Let’s have a good look
Perhaps as much for my own record, as for instruction, I am going to talk about the anatomy of deception. I am not sure if this teaching will profit people or not, because those who are deceived often times have very personal agendas for embracing it.
First of all, in order to be deceived, you have to know the truth. There has to be somewhere to fall from. Therefore, people who retreat into the shadows must have known the light. We see this, to varying degrees, happen to all Christ’s disciples, except perhaps, John the beloved. It is common to justify all sorts of half truths or outright lies, when the pressure is on.
(On the bright side of things, though, all but one chose to repent and was saved. God is merciful to those who seek His mercy.)
What do you want that’s not God’s will?
Secondly, there is usually something at stake, which is not God’s will. You either don’t want to do something God is asking you to do or you don’t want to give up something He wants you to give up. Thus, your goal and God’s desire conflict, making the lie you want to believe more attractive than the truth you already know.
Thirdly, there is always an element of self interest at play, a desire that can only survive in darkness, because in the light, you cannot pretend it is okay. Deception becomes a refuge from the guilt you might otherwise feel resulting from the actions your taking.
Fourthly, when you have decided the thing you want is more important than God’s will, natural minded justification comes into play. You reason out why what you want, contrary to the plain will of God, is not only acceptable, but even preferable to what your Lord wants.
It’s a long way home
Fifthly, and this is the really dangerous part, because you received not a love of the truth, God gives you over to strong delusion until you believe the lie. Once this happens, unless you are brought to a crisis point in your life, you may never rise above your deception again.
The whole church of Laodicia, in the book of Revelation, is deceived. They believe they are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. Yet, in God’s eyes they are lacking everything and to be saved, they will have to pay a terrible price.
In conclusion, there are none so blind as those who refuse to see, none so deaf as those who willfully cover their ears so they cannot hear. You can always repent while there is yet breath within you, but the deeper you sink into deception, the greater the loss you suffer to break free of it.
Finally, it is better to sacrifice now, the way God desires, than to hedge your bets and keep one foot in the natural world, “just in case” His Spirit doesn’t work out. Always, the quickest way to your blessing is the way His Spirit leads, even if it puts you right up against the Red Sea. Amen.
We should have known better
Paradise by Within Temptation
(for those with ears to hear, these two ladies and song composers represent fallen Seraphs and Angels, trapped by the fallout from the war in heaven, realizing it was a mistake to follow Lucifer. I don’t know if they understand this consciously, but there it is.
They draw, though imperfectly, from an vast sea of emerging truth, the Rhema, themes and revelations OF ETERNITY, that can be clearly heard in some of their compositions.)
Dear Connections,
Wow, this is revelation…I wonder if they know.
Lyrics to Paradise by Within Temptation
Comments in brackets ( ).
The fire burns
When wisdom fails, it changes all (Fallen Lucifer)
The wheel embodies all that keeps on turning
Blood red skies, I feel so cold (
Hades)No innocence, we play our role (the fallen host of heaven)
The wheel embodies all, where are we going?
All in all you’d expect the wise to be wiser (
Fallen Lucifer)Fallen from grace all and all I guess
We should have known better ’cause (Those who were deceived by her)
[Chorus:]
Fallen spirits)What about us,
Isn’t it enough?
No we’re not in paradise (banished from the mount of the congregation)
This is who we are
This is what we’ve got
No, it’s not our paradise
But it’s all we want (
And it’s all that we’re fighting for
Though it’s not paradise
You and us
bound in the chains of darkness)Or I and them
There comes a time
To take a stand
The wheel is watching all that keeps on burning
The venom works
It’s like a curse (
A Trojan horse (The original lie)
When will we learn (regret)
The wheel embodies all that keeps returning
All in all you’d expect the wise to be wiser
Fallen from grace all and all I guess
We should have known better ’cause…
[Chorus:]
What about us,
Isn’t it enough?
No we’re not in paradise
This is who we are
This is what we’ve got
No, it’s not our paradise
But it’s all we want
And it’s all that we’re fighting for
What about us,
Isn’t it enough?
No we’re not in paradise
This is who we are
This is what we’ve got
No, it’s not our paradise
But it’s all we want
And it’s all that we’re fighting for
But it’s not paradise
What about us, what about us, what about us, isn’t it enough?
What about us, what about us, what about us, isn’t it enough?
What about us, what about us, what about us, isn’t it enough?
What about us, what about us, what about us, isn’t it enough!
