There is a lie out in the universe,
and in your heart,
and mine.
A lie ... about God.
It is an enormous lie, an on-going lie.
And this lie is the basis of sin - this lie about God.
Before there was sin,
there was the Lie.
Before there is rebellion in your life,
there is the Lie.
Before Eve fell, she fell ... for the Lie.
The Lie is whispered to us very craftily
in every situation, in every relationship.
In our deepest being, we are responding and living
according to how much we accept that Lie.
You know the Lie is from Satan.
But I want to make the Lie very clear,
because I believe if we could tear this Lie out ...
then we could take the Word of God and believe it.
Satan, remember, was the most subtle, crafty creature on earth.
And when He came to Eve, he didn't state the Lie -
He made a suggestion to her that made her draw
the conclusion on her own.
And that is what he does to you and me:
he suggests something.
The First Thing
The lie has two parts:
The first attack was on the words of God.
Satan said: "Has God said you'll die? You really won't die" (Gen. 3:3-4).
Now, he didn't say, "God is a liar,"
because Eve would have refuted that.
And you would refute that, too.
But what he did say was: "God told a lie,"
and Eve concluded, "God is a liar!"
Do you see? Very clever.
You must learn how clever it is, because it is done to you - day after day.
"Indeed, has God said ... ? No, no. It really won't happen."
And what Satan took away by his lie, was the consequence of sin.
"You won't die."
I have known a number of people over the years that could do
the most hideous things, and without any remorse - even Christians.
And I have always wondered ... how?
How can you sleep? How can you walk?
How can you look? How can you smile?
It has always puzzled me, but I understand now that Satan gave them
the lie and they bought it...that there are no consequences!
Scripture states it this way: "You say, 'God will not see.'"
What that means is that there are no consequences.
"I can do it and I can get by with it."
One of the first things the Lord gave me was
a powerful encounter with consequences.
He did it through Matthew 25 in the parable of the talents.
I have always been stunned by the consequences to
the one who merely buried his talent.
That's all he did -
"and he was cast into the place of outer darkness
where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth" (v.30).
I don't understand it - but I understand it well enough -
there are consequences!
When Satan took that lie and placed it in Eve,
it was buried in her being
and birthed into us.
We have to learn there are consequences to
our thoughts, words, and deeds.
Satan inferred that God had lied
and Even's conclusion was: God is a liar!
If you have ever been reading the Bible
and in your honest heart found yourself saying,
"Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure. Maybe for somebody else, not for me."
(and if you are honest, you have) Then you are saying, you are
hearing, and you are believing: "God is a liar."
Man's belief in the consequence of sin was destroyed by the Lie.
The Second Part
There is a second part of the Lie.
Satan made another suggestion
that caused Eve to draw another conclusion.
If he had said this outright, she would have said,
"Why no - that's not true!".
He came to attack God's character with the suggestion:
"God has withheld something you need" (Gen.3:5).
And anytime in your life that you have had
a void,
or a want,
or God has withheld something ...
that Lie has come to you!
The suggestion has come:
"God has withheld something from me that I really need."
Actually, in Eve's case, what He withheld could be stated this way:
"Eve, don't eat the arsenic! I am withholding it from you."
God withholds arsenic from us and Satan suggests that it is what we
need - that it is the one thing we need!
So again, he suggested something to Eve that caused her to draw
a conclusion about God.
"He withheld something good, Eve."
Eve's conclusion: God is not good.
Blasphemy in Our Genes
So that is the Lie: God is not good.
You were born with it.
It is in your very nature.
If you recognize it and know the plot, you are way ahead to be able
to diffuse the power of that Lie - because it is the power,
as it was in Eve's life,
and then in Adam's life,
and then as it is in your and my life ...
to destroy life.
You are left to deduce and you will do it
just like your mother, Eve, and your father, Adam.
If Satan had come to Eve and said, "God is a liar,"
she would have said, "That's a lie!"
If he had said, "God is not good," she would have refuted it,
standing in the middle of paradise.
But it is much more clever than that.
"God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for our food."
We have said that from childhood.
And you know, we believe we believe it.
We believe that we believe He is good, and He tells the truth.
But pounding us from the womb - day in and day out,
is the effort of the enemy to awaken that Lie
and connect us to ... that old Lie.
It is a lie about God's character - His very being.
Satan started with a lie about the obvious,
and it became a lie about God's very being.
You need to know who He is.
We were born with blasphemy in our genes,
and it will surface in our reactions in a split second.
It does in mine ...and I know it does in yours.
It's natural. Do you understand?
This Lie is a natural conclusion in life.
And it comes into play in practical places...
with events and people and things:
Things don't go the right way.
That is, they don't go the way I think they should go.
Things haven't turned out right or they haven't turned out at all,
or they've turned out to be a mess,
and worse than that, a mess I can't solve.
The things I feared would happen, didn't happen.
But the things I never feared, happened!
And the things I just knew would happen, didn't.
And the things I needed to happen, didn't happen -
or if they did, it was too late.
I am not where I meant to be by now.
I am not who I wanted to be.
I am less than I ever was; I know less than I ever knew
and I am going backwards all the time.
I am putting it this way so you will understand that it is very practical.
It is about your family, your household, your job, your life.
We secretly believe God has made many mistakes
and failed to show up many times.
And that is...a lie!
We believe He made a mistake about us and toward us -
and that the people He gave us - He is not doing right with!
We need to learn the game that Satan plays with us.
We need to learn the Lie -
and we need to learn to refute it.
Accepting Your Life
The Holy Spirit is simple and universal.
That is, He comes with one message universally.
...
So here is the portion I'll give you today; the Lord said:
"Make peace with everyone in your life, so far as you can.
Make peace with your husbands that I may bless you.
Humble yourselves and make peace
so that your prayers may not be hindered.
Make peace with Me" (Hebrews 12:14).
...He explained that 'making peace' means:
"Accept, accept accept the life I have given you. Desire no other life.
When you receive the life I have given you, I will show you
the life that I have given you."
Martha Kilpatrick - The Great Lie, pg. 1-14
Dear Jesus - Thank You that You are the Way, the Truth and the Life. Come into our hearts afresh now, clear out our minds and pour over us with Your amazing Love...
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