How do we know if we are deceived? Well, the problem is, we don’t!
I have been deceived. Rotten fruit was produced in my life and hurting people around me during that time. Now that I am on the other side of it, I have a litmus test. This is a good way of figuring out if we are deceived by what we actually believe.
Here it is. It sounds so simplistic, but it’s pretty deep. Is your love for others close and far growing? Do you care about the lost? Has your patience been increasing at all? Does your Joy overflow because you know the Lord and not because your circumstances are the way you want them? Do you delight yourself in the Lord or does the latter part of that verse (of getting the desires of your heart) count more than the first part of the verse?
I suppose there are many ways that we can be deceived and I have thought of three major ways . The first and biggest way is not scouring our Bibles and washing our minds daily with it. Letting it rip up our deeply rutted selfishness.
The second way to be deceived is by listening to people who use the Word for their selfish gain. Those who tickle the ears. It could be a family member, but it could be somebody on the Internet with a platform. And finally, we are deceived because of our own desires. The Lord is not first in our hearts. I have been deceived by all three of these avenues.
when I was listening to the wrong voices, I was being controlled by the wrong spirits. In today’s climate, it is unfortunate that anyone can say they are a prophet and live off of your donations. These are the type of people to avoid especially. These people are all false across the board if they are broadcasting themselves to an audience, giving ear tickling words, and/or collecting subscription payments off the backs of their listeners all the while, claiming that God speaks through them! Remember, God has no favorite Or more anointed children, he puts his same Holy Spirit in all of his children.
Certainly, if we are deceived, we don’t know it. I didn’t. But, if we truly want Jesus more than our own lives and more than what he could give us, he will deliver us from the deceptions that we live in. He is faithful like that, we need to be careful of our pride. We need to put his preserved and written WORD above all prophetic voices because that is how we judge those pesky prophetic voices.
Some scriptures for meditation:
2 Timothy 3:16-17
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
Ezekiel 22:28
“Her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord has not spoken.”
1 Timothy 2:11-14
“Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.”
Acts 20:28-30
“Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.”
Jude 1:16
”These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.”
Deuteronomy 13:1-3
“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
