How to Discern Truth From Lies as a Christian Woman

We live in a world that is drowning in information — but starving for truth. And if you’ve ever felt confused, unsure who to trust, or even uncertain about what you yourself believe, you’re not alone. The enemy has always been in the business of deception, but in this season, it feels louder and more sophisticated than ever. The good news? God didn’t leave us without a compass. In this video, we’re going to look at what the Bible says about navigating a world at war with truth. Enjoy!

The other day, my best friend texted me a funny TikTok video. And as I watched it, smiling ear to ear — because who doesn't love when you get a funny meme sent to your phone in the middle of the day — I did the first thing that most of us do when we interact with content that we enjoy: I went straight to the comments.

For the most part, the initial comments were people laughing and finding the video humorous. But as I scrolled down a little bit more, I started seeing comments that said, "AI." Then another one: "This is AI." And another. So I looked back at the video and started noticing subtle indicators that, yes, this was funny and entertaining, but it was artificially generated. And it kind of took me aback because it looked so real. It wasn't until someone else pointed it out that it clicked for me to recognize — this isn't real.

Now more than ever, there's so much information at our fingertips and before our eyes, but we desperately need discernment to know what's real and what's not. Because in this day and age, you can't even believe what you see. So how are we going to know what's real and what's not?

I don't think this level of confusion is any accident. I believe it is a targeted attack to confuse us and to separate us further from the truth. And as the Bible tells us, there's nothing new under the sun. These tactics have been used for a long time — to deceive populations, to harm people, and to perpetuate the corruption that we see in the world today.

Because here's the reality: there are a lot of bad things, terrible things, horrendous things going on in this world. It's been like this for a while. We can turn on the news, or we can read Romans chapter 1, and see that humans are gonna be humans. We're gonna sin, we're gonna fall, we're gonna hurt each other. It's kind of what we do. But at the root of it all is our inability to stand on what's true.

There is one thing that is at the root of all the sin and pain and suffering that we see continually perpetuated since the fall of man in Genesis 3. And that is the suppression of truth. Where there is no truth, there is darkness. There is evil. There is abuse. There is sin. There is lawlessness. And Jesus makes it clear to us that it is truth that sets us free. He is that truth that sets us free from sin and the consequences of that sin.

Going back to Romans 1, we can see that this society was deep in all types of depravity — some that we probably haven't even seen here in America yet, publicly or politically. And that says a lot, because if you turn on the news, you know what I'm talking about. But before the apostle Paul goes into listing out all of their depraved behavior, he talks about how the truth had been suppressed so that people would continue to stay enslaved to that behavior. And his purpose for the letter, his ministry, and everything that he did was to share the truth of the gospel to set people free from it.

And that same challenge exists in our society today. Even though we are bombarded with so much information, even though we have encyclopedias and years' worth of data and facts at our fingertips at any single moment, we are still far from the truth. Because information is not the same as truth. And the enemy is betting that we will get the two confused to continue to keep us deceived, depraved, and ultimately in bondage to sin.

There is an unseen war on truth — a war to keep you from knowing the truth. Everything that you're seeing online, in the media, the division, in the confusion — all of it is a sign that this war on truth is real. And as believers, if we are not diligent, if we are not sober-minded, we will be deceived. You can love God all you want, but that does not exempt you from deception.

So today, I want to look at four things every believer needs to do in order to stay grounded in the truth and win this war on truth.

STEP 1: Know the Truth (John 8:32, 17:17)

We can't discern the truth from lies if we haven't been acquainted with the truth before.

My mom loves purses — pocketbooks, if you're older. And the older she gets, I promise the bigger her purses get. She has a lot of them, and one of her dream purses is to get a Louis Vuitton. So when she came to my house a few weeks ago, I saw that she plopped down a Louis Vuitton purse on my couch. I quietly inspected the bag and quickly came to the conclusion that this was not an authentic Louis Vuitton. First, I could tell by the stitching and the hardware that it was a very good dupe.

