(Slightly condensed version)
Acts 20:26-31King James Version
26 Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.
27 For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. (Notice: to draw away the disciples after them. )
31 Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.
Jesus said, "Believe Me, or else believe Me for the very work's sake" ( John 14:11 ) .
If anyone doubts what God is doing and the anointing He is bringing in this day, let him come to the services and see that people are being met in a way they never have been met before.
The devil does not meet people like that.
It is God who breaks the bondage's and sets people free. Deception and false revelation draw people away from what God has for them to walk in.
This deception existed also in the apostolic times. It was prophesied then that this deception would be multiplied and accentuated in the end times.
Jesus said of the people in His day, and of the Pharisees in particular, that they were blind leaders of the blind and both would fall into the ditch (Matthew 15:14) .
Where there is self-deception instead of spiritual perception, where conditions exist within a person's life making it impossible for spiritual perception to operate, there can be nothing but havoc and disaster.
We must have an honest and open heart toward God. Good spiritual conditions must be maintained in our lives if we are going to see the blessing of the Lord.
We must also be on the alert against deception.
In Paul's day, there were those who were called false Christs. John wrote in his first Epistle about those who "went out from us because they were not of us so that they might be made manifest that they were not of us." ( I John 2:19 ) .
When someone who has no spiritual perception talks to people who have left their walks with God, he may think, "They do not have a bitter spirit." This is a lie.
No bitter spirit? When they can set about to tear up Christians, wean them away from the ministries who can help them?
I tell you, it is like taking a baby away from the breast of his mother and leaving him with someone who has no food, who has nothing for him, and letting him cry until he dies.
This is what happens. it is a sad situation. Bitterness is there, but it is under the greatest kind of deception that anyone could ever know. This is the deception of Satan, and nothing less.
We realize that God sent forth apostolic ministries into the early Church, but sometimes we have the idea that these ministries went forth with such great signs and wonders that everyone believed them, and every church glorified God for what He had done in sending these foundational ministries.
This was not the true picture. Paul was repeatedly defending his apostleship to the very churches he had started because there was the continual effort by Satan to deceive and to cut them off.
An effective strategy of warfare is to cut off from an army its source of supply.
In former days , this was very successful. As the army moved along, the enemy would try to find some way of cutting behind the lines of supply so that food and ammunition could not reach those on the front line.
The enemy could overcome them if the army was hungry and tired and the men had no bullets for their guns. With their supply cut off, they were easily defeated.
That was a common way to besiege a city. when the water and food supplies were cut off, and there was a lack of reinforcements and renewal coming to the army, it could not function effectively.
The same strategy was used by Satan against the early church, and it is his strategy now.
God is doing such a deep work in the lives of people that we cannot afford to miss one service. Something important is happening.
The Lord is teaching an immunity in the warfare so that people who have been under attack and have reacted to it are finding how the protection can come.
When we move in this protection, the enemy cannot break through to cause any confusion. Why?
Because God continues to bring new levels. Little by little we are inching into the New Testament restoration. We are becoming that army of the Lord.
One of the greatest steps toward our spiritual defense has come. The people who leave during a sifting do so at the crucial time when God would meet them.
They could learn spiritual defense that would be like a guarantee, like an insurance policy taken out against the defeat and the deception of Satan.
this is very important. I cannot give it enough emphasis. We are breaking through into one thing after another.
What will happen to those who withdraw?
For awhile they will walk in circles around the truths and the experiences they have received until those experiences begin to go dead for them because there is no fresh line of supply.
The Body is learning how to minister defense one to another, until we can stand and concentrate the blessing upon the people of the Lord and see a breakthrough.
This is an hour when God is doing more for the churches than at any time I have ever seen. It is strange, that at a time when the prophets of gloom are saying that everything is to fold up, everything of the Lord seems to be Blessed.
Our attendance is growing; people are being met; finances are being blessed. We have no fund or membership drives.
There is no extortion.
