“Pilate therefore said to Him, ‘Are you a King then?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say rightly that I am a King. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.’ Pilate said to Him, ‘What is truth?’” (John 18:37-38 NKJV)
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32 NKJV)
What are we talking about when we say “truth”? Truth is something that is concrete, objective, and unchanging. It doesn’t sway and is not determined by anything that is subjective. The word in the Greek is “Aletheia” and according to Strong’s Concordance it was synonymous for reality as the opposite of illusion.
When Jesus says He came into the world to bear witness to the truth He is saying, “I came to give evidence of reality to a world that only knows illusion.” When Jesus hung on the cross and He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” I believe He wasn’t just talking about the people who were responsible for His crucifixion. He died for the sins of the whole world. I believe He was asking the Father to forgive the sins of all of mankind because they act according to illusion and they know not reality.
Jesus came to present that reality to us in a very profound way: “Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6 NKJV). “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14 NKJV). Jesus didn’t just come into the world to testify of truth, but He was truth personified. So, when we are looking for what is truth, we can always find it in Him.
Reality is not the world that you see around you every day. Each one of us interprets the things of this world through how we learned to process thoughts and emotions; how we learned to perceive what we observe. Learned through upbringing, observation of others, life events and circumstances, and even inherited habits and ways of thinking. That’s why you can be talking with someone, and you both walk away remembering completely different versions of the conversation. Much of how we see this world is manipulated by what we can’t see: an invisible kingdom. Though we cannot see it, it speaks, it influences, it tempts, and it manifests.
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12 NKJV).
What are principalities, powers, and rulers of darkness? Where did they come from? How do these spiritual hosts of wickedness engage with us? Where did wickedness even come from? If this is our battle, we probably ought to know this, right? To answer those questions, we first need to answer this question:
What is sin?
We probably think of sin in terms of an immoral act that we perform, usually against another person. Lying, cheating, stealing, murder. We might think of sin in terms of heart posture – disobedience, idolatry, pride. Those are all manifestations of sin. But have we ever thought of sin as a spiritual being?
In Genesis 4:6-7 God is talking to Cain who fell angry because God accepted Abel’s offering over his own. “So the LORD said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.’”
That word sin there is the Hebrew word Chatta’ah (khat-tawth) which means “an offense and the sacrifice or penalty of it”. This thing called sin is not just an act or an attitude of the heart. This thing called sin crouches at the door, it lies in wait for you to stumble over it. This thing called sin desires to overtake you.
Ezekiel tells us of a beautiful cherub by the name of Lucifer (Heylel in Hebrew meaning bright and shining one) who was a being created by God, full of wisdom and revelation, full of light: “You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground” (Ezekiel 28:12-17 NKJV).
Lucifer betrayed God, wanting to be worshiped and revered like God and was cast out. He lost his place in heaven, lost his sonship, lost his wisdom, lost his name.
“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” (Luke 10:18 NKJV). Satan means the accuser. It is not a name. It is his new (fallen) nature. We could more appropriately call him “The Satan”. On a side note, we are told in Philippians that Jesus was given the Name above all other names. We see here that this fallen being doesn’t even have a name anymore. That is how far beneath Jesus has fallen.
What was it that got him cast down? Ezekiel says that his heart was lifted up. But it wasn’t just that he had a thought or a desire that he wanted to be greater than God. He had a thought, and he dwelled on it, and meditated on it. Probably even shared it with other beings and creatures of heaven. That thought began to change him; distort his perception, dilute his thinking. And he moved from considering the thought, to agreeing with the thought, and he decided in his heart that he would be greater than God.
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’” (Isaiah 14:12-14 NKJV).
He wanted to exalt himself to be God’s equal and so convinced some of the angels to rebel against God and they all fell with him. All were created to be sons of God, with His nature, to carry out His purpose, with names that carried God-given destiny. Now have been disinherited by God and become nameless beings of sin, only known by the nature they express (ie: bitterness, fear, depression, self-hatred, etc.)
Because iniquity was first found in him, the accuser, aka “the Satan” is the leader of the fallen angels and disembodied spirits that make up the kingdom of darkness that is ruled by sin. They are the “body of sin.”
