Today I’m going to vent a bit and talk about the lies that Satan tells Christians.
We all know that Satan is the father of lies. From the very first when he deceived Eve in the garden, he has made it his mission to deceive the children of God.
I’m no theologian, I tend to take the Bible at face value and accept it as the pure inspired word of God. I will try and give several Bible verses to back up the fact that what I’m about to share here are common lies that Satan tells Christians.
The other night I found a photo on Facebook that a friend shared. This photo had received thousands of likes and shares. But as I read it, a warning goes off in my heart. “This isn’t God’s word. This is one of the lies that Satan tells Christians.” I’ll be honest when I say I saw a bit of red. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen stuff like this and it seems to be popular. People read something that “makes them feel good” and they like it.
Satan wants us to feel good. He tells us lies to lull us to sleep. He told Eve that she wouldn’t really die, she would become like God. Satan tells us what we want to hear.
Lies that Satan tells Christians:
God wants you to be happy.
God wants you to be prosperous.
God is love, he wouldn’t send any-one to hell.
Just follow your heart.
The quote that made my blood boil just a bit the other night: “God loves us to much to allow us to stay with any-one or anything that doesn’t bring out the best in us.”
What does God’s word say about these lies that Satan tells Christians?
I’m going to stick with the New Testament in order to totally get rid of the argument “that was before grace/Christ/Salvation”.
First off, what is your definition of happy? Merriam-Webster defines it as fortunate, glad and pleased. When I look up happy in the new testament, every time happy is mentioned, it’s derived from the Greek word meaning extremely blessed.
The word happy appears 6 times in the new testament and it doesn’t mean happy as this world talks about, but happy as in blessed. Want to know how God wants you to be happy?
John 13:17, If you know these things, happy are ye if you do them.
James 5:11 …we count them happy which endure…
1 Peter 3:14 …if ye suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye!
1 Peter 4:14 If ye be reproached for the name if Christ, happy are ye.
Do. Endure. Suffer. Be reproached. Those words do not sound like what the world calls happy. God wants us to be blessed!
Jesus speaks about money a lot. Why? Because he knows that we are human and want to serve the flesh. On the subject of finances, I feel he is very clear.
Matthew 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves, treasures upon earth… 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…
On one occasion a man said he would follow Jesus and Jesus responded “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath no place to lay his head.
In Acts 8:20 we see what money really means to God. One named Simon, wanted the power to give the Holy Spirit and offered great money for it. The response? “Thy money perish with thee!”
As Christians the only thing we are truly promised is eternal life. This life we live here on the earth is not really our life, but it belongs to the Lord. (Remember when you asked him to save you and become Lord of your life?)
I found this post while doing some keyword research and thought I would share it: Prosperity Gospel is a Lie.
God is not willing that any should perish. Why else would he have separated himself from his son and send him here to die a sinners death?
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise (to return) … But is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. If you do not come to repentance, you will perish, but it’s not God’s will that any perish.
John 3:16 …That whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life.
At this point, God has done his part, he sent his son to bridge the gap between God and man, it is now up to us to believe, repent and follow him.
Should you really follow your heart? I am going to pull a verse from the OT for this one. It’s pretty straight forward and I don’t think man has changed all that much in the past 4000 years.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thought, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemes…
Our hearts are so wicked they cannot be trusted. Why else did David cry out, “Search me oh God and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts”? We must allow God to always know our hearts and thoughts and allow Him to guide us.
And as for the quote that triggered this whole post in the first place: Nowhere in the Bible does it say followers of Christ will have it easy. We are made strong through our sufferings and in our weaknesses He is made manifest. This life is fleeting and short; and while we as Christians, live here on this earth, our primary calling to worship our creator God and draw others unto him.
We are so blessed to be living as we are. I could sit here all day and tell you what is wrong with America and trust me, it’s a lot. But, we can still go to Church and worship God. We can meet with fellow believers and not fear a raid. While the number is growing that dislike us, we are still allowed to worship freely. Can we really ask for more?
These lies that Satan tells Christians are just that, Lies. Pray and ask God to give you a discerning heart. Read his word and learn the truth. That way when the father of lies tosses a tickle-your-ear lie your way, you will know that it is untruth at best.
