Prophecy
John 8:31-32,”Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, If you continue in My Word, then are you My disciples indeed;
32-And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
II Corinthians 4:4, “In whom the god of this world has blinded (deceived, cover over) the minds of them which believe not, lest the light (revelation) of the glorious gospel of Christ (the Anointed One) Who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
II Corinthians 11:14, “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (false light of deception).
1 Peter 5:8, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour” (deceive).
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DECEPTION, INC.
From 1 Peter 5:8, if you’ll notice, it said the devil walks about AS a roaring lion. This didn’t say that the devil IS a lion. He’s a counterfiet. He’s a phony because there’s only one Lion and that’s Jesus Christ---the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Who‘s mighty roar makes the devil tremble in his boots. But the devil, our adversary is looking for someone to deceive.
We’re told from this Scripture that the devil walks about in disguise. He never shows himself for who he really is. Thats part of the deception. Getting you to believe he’s something other than what he truly is. As an angel of light, he can often ‘appear’ to be one of our’s---a member of the Body. But in stark reality, he’s the deceiver. He’s the thief who’s come to steal, kill and to destroy (John 10:10).
In light of this, as the Church--as the Bride of Christ, we must lift up the Sword of the Spirit. We must take up the shield of faith to war against an enemy who’s hiding in our midst in camoflage. Isn’t this what an enemy of war in the natural does? He disguises himself so as to sneak up on the other side to attack and conquer.
While we’re experiencing more revelation of Jesus as Lord, Who is also love, the light and our joy, we can’t run from confrontations with the powers of darkness that face us. We have to know and accept the truth that we are at war. Plain and simple. We, the Church, corporately and individually---we are smack dab in the middle of a war between the Kingdom of God and the powers of darkness. And as we move into closer intimacy with God, getting to know Him on a deeper level, at the same time, we must also know our enemy.
Our adversary is Satan and he doesn’t work alone. He employs hordes of demonic spirits that he sends out on assignment to carry on his work which is, to steal, kill and to destroy. These demonic spirits seek out dark, empty places in the human soul where they stirr up depression, anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, unbelief, etc. Eph.6:12 says, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood---but against principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world (age), against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
In the course of history, we’ve seen the evil wickedness of all these things in operation. We’ve seen how in the early stages of the Church, the Christian’s were thrown to hungry, roaring lions who literally tore them apart for the Roman’s entertainment. This was shocking and horrible for any human being to find themselves in the hands of such wicked people.
But it doesn’t stop there. Come on up through the corridors of history and stop at the time when millions of Jews experienced this evil wickedness by being burned alive in what was called, ‘ovens’ in Nazi Germany. We’ve also seen this evil wickedness through the horribleness of racism. Through slave labor camps all over the world. Genocide, religious wars and moving on through history’s dusty corridors, we come to this present age and September 11, 2001---the bombing of The Word Trade Center.
It’s the same form of terrorism that was seen and experienced in the Roman Collisuem. In Nazi Germany. In the United States of America and all over the world. What is deception? It is to believe a wrong as though it’s something that is right. You believe the wrong as through its truth.
So, what does our adversary do? He seeks those he can deceive. His calling card is “deception” and his organization is “Deception, Inc.”
In order to deceive, he must first gain control of our thought processes and patterns thus, the battlefield is the mind. But we do have a choice in the matter, praise God. James 4:7 spells it out plainly for us. “Submit yourselves unto God; resist the devil and he WILL flee (run) from you.” Amen! I don’t know about you but I’m not too crazy about the devil trying to mess with my mind. How about you? Amen. Let us choose truth over deception and run the devil out of our lives.
CAUGHT IN THE WEB:
I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, “web of deception.” Its expressed this way because deception is like a ‘web.’ Much like an actual spiders web when you run into one. You’re caught and its hard to get all the webbing off of you. Just as this is so in the natural, its also true in the spiritual realm when you’re caught in Satan’s web of deception. Just as it does in the natural, it will wrap around your mind so subtly that if not discerned and dealt with, you’ll come to believe the lie’s. Lies that demonic spirits tell you so as to keep you bound up and under their control.
This is why we see many people caught in different kinds of deceptions that will manifest through addictions such as drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, cigarettes, etc. We also see this sort of thing in violence of all kinds such as, kids killing people in their schools. In spouse abuse, child abuse and abuse of the elderly. Its behind terrorism. Its seen in divorce and inner turmoil of the mind. Its seen in the increase of immorality among all people groups, in witchcraft. Its seen in confusion that all people experience---that is, things seeming muddy and not clear.
