Lies, Deceit And Flattery

DEFINITIONS  

1. LIE, LIED, LYING: to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive; to create a false or misleading impression; to affect by telling lies; to tell an untruth; an assertion of something known or believed by the speaker to be untrue with intent to deceive; an untrue or inaccurate statement that may or may not be believed true by the speaker; something that misleads or deceives.

2. LIE, PREVARICATE, EQUIVOCATE, PALTER, FIB mean to tell an untruth. LIE is the blunt term, imputing dishonesty; PREVARICATE softens the bluntness of lie by implying quibbling or confusing the issue; EQUIVOCATE implies using words having more than one sense so as to seem to say one thing but intend another; PALTER implies making unreliable statements of fact or intention or insincere promise; FIB applies to a telling of a trivial untruth.

3. DECEIT: the act or practice of deceiving; DECEPTION: an attempt or device to deceive; TRICK: the quality of being deceitful; DECEITFULNESS.

4. DECEIVE: ensnare; to be false to; to fail to fulfill; cheat; to cause to accept as true or valid what is false or invalid; to while away.

5. DECEIVE, MISLEAD, DELUDE, BEGUILE mean to lead astray or frustrate usually by underhandedness. DECEIVE implies imposing a false idea or belief that causes ignorance, bewilderment, or helplessness; MISLEAD implies a leading astray that may or may not be intentional; DELUDE implies deceiving so thoroughly as to obscure the truth; BEGUILE stresses the use of charm and persuasion in deceiving.

6. DISHONEST: shameful, unchaste; characterized by lack of truth, honesty, or trustworthiness; UNFAIR, DECEPTIVE.

7. DISHONEST, DECEITFUL, MENDACIOUS, LYING, UNTRUTHFUL mean unworthy of trust or belief. DISHONEST implies a willful perversion of truth in order to deceive, cheat, or defraud; DECEITFUL usually implies an intent to mislead and commonly suggests a false appearance or double-dealing; MENDACIOUS is less forthright than lying, may suggest bland or even harmlessly mischievous deceit, and used of people often suggests a habit of telling untruths; LYING implies a specific act or instance rather than a habit or tendency; UNTRUTHFUL is less brutal term than lying and in application to accounts or description stresses a discrepancy between what is said and fact or reality rather than an intent to deceive.

8. FLATTERY: the act or practice of flattering; something that flatters; insincere or excessive praise; a pleasing self-deception. 9. FEIGN: to give a false appearance of; induce as a false impression; to assert as if true; pretend; invent, imagine; to give fictional representation to; disguise, conceal.

10. VANITY: something that is vain, empty, or valueless; the quality or fact of being vain; inflated pride in oneself or one's appearance; conceit.

11. FALSE: not genuine; intentionally untrue; adjusted or made so as to deceive; tending to mislead; not true; not faithful or loyal; treacherous; appearing forced or artificial; unconvincing; based on mistaken ideas; inconsistent with the facts; IMPRUDENT, UNWISE, FAITHLESS.

GOD IS TRUTH - God is ultimate truth. He imparts his truth to us primarily through the written Word of God which we are expected to learn and use in a workmanlike manner. In addition, Almighty God speaks to us through his Holy Spirit into our human spirits. Jesus Christ is our attorney before Almighty God; He presents our defense to God and asks that God show us the Truth of Jesus Christ. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are truth and they want us to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. His ways are above our ways and his thoughts are above our thoughts. He has all wisdom and knowledge. We are expected to seek Him and He will impart His Wisdom and Knowledge to use thought the Holy Spirit. The Truth of Jesus Christ will set you free. God never makes a mistake and does not have to change His Mind about what He does.

I have to testify in courts. I have to swear to tell the truth before I can testify. If I am caught lying, I can be sent to prison. Maybe we should make the preachers swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help me God before they start preaching.

