Lesson 5. Part 1 & 2. – DECEPTIONS IN THESE END-TIMES
To watch this weeks teaching click here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhPaAS6wbqc
In 2 Corinthians 11, this whole chapter is dealing with deception, Paul writes, “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled – or deceived – Eve through his subtlety so your minds – your mind and your heart is your mind and your mind is your heart – so your heart should be corrupted by[from] the simplicity that is in Christ.”
In verse 4 Paul talks about the possibilities of false gospels. Again, it’s deception “If any come in preaching another Jesus whom we have not preached.”
in verse 13 he’s talking about deception again, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostle of Christ.” Verse 14 he’s talking about Satan, the possibility of him turning into an angel of light to deceive. So the context of this chapter is deception. The Apostle Paul warned us not to be ignorant of Satan’s devices. 2 Corinthians 2:11, ‘Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.’
One of Satan’s most effective weapons is the weapon of deception. Satan will seek to sidetrack you into a lagoon of deception and in so doing he will take you out of the mainstream of God’s provision and purposes. We need to appreciate that one of Satan’s chief weapons right from the very beginning was deception! He deceived the angels; a third of the angels fell with him. He is a master at lies and deception.
That’s one of his chief weapons against you, and it’s the thing he’ll work on more than anything else – his LIES AND DECEPTION – either about doctrinal truths, about yourself or about other people, situations. And once you open doors, a flood comes in, all those lying and deceiving spirits.
Jesus warned us of the dangers of great deception arising in the End-times and that even God’s choicest people need to be vigilant and aware of the great danger that will confront His people. Matthew 24:24-26, For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.’
I. HOW TO RECOGNISE ERROR
In recognising error, you’ve got to watch for these traits. Usually error appeals to the ego. Truth, if it’s really of God, usually brings a humility with it. But when a truth really begins to bring up the ego, question it! “The others won’t receive this truth, we are special. Others would never get this revelation.” There are always others in the Body of Christ with the same revelation; it’s never just you. Just kind of watch for that.
Ask these questions. Where does this truth originate from? Does it come from the Word or does it just come from a man? Does it glorify God, or does it glorify man? Does the truth centre around the person, a man or a woman? What is the fruit of that truth? In other words, is there confusion, pride, exclusiveness or is it liberation, blessing to it? Ask these questions when a ‘truth’ is coming.
Prior to the first Advent (or coming) of Jesus, there was a rise in occult activity. Can you imagine what it will be like just prior to the Second Coming of Jesus? (Isaiah 8:18-22, 9:1-7) I trust and pray that these teaching will save you from being caught in the traps of deception. It is not enough to pray, ‘Lord, deliver me from all deceptions.’ We need to allow God to deal with those areas in our life which can make us vulnerable and open to Satan’s deceptions.
II. WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT AREAS OF WEAKNESSES IN YOUR LIFE WHICH CAN MAKE YOU OPEN TO DECEPTIONS?
A. YOUR HEART
The key to avoiding deception is PURITY OF HEART.
1) ANY AREA OF YOUR HEART THAT’S NOT GIVEN OVER TO GOD AND SANCTIFIED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT IS OPEN TO DECEPTION!
God’s got to work on our heart, and we’ve got to come into a purity of heart. Any area of your heart that’s not sanctified, given over to the Lord, sanctified by the Spirit, you’re going to have problems. That’s why people can look at things and will turn the thing around to believe a lie to be the truth and the truth to be a lie. Your heart will do it as quickly as that, given the right circumstances to lure or deceive you. It’s very skilled at it. Anything you really don’t like, your heart turns it around. You end up believing a lie.
2) MOTIVES OF YOUR HEART
Motives – why we do what we do? Why we say what we say? Why we look how we look? Why do you help that person? Why do we do ministry? Why? Looking at the motives, very, very important. We’re talking about a pure heart, pure motives. PURE MOTIVES GUARD YOU AGAINST DECEPTION.
