Satan tries to corrupt every good thing that God gives us, and he often succeeds at this through our own ignorance and complacency. In Ultimate Truth and Lies, author Adelle Yvette Potgieter exposes the web of lies that Satan has spun to ensnare believers and unbelievers alike. In turn, she counters those lies and their consequences with the real truths about God. Part I provides an overview of topics relating to varied aspects of our daily lives, such as poverty and suffering; religion and custom; destiny, purpose, and choice; gender, marriage, and sex; emotion; and forgiveness. It challenges traditional mainstream thinking and shows that manmade rules, inspired by Satan, deny the opportunity for happy, fulfilling lives. Part II focuses on self-development exercises and explores issues such as anger, rage, sadness, and negative thoughts that impact our physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. Potgieter offers skills to change your life for the better. Part III is a collection of thought-provoking poems that will inspire the reader and invites reflection of personal life truths. Ultimate Truth and Lies challenges you to examine your life. Are you living as a victim of Satan or as a victorious spiritual warrior of the living God? A happy life is yours for the taking by accepting the responsibility and undertaking the work necessary to reach that goal.

ULTIMATE TRUTH AND LIES

What You Need to Know about the Battle for Your SoulBy ADELLE YVETTE POTGIETER

Trafford Publishing

Copyright © 2012 Elantari LLC
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4669-1283-0

Contents

Preface......................................................................xiAcknowledgements.............................................................xiiiIntroduction.................................................................xvChapter 1-Poverty and Suffering..............................................3Chapter 2-Religion and Customs...............................................11Chapter 3-Destiny, Purpose and Choice........................................21Chapter 4-Gender Roles, Marriage and Sex.....................................27Chapter 5-The relevance of Emotion...........................................44Chapter 6-Forgiveness........................................................71Chapter 7-The Battle for your Soul and Spiritual Warfare.....................77Emotional Action Planning ©1.................................97Prayer.......................................................................105Spiritual Warfare............................................................111Dealing with strong emotions.................................................120Dealing with negative thoughts and hurt......................................134Creating your dream life.....................................................142Additional coping skills.....................................................157A Letter From The Lord.......................................................165Heaven Awaits................................................................166I know God is real...........................................................167Three in One.................................................................168The Invitation...............................................................169For Sean.....................................................................170I'm grateful for you.........................................................171A gift from God..............................................................172A Soulmate's Love............................................................173Sex the way God means it.....................................................174Friendship...................................................................175What is Love?................................................................176The nature of Forgiveness....................................................178The path of the Cross........................................................179Abuse in relationships.......................................................180A higher standard............................................................181Arrogance versus self-esteem.................................................182Emotion......................................................................183Customs......................................................................184Home.........................................................................185A Letter to Men..............................................................186Take command!................................................................188Together claim the victors crown.............................................189A vision of Heaven...........................................................190Epilogue.....................................................................191About the Author.............................................................193References and Resources.....................................................195

Chapter One

Poverty and Suffering

It is a fact that there are more poor people in this world than rich people. It is likely that you are one of those people who are engaged in the constant battle of just getting by, trying to make ends meet. You are born into a family, into a country, into circumstances not of your choosing and as you grow up you are told to accept your place because this is where God has placed you. This is where He means for you to be. Have you been taught by your family and spiritual leaders that you must accept this without question? Have you had disappointments, setbacks, loss, even loss of loved ones and when you questioned why these things have happened, the answer is often simply `It is the will of God!' Or `God is testing you'. Or `God is trying to teach you through ...`—whatever illness, poverty, misery or hardship is afflicting you. This is a lie!

Please don't toss this book aside now in anger or go and shout at your family and spiritual leader. They are simply passing along the lie they were given and that have become ingrained in them.

