Devotional - 15th July 2026

THE GAME - 1

Introduction

Manipulation is a game that the devil has been secretly playing with all of mankind, but our awareness about it checkmates him at his game. Manipulation is the control of a person by another to achieve their goal without his actual knowledge of their intent. Apparently, this is a very common happening in the world in which we live, and many people are ignorant about it. The devil has been totally disarmed by Jesus on the cross, so what he has resorted to in order to keep alive his evil works is what is called manipulation. The scripture says, “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Revelation 12:9).

Understanding Manipulation

Manipulation was what the devil used against Adam and Eve to gain advantage over them, because the devil knew he was at a disadvantage if he chose to directly confront them. So he manipulated the wife to manipulate the husband to sin. And when we again look at the story of Job, we will notice that when Job was not falling for the devil’s tricks even after he had destroyed all Job had, he manipulated Job’s wife to say to Job what he wanted him to say, and the wife didn’t even know it. So after the devil used situational manipulation, he resorted to using human manipulation to force Job to do his desire. Job’s wife said, “Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die” (Job 2:9). These were the words the devil had earlier told God, saying, “But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face” (Job 2:5).

This is not to say that Job’s wife was an evil person, but this simply shows that people can be easily manipulated by the devil without their knowledge. Okay, what of Peter? Peter was one of the closest disciples of Jesus, but yet the devil manipulated him several times. In one instance, Jesus had to rebuke him and say, “Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men” (Matthew 16:23). Jesus was not calling Peter Satan, but He was addressing the spirit manipulating him to say what he was saying. Just a few minutes before that happened, Peter was getting revelation from God that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God (Matthew 16:16), but now the same Peter is having revelations from the devil without knowing it.

So we must not be too confident to think we cannot be manipulated by the devil. Peter thought just this way even when Jesus told him that he needed to be careful because Satan wanted to sift him like wheat (Luke 22:31). But his over-confidence in himself of thinking he could not be manipulated, and not putting his confidence in the Word of Jesus, made him not take seriously what Jesus was saying to him. It was not long after then that the devil put him in a situation that manipulated him to deny Jesus three times, in which he even swore and cursed that he never knew Jesus Christ before (Luke 22:54-62).

Yet again when we look at Paul and Barnabas, they were good partners together in the ministry, and I believe they would have both done greater work together, but it was just a small matter involving taking someone along on a missionary journey that aborted their vision together (Acts 15:36-41). And that is why you ought to be wondering how such a small matter can turn out to be such a big issue to cause such two great ministers to part ways, if not that the devil was manipulating the situation to abort God’s work.

There are so many examples of manipulation I can give from the scriptures, and even from my personal experience with people and even my own self. Now we must realize that if the people from the examples I have given from the scriptures are people of close relationship with God, and yet they found themselves manipulated, how much more anyone? There are things I have done only to realize this was not God’s will, but the devil’s manipulation. I just thank God for the grace to quickly discern it, but there are people that just get trapped in a web of manipulation and never realize it all throughout their lives.

Manipulation and Unbelievers

Thus far, I have been talking about Christians being manipulated. How much more those that are not born again. Those that are not born again have no chance of overcoming manipulation because they are not just manipulated by the devil, they are enslaved to him, and he uses them at his will. This is why God wants us to love our enemies, because they know no better than to do the will of the devil anytime he calls for them. So we must not see them as just the bad people, but we must realize that the devil is using them. And that is the same way Jesus saw through Peter that he was being manipulated. The scripture says, “And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will” (2 Timothy 2:26), and again it says, “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2).

The first step of overcoming manipulation is to be born again because being born again gives a person the advantage to identify manipulation by the help of the Holy Spirit, and the legal spiritual authority to say no to the devil’s will. So if you are not born again, you can do so right now by asking Jesus in a simple prayer to come into your life to be your Lord and Saviour (Romans 10:9). So say the prayer below in faith to do so right now.