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deceitfulness of the heart, deception, delusion, discerning the spirits, entering his rest, exhortation, experience, false prophets, God's love, Jesus Christ, Satan, sin, spiritual growth, T.A. Sparks
“For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (Jer 2:13 ESV)
– Photo by Susanne Schuberth
Below you can read a definition of what the word ‘delusion’ basically signifies. T. Austin Sparks explained it this way.
What is delusion? Well, it is to lead from truth into error. It is to mislead the mind or the judgment, to beguile, to lead astray, to cheat, to frustrate, to disappoint, to impose upon; something that is not the truth; and these are days peculiarly marked by that peril. [1]
Actually, delusion and deception are so natural to us that we usually submit to them without knowing about it until God sets us free. On the one hand, there are people who are atheists or agnostics who are deceived because they reject The Truth which is Christ. On the other hand, there are religious people, even Christians, who are deceived because they are content with what they know and can do for God or other religious entities. These believers do not want to grow spiritually because it is too painful for the flesh which must die and make room for Christ in us. Furthermore, there are Christians who have come to know parts of the truth and who had their personal experiences with God and Christ too, however, they habitually eat the whole meat of everything they were taught and do not spit out the bones. Thus it is often times a horrible mix of truth and lies they offer and you need to be cautious to not get captivated by their confusing spiritual spider webs as well.
Just lately I discovered a new trend which cannot be observed publicly on the net because it happened on a more private basis. As a blogger I detected this strange trend either through comments I did not moderate, through emails, or through phone calls. Indeed, there are some Christians who feel urged by ‘God’s voice’ to tell you ‘the truth’. In particular, these ‘prophetic voices’ claim to have heard God and feel forced to tell you what is wrong with you and what you should do better in ‘God’s sight’. If I had no close relationship with God myself, I could be easily influenced by their self-centered and confused ‘messages’. Brothers and sisters, it is always good to search our own hearts and to ask God what He thinks about our doing or not doing and I do that, daily. And I believe that God did not send prophet(esse)s and watch(wo)men who speak up for God unless they have experienced the cross of Christ (i.e. dying to self) in their own lives. Not having gained the real knowledge (i.e., love) of God and genuine self-knowledge, they do not even realize that it is their own deceived heart and mind that causes them to confuse God’s and Satan’s voice. They feel some ‘power’ to open up their mouth and think it must be God’s power. Yet God only shares His resurrection power with those who are weak in their flesh, not with those who are still strong regarding their carnality and self-willed schemes. Resurrection comes after death, right? Not the other way round. Often times, these people refuse to be part of the Body of Christ too because they want to have it all their way. This is not the way it should be. The Body has many different members and we all should submit to one another according to what God has given each of us. But if He did not give somebody anything, we need to resist the devil’s voice who wants to make us submit to himself again. In fact, if we search for someone who has not been, at least partly, deceived, we should not be disappointed if we hardly find anyone. Sparks in this same article [1] came straight to the point as he said,
The race is deceived universally. Deception is not something now that is out in the air, objective, apart from man; deception is now something in man as a part of him. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”
Beloved, deceitfulness was not a constituent in the man that God made. Deceitfulness is something that has come into the nature of man, a foreign something, and it is in the race. It is in man, it is a part of his very nature. God’s greatest opportunity is always with the honest in heart, and God never stands a chance when there is not honesty of heart. His beginnings are there. A contrite heart, an honest heart, the open spirit, where there is no covering things over; for that was the very first thing that happened when deceitfulness found a lodgment in the race, man went to hide himself, and deceitfulness is always that which is hiding something, keeping something under cover, not transparent, clear, open before heaven. God always demands absolute openness and honesty before He begins negotiations, and God can always get on very rapidly when He has an honest heart to deal with, and that life with an honest heart will go ahead with God by leaps and bounds, and those who will not be honest with God, meaning business whatever it costs, will make no progress.
Sparks’ solution for quick spiritual growth and freedom from deception is quite simple, isn’t it? Honesty. Indeed, this is the best policy, both with God and with our fellow man. If we no longer try to be better than we really are but present us just as we are right now, God can and will help us. Don’t we think that it is shameful to find out that we have been betrayed, or even, that we in our deception deceived others too (maybe only unknowingly). It is never too late to return to the Lord as long as it is called TODAY. In fact, hiding sin before God and/or others opens up our hearts for deception. Instead, we need to walk in the light as He is in the light, with God and with one another. Sin in itself has a deceiving effect because its author Satan is The Deceiver who won’t omit an opportunity to tempt us in any way possible. I was thinking here of an admonition taken from the letter to the Hebrews that expresses it perfectly.