These releases are coming by a people whose hearts have been touched by God. God is opening their hearts and there is a flow of abundance.
Many times we come right up to the time when we could reap what god is setting before us, and then someone gets knocked out through some trick, and he misses out just when the rest of the body of believers is ready to plunge on into marvelous blessings.
Do not let Satan get at your emotions. Do not let him deceive you. God's end time walk in the Spirit is the greatest move and will be the quickest move of the
Spirit to come in the whole history of the Church.
I predict that in our day, within the next decade, we will see signs and wonders and marvels come on a level exceeding that which the apostolic Church saw in the first century.
The day is coming when people who have never felt any signs or sensed anything before will be so met by God that they will realize their lives are changed.
A walk with God has a close parallel to the day of the New Testament in the area of spiritual deception.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
3 But
I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his
subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is
in Christ.
4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
5 For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.
6 But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.
7 Have I committed an offense in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?
8 I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service.
9 And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself.
Behind any work of God that comes forth are years of sacrifice and labor. Behind any apostolic foundation is the travail of the one who laid the foundation. Later, under Satan's deception, others may criticize, saying that one man should not have so much control.
They do not know the truth behind it. They do not know the solidity of the foundation that God has laid.
God is building churches and Satan is doing what he can to deceive. Some will never know what has gone on behind the scenes, but some day when we stand in His presence He will unfold and reveal the sacrifices people have made, the way they have labored and travailed in order that churches could come forth for the glory of God.
There are also false apostles and false elders who will do everything they can to tear up a church- a church they know nothing about.
I denounce it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ! Before the face of God I denounce that thing. Let God build His Church, and let His Church become strong to war.
Let it become strong in its spiritual perception and revelation. Let us go forward in the Lord. Let us not draw back from the things that God is setting before us, because they are real.
You have the privilege of walking in things of god in this hour that have never before been set before the world.
Oh, let us not miss it. Do not draw back. Where would you go?
What would you like to have? Would you like to be a part of this present age?
Young people, what would you like to do? Join rebellious ranks? Take LSD? The effects of that drug stay with them until they have nightmares they can no longer endure, and then some commit suicide.
Is that the kind of liberating drug you want? One college professor used to travel about the colleges and lecture, "Quit college and take LSD."
He was part of the conspiracy to corrupt the youth of our country and bring them under the influence of drugs. Do you want to draw back to that?
God is doing something better. He has the hope of the future. The only word of salvation and life is coming through the prophecy of our sons and our daughters.
We must be dedicated to walk in that. Our dedication cannot be to become leaders in industry, or to accumulate money and the possessions that are short-lived. The materialism of this age is a stench to God.
We must have a dedication in our hearts to walk in the power of the Spirit and the things of God.
Paul said, "I reckon I am not a wit behind the very chiefest apostles, though I am rude in speech." He went on to say, "What did I do wrong? Was it that I did not make myself burdensome to you? That I did not rob you?"
Never feel sorry for yourself. I do not feel that way; neither did Paul.
When you have a ministry you will find that it is a lot of work, but it gives you a good reason for being alive. It gives a worthwhile meaning to your life.
Think of the people who are running to and fro, who have nothing to live for except their own selfish pleasures.
How empty that becomes, like ashes in their mouth.
You are living to minister God to people, to be a part of a church that is an apostolic company, to see the sons of God break forth into glory and manifestations.
It is the hour of travail when the Church is ready to bring forth her sons. Is this something worth living for? Is it worth giving your all for, without drawing back in any way? Oh let us not be deceived.
Paul went on to tell how he had supported himself.
It is God who breaks the bondage's and sets people free. Deception and false revelation draw people away from what God has for them to walk in.
This deception existed also in the apostolic times. It was prophesied then that this deception would be multiplied and accentuated in the end times.
Jesus said of the people in His day, and of the Pharisees in particular, that they were blind leaders of the blind and both would fall into the ditch (Matthew 15:14) .
