How to Combat the Spirit of Accusation
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How to Combat the Spirit of Accusation
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Analysis. Have you ever been tempted to lie down and let people run all over you when they launch false accusations against you? If so, I want to encourage you today to resist the lies, instead of acting like false accusations are okay.
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Too often, people think Jesus was a namby-pamby weakling who let everyone run all over Him. However, nothing could be further from the truth.
According to the Biblical record, Jesus was actually quite strong. He definitely had a backbone when dealing with the devil.
Just because He submitted to the Father’s will to be crucified doesn’t mean Jesus didn’t fight hard against the devil. He did. In John chapter 8, in particular, we see Jesus fighting against the lies of the enemy—and He hit back against the enemy hard.
In John 8, the Pharisees got together and let the devil work through them to launch a major psychological operation (“psyop”) against Jesus.
A “psyop” is a warfare term that refers to a strategic military operation that demoralizes and deceives enemy troops, or even demoralizes the regular citizens of an opposing nation. In John chapter 8, the one launching the psyop was the devil. The devil used the Pharisees as his unholy vessels to attack Jesus.
But you know what? Jesus was wise to their attack.
Those Pharisees, operating in their unholy spirit (which I’ll call the “Pharisee spirit” for the purposes of this article), launched at least ten different kinds of lies and false accusations at Jesus. However, every time, Jesus shot back at them. He didn’t “take” their lies sitting down; He fought back … with truth.
And beloved, TRUTH is the only thing that combats the enemy’s lies even today.
Why does this matter to you? Because too many Christians think that Jesus was always silent, and that therefore we shouldn’t have a voice.
It’s true that Jesus was silent when He went to the cross. He was silent because:
- it was the Father’s will for Him to go to the cross, so He obeyed without complaint or interference; and
- He bore silence for us so that WE could have a voice in the face of abuse.
I have often heard people say that Christians should be silent in the face of injustice or abuse, simply because Jesus opened not His mouth on that occasion:
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth (Isaiah 53:7 NKJV).
However, Jesus was only silent when following God’s will. (Jesus even told Pilate before the crucifixion that Pilate could have no power over Him except it had been given to him from above.) When Jesus was attacked by the devil, He actually counteracted the attacks by speaking truth.
Yes: Jesus taught us to go with someone two miles instead of one mile when pressed into service. He taught us to go over and above in kindness, forgiveness, and sharing. But when attacked by the Pharisees’ lies, Jesus demonstrated by example that we should fight back.
So how exactly do we resist false accusations?
By telling the truth.
Jesus wants us to operate in truth in all things. This means that we only believe truth, speak truth, and accept truth. Notice what He said about truth in John:
Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32 NKJV).
And as we also read in John 14:6:
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6 NKJV).
Think about these three reasons why it’s so necessary to combat false accusations with truth:
- Jesus is Truth. Anything that is not true is not of Christ—and if it’s not of Christ, it’s evil. We are to resist the evil one and all of his byproducts, such as lies.
- Jesus said that knowing the truth is the key to freedom. As He said in John 8, “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32 NKJV).
- The devil is a liar and the father of lies; there is no truth in him. (See John 8:44.) We are to submit to God, but resist the devil. This means we are to resist all lies, for they are the work of the devil.
So how do we apply this? When someone launches false accusations against you, you have to stand up to them using TRUTH.
You have to gird your waist with truth and carry truth always (Ephesians 6:14). I know that standing up for oneself goes against the grain if we’ve been taught otherwise—but imitate Jesus.
Jesus had a backbone.
Jesus suffered silently so that you could have a voice. He bore silence to Calvary’s tree so that you could do what He did the rest of the time and SPEAK OUT against lies and false accusations.
Friend, only the devil is the accuser of the brethren (see Revelation 12:10). If someone is making false accusations against you or proclaiming lies against you, STAND UP. Have a backbone and do what Jesus did when accused by the Pharisees: Resist the devil by speaking truth.
For many years, I personally thought we were supposed to say nothing in the face of the devil.
