Satan is a Liar

** I wrote this during quarantine earlier this year, but the Lord reminded me of it recently, and I realized how true this still is. **

You know the phrase, "Satan is a liar," or "Fear is a liar," or something along those lines? I've heard this a lot in my life, growing up in a Christian home and community.

Satan is a liar.

But, you know, it wasn't until recently, that I realized how much of a liar Satan really is. I was watching a series by Chip Ingram on the "Invisible War," and he said that Satan's first mechanism of attack is to lie. That's literally how sin entered the world: Satan lied, planted doubt, and Eve took the apple and ate (Genesis 3:1–13). Who's to say he doesn't still do that?

No, he does. He continues to lie and plant doubts in the minds of the children of God, and it's up to us on whether or not we want to believe him. I've decided I'm done listening to his lies, and I want to share some of those lies that I've believed for way too long.

1. Once you screw up, you won't be forgiven, even if you ask for forgiveness. (Once a screw up, always a screw up)

After I've given something over to God, and have moved on, Satan likes to come back with "Are you sure you're forgiven?" And your mind, if the doubt gets planted, starts to wander and you begin to think, "Wait, what if I'm not forgiven?" What if God remembers and holds this sin against me? Beloved child, do you not know that His Word says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us"? (Psalm 103:12). Do you know how far the east is from the west? East never catches up to the "west" and vice versa. If you're continually going east, you're never going to go in the direction of "west." The two never meet up, which means that God literally doesn't remember. If you've truly confessed it, then "He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). It's like the sin becomes separated from you, to never return. God sees us through the lens of what Messiah did for us on the cross: we are righteous in His eyes (2 Corinthians 5:21). So, once you've screwed up and asked for His forgiveness, YOU ARE FORGIVEN, and you're no longer a screw up in the eyes of God.

Leave it at the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16). 

Satan will try to remind you of your sins because he wants to guilt and condemn you. This is not from God, for "there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Messiah Yeshua" (Romans 8:1). Granted, there is Biblical guilt, and the Holy Spirit does convict you of sin, but condemnation is not from God. Read that verse again. "There is no condemnation..." See the word "no"? I believe "no" means "no"—none, nada, zilch, zero. The fullest definition of the word applies here: not even an ounce of condemnation is from God. That's all Satan's doing. Choose the truth of His Word—it truly will set you free (cf. John 8:32).
           

2. God is not a personal God.

Okay, this is probably one of the hardest ones and most incredible lie to be free of. God is a personal God! Before I get into this, please understand that I know that God is a personal God, but I didn't always feel like He was a personal God to me in certain times of my life. I've personally received Messiah into my heart and life, but I always understood everything to be a corporate thing. Meaning, "We all receive forgiveness." or "We all have the love of God." or "God loves all of us." Corporate church mindset, which is not a bad thing! I believe God does love all of us and bless all of us as His body, as the Church, however, I neglected to see that while, yes, these are true, they are also true for me, personally. God loves me. He wants to bless me. He has forgiven me. And the moment I realized this, that God has chosen me to be His child and has brought me into His family, I received this picture:

Imagine the altar like it was in the Old Testament, when people had to bring sacrifices for forgiveness of sins (Leviticus 4:32–35), and the priest would lay the lamb on the altar and the person bringing the lamb would place their hand on its head, for the transference of sins from the person to the lamb.

Messiah is that Lamb.

I saw myself placing my own hand on the lamb's head, and my sins transferred to Him, and His blood cleansed me. Then I saw a picture of the cross, and I nailed all my sins on that cross as He died. Then, a light showed up behind the cross and purified me—that's how God sees me: holy, pure, in His Son's righteousness. So yes, God is a personal God, a very personal God.

Satan wants us to believe that God doesn't care about us individually because he probably knows that God's children are a force to be reckoned with. So he lies.

And we, as the body of believers, need to stop his lies before they take root in our hearts and lives.

Easier said than done, I know.

