I have been liberated! Jesus promised us that we would know the truth, and that the truth would make us free (John 8:32). That’s what happened to me at church this morning–I was reminded of the truth, and it set me free.

Here’s the foundational Scripture for the message at church:

The sermon was given by Pastor Eddie Hoagland. The point of his message was that one of the ways the evil one tries to disrupt our relationship with our loving Creator is by feeding us lies via the spirits of this world. God gave us the Holy Spirit to protect us from these foul spirits, but we get ourselves into trouble when we listen to them more than we listen to the Holy Spirit, which is the presence of God dwelling in us.

It really felt like God was using Pastor Eddie to convict me with his words. The message shone a bright light into some darkness that has been creeping into my consciousness recently. It helped me realize that lately, I have been listening more to the lies from the spirit of this world than I’ve been listening to the Holy Spirit. This is not good, so that’s why it’s so helpful that God pointed this out to me.

I generally do fairly well at walking with God each day, which has often allowed me to be filled with His peace and joy. But the enemy opposes this and will do anything he can to disrupt it. One strategy he seems to resort to repeatedly is by feeding me these lies:

• God has more important things to worry about than the circumstances of my life, so if I want to achieve the outcomes I desire, I’d better take matters into my own hands
• I don’t matter to anyone

Thanks to today’s message, I’ve been able to recognize that these are lies from the spirit of this world. God has not been saying these things to me, and never will. And nobody I care about has actually been making me feel like I don’t matter.

I feel dumb for believing these lies, but I wanted to put this out there in case you have struggled with believing these or other lies. If so, you can take some consolation in knowing that you are not alone.

And now that God has pointed His spotlight on these lies and reminded me of the truths I should believe instead, my chains are broken. I am free! I can step out of the darkness and into the Light. I can once again bathe in the peace of God that transcends all understanding.

How great is that?! Thanks be to God.

P.S. I wrote a poem about a spiritual journey I went on today (part of which is described in this post). If you’re interested, you can find it here.