Where there is self-deception instead of spiritual perception, where conditions exist within a person's life making it impossible for spiritual perception to operate, there can be nothing but havoc and disaster.
We must have an honest and open heart toward God. Good spiritual conditions must be maintained in our lives if we are going to see the blessing of the Lord.
We must also be on the alert against deception.
In Paul's day, there were those who were called false Christs. John wrote in his first Epistle about those who "went out from us because they were not of us so that they might be made manifest that they were not of us." ( I John 2:19 ) .
When someone who has no spiritual perception talks to people who have left their walks with God, he may think, "They do not have a bitter spirit." This is a lie.
No bitter spirit? When they can set about to tear up Christians, wean them away from the ministries who can help them?
I tell you, it is like taking a baby away from the breast of his mother and leaving him with someone who has no food, who has nothing for him, and letting him cry until he dies.
This is what happens. it is a sad situation. Bitterness is there, but it is under the greatest kind of deception that anyone could ever know. This is the deception of Satan, and nothing less.
We realize that God sent forth apostolic ministries into the early Church, but sometimes we have the idea that these ministries went forth with such great signs and wonders that everyone believed them, and every church glorified God for what He had done in sending these foundational ministries.
This was not the true picture. Paul was repeatedly defending his apostleship to the very churches he had started because there was the continual effort by Satan to deceive and to cut them off.
An effective strategy of warfare is to cut off from an army its source of supply.
In former days , this was very successful. As the army moved along, the enemy would try to find some way of cutting behind the lines of supply so that food and ammunition could not reach those on the front line.
The enemy could overcome them if the army was hungry and tired and the men had no bullets for their guns. With their supply cut off, they were easily defeated.
That was a common way to besiege a city. when the water and food supplies were cut off, and there was a lack of reinforcements and renewal coming to the army, it could not function effectively.
The same strategy was used by Satan against the early church, and it is his strategy now.
God is doing such a deep work in the lives of people that we cannot afford to miss one service. Something important is happening.
The Lord is teaching an immunity in the warfare so that people who have been under attack and have reacted to it are finding how the protection can come.
When we move in this protection, the enemy cannot break through to cause any confusion. Why?
Because God continues to bring new levels. Little by little we are inching into the New Testament restoration. We are becoming that army of the Lord.
One of the greatest steps toward our spiritual defense has come. The people who leave during a sifting do so at the crucial time when God would meet them.
They could learn spiritual defense that would be like a guarantee, like an insurance policy taken out against the defeat and the deception of Satan.
this is very important. I cannot give it enough emphasis. We are breaking through into one thing after another.
What will happen to those who withdraw?
For awhile they will walk in circles around the truths and the experiences they have received until those experiences begin to go dead for them because there is no fresh line of supply.
The Body is learning how to minister defense one to another, until we can stand and concentrate the blessing upon the people of the Lord and see a breakthrough.
This is an hour when God is doing more for the churches than at any time I have ever seen. It is strange, that at a time when the prophets of gloom are saying that everything is to fold up, everything of the Lord seems to be Blessed.
Our attendance is growing; people are being met; finances are being blessed. We have no fund or membership drives.
There is no extortion.
These releases are coming by a people whose hearts have been touched by God. God is opening their hearts and there is a flow of abundance.
Many times we come right up to the time when we could reap what god is setting before us, and then someone gets knocked out through some trick, and he misses out just when the rest of the body of believers is ready to plunge on into marvelous blessings.
Do not let Satan get at your emotions. Do not let him deceive you. God's end time walk in the Spirit is the greatest move and will be the quickest move of the
Spirit to come in the whole history of the Church.
I predict that in our day, within the next decade, we will see signs and wonders and marvels come on a level exceeding that which the apostolic Church saw in the first century.
The day is coming when people who have never felt any signs or sensed anything before will be so met by God that they will realize their lives are changed.
