The Lies of the Enemy

 I have recently returned from the powerful Riverbank conference, a weekend away for women in The Salvation Army in the UK. The weekend was packed full of worship, community and above all truth and I am still trying to unpack it all. Today I have been thinking about our first evening at the Riverbank and the life transforming message of Major David Betteridge the Director of Family ministries 

Before David came to speak to us we spent some time in worship and we sung this years ‘theme song’ for the conference. The words were striking and seemed to provide the scaffold for all the words of truth that we would hear throughout the weekend. One of the verses said:

Thou are the bread of life,

O lord, to me, 

Thy Holy word and truth,

That saveth me;

Give me to eat and live

With thee above;

Teach me to love Thy truth, 

For thou art love. 

What a profound statement “Teach me to Love Thy truth, for thou art love.” As I sang those words, little did I know what liberating truth we would hear throughout the weekend. 

David spoke with great authority and yet great vulnerability as he shared how the enemy had deceived him in the past to live in bondage and the freedom of the truth of Christ. He talked about the schemes of the devil and explained that Satan is intent of making what is true sound like a lie and what is a lie sound like the truth. 

This really struck me as not an hour before I had been talking to a friend about a situation she was facing and had said exactly that. The enemy expertly uses deceit to cause us to believe things about us and God that are simply not true. 

Yesterday I was listening to one of my favourite podcasts called back porch theology with Lisa Harper (it will have you laughing, crying and deeply challenged in the space of 5 minutes) and she was saying how the enemy mixes a grain of truth with a lie so that it makes it harder to discern or fight against. This has been true so many times in my life and if I’m honest there are areas where I am still battling lies that I have taken as the truth. 

At the riverbank, David encouraged us to consider what lies from the enemy are we stuck believing for ourselves and then reminded us of the wonderful news that ‘If Satan’s lies bring bondage, death and destruction; believing and knowing the truth found in Jesus brings freedom and life in all its fullness!’ He also shared a beautiful truth that we are not called to dispel the darkness, was are called to turn on the light. 

As David began speaking the truth of who the bible says we are, that I am accepted, I am secure and I am significant, a wonderful thing happened. In the spirit you could see lights being turned on in women’s lights. Women who have walked in the darkness of lies realising their identity in Christ and clinging to the truth. 

As I have returned back to life after the riverbank, there have been times when I have had to switch on the light once more and remember the truth of who God is and who I am. I have also been thinking about Ephesians 5:8-9. The Passion Paraphrase says (additions by me!):

“Once you life was full of sin’s (and the enemy’s) darkness, but now you have the very light of our Lord shining through you because you are in union with him. Your mission is to live as children flooded with his revelation-light! And the supernatural fruits of his light will be seen in you - Goodness, righteousness and TRUTH!” 

Where do you need to turn the light of truth on today?