to who they are. Listen to the doctrines they adamantly hold to. Beliefs shape who people are.
If a person believes they’re eternally secure and can never lose their salvation no matter what they do (good or evil), these people are capable of anything according to their own standard of righteousness. This is why I don’t fellowship with Calvinists.
That’s not to say that someone of this belief is an agent. It could be they’re simply deceived and will come into the truth later (I once believed in the TULIP), but with an adamant mindset after shown hardcore scripture refuting this doctrine, a person of this doctrine can be activated like the Manchurian Candidate at any moment to assassinate the kingdom builders. They’re deceived and under the mind control of Satan.
I once held bible study with a man that seemed legitimate at first, but after some direct questions he exposed the fact that he didn’t believe that men had a sin nature, which led to the belief that the Holy Spirit was unnecessary and that Christ’s sacrifice wasn’t really all that necessary either because men could just up and obey God in their own flesh without any help! He was adamant and wouldn’t let it go. So I let him go.
His behavior was arrogant, boastful and deceptive often twisting scriptures to try and prove his heresy. He was an agent sent to frustrate my peace and attempt to thwart my core beliefs.
So check what people really believe and if it doesn’t align with scripture, drop them. All real saints believe the same thing and agree with every doctrine that’s of importance.
Saints don’t “agree to disagree.” Some people like to maintain a relationship and say that “since we believe in the core doctrines of Jesus Christ, we’re all on the one same page,” yet they deny eternal hell, they believe in a works gospel and other such nonsense. You and them are not on the same page or even in the same book. You can’t fellowship until you both come in agreement about everything that’s of importance to the faith.
3. Judge by the Holy Spirit
At the end of the day, take everyone before the Lord. People can act like Jesus and they can believe everything you believe and still be an agent. If you trust the Holy Spirit with everyone who wants to be in your life, he’ll show you who’s his and who’s an agent of Satan. Don’t trust your judgement, always trust the Holy Spirit. There’s people I know right now that look like Christ on the outside, their doctrine is all straight, but they’re not on Christ side. Most of these people are deceived thinking they’re in Christ because of their outward works, but can be activated at any moment to harm the real saints.
Guard your fellowship
Now that you know how to discern these agents. Guard who you fellowship with. Fellowship opens the door to whatever spirit a person has, whether that’s more of the Holy Spirit or someone with unclean spirits.
This is going to sound negative, but look at everyone you don’t know as guilty until justified by Christ (innocent). The courts say, “Innocent until proven guilty”, but it’s the other way around for us. We live in a world ran by Satan and the majority of his children. Everyone is guilty and capable of evil by default. We, ourselves, were practicing criminals until God brought us out and regenerated us.
Don’t let nobody come to you acting like they’re your brother or sister in Christ before you let the Holy Ghost have a look at them. Don’t call each other brother or sister if you don’t know them yet. Don’t agree with them when they call your conversation fellowship.
Make sure all new people know that your relationships are guarded by Christ and you don’t just let people in. This is your soul for God’s sake! And don’t let no one tell you you’re wrong for being guarded. You’re on a important mission to glorify God, assist with the ministry of reconciliation and ultimately be conformed to the image of Christ. You don’t have time for people who ain’t for real. And if that person doesn’t have those same goals, they are not a child of God and they don’t belong in your fellowship!
What to do with known agents
OK, so perhaps you’ve discovered you’ve got some agents in your life. Here’s what you do. First of all, understand your god is bigger than their god. Fear not, they’re already defeated (Luke 10:19, Col 2:15).
Ask God for wisdom on how to deal with them. For some agents, it’s just wise to walk away without an explanation, for others, you might be directed to give them one.
If so, you simple tell them what the Spirit has revealed and cut them off. From there, no more phone calls, texts, online messaging—nothing. No more hanging out with them. In the digital world, that “Block” feature is awesome.
This is going to be hard for some of you, but the Holy Spirit can give you courage. Rely on his strength and don’t coward to oppression. Don’t allow these agents to get you into a debate as to why the relationship should continue. Some of these people are good at trying to convince you that have a misunderstanding. Just chop it off and move on.
I know what I’m saying is hard, but it’s what the real saints learn to do. Will you protect your relationship with God or allow these parasites to remain attached dragging your soul to hell?
You’ve got to hate how these people try to take you away from God. You’ve got to care more about God’s feelings than some poor agent. Break these fellowships off and close the door of these people!
Now, if it’s a spouse whose an unbeliever, God gives specific instructions on what to do with them—Read 1 Corinthians 7:12-16 and 1 Peter 3:1-2.
If you can’t cut an agent off or remove yourself from them, ask God to do it and he will. God cares for your soul. He honors any prayer when it involves the removal of anything or anyone that’s preventing you from fulfilling your purpose.
Amen. This is what I needed to hear. Lord, help me to apply it.
Everything u said is true I have been personally attacked and I was depressed, drained, started doubting God and it delayed my progress… How did you get to know all this because it’s like u have written an article about me?
Every Saint and even non-saint has agents sent to bring them down. We learn who agents are by trial and error and avoid the rest through the knowledge of the Holy Spirit. No one is alone in this. Funny thing, I had a few agents contact me directly after posting this article a while back—the devil is a liar and he’s already defeated. Be encouraged.
I am very encouraged, I have saved this page… I will read it every morning to strengthen me. ..