The Father of Lies
Hi Everyone,
It is finally spring! The forsythia is in bloom and the flowers are popping up all over! As we enter a new season, we need to put the past behind, and begin again to look forward with great expectation for the Lord’s coming, and to be concerned for the people around us.
The state of mankind has not changed since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. However for those of us who believe that Jesus is Lord and Savior, we must expect that there will be an end-time harvest of souls. And we must also anticipate the great falling away that will come. Now is the time to be careful, to be sure of what we believe, and know and recognize who and what has the greatest influence in our lives. We have to shun what is evil and cling to what is good. We have to know our Savior, for in the days ahead, we will be tested.
The vision I have to share today concerns spiritually lost people in the world.
The Vision
I saw a young woman with a blonde ponytail wearing black leggings and a black long sleeved shirt with white swirling lines. She was in a very dark environment with several young people around her also dressed in black leggings and black long sleeved shirts. There was a young black man to her right, dressed as the others. They are in a variety of poses and positions, but no one is moving. Their attire suggests that they are dancers. The young woman with the ponytail is differentiated from the others by having a shirt with white swirling lines. Everyone else is dressed solely in black.
This is what I believe the vision means.
I believe that the young people in the vision represent those in the world who are not saved. Everyone of them is in the dark and dressed in black. There is no light in them, for they do not have the light of Christ. Therefore there is no revelation of truth. They are merely following the world, taking their cues from the world’s ideologies and values.
In the vision, they are dressed as dancers, prepared to move with the flow of the world’s tunes. However they are motionless. They are stuck, frozen in their fears and anxieties. They are frozen because of the lies the enemy plants in their minds. They can not free themselves because of their unbelief.
The girl in the vision is in similar dress, prepared to dance with the world, but there are white swirls on her shirt which sets her apart from the others. White represents holiness, purity and truth. Somewhere in her past, she has been taught about Jesus, perhaps raised in a Christian home where she was introduced to the Lord God.
The white lines are bold, and flow in parallel to each other. They vary in weight swelling and diminishing in width. The lines remind me of topographical maps where the lines depict different elevations. There were three focal points around which the lines would flow.
The lines represent truth. But because they vary in width along their lengths, this may represent the distortion of the truth. The truth in the young woman’s mind is not well established and clear. It has been tainted, exaggerated, stretched, and manipulated. That is precisely what the enemy does. Jesus calls the devil the “father of lies.”
“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. 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.” John 8:44
The swirling lines also flowed around three separate focal points. They were separate, not integrated. There was no unity. The number three always reminds me of God himself. When we think of God, we see him as one triune God, made of three separate and distinct persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. There are three yet they are entirely one. The Trinity represents perfect unity. It represents perfection, God himself.
About the Trinity, Jesus said to Philip:
“Philip, I have been with you all this time, and still you do not know Me? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on My own. Instead, it is the Father dwelling in Me, performing His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me—or at least believe on account of the works themselves.” John 14:9-11
So, these white swirling lines represent disunity and a distortion of the truth. God’s word which may have been planted in the woman years ago, has become twisted, by the lies that she has heard and embraced. There is no unity and order to her thoughts, there is no foundational beliefs in God and who he is. It has all been disjointed, and manipulated that she no longer is able to see, understand or appreciate the one true holy God. She is in the dark with those around her and she emulates them. She has chosen to dance with the world and to embrace the world’s values and ideologies. She sees no other way.
The three focal areas which the lines seem to follow may represent something that the Lord had shown me in a vision years ago.
The Three Temptations
I saw someone holding a box that had holes on one of its sides. The box lid was lifted off, and out sprang three snakes. Their bodies elongated as they flew through the air. Then they landed on the branches of a very large tree, recoiling their bodies. At the base of the tree was a man looking up into the tree, seemingly contemplating. I heard a voice say: “These are the three temptations.”
Then the scene changed and I saw the tree had been cut down and only a stump remained. A man was standing on the stump, then took a step off it. The moon filled the entire background of the scene.
Suddenly I found myself following closely behind him. I stepped into each of his foot prints as I followed him in the tall grass in the moonlight. I only saw him from the knees down. These two passage of scripture came to mind:
If we say we have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 1 John 1:6-7
While it is daytime, we must do the works of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” John 9:4-5
The voice in the vision called the three snakes “the three temptations.” Just as Eve was tempted in the garden by a snake (the devil), the man on the ground represents Adam who is the father of mankind, who is thinking about the tree and the three snakes perched in its branches. The tree is the world where we find the three temptations. The man who cuts down the tree is Jesus. He is the one who has overcome the world and shows it by taking a step off the stump. And in the vision I represent the Lord’s disciples who choose to follow him. Even though the world will become even darker still, we are able to walk in the moonlight for he provides the light.