Man says, “Is it right or is it wrong?” but God says, “What’s the motive?” “Why are you doing that?” Some things which are seemingly right are unacceptable to God because the motive is wrong. Sometimes some things which are seemingly wrong He also accepts, like David when he ate the showbread in the temple when it was forbidden to eat the show bread. God didn’t strike him dead. Why? God saw the motive; God saw the heart. Some people may be trying to befriend some important person, but what is their motive? You can give all of your money to the poor but He says, if the motive is wrong, you don’t get one mark with God. He says you can do all the ministry you like, but if your motive is wrong, it doesn’t please God one bit. You can do the things to be accepted, to be admired, applauded. Even though they are nice things to do, the motive is wrong. RIGHT MOTIVES … this is real Christianity.
1 Samuel 16:7, when Samuel was trying to choose a king for Israel and he is going through the various sons in the family, “But the Lord said unto Samuel Look not on his countenance nor on his height, nor on his stature for I have refused him: for the Lord doesn’t see the way man sees. For man looks on the outward appearance, but THE LORD LOOKS UPON THE HEART.” Man looks at the outward appearance, God looks a little deeper. He looks at the motive; He looks at the heart.
Why are some Christians deceived?
It is because THE SEEDS OF DECEPTION ARE ALREADY IN THE HEART. When the seeds of deception – wrong motives, pride, self-promotion, anger, bitterness, envy, unbelief in God and His Word, disobedience, wrong/worldly desires, unsurrendered self-will, etc are already lodged in our heart, our mind, our emotions, our wills, speech and so on, we have an open door. We have to ask God to deal with these wrong seeds in our heart, then close the doors to evil. We have to open the doors to good. If we open our lives to good, the Holy Spirit, revelation, light, truth, God comes in. If we open the doors to any other thing, we get other spirits operating in and out through those doors. If there is deception, seeds of deception there, lies we nurture in our lives, we have an open channel in these areas for deception.
HYPOCRISY is a deception. Hypocrisy in the word of God is from the Greek play acting. In the Greek, in the ancient Greek culture at the time of Paul, if you are an actor you were called a hypocrite. Because that was your profession, you were an actor! They didn’t call them actors – the Greek word for actor is hypocrite. So that’s where we get that word from – acting. And so it speaks of play acting or pretence either through speech or action – DECEIT THROUGH SPEECH OR ACTION, the seed of deception.
Why do Christians act in that way?
- One, because of PRIDE. We kind of like to make out something which we’re not – you know, pride – so we act. But we act out a lie. We act as if we’re okay when we’re not. Lies are seeds of deception which lodge within our heart.
(2) We act because of the FEAR OF MAN – what people think of us. The fear of man causes us to put on pretences and kind of act in that way.
(3) Sometimes Christians act because they have problems with INSECURITY – inferiority and insecurity. You’ve got to be yourself, be natural, be honest, don’t be two-faced. Hypocrisy, you see it can be a seed which we’ve got to be very, very careful. God’s got to rip that seed of hypocrisy out of our lives. These seeds of corruption in our heart that God has to purify in our heart.
There’s only one motivation that we can have, and that is LOVE – love for God and love for others. Read 1 Corinthians 13, the chapter of love. God says if you do this, you fulfil the whole law – love. If anything, whatever is done, if it’s done out of the heart of real genuine love, it’s accepted with God. That’s why we have to check our motives – A PURE HEART.
How can we have a pure heart?
We can ask God to purify our heart, our motivations, that our motive will be because of our love for Him and love for others we are walking with in our life. We’ve got to have an open heart towards God; it’s the entrance and the exit of our life. See, your heart can be open, it can be closed. Your heart can be hardened; your heart can be broken. A person who’s broken-hearted becomes closed because they’re hurt. And some people are broken in mind and need healing – broken in their emotion. That needs the healing of God. And your heart is very important, your emotions, and your mind. God loves us; may we allowHim to heal our broken heart, mind and emotion. Everything comes in and out through your heart, and the first basic law regarding deception in Christians is in this area.
