Deception – The Hidden Dangers

The Most powerful gift that God has bestowed on mankind living these days is “His Word” – The Bible.

The Bible is like a user manual to help man live in conformity to God’s will. The Bible helps troubleshoot when life feels stuck. And this is precisely the reason to why one should read and meditate on the words of the bible consistently day & night, like the psalmist says in Psalms 1:2 'But his delight is in the law of the Lord , And in His law he meditates day and night.'

David the psalmist, further says in Psalms 119:105 'Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.'

The Holy Spirit prompted me to write about the Hidden dangers – The Deception. And reading the Bible and meditating on the word day and night is the surest way to not be deceived. Deception always looks good when not discerned. Remember, the key is to meditate on the word and not just read.

Jesus said in John 14:23-24,  'Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.' If you love Jesus, you will keep His words. You can keep His words, only when you read and understand and imbibe it, for which you should meditate on the Word.

How did the serpent deceive Adam & Eve?  The Bible passage reads in Genesis 3:1-4,6 as, 'Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. '

The first question that the deceiver poses is a seemingly innocent one – “Has God stopped you from eating every fruit in the garden”. It was not a straightforward “Has God stopped you from eating the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden”. The deception always comes looking like an innocent thing at first. This is the Hidden Danger that God wants you and I to be aware of.

Many Churches, install a crucifix or the cross. This is a deception. The reason this is a deception is because idolatry is forbidden by God. However, when many believers and non-believers see it, it brings a sense of reverence in their hearts and they invariably bow to it or pray to it. Then they believe placing a cross would help them ward off evil and make a cross in every place possible – at Home, in their car in their workplace etc. Then they are made to believe that drawing the cross on the forehead of a person in prayer will help the person in the form of safety, healing etc. In India, when new homes are dedicated the pastors have this habit of using sandalwood paste to draw the cross in every door. Some even liken it to the Israelites sprinkling the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorposts in Egypt when God commanded so before he sent the destroyer to kill all the firstborns in Egypt. This was to be done at that point when God commanded them so. God did not ask them to do that once they came back to the promised land every time they observed the Passover. This is similar to Jesus dying on the cross once. ONLY ONCE. Not Everytime.

The cross is not a blessing, but a reminder that Jesus became a curse to save us from carrying the curse. Because the Bible says in Galatians 3:13  'Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”),'

Jesus did not transform the curse of being hung on the cross, but he transformed my and your life by taking on the curse on Himself. What an amazing love that is of the Father and Jesus!

Solomon has written about 29 chapters in Proverbs. And the same Solomon wrote 10 chapters of Ecclesiastes. The books are in stark contrast. The Proverbs oozes with God’s Wisdom, which He had bestowed Solomon with. Ecclesiastes oozes with worldly wisdom. And worldly wisdom makes Solomon talk about everything “under the sun”, which is the earthly things.

Solomon allowed himself to rely on his wisdom and let many women into his life. They carried him astray from God. But God did not take away the wisdom. This was corrupted by his own thoughts, since he was no more under the wings of the Almighty. This was the deception. Even God-given wisdom works right only when you are connected to God.  This led him to declare life as “Vanity” – what a horrific fall. If you walk with Jesus, the worst of situations will not take away your joy. But if you walk with the world, even shadows will make you afraid and you will lose your peace.

Today I see two types of preachers, one - the eloquent and the other -spirit-filled. The Eloquent preach the bible from their worldly understanding and wisdom. The Spirit-filled preach from what the Holy Spirit teaches them. The Eloquent preachers sound very good and make people happy – this is the deception the Bible warned us in I Timothy 4:1-2 'Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, '

For a child of God, the Holy Spirit provides with the spirit of discernment to stay away from such false preachers. But if you have tasted salvation, through the Blood of Jesus, but are yet to receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the Bible is your source of power. The Bible says in I John 4:1 'Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. '

If you read the bible diligently and meditate over the words in prayer, Jesus Christ is so gracious, that He will guide you out of the trap of deception. Whenever in doubt, kneel down and seek His guidance, He will surely guide.

Even the devil tested Jesus using the words of God. So beware of the false teachers and prophets, who are the wolves in sheep's clothing. One of the simplest tests is if the teacher talks mostly about worldly blessings - Beware.

May Jesus Christ, provide you with the wisdom to discern spirits and be in His presence always.

Praise the Lord!

Glory to Jesus.