Steering Clear of Deception and Delusion

7.11.2021

Introduction

We are living in a time of extreme deception and delusion. I want to talk to you about how to navigate this crazy time.

If you are going to make it through this time without being a victim of deception, you must know truth and pursue it.

The Jim Jones suicides happened in 1977, a year after I came to Jesus. Nine hundred people followed delusional thinking and committed mass suicide by following this man. That pushed me as a teenager to diligently seek to know the Bible for myself, so that I would not be deceived.

This situation is small compared to what is happening and will happen in the future.

The media and online social apps are refusing to allow anything that disagrees with their thought processes to be published.

I have never seen a time of such censorship. You and I cannot simply sit idly by and allow this. We must speak the truth – and do it in a loving way.

If you are going to find out what is really happening today, you have to look in a purposeful way. Otherwise you will not find it.

Censorship is blocking information from news sources, from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google search, etc.

I was on the way to our prayer meeting yesterday when the Holy Spirit brought a scripture to me about deception

2 Thessalonians 2:7-12 (NKJV)

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

We prayed for the body of Christ all over the world to stand bold and strong against deception, and for pastors and church leaders to speak truth even though it will be unpopular to do so.

We also prayed for children to rise up in classrooms all over this nation and say what they believe is true when deception about race and sexuality is brought up in the classroom.

We prayed for boldness for children, teachers, leaders on school boards who know the Lord, parents, pastors, church leaders, and Christians in general to lovingly and boldly stand for what is right. And do so even when criticized and hated for it.

There is a spirit of lying and lawlessness that is deluding the world right now .

We have had people leave our church over the last year, who have been here a long time, simply because I have taken a stand against the lying and deception.

Let me also say that we have had many who also have started attending Victory and are looking for truth in a time of moral bankruptcy in America.

I simply cannot preach an innocuous message and ignore the problems that we all face.

Communism, marxism, socialism, lawlessness, and atheistic thought are seeking to mow down the America we have known. And the end result is to shut the mouth of the church and stymie the effects of the Bible on our culture.

The word Nefarious

The Covid 19 issue was simply a dry run of bigger things on the horizon in front of us. Now is the time to prepare!

When the coronavirus situation put the whole world in lockdown, I was deeply disturbed. At first I couldn’t understand what I was sensing inside, but now, 16 months later, I understand it.

There is a spirit of deception that has entered the world, seeking to convince people of things that have only a partial truth.

The second week of March 2020, I was praying, and at the conclusion of my prayer time, a word came up inside of me.

Because I like words, God often gives me a word when He speaks to me.

For instance, I needed to make changes in how we lead our staff team, and to start that process, God gave me the word trendsetter.

When I came here over 25 years ago, God gave me the words: already existing church.

 

So the word Nefarious rose up inside me as I was praying about the coronavirus situation.

I had to look it up in a dictionary.

Nefarious:

[Latin nefarius, from nefas, unlawful, or ne and for, fari, to utter.]

Wicked in the extreme; abominable; atrociously sinful or villainous; detestably vile

Synonyms:

wicked, evil, sinful, iniquitous, villainous, criminal, heinous, atrocious, appalling, abhorrent, vile, foul, base, abominable, odious, depraved, corrupt, shameful, scandalous, monstrous, fiendish, diabolical, devilish, unholy, ungodly, infernal, satanic, dark, unspeakable, despicable, outrageous, shocking, disgraceful; archaic knavish, dastardly; rare egregious, flagitious. ANTONYMS: good, admirable.

I intuitively knew that there was more here than I was hearing about what was happening with the coronavirus .

Demonic forces are working today to create lawlessness, paving the way for the world to accept the man of sin called antiChrist.

And the way to do that is to get people to blindly follow what they are told without thinking. That has happened worldwide this past year.

The new media creates a straw man problem, something that is not real, and people believe that and blindly parrot what they hear.

