The Lying Spirit
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Those that have greater effectiveness in Spiritual Warfare:
1. Able to look beyond the traits that are being manifest and identify the predominant Spirit that is causing the issue.
2. Be skilled in how to deal with it
3. The desire to be free from it
3 battlefields of spiritual warfare:
3 battlefields of spiritual warfare:
1. Obsession - This is where most of our spiritual warfare starts, and it happens when the adversary strives to consume your mind
2. Oppression - This is where it goes beyond obsession in your mind, and your life starts to be affected.
3. Possession - This takes place when the individual has accepted the obsession as normal. Their resolve has been weakened by oppression to the space that they are being controlled by the spirits that torment them
In each of these spirits, the intention of the enemy is to keep you from being everything that God created you to be.
In each of these spirits, the intention of the enemy is to keep you from being everything that God created you to be.
The Lying Spirit
The Lying Spirit
The lying spirit is identified in . In its context King Ahab is preparing to go into battle, against his better judgement. He asks the prophet Micaiah how the battle would go. God showed the prophet a vision of God sitting on his throne and asking the question, “Who is going to persuade Ahab that he may go up and die in the battle?” After some discussion in the court of Heaven, the Scriptures tell us a volunteer stepped forward:
21 Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’
22 The Lord said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the Lord said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.’
Immediately the lying spirit manifest itself in the mouth of all 400 of the kings prophets, causing then to speak the exact same lie, which would lead to the death of King Ahab. This demonic spirit was so effective that against the advice of God’s true prophet it persuaded King Ahab to go to Ramoth-Gildead where he died in battle.
The Objective of the lying spirit to drive humanity toward the ultimate goal of spiritual deception. While we are often more wary of the greater vices that the enemy uses to destroy souls of men, the lying spirit that will lead you to believe things contrary to God’s Word and God’s ways is just as deadly and just as effective.
Manifestations of the lying spirit: Accusations, Adultery, Avoiding Spiritual Authority, Compromising with sin, Compromising Biblical absolutes, Deceit, Divination, Exaggeration, Excessive talking, False Accusations, False burdens, False doctrines, False pity, False prophecy, False spirituality, False teachers, Flattery, Gossip, Hypocrisy, Insinuations, Lies, Quarreling, Religious persona, Seeking approval by others, Strong delusion, Superstitions, Two-Facedness, Vain imaginations, Vanity
Accusations, Adultery, Avoiding Spiritual Authority, Compromising with sin, Compromising Biblical absolutes, Deceit, Divination, Exaggeration, Excessive talking, False Accusations, False burdens, False doctrines, False pity, False prophecy, False spirituality, False teachers, Flattery, Gossip, Hypocrisy, Insinuations, Lies, Quarreling, Religious persona, Seeking approval by others, Strong delusion, Superstitions, Two-Facedness, Vain imaginations, Vanity
Considering that our strength and stability comes from our solid foundation upon the Word of God, a lying spirit becomes detrimental to anybody it touches.
Those that have greater effectiveness in Spiritual Warfare:
A lying spirit strives to strip away anything resembling a righteous foundation.
1. Able to look beyond the traits that are being manifest and identify the predominant Spirit that is causing the issue.
The evidence of the effectiveness of this spirit is found when the prevailing spirit of this day declares, “As long as I believe I’m right, then I’m going to Heaven.” Nothing could be further from the truth! Yet sadly, many hell-bound souls are caught up in the lies propagated by Satan when he says there are no absolutes and no requirements to attain salvation.
2. Be skilled in how to deal with it
Erasing any absolutes
Challenging established facts
3. The desire to be free from it
The evidence of the effectiveness of this spirit is found when the prevailing spirit of this day declares, “As long as I believe I’m right, then I’m going to Heaven.” Nothing could be further from the truth! Yet sadly, many hell-bound souls are caught up in the lies propagated by Satan when he says there are no absolutes and no requirements to attain salvation.
3 battlefields of spiritual warfare:
The lying spirt was one of Satans first weapons used to bring about the destruction of humanity:
1. Obsession - This is where most of our spiritual warfare starts, and it happens when the adversary strives to consume your mind
2. Oppression - This is where it goes beyond obsession in your mind, and your life starts to be affected.
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
3. Possession - This takes place when the individual has accepted the obsession as normal. Their resolve has been weakened by oppression to the space that they are being controlled by the spirits that torment them
knowing that the security of humanity within the garden and their innocence rested upon the firm unwavering commands of God, Satan decided early on the best way to cause the fall of man was to challenge the validity of God’s commands:
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
If humanity would have obeyed God’s command it would have continued to live in the state of purity and innocence.
I find it a consistent theme with humanity that our first response is to doubt God’s truth rather doubting Satan’s lie.
it happened with Eve in the garden and it happens to deceived people today.
For example God’s word tells us that his commandments bring us blessing and we are quick to doubt that but believe the lie of the devil that the commandments are somehow hindering us from a more joyous life.
The same is true today, everything that we need to continue to maintain a life of righteousness is found in God’s Word. However, righteousness will always be jeopardized when we wrestle with a lying spirit.
A lying spirit spirit strips away your absolutes.
A lying spirit makes you question established truths.
A lying spirit tears away your firm foundation.
This is why the lying spirit is so terribly dangerous to carnal people, whose flesh is already looking for an easier way to live for God.
