Don’t Listen to These 5 Lies From The Devil

[Music] Welcome to Vlad's Subcheck Podcast. Our mission at Vladimir's Subcheck Ministries is to reach the world globally and disciple them digitally. Let's dive into this episode. [Music] Have you ever had a day where nothing actually happened? But inside of your mind, it felt like everything was falling apart. You felt anxious, condemned, confused, tempted, and it's like you were losing it, and then you realized, wait, now I was mostly in my head. Well, let me tell you what that is. A mind game. A devil is not just after your behavior, he's after your beliefs, he's after your focus, he's after your thoughts, he's after your identity. And the scary part? Many of his attacks are not facts, they are illusions. Today we're going to expose five mind games that the devil plays, how to recognize them, and also how to shut them down with the truth of God's Word. The Bible says that Satan is a liar and the Father of lies, John chapter 8 verse 44. We are also told to take our thoughts captive, 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 5. We are told we are transformed by the renewing of our mind, Romans chapter 12 verse 2. So spiritual warfare is not just out there. It's up and right here. It's the battlefield of the mind. So let's go through these games. The first game is What If? Exiting. And this is the devil's favorite. The future hasn't happened yet, so he whispers, what if you fail? What if you lose everything? What if God doesn't come through? What if you mess up again? And your imagination begins to create a like a movie and you go into a movie theater of fear. When Jesus said, do not worry about tomorrow, Matthew chapter 6. Here's the truth. Exiety is faith in the wrong direction. Exiety is that the devil will show up. It's really faith that devil will show up. You're using your faith to believe the worst. You can't prove it. You don't have evidence for that. You're using your imagination to assume and expect the worst. So here's how you break it. You replace What If with Even If. So even if the storm comes, God will see me through. Even if this will happen, God will come through. Remember the three Hebrew boys who went through the fire and they said, our God is able. But even if he doesn't, what's going to happen is we're going to trust in him. And this is what faith is. Faith is not nothing bad will happen. Faith is even if I trust in God. Jesus doesn't tell us not to worry about tomorrow because tomorrow is always going to be like we want it full of sunshine. But even if God will carry me through. Therefore we bring our request to God with things giving. Trusting God will show up. You have an option. Are you going to trust that devil to show up tomorrow? Or are you going to trust God to show up? Faith is trusting that God will show up. The second game that the enemy will play. And this is heavy. Condemnation, especially after you fall. See, conviction pulls you back to God. Condemnation pushes you back in sin deeper away from God. Conviction says, repent. Return to the Lord. Condemnation says, you're a hypocrite. God is tired of you. You knew better. Don't even bother. And that's why many people feel stuck. Not because they sinned. But because they believe the lie that I can't come back. See, in Romans chapter 8 verse 1, it says, now in Christ there is no condemnation. See, how do you break this game that the enemy plays with condemnation? Is you confess quickly? You receive forgiveness by faith. And you run towards God. That's really how you overcome this. People don't drown by falling into water. They drown by staying there. So when you fall into sin, probably the lie you believed is it's not a big deal. Or I got this. Now when you've got into sin, Satan pushes you with another lie. This is such a big deal. God will never forgive you. You can never be restored. Your life is over. And it's a game that he's playing. It's not true. You know, Peter the nice Jesus three times. And Jesus, right the way saw that it's going to happen. And I love the fact that Jesus knowing that's going to happen. He says, when you have returned, strengthen your brethren. It's like Jesus saying, hey, Peter, you're going to fall. But when you return, help other people. So Jesus knows you're capable of doing a lot of stupid, unsteerloids. He loves you. This doesn't give us excuse to justify our sin. But it gives us power to run to Christ when we fall, to confess our sins. And receive forgiveness. That's a big problem that people have. Is that they ask for forgiveness, they don't receive it. They're like, well, I don't feel anything. You receive it by faith. The same way you receive everything by faith. You receive that his blood washes you. You receive that Christ restores you. And then you keep running after God away from that thing that happened. The game number three that Satan plays. And this one is with comparison and insecurity. And this is when the devil loves to make you measure your life against someone else's highlight reels. He says things like, look how far they are ahead of you. They're more anointed. You're so behind. God uses them, but not you. You're missing out on something. Comparison doesn't just steal your joy. It actually robs you of your calling. It takes the fuel you need to run your race. Because now you're not running your race. You're sitting and watching someone else run the race. You're not eating the food God gave you. It's going cold because you're staring at somebody else's plate. You're not linked with your identity in Christ. The intimacy you can have with the Holy Spirit. No, the insecurity is flare up because your focus is when God is doing somebody else's life. You're not counting your blessings. You're comparing your blessings to someone else. And the devil plays the tricks because if you would have been thankful, now you're jealous. You would have been grateful. Now you don't want to move. Your creativity, the joy in your life, the passion in your life is God. Because you stopped running your race, busy competing with someone else. And this is wiping people out. Sometimes it causes people to run faster than the grace of God's could sustain them because they're trying to outrun someone else. They're trying to prove to someone who's not even watching them. There's not even paying attention to them. And in other times I've noticed, as people fall into this dark, dark depression, dark cloud, they're not aware of the good things God is doing in their life, the gifts that they have, they're just obsessed that somebody else has more, or somebody else has better. They can't enjoy and not only they can't enjoy, they can't operate with the gifts God has given them anymore. They're stuck. So some people go in overdrive and some people just get stuck. So how do we break this lie? How do we break this game? Well, stop playing this game with Satan. Thank God for what he's doing in other people. Celebrate the season you're in. Grace of God is not competition. Calling is not a contest. We run the race looking unto Jesus. Lay aside every weight. Part of that weight that you need to lay aside when you run the race is competition. Part of that race that you need to lay aside is