“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” (John 8:44, NKJV)
The fourth spirit in our series about the fourteen spirits that are explicitly named in the Bible, is the spirit of the lying. In the previous teaching we looked at Dr M Scott Peck’s book People of the Lie, and listed three important insights about lying as a manifestation of Evil. We will look at them in more detail during the next three teachings.
The first quote is: “The lie is designed not so much to deceive others, as to deceive ourselves.” In this Scripture from John 8:44 the devil is called the father of the Pharisees, but also the father of the lie. Obviously it is then clear that everyone who are born from the seed of the snake (Gen. 3:15) have the devil as father, and can thus not stand in the truth, and are, ipso facto, speaking the language of the lie. The phrase “When he speaks a lie, he speaks his own resources … ” is then interesting. Different translations offer various insights:
- “When he speaks a falsehood, he speaks what is natural to him, for he is a liar [himself] …” (AB)
- “When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources …” (NKJV)
- “When the Liar speaks, he makes it up out of his lying nature and fills the world with lies.” (Msg)
It is then understandable that the natural man (in other words, the not born-again person) functions in a world of own insights and personal understanding, and that this is based on his own sense-making fiction, as Kermode coined the term. These thought constructs are by definition “earthly, sensual, demonic” (James 3:15). Natural man’s way of thinking is inherently driven by what 1 Cor. 2:12 terms “the spirit of the world”. Therefore verse 14 states – “but the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned”. If we reconcile this insight with the Scripture that we started with, it simply means that the natural man or fallen self cannot know himself or his world except through a vestige of lies. Our thought and imagination capacity are irrevocably part of our fallen nature – it creates a false reality of the lie. The old man Adam within each of us is the functioning WITHIN US of “the evil principle”.
Leanne Payne uses this concept in her book about the works of CS Lewis, Real Presence, in which she writes about this complex evil state of the natural man. She terms it “the hell of our false selves”, and juxtaposes it with “the reality of God, present in and through His creation”, which she refers to as his “incarnational reality” (p.10).
It is then understandable that in the light of what was discussed earlier, it is indeed true – “The lie is designed not so much to deceive others, as to deceive ourselves.” It is only when the false reality of our lying self is replaced with the incarnational reality of the life of Jesus WITHIN us, “we shall be saved by His life” (Rom. 5:10).
- Selah: There is profound truth in this last sentence. Pray until it happens.
- Read: 1-4.
- Memorise: 4:6 (and ponder the typology).
- For a more in-depth understanding: Read Leanne Payne’s book Real Presence.
