Deuteronomy 30:19-20 | NKJV (19) I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; (20) that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
The overall quality of our lives today is largely based on the decisions that we made in the course of our lives yesterday.
God is always endeavoring to move in our lives to help us to make the right decisions that will allow His blessing and His life to be our life experience.
Deception is not just one of the ways that the enemy can bring the effects of the curse into your life. It is the only way.
Main Point – If Satan cannot deceive you, he cannot defeat you.
Deception – to convince someone that something is true and valid when it is actually untrue and invalid.
Matthew 24:4 | NKJV (4) And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you.
Matthew 24:4 | TPT (4) Jesus answered, “At that time deception will run rampant. So beware that you are not fooled!
Self-Deception
Two ways one can become self-deceived:
- By being lifted up in pride.
1 Corinthians 3:18 | NKJV (18) Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
Galatians 6:3 | NKJV (3) For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
The remedy for this is to humble yourself.
1 Peter 5:5-6 | NKJV (5) Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “GOD RESISTS THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.” (6) Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,
- By not being a doer of the Word of God.
James 1:22 | NKJV (22) But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Every time you and I hear a portion of scripture and receive the revelation of it and fail to do it, we leave a door wide open to deception. Actually, Satan doesn’t even have to be the agent of that deception, you deceive yourself.
Four reasons that some are not doers of God’s Word:
- The lust of the flesh.
This does not necessarily have a sexual connotation but rather is a strong desire of our flesh that is contrary to the Word of God.
Mark 4:18-19 | NKJV (18) Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, (19) and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
Un-forgiveness and selfishness are examples of lust of our flesh that we have a tendency to want to hold on to and they will block us from hearing and doing the Word.
- Fear of what others will think about them.
This has many from receiving the powerful truths of God’s Word such as the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, or healing or even God’s provision in prosperity.
People in their desire to be accepted will not act on these truths for fear of being mocked or rejected.
- Simple procrastination – “I will do that tomorrow”.
When we fail to be doers of the Word of God our conscience will bother us. To silence what, we will reason with ourselves that we will do that later and open the door for seeds of destruction to be planted in our life.
- Not keeping before us what we “see” in the Word.
James 1:23-25 NKJV (23) For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; (24) for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. (25) But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
We simply forget (put out of mind) the truths that we see and hear and thus let them slip and never do them.
How do I become a doer of the Word?
- Make the simple decision that you want to be a doer of the Word.
- There is a principle in the Word of God that is: the power of the Word of God is available to help you do it.
Hebrews 4:12 | NKJV (12) For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
- Believe that the power to do the Word is present.
- Keep the Word before you and in your mouth.
Joshua 1:8 | AMPC (8) This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success.