Just because Satan says it’s so doesn’t make it so.

Few people outside Arizona probably know who James Reavis is, but in the 1880s, he owned over 18,000 square miles in the Arizona Territory. That’s about 12 million acres stretching from Phoenix to New Mexico.

It was a shock to the settlers already there to discover that the land they thought they owned belonged to someone else. But Reavis let them stay—at a price. He sold the settlers quitclaims, deeds that transferred a claim of land from one person to another. Reavis sold quitclaims for $25 apiece, but he kept the water rights. The Southern Pacific Railroad paid handsomely for the right to lay track through his land.

James Reavis became quite wealthy off his land, the water rights, and the quitclaims he sold. There was only one problem.

He didn’t own any of it.

James Reavis may have been a liar and a fraud, but he had facial hair that hipster millennials would envy.

Reavis had forged documents and fabricated an elaborate story of how he inherited this huge land grant. Elaborate, yes, but totally false.

Reavis took in, by today’s standards, over $150 million dollars before one newspaper editor’s diligence proved Reavis to be a fraud. The “Baron of Arizona” was busted. He was sent to prison and died a forgotten man in 1914.

 

Satan tries to lay claim to our lives, but if you are a follower of Christ, Satan has no right or claim to you. Unfortunately, too many people accept the lies of Satan as fact and live defeated.

  • You’ll never amount to much.
  • God can’t love you because of what you’ve done.
  • You tried to live for God but failed, so you’re mine.
  • You can’t stand up to my temptations, so just give in.

Lies, lies, lies.

We act on what we believe is true. Do not accept the accusations and deceit that come from Satan. He is the father of lies (John 8:44).  Bask in the truth of God’s Word. If you are a Christian, you are …

And I could go on. The truth is that you have nothing to fear from Satan—neither his lies nor his power “because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

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This Screen-Shot-2013-06-24-at-1.41.38-PM (1)post supports the study “Fear Not!” in Bible Studies for Life.