The Way of Deliverance 547
his life today to be due to his directly or indirectly having accepted
lies planted in him in the past by evil spirits. They either are caused
directly by believing in these lies or are induced indirectly after
believing in them. To secure one’s freedom the Christian must
experience God’s light which is God’s truth. Since he formerly lost
ground by believing lies, he now must recover this ground by
denying all lies. As light dispels darkness, so truth destroys lies. The
saint must therefore seek to apprehend every truth concerning
himself, God, and the evil spirits. He should pay a price to possess
these truths. He should pray single heartedly for light that he may
behold his precise condition (the truth) and thereby know where he
has been deceived and has accordingly suffered. He next should
scrutinize all his physical and environmental sufferings. Whence
does each stem? What has provoked these troubles; was it through
believing Satan’s lie or by adopting a wrong action through
acceptance of any lie? He should trace the source and then quietly
and prayerfully wait to be illuminated by God’s light.
The devil abhors light and truth because these remove the ground
of his working. Each word of truth has to be fought for in the
believer’s mind. The evil spirits try to keep from him the truth about
their operations. They moreover attempt to disown the particular
phenomenon which results from accepting a particular lie. Their
operating principle is ever and anon “to keep them from seeing the
light” (2 Cor. 4.4). A Christian must be very thorough in spotting the
truth concerning all matters. Truth means at the very least the true
condition. Even should he be helpless to drive away the enemy, his
siding with the truth causes the latter to forfeit his ground. The
believer at minimum can declare by his will that he wants the truth,
that he wants to know and obey the truth. By prayer and by choice of
will he ought to resist every satanic lie, whatever form it may take—
a thought, an imagination or an argument. In so doing the Holy Spirit
is afforded opportunity to lead his darkened mind into the light of
God’s truth. In practical experience the believer sometimes may
spend months before discerning one satanic lie. He first must resist in