Matthew 12:43 references unclean spirits that roam through dry places seeking rest. These unclean spirits come to tempt us to allow them to manifest their nature through us because that is how they accomplish their agenda in the earth. They tempt us through thoughts, how we respond to these thoughts determine how much power they get to have in our lives. We have been trained since birth and in some cases genetically predisposed to follow these spirits, reinforcing their agenda in the earth.
But God has given us a gift to discern spirits. Jesus came not only to expose sin for what it is, but He also defeated it. Then He sent His Spirit to dwell in us so that we would always have TRUTH in us. He said, those that are of the Truth hear His voice. The Holy Spirit is the voice of the Lord within us. The Holy Spirit is our guide into all Truth. That we may know the truth and that the truth would make us free.
What is the voice within?
Do you ever wonder where thoughts come from? Have you ever had a thought and said, “where did that come from?” Well, where do you think it came from?
The mind processes and evaluates thoughts, but the mind doesn’t form thoughts. Thoughts originate and have their source from an intellectual being. Thoughts originate from the spirit and are communicated spirit to spirit through theta brain waves (frequency). If these thoughts are accepted, they are received into the soul and become part of the mind-body connection through beta brain waves.
Beta brain waves focus on signals from around us, they are our connection to the physical world, how we interpret through our 5 physical senses (taste, touch, smell, hear, and see). Theta brain waves focus on signals from within, they are our connection to the spirit world. They can be influenced by the Holy Spirit, and evil spirits.
Going back to the garden, the spirit of man was under the authority of the Spirit of God. Man communed with God, and carried the nature of God, and co-created with God. Man was given dominion over the earth as one under the authority of God. The spirit of man was never meant to be its own governing authority. God is a God of order, and He established the spirit of man to have a ruling spiritual authority. A being of sin came and spoke to Eve from a serpent, something in the physical world because it had no way of speaking to her internally. Through their disobedience to God, Adam and Eve opened the spiritual door and invited the spirit of sin to have authority and rule over the spirit of man. Now they internally had sin influencing their every thought and emotion.
This instantly began to change the nature of man. How do we know this? We can observe it in their behavior which exhibits the behavior of the spirits of Fear, Shame, and Accusation. They heard God coming and they hid themselves:
“Adam, where are you?”
“We’re hiding from you God.” (FEAR).
“Why are you hiding from Me?”
“We hid because we were naked.” (SHAME)
“Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat of the fruit that I told you not to eat of?”
“It was that woman you gave me!” (ACCUSATION)
They didn’t know these feelings before, the Bible even says before their “eyes were opened” they were naked and had no shame. All they knew before was God’s love. All they heard before was God’s voice. But now, as God points out, they were hearing a different voice. Now they knew something else. Now they knew evil. And as the nature of man began to be influenced by the body of sin it began to change the very DNA of man.
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12: NKJV).
The word “world” there is speaking of mankind. Through one man sin entered mankind, and death entered through sin. So now sin rules over all mankind, and death accompanies sin. We see from Adam to Moses a shortened lifespan from 925 years to 120 years and today most are lucky to get 75-85 years.
What we listen to from within becomes formed in us. What dwells in us is what we choose to dwell on. God speaks truth to us through His Spirit but it’s our choice to listen to His truth or listen to a spirit of lies. We think we just have character traits or personality flaws and say, “Well that’s just who I am.” (ie: I’m just a shy person, I just have a short temper, I just don’t fit it anywhere, etc.) But if it doesn’t line up with God’s nature then that isn’t who you really are. That is a mis-aligned perception of who you are.
“For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice, but what I hate, that I do. If then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” (Romans 7:14-17, 21 NKJV).
Paul here makes a distinction between himself and sin. “It isn’t me who does the things I hate, it’s the sin that dwells in me.” He is separating his identity from the identity of sin. Notice he is saying that there is another law, or principle, (in other words ruling authority) within him and it wars against the ruling authority of his mind (the battle is in the mind; the thought life) and it brings him into captivity. Many other places throughout his letters Paul refers to being slaves to sin, serving sin, being in bondage to sin.
What is behavior?
