“For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie …” (2 Thess. 2:11, NKJV)
A few teachings back we wrote extensively about the typological meaning of the lake of fire and brimstone, and came to the conclusion that it points to the Bride of Christ as furnace.
In the light of our current conversation about the spirit of lying, Rev. 21:8 is very insightful: “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” As we explained in the previous teaching, identity is the non-negotiable marker of a godly nature. Part of the purifying process of first and second dimension believers is that these “spots” (Eph. 5:27) need to be removed. And the spirit of lying is listed as one of these inequities.
The spirit of lying has a far reach. Rev. 2:2 for instance speaks of people who claim that they are apostles, but who are not, and were found to be liars. In her book War of the Saints Jessie Penn-Lewis writes extensively about the subtle ways in which the spirit of lying sneaks into our spiritual lives. I would like to quote quite a large chunk from her writing, as her description is so evocative. She is speaking here about spiritual guidance through all kinds of subjective spiritual experiences: “As Christ was a pattern or example for His followers, guidance or ‘leading’ in its perfect and true form is shown in His life, and believers can only expect the co-working of the Holy Spirit when they walk after the pattern of their Example. / Out of line with the Pattern the cease to have the working of the Holy Spirit, and become open to the deceptive counterfeit workings of evil spirits. If the believer ceases to use mind, reason, will and all his other faculties as a person, and depends upon voices, and impulses for guidance in every detail of life, he will be ‘led’ or guided by evil spirits, feigning to be God. / This is the time for which the deceiving spirits have been watching…he (man) is now watching for some other supernatural indication of the way to go, or the course to take … This is the moment of opportunity for a deceiving spirit to gain his faith and confidence: and so some word or words are whispered softly, that are exactly in accordance with the inward drawing that he has had … the soft whisper of the deceiving spirit is so delicate and gentle, that the believer listens to, and receives the words without question, and begins to obey this soft whisper, yielding more and more to it, without any thought of exercising mind, judgment, reason, or volition. / From this point deceiving spirits can increase their control, for the believer has begun the listening attitude…until he is always watching for an ‘inner voice,’ or a voice in the ear which is an exact counterfeit of the voice of God in the spirit; and thus the believer moves, and acts as a passive slave to ‘supernatural guidance.’” (pp. 136-137).
2 Thess. 2:11-12 spells out the danger of the spirit of lying: “And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
- Selah: Test this teaching to your own spiritual promptings.
- Read: 17-19
- Memorise: 19:2 (very important within the context of this teaching)
- For a more in-depth understanding: Read Neil T Anderson’s The Bondage Breaker.
