3 Chronicles 18:22

Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil against thee.

We have all played with those golfers who can’t keep an accurate score. Either they miss a hole for everyone and get the whole card off track or seemingly never make anything worse than a bogey on a hole. They have no intellectual deficits and I don’t think purposely try to cheat, but are regularly unable to write down an accurate score. They seem to have a skewed perception of reality.

God will permit those who desire to be deceived to be in fact deceived in order to accomplish His desired will. In the aforementioned verse, God desired to bring judgment upon Ahab, but needed someone to convince him to enter into battle. God allowed a willing fallen angel to work through an unfaithful prophet.

We live in a world of people who want to contort the truth in a fashion to deceive. The facts are diluted in a dramatic fashion and then distributed instantly to the world through the internet. Even the “fact checkers” manipulate the facts to deceive a particular side of people.

Once upon a time, we were able to depend upon the validity what is written and reported by our news outlets. Now sensationalism and dissension is what attract viewers. The facts are manipulated into what the writer needs them to be.

Sadly, many of today’s churches are being deceived by this “lying spirit.” Denominations are compromising basic Christian tenets in order to “not offend” and “cater” to as many people possible. Any attempt to align with the world is an influence of a “lying spirit.” The odds are you have a problem if the world doesn’t have any problem with your spiritual direction. The feeling of contentment is not one birthed by the Holy Spirit. The spirit of compromise is not a characteristic of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is only able to bring forth what is the truth and is often the uncomfortable truth.

The “lying spirit” is often a spirit of condemnation for the believer. The devil tempts the Christian into a sinful behavior then brings doubt into his or her heart as spiritual strength and presence. Thankfully, our God is the truth and will always dispel the “lying spirit.” We have this assurance written in 1 John 3:20 that “For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.” We have a Savior who corrects and will attest to the scorecard of the faithful believer. One day this scorecard will be forever reconciled in glory for those who have believed upon Jesus Christ and placed faith in Him as Savior.