I submitted to God, but I didn’t resist the devil by speaking truth like Jesus did. And you know what? The devil ran all over me and almost ruined my life in multiple ways.
But then I got a revelation that lies and false accusations are a form of injustice. I decided to stand up and confront the lies—which meant confronting the people who had been speaking them. And you know what? A funny thing happened: the liars backed down. The lies could not stand in the face of truth.
Beloved, Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Anything that is not truth is not of God. Have you been letting the devil run all over you with his lies and false accusations?
If so, stand up today. Get your backbone in gear and imitate Christ—who was not a namby-pamby weakling.
Jesus DID counteract lies and false accusations with truth—every time. He didn’t fight against the Romans whose mandate from Heaven was to crucify Him, but He did fight back against demon-possessed Pharisees who spewed lies and false accusations on behalf of that old serpent, the devil, who is the accuser of the brethren.
Christians have too long been silent in our nation at large.
Additionally, many individual believers have been letting abusive humans run all over them with false accusations and lies in their personal environments. Stop tolerating it. Confront lies with truth, and see how Jesus—the Way, the Truth, and the Life—backs you up.
Remember: You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
What do you need to do to imitate Jesus and speak truth? Leave a comment below!
Jamie Rohrbaugh is the founder and CEO of From His Presence. She is the author of Victory In the Camp of the Lord Volume 1: Healing from Fear. Her resources have been published by YouVersion Bible Plans, Charisma Magazine, The Elijah List, Spirit Fuel, and various other ministry outlets. You can find free mentoring on her podcast, Take Your Territory with Jamie Rohrbaugh, which is available through your favorite podcast streaming app. Download her free prayer tool, Praying the Names of God: 555 Biblical Names of God and How to Use Them in Prayer and Worship, here. Photo Credit: Canva.
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What you have said here Jamie is absolutely true! Thank you. As one author put it so well, “Christians today don’t know how to fight.” Your reference to John 8 is an excellent reference. Jesus knew who he was/ is. We cannot be doubleminded when we are doing God’s work. We are going to face enemy fire and the doubleminded man is unstable in all he does. He will not receive anything of the Lord. James 1
It’s very important to ‘speak the truth in love’. First search your own heart to repent of any other motive than love for your accusers, then you may speak the truth to them. I’ve heard it said that ‘if it’s not love, it’s not truth’, and I say Amen!
I have spoke the truth to her about her lie and she just started problems between my family I have gave them to the Lord
Something I learned years ago was to pray silently, but quickly, before entering into a potentially confrontational situation. My former boss seemed to enjoy confrontation and mean spirited verbal attacks on everyone around him. The Holy Spirit taught me to pray: “Lord, please help me to stay silent when I should, and to speak only the words you give me to speak”. The results I experienced was increased mutual respect and the words that came out of my mouth were not my own. The words spoken had much greater power that completely disarmed the expected enemy attacks. The Lord loves us and is with us always. Why not allow Him to speak through you?
Psalm 19:14
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.
Thank you
We are to be the glory carriers of Jesus Christ, meaning we are to carry the presence of God with us whereever we go. If accusations come, we love the person and forgive them and do our best to make peace with them. Forgive the person and love them. Remain in the love of Christ always and if you get upset or frustrated, just repent for that and go back in the love and joy of God’s presence. The demons flee from that. My pastor has seen this happen in the spirit.
There are times, probably more than we’d like to admit, where God wants us to keep our mouths shut. I’ve been in a horrible situation when my husband was dying where I was accused of so much and lied about by his family. I was called to “open not my mouth” in my own defense, and I saw quickly how defending myself only made things worse. Only the Holy Spirit helped me to remain silent. (Not my nature at all.) I definitely wasn’t being mamby pamby. It took great strength. I knew throughout that their gaslighting and projection — definitely a psyop– did not truly define me. I did experience some PTSD from a very traumatic situation, but the Lord brought me through and I can rejoice in how He’s used it to make me better, not bitter. He was my wonderful Counselor throughout. My love and appreciation for Him is so evident in me because of this experience. I would never change what happened, as strange as that sounds. He makes the bitter sweet when we let Him and fully trust Him.