Some years ago, I took a psychology class, and the only thing the instructor wanted us to know at the end of the class was the definition of behavior. Not the Webster’s Dictionary version, his version as a Professor and MD of Psychiatry. It was pounded into us the entire semester that I will never forget it. Somehow, I think God was planting a seed of understanding that would become very valuable to me many years later.
Behavior is the outward manifestation of thoughts and emotions.
Let’s think about this for a minute. If all thoughts are not mine, but some are from a different source than my own spirit, and behavior is the outward manifestation of thoughts that may or may not be my own, is the behavior my behavior or could it be the behavior of another spirit? Think back to Adam and Eve in the garden. One minute, not ashamed. Next minute, they were ashamed. What was different? New thoughts from a different source were presented. Whose behavior was hiding in the bushes, covering up with fig leaves, and lying? That would be the behavior of a spirit of Fear, a spirit of Shame, and a spirit of Accusation being manifested through them. It wasn’t their behavior; they were behaving after an influence. Did you ever have one of your parents say to you as a child, “I think so-and-so is a bad influence on you.” Why would they say that? Probably because your behavior was out of character for you. But because of the influence, you took after it.
Behavior is not a reflection of who we are, it reflects the thoughts we are allowing to dwell in us. When Cain murdered his brother Abel, it wasn’t because he was a murderer, or a bad person. In fact, it probably surprised even him that he was capable of such a thing. Have you ever done something that you never thought you would ever do? Your judgement was so clouded over with fear or anger or confusion and after you look back at it and think, “I never thought I would do something like that.” Or you look at your life and see all the bad decisions that led you to where you are today and you think, I sure never expected my life to turn out like this, but I was running with the wrong crowd and just not thinking right.
Cain was manifesting the thoughts within him: “I’m not good enough. I’ve been rejected. My brother has more value than me. I’m a disappointment. I’m a failure.” And so, Cain’s behavior exhibited unforgiveness, resentment, retaliation, anger, hatred, violence, and murder. But that wasn’t Cain’s personality. That was the personality of a spirit of Bitterness that was fueled by a spirit of Envy and Jealousy and a spirit of Rejection. God tried to warn him, “sin lies at your door and desires to overtake you.” By allowing the spirit of Bitterness to dwell within him, Bitterness overtook him, and Cain committed an act of sin.
James outlines the steps to sin this way: “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” (James 1:14-15 NKJV).
Thoughts are ideas that come to tempt us into behavior or action. Thoughts do not define us, they only present us with opportunities for sin, and they usually come with guilt and accusation already in tow so that we beat ourselves up for even having an evil thought. But remember, those thoughts originated from a being with a fallen nature that wants to manifest its nature through us. And if it can get us to agree and own it as our identity, then it can overtake us. But what if, at the moment the thought presented itself, we recognized that it was a thought from an evil spirit and we exchanged it for what the Word of God says?
God told Cain if he did well, he would be accepted. That word “well” is Yatab (yah-tav) which means to act rightly. See Cain’s offering wasn’t accepted, but Cain was. And God assured him if he acted in the right nature, he was accepted. But the spirit of Envy and Jealousy said, “You’re not like your brother. You didn’t perform as well as him. He has the favor of God. He’s better than you.” The spirit of Rejection said, “You’ll never amount to anything. You’re not important. You’re nobody. Nobody loves you.” The spirit of Bitterness said, “Your brother betrayed you and made you look foolish. He must pay for that. He’s an enemy that must be eliminated. Cain had a choice of who to listen to. And in the end sin overtook him and the result was death.
What is the effect of sin governing our lives?
As James says we are drawn away through strong imagination when we meditate on or are occupied with the thought. When we put our affections on that thought it becomes a desire or our heart. Now, it’s gross to me to think that my heart could desire depression, or rejection, or fear. But remember the heart has no intellect, it follows the thoughts. That is why the Bible says to guard your heart above all else because it is deceitful. We think it’s insightful. Wonder who presented that illusion…David, the Psalmist said, “I hide your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” He said, “I meditate on your law day and night.” He says how much he loves the law of God. Why do you think his heart longed for God so much? Because he meditated on God all the time.