We were invited to a Christian gathering recently during which the speaker began with the statement: “God loves winners!” We didn’t take anything he said after that seriously for much the same reasons you detail here. God loves us, but not because we are winners, but because He is. It’s a bitter pill to realize that God can love us without guaranteeing our ease and earthly happiness, but it’s the truth. We live, thanks to the devil and to our own disobedience, in an upside-down world where poverty of spirit brings riches and suffering brings joy. Go figure. It must be God.
Yeah, when you hear something in such direct opposition of the Bible it is very hard to take seriously anything else they say.
Amen sister! Folks don’t want to hear the meat of the bible, most prefer to hear the absolute lies from the pit of hell.
Like you, I’ve heard many of these sayings over and over, and it grates me each time, since they are not true! It’s all health and wealth and “your best life now” junk that is passed off as Christianity, but does not come from Scripture. If anyone wants to know where it’s all true or not, search the bible, look at the Apostles (not the ones who claim to be currently, but the REAL ones of the bible) and how they lived and died, how people in restricted and hostile countries live and die, etc.
Seeing those little lines make my blood boil!!!!
I’m glad you brought them to the forefront–there’s many folks who NEED to know the truth!!
You are right, many times, we don’t want meat, or even milk of the word. Instead we want candy. Which has no value whatsoever and instead can make us quite sick.
Bravo for taking these on. Down here the “God wants you to be prosperous” doctrine is pretty big and honestly one of my biggest pet peeves. One of my favorite stories from the Bible is the woman who gave her offering although she truly had nothing to spare. She was penniless, but was considered a faithful servant of God’s kingdom. I’m striving to be like her, and IF God’s blessings flow into my life monetarily, than I’ll welcome them, but… Okay, sorry, you already know what I mean! Lol, I think you’ve got me up on my soapbox.
It’s easy to get on a soap-box when God’s word is being completely taken out of context. 🙂
I agree. And thank you for sharing the verses with us. After re-marrying my ex it bothers me when I see quotes like the one you described. Or, when people justify a behavior by responding with Go wants us all happy. Somewhere along the line we have been made to believe that our happiness matters most. I also think we have some very famous pastors (speakers) who are sugar coating rather than preaching the Word of God! This reminds me of the saying from a movie “you can’t handle the truth”.
Hmm… Good movie 🙂
I like you how put in speakers, I was raised to show respect, but I find it hard to respect those that teach self rather than Christ crucified.
It’s sad but true that so many fall for lies instead of truth. I’m so,with you on prosperity doctrine. Makes me mad, like I see red when the numbers of people that go to those churches and buy those books. Praying Christ’s truth will be seen.
I just think that’s sad. People giving their money, not to God, but to these leaders and it doesn’t honor God, or bless the giver in any way.
All it does is allow these false teachers to gain more and more monetary gain.
I love that you wrote this! I was a HUGE fan of Joel Osteen for many years until a friend from church posted and God opened my eyes to is “prosperity ONLY teaching” and now I run from anything I see of his or take it all with a grain of salt when a friend posts something. It’s sad that there are some out teaching on the “good” to draw people in, they are so deceived. God does take care of us, but not in ways the world would say is “good” and “blessed”. Thanks again!
What a wonderful post! It is so easy to buy into the junk all around us. The lies are like sweet chocolate on the tongue. Thank you for sharing the TRUTH.
I agree, Kendra. A long while back I wrote a post about the fallacy of following our hearts as well as one on the myth of happiness. These kinds of statements on FB make my blood boil too, not to mention all the rhetoric about giving same-sex couples marriage rights. I go back to the authority of God’s word and let Him be the judge. Only His judgment is right, whether it makes us happy or makes sense to our human and flawed minds. Great thoughts here and I like your graphic too!
It’s tough “down here” on earth and always will be. This isn’t home. God is home. When you see Him (actually)be in His presence even if only for a second, and get enveloped in His blasting LOVE, you find out that He is everything. Nothing on this earth is better than Him.
So true…. Nothing on this earth can truly compare to the glory of his love.
Amen. Thank you for this post.
