1. What most impacted you about Episode 8? 2. Were you made aware of any times in your life that Satan was able to convince you of a lie about God, yourself or others? How did that happen, and do you feel that has been fully resolved? (you may want to take a few moments to confess something or forgive somebody, renounce the lies you have believed and really take hold of God’s truth in that area right now). 3. Think of one or two key truths that God has showed you in your life that have proven to be really important to you and share those with the group, perhaps with the relevant Bible verses. 4. How will you be more aware of the enemy’s schemes after this episode, and how will you prepare yourself to react in the right way? Action Point: Identify any areas that you struggle with when it comes to how you view God, yourself or others. Find Bible verses that contradict the lies you have been believing and read them out loud repeatedly over the next week until you’ve memorised them. Ask God to help you in those moments of temptation to stand on the Word of God and not to give any room in your heart or mind for the enemy’s lies. Thank Him that He is more powerful than the enemy and that His truth can and will set you free!

hey guys and welcome back to this series on the power of words we’re now in episode eight and in this episode we’re going to be looking at the language of the enemy and i believe that this episode is not only going to really sharpen you but it’s going to give you great insight into how people’s lives can be damaged and destroyed and of course how they can be restored you see when jesus was speaking about satan he said this in john 8 44 he said 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 so we’ve talked a lot in this series about how god speaks and the importance of our words when we speak but actually satan also speaks and satan speaks lies we have to understand that lies are the primary tool that satan uses against us and in first peter we’re warned about him it says in verse 8 be alert and of sober mind your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour and i don’t know if you’ve ever noticed this but after satan tempted jesus in the wilderness it says this in luke 4 13 when the devil had finished all this tempting he left him until an opportune time so satan is looking to devour you and i and often he waits for an opportune time just like a lion waits for a convenient moment to strike its prey so the enemy is the same but when the apostle paul spoke about satan he said this in 2nd corinthians 2 11 part b he said for we are not unaware of his schemes and in another translation it says we are not ignorant of his devices so here’s my question for you at the beginning of episode 8 are you fully aware of satan’s devices do you know how he works and do you know how to avoid falling into his traps of course all christians should know but sadly many don’t so let’s get into this so we’ve established two things first of all satan’s biggest tool is lies and secondly he looks for opportune moments to tempt us now in my experience i would say that the most destructive lies that i’ve seen at work in people’s lives are in three categories they are lies about god lies about ourselves and lies about others and i’ve also noticed that there seem to be opportune moments for these lies to get planted into our hearts and into our belief systems so let’s start by talking about lies about god you know in this fallen world we go through many difficult experiences and some of these experiences cause us to ask the question where are you god or or how could you have let this happen sometimes we even blame god for the things that happen in our lives or to people that we love and of course it could be a miscarriage it could be the loss of a loved one it could be a severe sickness it could be a natural disaster a relationship breakdown some kind of accident maybe an unmet hope or expectation or it could just be that something happens that just doesn’t seem fair and these moments are opportune moments for satan to whisper well he’s obviously not all loving or well he’s obviously not all powerful or if he’s all loving and all powerful he obviously doesn’t care about you and in these cases if we go with what we feel and not with what the word of god says satan is able to sow a lie into our hearts and undermine our trust in god from that moment forward you see the truth is that god is a god of love he is all-powerful and that his intentions towards you have always been good in fact one of the main reasons that these terrible things happen on the earth is because he gave us free will god refused to control us because love never controls and of course if god had forced us to love him and to obey him then that wouldn’t be true love at all love is not love if it is forced so actually the free will that god has given us is a great confirmation of his love that he’s a a lover not a controller and unfortunately it’s a combination of our choices and the work of the enemy that have resulted in so much pain and suffering on the earth and in our lives now these situations are painful and while god is waiting for us to come to him in those situations so that he can comfort us heal us and restore us the enemy sees an opportune moment and gets busy appealing to our feelings and as he whispers lies that undermine our trust in god and actually make it really difficult for us to receive the comfort and healing that we so desperately need in those moments of course if you know your bible you will know that job is a man who knew this kind of pain and suffering perhaps more than any of us he lost his seven sons his three daughters and everything that he owned but look at what the bible says in job 1 22 it says this in all this job did not sin by charging god with wrongdoing and i just wonder has satan ever tempted you at an opportune moment to sin by charging god with wrong doing has he been able to undermine your trust in god or in his word by causing you to doubt what god says about himself you see sometimes we automatically assume things about god that are not true because of the experiences we’ve had and one of the things that i’ve noticed is many people believe things about god that are not true because of the experiences they’ve had with their earthly father and of course because god is a father they attribute those things that they’ve learned about a father to god sometimes there’s still pain in us because of the way our dads treated us or because of perhaps a lack of love affirmation encouragement or engagement from our earthly fathers and of course as we read the word of god and we learn how much our father loves us and how interested he is in our lives we start to get to know what he’s