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by Nancy Leigh DeMoss“Become a World-Class Violinist Instantaneously.”
“How to Play the Piano…Instantly!”
“‘Instant Health’ at the Flip of a Switch!” (Ad for a kitchen appliance)
“Melt 10 lbs. in 10 minutes!...a workout so easy, you do it in your pajamas!”
“Delivers so much peace of mind it should be covered under your health plan.” (Ad for a popular car)
“Look Better and Feel Younger in Just Minutes a Day…The key to a healthier, happier life.” (Ad for an oxygen chamber. Price tag: $3,999.95)
Our culture is riddled with deception. It is everywhere, as illustrated by these kinds of outlandish advertising claims. Sometimes it is easy to see through the falsehood (as in the claim that one can become a world-class violinist instantaneously). Unfortunately, however, most deception is not quite so easy to detect.
Deception in advertising appeals to our natural human longings. We want to believe that somehow, mysteriously, those unwanted pounds really could melt away in just ten minutes—no sweat, no discipline, no cost, no effort, no pain. That’s why we buy the pills, the diet drink powders, and the exercise equipment sold on infomercials.
A clever and cunning pitchman whose intention was to change Adam and Eve’s thinking about God and His ways designed the first advertising campaign. Satan’s objective was to drive a wedge between God and His creatures. He rightly assumed that the man and woman were not likely o support anything that appeared to be an all-out assault on God. He knew that, instead, he would have to subtly trick them, to deceive them, to seduce them by making an offer that appeared to be reasonable, desirable and not entirely “anti-God.” Just ten minutes—no sweat, no discipline, no cost, no effort, no pain. That’s why we buy the pills, the diet drink powders, and the exercise equipment sold on infomercials.
Satan deceived Eve through a clever combination of outright lies, half-truths, and falsehoods disguised as truth. He began by planting seeds of doubt in her mind about what God had actually said (“Did God really say . . .?” [Genesis 3:1]).
Next he led her to be careless with the word of God and to suggest that God had said something that, in fact, He had not said. God had said, “Do not eat the fruit of the tree.” However, Eve quoted God as saying, “You must not touch it” (v. 3, italics added).
Satan deceived Eve by causing her to question the goodness, love, and motives of God. “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” he asked. The implication was: “Has God put restrictions on your freedom? Sounds like He doesn’t want you to be happy.”
The Truth is that God had said, “‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden’ [2:16, italics added]—except one.”
The Truth is that God is a generous God.
In that entire, vast Garden, God had posted only one Keep Off sign: “Do not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” Furthermore, the one restriction God imposed was in the best of interests of the couple and was intended to guarantee their long-term blessing and happiness. God knew that when they are of that tree, they would die; their relationship with Him would be severed; they would become slaves—to Satan, sin, and self.
The Serpent further deceived Eve by lying to her about the consequences of choosing to disobey God. God had said, “When you eat of it you will surely die” (2:17). Satan encountered: “You will not surely die” (3:4, italics added). He flatly contradicted what God had already said.
The devil seduced Eve by offering her all kinds of benefits if she would just eat the forbidden fruit (3:5). He promised that a whole world of knowledge and experience would open up to her (“Your eyes will be opened”). He assured her that she would be equal with God—that is, that she could be her own god (“You will be like God”).
Finally, he promised that she would be able to decide for herself what was right and wrong (“knowing good and evil”). God had already told Adam and Eve what was right and what was wrong. But Satan said, in essence, “That’s His opinion; you’re entitled to your own opinion—you can make your own decisions about what is right and wrong.”
Satan deceived Eve by causing her to make her decision based on what she could see and on what her emotions and her reason told her to be right, even when it was contrary to what God had already told the couple:
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.
Genesis 3:6
Eve took the bite. But instead of the promised rewards, she found herself with a mouth full of worms—shame, guilt, fear, and alienation. She had been lied to—she had been deceived.
