How the chief weapon of the enemy against believers is neutralised and destroyed.
Not all symptoms of confusion, depression or frustration comes from within ourselves such as our past experiences, genetic make-up, personal failures and regrets or from our physical environment.
For example, a Christian who has been believing for some years quite suddenly finds a doubt entering his mind about the existence of God. Where does that come from? If it stays there in their mind, it will soon lead into spiritual weakness. He thinks, ‘What does all this mean? Is this real or is it fantasy?’
Now if those thoughts go unchecked, they will soon grow a crop of weeds in a person’s mind that will cause a reduction in one’s spiritual energy, a declining desire to follow the Lord, overall lethargy, and worse.
Where does it come from? It comes from the Liar. It has nothing to do with your character or worthiness. The initial thought comes from the Liar. And it always causes confusion and III-ease.
A person who has believed for years suddenly is aware of thoughts questioning a critical aspect of their faith. They cannot deny the reality of what has happened to them in the past and yet these thoughts question that reality. The fact is, these thoughts come from an external source, from the one who opposes the accepted Word of God.
The classic model for this is Eve in the Garden of Eden. The Liar came in and presented a subtle question to Eve which had to do with her knowledge about God which she had by faith. Another example is the episode in the New Testament when Peter tries to prevent Jesus pursuing His course of obedience to Jerusalem, suffering and resurrection victory. Jesus, recognizing the lie-thought immediately rebukes, ‘get behind me Satan.’
The apostle Paul recognises this pastorally when he talks about doctrines of demons and lying spirits, and weak-willed people who find it hard to grasp the truth of their sins being forgiven.
This is the activity of the Liar. The Liar focuses on the area of reality which are perceived by faith. Lies about the existence of God indicate this. The Scriptures teach that by faith we understand that God exists and that He made from nothing that which is.
So the enemy targets the knowledge that is perceived by faith and puts a lie against it. The same thing happens concerning other knowledge which is perceived by faith; the forgiveness of sins, the love of God, salvation, and in fact all of the truths of the Gospel. The devil won’t bother to lie to you about things which you perceive by sight. He won’t tell you the world is flat or that your fig tree will bear grapes or anything like that. For one thing he doesn’t care about those areas anyway. He is too busy lying about facts that are perceived by faith. Those facts which challenge and destroy his kingdom of darkness.
The way to counter this is to stay with the Word of God, thinking logically and strongly. Jesus said that Satan comes and snatches the Word, when like the seed sown or dropped on rocky ground, it remains exposed. This is why the Bible speaks about meditation. Meditation is ‘staying on’ with the Word of God. It means prolonged thought. Meditation means holding the Word, (concentrating for several moments at the beginning) until the truth of it is clear, attractive and understood and it becomes for you a buttress against the lie.
So lies take root when a believer does not hold the Word in a clear determined mind. Hold the Word, stay with the Word and the lie is destroyed. Let the lie stay, and the Word for you is disabled from giving life and strength to your soul. Jesus taught that the enemy is busy sowing tares or weeds. The weeds are lies, the good seed is the Word of God. The weeds are lies about the Word of God. The harvest at the end of the age is the balance of produce that comes as a result of the growth of lies and the growth of truth. We can root out lies before they get a chance to spread. The way to do it is to hold the Word fast in a good heart. Often a lie gets root when we just think or say ‘but’ to a promise of God and fail to challenge it. We should butt our ‘buts’ and nurture the Word. If we practice this then the depression or confusion that sometimes afflicts us will evaporate. In its place will be Joy, well-being and confidence.