Getting back to James, we are enticed when we are on the verge of committing a sinful act and when our will has been yielded to what the temptation represents, we have desire conceived. Sin is birthed when our hearts come into agreement with it and the wages of sin is death. Death how? It produces separation: from God, ourselves, and others and it produces torment. In agreeing with sin, we bring ourselves under a curse and we endure a gradual decline of spiritual death that effects every aspect of our lives.
We can go to Deuteronomy 28 and read about the two choices Moses presented before the Israelites: Blessings and curses. Life and Death. “Choose life therefore, that you and your descendants may live.” Just a handful of curses found it this chapter include but are not limited to: confusion, destruction to all that you set your hand to, emaciation, fever, inflammation, defeat, ulcers, tumors, diseases of the skin, madness, blindness, confusion of the heart, loss of family, home, vineyard, livestock (blessings stolen), lack, prolonged sickness and even verse 61 says “every sickness and every disease.”
These and many more are the curses for coming into agreement with sin. If these are affecting your life it is very likely you can trace it back to a spiritual root of sin that has affected your thinking, acting, speaking, your decision making, your perception, your relationships, your life circumstances, and your health.
The body is a responder to our thoughts. When we are in agreement with the enemy’s kingdom we make our bodies a host for disease. When we are obedient to God’s word and live out of right relationship with Him, our bodies respond, and come into proper order, alignment, and balance.
The Bible instructs us how to think, how to see God rightly, how to be in relationship with God and ourselves and others, how to defend ourselves from the thief that comes to steal, kill, and destroy. (John 10:10)
“My words are life to all who find them and health to all their flesh.” (Proverbs 4:22 NKJV).
What is repentance?
We need to come out of agreement with sin so that it no longer has a legal right to rule over us. The definition of the word repent means deep sorrow or remorse. We do need to have that, because in agreeing with sin and allowing it to be our master we do damage to ourselves and others and to God’s great plans for us. We need to see that damage and take responsibility for partnering with it.
The Greek word for repent used in the Bible (Metanoeo) means to think differently or reconsider. I never could understand that until I understood the source of my thoughts. See, because as long as my thoughts were my own, my problem was always with me. But once I realized there was another source my thoughts were coming from, then I could fight back. I could take those thoughts captive instead of them taking me captive. I could bring them to the Holy Spirit and say, “I’d like to trade this illusion for a reality please.” And He will give me one! And as I dwell on that reality that He gives me, life is being imprinted on my very soul. And the love of God is what is reflected in my behavior.
What is deliverance?
Acts 2:38: After the Holy Spirit fell on 120 people in the Upper Room and Peter gave his first sermon to the people in the streets he says, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Notice he doesn’t say repent, be baptized, and then you shall receive the Holy Spirit…he is saying “and also receive the Holy Spirit”. Sometimes we think we must clean ourselves up before we can be a temple for the Spirit of God to dwell in. That is an illusion from the enemy. One of the functions of the Holy Spirit is to consecrate us, meaning He cleans us up. He is the one that begins the work of forming us into the image of Christ. As we yield to Him and let Him lead us, He will lead us into all Truth and away from every illusion that ever held us in bondage. We were never meant to do it without Him. He is our guide out of captivity and into freedom!
Let’s dig into some of the words from that last scripture in Acts 2:38:
- Baptized means to be washed or fully emersed. I like to think of it as “all in.”
- Name refers to authority and character. We are to be washed and fully emersed into the very nature and essence of Jesus.
- Remission means freedom or deliverance, no longer under the weight of sin.
- Receive means to get a hold of.
- Gift here is like gratuity. An act of graciousness; something given voluntarily over and above what is due; a payment made to a released convict in order to help him reestablish himself in society and sometimes in lieu of wages for labor performed in prison. “For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is Eternal Life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23 NKJV).
Let’s take another look at Acts 2:38 with an expanded view:
“Change the way you think, be washed and fully immersed in the authority and character of Jesus Christ unto the freedom and deliverance from the imprisonment and bondage of sin, and get a hold of the Holy Spirit who will re-establish you in TRUTH and restore you in your identity as sons and daughters of God, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, made in His image, marked with His fingerprint, expressing His full nature in the earth.”
Because that is the TRUTH of why we are here.