A walk with God has a close parallel to the day of the New Testament in the area of spiritual deception.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
11 I hope you will put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, please put up with me! 2 I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. 3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
II Corinthians 11:1-3
The same thing is taking place today. Just as the serpent beguiled Eve, so Satan is working to beguile the Church that is to be presented as the chaste virgin to Jesus Christ.
If we learn to understand the workings of deception, and achieve greater spiritual perception and revelation, we will be doing the people of God a great favor.
No one walks with God in this amazing day without having a personal revelation of the Lord to his heart. You can not convince people by argument that this way is right.
You cannot convince them by opening up the Scriptures and reading the books of the prophets and apostles which tell about this great day of New Testament restoration., this great moving of the Spirit.
Even the verdict of history will not convince them, that for five hundred years the Church has been coming up out of the dark ages, breaking through to more and more truth, generation after generation, until the last fifty or sixty years the outpourings of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit have been given.
Marvelous things that the Church has not seen for at least a thousand years are suddenly breaking forth everywhere. Isn't this restoration?
Yet you cannot argue a person into believing it. The average Christian is so deceived by Satan that he is only looking for the antichrist.
He does not even have a focus on Jesus Christ. even when he believes in His coming, he does not have a focus on Him.
Some people only talk about the terrible things that are happening, and so they decide that perhaps they should go off some place and hide.
An illusion of despair is created until there is a passivity and a withdrawal in people. That conservative pessimism should be cursed to the pit.
It is not good!
Instead, let us strive for an aggressive faith that will walk with God. We know that devils are coming and antichrists are coming. But in that day there shall be deliverance in those whom the Lord God shall call. ( Joel 2:32 ) .
We want to be part of those that will be there for the deliverance the world will need.
It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness, but some people are still sitting in the dark crying, instead of walking on with God in the light they have.
Do not allow deception to get hold of you. The spirit of this age must not reach you.
Paul warned the early Church about the deception. What was the deception?
What was Satan trying to do when he came to corrupt the believers from the simplicity?
Merely take them away from Paul's ministry?
Paul wrote in II Corinthians 11:3-9
4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
5 For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.
6 But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.
7 Have I committed an offense in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?
8 I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service.
9 And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself.
Behind any work of God that comes forth are years of sacrifice and labor. Behind any apostolic foundation is the travail of the one who laid the foundation. Later, under Satan's deception, others may criticize, saying that one man should not have so much control.
They do not know the truth behind it. They do not know the solidity of the foundation that God has laid.
God is building churches and Satan is doing what he can to deceive. Some will never know what has gone on behind the scenes, but some day when we stand in His presence He will unfold and reveal the sacrifices people have made, the way they have labored and travailed in order that churches could come forth for the glory of God.
There are also false apostles and false elders who will do everything they can to tear up a church- a church they know nothing about.
I denounce it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ! Before the face of God I denounce that thing. Let God build His Church, and let His Church become strong to war.
Let it become strong in its spiritual perception and revelation. Let us go forward in the Lord. Let us not draw back from the things that God is setting before us, because they are real.
You have the privilege of walking in things of god in this hour that have never before been set before the world.
Oh, let us not miss it. Do not draw back. Where would you go?
What would you like to have? Would you like to be a part of this present age?
Young people, what would you like to do? Join rebellious ranks? Take LSD? The effects of that drug stay with them until they have nightmares they can no longer endure, and then some commit suicide.
Is that the kind of liberating drug you want? One college professor used to travel about the colleges and lecture, "Quit college and take LSD."
He was part of the conspiracy to corrupt the youth of our country and bring them under the influence of drugs. Do you want to draw back to that?
God is doing something better. He has the hope of the future. The only word of salvation and life is coming through the prophecy of our sons and our daughters.
We must be dedicated to walk in that. Our dedication cannot be to become leaders in industry, or to accumulate money and the possessions that are short-lived. The materialism of this age is a stench to God.
We must have a dedication in our hearts to walk in the power of the Spirit and the things of God.
