Origins of Lies, Deception, and Twisting of God’s Word

Let’s take it back to the very first lie, deception, and twisting of God’s Word.

Ezekiel 28:11-17

¹¹ Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ¹² “Son of man, take up a dirge (funeral poem to be sung) for the king of Tyre and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “You had the full measure of perfection and the finishing touch [of completeness], Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. ¹³ “You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz, and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx, and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise, and the emerald; And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and your sockets, Was in you. They were prepared On the day that you were created. ¹⁴ “You were the anointed cherub who covers and protects, And I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire [sparkling jewels].
¹⁵  “You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created Until unrighteousness and evil were found in you. ¹⁶ “Through the abundance of your commerce You were internally filled with lawlessness and violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you out as a profane and unholy thing From the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire. ¹⁷ “Your heart was proud and arrogant because of your beauty; You destroyed your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I lay you before kings, That they might look at you.

Isaiah 14:13-15 “But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit on the mount of assembly In the remote parts of the north. ¹⁴ ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ ¹⁵ “But [in fact] you will be brought down to Sheol, To the remote recesses of the pit (the region of the dead).

Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the age-old serpent who is called the devil and Satan, he who continually deceives and seduces the entire inhabited world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Lucifer rebelled against God, and he convinced some of the angels to rebel with him.  I am not sure how he got the angels to follow him and turn on God, but we can assume it included lies, deception, and twisting Gods Word because that is exactly what he did to Eve.

Genesis 3:1-13 Now the serpent was more crafty (subtle, skilled in deceit) than any living creature of the field which the Lord God had made. And the serpent (Satan) said to the woman, “Can it really be that God has said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” ² And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, ³ except the fruit from the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God said, ‘You shall not eat from it nor touch it, otherwise you will die.’” ⁴ But the serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die! ⁵ For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened [that is, you will have greater awareness], and you will be like God, knowing [the difference between] good and evil.” ⁶ And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was delightful to look at, and a tree to be desired in order to make one wise and insightful, she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of the two of them were opened [that is, their awareness increased], and they knew that they were naked; and they fastened fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.⁸ And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool [afternoon breeze] of the day, so the man and his wife hid and kept themselves hidden from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to Adam, and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ He said, “I heard the sound of You [walking] in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” ¹¹ God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten [fruit] from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹² And the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me—she gave me [fruit] from the tree, and I ate it.” ¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent beguiled and deceived me, and I ate [from the forbidden tree].”

Let’s examine the events that happened in the garden of Eden.

The Process    

Lie was Spoken: Can it really be that God has said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” ² And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, ³ except the fruit from the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God said, ‘You shall not eat from it nor touch it, otherwise you will die.’” ⁴ But the serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die! ⁵ For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened [that is, you will have greater awareness], and you will be like God, knowing [the difference between] good and evil.” 

Considered the Lie: She looked at fruit. ⁶ And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was delightful to look at, and a tree to be desired in order to make one wise and insightful,

Entertained the Lie: She thought about it, analyzed it, and dwelled on the thought.

Believed the Lie: The lie became her truth.

Acted on the Lie:  She took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.

Result: Sin, shame, guilt and a broken relationship with God resulted from her accepting the lie of Satan as the truth.

The enemy (devil and his demons) have not changed tactics-they are full of lies, deception, and twisting God’s Word

Examples of Common Lies

Personal Attacks:  

Life will always be this way, you cannot change, you will never change no matter how hard you try, you should just give up because it is not going to change.

No one loves you, you are not worthy of love, and you can never be loved so you should build huge walls around your heart to protect yourself.

You are broken, you are to broken to do anything for the kingdom of God, you are damaged beyond repair, you will never be whole again so you might as well stop trying, and you cannot heal.

God does not love you, there is nothing you can do to make Him love you because something is wrong with you.

You cannot do anything right, everything you touch falls apart, you always fail, you are a loser.

You are not smart enough, you are slow, you make yourself look dumb when you try to do anything, people think you are dumb, just face it you are not smart so just stop trying to be.

God gave up on you, He did not keep you safe, He is not going to help you now, you are not worth His time.

You cannot do what God has called you to do because you are not good enough, not smart enough, not brave enough, not gifted enough, to old, to young, so just give up.  

Lies and deception can also cause us to constantly compare ourselves to others and always see our perceived lack.

