Monday, November 7, 2011

Where Do the Lies Come From

The last post we talked about the fact that as we are stopped by being successful, happy and content in life because of the "lies that we believe" about ourselves and God.  Today I want to look at where these lies come from.

The most obvious place these lies come from are from life experiences. This is what it looks like:

We have an experience in childhood mostly - in our family, in school, in the neighborhood and that experience early in our life creates a belief.  A belief about ourselves, sometimes others and sometimes God.

If that experience was a bad or negative experience then the belief will be bad or negative or in other words "a lie"  How do we know that a belief that you have about yourself or God is a lie?   If it doesn't line up with what God says in His Word it is a lie.

So then we go along in life believing this "lie" and then we begin to "expect" our belief to be fulfilled so we behave according to the lie we believe - then the end result is another experience that reinforces the "lie" that we believe.

Let me give you an example:

You have an experience of being abandoned early in life - your mom or dad leave - because of divorce or they just never were there or maybe even they emotionally aren't there - so your belief system starts to tell you "people I love will always leave me"  then you become a teenager and meet your first love and as usually happens it doesn't work - and they leave - the belief is now reinforced - now the "lie" that " everyone I love will always leave me" or "I will always be alone"  or "no one accepts me for who I am" and you now "expect" people to hurt you and leave you.......

So then to protect yourself you begin to build walls around yourself emotionally - making sure that no one get close enough to hurt you.  Those walls could look like anger or indifference or lack of intimacy.  In other words you have now adopted a behavior that pushes people away or sabotage's relationships so you experience once again those closest to you leaving or being distant or disconnected but now it's not because of them but because of your behavior.

So now your false belief is reinforced over and over until it is so entrenched inside your spirit and soul that it is part of you.

The way to stop the Belief – Expectation cycle is to intervene between the Experience and the Belief stages of the cycle. We must choose God’s truth as our new belief. When we replace the old lie with God’s truth, then the other parts of the cycle will change.

Think of an example of a "Lie" that has operated in your life. 
What experience got this belief established? 
What expectations and behaviors come out of this belief? 
Are you ready to change this belief? 

Next post we will look at how to recognize the lies..... so we can change them


And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."  John 8:32