I recently heard someone say, “One of these days when you cross over into eternity to stand before God and you’re able to see your adversary, the devil, you’re going to say, ‘Are you kidding me? This is the little wimp that caused so many problems?’”
Before you start accusing me of minimizing satan’s influence, let’s remember this, he is a created being. That means he’s lower than God. Much lower than God. I believe he gets credit for a lot more than he should. His greatest weapon against us is not his supernatural ability to do weird tricks through Ouija boards. His greatest tool is deception. Lies. He is the father of lies. (John 8:44)
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)
If this statement by Jesus is true, then what do lies do for us? They bind us.
They hold us back from fulfilling the purposes of God. How does the devil lie to us? Obviously he doesn’t just walk up to us and whisper in our ear, “hey, you want to hear a good lie?” He deceives us through thoughts, and those thoughts are built through our experiences, religious training, and yes, even our DNA. There was a popular comedian in the 70’s who’s most famous line was “the devil made me do it!” It was good comedy, but in reality the devil doesn’t make us do anything. Through lies he influences our thoughts and our thoughts make us do bad things.
There is good news, however. There is truth to destroy and replace every lie from the enemy. The greatest example we have of this Jesus Himself. When He was in the wilderness fasting for forty days, the devil came and tempted Him three times. Each time, the Son of God used the word of God (“it is written”) to silence the tempter. You can read it in Matthew 4:1-11. This is why it is so necessary that we have a close relationship not only with God, but also His written word. I love the way Psalm 1:1-3 reads in The Message version:
“How well God must like you – you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon, you don’t slink along Dead-End Road, you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College. Instead you thrill to God’s Word, you chew on scripture day and night. You’re a tree replanted in Eden, bearing fresh fruit every month, never dropping a leaf, always in blossom.”
I have personally become aware of three areas in which the enemy of our soul can bind us through deception:
- The nature of God. (Who He is and what He is like)
- My identity. (How God created me and what He thinks about me)
- The future. (Why am I here and where am I going?)
We are going to look at each of these areas in the next three blogs. I hope you’ll join me and get a taste of the freedom I’m experiencing. You’ll see how the truth really can set you free! See you next week!
Kevin