Truth and Deception
God’s presence is fresh and lively; it’s creative and filled with truth, light and peace. The enemy’s activity may start out as light, but ends in deception, weariness, darkness and unrest.
I’ve just heard a CD message by a preacher the Holy Spirit once used to heal the sick and give sight to the blind. He is still preaching, but not about the life of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. His old friends reject his teaching and say he’s changed. I don’t know his story. Perhaps he was beguiled by his growing fame or the allure of supernatural power—a temptation Satan once tried with Jesus. Whatever the cause, his change of heart about Biblical truth reveals human vulnerability; it leads me to pray, “Lord, have mercy. Lord, help us all.”
We’r all vulnerable to deception— ad campaigns, political jockeying, media opinions and values sway masses of people. And following after lies often splits friends and families apart. I’m fortunate because most of my friends and family refuse to demonize each other and aren’t divisively polarized by our differences in religion, politics, computers and ball teams. We understand that that none of us knows it all, that everyone is vulnerable to deception, and that God looks for faith and love in our hearts and not at our weak or misguided minds.
It is a humbling caution to know that Adam, who mostly likely knew God better than anyone alive today, was deceived. Even though I trust The Holy Spirit to guide me into truth, I know that loving Jesus doesn’t automatically guarantee that I’ll make the wise choice or be right about everything. I must take time to listen to the Holy Spirit, to receive His guidance and then choose His wisdom over my own inclinations. Walking in God’s truth means living on the cutting edge with God. When His word comes alive in us, it can mean leaving tradition, familiarity and habit, and moving out of expectations, creeds, settled clichés and mental routines.
Knowing God’s truth requires obeying Him—and that’s not always easy. When God commands me to do good to those who hurt me, I might want to run away and hide behind self-defensive walls. He asks me to admit guilt rather than justify, explain or defend myself; He leads me to separate myself from toxic influences—people, places, entertainments and situations that others may handle without danger. Sometimes He wants me to pray when I want to read a book. Obeying His command to go the second mile with those who ask might require laying down my own agendas and time constraints. It may dig into my resources.
Obeying God’s truth means loving Him more than friends and family and honoring Him more than those who would flatter me away from Him by honoring me. It also means that I can only have one set of values, His. I can’t be honest with my friends and fudge the truth with insurance companies or realtors. Intentional compromise with God’s way is a pitfall that opens the door to deception.
I easily identify with men and women are deceived. Check out the poems in my latest book, Giving. In them I cry out for God’s truth. That’s because my house is glass. I’ve fallen for more lies than Eve. As a zealous young believer in God, I was immature, untaught, and wobbly. I thought my narrow-minded faith was God’s way and judged people by my formulas and creeds. Later, when the Holy Spirit began to expose and heal childhood wounds and fatigue from lupus zapped me, I was deceived again. I was in a season of believing my vivid imaginations and chaotic emotions, of justifying my anger, and of blaming others for my predicaments. Just when I thought I was growing up into more Godly character, I was blindly entangled by not speaking honestly. I wanted to please friends and assumed they were smarter than I was and knew best. Through all these deceptions, I still loved Jesus and talked the Christian talk. In getting disentangled and free from all these traps and snares of deception, I’ve learned that denials and blame never help. The only release from lies is to plead, “Guilty as charged,” to yield to the Holy Spirit’s conviction, repent and ask God’s help. Fortunately, John reminds us that
No one who abides in Him [who remains united in fellowship with Him—deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin. 1 John 3:6 AMP
While Christians will often fall short of God’s holiness, we do not continue in sin. Jesus’ life witnesses to the truth that the root-cause of sin is not in wrong-doing, but in wrong-being—in rejecting the Holy Spirit of Truth and in being out of communion with Jesus and His Father and Their love. Anything that separates us from the Love of God is sin. Accepting Jesus invitation to holy union with our Creator, usually takes growth and time. Learning to turn our wills to His, to turn our attention to Him, and to open our emotions to His love is not automatic.
The capacity to be led astray dwells in us all and the zeitgeist, the world spirit, encourages compromise with God’s Biblical truths. I’ve been deceived by sincere teachers and preachers and by trusting in family, friends and leaders. I’ve been fooled into thinking that because I wanted something hard enough and long enough it had to be God’s will. I’ve succumbed to worries that were faithless projections of my own fears and justified anger as righteous. Without discernment, it’s easy to confuse compassionate understanding with God’s mercy and to mistake self-pity for honest grief and sorrow. Be honest—at one time or another, we’ve all been deceived. Let us all take heed.
Jesus alone is the full and accurate revelation of God’s Truth, justice and Love. Jesus alone can honestly say,
I am the Way, Truth and the Life. No man comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6
The only way to avoid deception, is to abide in Jesus and ask His Holy Spirit of Truth to help us live His words until they become life in us.
I don’t like warnings about deception. I like comforting words about Jesus’ promises to never leave us or forsake us. He won’t, but the Holy Spirit leaves when He is not wanted and you and I can leave Jesus if we reject His Holy ways.
The Scriptures warn us.
Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.
1 Corinthians 10:12And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. Matthew 24:4
For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. Hebrews 2:1
And He said, “See to it that you are not misled; for many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is near ‘ Do not go after them. Luke 21:8
Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you. 1 Timothy 4:16
Beware that your hearts are not deceived, and that you do not turn away and serve other gods and worship them.Deuteronomy 11:16
Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. Hebrews 3:12
Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. 2 John 1:8
Remember, truth is found not in our own minds but in God’s revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ. It is in the humility of living, moving and having our being by the power of God’s Holy Spirit in the Living Word of The True Man of Love, Jesus Christ. Not a Christ Spirit, not a doctrine or creed about Jesus Christ, not the Jesus Christ of my human dreams, imaginations and desires, but Jesus Christ as revealed by the witness the Holy Spirit and the word of those who walked this earth with Him two thousand years ago. The real Jesus Christ was and is Lord of those historical men and women whose words and lives testify to the recorded truth of His Word and His Love. Courage, faltering heart, move on into today.
OH—If you’ve read this far and don’t know what I’m talking about, it might be quite likely that you’ve never ever really truly met the Truth in Jesus Christ. Ask Him to show you what I’m talking about. If you are sincere, He will.)