We were created in God's image, to be at a place of joy, abundance, health and love that would enable us to worship God for eternity. Because we would lack for nothing, God would be our primary focus. Instead Satan persuaded Eve to take the forbidden fruit and with the Fall came death, a separation from God, disease, lack, poverty, shame and hardship. Satan did not stop there. He continues to tell us that we need to suffer so that we can be worthy of God, to be worthy of God's love, mercy and forgiveness. LIES!

Satan sows doubt and spreads these lies, to rob you of the life God means for you to have: happiness, health and abundance. In Eden, God provided Adam and Eve with everything they needed to live as their birthright. They had a personal relationship with God, they did not have to earn the right! Having a personal relationship with God is your birthright, because God made you for that very purpose!

A lesson from Job

Job, who is mentioned in Jewish, Christian and Islamic scripture, was a wealthy man. He was blessed by God. Satan thought Job only served God because God protected him and blessed his work. The story, recorded in the Bible in Job 1, goes that God was watching out over the earth, attended by His angels. Satan arrived and God asked him where he had been. Satan replied that he had just travelled the world and failed to find one righteous man. God pointed out Job, whom He thought of as a righteous man. Righteousness means that Job was a just man with good morals. Satan pointed out to God that he believes Job serves God for the simple reason that God protects Job, his family and possessions and increases his wealth (even his livestock) quickly and abundantly.

Satan acknowledges that God makes Job prosper and protects him. And so it is meant to be for us. But Satan insisted that Job was only faithful to God because God protected him, his household and his possessions and blessed every work of his hands. In other words, Satan claimed that Job knew which side his bread was buttered on! Now comes in Satan's scheme: Satan felt sure that if God withdrew his blessing and protection from Job, Job would turn against God.

Satan insists that if God does not clearly and continually protect us, disaster will befall us (because Satan will bring disaster against us when we do not stand under God's protection) and we will turn against God, even curse God to His face.

Satan feels sure that not just Job, but we, will curse God when we meet with disaster, loss, disease and suffering. If you are a child of God, it is not God's plan for you to be miserable, poor or ill. It is Satan's plan to pry you away from God. Fortunately for Job, he stayed faithful to God, even after losing all his possessions, even after all his children died and he became ill himself. God restored him and gave him back double that which he lost, including double the children!

Ages have passed since the story of Job was recorded. And in typical form, Satan has ensured that the truth, the lesson we should learn from this, has been corrupted. My entire life long, everyone I have heard speaking of Job, including school teachers and clergyman, speaks of Job's admirable patience. Most people I have spoken to or have heard in prayer also ask for Job's patience. I believe Satan deceives our spiritual leaders by changing the focus or essence of an event to suit his purpose. And when our spiritual leaders (even prophets) buy into the lie and pass it onto a trusting people, millions are deceived in one fell swoop. It suits Satan's purpose that we believe we should have patience when calamity strikes, because God is testing us. If disease, death and disaster is God's will for us, we must patiently accept it, because there is nothing we can do! We are just human, what can we do against God's power? And having ingrained this paradigm into mankind over centuries, many people fail to realize that most of the misery of this world and in their lives is not the will of God, but because they believe it so, they give Satan a free hand in their lives. If Satan can make you believe that you have no power to change your life quality, that all the bad things that happen to you is your unchangeable destiny, he has set the stage to win the battle for your life, in this life and the next. And when Satan wins, you lose!

Satan has succeeded to deceive million of people into believing ...

The real lesson from Job

In the story of Job, God says that Satan could do anything against Job, except take Job's life. This is critical (and often overlooked) information for you and me, because Satan can and does have the means to prematurely end your life, and Satan does try, unless God expressly forbids it! How do we gain God's protection? By asking for it! God is powerful, but He has still given us free will. By asking for His protection, we acknowledge Him as our God and that He has the power to save us! When we rely on God, the power of God and the angels at His command spring into action.

Evil prospers when good people do nothing! Satan has a free hand to cause misery, death and destruction in your life, when you fail to place yourself and your loved-ones under God's protection.