Paul said, "I reckon I am not a wit behind the very chiefest apostles, though I am rude in speech." He went on to say, "What did I do wrong? Was it that I did not make myself burdensome to you? That I did not rob you?"
Never feel sorry for yourself. I do not feel that way; neither did Paul.
When you have a ministry you will find that it is a lot of work, but it gives you a good reason for being alive. It gives a worthwhile meaning to your life.
Think of the people who are running to and fro, who have nothing to live for except their own selfish pleasures.
How empty that becomes, like ashes in their mouth.
You are living to minister God to people, to be a part of a church that is an apostolic company, to see the sons of God break forth into glory and manifestations.
It is the hour of travail when the Church is ready to bring forth her sons. Is this something worth living for? Is it worth giving your all for, without drawing back in any way? Oh let us not be deceived.
Paul went on to tell how he had supported himself.
10 As the truth of Christ is in me, no one shall stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia. 11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows!
12 But what I do, I will also continue to do, that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast.
2 Corinthians 11:10-12New King James Version (NKJV)
So many false apostles and false prophets were running loose, trying to deceive the church, that Paul wanted to show absolutely without any question that his ministry was one of dedication.
Even though it was possible for him to be supported by the churches, he did not allow himself to be burdensome to these churches where the false apostles were commercial; they were after the money.
So Paul said, in effect, "I will prove that I am only concerned about your welfare. I will not take one penny from you- not because I do not love you, but because I desire that there should be no occasion of any criticism.
I can see why Paul did that. The ministry was so under attack, with such vicious assault coming against him, that he had to be able to say, "See, I have no ulterior motive. I am not after anything you have. I am only here to lead you into the things of the Lord."
The New Testament churches that are coming forth in this day witness that same attitude. The ministry to them is a labor of love. Many pastors are self-supporting.
Paul said, "now, let's see if these false apostles are going to be as we are."
Then he continued:
13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
16 I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then tolerate me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting.
12 But what I do, I will also continue to do, that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast.
2 Corinthians 11:10-12New King James Version (NKJV)
So many false apostles and false prophets were running loose, trying to deceive the church, that Paul wanted to show absolutely without any question that his ministry was one of dedication.
Even though it was possible for him to be supported by the churches, he did not allow himself to be burdensome to these churches where the false apostles were commercial; they were after the money.
So Paul said, in effect, "I will prove that I am only concerned about your welfare. I will not take one penny from you- not because I do not love you, but because I desire that there should be no occasion of any criticism.
I can see why Paul did that. The ministry was so under attack, with such vicious assault coming against him, that he had to be able to say, "See, I have no ulterior motive. I am not after anything you have. I am only here to lead you into the things of the Lord."
The New Testament churches that are coming forth in this day witness that same attitude. The ministry to them is a labor of love. Many pastors are self-supporting.
Paul said, "now, let's see if these false apostles are going to be as we are."
Then he continued:
13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
16 I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then tolerate me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting.
17 In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool.
18 Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast.
19 You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise!
2 Corinthians 11:13-19New International Version (NIV)
Someone told me about a revelation he had of me and it was confirmed to my own heart. He said the Lord witnessed to his heart that I would be under reproach and persecuted from now on.
In all the years of my ministry, people would have to accept that ministry because they had a revelation from the Lord.
There would always be a concerted attack against me. I believe he was right. Where is the persecution here? Yes, there will be. It will be subtle. It will be highly refined. It will be on a psychic level.
It will be involved with many things, but it will be effective.
God grant us to see that the powers of deception are working today, and open our eyes and help us to pray for one another.
Let us surround one another with the blessing of the lord so that this deception will not reach through, but people will be able to walk in things of the Lord.
Paul went on to describe his labors, his shipwrecks, his persecutions. If you want to read chapters 11, 12, and 13 of II Corinthians.
they deal with the great problems facing an apostle in the first century- the deception, the things that came against the Church.
