Devotional - 16th July 2026

THE GAME - 2

Praise God for another wonderful day with you. We started talking about manipulation, and how it is a game of the devil to control people who are not aware to do his bidding to their detriment. Today, let us focus on how to overcome manipulation.

Overcoming Manipulation by the Word

I have established that manipulation is real. So, let us see some of the ways that you can overcome it. The first way is to be guided by the Word of God in all your actions, and don’t let your emotions or lust overcome you, because people can claim to be emotionally zealous for God and yet still fall into error because they lack knowledge.

Many of the Jews refused the doctrines of Jesus for Moses’ law, and they even persecuted the Christians that where followers of Jesus’s doctrines, thinking they were serving God, because they lacked the knowledge of the truth. Paul said, “For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Romans 10:2-3). This is why the scripture also says some people will say at the judgment day, “God we served you and even cast out devils in your name,” but yet Jesus would say to them, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:22-23).

If you are not guided by the Word of God through the help of the Holy Spirit, you can easily fall into manipulation, especially if you are still living by how you feel, or your fleshy desires, or doing what you think is right in your own eyes, as the scripture says, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).

Living by your emotions and lust will make you a candidate of manipulation, even as a Christian. This is why we must not study the Word of God alone, but also meditate on it, because it is meditation that brings the Word of God to a place of priority in our minds. So when we are confronted with manipulation, we will be able to easily discern them by scanning our thoughts with the Word of God in us.

If you must overcome manipulation, you must be able to discern the source of every thought in your mind, because there are three sources of thoughts that come to our minds every day: thoughts from our own selves, thoughts from the devil, and thoughts from God. No one in their right mind will do what the devil is telling them to do, if they are very sure it is the devil. Or if the devil appears to you physically right now and tells you to do something, will you even consider doing it, except you are a devil yourself? This is why it is important we grow up as Christians to be able to discern the source of our thoughts, because as long as we are not in control of our thoughts, we are not totally in control of our lives. The scripture says, “But strong meat

the deep Word of God

belongeth to them that are of full age

spiritually matured

, even those who by reason of use

meditation and application

have their senses

mind

exercised to discern both good and evil” (Hebrews 5:14).

It is this realm of spiritual maturity that made Jesus discern that it was the devil speaking to His hungry flesh at the time when he tried to manipulate Him to turn stones to food (Matthew 4). And what Jesus used to defeat that manipulative thought was with the Word of God. So it is very important that we are loaded in our minds with the scriptures to defeat manipulation. The reason the devil, who is a defeated foe, is still overcoming many Christians is because of their ignorance. The scripture says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children” (Hosea 4:6).

Christians don’t only become ignorant because they lack knowledge, but also when they forget knowledge. Manipulation is a game of the mind which when anyone has come to knowledge about, will easily be able to checkmate the devil, but as long as we are ignorant about it, we remain disadvantaged as a Christian.

Tomorrow, we will continue talking about ways we can overcome manipulation. However, the first step of overcoming manipulation is to be born again. 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. 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.