Very true, Rhonda, that there are times when we do have to shut our mouths. Confirming what you said about this.
Amen!!!
Praise God for His miracle work in us!
In my life experience I’ve discovered that good can be found in any situation because God is with me at all times, even when I don’t feel His Presence.
I’m sorry for what you went through, Rhonda. My mom faced false accusations when my dad died, but God defended her. I’m also going to face something similar in the future (had a dream about it) and I’ve to keep quiet because in the dream, God came in the nick of time with His solution, to the shock of witnesses who exclaimed with awe His goodness & love. Because He is glorified in the end, I’m more than pleased to submit to His plan, even when I’d want to defend myself.
This is an excellent response to the pervasively weak and often craven U.S. Christians, who far too often cop to being silent in the face of obvious lying, deception, and outright brazen evil. It should be required reading by anyone who chooses to follow The LORD Jesus Christ.
It is well documented in Scripture that Jesus Christ Is the ultimate Mans-Man, with a wise and compassionate heart, and the ultimate example for any of us who repent and choose Him as Savior to follow His many examples. (John 14, 15, 16)
Thank you, and I will be sharing this widely…
jb-AZ
Hi Jamie, thanks so much for another great article! This perspective is very freeing… how do you think this balances with letting God be the vindicator? I would love to know your perspective because I suffered some on just wounds and accusations of our so-called friend, but I have stayed mostly silent waiting for the Lord to be my vindicator. Now I’m wondering if I should be or should’ve been more vocal about it…
I have walked this way myself Corrine, and asked the same question.
As I was growing in knowledge I was learning new strategies to fight our kingdom battles. I was originally under the impression we should be silent over presenting the truth. I have been given new opportunities to raise up my once silent voice. Not necessarily at the original perpetrators, but against the unjust subject matter at hand. Believing new opportunities for you as well are around the corner.
Heavenly Father we thank you the Holy Spirit continues to give all God’s children discernment, wisdom, courage and Your unfailing power as we watch the Truth triumph over all perversion, opposition, accusation and deceit of enemy attack we encounter. Maybe not seen immediately by our fleshly eyes…but trusting always Your truth is bringing down strongholds and declaring victory while we wait knowing “the final battle IS the Lord’s.”
God is the light that breaks through ALL darkness even when at times we may have failed to open our mouths. In our innocence our Advocate and our Protector works it out for good! What the enemy meant for evil, God will use for good!
In Jesus’ name, Amen
🙏🏼✝️…it wasn’t a weakness that led Jesus to the cross, it took incredible strength to pray, “..not my will, but thine be done..”.
He cried tears of blood in those agonizing moments, blood came from his pours, he used every bit of his strength to go to the cross.
It’s a battle we all face, if we love Christ, we “allow” God’s will in our lives, it takes courage, strength and His wisdom in us to know when to let go and let God!
The church has been Silent for too long. It took some beer lovin bubbas to say ENOUGH! Leave us alone! When the church could have interviewed in 1963, 1973…2015…Major morality issues, and where was the church? Now insanity is upon us, thank God someone Finally stood up and said, NO!
God bless.
America never would have been established if pushback from godly people hadn’t happened. Some paid with their lives. We need to stand up for truth without fear. Our Constitution gives us that right. The abrasive, vocal minority needs to be confronted and their lies exposed. If we who know The Truth don’t do it, who will?
Lately I have been engaging unbelievers concerning woke ideologies and believers on false doctrine. Jamie is correct that we must speak the Truth. The conversations can turn tense real fast especially with unbelievers. They can attack us with their words. You can see the real enemy stirring up strife and division. But a kind word can turn away wrath. Real love for the person is necessary. My experience has shown me that my love for others is based on my understanding of Gods love for all of mankind and His desire to have relationship with us all. I can then tap into His love for me and love others unconditionally. Its amazing to watch God work when love is demonstrated. It really makes a difference.