They are extremely vulnerable to a lying spirit because it deceives them into thinking they can get by with less than what God requires of them.
This fact was played out in the life of Ahab, which we looked at in our introduction. When God said, “Who shall persuade Ahab that he will go up and die today?” a demonic spirit stood before God and said “I’ll persuade him.” God simply said, “Without a doubt, lying spirit, you will succeed!” How did God know that this lying spirit would succeed? Because God had already seen Ahab’s tendency to look for an easier way by surrounding himself with false prophets who would tell him what he wanted to hear.
There are two sides to the danger of a lying spirit:
It can influence you to be dishonest and deceptive toward others.
It can influence you to believe a lie and be deceived yourself.
Some, not understanding how the spirit of lying operates, could be tempted to think, I well…I’m not lying so I’m not being influenced by a lying spirit.
We have no record of Ahab ever lying even though a lying spirit was sent to him. However, we have obvious record of him believing the lies that were told to him by the false prophets. The same lying spirit that deceived Ahab can accomplish its same purpose by causing you to believe lies and deception.
This lying spirt doesn’t just come to deceive us into believing less than doctrinal truth…but other important Biblical truths as well:
Here are some of the common lies propagated by the lying spirit:
God couldn’t love you
God can’t forgive you
You will always be bound by that addiction
You don’t deserve to be happy
Because others in your family were are a certain way, you are bound to be that way as well.
Your brother/sister doesn’t love you…the pastor doesn’t care about you…the church doesn’t care about you.
You will never be able to live a blessed life.
I could never live without my dependency on that person or that substance.
I could never live a consecrated and holy lifestyle like you all do
Going to church is a waste of time
or how about some weightier lies of deception like:
A kind God would never send a soul to hell!
Going to church is just a waste of time
God doesn’t care about sexual orientation…love is love!
It doesn’t matter if you worship Jesus, Muhammad or Buddha…its really all the same!
God doesn’t care about holiness…He is only looking at my heart
The greatest problem, however, with allowing such obsessions to constantly bombard your life is you will eventually believe the lies.
The bible speaks of those that start believing the lies:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
The lying spirit that sought out Ahab had one intention, his destruction. So too, the lying spirit has one intention in mind for you and I…our destruction. It is a lying spirit that has taken the truths of the word of God and through the deception of men twisted truth in unbiblical doctrines and unscriptural traditions.
When God asked “who will go and convince Ahab”, the evil spirit’s response was telling of the tactic of the lying spirit...”I will go and persuade Ahab.” A lying spirit is often successful because it influences the mind of the susceptible individual, persuading them with false ideas and untrue perceptions.
For example, the unbiblical notion of “eternal security” or “once saved always saved” didn’t just pop into someone’s head one day; it was carefully designed in the mind of man that had been convinced that a loving God wouldn’t send anyone to Hell. This doctrine has persuaded many who were already looking for the easier road to heaven. They valued human reasoning more than the Truth of God’s word.
If your mind is being bombarded by a lying spirit…wether that be working to get you to tell less than the truth, or persuade you to believe lies…Here are steps that just be taken to defeat the lying spirit.
Step 1 - Follow what you know to be Biblical instead of following feelings that can be deceived.
Step 1 - Follow what you know to be Biblical instead of following feelings that can be deceived.
Follow what you know to be Biblical instead of following feelings that can be deceived.
When the Bible says that “the truth shall set you free,” that also means the opposite is also true…believing lies will trap your soul in a perpetual condition of erroneous, insufficient beliefs. For his reason, you absolutely must remember your heart can be deceived. It is why believing God’s word is of the utmost importance.
7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
Believing that God’s word is infallible is vital to your walk with God because your heart can be deceived when your flesh begins to look for an easier way.
Step 2 - Realize any teaching outside of biblical guidelines should be exposed as deception by a lying spirit.
Step 2 - Realize any teaching outside of biblical guidelines should be exposed as deception by a lying spirit.
Any belief, doctrine, or concept you encounter should coincide with the infallible truth of God’s Word. If any persuasion, coming from ANY voice in your life…(celebrity, entertainment, teacher, preacher, pastor, etc..I don’t care who it comes through) its goal is deception.
8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
10 For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
Step 3 - Demand spiritual integrity
Step 3 - Demand spiritual integrity
The Bible tells us how dangerous it is to trust what our own heart things:
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
The heart is dangerously deceptive and can lie to you, tearing away your righteousness and your resolve to live for God.
Anybody ever tried to tell someone who was “in love” but was in a terrible…even abusive relationship…that the relationship wasn’t right? How did that work for you???
Thats why years ago I stopped advising people that came to be telling me they were getting married. You’ve already got your mind made up and if God decided he wasn’t going to overstep the will of man…then what kind of proud, pompous, idiot would I be to try to do what God won’t do?
But..it is because of the fact that our own heart can lie to us, that we must protect ourselves by demanding spiritual integrity in all things. Here are the key requirements for spiritual integrity:
Refuse to be governed by human perception
Well, I though
Well, I felt
Well…i heard
well…the way I see it is...
Refuse to be directed by fickle emotions
I don’t feel like
Refuse to be controlled by carnal reasoning
Spiritual integrity requires that you align yourself with God’s Word and make a deliberate choice to see your life as God sees it. Even if, presently, you are not in a strong spiritual condition, you still have the ability to demand that your life be governed by such spiritual integrity.