trying to be like someone else. You've got to take off Saul's armor, take your five stones, and take your way, your personality, your special gifting, your uniqueness. Let Holy Spirit shine. This doesn't mean you cannot learn from other people, but it just simply means you cannot fall into the comparison trap. It will steal your joy, or it will cause you to run faster than God's grace can sustain you. Because of the lie that you believed, or it could cause heavy depression, heaviness to come upon you, anxiety. Why are my numbers too low? Why is nobody attending my church? Why is somebody else? You just stop appreciating what God is doing in your life, and it's a very, very dangerous trap. If Satan cannot make you fall into sin, he'll make you fall into comparison. The game number four is when Satan feeds you with lies that the lay is denial. This game destroys your confidence in God. The enemy will whisper things like this. If God was going to do it, he would have done it already. Look, nothing is changing. You prayed, you fasted, you sacrificed. Nothing changed. This is your new normal. Get used to it. But that's not true. The lay is not denial. God does develop people in obscurity and hidden seasons. Many miracles in the Bible happened after it was too late. After it seemed like it was over. Lazarus was raised from the dead after he was buried. Jarius's daughter, they already had mourners there. Let's see what's split. It seemed like it's over. It was too late. Hannah was too impossible. And even in my own ministry, I've noticed when the enemy would bombard me with these thoughts. I was still young in my early 30s. A late 20s that it's over. You know, if miracle breakthrough would have happened, it would have happened before, because then I saw younger people stepping into the fullness of their calling. And I always felt like I was forgotten. I was the promises of God. Just God is not going to fulfill them. And my time to have that was passed. Even having a child, you know, 13 years of not having a child. It's, you know, it's never going to happen. That's the lies the enemy would bombard my mind with. And so how I would break those and how I would encourage you to break it as this, is you do have to hold on to God's character and God's promise. You cannot get too hung up on your timeline and the schedule of when you thought it should happen. Your faith does not need a stopwatch. Your faith does not need a clock. Your clock will mess you up. It's okay to have expectations. But the moment you put timelines on them or the moment you put this thing like, well, by this time this should have happened. Well, think about Moses. He's stepped into his calling at the age of 80. Most of us at the age of 80, we look for our funeral plots. We prepare our will. Moses only got started. So don't confuse God's timeline with God's promise. And that's the problem happens is we get too attached, attached, too addicted, too obsessed with when it should happen. Instead of who is the one who promised it to make it happen. And that's a shift. You have to put your faith in him, not your faith in faith or in the timeline or in the clock. Because that will mess you up. And that's the game, Satan will play. The game number five he will play and that is isolation and mental fog. And this is massive. Because the devil loves to attack your clarity right here. Because clarity produces courage. Anytime you move in courage, it's because you have clarity of mind. When there is mental fog, you don't have courage. You can't act. You can't move. So if he messes up your mental clarity, he got your faith, your courage, hijacked. So he'll flood your mind with confusion. He'll flood your mind with heaviness. He will flood your mind with tiredness, distraction and numbness. He'll isolate you. You can't talk to anyone. Nobody will understand. You're alone. Hide. Isolation is where these lies they grow. You have no one to talk to. So how you break that is you bring the struggle into the light. You talk to a mature believer, a pastor, a mentor or a leader. Don't stay alone. Talking about it online, you're going to get sympathy. You're not going to get clarity. You need clarity. Not sympathy. Sometimes extended worship moments is very helpful as well. Sometimes getting away from your normal prayer time and going and taking one full day of spending time with God, journaling is very helpful. Sometimes it's actually getting a good sleep. It's very helpful. Sometimes it's actually going and getting a good meal because people just need to enjoy food. I know this might not sound spiritual. But when Elijah was kind of in that mental fog, the angel brought him food and made him sleep. And then he went on a long walk and had an encounter with God. And then he found a new assignment. He got clarity again. And so sometimes spiritual warfare involves basic wisdom because your body does affect your mind. So this doesn't mean that if you eat and sleep, everything is going to automatically go and be fine. It's not always the case. But that helps. So how do we win against this mental war? Some practical strategies. I already gave you to combat each mental game. But let me give you some basic, general things that you can do. Name the lie. Name the feeling and the thought that is dominating your mind. Is it fears, condemnation? Is it comparison? Number two, replace it with the truth. Use the scripture. Speak it out loud. Thirdly, break the agreement or refuse the agreement. You can't stop the birds from flying over your head, but you can stop them from building a nest in your mind. And so you refuse the agreement. The thoughts will keep coming back. Just say, no, there's no agreement. It's like a bad salesperson calling. And you're like, nope, not interested. And number four is you have to refocus your attention. You have to constantly. You don't allow your mind to wander. You direct your mind. You choose where your mind goes. Worship helps with, you know, sometimes playing soaking instruments. Definitely daily intake of God's word. You redirect your thoughts and your mind. Memorizing scriptures is also very helpful. And lastly, is resist. Instead, I always say this, resist bad thoughts, assist good thoughts. Jesus says resist the devil and he will flee. So these are some of the things that you can do to win the mind game. Because once the mind gets freed, you know, I always like to say that we come out into this world headfirst. The way God will bring breakthrough into your life is He first brings breakthrough into your mind. So if this has helped you drop it in the comment, I will check the lies and the games of Satan. Share this with somebody who is battling in their mind and subscribe. Because we're not living as victims of our illusions. We're living in the freedom of God's truth. I hope that this video helped you to grow in your walk with God. Imagine multiplying that impact through the world. Through this ministry, we've disciples over 160,000 students through our online school created over 60 reading plans that over 2 million people have completed already and published resources in 18 languages. But our heart is bigger than content. 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