Thursday, March 9, 2017

Exposing the Lies of Satan with God's Word

God's Voice or the Devil's Lies


"Just do it, God will forgive you," you're smart, you don't need anyone's help," "fighting this battle all alone will prove how strong you are," "drink one more, eat one more piece, you will feel so much better." 

These statements and others like them have two things in common: they sound good, encouraging even, but they are lies. You've probably heard some statements like these echoing in your mind at some point and wondered whose voice you were hearing. Is it God encouraging you or the devil deceiving you? Satan will often whisper things in your ear that sound so close to God's word that you can't distinguish who is speaking. 

In 2 Kings 18, we find Judah on the brink of an attack by Assyria. Urging them to surrender, the king of Assyria, Sennacherib, sends a message to Judah, he says:

"Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you may live, and not die.” (2 Kings 18:31-32)

What caught my attention about this passage was that the promises King Sennacherib makes to the people of Judah sound oddly similar to some of the promises of God. Here we see Judah's enemy tempting them with lies that are masked with the word of God. So if King Sennacherib was clever enough to use this tactic surely Satan, who the Bible calls the "deceiver of the world," knows this trick as well. 

So what do we do? How can we distinguish the lies of the enemy from the promises of God when they sometimes sound so similar? When Judah's king, Hezekiah, received the message the Bible says, he went into to the house of the Lord and spread the message before Him. I believe that to distinguish God's voice from the lies, we must do the same. We must collect all the messages our hearts are receiving and take them to God in prayer and measure them up against His word.

Let’s practice doing that and break down King Sennacherib’s message to uncover some common lies of our enemy and see what Jesus has to say about them.

Our Strength is Enough

“Each of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree.”

Satan tries to convince us that we are able to sustain ourselves in attempt to separate us from God. He'll distract you from praying and reading the Word, deeming it unnecessary. He will fill you with pride to prevent you from asking for help. 

But, Jesus tells us:
"Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:4-5)

“Apart from me you can do nothing.” We weren’t created to go through this life alone, figuring things out for ourselves and relying on our own strength to get us through. We were created for constant connection to the vine, Jesus, whose strength is made perfect in our weakness.

We Can Satisfy Our Souls

“Each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern.”

The enemy will make us believe that the things of this world (alcohol, drugs, TV, social media, money, material possessions etc.) will fill the void in our lives. For a while, these things may help, but the problem with “drinking from our own cistern” is that eventually our cisterns will run dry and the things that once made us feel better will leave us feeling more empty than before.

But, there is hope, Jesus tells us:
“Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)

I believe that we are all created with a God-shaped void in our souls so it's only when we turn to Him to satisfy our deepest desires that we experience true and complete fulfillment. 

It’s okay to stay the way we are

King Sennacherib promises that he will take Judah away to a land that is “like their own land.” 

Similarly, Satan tricks us into thinking that it’s okay to stay the way we’ve always been. We say things like “I was born this way,” or “this is how I’ve always done it” and we accept that because we’ve bought into the lie that how we are is how we will always be.

Jesus tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

When we become followers of Jesus we become brand new. Through Him our thoughts, words, habits, desires, our actions and reactions all change to glorify God. God wants to do something new in you; don't settle for staying the same.

Submission to the enemy gives us life

“Make your peace with me....that you may live and not die.”

Sennacherib promises to spare the lives of the people of Judah in exchange for their surrender. In the same way, the devil tricks us into believing that submission to him leads to freedom while submission to God leads to bondage. He'll make us believe that if we give our lives to God, God will take away everything we love: our non-Christian friends, our hobbies, our money etc.

The Bible reminds us, 
"This is eternal life- that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." (John 17:3)

Close connection with God will never leave us feeling deprived, left out or lonely. He is our comforter, our joy, our peace and the giver of true everlasting life.


Satan lures us in with God's words because even he knows the power they hold. Do you know that power? Commit yourself to becoming so familiar with the promises of God that you cannot be deceived.  




4 comments:

  1. I heard a similar message in "The Shack", He is always with us, we just have to focus on Him and not what we are trying to avoid or what we are going through. To quote from the movie, "it's easier when we do it together" Meagan, you are so special, I hope you know that.

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    1. Thank you! You are part of the reason I am who am! Love you. I got the same message from the movie.

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  2. Excellent post. We need to recognise the devil's tactics and as the Bible says, cast down imaginations and every thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. We need to determine that we are not going to be fooled by the devil any longer, that we are going to take our rightful position as victors over him.

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    1. Amen! Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment!

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