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (Heb 3:7-13 ESV)
T. Austin Sparks also said, “Christ is God’s Sabbath. It is in Christ that God comes to rest in all His works; His new creation.” [2] It is the same for us, dear brothers and sisters. We finally come to rest from our own works when we are found IN Christ, IN God’s new creation “for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.” (Heb 4:10 ESV) Deception and delusion often have to do with hurrying, with trying to quickly find out ‘the truth’, with the desire to appear more mature or more spiritual than we really are, or with wanting to be someone who acts on God’s behalf. Scripture confirms that God who is never in a hurry does not want to see us running to and fro. Instead, the Prophet Isaiah wrote,
“For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling, and you said, “No! We will flee upon horses”; therefore you shall flee away; and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”; therefore your pursuers shall be swift.” (Is 30:15-16 ESV)
May God give us the grace to enter His rest. Amen.
[1] http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/002158.html
[2] http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/openwindows/003214.html
Susanne, as I read your insightful article I was flashing back on my own Christian cult experience. We got sucked into delusion by following a man who we thought had great revelations from God and knew the Bible better than anyone else. We were told that if we submitted to him we would be on a fast track to spirituality. Even when he became abusive to us, we were told that it was God using him to crucify our flesh and that ALSO was God’s working in our lives. It was never HIS sin that made him abusive for he was pure in his own eyes.
This eventually gave him abject control and power over the ones of us who stayed in the cult. As a result, many marriages were destroyed and when the cult finally blew apart after nine years, many of the followers fell away from the Lord equating Him with the abusive leader. I have learned a lot about the abuse of power from that experience. Whether in the world’s institutions or even in the churches and cults, “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely!”
Yes, our hearts are easily deceived. The way to avoid it is to constantly call out to God as David did, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Ps 139:23-24, KJV) God needs to purify our hearts by giving us a NEW heart as only He can and as we call out to Him as David did, He will.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
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Yes, Michael, my experiences were pretty much the same. It was always about listening to people, men and women, more than to God’s gentle guidance which was always there too. But after a certain time of NOT listening to Him, God seemed to have got more and more silent over time. I guess He wanted to let us fall into the ditches so that we had to taste the fruit of what we had sowed on the flesh by rather ‘obeying’ these false leaders.
Indeed, only a NEW ❤ will do what God wants to do, Michael. That has been my continued cry to Him for a long time now. “Please, give me a new heart and a new mind! Amen.”
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Yes Susanne, as you well know we become tone deaf to God’s whisper as the louder and more forceful leaders drown Him out with THEIR wills over His. As Jesus said, when the blind lead the blind they eventually all fall into a ditch. It is amazing how much we can learn from the peril of lying in these ditches. It is there that we finally cry out to God for his corrective help with sincere hearts. What a journey you and I have been on, dear sister, while we have sought that city whose Builder and Maker is God with Christ as its ONLY Foundation!
In His healing grace and love,
Michael
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Yup, it was a journey indeed, my brother. Thank God, He finally saved us from these many errors we once believed. May He keep you in His healing hug! 《♡》
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Thank you, Susanne, for the excellent blog.. The fearful thing about deception is that we don’t know that we are deceived. Oh, Father, grant us the answer to Michael’s prayer – recorded above.
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You’re very welcome, dear Pat. ♡♡♡ Thank you so much for the encouragement! 🙂 Yes, you are absolutely right. The very problem is that we do not even realize when we have been deceived. But we can keep asking God to wake us up, just in case we were not watchful enough.
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Amen, Pat. Bless you, dear sister.
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“Indeed, there are some Christians who feel urged by ‘God’s voice’ to tell you ‘the truth’. In particular, these ‘prophetic voices’ claim to have heard God and feel forced to tell you what is wrong with you and what you should do better in ‘God’s sight’.”
