Truth and Lies

God’s heart for us is to find freedom in Him; to flourish and be who He made us to be. This godly desire placed within us is the exact opposite of what the enemy has in mind for us, which is bondage and misery. Scripture warns us that our enemy prowls around looking for someone to devour and will try every available snare to lure us away from God’s truth. He is fully aware of what God’s truth can do for us, as we read in John 8:32: ‘And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ 

It was while I was attending an Ellel Ministries course at Shere House (South Africa) that I realised how we get caught up in certain mindsets that we believe to be the truth and then we live by them. These mindsets, or beliefs, are formed over the years until they become a part of us. As we grow up, we receive a lot of input from our families, communities, and culture, (which may be quite different from those of other people).

Often, we don’t think of questioning the way things are done or the values that are lived by in our own family, community, or culture, but there is a verse in the Bible (New King James Version) which says, ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge’ (Hosea 4:6a). The Message Bible puts it this way, ‘My people are ruined because they don’t know what’s right or true’.

This can happen when people see a family pattern as the truth, and ‘own’ it for themselves. For instance, they might say something like, “Our family is known for short tempers and impatience. That’s just how it is.” or “This family is prone to accidents and early deaths.”

Apart from these family influences, traumatic events can also shape and influence our personal beliefs.

So often people aren’t even open for discussion about these beliefs. But here are the main questions we need to ask. “Is this God’s truth, or your own ‘truth’? Whom are you believing? What does God’s Word say about this?”

The whole idea of false ‘truth’ (lies) versus godly truth was once explained to me very clearly by this illustration. Try to imagine a filing cabinet with three drawers, or an online filing system with different folders, and think of each drawer or folder containing files labelled ‘truth’, ‘lies’, or ‘unsure’.

Sometimes we file something in the ‘truth’ drawer and believe it as such, but if we ask God about it, He might show us that it belongs in the ‘lies’ drawer. For example, we might believe ourselves to be unworthy of love because of how we have been treated, but this is not God’s truth about us. Or maybe we aren’t convinced that God really cares about us, and we place that thought in the ‘unsure’ drawer.

There will always be a scripture showing us God’s truth for every one of our situations. All we need to do is to ask Him to show us where we have been caught up in wrong thinking and be open to hearing from Him. In His time, He will reveal His godly truth to us and set us free from bondage and the enemy’s plans for destruction.