God expects you to use your talents

Satan likes to create doubt and confusion. We are taught that the desire to be wealthy is wrong. There is a difference between greed, which is a sin, and having the abundance that is God's plan. If a desire for wealth comes from the perspective of "I, me, mine!" it is wrong. But if the desire for wealth is to use and develop the talents God has given you, to help those in need and to live in utter dependence upon the mercy and blessing of God, it is not only a worthy pursuit, but one that God expects of us. The Parable of the Talents tells us that we are stewards who must multiply what God has given us for His glory and honour.

Here follows a brief account of The Parable of the Talents: The Kingdom of Heaven is a like the wealthy man who goes upon an journey and leaves his property in the care of his servants (stewards). To each steward the master gives property to manage according to his abilities. The First Steward is given five talents. The Second Steward is given two talents. The Third Steward gets one talent. Putting the talents to use, the first two stewards double the money entrusted to them. The third servant fears his master's wrath and decides to bury it in the ground, lest he looses it. The master was away for a long time. Upon his return he calls his stewards to give account of their work. The master praises and rewards the stewards who multiplied their talents, but he is angry with the Third Steward, who did not even bank the talent to gain interest. The outcome is that the one talent is given to the First Steward to manage (so both his prestige, his responsibility and the holdings he governs over increases). The Third Steward is punished and cast out!

The moral of the story is this: God means for you to prosper! It includes health, wealth and happiness under God's own protection. You have to apply yourself and increase what God has given you. And you will have blessing and abundance. Failing to use the talents you are given, leads to poverty and shame (separation from God). You choose whether you use your talents or not, so your actions determine whether you will have abundance or not! It is a lie of Satan that God means for you to be poor and miserable!

Chapter Two

Religion and Customs

There are about as many views about the nature of God as there are people. And followers of the different religions, be it Judaism, Christianity, Islam or other, all believe that theirs is the correct view, the only true faith. I am a Christian by faith and by choice. Not because my parents sent me to Sunday School or because I was told what to believe. I believe that Jesus is the Christ who had purchased the eternal salvation of my soul through the sacrifice of His blood. I believe this, because I have a personal relationship with God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

If you want to know God, ask Him who He is

I admit that there are sceptics. Some do not understand the concept of the Trinity, and truth be told, it is a difficult concept to grasp. If there is only one Living God, how can three be one? Now this is a good time to remind you that if you want to know something of the nature of God, the best person to ask IS God Himself! If you ask Him, God will reveal Himself to you! Of course, He does this when and how He chooses, but when He does, He will do it according to your own capacity for understanding! And so it was that according to the measure of my understanding the Trinity is like a person with a body, a mind and a soul. It has three parts, each with its own qualities and purpose, but still one person. The Father is the soul. The Spirit is the mind, because it guides you. And Jesus is like the body that carries out certain tasks in honour of the soul. I admit that this view of the Trinity is subjective according to the Grace given me. When I was a teenager I saw the Trinity as one person also, but with three roles, because I am one person, but I have the role of daughter to someone, friend to another, sister to another. God is one person with various aspects and roles. The point is this: There is only one Living God, with different aspects. You don't have to accept my view of God. Ask Him and He will reveal Himself to you in a way that you can understand yourself and build a relationship with each: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Why did God wait so long to deliver us from Satan? Ages passed from the Fall; is everyone who died before Christ going to hell? What about those who do not know Christ? Will those who were by language and geography not reached by the Gospel before their death, condemned for eternity? I do not have all the questions, let alone all the answers. I do know that God did not make anyone with the intention of sending them to hell! I do know that across every culture and language across the world and across every age, God has revealed Himself to every people, regardless of how primitive or advanced the culture and technology of the day. And God does this because our primary purpose, the very reason we were created, is to serve and honour Him. Not even Satan and his demons were created with the purpose of being cast into hell. Their purpose too, was to honour and worship God. But Lucifer and his followers, having lost their place in heaven, will come against the children of God relentlessly to rob us of our place in heaven. It is not our Heavenly Fathers desire that one of us be lost! And as Satan never gives up to prevent us from being re-united with God, God never gives up trying to bring us to that place where our birthright to be united with Him, is restored. Unlike Satan who forces himself upon you, who will take control of your body and mind through his demon horde, to influence and even control your actions, God has given us free will—the choice whether to serve Him or not!

