Paper Lies and the Law of Love
Mary Ann Wray
I had a dream a while back where I was at a church listening to a sermon, when all of a sudden, little yellow pieces of paper (similar to post it notes) with legs began running out of the church towards the foyer door then out of the building.
As the little papers with feet ran out of the building, people were being set free from bondages and the place was emptied out as the Holy Spirit washed over God’s flock with the word of the Lord. I asked the Lord what these pieces of paper were and He said, “Lies”.
You see, when God’s word is declared, that is free of ad-mixture, people can get liberated. The lies of the enemy, are like post-it notes. They stick to our thinking and declare and decree things over us and to us that are untrue. They are half truths about God, ourselves and others. These “paper lies” seek to rule and dominate our thinking frustrating the flow of God’s grace and power to us and through us. Once a lie in thought form is conceived it births sin (hamartia-missing the mark). Sin births pain, separation from God, confusion, and displacement from God’s best while offering ‘temporary pleasure’. When sin is fully developed it results in death which is a serious wage to pay for its cheap thrills.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ, yanks these paper lies from our thoughts! When lies get exposed and dislodged from our thinking we begin to live again in those areas where the enemy held us captive! Jesus house (you and me) gets cleansed and emptied out - free from Satan’s dominion and the result is freedom from fear and bondage by the truth! Jesus said as a man thinks in his heart, so he is.
The biggest battle ground is the mind and the enemy of our souls knows this. Therefore, he uses lies and negative thoughts to ultimately defeat us. There’s nothing new under the sun. The same thing happened in the Garden with Eve…”Did God really mean what He said?” He adds to the Father’s Words and intentions bringing us into a place of mistrust and suspicion about His goodness.
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.” 2 Corinthians 10: 3-6
After it was all said and done, God “de-feeted” the devil when He cursed him to crawl on his belly. Satan is a ground dweller but you and I have been risen with Christ and seated with Him in Heavenly places. You’ve got to think like that: think high-not low, using the Word of God as your shield and buckler! If the enemy can keep us ‘earthly’ minded he knows we are at his level…easily defeated. Walking by faith is taking God’s Word as it is and waging war with it against the enemy of our souls…DAILY!
The lies of the enemy are the handwriting of ordinances that demons constantly accuse us and God with. If he can’t accuse us directly he will get us to depend on them for a sense of self-righteousness. The truth is, none of us can never ‘measure up’ to the laws demands. That’s why Jesus died for us! Only Jesus could fully measure up to God’s Holy and High standard because He was and is SINLESS! The good news my friends, is that the ordinances against us such as ‘touch not, taste not, handle not,” were nailed to the cross! Pride, on the other hand makes us think we’ve arrived by fulfilling some measure of righteousness on our own and have certain things figured out; whether it be life or our ministry things. Once we depend on anything other than Holy Spirit we set ourselves up for a gradual fade from God's Glory. The moment we start relying on our own good works to justify us before God in any way shape or form, we’ve fallen from the place of grace into a trap of pride, the same as Lucifer.
“When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.” Colossians 4: 13-15
Following ordinances, rules, laws and regulations can’t get you to heaven and keep you out of hell any more than washing a pig will convert it into a different animal. The blood of Jesus was and is enough to wash away our sins and give us the power to live free of sins’ dominion. The greatest dominion and authority you and I have my friends, is the freedom to live free of sin, its wages and Satan’s influence. When you fully accept Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for your sins He exchanges your old sinful nature with His nature of LOVE! Jesus is THE WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE. Regardless of your past, present and future, Jesus blood and grace is more than ENOUGH to give you the desire and power to live a sin free, overcoming life. When you and I truly get a revelation of that, we become a nuisance, hindrance and terrorist to the devil’s domain!
If the enemy can get you to believe his lies, he can get you to cross back over from the bridge of faith and grace into laws, regulations and doubt. As such, these lies bind you back to fear rather than the love of God. God’s perfect love casts out ALL fear. Fear has torment i.e., “Am I good enough; Does God really love me? Am I doing enough? Am I giving enough? Do I have a demon?” “Will I even make it to Heaven?” “I am rejected and not good enough.” etc etc etc. The enemy captures you in a ‘lie’ that keeps you in doubt and out of God’s light and love.