When you come awake in the morning to the phone ringing by your bed and before you can talk coherently to the person, have you ever said, “Let me clear the cobwebs out of my mind?” Just like natural sleep, in the spiritual sense, this is an indication that people have been lulled to sleep and their mind made dull. And in this state, you’re not spiritually alert to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit as He‘s trying to speak to you. All you might hear is a mere buzzing in your spirit that quite possibly, you may decide its there because of the late night pizza you ate. This is the “sleep of deception,” which can also be called passivity. We see a lot of this in the body of Christ and in our local churches on Sunday morning.
Its a diabolical plan of the enemy to keep God’s people out of the prophetic loop of the Spirit, if you will. That flowing stream of revelation knowledge and discernment that would expose enemy strategy so it can be destroyed. Doing so that another victory is won and the Church takes another gaint step foward in advancing the Kingdom of God. Halelujah!! Let the Army of God wake up and arise in full armor, pulling down the strongholds of the enemy and taking back possession of the land! Let the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ advance in victory and glory, giving praise and honor to the King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s. Amen! Halelujah!
But when we talk about ‘clearing the cobwebs out of our minds,’ many times you hear people say this in jest. Sadly, they don’t realize what they’re actually saying. They are making a declaration to the fact that they are under the control of deception, i.e., evil spirits. They’re not aware of just what that specifically means for them and their walk with the Lord. Somebody may be asking the question at this point---if a person is caught in the web of Satan’s deception, does that mean a person is demon possessed?
Not necessarily. A person can be influenced outwardly by demonic spirit’s without being actually possessed meaning, a demon who enters a person to take up residence. This also depends on whether a person has accepted Jesus Christ into their heart as Lord and Savior. If a person, before they were saved, lived a compromising lifestyle such as homosexuality. Or if they were heavily involved in the occult and witchcraft, they may have some major problems after they’re born again and need prophetic counseling and deliverance.
What does this mean? When the apostles were preaching and people were coming to Jesus and being saved---one of those people to receive Jesus was Simon. Prior to accepting Jesus into his life, he had been a sorcerer. He had been involved in occult practices for money. As he observed the way the apostles moved in the power of the Holy Spirit to minister to people, Simon wanted to buy this power. This was an affront to the cross of Jesus and to the Holy Spirit because his heart motive was wrong. It wasn’t to help people but rather he was interested for self-gain. Jesus said, “freely you have received, freely give.” (at no charge).
THE SPOTLIGHT OF GOD’S WORD:
Through a word of knowledge, Simon was confronted that he was in the ‘gall of bitterness.’ He repented and was delivered, being set straight that you can‘t buy the power of God. Have you ever tried to read your Bible and you find your mind distracted. So much so that you find yourself reading the same Scripture over and over but you’re not getting anything out of the Word? And then, thoroughly distracted, you finally lay your Bible aside.
God loves it when we read His anointed Word because it gives Him the opportunity to communicate with us through it. The Holy Spirit has the opportunity to enlighten our spirit’s with revelation knowledge of God and His ways through the reading of the Word. It gives Him the opportunity to reveal Jesus to us in a way that we draw closer in relationship and fellowship with Him.
When we read God’s precious Word and pray, its a way of giving our worship to Him. It affords us the chance to enter into intimate communion with the Father. This is not what Satan wants at all. So, he assigns demon spirits to harress your mind when you go to read God’s Word. Those demonic spirit’s influence you outwardly and try to divert your attention away from God’s Word and onto something of their choosing. And that diversion is not always to get you to think on those obvious sinful things such as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Yet, that is their goal, to lead you into unbelief and disobedience to God, your heavenly Father.
So, how subtle are they to deceive you into thinking wrong thoughts and speaking wrong things and doing wrong things? Remember that Satan is the most religious being there is. He’s in church everytime the doors are open. He’s also the most devious. So, in light of that, lets look at the area of accusation. Our enemy is also called the devil, which means, deceiver and accuser of the brethren. We, as God’s blood-bought children are not suppose to accuse each other but rather, we’re to bear one another’s burdens in prayer. We’re to edify and comfort and encourage rach other. We’re to speak well of people and bless them.
If a brother or sister in the church has a reputation thats less than godly and yet, they still call themselves a Christian, its right to be concerned for them. It’s right to pray for them in general and especially if the Holy Spirit moves on you to pray more specifically. We’re to “pray for all the saints.” So far, so good. But remember, the enemy’s out to deceive you. He very often deceives us through the vehicle of “good religious doings.” And what is deception? Its thinking, acting or speaking a wrong as though its something you believe is right.
In behalf of this brother or sister, you take them boldly before the throne of God in prayer. As you begin to pray though, you proceed to tell God about the less than favorable things this person is doing. But wait a minute, you’re praying, standing in the gap for your brother or sister who’s in desperate need of reconciliation and restoration with Father God. You see, God already knows about the “less than favorable things”concerning the person. He doesn’t need us telling Him. In light of that, what should we be praying for in their behalf? Tapping into the Father’s heart of love, you ask for His grace and mercy to be profusely given to the person. You pray for God’s perfect will to be done in the person’s life and situation. And His will is that the person---any person who has strayed, be reconciled and fully restored in fellowship with Him.
