If there is one thing a believer in Christ should know about Satan as they continue in their faith, is his habitual ability to lie. Scripture calls Satan the deceiver of the whole world.
“And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world— he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” (Revelation 12:9)
Scripture goes as far as to give us details about the very nature of Satan, describing the corruptness that lies at his core. We know that Satan has always been a liar.
“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)
The Christian must understand how this impacts his or her life and walk with God. The Christian must understand how this impacts their calling. The Christian must understand that Satan, is out to kill and destroy them just as an enemy combatant would. There is a spiritual battle going on and Satan wants the Christian on the sideline.
“Be sober- minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)
Satan is our adversary. His very goal is to cast doubt into the mind of man concerning the truth of God and supplant the truth with a lie. We see this in the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 3:1-5)
The harsh reality is Satan starts his lies and deception early. He doesn’t wait until we’ve given our lives to Christ to suddenly come rushing in and pounce on us. He is filling the head of the unbeliever with lies every chance he gets in an effort to keep the unbeliever from knowing the truth and coming to Christ.
Now, where things become difficult for the Christian is coming to grips with the reality that their entire life has been filled with lies of all sorts. These lies tend to carry over into the new life in Christ. These lies are not suddenly wiped from memory the moment we come to Christ. In fact we know that there is converting work that must be carried out by the Holy Spirit to bring about sanctification, enabling us to become more and more like Christ, living out the truth of God instead of the lies of Satan. The lies we chose to believe before coming to Christ greatly impact our calling and walk with Christ. A careful inspection of some of these lies and our lives will help to counter the attacks of Satan. It will work to bring the Christian to a place of confidence in our daily walk and lives. Let’s look at a few of these lies.
### I’m a Failure
Many people, whether in Christ or not wrestle with a self-defeating attitude. It could stem from a bad relationship, a handicap, failed businesses, failed marriages, child-hood bullying and many more circumstances. What can be left is an attitude of not being good enough or talented enough for “fill in the blank”.
This is important to realize because a self-defeating attitude can cause a Christian to become paralyzed in their life. Paralyzation from the fear of failure breeds laziness. Laziness breeds idleness. An idle Christian is useless to the body of Christ. There is zero benefit to being idle. (Proverbs 20:13, Matthew 10:38, Proverbs 15:19, 2 Thessalonians 3:10).
The Christian is called to have a victorious attitude as they are in Christ, the one who conquers.
“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)
As Christians we need to reject the lies that Satan has built up in us so we can become useful to the body of Christ, encouraging our brethren and sisters while living out our individual calling. We need to live in the truth that God loves and values us enough to die for us.
(Deuteronomy 20:4, 1 Corinthians 10:13, Ephesians 6:10, 2 Corinthians 5:17)
I Can’t Get Past Sin
We’re all born into sin and all have sinned (Romans 5:12, Romans 3:23). As Christians we unfortunately still sin. In living committed to Christ the Holy Spirit can begin its work of sanctification in us and the hope is that the more we come to love and know Christ the less we will be compelled to sin by way of the work the Holy Spirit is doing in us. As believers we tend to carry over many of our sins from when we were unbelievers. This ranges from telling white lies, selfishness, pride, anger, laziness, alcohol abuse, watching pornography and on and on the list goes. Many Christians are convinced that whatever their sin or sins are, they can’t stop themselves from sinning in a particular area. Now, this is true in part. Meaning that it really is the work and power of the Holy Spirit that kills our sins, not us, so that God receives all of the glory. Satan’s goal however is to peddle the notion that the sin is “un-killable” and that the Christian is not saved because they keep falling to this sin. The hope of Satan is the Christian will give up in their faith, not evangelize due to their own guilt, concede to the fact they’re not worthy of salvation and many times depending on the sin, concede to being unworthy of living.
The truth however is that if you’re battling against sin, if you’re hating your sin, if you’re praying against your sin for God to take it from you, God is faithful to kill it for you. This process ensures God gets full and total credit for killing the sin. Not us. If we could kill sin, we would have no need for a savior. (1 Thessalonians 5:23, 2 Thessalonians 2:13, Galatians 2:20, Romans 6:6)
The lesson here is to stick with it. You don’t kill sin. God kills sin. God will bring you through it. Now this is not a free pass to sin under grace (Romans 6:1-23). We are still called to consciously make active choices in avoiding sin. To run into sin, to enjoy sin, to live in sin, is to not have come to the place of pure repentance.
### I’m Worthless
When God created man He considered man valuable and worthy. We know this due to the fact that man was created in His image.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)
The harsh reality is that once sin entered into the world it made all of mankind unworthy of being united with God for all eternity. The Good News is the redeeming work carried out on the cross by Christ justified us and made us worthy again. But one of the lies of Satan is to convince us that we’re somehow worthless. This lie of unworthiness comes in the form of; unworthy of love, unworthy of a job, unworthy of a spouse, unworthy of joy, unworthy of success and the list goes on. This can stem from growing up in an abusive house-hold, a bad relationship, child abandonment, being called ugly, battling obesity or other situations.
We don’t need to believe these lies. In fact, we shouldn’t believe these lies. Scripture tells us we are worthy and Christ is our proof. Once we come to this realization we realize our worth comes by way of Christ and not from this world. We then understand that as children of God, saved by God, by God’s own love, mercy and grace, our worth as human beings becomes priceless. God, loves and values His children.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
In Conclusion
Satan is a liar. He always has been and always will be. The moment we believe the lies of Satan, we reject the truths of God. We become ineffective in the body of Christ and offer ourselves up to be buffeted by Satan.
Let us stick to listening and believing in the truths of God. Let us be Christian.