Taking What the Enemy Meant for Evil and Turning it to Good!

I “prayed the prayer” when I was 12 years old. I call that my “scared out of hell” moment thanks to the hellfire and brimstone preaching of the staunch Welsh preacher, that Friday night in youth. But it wasn’t until my mid-20s that I was finally “loved into heaven” via a bible weight-loss course. (Side note: This was a classic case of God meeting me where I was at. I’ve always been a curvy girl!).

It wasn’t until nearly two decades later that I finally asked God my first direct question, expecting to hear an answer. My mentor in the prophetic, Dr. Tony Robinson, said at the time that when you ask God your question, the first thing you hear will be God. The second thing you hear will be the enemy questioning, “did God really say .. ?” and the third thing you hear will be your own doubts and insecurities.

We can trace the lies of the enemy all the way back to the garden of Eden. “Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?” That wasn’t what God said at all!

Manipulation and lies are the devil’s stock in trade, it’s his only real play.

“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44

It’s said that bank tellers learn to spot counterfeit money, not by studying the fakes, but by getting to know the real thing so well. Anything else is blindingly obvious to them. What if we applied this same principle to the devil and his lies?

Rather than running from his lies, what if we instead focused on The Way, The Truth and The Life? (John 14:6)

What if we became so accustomed to the Father’s voice, knowing His heart because we know Him, that anything less than would be instantly recognizable for the deceit that it is?

Whether it’s a whisper of condemnation or a flat-out enticement to do what you know is wrong, when you know your Heavenly Father’s heart, when you sit with the still, small, voice as one would sit with a friend, the lies of the enemy are defeated!

But you can be proactive about this, you don’t have to wait on the enemy to feed you a lie.

Instead, explore with God, “What lies have I been believing?” Whether these are lies you’ve been believing about Him, yourself, someone else or the situation you’re currently facing, bringing those lies into the light of God’s love is the first step to banishing them.

However, once the lies are exposed, don’t stop there! For every lie Holy Spirit highlights, ask God for His truth. What does God want to reveal to you about Himself? About you? About the person in front of you? About the situation you’re facing?

And remember that this is part of an ongoing conversation between you and God. We often say that Christianity is about “relationship, not religion” but how often are we guilty of keeping God at arm’s length? You’re invited into a realrelationship with God, a relationship as real as the relationship you have with your best friend. Conversation, asking questions, doing life together. That’s how you build relationships in the natural world and it’s no different in the spiritual.

What if you looked at every lie from the enemy as simply an opportunity to go even deeper in your relationship with God? When you do that, you’re taking what the enemy meant for evil and turning it to good!

The enemy whispers condemnation. You know that because of who you are in Jesus, there is no condemnation so you recognizeit instantly as the lie it is. See the lie, take it to God, and ask Him for His truth.

One-nil, to you and Jesus!

The enemy whispers fear and uncertainty. You know that God is love and perfect love casts out all fear and so again, you see the lie, call it for what it is and take it to God so He can reveal Histruth.

Two-nil.

There is nothing the enemy can try and bring against you that God can’t turn to good and there is nowhere you might find yourself that God can’t reach you with His love. Any whisper to the contrary is simply a lie from you know who and you know now what we do with those lies!

Game, set and match!

So, now it’s your turn. Grab your journal or go for a walk with God, however you and He most like to do life together. Ask Him what lies you’ve been believing and then ask Him for His truth.

With that reminder that if you’ve not yet asked God your first direct question (and there’s no judgment if you haven’t. Despite “praying the prayer” at 12, it wasn’t until I was 41 that I asked God my first question!). Holy Spirit and I wrote a little book that will help.

It’s called Youier and you can download a copy for free, you don’t even need to give your email address. It’s my gift to you, dear reader of The Good Christian Co. Simply click here and follow the instructions to download your copy of Youier - and get ready to get really practical and start asking God lots of questions!