3. God doesn't care about feelings, especially since faith is not based on feelings. 

This was something that I've always struggled with: sharing my feelings, sharing how certain things affected me, or what I think about certain situations. Like, God doesn't care. So therefore I shouldn't care about my own feelings, and this unfortunately runs over to how I've treated people: carelessly. But, that's not of God. God is a caring and compassionate God, and He knows every thought in our heads, even before we think it (Psalm 139:2, 4). So, I've thought for a long time that it's not worth talking about how you feel. Faith is based on truth not on feelings. While that may be true, that also doesn't mean that God doesn't care. He feels hurt, He gets heartbroken, He has joy, He is love. Not only are these characteristics of who God is, these are also feelings, and it's okay to talk about them and share what you're feeling. This brings about a closeness with the people in your life, and I believe, you get closer to God as well since He is the One who gave us a soul: mind, will, and emotions.

4. God gets tired of you, tired of helping you out of the same rut over and over.

I feel like such a bad Christian when I come to God with the same problem over and over again. It seems like no matter what I do, I can't let it go. So, since I've gotten tired of it, of myself, I've thought that means that God also has gotten tired of me. This isn't true because God wants the best for me (Jeremiah 29:11). God wants to see us grow and mature in Him, and He wants to help us. He loves us to the point that He'll keep rescuing us over and over because of His love for us. His love is too deep, too massive for my little brain to comprehend. And when I do understand in a new way, I know there's way more that I don't grasp.

Learning about God and His love never ends.

However, I've also learned that if there's a recurring sin in my life, there's typically a root issue that needs to be dealt with. For instance, I don't like change, even if it's good, and I tend to hide behind various activities, like reading or watching a movie or show or playing games on my phone—anything to distract me from myself. I have a hard time wanting to deal with whatever God has surfaced in my life and instead, I hide. The root of hiding? Fear.

Is fear from God? Absolutely not! Satan plants fear in my mind, fears of never being able to live up to the person God created me to be. Which, by the way, I personally would never be able to. I can only do that by His Spirit, which leads me to dependence. Is that something I want to do? Depend on Someone? Gosh, no. What's the feeling that causes that? Pride. So, two issues to deal with here: pride and fear.

Two of Satan's mechanisms that prohibit me from myself, from growing in the Lord are fear and pride (cf. 2 Timothy 1:7; 1 John 2:16). 

That's exactly where Satan wants me: doubting my abilities, fearing change, which leads to distrusting the Lord and not walking in the Spirit, thinking that I can do it. I am capable. When, in fact, the Bible says, "apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5, NASB).

But, my friends, there's so much freedom in giving yourself over to the authority of God and submitting to His plan for your life. Yeah fear and pride get in the way, but the choice is yours: do you want to miss out on what God has for you or do you want to ignore the lies of the devil, who is the father of lies (John 8:44)? Which one do you truly believe will bring joy and freedom and healing in your life?

It's hard, I know. Sometimes, we want to run in the opposite direction. But the thing about God's love is this: He keeps chasing, He keeps finding the one and leaving the ninety-nine. That one is sometimes you.

And that's okay. It doesn't make you a bad Christian. It doesn't tire God to continue loving you. Just like how a sheep wanders from the fold, the shepherd goes and searches for it and brings it back into the fold. And if that sheep were to wander again, the shepherd would again go and get it back.

The love of our Messiah is relentless. Eventually I just give in to His love and let His love set me free. Let His truth set me free.

The reward is so much glorious: instead of myself, I get Messiah. Instead of the world, I get to advance the Kingdom of God. Instead of pride, I get healing. Instead of fear, I get shalom. Instead of lies, I get truth. Instead of condemnation, I get grace.

We don't deserve anything God gives us. We get those things because He loves us. Satan, on the other hand, is an enemy of God and wants to keep us off-track. He doesn't want us to expose who he really is. He doesn't want people seeing the truth for what it really is, for what the Bible really says. Satan, I think, becomes afraid of us when we do realize that he's a liar, that everything he says is a literal lie, and that, while sometimes it looks good, his "light" (2 Corinthians 11:14) is not real, not pure. He doesn't want us to figure out that everything he does is for his kingdom and therefore against the Kingdom of God. He knows he lost, but he doesn't want people knowing they've lost too. He uses trickery and deception to the utmost—that's how the fall of man happened: Satan used lies and trickery to get Eve to eat of the apple (Genesis 3).

Satan is really good at lying. We need to be really good at knowing God's truth to combat his lies.

My friends, the choice is yours. What do you choose to believe? What are you chasing after? Who do you believe? Let God cleanse you of all the lies you've believed in your life, and let Him replace it with His truth—"and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32, ESV).

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"For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." —Colossians 1:13–14, NASB