The hardest thing for me to deal with in the world is the fact that there are people doing bad things in Christ’s name. Could be really false teachings, could be outright hatred and abuse, or just plain old human arrogance and pride, but regardless I just want to come in like an avenging angel and toss them all off the planet. The amount of harm that is done by these people really pushes my buttons. I try to remember that Christ Himself had an issue with this too, pits of vipers, pharisees and scribes, wolves in sheeps clothing. The only time we really see Christ angry is in the temple, in God’s house. In the final chapter of the book, He as a bone to pick, not with unbelievers or assorted sinners, but with the churches. I always try to remember that, it is us that are called to a higher standard, it is us that are accountable to Him. I try to remember too that He’s got this thing, that He sees and knows all and He’ll handle it.
The top secret, allegedly Divine revelations, remind me of CS Lewis’ “The Inner Ring” essay. There is a lure there, a very seductive one for many people, they want to be part of a select group that has secret knowledge, they want power within that group. In truth however, God will speak to you, God desires a relationship with us, God will show us and lead us Himself if we turn to Him. We don’t need any intermediaries ,or rather Christ is our intercessory leader. 🙂
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Yes, there are people doing bad things in Christ’s name, Gabrielle. As sad as it is, these things exist.
As for Christ being angry, I have always been cautious to compare His kind of anger with our human reactions that usually spring from the the old self (I am not saying you did it in your comment, just thinking loudly 😉 ). I think His pure heart was in great torment since He also was weeping over Jerusalem that always killed the prophets, eventually including Him. I do believe that this sort of wrath Jesus displayed at the temple was a pretaste of the wrath of God, of the Last Judgment. I don’t think it was a mere human reaction. Rather, these people who thought that God’s temple was all about making money and business had to be warned severely before the first judgment came over Jerusalem, esp. over this temple, as it would be destroyed in 70 AD.
I have not read C.S. Lewis’ essay, but what you told me here makes a lot of sense. Having heard that nonsense about being an ‘select group’ in the cult I once joined too, I know how powerful these lies actually work. And yes, we do NOT need any other leader than Christ!!! 🙂
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Christians confuse the new testament prophet with that of the old testament prophet. The old testament prophet was pretty much the only voice of God since the Holy Spirit was not freely available to all. The new testament prophet is one of confirmation being that every born again spirit filled believer has residing within in the Holy Spirit who will lead and guide us into all truth.
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Amen. Well said, Tony.
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Thank you, Susanne. I think, when we have experienced abuse in some form, we are especially vulnerable to deceit.
A harsh image of God (and authority figures claiming His mantle) more closely fits our experience with our abuser(s). Having been denied love, we often feel we are undeserving of it. Criticism sounds more “natural” to our ears. We see ourselves as sinners only, rather than sinners saved by grace. Because of abuse we doubt our own judgment, so are less likely to challenge what we may feel uncomfortable about.
Thankfully, God can see and reach past our scars.
With love,
Anna ❤
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You’re so welcome, Anna. You are right, abuse makes us vulnerable to deceit. In order to not be criticized (wrongly) anymore, we need to face the temptation to give up on ourselves and to rather not take a stand when needed. May God give us the grace and power to speak the truth in love, always and to everyone.
With much love ❤
Susanne
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When anyone but Jesus is placed upon a pedastool we run the risk if being deceived.
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True, Tony.
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Tony is right on with his comments!
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Thanks, Ken.
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Great article Susanne. As for criticism and correction, you should see the comments on Christian YouTube videos. From my own experience as a very tall and childless woman, neither by choice, I’ve been attention-getting but without the “seal of approval” of motherhood. An instant scapegoat. I’ve gone from church to church looking for relief, but criticism and detraction are endemic in the body. I’ve come to understand it as the Pharasaic conscience. A church that doesn’t know repentance, in fact, may not even know the Ten Commandments, has their consciences pointed outwards at others. Criticism and correction come naturally, then habitually, and apparently from what you say people are even getting a sense of “mission” about their sinful, critical attitudes. Just yesterday a visiting minister gave a sermon on Mary Magdalene, and there I was at the age of 61 wearing a wedding ring and modestly dressed, receiving his stares every time he said “a sinful woman”, or “a known sinner”, etc. He would turn his head and look right at me. It’s a little bit funny, but I was shaken. Throughout the night I awoke several times with the clear thought “This is who you are to pray for”, meaning him and other detractors. I hope I can hold that thought. All the saints suffered calumny, and it looks like there’s plenty to go around for all of us these days. I thank God for your gifts and pray the Lord consoles you and strengthens you to endure.
