Prophetic Warning: If you receive a lie, it will put you in chains...Only the Truth can set you free

People have subjected themselves to intentional blindness and bondage by submitting themselves to myths, lies, deception and speculations. Paul warned his spiritual son Timothy about such things:

1 Timothy 4:7 Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.
1 Timothy 1:4 nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith.
1 Timothy 6:3-5 If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.
2 Timothy 3:5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.

Paul was pretty concerned about the effect of lies and speculations in the House of God and what that will do to a believer. Many well meaning good people are captured by these bondages that have the net effect of putting them in chains. It's not just in the world where deception has taken hold, judgment starts in the house of the Lord.

If you have email it isn't long until you start receiving forwarded stories about the FCC, the Illuminati, the chip we are all going to have to take and a hundred other strange speculative emails from well meaning friends. Most of these seem harmless enough but the the steady drip drip drip of them will have the net effect of putting you and me in chains if we regard them.

I am not going to list them all here, but you have received them. I most of the time check them out. Nearly ALL of them are false. Sensational. But false. Harmless? NO! A thousand times NO!

Believing a thing builds either hope or despair. If it builds hope, it's of God. If it builds despair, it's of the enemy. The devil's desire is to bind you up, put you in chains, stop you from being effective, silence your voice for truth...or at least discredit it.

An example might be the belief that the government is going to outlaw all religious programming on the airwaves. That story has been around for twenty years. It's not true, but it rings true because people don't trust government and see an anti Christian bias when they look at the government. So it's easy to believe.

The problem with believing this is we expend energy and anger towards an untruth. We sign petitions. We send Emails. We contact our congressman. Our trust of anything governmental is lessened. Our anger towards those in authority over us causes a spirit of rebellion to enter in. We begin to figure out ways to cheat the government. We don't see government as US. We no longer are active for positive change because we don't believe it will do any good.

This myth has then in effect put a set of chains around us. Bound us up. In a small way has neutralized us.

This can happen to a Church. When a Church starts espousing myths and speculations (even quietly among the people), it causes people to become uncertain. It diverts attention from the centrality of the Good News and ultimately renders that Church ineffective. It's what has happened to the Church in the USA. We have majored on minors so long, argued about speculative things, considered the color of vestments while the world goes to hell all around us.

IF the Church of Jesus ever returned to the absolute truth of the Gospel in America it would see it's influence double...triple....off the charts. Instead somewhere along the way the theology of conspiracies, the doctrines of secret plots, the eschatology of evil men plotting against us has replaced our hope in God. It's not just politics. It's on every christian radio station on the weekend. Health scams. Pyramid Schemes. Get rich quick programs. Debt cancellation. Free this, quick that. ON CHRISTIAN RADIO.

And its in the church. As a result people divert Hope in a Mighty God for hope in some plan, three steps or otherwise, to "Save" them. Much of it seems well meaning, but they are schemes that deny the power of God. I won't define all of them here, but much of the Financial counseling many churches embrace is a cover for faithlessness. I'm all for good sound stewardship and financial responsibility. But many Christians have replaced the old hymn, "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus and his Righteousness"....to a Dirge that diverts hope to "my hope is built on nothing less than a good financial plan and my 401K". The lie puts them in financial bondage.

We need a Holy Ghost Dope Slap. Stop believing all the half truths, myths and deceptions. Break off those chains. The Chains that have bound you too long. It's time to come back to Jesus. We need a revival of Truth. The Way, the Truth and the Life. His name is Jesus.

I'm not angry. I'm saddened by those who believe the myths.

In the next part of this, I will define how Satan's lies have captured a whole culture and almost destroyed it.