Thank you so much for posting this! This is such a blessing to hear! You make such a difference!
Thanks Sarah.
Amen to that! and that’s all I can offer….. very well put.
Thank you for having the guts to post this, Kendra! I remember hearing a pastor say that we SHOULD feel a disconnect here on Earth. Because we weren’t DESIGNED for Earth, we were designed for Heaven. So Earth will never feel totally right. Man, this world is SO mixed up! God must be up in Heaven just shaking His head at our foolishness!
I read a lot of blogs, and I signed up for your email during a giveaway awhile back because a lot of the blogs I read don’t really talk about God a lot, and I found you do. A big name person drew me back to God last summer when I was spiritually bankrupt. I don’t want to say the name because I got mad when I looked up the article you read and I read some that led to. I came to a blog about “the prosperity” teachings of that big named person. I’ll continue with my statement, then comment on what i wanted to ask about your post. If it wasn’t for this person, I wouldn’t be on my journey with God. I think there are good points and I’ll be open to see the bad points, but I get angry when people who are presenting the bad points to me-seemingly without doing the research beforehand instead of just using scripture-makes me kinda angry. It seems hypocritical and judgmental. And that is not the Christian I want to be. Which leads me to my question about your post…
…What do you mean (it’s the second to last paragraph) “While the number is growing that dislike us, we are still allowed to worship freely. Can we really ask for more?”
Do you really think people dislike Christians? Because I dont’ know if you mean that or meant something else. I don’t think people dislike Christians MORE or in more numbers, I think more people may not have God as a priority in their life, but really dont’ care about what other people believe. I’ve always believed in God and Jesus. When I went to college, I met lots of different people, and it seemed like a lot of my friends didn’t know, didn’t care, or just weren’t religious people. I can tell you as a not-religious person, I’ve went down a few “bad” paths in my life, that I’ve asked to be forgiven for, but I don’t feel God is mad or hates me for them.
BUT back to the question, is that what you meant? Because I have heard that Christians are becoming a smaller group, but I’ve also heard that Christians are becoming bigger in Asia and other areas of the world that they were not strong in before.
I’m coming at you in total ignorance, and not hostile, so please don’t take this comment that way. I really just don’t know. My mom is catholic, my dad baptist, and we didn’t grow up going to church. I don’t know the Bible, but for the most part, we are a good family with good values. Like you said, about what makes you mad “God wants us to be happy”, that I am learning on my own, by reading the Bible for the first time before I start studying it with other people or books. I don’t want my thoughts to be polluted, because I seek the truth in the word. That’s why I am not solely following the big name person I mentioned. I’m very curious and love to learn. I still have a long way to get to God, but I’m trying, and that’s the first step. In the past 3 months I’ve made it past 400 pages in the Old Testament. (I had to stop for a few fiction books for a couple weeks, but I promised to get back reading after those 3 books were done!) But I wanted to end with, thank you for posting this. I really understand where you are coming from, and the generation of people say those kinds of things all the time, without really knowing what they are saying. While I’m not understanding how it’s “lies that Satan” says, I understand that it isn’t what the word says. I don’t understand Satan yet either. :/ Thanks
-karrie
First off, I don’t take your comment as being hostile and I’m glad you feel you can post this. 🙂
God is not limited. He can use any-one he wishes to further the work of his kingdom. That doesn’t mean the person is good, bad, a christian, or not. I loved reading your story, because it shows very clearly God’s love for you and how he reached you.
Do I feel people hate Christians? Yes. If you are a follower of Christ and stand up for truth, you will be disliked. The bible states that very clearly as well. I’m not saying you should stand up and condemn those who are in the wrong. We are called to love as Christ loved and that includes sinners.
If you follow the news and what is going on is this world, you may see how Christians are slowly losing our rights here in the US. And as far as the church growing in Asia… The church always grow in times of persecution. That’s why here in America Satan has changed tactics and is deceiving us.
God loves us and does not hate us for our sins, if you have accepted his perfect sacrifice then he no longer remembers your sins. He has forgotten them! He wants to bless us as a parent desires to bless it’s child and sometimes that means holding back on something we want.