Open vision

A Year Ago:

A minister from Florida who is prophetic was praying and had an open vision. He saw into the spirit realm and saw a demonic spirit who said:

I exist to deceive the whole world. Just as there are forerunners in the kingdom of God that go before the Son of Man, so I am a forerunning spirit in the kingdom of darkness that has been sent before the coming man of lawlessness.

It had a scar under its right eye, and said further, The scar underneath my right eye has come at the hands of the praying church, for many of them in this hour have begun to detect our true plans and purposes – to disrupt systems, divert attention, and release chaos in the land.

The demonic spirit said that the media was the source behind its power and influence. It said its agenda was Fear, Hate, and Greed.

They are seeking to disrupt normal ways of life, to divert attention from the most important things, and they are seeking to create chaos.

Recognize that deception is everywhere today.

Jesus and the apostle Paul both revealed that the time just before Christ’s return would be characterized by deception.

I submit that we are encountering that deception right now.

Matthew 24:4 (NKJV)

And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you.

1 Timothy 4:1-2 (TPT)

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. 2 Hypocritical liars will deceive many, and their consciences won’t bother them at all!

The antiChrist will be a deceiver.

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!

Daniel 8:25 (NLT)

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.

2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 (NKJV)

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

1 John 2:21-23 (NLT)

So I am writing to you not because you don’t know the truth but because you know the difference between truth and lies. 22 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. 23 Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

1 John 4:1-6 (MEV)

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. 2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 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. 4 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. 5 They are of the world, and therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 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.

Isaiah 5:20 (NKJV)

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!

The spirit of antiChrist pushes for:

Abortion

Same sex marriage

Pornography

Living together without marriage

Homosexuality

Lesbianism

Transgenderism

Pansexuality

Relative values

Socialism

Communism

Control

Atheism

Lawlessness

Fear

Godlessness

Amorality

Inequality

Rioting

Violence

Division

Racism

Borderless nations

Deception defined:

Deceive: Noah Webster (1828)

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.

Deception:

The act of deceiving or misleading.

1 Timothy 4:1-2 (TPT)

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. 2 Hypocritical liars will deceive many, and their consciences won’t bother them at all!

2 Timothy 3:13 (NKJV)

But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

 

John 8:44 (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.

Revelation 21:8 (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 22:14-15 (TPT)

Wonderfully blessed are those who wash their robes white so they can access the Tree of Life and enter the city of bliss by its open gates. 15 Those not permitted to enter are outside: the malicious hypocrites, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, murderers, idolaters, and every lover of lies.

We are living in an age of delusion.

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.

Deception is everywhere right now.

Lying has become commonplace. And particularly in the media lying and deceit have become acceptable practices.

Everything you read and hear has a bias, a slant. How do you know what is right from what is wrong?

Jesus and truth

John 14:6 (NKJV)

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

John 8:31-32 (BBE)

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had faith in Him, If you keep my word, then you are truly my disciples; 32 And you will have knowledge of what is true, and that will make you free.

Isaiah 33:6 (NKJV)

Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, and the strength of salvation; the fear of the Lord is His treasure.

The Holy Spirit and Truth

John 14:16-18 (NLT)

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 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. 18 No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you.

John 16:13-15 (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. 14 He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.’

Don’t just hear, practice the Word.

If you attend church and even read the Bible, you will be deceived unless you decide to put what you read and hear into practice.

James 1:21-25 (TPT)

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.

22 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!

23 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. 24 You perceive how God sees you in the mirror of the Word, but then you go out and forget your divine origin. 25 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!

Matthew 7:24-27 (TPT)

24 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. 25 When the rains fell and the flood came, with fierce winds beating upon his house, it stood firm because of its strong foundation.

26 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. 27 When it rained and rained and the flood came, with wind and waves beating upon his house, it collapsed and was swept away.

Action Points:

1. Put the Word into practice in your personal daily life!
2. Pray in the spirit.
3. Be a part of a strong Word-based, Holy Spirit-led church.