As Puritan pastor Thomas Brooks put it,
Satan promises the best, but pays with the worst; he promises honor, and pays with disgrace; he promises pleasure, and pays with pain; he promises profit, and pays with loss; he promises life, and pays with death.
From that moment to this, Satan has used deception to win our affections, influence our choices, and destroy our lives. In one way or another, every problem we have in this world is the fruit of deception—the result of believing something that simply isn’t true.
Satan holds out the glittering promise of “real life”; he knows, however, that those who respond to his offer will certainly die (Proverbs 14:12).
So why do we fall for his deception? Why do we go for the lure? One reason is that Satan doesn’t usually appear in the form of a serpent—instead, he comes disguised as a New York Times best-seller, a popular magazine, or a movie, or a TV show, or a Top Ten hit song. He may also pose as a relative or friend giving sincere counsel, a therapist, or even a Christian writer, preacher, or counselor.
Regardless of the immediate source, anytime we receive input that is not consistent with the Word of God we can be sure Satan is trying to deceive and destroy us. What we read or hear may sound right, may feel right, may seems right—but if it is contrary to the Word of God, it isn’t right. If we could only see that the forbidden fruit, fruit that looks so ripe and tastes so sweet in the first moment, always leads ultimately to death and destruction.
Moving from bondage to freedom
Most of us have areas of our lives where we are in bondage because we have listened to, believed, and acted on lies. How can we escape from bondage and begin to move toward freedom in those practical issues of our lives? Here are three steps to keep in mind as we begin to deal more specifically with the lies that put us in bondage and the Truth that sets us free.
- Identify the area(s) of bondage or sinful behavior. Chances are, you already know what some of those bondages are. But there may be others that are not as obvious. Ask God to show you specific areas where you are not free. The Scripture says, “A man is a slave to whatever has mastered him” (2 Peter 2:19). What are the issues in your life where you are not living in freedom as a child of God?
Are there areas where you are in physical bondage (overeating, an eating disorder, substance abuse)? Are you in emotional bondage (anxiety, fear, depression, chronic emotional disorders), sexual bondage (masturbation, pornography, lust, fornication, homosexuality), or financial bondage (overspending, greed, stinginess)? Are there sinful habits that plague you (anger, lying)? Are you in bondage to the need for approval, excessive shyness, talking too much, or an addiction to TV or romance novels? God may bring other areas of bondage to your mind.
Once you identify those areas, don’t just try to eliminate them. In fact, you may have already tried to deal with these behaviors, failed, and been tempted to give up. If you want to get rid of poisonous berries growing on your property, it’s not enough to go out and pick all the berries off the bush. More will just grow back in their place. The only way to permanently get rid of the poisonous fruit is to pull the bush out from the roots. That’s why this next step is so important.
- Identify the lie(s) at the root of that bondage or behavior. What lies have you listened to, believed, and acted on that have put you in bondage? The answer to that question may not be immediately apparent—roots are generally hidden beneath the surface, and lies, by their very nature, are deceptive. We need the Lord to help us see what we have been believing that is not true.
In the pages that follow, we will identify forty lies that many Christian women have allowed to take root and produce fruit in their lives. Ask God to show you which of the Enemy’s lies you have bought into—whether the ones in this book or others He brings to mind—and to help you repent of believing those lies. Once you identify the specific lies you have believed, what next?
- Replace the lie(s) with the Truth. Satan is a powerful enemy. His primary weapon is deception. His lies are powerful. But there is something even more powerful than Satan’s lies—and that is the Truth. Once we identify the lies that have put us in bondage and repent of believing those lies, we have an effective weapon to overcome deception—the weapon of Truth.
Each lie must be countered with the corresponding Truth. Where we have listened to, dwelt on, believed, and acted o lies, we must begin to listen to, meditate on, believe, and act on the Truth. That is how we will move from bondage to freedom, by the power of the Spirit of God. As Jesus declared, it is the Truth that “will set you free” (John 8:32).
