Refute Lies With Truth

It is essential to understand that the devil cannot tell the truth. In John 8:44 Jesus told the Jews about the devil’s attributes. It says he, “…does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”

God gave Adam and Eve specific instructions of what tree not to eat from. The serpent countered God’s word with a lie. Genesis 3:4 says, “…You will not surely die.” Since the devil can only speak lies, we counter them with eternal truth that cannot be changed.

One telltale sign of his lies is that they are pushy. They have an urgency in them. For example you might think that if you don’t follow this insistent urge you will miss out. That is how false advertising works.

The devil is a master at advertisements. They seem good on the outside, but the inside is a trap that will derail you. Not every thought is of our own origin. That is why we have to bring them captive. According to 2 Corinthians 10:5 they exalt themselves above the knowledge of God.

We know that true knowledge is a gift to those who walk in the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understandinWe know that God is the Source of truth. He has given us the Spirit of truth to lead us. John 14:17 says, “The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”

1989 I was in a car wreck. That night I went into temporary paralysis. My chiropractor sent me to a neurologist. The neurologist spoke a pronouncement over me. He said, “You will be on this medication for two years.” I immediately said, “I will not be on this medication for two years.”

I needed to refute the power of his pronouncement! Refute means to deny or contradict and reject. When I got outside in the parking lot I yelled, “I will not be on this medication for two years in the name of Jesus!” I wasn’t.

Hosea 10:12 says,”…break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you.” Fallow ground loves weed seeds. We need to ask: What weed seeds are growing in the soil of my heart? 

We give glory to the Lord when we confess our sins to Him. Achan defied God’s command to abstain from all the spoils in Jericho. In Joshua 7:11 we read that his sin was accounted against all of Israel.

Verse 11 says, “Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant…” In verse 19 Joshua confronted Achan. It says, “…give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession to Him, and tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me.”

Achan buried his stolen articles under his tent. Any unresolved issues, such as resentments, offenses, or unforgiveness that we bury negatively affect everyone around us. Achan, his family, and all his belongings (including what he hid) were stoned and then burned with fire.

The Gadarene demoniac ran and worshiped Jesus. This man had been bound with chains and shackles, yet with demonic strength he had pulled them apart. He cried out day and night and cut himself with stones.

His bondage did not stop him from worshiping. Mark 5:6 says, “When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him.” We can worship the Lord no matter how bound we are, how sick, or infirm. Worship comes from the heart.

All sin begins as a thought before it becomes a sinful action that sows weed seeds in our heart. Weeds will grow in any kind of soil. At my former house, there was a back field that never got watered. Yet the weeds grew in abundance. Their seeds blew into my garden and flower beds and defiled the soil.

Uncultivated soil can be cultivated. We are never without hope. We have One Who redeems all things. Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge…” Our knowledge comes through observing His word and applying it to our lives. It is for everyone without exception.

However we must be diligent to tend to the garden of our heart. We are called to bear fruit that will glorify the Lord. Let us confess our sins to Him and forsake them. I encourage you to get my book or ebook on Amazon called “Cultivating Our Heart: repurposing fallow ground.”

The ground was pure and fertile. Man’s disobedience brought a curse. We are made in the image of God. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says regarding sin, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”

Holding onto resentment instead of letting it go, brings disorder to God’s created order for our bodies. We are to tend our bodies just as Adam was instructed to tend the garden. Allowing the weed seed of resentment to germinate will cause it to propagate quickly.

Here is what uncultivated ground or buried resentments look like. Proverbs 24:30-31 says, “I went by the field of the lazy man, and by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding; and there it was all overgrown with thorns; its surface was covered with nettles; its stone wall was broken down.”

It’s a sad picture of negligence. We are to be diligent tenders of our hearts. Proverbs 4:23 says to guard it diligently. Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

Our faith suffers when we allow the weed seeds of resentment to flourish. Hidden sin blocks our open fellowship with the Lord. We often try to hide from Him through our busyness. Adam and Eve hid from Him. 

Consider their relationship before their open rebellion to His words, “Do not”but they did. Genesis 3:8 gives us a glimpse into how it was. It says, “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day…” 

There is an old hymn called, “In The Garden.” I’m sure some of you are singing it right now.  Our personal garden is our quiet time. We neglect that time when we have sinned and not confessed it.

I have certain ‘duties’ that I don’t like to do. I often quote Song of Solomon 1:6 to myself. The Shulamite gal said, “…my own vineyard I have not kept.” That is my incentive to take on the task that I didn’t want to do. Leaving sin buried and unconfessed is the same as not taking care of our vineyard.

Psalm 8:3 says, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained.” The Hebrews word for consider means to see, look at, inspect, and to perceive.