really like but perhaps in those moments when we feel like god is far away or when we we feel like god hasn’t provided for us or we feel like he isn’t listening the enemy appeals to those feelings maybe he even appeals to some of the pain that we experienced in our childhood and he says you see god doesn’t listen to your prayers he’s not really interested in your life and of course in those moments we need to stand on the word of god and not on our feelings but it’s also possible that we may still be in need of some healing for some of those wounds from the past so that those lies about god can be renounced and removed completely for good from our lives now the healing that i’m talking about usually happens when we bring the pain to god when we let out our emotions and then either forgive the person who hurt us could be our earthly father it could be somebody else or we say sorry to god for blaming him for what happened then of course we need to make sure that we replace those lies with god’s truth the truth about who he is and then we choose to fully put our trust in him again and i love how king david spoke about what god is really like in psalm 145 verses 8 to 9 he said the lord is gracious and compassionate slow to anger and rich in love the lord is good to all he has compassion on all he has made and if you struggle to really believe in your heart that what we’ve just read is really true then i really want to encourage you to ask god to help you to see him as he really is and maybe some of the things i’ve shared are going to be helpful for you so let’s now talk about lies that we might believe about ourselves what do you think satan’s opportune moments might be to sow lies about yourself into your heart well of course god put us human beings on the earth to love and accept one another and to honor and value one another as his precious creation but when we do the opposite of that when we reject each other when we say nasty hurtful words to one another opportune moments are created for satan to tempt us into believing things that are not true about ourselves and of course many of us grew up without knowing god’s truth at all without knowing that we’ve been fearfully and wonderfully made and that he takes great delight in us so when we’re told oh you’re ugly or you’re stupid or when somebody makes a negative comment perhaps about your body or about your personality or something that you’ve done it’s painful and and what those people are saying can really feel true in those moments proverbs 12 18 says the words of the reckless pierce like swords but the tongue of the wise brings healing and we’re going to look at healing in the next episode but it’s true that the words of the reckless or reckless words pierce like swords they damage us on the inside and of course we also know the saying actions speak louder than words and sometimes nothing is said but but by the way that a person treats you they communicate something to you that can be negative about yourself and of course the enemy is very happy to put words on those experiences helping you to make negative conclusions about yourself about your value about your importance and very often we don’t even realize that we believe things about ourselves that are not true and of course if these lies get reaffirmed by more experiences they actually get stronger inside of us and it seems like the enemy is just waiting for those opportune moments to say see it’s happened again you really are that stupid or rejected again see nobody really cares about you you’re just worthless and rejection can often lead to self-rejection and self-rejection can lead to self-hatred and self-hatred can lead to thoughts of suicide of you might be thinking wait a minute david did you just say that suicide starts with a lie yes absolutely and actually there’s no surprise there right because remember what we read at the beginning of this episode he was a murderer from the beginning i don’t need to tell you that his lies are still killing many people today but actually i’m here to tell you that god did not make you ugly he did not make you stupid he did not make you worthless that’s not how he made you and that’s not how he sees you and it might be a good idea actually to ask god god please show me what lies i believe about myself and please take me on a journey of replacing all of them with your truth and of course these lies came into our lives through painful experiences and it might be that there’s still pain in us that needs to be healed but the good news is that that is god’s speciality he literally sent jesus to the earth to heal the broken hearted and he’s still healing the brokenhearted today scripture also says that the son of man came to destroy the works of the devil so jesus is the one who can set us free and deal with all of these things we’ve been talking about and in my experience the healing comes as we forgive those who have rejected us or who have said nasty things to us and we let out this is really important we need to let out the pain and perhaps the anger of the injustice of the situation all that pain that anger that we’ve been carrying we need to let it out in the safety of god’s presence and if you know that you’re carrying pain or anger or you know that there are a lot of lies in your mind or in your heart about yourself i want to encourage you to perhaps find another believer and ask them if you can talk about it with them and pray together about it because that can be really really helpful and often other people can see things in our lives that we don’t see and can help us find the healing that we need okay so we’ve talked about lies about god and we’ve talked about lies about ourselves now let’s look at lies about others so just as satan has used other people to reject you and to sow his lies into your life so he wants you to reject others so that he can sow more lies into their lives so how does he get us to reject others well he doesn’t have to wait long for an opportunity you see as soon as somebody does something to her or offend you or perhaps you hear some gossip about somebody and then instead of remembering the truth which is that our struggle is not against flesh and blood we are tempted to think that people are the problem and you might be thinking david hang on slow down what are you talking about well in ephesians 6 12 it says this for our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms so he’s saying your problem really your struggle is not against other people and this is the problem you see as soon as we think that people are the enemy we’ve swallowed satan’s lies it’s a bit like when an army hides its troops in a civilian target like a hospital or a school and starts shooting out of the hospital or the school it’s