Prayer Target: Breaking Off The Lies And Condemnation Of The Enemy"

God does not want us walking in shame, guilt and condemnation. He overcame all of that when Jesus died on the Cross and then rose from the dead.. He broke the power of guilt and condemnation over us and set us free to be in intimate relationship with Him. But Satan does not want us to know that.. in fact, he works very hard to bring believers under bondage of guilt and condemnation.. through lies and false accusations

Satan's basic nature is of a liar and deceiver. He is a once powerful angelic being who was cast out of heaven and then totally defeated and rendered powerless and empty when Jesus died on the cross at Calvary. He has lost his power, but he has not lost his astuteness and ability to communicate in a covert fashion. The consequence of this is that he can put untruths into the minds of believers and unbelievers alike. This means that he has as much power as people are fooled into giving him.

Right at the start, he used subtle lies and distorted truths to cause Adam and Eve to fall into deadly sin. He knew he couldn't strong-arm them out of their intimacy with God, so as a well-informed legalist, he chose a method that would cause them to disobey God and reap the terrible consequences of handing over to him the authority that God had granted them. Satan wanted two things, to destroy their relationship with God and to make them lose their authority, both of which he had lost by his rebellion.

The same dangers apply today. Humans have a basic weakness as a consequence of the fall, that we are prone to the lies of the enemy. Unbelievers are thrown into hell in droves because of them, and believers are a target because we represent such a threat to the kingdom of darkness. The answer is found in recognising these lies for what they are, and repelling them. God's truth is the light that shines in the darkness that lies produce, and the darkness cannot overcome it.

One mode of enemy operation is that he pretends to be "us", trying to make his thoughts sound like our own, which is totally opposite to the way God operates. God desires for us to discern His voice in amongst all the stimuli and thoughts we have.

The lies of the enemy are always carefully crafted to appeal either to the natural, reasoning mind, or to the mind set on the flesh. The aim is to set us at a distance from God, even to sever our relationship with Him, or to make us miserable whilst we seek to stay close to God. The lies come in the form of temptations to sin and once we have given in to them, condemnation will flood in to make us doubly unhappy.

On a personal note, sometimes I get bombarded with lies that try to tell me I am a bad person and have messed up in some way or other. They might start to get the better of me, maybe because I'm tired or feeling a little low. At that point, I focus on just how much the Father loves me and let the truth of it flow up from deep within my spirit, where the Holy Spirit has firmly embedded that certainty. The lies then just vanish like smoke.

God wants us to know our true identity in Him. He desires to free us from the lies of the enemy and invites us to walk in His truth. The key to success is often in recognizing the difference between the lies of the enemy and the truth of God.. .and realizing when we are buying into the enemy's lie.. a lie designed to separate us from the intimate fellowship that God desires to have with us.

It is time to break off condemnation and to put aside the lies of the enemy.. to ensure our hearts are right with God (and deal with any real sin) and then to allow Him to define us as we truly are.. holy and pure throught the blood of Jesus

Let us pray...

Father, we affirm that You love us so much. Would You please show us if we have invited sin into our hearts as a result of the devil's lies. Please alert us to the lies of the enemy and let us know when we are falling prey to them. Show us how You really see us. Empower us to walk in Your truth.

In Jesus name, we come against and cut off the lies and condemnation of the enemy that have been sent against us, we break off the effect of those lies, and Father, we ask You to release Your truth and your acceptance into our lives. Amen.

Please feel free to pray into this topic during the week, to build on one another's prayers and also to discuss insights you have on the week's prayer target. Post your prayers and /or discussion to the prayer-school list by emailing them to this address: prayer-school@xc.org

Please limit your prayer/discussion to the current week's prayer target; please do not pray into or discuss previous week's prayer targets. However, if you have a praise report to answered prayer from a previous week's prayer activity, please feel free to post them any time.