I’m trying to understand what you mean about research instead of just using scriptures, I chose to use scriptures, because as a Christian, I don’t want to be stating my opinions but God’s word.
And, it’s awesome that you are reading through the whole bible! If you make it through you will have accomplished something I never could. I tend to skip around way to much. 🙂
You are more than welcome to email me, if I couldn’t answer all your questions. kendrastamy at yahoo dot com. 🙂
Have a wonderful day!
I think it is a blessing you feel you can share your questions and concerns. Too often posts of thesekind can derail into finger pointing!
No man is perfect but please continue your faith journey!
Amen! I am feeling your passion right along with you! Thank you for speaking your mind. It is so easy to be led astray in this world and you just set the path a little straighter! Blessings to you!
Thanks Rachel.
Amazing post! Just had a convo with my mom about how so many Christians bank their existence on, “God’s grace and love” yet forget that God is also a wrathful judge when it comes to sin. But of course, no one WANTS to think about that part. Have you ever read the book, Erasing Hell by Francis Chan? I’m halfway through and he’s written about the topic you’ve written here, but mainly about the “God wouldn’t allow anyone to go to hell” part. We as the church, have moved so far from true Christianity and have watered it down to fit our immediate needs.
Kendra, you really seem to have it together, even though you said you haven’t read the Bible all the way through. I imagine you have read the New Testament all the way through many times though.
There were several people that started this year with a chart to read all the way through. That makes it easier if you have a goal and a paper to check off what was read. Then if you for some reason miss a day or two, it’s not that big of a deal to catch up. I heard the remark of someone that said, they didn’t want to do it because they were afraid they would just read fast and not get the meaning if they had a goal like that. It doesn’t have to be that way though, for it averages less than a half hour a day when you do not take time to think or discuss it.
A lot of the discussion on the comments here is about happiness. Jesus Christ said, “If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them.” John 13:17
Well, how do you know these things? You READ, READ, Read, the pure word of God, and pray for understanding. Hopefully Bibles that are pure and holy ae still available.
Good job, Kendra!
Robert (my hubby) and I often reflect on one concept: It’s all about God.
As humans, we lose sight of this concept. We think life, and direction, and ideas and desires, and … is about us. It’s not.
(I don’t know if I’m expressing myself well enough. It just ties into the concept that we need to get our eyes off what we want, and onto God.)
You expressed yourself perfectly. It’s not about us, even though we think it is.
My husband and I had this exact same conversation the other day after we saw a very misleading piece of art posted on a very popular church’s website. I’m so glad you posted this, and I’m sharing on fb and twitter. Great article!
Thanks Renea, these lies are becoming more and more excepted and we need to help share the truth!
On religious freedom… American Christians are so blessed to simply have the freedom to worship. There is no fear of prison or torture in our country because you are a disciple of Jesus. In this respect, we should be so thankful for our religious freedom. When I hear about Christian persecution in America, it is often so trivial in comparison to what is going on in places like Syria and Egypt.
Here in America, we really are not persecuted at all. True Christians who stand on the word of God, are the underdogs for sure, but we don’t really know what true persecution is. And yes, we are indeed blessed beyond what we deserve here in America.
I loved your article on this subject. I believe America is trapped in a spiral of deception and satan is in charge of it! I feel so very blessed to have walked into a real bible teaching congregation 10 years ago. When I started attending I was shocked to hear the truth…..because it was never taught to me! I do want to point out a book——- its called The Kingdom that turned the world upside down by David Bercot. He does a lot of studies on what the early christians believed and is very interesting. I want to point out the chapter on mammon. Very enlightening….. I havent finished the whole book yet and hope to finish soon. It is thought provoking. Again, loved the post! It brings tears to my eyes at the lies that are spread, even by the very people who should be teaching the truth!
It’s sad indeed the condition we find in this world, especially among Christians. Makes me think of when Paul said “many are sick among you and some sleep”.
I will have to check out the book, as I love history and especially history about the early Church.