Twisting of God’s Word:

God doesn’t care if you allow just a “little” sin into your life, He doesn’t care if you hold on to that “small” pattern of sin, God wants you to have a good time in life and have fun.

Sin is not really sin. The Bible is outdated so even if says things are sinful it was for then and not for now. As long as you “have Jesus in your heart” you are fine. The Bible doesn’t really pertain to us for todays time. It is old.

That married man/woman is for you. God sent them just for you. 

The Bible is progressive and it changes with the times.

It isn’t important to read the Bible. It is to hard to understand so you might as well not even try. You have a ton of other more important things to take care of.

Say a simple prayer and you are good, there is no need to change, you can live however you want to and you can still get to go to heaven. The road is not narrow. It is really easy to get into heaven. If you a good person you have nothing to worry about.

You need to work harder for God. In order to get into heaven you need to do more. Don’t focus of the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross instead just work harder. As a matter of fact it would be great if you make up your own rules to follow and the stricter the better! (Legalism).

False religions, false teaching, false move of the Holy Spirit, and mixing New Age with Christianity would also fall in this category.

Lies, Deception, and Twisting God’s Word Can Come Through

Trauma: Because of trauma we can begin to believe lies about ourselves, God, the world, and all future situations. We can then view all areas of our lives through the lens of those lies.

Self: Our minds can work overtime and think up all kinds of things that are not based in truth.  

Other People: We need to be really careful with the words we allow others to speak over our lives. If something is spoken that is not true we must be quick to disregard it.

Demons: They whisper to us, and we often mistake it for our own thoughts. If you can change it and make it stop, it is you. If not, it is more than likely demons.

Combating Lies, Deception, and Twisting of God’s Word

We are going to look at the example of Jesus.

Matthew 4:1-11 Then Jesus was led by the [Holy] Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ² After He had gone without food for forty days and forty nights, He became hungry. ³ And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” ⁴ But Jesus replied, “It is written and forever remains written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.’” ⁵ Then the devil took Him into the holy city [Jerusalem] and placed Him on the pinnacle (highest point) of the temple. ⁶ And he said [mockingly] to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command His angels concerning You [to serve, care for, protect and watch over You]’; and ‘They will lift you up on their hands, So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’” ⁷ Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written and forever remains written, ‘You shall not test the Lord your God.’” ⁸ Again, the devil took Him up on a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory [splendor, magnificence, and excellence] of them; ⁹ and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written and forever remains written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” ¹¹ Then the devil left Him; and angels came and ministered to Him [bringing Him food and serving Him].

How Jesus Responded:

He recognized the lies.

He called the lies out. He did not come into agreement with any of the lies.

He replaced the lies with the truth found in the Word of God.

He commanded the devil to leave.

What That Looks Like for Us:

Recognize the Lies: Sit with God and ask Him to begin to show you any lies that you have accepted as truth. Make a list of every lie. Part of learning to recognize the lies is understanding God will never contradict His Word. If It goes against His Word you can automatically know it is a lie.

Come Out of Agreement:  After have your list spend time coming out of agreement with every single lie and moving forward make sure you do not come into agreement with any more lies.

Agreement with lies means believing them and accepting them as truth.

Pray and ask God to break the agreement with the lie, uproot any effects or false beliefs connected to the lie, and heal any areas of your heart that need to be healed.

Verbally Break agreement with the lie. For example, “ Lord, please forgive me for believing the lie that (say the lie). I will no longer accept the lie as truth. It is a lie. So right now in the name of Jesus I break the agreement with (lie) and the truth is (speak the truth).”

Command any demon connected to the lie to go in the name of Jesus.

Moving forward take every single thought captive, every single time.  

2 Corinthians 10:5 We are destroying sophisticated arguments and every exalted and proud thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought and purpose captive to the obedience of Christ,

Replace Lies with Truth: Replace every single lie with truth found in God’s Word, every single time.

The only way to know truth is to read the Truth. There is only one infallible truth and that is God’s Word. Jesus combated the temptation/lies with the Word of God and was victorious. We must follow His example and do the same.

Spiritual warfare is a must.

Use this scripture for a filter for what we say and think:

Philippians 4:8 Finally, believers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God’s word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things [center your mind on them, and implant them in your heart].

Link to Teaching Video: https://youtu.be/2gmUlo3-ha8?si=K9Pl8IE87TV9fLe7

Blessings,

Nichole Henson, MSW

Fullness of Joy Ministry