Last night I started reading the book of Genesis. I want to share my journaling with you. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” He brought something into existence that was not there. Proverbs 3:19 says, “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding He established the heavens.”

Proverbs 8:22-31 was wisdom speaking. Verse 22 says, “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old.” Psalm 102:25 says, “Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.”

Psalm 104:5 says, “You who laid the foundations of the earth, so that it should not be moved forever.” Psalm 119:90-91 says, “Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth, and it abides. They continue this day according to Your ordinances, for all are Your servants.”

Thinking back to the above verses, consider that His hands who created the earth, heavens, laid the foundations, also created you and me. Psalm 119:73 says, “Your hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding, that I may earn Your commandments.”

David’s expression of this is in Psalm 139:14. It says, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.” Do you celebrate the Lord’s handiwork in creating you?

When God formed Adam from the dust of the ground, He created a fully functioning man. In verse 8 He planted a garden and put Adam in it. Then He made trees to grow out of the ground. Consider it. Adam’s first assignment was to tend the garden (Genesis 2:15). In verse 19, it says that God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air out of the ground. Then Adam named them all.

God then put Adam to sleep and formed Eve from his rib. Everything that God did was the work of His hands. Yet because Adam and Eve sinned, the ground was cursed. Genesis 3:17 says, “…Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil; you shall eat of it all the days of your life.” More tomorrow.

Jesus said that He had nothing in Him that belonged to the evil one. That is not true of us who accepted satan’s fiery dart lies. He strategically planted them for his purposes. Though they are buried in our hearts, they still belong to him. The lies will remain until we renounce them and replace them with truth that will keep us free. 

Resentment, bitterness, and harboring offenses also allow satan to set up inner strongholds that he uses against us from the inside. We have Scriptures that help us understand what his tools are. We do well to heed them and put them into practice in our daily walk.

Peter understood what it meant to be sifted by satan. His recorded words are our warning. 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

We destroy our emotional triggers first by confessing them as sin. We must acknowledge that we are the ones who buried them. We know from 1 John 1:9 that when we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us, and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness. 

In Jeremiah 1:10 we find instructions of what to do. We are to root out (acknowledge) and to pull down (confess) , to destroy and throw down (renounce and disown). Then we are to build (memorize and implant truth that will set us free) and to plant (speak the words of truth in our heart to remain free).

According to Proverbs 4:23, we are the ones responsible for what is in our heart. It says, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” Psalm 119:11 says, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.”

Psalm 66:18 says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” 

Matthew 18:21-35 is the parable of the unforgiving servant. Though he was forgiven a great debt (like us) he refused to forgive others as he was forgiven. Verse 34 says that he was turned over to the torturers.

Verse 35 applies to us as well. It says, “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.” The buried unforgiveness is satan’s domain. It opposes God’s way to forgive AS we have been forgiven.

The truth that we need to acknowledge and live by is this. The one who sinned against us? Jesus bore their sins also. He paid the full penalty for our sins as well as the sins they did against us. We opposed God’s way when we buried unforgiveness in our hearts~leaving emotional hooks.

I was praying for someone this morning when I felt the Holy Spirit’s speak in my heart. “Nothing can trigger an emotional trauma that has been released to Me.” Jesus was talking to His disciples in John 14.

Verse 30 in the Amplified says, “I will not talk with you much more, for the prince (evil genius, ruler of the world is coming. And he has no claim on Me; there is nothing in Me that belongs to him, and he has no power over Me.”

Can you say the same in your life? The enemy has hooks in us when we do not resolve emotional hurts and traumas God’s way. Our fleshly reactions to another’s fleshly behavior is an example of unresolved issues.

I’ve had counselee’s say, “They know how to push my buttons!” My question becomes, “Why are there buttons they can push?” The answer is that there are unresolved issues which spring up unexpectedly. 

Releasing the emotional pains that we have long ago buried is part of our progressive sanctification journey. We do not remember what we buried, because we have effectively disassociated ourselves from them.

The only way to true freedom is to confess that our way opposes God’s way, and embrace His way through forgiveness and release. 2 Corinthians 4:2 says, “But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves in the sight of God.”

Renounce means to disown. While they remain buried we own them. They are the hooks that satan has in us. They are what he uses to disrupt our interpersonal relationships. They are also ways that he still controls us.

In 2 Timothy 2:24-26 Paul was instructing Timothy on how to help those bound in satan’s snare. We must be gentle. Verse 25 says, “In humility correcting those who are in opposition…” Anything we allow to remain buried opposes God’s way. Verse 25 continued into verse 26.

It says, “…if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”

1 Chronicles 28:9 Amplified says, “…For the Lord searches all hearts and minds and understands all the wanderings of the thoughts…” I know this verse well, and often think about it. Yet as I typed this, my mind went back to the definitions from yesterday.