Now, if I had seen it from a distance, or if I had never seen a real Louis Vuitton in person and didn't know what to expect from a luxury brand, I wouldn't have known that it wasn't real. But because I did know what a true Louis Vuitton looked like, even I was able to tell when it wasn't — even in the subtle details, even in what most people would commonly look over.

And the same is true when it comes to the truth of God. We have to be so acquainted with the truth that when we see a lie, it's not hard to decipher. Even in the subtle details, even in what most people would commonly overlook, we can clearly see — this is not of God.

Now, how do we do that?

In John chapter 14, Jesus is discipling and preparing His disciples for His departure. He knows He's about to be crucified, and in some of His final words to them, He tells them that He's going away to prepare a place for them and that they know the way. And Thomas is like, "Jesus, we don't know where You're going. How can You say we know the way? What are You even talking about?"

And Jesus says to him in verse 6, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life." He's saying, if you want to know the way to God, if you want to know the truth, if you want to know true eternal life, you have to know Me. And when you know Me, you know the way, you know the truth, and you know the life.

Sometimes we think of truth as some sort of intellectual enlightenment, some sort of intellectual elitism, some level of education that we arrive at and then we know truth. But truth is not a set of facts to memorize or a bunch of data to spit out. Truth is a person. Truth is the person of Jesus Christ. And the more that you know Him, the more that you are connected to Him, the more that you can hear from Him, the easier it is for you to discern a lie — because you know the truth. You know Jesus. When you know Jesus, you know the truth.

This is why Jesus tells us to abide in Him, to abide in His Word, to abide in His truth. And He says, "Then the truth will set you free" — because He is the truth. And so when you place your faith in Him and you're actively developing and growing a relationship with Him, and you're stirring up the Spirit within you, it becomes much harder to be deceived. Because you don't just know God's voice — you know His tone. You don't just know what He does — you know His intentions. You don't just know His power — you know His heart. And it's that knowledge that helps you to discern truth from a lie in this world.

STEP 2 — Test the Spirits (1 John 4:1)

Knowing Jesus is the first step to winning this war on truth. But the challenge with that is a lot of false truth — or lies — are presented as spiritual or some sort of secret spiritual knowledge when it's quite actually the opposite. Even people of faith who are spiritually aware can be very deceived just because a lie is wrapped up in a lot of spiritual language.

So in 1 John, we see the Apostle John address such a situation, and he encourages believers to test the spirits — to test whether they are from God, the true God, or if they are from false prophets that have gone out into the world. Because just because something sounds spiritual or religious, or even just because it sounds biblical, doesn't mean it is — if it doesn't actually line up with what the Bible actually says.

So the Apostle John gives a clear, practical way to test the spirits or the influences that were impacting people at the time and even today. He says to ask: What does this teaching say about Jesus? Does it confess that Jesus was God, is God — fully flesh and fully divine at the same time? Because that's what the Bible says.

And whether you consider yourself someone super spiritual and in tune with the Spirit or not, there is one way that God will always reveal His truth to us, and that is through the Scriptures. So I don't care how spiritual a message is — if it is not in line with the Word of God, it is a lie. His Word is the standard by which we can measure all truth, all information, to know if it is truth or not.

It's not about how much emotion was stirred when you heard it, or how much it confirmed what was already happening in your life, or how excited you felt when this word came forth, or how many people agree with it. To test the spirits, to test the influences, means to align it with God's Word. And the Bible tells us, "Let God be true and every man a liar" (Romans 3:4). So it's not about what's popular. The truth isn't popular a lot of times. That's why Jesus said His way is narrow. But it will always align with God's Word in the Bible.

Essentially, if we want to win this war on truth as believers, we cannot be naive. People will play on our desire for spiritual growth and the things of the Spirit. We see this play out all the time. They'll slap "Christian" on something that doesn't have anything to do with Jesus because for a lot of us, that's all it takes. "Oh, they said it was Christian? It's fine. Oh, they said Jesus something something? It's fine." “If they said it’s Christian and something about Jesus, don’t question it.” And we've gotten lazy. We're no longer testing the spirits, testing those influences that are impacting us every single day, and asking the hard questions like: Do they believe Jesus is God? Do they believe that Jesus was fully human and fully God at the same time and that He died on the cross for our sins? Do they believe that our sin leads to death and that we need Jesus? Or is Jesus just a nice little ornament to attract Christians who don't know better?