DECEPTION IS ESSENTIALLY A HEART PROBLEM. If you get and keep your heart right, you won’t be deceived. That’s the bottom line. You won’t be scared of the coming terrible deceptions in these End-times. God will be with us to guide us into all truth and to discern the lies and deceptions of the enemy. A pure heart is the key to avoiding deception.
B. LACK OF LOVE FOR THE TRUTH & DISOBEDIENCE
- Love for the Truth.
Please read 2 Thessalonians 2:9-15. Verse 9 says, “Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs and LYING WONDERS…” Signs and wonders, but it’s a deception, “and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” THEY DIDN’T HAVE A LOVE FOR THE TRUTH – they did not persevere to love and know the truth by reading, studying and meditating the Bible with guidance and understanding from the Holy Spirit, by hearing and learning from the preachers and teachers of the Word.
Time will come when people will be deceived in the last days in the rising of the Antichrist that is coming, who’s at the power of Satan with signs and lying wonders. And verse 12 says, “that they all might be damned who believed not the truth.” verse 11 says, “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion.”
The reason? Because they did not have a love of the truth. We have to have a love for the truth. We have to hate deceit in our lives, in other people’s lives, in our surroundings. We have to develop a love for the truth, because it’s a set of our heart which keeps us open to God’s truth, and saves us from delusions and deceptions of the enemy.
If you don’t have a love for the truth you become vulnerable. You are vulnerable because there’s a kind of doorway there which is just a little open if there’s not a love for the truth. We’ve got to develop, mature enough within our lives to say God, “Open, I’m open. I want to hear. What are you saying? I want the truth about myself, about certain critical truths about God’s kingdom, purposes, ways. I want your truth Lord.”
If you don’t have a love for the truth, you begin to have a reprobate mind. (Romans 1:25-32, vs 28) A reprobate mind is a mind which can no longer truly discern right and wrong, truth and lie. There’s no conscience; they cannot discern the difference; they cannot discern right and wrong. God gave them over to a reprobate mind, let them go over into captivity to satanic forces with no influence of God at all in their lives. God gave them over, not the devil, God gave them over because they did not have a love for His truth.
In the last days men will lead people astray
2) Obedience to the Truth
Teaching is not enough; knowledge is not enough; understanding is not enough. We don’t have it unless it’s being practiced in your life. It is not how much you know, even when you receive it by revelation. You see, IF YOU’RE HEARERS OF THE WORD AND NOT DOERS, YOU WILL BE DECEIVED. You’ve got to do it. You’re deceived into thinking you have it because you know it, and that’s a deception. Maturity is not just in knowing; Christians who are maturing are those who have the truths working in their lives; they are doing it – obedience to the truth.
People are led into deception when they would not obey the truth, believe the truth; instead they criticise them. God gives usually two or three witnesses to truth. 2 Corinthians 13:1, the mouth of two or three witnesses, let everything be established! Afterwards, if people still refuse, reject the truth from God, SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS SETS IN, opening them to deceptions.
This happened in Cuba when there was a great move of the Spirit in Cuba under T.L. Osborne. The whole island was set alight with the power of God – miracles, incredible miracles, were happening all over the island. A great outpouring of the Holy Spirit, countless thousands in Cuba came into the kingdom of God – this was in the 50’s – came into the kingdom of God, and it was a great move of the Holy Spirit. And the national council of churches in Cuba came out, got up and said, “This is not of God, and it’s of the devil.” They published a publication on it. TL Osborne left the island, and within 12 months the whole island was communist. Frightening, isn’t it? Often, communist advancements, not always, come from a rejection of Christian light and truth upon the nation. And God gives them over to another spirit – spirit of deception, communism.
We must develop fortitude like the early apostles to forge this new day and present to God’s people revelatory truth that has been reserved for our day
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Parts of this teaching have been supplied by ‘Intercessors For The Philippines’ and has been adapted for Australia to train Prophetic Intercessors For Australia. No part of this article may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission. www.refinerylife.org
