No one who
practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue
before my eyes. (Psalm 101:7)
As we have discussed in previous posts, sin entered the
world through the lens of deceit. The
serpent deceived Eve, Eve passed the deception on to Adam, Adam and Eve then attempted to deceive God by hiding from Him, and then Adam and Eve denied their
responsibility by blaming someone else; Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the
serpent. It ultimately came down to the false promises of impunity, wisdom, and
material sustenance. The temptation was
too much for Eve (and subsequently Adam) to resist.
It works in similar fashion for us. We are tempted by something desired by our
flesh, but ultimately it robs us of what we really need. It can also open us to spiritual bondage, as
explain by Neal
Lozano:
“Demons serve only themselves and the devil’s
purposes. Their thoughts are always
lies, and these lies are destructive thoughts that obscure the nature of God,
drawing us into agreement through sin.
Demons seek always to destroy our destiny by separating us from the life
of God and by usurping our authority on Earth.
Evil spirits take advantage of our nature by initiating relationships
the same way they did in the Garden. They present to us a temptation characterized by deception, all for the
purpose of gaining control. Our response
to that deception gives demons access to us.
We come into bondage based on our sinful response to the empty promises. First we entertain the lies and the false
images in our minds; then, we believe our emotional response; and finally, we
surrender our identity to a lie.”
This identification with the lies often creates a veil of
denial that prevents us from seeing the truth of a situation. Think of the addict that cannot see how his/her
actions are impacting their friends and families. Think about how they are always the victim
and cannot see how the addiction puts them in the situations they are in. Think about the narcissist that can never be
wrong. If they are wrong, it has to be
because someone else gave them bad information or made a mistake. But, the reality is that we all have these
spiritual blind spots that hamper our spiritual growth. These blind spots grow over time, often
without giving us any clue to their existence.
To experience the fullness of Christ’s presence in our
lives, we must learn to identify where these patterns of deception and denial
exists in our lives. We must learn to
see those situations for what they really are as opposed to how we have
perceived them to be. A
spiritual director can be an objective partner in talking through different
perspectives of a situation, listening to where God is in the situation, and
discerning the Light and Truth of Christ in the situation. In the cases where the situation has
deteriorated to spiritual bondage, a spiritual director can help guide through
renouncing of the spirits involved and taking authority back over the
situation in order to attain true freedom and peace in Christ.
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