A Nugget from New Life Network
(partially reprinted from Dr. Larry Ollison)
Scripture for the Day (December 29, 2015)
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32)
All truth originates from God. The Bible says in Titus 1:2, “God…cannot lie.” Again in Hebrews 6:18, it says the same thing, “It is impossible for God to lie.” In contrast, Satan is a liar. Remember, Jesus said in John 8:44 that Satan “does not stand in the truth” and “there is no truth in him” and he is the “father of lies”. The fact that Satan is a liar would not present much of a problem if the lies were clearly identified as lies. But, unfortunately, they are not. He is the master of deception.
From the time of his fall from heaven until now, Satan has deceived many. He convinced one-third of the heavenly hosts that he could rise up and be like God. Like most liars, he began to believe his own lie. He told himself that he had the power to overthrow God and His Kingdom and make it his own. His lie was so convincing that one-third of all the created heavenly beings united with him and attempted to overthrow God and his Kingdom (Revelation 12:4). They attempted to place Satan on a throne in heaven.
For the angels to stand against God, they must have truly believed they had a good chance of defeating Him. After all, Satan, their leader, was sure of himself. He was beautiful! He was powerful! However, when the battle was over, Satan and one-third of the angels were cast out of heaven (Isaiah 14:12-14; Ezekiel 28:12-18). Even though they believed they could defeat God as Satan had told them, they still lost the battle. Just believing a lie is true, and acting on the lie as if it were the truth, does not make it true. The angels acted on what they thought was truth, but they were still cast out of heaven. Acting on a lie can be deadly!
Today, the devil still cannot produce truth because there is “none in him.” He is a liar. With hate in his heart, Satan still believes that he can somehow defeat God. With his ability to make a lie look like the truth, he plans daily to destroy God’s creation, man. Destroying man gives him great pleasure. Satan’s method of attack is still through his mouth, and his battlefield is the mind of man. First, Satan lies, disguising the lie in beauty and the appearance of truth. He then convinces man to believe that the lie is truth. Then man acts on what he thinks is truth and is destroyed. Just think about all the terrorists that blowup themselves and others because they are convinced of heavenly rewards.
As Christians, we should be able to recognize Satan’s lies. A banker once told me that the best training for discovering a counterfeit bill is to study the real thing. He said he would have his employees sit and study real money closely for hours. He wanted them to know the bills so well that when a counterfeit bill came along, they would immediately notice something was wrong. It would not look and feel like the real thing. This is the way we are to be concerning the truths of God. We are to study His Word daily. We are to meditate upon it and let it sink deeply into our hearts. We need the Word to become so alive within us (like a skin graft) that we know God’s nature instinctively. Then when we hear a whisper of a thought we know is not God, we can say as Jesus did, “Get thee behind me, Satan.”
Jesus said, “My sheep know my voice” (John 10:4-5,27). We must be able to recognize His voice without question and obey it without hesitation. Have you ever thought something was true and then found out later it wasn’t? Everything you did from the time you believed the lie until the time you discovered the truth was in vain. The only things that really count are the things you do that are based on truth.
Jesus was the Word made flesh (John 1:14). We are just the opposite. We are flesh to be made the Word.
Therefore lay apart all filthiness and the superfluity of wickedness, and receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls. (James 1:21)
Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. (1 John 4:4)
