Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20- NKJV).
And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you (Matthew 24:4 - NKJV).
The Holy Spirit has explicitly revealed: At the end of this age, many will depart from the true faith one after another, devoting themselves to spirits of deception and following demon-inspired revelations and theories. Hypocritical liars will deceive many, and their consciences won’t bother them at all! (1 Timothy 4:1-2 - Passion Translation).
But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived (2 Timothy 3:13- NKJV).
You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it (John 8:44 - NKJV).
But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death (Revelation 21:8 - NKJV).
We’re living in a day right now that a false reality is being created by those who control the public narrative. Listen carefully - if all you listen to is the main media outlets and their opinions, then you are most probably a deceived person.
A new era of misinformation and disinformation started with the Covid crisis in 2020.
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With Covid, all that was necessary to control a large group of people was that you keep bombarding them with the same information over and over again. It is brainwashing. It is mind control!
Medical facts about the human immune system were somewhat set aside, and a barrage of information was pushed from every media and online outlet possible to convince the public that they must get the all important vaccine if they are going to survive this new virus. Fear reached epidemic proportions!
Now that the dust has settled so to speak, you can see a bit more clearly what occurred. The adverse reactions to the vaccine have caused quite a bit of illness and death worldwide. Doctors all over the world have had their voices muted if they disagreed with the government positions on virus treatment.
Facts were replaced by money driven propaganda. That is the world we are living in today. I have been equally surprised at the number of Christians that yielded to fear rather than continue to have a steadfast faith in God and in His Word!
I used the Corona issue as an example of what is happening on so many levels - deception has taken the place of truth. In America, what you hear in mainstream “legacy” media is not truth, but twisted facts aimed at producing a certain response.
Listen to Daniel Webster’s 1828 definition of deceive: 1) To mislead the mind; to cause to err; to cause to believe what is false, or disbelieve what is true; to impose on; to delude. 2) To beguile; to cheat. 3) To cut off from expectation; to frustrate or disappoint; as, his hopes were deceived. 4) To take from; to rob.
Delusion is what is occurring right now as a result of deception! Listen to the definition of delusion: An erroneous belief that is held in the face of evidence to the contrary. A false belief that is resistant to confrontation with actual facts. A delusion is a belief held with strong conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary.
Are you deceived? Are you deluded? Are you believing things that have no basis of fact? That is what is happening to the majority of our culture right now.
Jesus has a cure for deception and delusion.Then Jesus said to the Jews who had faith in Him, If you keep my word, then you are truly my disciples; And you will have knowledge of what is true, and that will make you free (John 8:31-32 - BIble Basic English Translation).
To go one step further, the spirit of antiChrist is preparing the entire world for a future of global deception. The antiChrist will one day rise to power in the Middle East, and will aid Israel with some kind of treaty. This person will be a deceiver par-non! Listen to the scriptures:
He will be a master of deception and will become arrogant; he will destroy many without warning. He will even take on the Prince of princes in battle, but he will be broken, though not by human power (Daniel 8:25 - NLT).
The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 - NKJV) .
So I am writing to you not because you don’t know the truth but because you know the difference between truth and lies. And who is a liar? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ. Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist. Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also (1 John 2:21-23 - NLT).
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is already in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world, and therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are of God, and whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not of God does not listen to us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error (1 John 4:1-6 - Modern English Version).
Here is a list of behaviors that the spirit of antiChrist motivates: lying, abortion, same sex marriage, pornography, living together without marriage, relative values or values that change from person to person and in different situations, socialism, communism, control, atheism, lawlessness, fear, godlessness, amorality, divisiveness, inequality, rioting, violence, racism, borderless nations, compliance without questioning facts, and a one world government.
To remain free from deception and delusion today, there is only one way - listen to and obey the WORD OF GOD. And, turn a deaf ear to media driven, fear driven propaganda!
If we hear the word but do nothing with it, we will remain deceived and deluded, just like most of the world. But if we choose to listen to and obey the WORD and the promptings of the Holy Spirit, we can remain free in this strange day of deception and delusion.
I love two verses of scripture that have been for me a baseline for knowing truth from error. Listen to them:
1 John 2:20 (NKJV)
But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.
1 John 2:27 (NKJV)
But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.
As a Christian indwelt by the Holy Spirit, you have theSpirit of Truth within. Learn to listen to Him. He speaks to us deep in our human spirit. The following words will help us identify the Holy Spirit’s warning from within when we are confronted with deception, delusions, and distortions of the truth: Conscience, intuition, a hunch, a perception, an inner knowing, a gut sense, a premonition. The Holy Spirit will deal with us in this crucial time. We must take time to hear!
I’ll leave you with these scriptures to ponder. What are you choosing, deception and delusion, or truth?
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you (John 14:16-18 - NLT).
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me. (John 16:13-15 - NLT).
So this is why we abandon everything morally impure and all forms of wicked conduct. Instead, with a sensitive spirit we absorb God’s Word, which has been implanted within our nature, for the Word of Life has power to continually deliver us.
Don’t just listen to the Word of Truth and not respond to it, for that is the essence of self-deception. So always let his Word become like poetry written and fulfilled by your life! If you listen to the Word and don’t live out the message you hear, you become like the person who looks in the mirror of the Word to discover the reflection of his face in the beginning. You perceive how God sees you in the mirror of the Word, but then you go out and forget your divine origin. But those who set their gaze deeply into the perfecting law of liberty are fascinated by and respond to the truth they hear and are strengthened by it—they experience God’s blessing in all that they do! (James 1:21-25 - Passion Translation).
Everyone who hears my teaching and applies it to his life can be compared to a wise man who built his house on an unshakable foundation. When the rains fell and the flood came, with fierce winds beating upon his house, it stood firm because of its strong foundation. But everyone who hears my teaching and does not apply it to his life can be compared to a foolish man who built his house on sand. When it rained and rained and the flood came, with wind and waves beating upon his house, it collapsed and was swept away (Matthew 7:24-27 - Passion Translation).
For me, I have made an absolute decision to live by the Word of God. It is forever settled in heaven (Psalm 119:89). It never changes and can be solidly believed (Psalm 89:34; Isaiah 55:11; Matthew 24:35).
Jesus said that the person who bases his life and belief system on God’s Word will stand when the storms of life come (Matthew 7:24-29)! As we end the last quarter of 2023, and enter 2024, I urge you to begin to guard closely what you choose to hear and focus on. The world is following a spirit of deception and delusion. I choose to follow The Way, The Truth, and The Life! Come and join me and let’s live in freedom!