like satan is shooting at you through other people making you think that they are your enemy when in fact he is the one using them to get at you and he wants us to hate and attack each other because that way we will destroy each other the apostle paul warned us about this in galatians 5 15 he said if you bite and devour each other watch out or you will be destroyed by each other and of course satan wants to undermine our trust in one another because god has called us to walk in love and forgiveness and unity and those things are such a great threat to the enemy’s work on the earth satan doesn’t want people to see that kind of love because if they see that kind of love they will see the kingdom of god and he might lose his grip on them so i wonder if you have ever been tempted at an opportune moment to think that your struggle is against another human being and i wonder if you’ve been tempted to reject that person or even to speak harmful words about them or to them rather than praying for them forgiving them and loving them see a wise christian will recognize the opportune moments and be very careful how they react and they will be careful to go to the word of god in those moments and to stand on the truth otherwise we might find that the lies of the enemy have infiltrated us and we are speaking his language proverbs 11 verse 9 says the with them with their mouths the godless destroy their neighbors but through knowledge the righteous escape so how do we get the knowledge we need to avoid all of these traps well we get it from the word of god and actually another thing that we haven’t even talked about yet in this episode is false teaching you know the bible says that there are false teachers and actually we know that some of these people claim to be christians or really believe that they are christians they might even be using bible verses but actually they’re speaking the language of the enemy and of course we shouldn’t be surprised because the bible says that satan masquerades as an angel of light it even says that there are specific teachings of demons so how are we going to recognize these things and avoid the deception well there’s only one way you can’t recognize a counterfeit unless you are very familiar with the real thing jesus is the truth and we have to know him intimately we know him through his holy spirit and he’s promised that the holy spirit will guide us into all truth and the holy spirit has a sword with which he destroys the lies of the enemy you know what the sword is the sword is called the word of god the sword of the spirit and i want to encourage you to get to know the word of god really really well you see the path is narrow and many people are going to be deceived look at this 2nd thessalonians 2 9-10 it says the coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how satan works he will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing they perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved did you see that those who will be deceived will be the ones who refuse to love the truth in other words the key to avoiding deception is to love the truth and i want to encourage you to fall in love with the truth love jesus love his word and make sure that you love it more than the things of this world and finally i just want to say this any lies that we are believing will directly affect our ability to fulfill god’s calling on our lives remember this the enemy can only press your buttons if he has buttons in you to press so if you can identify the lies that you’ve been believing remove them and replace them with god’s truth you will be much more effective for god’s kingdom and i know some of you really want to know what god’s will is for your life but look at this in romans 12 verse 2 it says do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind then you will be able to test and approve what god’s will is he’s good pleasing and perfect will so the sooner you get the lies out and the truth in the sooner you will be able to understand what god’s will is for your life and there are probably five main things that have the potential to stop you fulfilling your calling and all of these things are based on lies the first one is unbelief and the lie is usually that god is not who he says he is the second one is fear and the lie is usually that god is not with you the third one is pride and the lie is usually that you are able to do things without god when jesus said apart from me you can do nothing fourth one is temptation temptation comes in many different forms but every single time you or i fall into temptation the enemy has somehow lied to us and managed to convince us that doing something that leads to death is better than doing something that leads to life and the fifth one is condemnation condemnation for a believer is always based on a lie because there is no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus so lies are the language of the enemy don’t be ignorant of his schemes fill yourself with the word of god so that in those moments of temptation the spirit of god can remind you of the truth and like a sword that truth can be used to defeat the lies and to walk in freedom and let me encourage you with these words from first corinthians 10 13 it says no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind and god is faithful he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear but when you are tempted he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it let’s pray father we just want to thank you so much that you sent jesus into the world and you have revealed him to us we want to thank you that you are the truth and jesus you said the truth will set us free and father we are asking you lord that you would show us what lies we believe what lies we believe about you what lies we believe about ourselves what lies we believe about others father if there’s pain from our past that needs to be healed we ask for healing and i just come in jesus name and speak healing into your life right now i say be healed father would you just come and heal any brokenheartedness in the lives of the people that are watching this video right now would you show them what lies they believe and would you reveal your truth in those areas lord that they might be able to renounce the lies receive the truth and stand on it and walk in confidence and freedom lord knowing who you say you are knowing who you say they are and knowing what attitude they are to have towards others an attitude of love an attitude that speaks words that bring life in jesus name father save us from speaking the language of the enemy we want to speak the language that brings life truth healing and freedom into those around us in jesus name amen and i will see you in episode 9.