Dear Connections,
When the Holy Spirit left, as a mighty rushing wind in Eden, from off of Adam and Eve, their minds, and thus all minds that followed after their kind, were darkened and limited to what reason could comprehend. Thus, most of what made us like God left and we became little more than apex predators. However, through the ages since, God has been restoring us back into His image through the last Adam, Jesus Christ. As we become like him, the light we lost fills us with wisdom from above.
I know things I can’t possibly know, not through study or diligence, but simply by being told truth by His Spirit. The Holy Spirit speaks and I record as accurately as I am able, revelation of the portion of YHWH that I am able. We are all just vessels, and God performs his perfect will through imperfect people.
Moreover, these truths come from a vast and eternal ocean of God’s Rhema, that lays firmly beyond a natural man’s ability to comprehend or elucidate.
Those, however intelligent they may be, who see the world only after what their natural minds can comprehend, are poor, blind and naked when it comes it knowing the greater reality that surrounds us. God simply cannot be known by reason, He must be experienced by revelation.
We have entered the end of the age of the Gentiles and as such, much which has been hidden in times past is now being revealed – but only through His Spirit. Thus, as the world grows darker, we shine brighter, illuminating not only our own lives, but the lives of those around us. For those who are willing to let God be God, we are a light that shines on the hill.
The truth, those things that are the eternal, are known, not through the tree of knowledge, but through revelation. We know because we are told by God and besides His voice, there is no truth.
For instance, if you eat of the tree of life, you remain young and live forever in God’s presence. However if you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you live only for a thousand years, but you die all during that time, until your life becomes a burden and cursing, away from God’s presence.
Moreover, the tree of life is given to us once again in the New Heavens and New Earth, with joy unspeakable, but the tree of life will be in the midst of the river of death and those who have eaten of her fruit will be filled with weeping and gnashing of teeth.
It is not that what I have just written is 100% accurate, but it is to some degree a greater understanding of the truth which cannot be received, except by revelation.
Those among you that have the spirit of wisdom, the eyes within the wheels of God’s chariot, take these things that I write and share them with those who have ears to hear in this generation. It is vital that you speak the truth so they that hear may run.
Big hugs and lots of love,
Michael
Dear Connections,
Strong delusion, makes us believe lies. It is the very foundation of the Antichrist movement. When truth no longer matters, because whatever we want to accomplish is more important than what we believe, we lose integrity. Our actions no longer line up with our values and therefore, what we say becomes meaningless.
Every despotic government around the world has a shining beacon of light as it’s constitution, they just don’t follow it. Every person who lies to our faces has words that seem to say they are honest, yet their actions don’t follow. When those who promise to do things in fact do the opposite, they are liars no matter how strongly they protest their innocence.
The truth is, when we sacrifice our Christian integrity for temporary gain in this world, we sink into deception. As we allow our morals, honesty, and love to turn into expediency, we willingly forget what the truth is. As we use people to advance our agenda, lying to their faces, we fall into league with the devil, who is the father of lies.
“Oh, I’ll just repent later,” goes the whole subtext of the person who deceives in the short run, thinking they will make a death bed confession. The problem with that lie is that by the time they get to the place where they could confess and repent, they believe the lie so strongly, they don’t think they need too. They will step into eternity thinking they have done and are doing great things for God and will be utterly shocked that God doesn’t agree with them at the Great White Throne judgement.
Like I said before, many who understand my words do not need them and those to whom these things apply may not hear them.
Sincerely,
Michael
Dear Connections,
I am continually amazed at how little believers will sell their souls for. The Devil just has to wave something relatively small in front of a person and they fall all over themselves running back to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and away from the tree of life.
Eternal perspective is the way forward, not temporary earthly gain. We need God’s favor, not earthly adulation. Do not be like Esau and sell your birthright for a bowl of lentils.
Sincerely,
Michael
Dear Connections,
When God directs us specifically, it isn’t proper to offer Him anything else but our obedience. It is important that we obey because the task He gave is important, otherwize He wouldn’t have asked.
Sincerely,
Michael
I have seen a few of the “repent later” crowd come to their end and it wasn’t pretty. You are so right, when in that mode, the older you get, the nastier you get. There doesn’t seem to be repentance available. I’m reminded of the Luftwaffe general that killed himself, Udet, who sold his soul for a Curtis Wright airplane.,
Steve
“repentance unavailable” may not quite be accurate, it is just a little beyond words to describe.