GOD WILL NOT LIE - Where would you be if you could not trust God in everything? Where would you be if you could not trust the Bible in everything; what would you believe and what would you not believe? You are risking your eternity on what God says in His Word. You are also risking your life here on earth. Most Christians tend to look at the here-and-now rather than the here and after, which is the most important. It is such a blessing to relax in God and trust Him in all things, and not to have to trust in ourselves.

No one is perfect or ever will be perfect on this earth except for Jesus Christ. I find that I make mistakes in judgement in my dealings with people and with the things of the world. I also sin and have to ask forgiveness of the Father. If you will read or listen to the Bible and compare it to your life, you will find that you fall far short of what the Bible tells you to do. Do you love God with all your heart, soul and mind or is there some reservation for the things of this world? Do you love your neighbor as yourself; how are you treating your neighbors? I have the whole Bible on cassette tape and listen to it continuously at night and also while I am in the cars. See Mark 12:30-31.

RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HOLINESS - If you want to live in righteousness and holiness, then you will not lie or think lies. Think about God and Satan hearing every lie that you speak out of your mouth or think about in your mind. Think about God and Satan taking action on those lies; God will not bless and Satan will fulfill the curses.

Preachers talk a lot about living a holy life in righteousness. Many times they tell you to do something but do not tell you how to do it. It does no good to tell a person to do something in the Lord unless you tell them how to do it according to the Bible.

THE LITTLE WHITE LIE - How many Christians feel that they can tell a little white lie and it will not hurt anything? How do you know that it will not hurt anyone? What damage could it cause you and those related to you: Christian family and blood-related family? Since we are the Body of Christ and every Christian is related to every other Christian, then what we do affects everyone else. Every lie gives Satan an opportunity to use it against you and against the person you told the lie to. He might even petition God for an opportunity to get at you. Jesus Christ will not defend you when you tell a lie. Look at what happened to the Body of Christ when some Christian leaders fell and the media took over the persecution.

Why not tell the truth in love? We have found that tough love is a good way to help people. If you truly love that person, you will tell them the truth. If you are after some selfish gain, you will not be truthful with that person so that they will feel good about you and let you have your way. God tells us the truth to help us; Satan tells us a lie to hurt us.

EVANGELISTICALLY SPEAKING - This is a term used by ministers to talk about their meetings, church or congregation. They exaggerate the numbers to make them look good to other ministers and Christians. This is another white lie.

THE DELIBERATE LIE - When a Christian tells a deliberate lie, they are really opening themselves up to a demonic attack. They fully know it is a lie but they deliberately go ahead and tell it anyway.

See if you fit the following description of liars, which I took out of the Bible. You would be called a liar. You could say your father is the Devil because he is the father of lies. Just like him, your part will be in the Lake; you shall not escape and shall perish. Liars are failures, use bad tactics, a sword is upon them, are deceivers have naughty tongues, poor men are better, commit perjury in the spiritual world, and the truth is not in them.

Liars set a trap for themselves, do not respect themselves, delight in lies, are false witnesses, make lies their refuge, lie to God's people, cause themselves to make mistakes, will eat the fruit of their lies, think-up lies, teach and prophesy lies, trust in lies, are weary with lies, are an abomination to God, are recognized as liars, do not walk in the Spirit, are false, lie to God, walk in darkness, and speak in hypocrisy.

FLATTERY - You are trying to deceive the person by being insincere and praising the person without justification. You see a lot of flattery in the Christian and carnal worlds. You expect it in the carnal world where people are trying to get the upper hand and advance their cause. We should not have to see it in the Christian world.

Why are Christian laymen and ministers so weak that they need to be praised just to do their jobs? Why do pastors have to build themselves up and have their congregations build them up? Why do people try to get the Glory that belongs to God? These people have a problem with pride, ego and vanity, or with insecurity, inferiority and rejection, or with selfishness, greed and self- serving.