They said Paul's speech was contemptible, but his words were weighty ( II Corinthians 10:10 ) .
Imagine a man giving himself that completely to minister the word of God to them, even though the things that filled their hearts could cause them to turn against him.
it was not to win popularity contests that Paul went out: it was to glorify Christ. And that must be our objective too.
At no time can we be laboring for any other motivation than to please the lord Jesus Christ and to obey Him in everything.
Deception and false revelation were working so effectively against the early Church that Satan himself was coming as an angel of light. Lucifer means "light bearer."
Satan, even in his fallen state, retains enough light that he can come to you with a glory that would make you think that God was coming on the scene.
He will transform men to a spiritual level until false apostles and false Christs will come.
They will be so concerned about healing the sick and will do signs and wonders that if it were possible they would deceive the whole world.
That is why people say, "Oh, there must be good in all religions." It looks like it, doesn't it? Look how they take care of the poor; look how they believe God for miracles, for signs and wonders.
It may be right out of the pit of hell, but the deceptiveness of it will be very subtle. Many times they will use the name of Jesus Christ, yet all the time be filled with Satan's power.
One of the strange ways this can occur is in people following the idolatry of imagery. I call it idolatry because the Word says we are not to make an image of anything that is in the heavens above or in the earth beneath, and we are not to bow down to worship any image ( Exodus 20:4-5 ) .
In many Catholic churches, you still find the images that the people bow down to and worship. They claim that they are not worshiping images; it only helps them concentrate.
But God's Word says we are not to make an image, not even a likeness.
A likeness is not only an image; it can also be a picture. Those who have been delivered from idolatry look upon a picture of Christ as a likeness of something that is "in the heavens above."
Therefore they, as well as many others in this move of God, do not have a picture of Christ in their home. They know Him no longer after the flesh. ( II Corinthians 5:16 ) .
If Christ were to come in His glory, He would not look like that humble Christ we sometimes see pictured.
We are not praying to a Christ who is walking as a man or hanging on a cross; we are praying to a Christ who is at the right hand of the Father with glory.
We know Him no longer after the flesh. We know Him as the mighty Christ, the mighty Lord, who dwells in a light which no man can approach.
Just as Paul sensed this aspect of idolatry, so we have learned that demons can inhabit organic, as well as in-organic objects. That is how idolatry came about- the devils were lodged in those objects.
A demon's favorite hiding place is a crucifix. Satan tries to deceive; he comes as an angel of light.
I am not asking you to accept all of this; some of it sounds revolutionary. But when the truth returns to the Church, many ideas that people have believed will suddenly be shattered; and you will realize what tinsel, what ashes, what emptiness the people have had, and yet called it faith.
We can walk with God with spiritual perception, and the day just before us will see this unfolding. The elders and others in the Body will have their spiritual perception opened to the place that they will see spirits.
They will see the angels of God. They will see what is on one another's spirit. This is going to come. God is opening the eyes that we might see.
He did this in Bible times. Do you remember how Elisha prayed for the young man? "Open his eyes that he may see!"
He did not merely see the armies besieging the city, but he saw also the horses and the chariots on the mountains round about ( II Kings 6:17 ).
The prophet Elisha saw that all the time. His servant did not see it at first, but when he did, the fear left his heart.
Elisha said, "More are they that are with us than they that are with them."
We sometimes get a wrong picture because the impressions we get from the assault convince us that there must be a million demons on our coattails, coming after us.
We forget about the angels of God that are given charge over us. He sends His ministering spirits to those who are heirs of salvation ( Hebrews 1:14 ) .
We often forget about the protection of the Lord under-girding us. We tend to forget how much God loves us. We do not realize how real and wonderful is this great Lord who envelopes us in His presence.
What is it that could open your heart to deception?
Rebellion.
The minute a person becomes rebellious, there is a great forsaking of that individual by the angel protection and by the Holy Spirit's protection.
