Impact Magazine

DEALING WITH DECEPTION
(Part 1)By 'Muyiwa Omole

Deception is a deliberate attempt to make something that is false to appear as if it is true. It is a lie made in such a way that the liar deliberately makes it to appear as if it’s true. To deceive means to cause to believe what is false, and to disbelieve what is true.  Similar words for deceiving include: lie, mislead, beguile, delude, dupe, defraud, trick, bamboozle, fool, swindle.

The following statement is of such importance that I want you to make a special note of it, perhaps even memorizing it.

When we believe a lie and receive it, whether by passive consent or by positive confession, we give the enemy legal right to wrap that lie in a system of deceit that will make it look like the truth.

Read the statement and be sensitive as the Holy Spirit reminds you of how you might have cooperated with the enemy’s plan to hold you in bondage in any area of your life

How does the enemy construct a spiritual stronghold in our lives? He starts with a foundation of lies. On this foundation, he builds brick by brick: vain philosophies, erroneous interpretations of Scripture, inaccurate ideas about the Person of God, and distorted perceptions of the word of God. Held together by the mortar of mistaken reasoning, the walls rise higher and higher. Soon lofty towers of stubborn pride and vain imaginations loom above the shadows.

An idea, thoughts, words, and actions may be considered right or wrong from different perspectives. These include: from a moral perspective, cultural perspective, legal perspective, physical health perspective, religious perspective, or even a combination of any. It is the Biblical perspective that’s more important for us as Christians. Applying the Christian faith in its true sense, with God’s Spirit effectively working in our lives, fulfills all fundamental human perspectives.

Countless believers are living in defeat because they have been deceived. The enemy has deceived them and caused them to believe and live a lie. If we allow deception to take hold, strongholds can then be formed in our minds.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

II Corinthians 10:4,5

Strongholds are incorrect thinking patterns based on falsehood. Demonic spirits love to use these strongholds to their advantage against a child of God. Strongholds have tremendous power to affect our feelings and emotions. Many blood-bought children of God Almighty feel guilt-ridden and worthless because they don't see themselves the way they ought to. Many Christians feel unloved and not good enough to be accepted by God because they see Him wrongly. Their perception of Him has been damaged and causes them to see Him as a distant and cruel taskmaster instead of a close loving Father who longs (deeply desires) to have an intimate loving relationship with them!

"But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."

                                                                                                            2 Corinthians 11:3

SOURCES OF DECEPTION

Strongholds are built upon deception and error. These errors and deceptions which form strongholds can come from a wide variety of sources. I have identified four sources of deception and I have attempted to explain them below.

1.      Deception through Satan and deceiving spirits (fallen angels)

The greatest deceiver of all time is Satan. He and his fellow fallen angels (demons) are called deceiving spirits.

“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons,”    

1 Timothy 4:1 (emphasis added).

Deceiving spirits, including Satan, do not operate the same way they did in the Garden of Eden. We do not see snakes or other animals talking to us with evil intent. Satan and his evil team endeavor to work against us in the unseen spirit realm

Being in this fallen world all of us have fallen to some deception at some point in our lives and in various ways. Deceiving spirits do have their areas of success in each of us. Fortunately we have the Holy Spirit. This is such a blessing. The Holy Spirit is God inside each of us. He is the “Spirit of truth” (John 16:13) that equips us with the truth against all the lies that deceiving spirits constantly throw at us.

The reason Satan tries to deceive us, is to get us to believe something that is simply not true. Believers who are ignorant of God's Word are more likely to be deceived and if they begin to accept Satan's lies as truth, the devil will start to build a stronghold in their minds.

The devil has convinced many of God's children to believe in a lie that is making them feel just downright defeated and hopeless! Is that the way a child of the Almighty God should be thinking or feeling? Especially after the very Son of God has shed His blood to remove those sins?? Good grief!

Another common way the devil tries to deceive us is getting us to see God incorrectly. Satan wants God's people to see their heavenly Father as a cruel dictator that is cold and distant. Why? Because it will keep them from drawing close to Him and having the intimate relationship that God so deeply longs to have with them! Many people fear God so much that they can't even get near Him! God's Word is clear that love casts out fear... the two are opposites:

1 John 4:18, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."

It is true that we are to 'fear' the Lord, but that's a different kind of fear. That's a respectful attitude and reverence for the Lord. A person who properly fears the Lord isn't going to be out mocking His Holy name, but they will not be afraid of Him either.

As you can see, many believers are deceived and fall into a thinking mode that makes them feel hopeless and condemned... all because they accepted error as truth and allowed a stronghold to form in their minds! The devil has fed them a lie that their heavenly Father is cold, cruel and distant... and because they accepted that lie, their feelings reflect the error.

God's Word clearly tells us to watch out, because the devil would love to get our minds muddied up concerning our relationship with God through deception:

2 Corinthians 11:3, "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled (deceived) Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."

The Holy Spirit is the “Spirit of truth” (John 16:13) while demons are deceiving spirits. The two spiritual camps are complete opposites in their work. Satan and his fellow fallen angels are the ultimate deceivers in all the depravity in this world. The Holy Spirit on the other hand is the ultimate conveyer of truth convicting each person through his/her conscience on what’s right and what’s wrong.

2.      Self-Deception

“No man was ever so much deceived by another as by himself,”

Brook Fulke Greville (1554 - 1628)

A good definition of self-deception is given by Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia. It says, “Self-deception is a process of denying or rationalizing away the relevance, significance, or importance of opposing evidence and logical argument,” (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Wikipedia, “Self-deception”).

From a Christian perspective we can say self-deception is a process of denying or rationalizing away the relevance, significance, or importance of promptings from the Holy Spirit in order to satisfy the desires of the flesh.

Some (if not many) of the deception that people experience is self-made. It is true that Satan and his fellow deceiving spirits do labor to take advantage of our fallen nature. However, there are instances where it is purely out of our own exercise of the freedom of choice that results in willful wrong choices. In such instances demons play no role in influencing us.

We are in charge of the thinking process, what preoccupies us and how we respond to our thoughts. That is why everyone, including unbelievers, will be judged on how they acted upon the thoughts in their minds. God gave us full custody over our own minds and will judge us on how we allowed our minds to do the things we did – good or bad. Satan will not be part of the excuse. Our biggest enemy is therefore within us. It is our own fallen nature – The Flesh

“Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away, by his own evil desire and enticed

James 1:13,14 (emphasis added).

Notice in the passage that it says a person is tempted by his own evil desire. It does not say tempted by Satan. There is a realm of temptation and wrong thinking that can go on in our minds without any input from evil spirits. The wrong or bad thoughts that go on in our minds without any input from evil spirits are what constitute our own evil desires. They are products of our own fallen nature.

…to be continued