PRETENDING - Pretending is another form of lying. You could use synonyms like affectation, theatrics, playacting, sophistication, pretension, etc. God hates the smell of your offering because it is false. He sees through your front and into your inner man where the true self resides.

You put on your Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes and artificial face. This is your facade to show the world that you are a good Christian. You may act like the Devil before or after the service. During the service you do and say the right things. You live for God one hour of the week and then live for yourself the rest of the week. Christianity is a full-time profession not just during the times that the church door is open for meetings. You have to work at being a good Christian it is not a spectator sport.

Women especially have problems with pretending to prove that they are allright in the sight of God and man. Their voices will be high-pitched, piercing and falsetto or they will be harsh, rough and angry, or they will be pious, religious and in another tone. In other words their voices will not be natural as if another personality took over and the true personality was submerged.

Men tend to be more natural than women. They exhibit their pretense in their overdressing, hair styles, makeup, perfume and jewelry. They pray in a falsetto voice. They try to appear to be very dignified and in control of every situation. They may exhibit false tears for appearance.

DECEIT AND DECEPTION - It is sad to see all of the deceit and deception going on in the Christian world today. Most of it stems from those who are trying to build their ministry rather than letting God build His ministry in that person or church. It can take the form of trying to build an edifice for one man who must raise a lot of money. It can be a pastor of a local church who must be dictatorial and flattered. It is usually self-centered in one man or a small group of men and women.

These practices go on for years until something happens and that person falls. Then the Christian world catches it from the media who don't like Christians anyway. The falls of these men affect all of Christianity. They have affected our ministry and all of Christianity; people do not trust the public ministries which raise money they same way that they did before the falls of the leaders.

PRIDE, EGO AND VANITY - I like the definition of vainness: emptiness. The self- inflated pride is emptiness. It is like a lot of hot air and the person needs their balloon punctured. They need to come down to earth and accept reality in their lives. God hates pride because the people want to be gods rather than accept God's leadership.  

FALSENESS - Anything that is false is contrary to God and will cause us problems of some sort. Falseness can be found in religions, churches, ministries, families and individuals. It can be found in human beings and material things. The human being is trying to be someone other than his natural self. He is using material things to try to achieve an image that he wants to portray.

CHEATING - Lying leads to cheating and cheating leads to lying; they work hand- in-hand. Cheating can take many forms: cheating on the marriage and family, cheating on the ministry and church finances, cheating on the Lord in tithes and offerings, cheating on the business and income taxes, and in general taking ungodly advantage of others in some form. We can cheat mentally, physically, spiritually or materially. Cheating on God is called spiritual adultery or the whoring after other gods. It could be called spiritual idolatry, the love of money, lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and pride of life.

DISHONESTY - A dishonest person must lie to cover their tracks. One lie leads to another and the person becomes a compulsive liar. A dishonest Christian will lie to God or try to reason with God about his actions or try to rationalize his actions in his mind. This person can not be trusted. A Christian must first be honest with God and then honest with themselves. It is much easier to face the truth head on; in the short run it hurts but in the long run it pays off. It pays to have godly qualities of truth and realism; God tells it like it is. There is no Christian fantasy in God. There is no fantasy in how God made this world; it works perfectly according to His plan. John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

RESPONSIBILITY OF A MINISTER - The minister has a frightening responsibility before God to tell the truth. God holds the minister to a higher burden of responsibility than He does the layman that does not teach. The minister will have to answer to God for every word that he has used to teach God's people. The only salvation is that we are constantly learning and will never know it all until God finishes His teaching in eternity. If we had to wait until we were perfect, there would be no ministers.

I pity the minister that chooses not to teach an unpopular portion of the Word of God, such as deliverance, which was about a fourth of the ministry of Jesus Christ. The pastor should teach the whole Bible, not just the parts he likes. Any part of the Bible that you are ignorant of will cause you grief in some form. It will also cause the pastor grief when he has to answer to God in the Great Day of Judgement as well as in the here and now.

Excerpts from the Deliverance Manual