Of all the sins, rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. ( I Samuel 15:23 ) .
It is deadly because of the subtle psychic and spiritual forces that mesmerize a person and put him under a curse.
How can rebellion be as the sin of witchcraft?
Rebellion is the sin of Lucifer. Satan and all his angels fell in rebellion. Since then, the angels immediately draw back from anything that approaches the sin of Lucifer.
As a Christian, you have in your spirit two natures. You have a divine nature which is born by God's Spirit, and you have the old Adamic nature which you have had with you from birth.
It originated with Adam. Because of ts early rebellion against God, that Adamic nature is often infected by Satan himself.
John 8 tells us how Jesus pointed to the scribes and Pharisees and said, "You are of your father the devil, and his works you will do."
Something of Satan had been born and bred right into their spirits. When they told Jesus, "Abraham is our father," He replied, "You are of your father, the devil."
What do we say when we come to this great truth? We just open our hearts to it and say, "Lord, we want to see that deception broken. Do not let us be rebellious. Do not allow any rebellion to be in our spirits."
( Get us out of the Matrix )
Rebellion, a lack of submission, is what closes us off, as it were, the protection for the people.
Immediately Satan moves in with his curses, his oppressions, and his deceptions.
That is why , of all the young people who have ever lived in the world, they call this the rebellious generation. All over the world this is the generation of rebellion.
There are those in this generation who will worship the antichrist. Yet there are also those in this generation who will be those that God will bless; and they will be walking with God as a triumphant company, right on into the millennium.
In this generation we find two extremes. There are those with the Lordship of Jesus Christ over them who are in submission to Him, and are being led by Him.
Their eyes and their spirits will be opened, and as prophets and prophetesses of God, they will walk in great revelation.
Others will be completely blind because deception rests upon them from the time they open their hearts to rebellion. Deception and false revelation come first through the rebelliousness of hearts. This is an important truth.
Another area that makes us vulnerable to deception is the inconsistent spiritual walk and feeding.
With no reading of the Word, no prayer, no ministry, no assembling with the saints, little by little the things that would minister the grace of God to a believer's heart and bring divine life to him are missing.
Yet he is constantly being exposed to forces which are generated and sent forth to deceive the fleshly nature.
In our environment, we now have more forces feeding the sinful nature than ever before. We see it in advertising, in music, in literature, on the net- everywhere.
It is as if Satan is governing these areas.
Circumstances can lead to deep feelings in our lives and these feelings can be very deceptive to us. We become carried away by feelings until we position ourselves where we cannot receive anything from the Lord.
Whatever comes, be submissive. If you learn this principle of submission, you have found a real answer.
There is nothing in the world as wonderful to bring you through in your walk with God as just being submissive.
I recently counseled with a brother who had talked to me a week before. I asked him, "What did the lord tell you to do?"
He hung his head, and began explaining what he knew he was to do- it was the very thing that he said he would not do the week before. God will bless him.
God is continually dealing with that rebelliousness, that self, because the greatest problem we all have is self- deception, some wrong idea we have about ourselves. Then Satan preys upon it.
The New Testament warns us about being deceived and about deceiving our own selves. Self deception and the things that bring about self-deception make an interesting study in the Scriptures.
Get a good concordance and look up the word deception. Notice how many times it is speaking about self-deception and the things that bring about that deception.
The devil usually does not have to deceive people; they do a good job of it themselves.
when the work of the cross is being done and there is submission to Jesus Christ, when a person's heart is open to love no matter what anyone is doing or saying against him, when he bows down, no matter how great the load, and says, "Lord, even if it is more than I can bear, I open my heart to You; Lord give me grace," God will bring him through.
Then he will have a clear vision that will shine more and more as he goes along.
In that hour of submission, when God brings you to a humbling of yourself and you lay everything upon the altar, you suddenly notice that your perception and understanding begins to sharpen and you can see the way to go.
Submission is always the answer.
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