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Deception
Deception
Donna Stubbs
January 4, 2016
As a Child of God, we are so deceived as to who we are! We think we are who our circumstances say we are: childless, fatherless, motherless, unlovable, unworthy, and we have to accept whatever or whoever comes along and accepts us for who our circumstances say we are. That is so opposite of who we really are. We are spiritual, eternal beings; we are not the temporal flesh we see in the mirror.
Jeremiah 9:6 NIV
You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me declares the LORD.
Satan is a definer of our circumstances due to choices made by people influenced by Satan, to include ourselves. God is the real definer of our life, our earthly life and our eternal life, if we allow Him. It all comes down to choices. Who will we serve?
John 10:10 KJV
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I AM come that they might have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
God wants to give us abundant life. He doesn’t want us to be deceived into being less than who He created; being deceived into thinking we don’t measure up in the world.
It is our choice, but Satan as the Great Deceiver steps in and tries to greatly influence us. He tells us lies about ourselves and everybody else. Satan’s mission is to destroy us because we are created in the image of God our Father and our Father loves us as unique individuals. We are fearfully and wonderfully made in His image. He wants to give each of us hands on, individual special attention.
As Christians, we should be honest with God, honest with ourselves, and the world around us. When we are not honest, God knows our heart and we are rewarded accordingly. First thing we should do is tithe to God; if not we are stealing from Him. We should be honest with the IRS, even if they are dishonest (they have to answer for themselves). We should be honest with our parents and teachers for doing our own homework and giving our best effort at school and work. If not, that’s deceiving ourselves as well as others. Are we being honest before God by getting a divorce, yet living together to obtain more government income, or medical care, or school grants? When we visit with our friends, do we dramatize or tell half-truths to mislead? God does not like lies as we already know. As Christians, practicing the Word of God, we must reflect God’s moral standards. As Christians, we cannot participate with the Deceiver and think that is okay.
Proverbs 22:6 KJV
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
We haven’t been telling our children who they are! We haven’t been telling children who God is! Once they know the real God, they won’t accept a counterfeit. (That’s how banks train tellers to spot counterfeit money—they study the real money). We need to be teaching God! As Children of the Living God, He knows their name; He knows the number of hairs on their head; He has a plan for their life; He wants them to succeed, He wants them to be healthy; He wants them to be wise; He loves them and wants to nurture them; and wants to spend time with them now to avoid the pitfalls of believing the lies.
As teenagers, we feel like we don’t fit in, or we are unworthy, or no one sees us, or no one wants us, or loves us, or we are not smart. Those are all lies from Satan meant to deceive us to get our attention onto self instead of our Source for Life, Abba Father. Look at Adam and Eve; even in the perfection of the Garden of Eden, in God’s Holy Presence, they were deceived into giving up Paradise! We need to understand we are children of the Creator, the Living and Ever Present God! He can change our circumstances; He can change or re-shape our mindset. Get a picture of yourself as a Child of the King and keep it! Get a picture that God is your Father and you can go to Him with anything! The younger we are when we realize who we are and whose we are, the better off we are. Our Father wants us to know what is Truth and what is Deception!
Think about Enoch, he knew Truth and excelled! Adam was his great, great great, great grandfather. Adam was 687 years old when Enoch was born and I’ll bet Enoch sat in Adam’s lap and Adam told him all about God, what He looked like, what He said, the long walks in the Garden. Enoch spent 243 years with Adam listening to God stories. Adam stirred up a fire in Enoch that his circumstances couldn’t quench! Enoch spent so much time with God that God took him to Heaven to live with Him. Enoch is one of only two people in the bible that never died. We can have that kind of relationship with God that He would just take us home to live with Him! If Satan deceived Adam and Eve, do you think he didn’t attempt to deceive Enoch as well? He is still trying to deceive us today, but if we know the real God, we won’t have a big problem with the counterfeit.
Everybody is a teacher, we teach our friends, our children, our families by our words and actions. Satan tells us we are not good enough to teach, to sing, to learn, to paint, to build or repair or for someone to love us—all not true—deception. God can expand our capabilities into all areas! God can expand our brains; we only use about 10% of our brain anyway. He can expand it further to accommodate whatever we need. We have been deceived into thinking we are limited in our capabilities, but nothing is impossible with our God!
Mark 10:27 KJV
Jesus looked at them and said, With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.
The world doesn’t want to accept God for who He is and they try to push their deception onto us; we are to be a shining light to the world and overcome the world; not the other way around. Be a carrier of God’s Presence, allow Him to light up the sphere of your domain! Bloom where you are planted, excel in whatever you are doing!
Proverbs 14:8 NIV
The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception.
We cannot, as Christians, live with one foot on God’s side and one foot on Satan’s side. We need to determine today, what is most important to us. Is it today, or eternity? Weigh all sides carefully. Do we want to fulfill the lusts of the flesh because “there’s no harm in that” and spend eternity being tormented in hell because we have been deceived by not believing God’s Word is Truth; or are going to take God at His Word and do our very best to live up to what He says and spend eternity in Heaven with Him (not to mention every success and desire of our heart…plus having all the fun of winning souls for God, participating in all His signs and wonders, and being on the winning side when all is said and done). It is our individual choice.
Jesus said in John 14:12-14 NIV
12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
This level of response from God only happens with total commitment.
Hebrews 3:13 NIV
But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.
The church is God’s Army. An army looks out for their team, they watch their back, they make sure they don’t fall behind to get picked off by the enemy. An army takes care of each other. If the church member gets out of order with God, their heart is like a pond that gradually freezes in winter, the heart slowly hardens, destroying spiritual sensitivity to deception of the enemy. It is our job, as the team member to correct them, encourage them, love them, nurture them and bring them back to full readiness. That’s what our loving Heavenly Father does with us when we become unresponsive or deceived. He disciplines and corrects those He loves. The Word, Jesus, lives in our heart. We are to guard our heart for out of it flows the wellspring of our life. In Jesus all the issues of life are resolved. Jesus has all the correct answers to life and there is no deception in Him. We need to ask!
When you walk or abide (I love the connotation of abiding in God. To me it means shalom (wholeness in all things), favor, safety, security, joy, and contentment). He will care for you as your Father, as your Guarantor. If you make a mistake or sin, when you abide in Him, He will turn it around for your good! When you abide in your Father, it is easier to discern Truth from Deception.
He is the best Father anyone could have. I am a living example of a good Father. I cannot tell you all the things God has brought me through beginning in childhood all the way to now. When I look back, I can only call it a miracle process. Have I been deceived? Yes, but God turned it around for my good.
Romans 8:28 KJV
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.
Satan is the father of all lies and is daily working for your destruction.
John 8:44 NIV
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
2 Thessalonians 2:8-12 NIV
8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10 and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
The final decision is up to us. We can deceive ourselves into thinking everything is OK. It’s OK to sin, God will forgive us, but that is not totally true. There’s deception mixed with Truth in that concept. We cannot practice sin and expect God to forgive us if we continue to crucify Jesus over and over again by our sin. God is not pleased with continual sin; we have to make a choice. Choose Life—Abundant Life!
