The Mocking Bird
One day while on my walk, I saw a mockingbird sitting on the power lines. It sat there twitching its tail, trying to maintain its balance. I stopped walking and looked up at it, marveling at the huge repertoire of bird calls all contained in this little guy.
Suddenly, he stopped his regimen and cocked his head. At the other side of the road lay a pasture, bordered by thick woods at the far end. From those woods could be a heard a couple of crows giving their piercing calls to one another. And that’s when I stopped in my tracks and was stunned by what the mocking bird did next. Having listened in on their conversation, he began to talk “crow”. He said a few words and then listened. The two crows had apparently stopped to hear what was being said, but then quickly resumed their discussion. Again, the mocking bird waited for an apparently normal lull in the conversation, and then again put in his two cents’ worth in fluent “crow”. It was amazing how accurately he matched their calls. The crows ignored him this time as an impostor and went on with their dialogue.
Having been thus shunned, the mocking bird happily began running through his list of bird calls like a piano student practicing his scales.
As I resumed walking, I began to ponder the analogy to life that might possibly have been playing before my eyes in living color. It didn’t come to me right away, or even that day, but when I revisited that event, some life lessons became crystal clear.
Suppose that the conversation of the crows is an illustration of a dialogue you might be having in your head. You have just apologized to a friend about something you did that hurt their feelings. You have asked God to forgive you and you have asked this friend to forgive you. You are trying to get over feeling bad about yourself. And the Holy Spirit is showing you truth, but….this other voice interrupts your thoughts. It sounds like your own voice, but it begins to say things like, “I always seem to mess things up. I can’t do anything right. I am a terrible person. It’s a wonder anyone likes me,” etc., etc., etc. You know the drill. You have had these tapes playing in your head for years. Anytime you see a ray of hope—BOOM!—these thoughts squash any truth you are reaching out to grab.
The Bible says that Satan masquerades as an angel of light. In your thought life it would look like this. As in the above scenario you are trying to sort things through in your mind and a thought appears that sounds just like you. It doesn’t appear alien or scary or completely bizarre. It seems like it belongs there. It’s like a messenger. Once you give it security clearance, then it begins to deliver its message. And the message might be condemnation “you are horrible”, or temptation “come on, you deserve it” or allaying guilt “hey, you didn’t hurt anybody”. You get the picture.
When the Bible talks about Satan coming as an angel of light, it was first addressing false prophets that infiltrate the body of believers. Paul goes on to say, “And no wonder, because Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”
In other words, these prophets look like they belong in the assembly, but their messages give them away. So too, these thoughts look like they belong in your head, but they are demonic.
Just like my little friend sitting on the power line. He was an impostor, trying to get into the conversation of the crows. He tried to sound just like them. Satan and his demonic forces will try to get into your thoughts in order to deceive you on some level that God’s Word isn’t true. Since his main weapon is deception, he will not come to you in some booming voice, breathing sulfur. No, he will come to you in your thoughts where he can begin to build his lies and vain imaginations, as a high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. As Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 10 “Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
When the little mocking birds come into our thoughts to infiltrate the wisdom of God to tear down our faith in God and our faithfulness to Him, it’s time to get them out and get back to truth.