Jesus said, “You will KNOW the TRUTH and the TRUTH will make you FREE.” The current church wrestles with the same kinds of ordinances against us that the early church did. There were Judiazers and those who tried to add the law back into salvation rather than depend on grace through faith. Grace is not a one-time event nor a Card Blanc’ to live carelessly. Grace’s influence upon the soul makes you careful so as not to offend God or man through recklessness. Carelessness is not in your spiritual vocabulary. Before Christ you didn’t care who you offended, what you did, what you said or what you did. Grace is God’s power to change day by day and live the life out loud that Christ died to give us. The early church apostles opposed the ad-mixture of law and grace vehemently. There were only four ordinances the early church was admonished to follow after salvation. They were/ are: 1. do not eat meat that has been from a strangled animal; 2. do not drink blood; 3. do not eat meat offered to idols and 4. Abstain from fornication (See Acts 15: 29; Acts 21: 25; 1 Corinthians 8). That’s it!
Any other rule or regulation imposed by religion is not included in these ordinances mentioned and only bring men back into the bondage of fear rather than faith that works by love. There are still religious leaders who want to build a system of man-made security rather than getting people to fully rely on Jesus, The Holy Spirit and God’s grace. As such, they seek control and keep church revenue for their “businesses”. When we value people based on what they can give us and or contribute to the ministry rather than whose they are and meeting them where they are as Jesus did, we are in business not ministry. If we would exert as much energy preaching Jesus crucified, risen from the dead and teaching people to seek and walk in the Power of the Spirit as the disciples did, we’d turn our communities upside down-but with persecutions of course! How can I make such a bold statement? Just read the book of Acts and see how it’s done.
As New Testament believers, we are to be filled and led by the Sprit. He said He would write His commandments on our hearts. That’s the work of the inward witness of the Spirit living on the inside of us. That is the wonderful privilege of sonship (John 1: 12). If ever we needed teaching about anything these days, it is learning what it means to be a son of God rather than a slave to fear and to learn how hear His voice while being controlled by the Spirit! That would get a lot of pastors off the hook with dealing with the same sin issues over and over again with people while trying to counsel demons out of them. I’m not saying counsel and deliverance from demons isn’t needed but we do way too much talking when we should be praying and fasting first to get the mind and heart of the Spirit in the matter. When ministry becomes 'automatic' it becomes dogmatic. Why not point people to the wonderful counselor and teach them who they are in Christ, bless them in prayer and trust Holy Spirit to do the rest? Can I get an Amen?
It’s exhausting work ruling over people with a lot of talk and regulations. All it does is lead to strife, debate and divisions. Look what it did to the Pharisees. We are to lead by example, preaching/ teaching the Word of the Lord and a deep prayer life. Miracles follow! Paul told Timothy:
“I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
The best safeguard against false doctrine is to preach and teach the truth. Bashing other ministers and ministries only leads to negativity. Jesus said, “If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me!” When you teach and know the truth you can begin to recognize the counterfeit. Best yet, teach and live in a way that will develop more of a hunger for more truth and revelation! It’s contagious! Have you sat under good teaching and revelation that made you want to go home and search it out and get even more from Holy Spirit as you did that? That’s what a delicious satisfying steak will do for you. You will only crave more!
Jesus didn’t die to control us. We have a free will and wants us to desire and delight to follow Him. He died to set you free so that through the knowledge and revelation of His love you will want to love Him and others in return. Freely you have received; so freely you will give! The greatest commandment is LOVE!
The Pharisees saw Jesus was a revolutionary reformer and as such very subversive to their current religious system. So one of their attorney’s asked him a question one day as if to trap Him: “Master what is the greatest commandment?” (see Matthew 22: 37). Without blinking an eye, Jesus quoted the very commandment out of Deuteronomy Chapter 6 they were accustomed to hearing. The first portion of the prayer Jesus omitted is referred to as the “Shema”; “Hear O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” This was and is a prayer that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services. It seems the religious scribes, lawyers and Pharisees, left off the very important second part of this decree that Jesus quoted in context. It was the part about loving God with your whole heart! Perhaps the law of ‘love’ had become obscured to them through all of their 613 ‘fence laws.’ Fences keep people off your property and make it difficult, if not impossible to enter.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6: 4-9
Jesus tore down the wall of partition that kept men out of His presence and opened the way for you and me to come boldly before Him to find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4: 16)! In Luke 10: 27, Luke added a bit more insight to this account between Jesus and another law maker who must have overheard His verbal exchange recorded in Matthew:
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