What Can a Lie Really Do?

Warriors Arise: April 26th, 2020

Matthew 28:15, "So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day." Their lie has sent generations of Jews to hell. Not only Jews, but Gentiles as well. When faced with the truth, we may opt not to believe it or act upon it; because it doesn't go with what we "want to" believe.

These are cold hard facts in the Bible; in front of the High Priest, elders, and the guards. If you choose to believe Jesus was not the Son of God, here to save us from our sins, establish us on the path of the abundant life, empower us with the Holy Spirit to overcome the devil, then life gets extremely difficult.

What can a lie really do? Well, way more than we think. It can kill opportunities. It can steal our security. It destroy our relationships. The Bible tells us the devil is the father of lies. The devil really doesn't have to change his strategy; because when we do not know our God or His ways from the Bible and through personal experience, then we let a lie linger until is kills opportunities, steals our security, or destroys relationships that were meant to be a blessing in our lives.

John 10:10: The thief (the devil) does not come except to kill, steal, and destroy. I [Jesus] have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

It can be difficult to understand non-believers. Most of the time, at the root of their unbelief is that they have believed a lie. The chief priest and elders believed that Jesus was not who He demonstrated to be, because He did not come the way they thought the king should come. They lacked understanding and chose to believe things weren't happening as Scripture supported.

So, when faced with people who do not want to believe the truth about God, we are facing a lie they are believing as truth. They want God to be someone other than who God is. They want God to appear differently that how He has appeared. They want God to respond as they think He should respond. They do not want to embrace God for who He says He is. There was a prophet in the Old Testament who didn't want to do what God told Him to do. "...for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm"(Jonah 4:2b). Some people are mad at God because He just doesn't operate as we think He should. Jonah, knowing God to be gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in lovekingdness. One who relents from doing harm... continues in verse 3, "Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!"

That is astounding. Someone who knew God's love so deeply and yet was upset with God because He is not casting judgement. Jonah wants to die because he can't stand mercy being shown, to his enemies.

What about the chief priests? Jesus didn't come as they thought He should. Oddly, if Jesus had come as they wanted Him to come, then the Bible would not be true. Jesus came exactly how the prophets of the Bible said He would come. Jesus lived the life God foretold through the prophets. The chief priests and elders would have known this; yet, they wanted Jesus, the Messiah to be different than what God said. They wanted it so desperately they believed a lie as truth and then paid to have others profess the lie. Twisted!

Father we pray today asking You to open our eyes to any area in which we have believed a lie as truth. I ask for You to come and remove the lies. I ask for my mind to be alert to Your leadings. I want to remove any lie that has twisted my thinking. Lies can lead people to opposing You. I do not want to be opposing You. I ask for my mind to know the truth and be set free from the lies in Jesus' name. You are the God of truth. Knowing the truth of Who You are and Your loving ways gives me a solid foundation to pray. We have sinned in blaming others and pointing the finger, wanting others to pay for our inconvenience. I ask for You to give me the truth of Your love, the fullness of Your mercy, and the abundance of your graciousness. I ask for Your Holy Spirit to be with me. I pray for the ability to identify the lie and the quickness of a soldier to pull out my two-edged sword and cut the lies down with the truth of Your Word.

I ask for people to be able to identify the lies being spewed forth from TV, radio, friends and family. I pray we would take those lise and reject them in Jesus' name. Open our ears to hear Your solution and give us boldness to approach You in prayer and rebuke these lies. I ask for Your wisdom to come so we can then speak forth the truth we hear. Not everything we hear is a lie, therefore I want to be able to rebuke the lie and establish the truth. I ask for my words to be used as a weapon in prayer to remove the lies of the enemy and release the truth of God. The enemy is messing with our minds, being isolated is causing people to be controlled by what they hear without having the truth. In the name of Jesus I rebuke the father of lies. I will not allow you to kill opportunities, steal our security, nor destroy our relationships. I loose the truth of God's lovingkindness to position us for opportunities, establish security, and strengthen our relationships. We will stand together to remove the enemy. We will not yield our minds over to him. We will establish our thoughts on the things of the Lord. We will declare freedom to those who are bing controlled by lies in their thinking. We will know the truth of God and walk in His ways in Jesus name amen.

A Warrior in the Lord’s Army,

Veridee Joy

My hope is for Believers in Jesus Christ to join together each day to pray, to push back the enemy as we release God’s power here on earth against the coronavirus. The prayers will be listed each day as Warriors Arise. I will put a date with it so we can keep them straight. If you have any questions please feel free to make a comment or private message me. If you would like this to come to your email directly please go to verideehand.com and subscribe.