I do believe that there is only One Living God. I believe that we call Him by different names. In Judaism He is El or Elohim, in Christianity He is God, in Islam He is Allah. The religions squabble over petty differences that detract from the true essence of God and what He expects of us. I don't think God cares how many times a day you pray, where or in which language, He cares that you do! Satan has God's children busy with so many customs and practices that are nothing but man-made rules, it keeps them away from building a soul-saving relationship with God.

What does God want from us?

Building a personal relationship with God through prayer is essential to our spiritual growth and salvation, but prayer is no use, if thereafter by our words and deeds we fail to honour God. A few months ago, I was horrified by the story of a young Pakistani boy whose arm was crushed by religious extremists for stealing bread. The photographs of the pain on his face as a motorcar was driven across his arm will haunt me forever. It is not my place to sit in judgment, that is the place of God alone, but my heart cries out with God's pain that those who profess at the beginning of prayer that God is the Lord of the Judgment and that He is merciful, fails to show that mercy to a child in need. How could such cruelty be the response of God-fearing men? Should their duty not be to find out why a small child has to steal bread to satisfy his hunger? Why are the parents unable to provide for him or is he an orphan? Is it not the communities' responsibility to care for their needy? The adults who punished this boy, failed their Godly purpose to provide and protect the young and helpless. It is not just their own families men should provide for and protect, but also the weak and innocent who walk amongst us—relatives or not. A child, not yet ten years old, should not be crippled for life when society has failed him. God is watching and He will judge severely those who fail in their duty to care for the young, providing for them and teaching them God's way. God's true way, not the drivel Satan keeps us busy with in the name of culture and custom and organized religion. Can a person truly believe in their hearts that God is merciful and then be cruel to little children, animals and each other? Whenever we allow this kind of cruelty, not just as a society, but as an individual, we allow evil (the spirit of fear and hatred) to rule, where the power of love should have! The true essence of God is love. Evil cannot prevail against the power of the Holy Spirit, because it is pure love that flows from God! When love flows, we cannot act to harm another.

We must reflect upon our own actions, although this is a rather painful exercise at times, and see where we too fail to honour God when we expect His mercy, yet fail to show it to others who come across our path. We must show respect to other children of God, even if they have different customs or speak a different language. If we fail to do this, we dishonour God. The true holy war (Jihad in Arabic) is not between Jew and Christian and Muslim as Satan would have us believe. Holy war should be between all God's children (Jew, Christian and Muslim together) against Satan and his demons. People get caught up in too many man-made rules in society, so that there is little place left to reflect on and practice God's way with the things that really matter. If we profess to serve the living God, we must conduct ourselves at a higher standard. God is watching and we will all be called to account for how we treat God's other creatures, man and animal alike.

The Way of the Cross

Faith and works alone are not enough either. We have to profess our faith in God and accept God's plan for our Salvation and live accordingly. God's plan for our salvation is the sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross. I cannot answer for why God chose to wait for thousands of years after the Fall, before giving us Jesus. I cannot answer for why God revealed His plan for our salvation a little over two thousand years ago and chose to reveal His plan in Israel. But I can tell you that the way of the Cross is real. Our salvation through Jesus is real! The only way to salvation is through Jesus Christ. It is a simple act of faith, upon which we must then act.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from ULTIMATE TRUTH AND LIESby ADELLE YVETTE POTGIETER Copyright © 2012 by Elantari LLC. Excerpted by permission of Trafford Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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