Hearing God's Truth Instead of the Lies of the Enemy:

For years, I struggled with knowing God's truth and what He thought of me. I had read the Word of God. I went to church. I prayed. I went to counseling. I listened to countless sermons. I read Christian books. I read blogs like the one you're reading now. Yet, I still struggled with connecting faith in God's Word with how I was feeling. How could I reconcile the two? 

How could I actually be forgiven if I was feeling guilt and shame? 

How could I have worth and value if I felt like I was being rejected by others?

How could I know God hadn't abandoned me if there were storms still swirling around me?

How could I know that I was really a child of God when I struggled to feel like I was?

A Revelation:

It wasn't until I came to the end of myself and cried out to God that I couldn't do it on my own that real breakthrough came. There was a morning I was making breakfast and I broke a piece of bread to put in the toaster and I heard Jesus say in my spirit, "Do this in remembrance of Me." It was just like in Luke 24:13-35 where the disciples were walking on the road to Emmaus.

The Bible says that "while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained. so that they did not know Him."

I was conversing about the truth. I was reasoning with the truth. But I didn't realize that in my struggle, that Jesus Himself had drawn close to me. He was there on the road of reasoning and struggling to understand who I was in Him and in who He was to me.

Later in Luke 24, it says, "Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight....they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread."

This is what happened to me. The moment I broke that piece of bread, it's like my eyes were opened and suddenly, I could see the truth of what He had been telling me all along. Suddenly, it wasn't a struggle anymore. God had given me a revelation of His truth and His Word had moved from "logos" (word, thought) to "rhema" (utterance, thing said)--God took the truth and caused it to speak to me.

Letting His Word Transform You:

What about your situation? Are you struggling with knowing the truth of God through all the lies of the enemy? 

Are you hearing the truth of God spoken and then immediately start wrestling with it and rationalizing and reasoning with it and whether its true for your life and how maybe it's not because you FEEL a certain way?

Jesus spoke some pretty direct words about how transformation happens and you may be surprised, but it doesn't come in trying harder. It comes in being desperate and coming to the end of yourself. It comes in realizing you cannot get free on your own. 

In Luke 4:18, Jesus said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed."

He is the One that sets at liberty those who are oppressed. He is the One that provides liberty to the captive. 

In John 15:4-5, Jesus said, "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."

Did you catch that? Apart from Him, you cannot do anything. Apart from Him, you cannot have the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness or self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

You need Him to grow the fruit of The Holy Spirit in your life. You need Him to transform you from a barren tree with no fruit into a fruitful one that has been planted and nurtured by His presence. 

It doesn't come in striving harder. It comes in fully surrendering to Him and spending time with Him, letting His Word abide in you and marinate your soul, transforming you from the inside, out. 

This doesn't mean that you don't take steps forward, because "faith without works is dead" as James 2:26 says, but it means that real, lasting change comes through trusting Jesus to change you as you surrender and allow His words to get inside of you and change you from the inside, out. 

Knowing Truth:

Jesus said in John 8:31-32: "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall KNOW the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

Jesus called Himself the Truth in John 14:6 ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."). In order to know Him, you have to abide in His Word and as you do, you will know the truth and it will make you free. 

When you get to know Jesus by reading His Word and letting it settle into the deepest parts of your heart, it starts to transform you and it makes you free. 

Imagine a plant that has just been watered. For awhile, especially if the soil is dry, the water sits on top of the water until it starts to soak the soil and get down into it and to the roots of the plant. That is how His Word is. When you abide in His Word, it's like being watered every time. 

The water may "sit" on you for awhile before finally getting down on the inside of you. It may take some time for that water to get down into the harder areas of your heart because the soil has become hard from dryness over time.

But, as the water penetrates the soil of a plant and makes it soft, so His Word will penetrate your heart as you abide in Him and He will get the truth of who He is down into the deepest recesses of roots and transform your life from the inside, out.

When you start to know the truth of who He is and what He says, then you will find that you know His voice.

When the lies of the enemy come and start to try to sow weeds of doubt, discouragement, anger, sadness, lust, jealousy, pride, confusion, etc., you will be able to command the enemy to flee because you will realize that those cleverly designed lies for what they are. 

You will be able to differentiate and discern between Jesus' voice and the half-truths of the enemy: John 10:3-5: "...the sheep hear His voice; and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. And when He brings out His own sheep, He goes before them; and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice. Yet they will be no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers."

Feelings vs. Truth:

You cannot allow your feelings to dictate and tell you how to feel. Feelings are fickle. Ever notice how you can love wearing one outfit one day and then not like it if you wear it again that week? What about waking up grumpy and feeling happy later in the day or vice versa? 

