Review #8. The Truth about Lies and Lies about Truth: A Fresh New Look at the Cunning of Evil and the Means of Our Transformation by David Takle. I know it seems like I say this about every book, but this really is my #1 all-time favorite book. This book is not available on audible, sorry. Also, warning, this is not easy reading. In this book, David explores how deception affects our lives. The Enemy’s main weapons against us are lies, so our best defense (and offense) is the truth. We were never meant to live with the experiential knowledge of good and evil. It blinds us to the realities of the spiritual world. Jesus opens our eyes and sets us free. Becoming like him is a lifelong process. We need to be transformed from the inside out in every area of life. The ways that we attempt to grow are deeply flawed. Our problem is not that we need better rules to live by. Rather, our way of perceiving reality and our relationship to God and the world had been terribly corrupted. Traditional wisdom has stressed a behavioral approach to Christian growth. In contrast, sanctification or spiritual transformation is something that the Holy Spirit does in the heart of the believer so that the person is different than before and sees the world through the lens of new core beliefs. We live differently not because we manage to do it well enough, but because we are becoming the kind of person who lives that way naturally. Spiritual formation must include transformation with the help of the Holy Spirit rather than a program of self-effort. The serpent brought sin into the world through deception. A lie only has power when it is believed. But, truth will not set a person free unless it is internalized at the deepest levels. This is why belief is such critical work and why intimate knowledge of the truth is so important in the Scriptures. Only through the exposure of what is false and the internalization of what is true can the power of truth be released into our lives. Much of our pain from past experiences is no longer caused by the experience, but our interpretations of it and the beliefs (i.e. lies) that we hold related to it. Until and unless we expose the lies and believe the truth about ourselves and God about that particular incident, we may harbor that pain throughout our lives and never break free. Consequently, the crucial argument in the book is that we have to internalize Truth (which is God’s way of seeing us, the issue, whatever) and that THAT VERY ACT will break the power of the Enemy’s deception, free us, and enable us to grow to be more Christ-like. Chapter 10 leads us step by step in a new way to engage with God daily, to be taught by Him rather than trying to grow ourselves through effort and our own intellect. It radically challenges our current ways of dealing with the subject of Christian growth and discipleship. We should view our new life with Christ as an apprenticeship to Him that is a continual process throughout our lives. Listening directly to God and letting Him break through the lies and teach us the Truth are the things that will transform our lives, give us power, and make us more Christ-like. Our lives are driven by beliefs we internalized as a result of life experiences, many of which are so far off from God’s perspective that we could not possibly live well. We keep trying harder to do what is right, without changing the underlying engines that drive our behavior. This book explains why this is so, why the church is often unable to help, and what we can do to get free.
The Truth About Lies and Lies About Truth: A Fresh New Look at the Cunning of Evil and the Means of Our Transformation