So much praying that is done under the pretext of ‘intercession’has been nothing more than a disguise for gossip and accusation about someone within the local church. A lot of times, this kind of “disguised” praying in prayer groups is done, not to God necessarily but for the benefit of those in the group listening. We’ve all been guilty of this sort of thing to one degree or another whether in the privacy of our own prayer closet when speaking to God about a person or when in a prayer group.
So, what does this mean? It means that when you do this kind of thing, you are being an accuser of the brethren. It means, you’re working for the devil and you’re working against God; the very one you profess to serve. The accusations you’re throwing out carelessly in the name of “good works” is against one of His children, and God doesn‘t take too kindly to that sort of thing. Jesus said, “when you’ve done it unto the least of one of these (accused the brethren), you’ve done it unto Me.” Jesus takes these kinds of things personal just as He did when Paul was persecuting the Church. Jesus said, “Saul, saul, why are you persecuting ME!” That’s personal, don‘t you think?.
So, when we stand in that place of accusation against one of God’s own children, thats not a safe place to be. Lets never forget that He takes it personal. We don’t have to be ignorant of the devil’s devices to deceive us in areas like this. I’ll remind you again that not only do we need to know God and His ways but we also need to know the m.o. of our enemy so that we’re less likely to be deceived. This comes, first of all, through God’s Word which clearly tells us that Satan comes to deceive. That he comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10).
MAKING FAITH DECLARATIONS:
By sharpening our discernment through God’s Word and learning through practice to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, we can stop deception from taking hold at the on-set (1 Pet.5:8). And this is not to say that we won’t ever be deceived again because chances are, you will be, but trust the Holy Spirit to reveal those places of deception to you. We can trust Him to lead us into all truth, shining the spotlight in our souls to reveal those places where we’re deceived now and show us the way of being set free from them by God‘s truth.
Jesus said, when the Comforter comes after I ascend to the Father, He will lead you into all the truth of Me. And Jesus also said, “If you continue in my Word, then you’re My disciples indeed, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32). The truth from God’s Logos written Word. Also the truth of His Rhema Word (revelation of the Logos) as revealed to us by the Holy Spirit, is what will help us to be able to tear down and destroy those cob webs of the devils deception in our minds. IICor.10:4-5, “Casting down imaginations and high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (to the anointing).
Isaiah 10:27, And in that day, it shall come to pass the his (the devils) burden shall be removed from off your shoulders, and his (the devils) yoke from off your neck, and it shall be destroyed because of the anointing.”
Release by faith the anointing thats within you (1 John 2:27) to go forth and destroy those cobwebs of deception in the room of your mind. See through the eyes of your heart, the Holy Spirit (Anointing) sweeping and cleaning out those cobwebs of deceptive lies from the enemy that have become strongholds (mind sets, habitual thought patterns) in your thinking. As the Holy Spirit reveals to you what some of those strongholds are, declare with your mouth, “By faith, I cast down accusation to be destroyed by the anonting. By faith, I cast down thoughts of unworthiness to be destroyed by the anointing.” And so on.
Declare that your mind is being swept clean by the anointing of the Holy Spirit and from this day forward, you will yield your self to be taught through the Word how to think on things that are pure and praise worthy (Phil.4:8). See through the eyes of your heart, the Holy Spirit opening the door wide open to the room of your mind and His pure light comes flooding in. See through the eyes of your heart those cob webs gone and everything looks new, clean and shining bright.
“And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you will know what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2).
How does this happen? Through consistant reading of God’s Word. Through prayer and meditaiong on the Word, allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal that Word and make it come alive in your spirit-man. By the “washing of the water of the Word” (Eph.5:27). God’s Word, by the Holy Spirit, washes and cleanses our minds so that we can more freely think about Jesus and His glory. We can come into that place of intimacy with Him and truly “set our minds on things above” (heavenly things).
It’s okay to have mind sets as long as they’re of the right thing---Jesus, the Word and heavenly things so that we can be some heavenly good in this earthly realm. Leading all people to the foot of the cross for full reconciliation and restoration of fellowship with the King of glory. Helping people come into the Kingdom of God. Praises to the Lamb of God, and the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Our soon coming King, Jesus Christ is calling the Church to clear out the cobwebs of deception and come into the light of His glorious gospel. To know Him and to worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Give the Lord of glory honor and praise today that is due Him for all the good things He’s done in your life. Give Him a heart of thanksgiving for all He is yet to do if you will only have faith and believe Him. The half has not been seen or told yet of all the great and wonderous things God has in store for His people. Let us all not hesitate a moment longer to come by faith, to that place where God is calling His Church to come closer to Him.
Plain As Day Ministries
Shirley Williams
February 2002
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