Eve entertained the devil’s tempting lies, and believed that if she ate the fruit, that she would be like God, knowing good and evil. The desire to be like God is what caused the devil to rebel against heaven and to be thrown down to the earth.
How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, O destroyer of nations. You said in your heart: “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” Isaiah 14:12-14
The three focal points on the woman’s shirt, represent three areas of temptation that lead people to fall into sin. I believe they are:
1. sensual pleasures 2. money and material possessions 3. power and notoriety
Jesus was tempted by the devil in three ways as well. The devil tempted him to use his power to turn rocks into bread, after having not eaten for 40 days. Since Jesus lived in a human body, this would be an obvious and powerful temptation since survival is a natural instinct. However, Jesus did not fall for the ploy.
The devil also tempted him to use his power to prove his identity. He suggested that Jesus could throw himself off a cliff and call upon the angels to keep him from “dashing his foot against a stone.” Again, Jesus refused to test God and succumb to the temptation. The devil offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth, if only he would bow down and worship him. Jesus rejected the temptation for he was entirely devoted to the Father. He came to serve God, and God alone. His focus was to bring his Father glory, by doing his will and to die on the cross for the sins of the world.
Jesus was tempted but did not sin. But unlike Jesus, we can entertain temptation and give in to our flesh and its desires. The young woman in the vision was at some point in her life tempted and chose to believe the devil’s lies. She has chosen to follow the world and its values and ideologies, for she is prepared to dance with those in the world.
There were other details of the vision that I considered. The white lines on the black can be very optical. In cartoon illustrations, confusion and hypnotic states are depicted by circulating and pulsating concentric lines. The lines on the shirt can represent the confused mind. When we do not have the truth as a foundation to our beliefs, we become confused, substituting lies for truth. In the hypnotic state a person’s mind is more open to suggestions. It is more vulnerable to accepting half-truths, false explanations, and lies. Everyone passes through this state of mind on the way to sleep. No wonder the devil uses dreams to plant his thoughts and suggestions.
The state of mind of those that are lost keeps them from accepting Jesus as Lord and God. The Lord’s teachings to them are nonsensical.
I had a friend who told me that in the past, she tried reading the Bible many times but could not understand a word of it. After she was born again, everything changed. She was able to read and understand. It all made perfect sense and she became an avid reader and student of the Bible.
However, those who are not born again, and do not know the word of God will unknowingly open the door to the devil’s demons, who occupy the mind with fear, anxiety and confusion. In this state they cannot accept the truth for they have a labyrinth of lies and fears to overcome.
Even believers can fall prey to enemy’s schemes. We can compromise our faith when we take on a new job or commitment, a new pastime, or a new love. These may be used as detours to take us out of commission, and away from the Lord. Suddenly, church, the word of God, prayer and the presence of God are no longer as important as they once were. Without realizing it, we drift away from Him. We can become so busy with life, that we no longer seek his help or his counsel.
Let is take warning of the devil’s schemes. He truly is the “father of lies.” So we must be careful not to follow our own hearts, for the heart is deceitful, and the devil knows it.
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I, the LORD, search the heart; I examine the mind to reward a man according to his way, by what his deeds deserve. Jeremiah 17:9-10
Let’s actively pursue God, read and study His word, and be in his presence. In order to be able to stand against the enemy we must be prepared. Here is an important teaching that some may not know:
The word tells us to flee temptation and resist the devil. But if we do not know the Word we will most likely do the exact opposite. Instead of fleeing temptation we will try to resist it. That is a recipe for failure. And if we try to flee the devil instead of resisting him, we will also fail.
But the word of God says:
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7
Remember that:
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17
So now that we have some understanding of what is important to God, let us be doers of his Word. Let’s devote ourselves to God and show concern for what concerns him. Let us do as the Lord commands in regards to the lost:
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20
Even the most stubborn who have no interest in God, can still be saved.
“I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.” Isaiah 65:1
And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of those He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day. John 6:39
So Let’s choose to stand firm and believe God. Let’s take him at his word and believe for what may seem impossible, for Jesus said:
“With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:23-26
God bless you and keep you! Please share this message.