The Holy Spirit made the connection for me of mental dialogue and doubting. Both fit perfectly into David’s words to his son Solomon. How many countless times do we allow our mind to wander through mental dialogues about sometime that has passed? Do we allow our doubts to mindlessly chase endless rabbit trails?

Father, thank You for the gift of Your Holy Spirit. I am so grateful that we have One who dwells within us, to lead us into truth when we step into error.  I ask You to help us discern the spirit behind the matter of our hearts. Are we condemning instead of praying? We will all stand before You to give an account of our idle words birthed through letting our minds wander.

Convict us through the deep inner work of Your Holy Spirit. Reveal the thoughts in our hearts that are contrary to Your truth. Thank You now, because You hear and always answer us according to Your will. 

In Romans 1:21 Paul wrote about those who did not glorify God, nor were thankful. It says, “…but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” The Greek word for futile means useless, fruitless, empty, hollow, unproductive, ineffectual, void of results, and worthless. 

Does that sound like the hamster in his wheel? It goes around and around, but gets nowhere because its actions are futile. So are our thoughts when we continue to mentally dialogue about something that has passed. We enter into sin and waste precious emotional energy.

Simeon said this to Mary in Luke 2:35 about Jesus, “…that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.” The Greek word for thoughts is dialogismos. Does that sound like dialogue? According to Strong’s it means inward reasoning, questioning, consideration, and deliberation; turning thoughts over in  the mind; reckoning by mental questions, opinions, designs, and disputes.

It carries the same thought as what God told Peter in Acts 11:12. He was to doubt nothing. Strong’s definition denotes a conflict with oneself, in the sense of hesitating, having misgivings, doubting, being divided in decision making, or wavering between hope and fear.

These definitions took me to James 1:6. We are to ask for wisdom in faith without doubting. Verse 8 says that one who doubts is double-minded and unstable in all their ways. We need to be resolute in our thoughts in order to be resolute in our words and actions.

Romans 14:1. It says,  “Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.” Verse 4 says, “Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.” 

Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according tot he flesh, but according to the Spirit.” It is too easy to ‘condemn’ another in our thoughts. More on this tomorrow.

My article was in today’s newspaper. It is a combination of several of my recent devotionals.

How does unbelief creep in? I felt this question pop into my mind when I read Matthew 17:20. Jesus was answering His disciples’ question. He said, “…for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”

The issue is not the size of our faith. Unbelief creeps in when we allow the devil’s fiery dart-lies to penetrate our mind. It also comes in when we waver in what God’s word instructs us to do.

James 1:8 says that those who waver are double-minded and therefore unstable. Their faith borders are not secured. Faith is a resolute, unshakeable, and steadfastly rooted truth that is hidden in our heart. It is surrounded with thankfulness. 

In Colossians 2:5 Paul commended the church, “…rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.” He went on in verses 6-7 to say, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.” 

2 Corinthians 10:5 says to take every thought captive. That does not mean that we take every thought apart to see if it has a lie in it. It means that we hide God’s truth in our heart. It is this inward truth that will rise like a sentinel to thwart any lie from entering in the first place.

Those lies that we dialogue with become part of our own thought processes. They seed into the soil of our hearts unknowingly. That is the stealth activity of our enemy. It is essential to remember that not every thought is of our own origin. As each lie is hidden, it is gathered into a stronghold which wars against us from inside. 

All fiery darts come from the outside. Ephesians 6:16 was written so we could stop them from entering. It says, “Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”

How then does our faith quench fiery darts? Quench means to suppress, thwart, and extinguish. It’s a word that describes how our enemy seeks to destroy our faith. The opposite of suppress is to express. The opposite of thwart is to succeed in victory. The opposite of extinguishing is to ignite.

We are warned in 1 Thessalonians 5:19, “Do not quench the Holy Spirit.” Ephesians 4:30 says to not grieve the Holy Spirit. Verse 31 listed the enemy’s tactics. He works through people that are under his influence through the lies they have believed.

It says, “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.” Verse 32 helps us to come in the opposite spirit. It says, “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another; even as God in Christ forgave you.”

Paul’s further instructions are in Colossians 3:12-13. It says, “Therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.”

The underpinning of our faith is forgiveness. As we are forgiven, we are to forgive in the same manner. Matthew 18:35 says that unless we forgive from our heart, God the Father will send tormentors. 

Could the Lord be using folks in your life that you are at cross purposes with? What He allows always has His purpose ingrained in the fabric of the trial. It is tightly woven so that nothing can thwart it.

Proverbs 27:17 Amplified says, “Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend (to show rage or worthy purpose).” We are to be iron sharpeners not friction igniters.

Proverbs 15:1-2 says, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness.” We are to exemplify the Lord’s character at all times. He uses adversity to reveal the hidden lies that undermine our faith.