This directive from the Apostle John to test the spirits was countercultural then, and it still is now. It requires discernment. It requires us to be sober-minded and awake. Because the separation that needs to happen is between light and darkness, truth and lies, so that what's real can clearly be seen, discerned, and understood.

STEP 3: Fight the Right Battle & Don’t Get Distracted

This war on truth isn't about knowing more or proving everyone else wrong. It's about being so grounded in the truth of God that it produces fruit in your life — that the light your life shines is undeniable. It's not debating and screaming at someone across a table. It's getting in the presence of God. It's following the way of Jesus. It's abiding in His truth and letting it change your life. Everything else is a distraction.

Ephesians 6:12 lets us know that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. That's what's at war with truth. It's the unseen that's influencing what we do see to perpetuate lies and suppress the truth of Jesus Christ.

So yelling at each other and trying to prove each other wrong and trying to make each other look stupid only distracts us from the real enemy while he carries on with his schemes to deceive and destroy. If we want to win this war on truth, we have to fight the right battles — meaning we have to know who our true enemy is.

Most of the people who have ideals that don't align with ours, that don't align with the truth, have been deceived. And us berating them and calling them stupid and beating them down isn't going to get them any closer to the truth. Here's where a lot of us exhaust ourselves: we're fighting the wrong enemy on the wrong battlefield. Our battle is not against people. It's not against opinions. It's spiritual. When we lose sight of that, we waste energy on arguments that were never ours to win.

I love the quote that says, "You don't have to defend the truth. The truth is like a lion — you don't have to defend it, all you have to do is release it." As you share the truth and live the truth, the truth will fight its own battles. Just like darkness cannot exist in the presence of light, lies cannot exist in the presence of truth. But if we're so distracted by the arguments and the ideals and the divisions of this world, the truth will get buried under all of that distraction and we'll miss the entire point.

The point is that Jesus didn't come to build a worldly kingdom. He came to bring the kingdom of heaven here to earth. And even now, His kingdom is at hand. And as easy as it is to want to align ourselves with a political party or an ideology or a group of thought, none is greater than the kingdom of God. And if you place your faith in Him, you're not even a citizen of this world — you are a citizen of heaven.

So prayerfully, God will give us eyes to see and ears to hear His truth and live it out, so that we can look at others who have been deceived with compassion and prayer and light. Because if the enemy can't stop you from knowing the truth, if he can't stop you from testing the spirits and being able to discern truth from a lie, his last resort is to distract you. He will have you fighting the wrong battles.

But the truth has already won. You don't have to fight for it. You just have to know it and live it.

CONCLUSION:

In a world at war with truth, you don't have to fight from a place of fear. You get to stand firm in a battle that’s already won.

Know the truth — and the truth is not just information, it's a person. It's Jesus.

Test the spirits — don't be naive. Measure everything against the Word of God.

And fight the right battles — your enemy is not people. It's spiritual. Don't let the noise distract you from the truth.

Here's the good news: the truth has already won. Jesus has already defeated sin, death, and the grave. He is the way, the truth, and the life. And when you know Him, when you abide in Him, when you walk in His truth, you don't have to be afraid of deception.

So stay rooted. Stay grounded. And let the truth of Jesus shine so brightly in your life that the lies can't stand in its presence.

If you're tired of feeling confused about what's true and want to build a stronger foundation in God's Word, I created a free resource to help you. My Worry-Free Bible Study will guide you through Scripture so you can know God's truth for yourself and experience the peace that comes from being rooted in His Word. Download it free now at belovedwomen.org or in the Beloved Women app.

Thanks so much for watching today. Until next time be beautiful, be blessed, and beloved.