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Your response was very encouraging to read for me. 🙂 Thank you so much, dear Nancy. ❤
I am sorry to hear about your bad experiences in this church recently and in others too. I wish I could tell you, despite the pain you have endured (first by not having a child of your own and then through this nasty behavior from ‘Christians’), that the New Covenant is neither about marrying nor about having children. If so, Jesus would have been married, the apostle Paul, and many, many others.
Paul made it pretty clear in his first letter to the Corinthians, esp. in chapter 7 where he began, “Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” (1 Cor 7:1 ESV) and then continues, “I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.” (verses 7-9) But even if they were married, Paul saw not much comfort in this as he also said, “From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none.” (verse 29) I wonder how often these verses are quoted and preached in churches with many families?
I presume you won’t find a lot of preachers in the Institutional Church who know about the mystery of God’s love which is merely spiritual. When God draws a human being closer to Himself, He even takes away all physical desire (cf. Gal 5:24) so that they, by God’s grace, can live a celibate life like Jesus and Paul (and others, esp. mystics). Instead, God loves them in an intimate relationship with a satisfying spiritual love that encompasses body, soul, and spirit. In fact, the New Covenant is all about getting married to our Spiritual Bridegroom who is Christ Jesus. We often hear in churches that the Bofy of Christ is His bride too. But do people know what that ultimately means?
Regarding children, I was thinking about the fact that parents naturally love their children more than anyone (esp. mothers do that). However, Jesus told us the following,
“And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Mt 10:36-39 ESV)
Jesus’ cross kills our old nature and all of its desires and wishes and brings forth a completely new creation that longs for eternal things only. This life on earth as we knew it before is over then when we have died to our old self nature and both our circumstances and surroundings are not as important as they once were. Quite the contrary! Alas, in churches they either ignore the New Covenant as it should be or and they ‘do their own thing’ by trying to fulfill The Law (the conservatives) or they suggest the opposite, that is, they tell you, “Let’s live your best life now!” (the liberals)
The blessing of having children, esp. many, belongs to the Old Covenant like having riches, many women (!), cattle, possessions etc. (see Dt 28:1-14). I really wish the church would wake up and realize that they are stuck in ancient times, even before Christ, regarding her view on physical blessings and on family.
I am afraid that was a VERY long reply, almost a blog post, Nancy, and I hope it was not too thought-provoking for you.
Every divine blessing in Christ,
Susanne
PS
I am not that small, either (5’10”), and I know that you automatically draw the attention to yourself when you enter a room. Not always fun, indeed.
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Susanne and Nancy,
I know what you mean about being tall and all that goes with it. I am 6′ 4″ (1.93 meters) and I find that most pastors are shorter men who have what I call “the little man syndrome.” They feel threatened by anyone who is taller and also by anyone who knows the scriptures better than they do. Many were drawn to the “pastorate” because of the power that it would give them.
I always went into a new church setting hoping it would be different than the last one and that I could just “fit in,” but that was not the case. I found out that knowing the scriptures was NOT an asset when men were preaching their own agendas, at least not an asset for just fitting in. Soon I became the target of the church leadership often without even opening my mouth. You see, these men who gravitate to positions of power over other people are most always carnal and not servants by nature at all! They use an attitude of top-down authority and control to make up for their shortcomings in their natural man. Yes, there are a few exceptions, but they are rare.
It is interesting that Paul was a short man, but one that was so changed by Christ that he preferred to be weak and nothing in His natural self after His wonderful encounter with Jesus. All he wanted was that Jesus Christ might be everything in him. Before his Damascus road experience he was a man of carnal authority and used to do all the damage he could to the saints of God. What a difference it makes when leadership in the church has been broken and humbled by God!
May He continue to bless you both with more of Himself,
Michael
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Michael and Nancy,
I think we three could start a club. Anyone else who wants to join TCON ((Tall Christians On the Net)? 😉
“The little man syndrome” we have known in Germany too. I remember a certain vacation after high school when I was on a Dutch island (Texel) with my parents back in 1985. In fact, I was a bit shocked how many tall men were there, esp. policemen. Those we met were mostly about 6’5″ or even more. Indeed, at that time even I felt pretty small. 🙂
I think our carnal nature always wants to be someone, whether we are tall or small. But if you are taller, people somehow automatically assume you know more than those who are smaller and some might be tempted to believe that you even have a natural authority because of your stature. I rarely met men in leading positions whose staff members were much taller than they were although there might be exceptions, no doubt about that.