Only God's Word and truth remains steady and that's where you will find balance and transformation. Remember this:

Feelings are like roller coasters--they go up and down--and they are not good indicators of truth. 

God's Word is like a straight road--it's going one direction and stays steady--it's not just an indicator of the truth--it IS the truth.

If God wanted us to go by feelings alone, then Jesus would have been in real trouble when He was hungry and being tempted by the evil one to turn stones into bread. He would have run into an issue when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane and He asked God if there was any other way possible, to let the cup pass from Him.

He loves us. He went to the cross with intentionality. He didn't FEEL joy in the moments of being crucified. But, "For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:2).

Jesus had to stand on His own truth and not go by His feelings. Just like us, He had to "take every thought captive and made it obedient to the truth He knew and was" (2 Corinthians 10:5). When the devil tried to twist Jesus' own truth and say, "It is written," Jesus was able to combat his lies with the FULL truth and say, "It is ALSO written."

What are some lies the enemy has been whispering in your ear through your feelings that need to be exposed and obliterated by the Word of God?

When truth settles in your heart, the feelings you have won't always line up in the moment, but you'll find yourself standing on God's Word regardless of how you feel in the moment.

Eventually, once you know your identity and authority in Christ, you'll start to find yourself feeling a numbness of heart, not to God's Word, but from the lies of the enemy, and you'll no longer be as affected or as moved by his, "what if" questions?

The enemy will attack you through other people through verbal assault, or in your mind, trying to fill your thoughts with lies of deception, temptation, and will do whatever he can to disrupt and tear you away from intimacy with God.

Jesus Himself was tempted through the lies that the devil spoke to Him (Matthew 4:1-11 when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness). The Holy Spirit wants to move you from false lies to God’s truth and as you draw close to God, you can know He will, because He has promised that, “where The Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Corinthians 3:17).

If he tested and tried Jesus this way, do you not think that the children of Christ will be tested and tried in the same way?

Why did Jesus keep turning the conversation back to God’s truth when He was tempted, saying, “It is written” to counter what the devil was tempting Him with? Because Jesus knows that if you abide in His word, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free (John 8:31-32).

Did you ever think about what the truth that He is referring to you is? It is Himself! As mentioned earlier, Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to The Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) The Bible also says in John 1:1 that, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus is the very Word of God.

When He is saying that you will know the truth and the truth will set you free, He is saying that you will know HIM and HE will set you free!

Replacing Lies with Truth:

Here are two common lies and twists of the enemy and the truth of what God actually says:

THE LIE: FORSAKEN:

“God has forsaken you.”

THE TRUTH:

•Psalm 17:10: “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take care of me.” 

HOW I CAN KNOW IT'S TRUTH:

•Hebrews 13:5: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 

•Deuteronomy 31:6: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you.”

•John 14:16: “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever.”

TAKE HOLD OF THE TRUTH:

Even in the times my emotions feel like I am forsaken, I am not ever forsaken. God is always with me wherever I go. It is written that God will never leave me nor forsake me. Even if those who I love so much and who are the very closest to me forsake me, God Himself has promised that He will not. He will take care of me. His The Holy Spirit will be with me always, for forever. No matter how I feel. No matter what! Because of this, I can be confident. I will not be afraid. I will not be terrified of others. I am strong and courageous in God because He goes with me wherever I go. I don’t face anything alone. Even when I cannot see Him, He is always there.

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THE LIE: FORGOTTEN

“God has clearly forgotten about you.”

THE TRUTH:

•Isaiah 49:16: “Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palm of My hands; your walls are continually before Me.”

•Psalm 139:17-18: “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand.”

TAKE HOLD OF THE TRUTH:

It can sometimes feel like I’ve been overlooked, left out and forgotten, and maybe people fail me sometimes, but God has promised that He will never forget me the way that people do. Even if those closest to me that I love the most forget me or don’t show compassion to me, God will not forget me. He loves me so much and I am on His mind so much that He has not just drawn my name on His hands like those in love sometimes do. He has gone way beyond that and has engraved my name on His hand. That is love! That is devotion! He is committed to remembering me and thinking about me. There are approximately 7.5 sextillions of grains of sand on the earth and God’s thoughts towards me outnumber those. That means He thinks about me a LOT!

A Special Request:

Would you be willing to share in the comments below more lies of the enemy you hear? I would like to write an entire blog post of lies of the enemy against the truth of God's Word. Having feedback is incredibly helpful! 

Be blessed this week as you replace the lies of the enemy by taking hold of the truth of God's Word in your life! You will be transformed as you let who Jesus is transform your thinking as you spend time with Him. He will transform you from the inside, out. Come to the end of yourself and let Him fill you up until you change.