The devil will do anything to keep us from discovering the one thing that gives us the most satisfying, most purposeful, most deeply joyful life we could ever live. And he launched this great deception in the Garden. My friend, we have a real enemy and he’s not a cartoon figure with a pitchfork. According to John 8:44, he is a thief, a murderer, the father of lies. Jesus said of him:
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10
Satan is here to destroy everything good that God has for you; including the wonderfully divine purpose you were specifically designed to fulfill. He never wants you to find it. In fact, he is constantly trying to recruit each of us away from it. But he can’t recruit honestly because if he showed how horrible he is, you would never follow. So he must lie. He is constitutionally incapable of truth. Jesus said there is “no truth in him” and that “when he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” (John 8:44) His poison always comes with an attractive label.
The enemy initiated his strategy in the Garden and he continues to perfect it today.
Consider in Genesis Chapter 3, where Eve is standing before the one tree God forbade, and the serpent is waiting with a question.
“Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” Genesis 3:1
That question is at work planting a seed of doubt. He is pulling Eve’s gaze away from an entire garden of abundant provision and fixing it on the one thing she does not have—suggesting that perhaps God’s word is unclear, overstated, or worth examining. This was his opening move and it is still is. It’s not a frontal assault because that would be too obvious and reveal satan for who he really is. It was a question. Did God really say? Is that really what He meant? Is that actually for someone like you? And when Eve engages, he strikes quickly:
“You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4–5
Satan told Eve four lies and he is still using the same script on every human today. I know we did an entire podcast on this, but it’s so worth remembering how his lies are based upon challenging the very good nature of God. We must have the enemy’s strategy always in front of us so we are not deceived. The four lies?
- God is not good. God’s warning, the enemy implies, was not protective love; rather it was Him withholding. A truly good God would not place limits on you. Limits mean lack. Lack means He is holding out.
- God is not right. Eat the fruit anyway, nothing bad will happen. God’s Word is not true. You can test it, bend it, set it aside—and you will be fine.
- God is not just. Underneath the lie is an accusation that God’s arrangement is unfair. You deserve more than what you have been given. You are being shortchanged by the very One who claims to love you.
- You can be your own god. “You will be like God.” This is the one all the others were building toward. You don’t need Him. You are capable of defining your own good and evil. You can sit on the throne of your own life.
My friend, these four lies have not changed. They are still the architecture of every temptation we face. Every addiction says God is not good—He withholds what you actually need and the substance fills the gap. Every compromise tells you God is not right—His Word is too rigid for the complexity of your real life. Every wound that festers into bitterness tells you God is not just—He allowed what He should have stopped. And every time we run our lives without genuinely seeking to put Him on the throne it is proof that is the fourth lie fully operational in us.
We often slip into living as our own master and we don’t even notice.
I know this personally. After I was born again, I took back the throne of my own life and spent years of self-directed living that fractured relationships, wasted eternal opportunities, and left me completely broken. I was a child of the King who was choosing to live in the filth of a spiritual ghetto because I had taken God off the throne of my heart. The enemy was winning in my life and neutralizing the power and purpose of God in my life. In fact, living in the enemy’s camp. Jesus made it clear that we are either FOR Him or AGAINST Him. But here is where God, by His goodness, drew me back to Himself.
And this is exactly what the enemy is afraid of!
He knows the divine purpose you were made for. He knows the specific works God prepared for you before you were born. (Ephesians 2:10) He knows what doors will open through your surrendered life, what darkness your testimony will pierce, whose eternity will be affected when you begin living in the glory-centered purpose God designed for you. He never wants you to find it because he knows that when you do—you’ll never want to return to the slavery he had you in. He knows that true liberty is in Christ:
“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3:17–18
Life lived in liberty, transformation, and God’s glory is the result of a life oriented around God. The abundant life is available to every born again believer who steps off the throne and lets God be God. But we must be able to identify the lies and be able to answer them with God’s truth.
When he whispers that God is not good; we answer with: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)
When he tells us God is not right, we answer with: ”‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8–9)
When he tells us God is not just, reply with: “He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He.” (Deuteronomy 32:4)
And when he offers us the throne—we answer with the only posture that defeats him: “Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)
This sequence matters, because we do not resist the devil before we submit to God. We don’t have the power to because we cannot fight the enemy if we are on the throne of our own life. I am constantly having to recalibrate God’s lordship in my life. A lack of peace and joy are great measuring sticks. When I am not experiencing the fruit of God’s Spirit, I know it is time to do an inventory to determine which lies am I believing. Ah, my friend, the one I struggle with the most is the last one is the belief that I can handle some area of my life myself!
Satan is tricky. He NEVER wants us to know how good God is. He wants to rob us of the glorious purpose God has for us. Join with me today in submitting every area of life into the mighty presence of God.
Not today, satan!
Prayer: Father, I confess I have believed his lies more times than I want to admit. In my pain I have questioned Your love. I have nursed wounds until they became accusations against Your character. And I have climbed back onto the throne, convinced I can manage. Forgive me. You are good—extravagantly, provably, irreversibly good. You are right—Your Word does not bend to my circumstances. You are just—every unanswered question is in Your hands. And You alone are God. I step off the throne today. Lead me into the purpose You prepared for me before I was born, and let my life be fully surrendered and walking in Your glory. In Jesus Name, Amen.