May God bless you and keep you, Nancy and Michael,
Susanne
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LOL! TCON, sounds good to me. I’m fairly tall too, and yes I’ve met the little man syndrome. Somewhat funny, I think that had a powerful impact on me because I went and married the tallest man I could find.
However, the pastor at my local church isn’t very tall, but he is awesome, very powerful but very kind too. I love the saying, “he who is under authority has authority.” And he who isn’t simply doesn’t.
Height of course, doesn’t really matter, it’s the size of our God, the size of our faith, that makes all the difference in the world. Some people are just small inside and mean, and they just have an abyss inside them that hasn’t yet been filled.
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Glad you like TCON, Gabrielle. I wonder whether you found your hubby in the Netherlands? Just kidding… XD
Sure, you’re right, kindness has nothing to do with height, pastor or not. 😉 Am just a little bit curious since I read for the second or third time that you attend a local church. I have wondered whether you need to pay tithes and give donations there?
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I do attend a local church but I’m not a formal member. I’m one of those people who wouldn’t belong to an organization that would have me. 🙂
I do make frequent donations, but I don’t tithe. I can’t really find a biblical justification for tithing? Near as I can tell it’s all God’s money. Except most of our own money is actually my husband’s and he is strongly opposed to tithing, so I am careful not to donate any of his money. 🙂
I work in the nursery, with youth group, and donate to our soup kitchen a lot. We have big soup feed every week, people from all walks of life come, and I support that concept. Our pastor seems to believe in tithing, but we’re a very poor church and he frequently speaks about giving joyfully, not out of pressure or obligation. He too says it’s all God’s money and he often speaks of how we should spend it as we believe God wants us to.
It’s really a charming little church, very authentic, you can see and feel Christ there and people serve in a way that I think He would have served, perhaps not as perfectly, but they really do feed the hungry, help people find housing, do chores for those who need help.
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“I’m one of those people who wouldn’t belong to an organization that would have me.”
Hahaha, now you got me laughing, Gabrielle. That was so funny!! XD
Thanks for your explanation regarding this particular church. Indeed, there is no biblical justification for tithes. Only the widows and the orphans should be fed by the church, as it was in Old Covenantal times too. And it is not the pastor who should get the money, it is those who are in need.
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Thank you for this. I have not been on here in a while and I do apologize. Any way this came up for me at a good time as I had 2 people come up to me recently and ask me if I was morally perfect and my reply was no because I feel if I said yes that I would be going against what is written in the word about saying you are with out sin. Any way their reply was that I am not a true christian.
I do have a question about what you said above about honestly. I do have some secrets about my past before the conversion, I don’t keep them from GOD as I thank him for delivering me from that. My question is do I tell other people based on what you said?
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You’re welcome, Fred. No need to apologize at all. But I admit I was truly wondering where you have been as you so all of a sudden disappeared into nirvana…
Well, I am not morally perfect, either, but Jesus is. It seems to me that He is the only perfect ‘Christian’. 😉 What other people think about us is not important, but what God thinks is.
As for telling other people secrets or not, I would be very cautious here. First, it is always good to have an open heart toward God. Second, just in case you find someone in whom you really trust and you feel the need to tell them something about your past, then why not doing it? However, there are a lot of curious people out there, Christians or not, who only feel better when they see others are/were worse than they. These ppl are called ‘Pharisees’, ppl who do not know their own hearts. With these people I would be VERY cautious and not tell them anything. We can only walk with someone in the light with whom God has put us together. Such a walk with a stranger with whom you do not share God’s love is an impossible thing to do.
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Thank you very much for what you have said. With those 2 people that have told me I need to be perfect. I kept getting the feeling that I should not not talk to them or respond any more to what they say to me. What you have said tells me that I was probably hearing that from GOD.
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I am glad that you found my response helpful, Fred. Actually, I described nothing but my latest experiences with God. He taught me that I do not need to be nice toward all people, esp. toward those of the nasty kind. Of course, I would not attack them. Yet I try to leave them ASAP and I don’t say anything to them anymore unless God nudges me to so. Very relieving, indeed (my own silence, that is… somehow I feel God in this).
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