This is such a good post. I found it from you posting the link on facebook today. I recently saw one of these same sayings on facebook and got the same feeling. My first thought was “not God’s truth!” We are told the Christian life is an easy one, sadly many times it is even within the church. But we have to dig into the meat of God’s word! And while He is loving and compassionate, He is also a God of justice! It is not a “cutesy, cutesy, frilly, frilly” walk with God or some decoration we just hang up on our wall! It’s a deep walk with God of trust, even when we suffer. God wants us to prosper in HIS WAYS whether He blesses us with money or not! (which the money is really His to start with anyway!) Thanks for the post.
Hello, I don’t know how I ended up on this blog, but eventually I did :). I am sorry to comment on this old post, but I felt eager to share my thoughts.
First of all, I find it very interesting to read from you because the two of us couldn’t be more different, and it is always enriching to get to know different people and ways of life, and confronting them. This is my non-religious point of view. I am a 26 years old young woman from Italy (sorry for my english), so I don’t know what it is actually like to live in the modern United States. But still I feel that modern world is making our lives more difficult every day, in some way. It offers us so many opportunities that we feel dizzy, and inadequate. It is easy to choose the wrong path just because people/fashion/culture want us to. What Christians call “satan”, for me, lies in a total lack of principles. I don’t know if God exists, but I try to lead my life sticking to universal principles that must be true: honesty, respect of other living beings, respect of ourselves, respect of our earth. These principles are the ones on which every religion is based. Money and power have always been fake gods in which man has believed throughout history; in my country, the most followed credo is the “good image” one: it means that italian people are obsessed with what others may think and say about them, they spend their lives working on looks, spend their money on status symbols, spend their nights worrying about stupid superficial problems. We are empty packages. One of the main reasons I stopped following the Church, was the hypocrisy I found there: the rich and vicious clergy, the corrupt so-called-christian politicians (the most famous of which is best-mates with many mafia bosses and loves partying with underage prostitutes), even the members of christian groups/sects (always judgmental about other people’s choices, always claiming to be the best in the world, and then being cruel and sly). I thought that I couldn’t stand to be taught how to live my life by people who claim to be saint but are just as a sinner as I am, sometimes better, sometimes worse, but still non-spiritual beings, flesh and blood. I thought that God must be found inside ourselves, inside our values, by putting them at the centre of the universe.
The dynamic culture I live in deals everyday with the subject of the “pursuit of happiness”, everyone has something to tell you when you’re young and about to make important choices: travel the world, live abroad, have children, do not have children, start a career, live in the countryside, eat healthy, get married ….and so on! How can we not be anxious?
Happiness is not in details! Everybody has his own mission and his own dispositions…The only thing that can make us happy is to know that, wherever we are and whatever we choose to be, we are never betraying our values: we must always be able to look at ourselves in the mirror and not feel ashamed of who we are.
I wish you a very good life:)
Greetings from Italy
Thank you for your perspective! This post was definitely written to those who claim to follow Christ, and yet have bought into this worlds fake values and ideas.
It’s possible I’m reading your words differently than how you meant them, but I feel you are right. God must be found in us, (in the form of his son Jesus Christ) otherwise we will always be in pursuit of something that will never bring fulfillment. Only in the presence of God is happiness and peace found. Not peace from wars but a peace of mind. The understanding that you are cared for and accepted by the one who created you.
I would love to encourage you to seek God from his book. In doing so you will find that the hypocrites and the corrupt so called Christians are Christians in name only. They seek to better themselves by boasting against others.
I too have a frustration towards those who claim Christ yet live nothing like him. I wish to address it in a blog post as well sometime, but every time I go to write, I am angry. And something written in anger cannot be promoting Christ either, so I continue to sit on my hands so to speak and pray for those who claim to know Christ, yet truly know him not.
I do agree with much of what you are saying – our highest purpose is not to be “happy” as the World defines it. Totally agree. I do take issue with one comment you made, “Our hearts are so wicked they cannot be trusted.” I have heard this quoted by many Christians as if it is the gospel truth, but in fact it is not the truth. You will never find any references in the New Testament that even hint that we have wicked hearts. In fact, there are references to those who have “good hearts” on certain occasions (by Jesus I might add). We are new creations – created to be like Christ. He has “removed our heart of stone and given us a heart of flesh”. His law is now written on our hearts. I would encourage you to do a study of the heart in the New Testament.
Blessings to you