"Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain." (Ezekiel 22:27, emphasis mine)
That's uh...that's pretty scary. Why would someone want to destroy my soul? A rhetorical question of course. If you have ever been tempted to lie to someone or to trick them into believing something about you that's not entirely accurate, then you understand, at the earliest inception of this next verse, just what it is that leads to the destruction of another's soul. After your own of course.
"So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owner's thereof." (Proverbs 1:19)
Lies are like timebombs. Both in ourselves and others. Depth-charges that influence the ways we think and the ways we interact. At different depths in ourselves do said lies lay in wait for attendant thoughts and then act accordingly. Yes, lies are things. Lies are active opposites to the way things are. And the way things actually are lead directly back to God Himself. And "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." (1 John 1:5)
As I mentioned in the above paragraph, there are different depths to which lies attach themselves. For some, the very concept of God's existence might be a lie, an untruth. That's pretty deep. Gonna have to get on that. Someone who might not believe there's a God may or may not have any qualms about destroying someone's soul, because one of the negative effects of living as if there's no God—no ultimate judge of both actions and thoughts—is this blindness that says they can steal from others, the intangible needs of the soul, with impunity. So, they believe the lie, and they in turn spill lies to others and subsequently, both are on a path of destruction. And it doesn't matter if you believe in a "soul" or not.
"With Him is strength and wisdom: the deceived and the deceiver are His." (Job 12:16) Nothin' to worry about right? Well...
Here's the thing, God knows the havoc and fallout from the lies that are loose in the world and in our lives. He sees the depths of destruction and decay in our souls from the lies and half-truths that we've been fed since we were born. And He aims to remedy all of it. But He can't unless we come clean and admit that He's the only one who can restore us to the truthfulness that He honors and blesses. Here's the state of things:
"For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in Thy sayings, and mightest overcome when Thou art judged." (Romans 3:3-4) Paul, in this passage is referring to David coming clean regarding his affair with Bathsheba (from Psalm 51:4)
After we realize that we've been lied to, the part of us that was naive and—for lack of a better term—stupid, is destroyed. Never to return. There's no way that anyone in their right mind can go back to the simple, child-like believablility that they possessed prior to being deceived. Lies destroy souls. They turn people into husks, shadows of their former selves. It's tragic, I've seen it happen and I hate it. Only God can fix the one who's life and person has been ravaged by lies.
"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake." (Psalm 23:2-3)
One of the first things we can do on the road to recovery is to forgive the person who lied to us, who sought to destroy our soul. That way, God can get to work on restoring them as well.