We are in a battle for truth and integrity as never before! In today’s world, these seem to be increasingly hard to come by.

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The headlines are brimming with issues that reveal a terrible lack of integrity in our political and justice systems. At the same time, digital and social media make it increasingly difficult to discern what is true from what is false. Terms like “fake news,” “deep fake,” and “artificial intelligence” are now standard in our media and technological vocabulary. News reporting is rarely unbiased anymore. Our judicial systems are increasingly politicized and can no longer be trusted to be impartial, and we are battling moral issues here at home while fighting wars overseas that are based on lies.

The latest attempts to make abortion a constitutional right, for instance, are based on the lie that an unborn baby is not human and can therefore be killed if the mother so desires. Transgenderism propagates the lie that a woman can become a man, and vice versa. The war between Israel and Hamas is based on the lie that Palestinians rightfully own Israel’s land and should have all or some of it given back.

On social media, people can pretend to be someone they’re not. Artificial intelligence has perfected the ability to create “deepfakes”: videos and images of people that can be artificially made to look real and to “do” anything. For example, a video created by Dove that has circulated on YouTube for several years shows how the model in a photoshoot can be altered post production to go from plain Jane to supermodel — with a figure realistically unattainable by most women.

Those are just a few examples of the rapid blurring of the lines between truth and falsehood in this world. The erosion of integrity and truth in the institutions that exist supposedly to govern, guide, and inform us is a major cause of confusion, anxiety, hopelessness, and depression for many. No one likes being deceived and feeling helpless to do anything about it.

The Problem Is Spiritual
Truth and integrity go hand in hand. And it is innate in human beings to hunger for those things, because God has hardwired that into us. Even though our sinful nature can bring us to lie, we ourselves hate being lied to, and we want to be able to trust people to be truthful, especially our leaders. Our desire for truth is part of being created in the image of God because, according to the Scriptures, He is truth:

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).

However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth … (John 16:13).

So that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; And he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth … (Isaiah 65:16).

What are truth and integrity? The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines them as follows:

Integrity: Steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code.
Truth: Conformity to fact or reality; exact accordance with that which is, or has been, or shall be.
Fidelity; constancy; steadfastness; faithfulness.
The practice of speaking what is true; freedom from falsehood; veracity.

Why are truth and integrity increasingly hard to come by? The answer involves a spiritual battle between two kingdoms.

Born-again believers live in God’s kingdom, where truth reigns supreme. God’s image is being restored in us, and with that, a love for truth and a hatred of lies. The Spirit of Truth indwells us and teaches us God’s truth. By His power, we embrace, defend, and proclaim truth.

The rest of the world lives in the kingdom of darkness, ruled by the father of lies (see John 8:44). He hates truth and keeps people in bondage through lies and distortions.

We can trace this duality back to Eden, where a lie deceived Adam and Eve — that they could become like God by eating fruit from the tree which God had forbidden to them. The sin that was introduced into the human race got so out of hand that God eventually diversified human language at the Tower of Babel and scattered humanity throughout the earth (see Genesis 11). Hundreds of years later, Moses shed light on what happened there spiritually in his final speech to the 12 tribes, as recorded in Deuteronomy 32:

When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God (Deuteronomy 32:8 ESV).

In giving the nations their inheritance, God in effect ceased to be their God because of what they had tried to do at the Tower of Babel: establish independence from Him. “The sons of God” as used in the preceding verse is a term that occurs frequently in the Old Testament, referring to rebellious spiritual beings, i.e., demonic powers and principalities. By “setting their boundaries according to their number,” God gave the newly formed and scattered language groups over to the rule of those beings.

That was the beginning of a two-kingdom world on earth. One kingdom is the dwelling place of God under the New Covenant and within a chosen people; the other is a kingdom that is inherently hostile to Him. That hostile world ruled by demonic powers on behalf of Satan, the father of lies, has over time managed to erode integrity and truth as human virtues. Today lies, fakery, forgery, distortion, propaganda, and misinformation have reached unparalleled degrees of sophistication, aided by technology and globalized networks. This sets the stage for the arrival of Antichrist, who will rule over the entire world through deception (see Revelation 23:11–14).

Praying Against Falsehood and Deception
How, then, do we pray amid this flood of falsehood? Even though world events will move to their conclusion as preordained by God, we, His people and His intercessors, have crucial tasks to fulfill:

1. We must empower the proclamation of the truth in the gospel of Jesus Christ to every tribe and nation by our prayers.
2. We must, as part of interceding for government in accordance with 1 Timothy 2:1–4, persist and persevere in prayer so that every lie and falsehood hidden in darkness will be brought to light.
3. We must pray with faithfulness that God would raise up men and women of courage, truth, and integrity to serve in our governmental and judicial systems.
4. We must pray that the Body of Christ would embrace its true identity in Christ with courage, clarity, and a hunger to know the Word of truth taught by the Spirit of Truth, so that we’re equipped to defend and proclaim the truth.

Above all, we must remember that we pray from the vantage point of God’s truth as the Holy Spirit helps us in our prayers, and that God’s truth is the only legitimate and uncompromised truth that exists in the universe.

God of truth, reignite in the hearts of Your people the hunger to know, proclaim, and defend the truth of Your mind and heart. May Your Word of truth spread across our nation and the world, so that many will be freed from lies and falsehood. May the onslaught of falsehood cause people to yearn for truth and lead  them to seek You. Raise up men and women of truth in our our legislatures, courts, and school systems. Restore integrity in our government, we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Encourage your fellow intercessors by sharing your prayer for truth and integrity below.

Remco Brommet is a pastor, spiritual-growth teacher, and prayer leader with over 40 years of experience in Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the U.S. He was born and raised in the Netherlands and pastored his first church in Amsterdam. He moved to the U.S. in 1986. He and his wife, Jennifer, live north of Atlanta. When not writing books, he blogs at www.deeperlifeblog.com and assists his wife as a content developer and prayer coordinator for True Identity Ministries. Jennifer and Remco are passionate about bringing people into a deeper relationship with Christ. Photo Credit: Arturo Rey on Unsplash.