Are we living in an age of deception? Perhaps there is something more sinister at play in our world than we’d like to admit.
In a world where evil constantly tries to disguise itself as something good, we have to understand that things are not always as they appear on the outside. Instead, more often than not, evil tries to make itself appear as the angel of light.
“You cannot always judge the way something is, what it is, by the way it looks or feels,” Jonathan Cahn says.
When we open up the Proverbs, we find insights about what it means to fall for the schemes of the devil, which many of times, equates to believing disillusions about ourselves and the perceptions we have of situations.
Sometimes it means that we find ourselves believing that good news couldn’t be further from the truth because of the life experiences that we bring to the table. On the flip side, a disillusionment can lead us away from accepting that sometimes God’s message is repentance and correction. And that while God will provide heavenly blessings for us, persecution is also guaranteed to come as well.
“You may be glossing over Scriptures that you don’t want to hear,” Cahn says. “That challenge you, that convict you or that don’t give you that thing.”
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While it can be hard to accept tough realities, Cahn pleads that the only way we can ever truly walk in the life that God always intended for us.
“If you want God’s will in your life, you have to divest yourself from any vested interest in the answer,” Cahn says. “In other words, you have to say, ‘Lord, I’m okay if you say yes. I’m okay if you say no.’ That’s the only way you’re going to be open. ‘I’m okay if you say yes, or Isaac has to be offered.’”
When we come to God with open and willing hearts to whatever He has for us, He can properly lead us and guide us in the way He desires to do so. However, it is critical that we do not fall under self-deception either as the enemy will try to use that against us too. Instead, it is the Word of the God by which all actions, thoughts and speech must follow.
“You cannot judge any situation by the way it looks, feels or seems,” Cahn says. “You judge any direction, any situation, any road, any gateway, any door by where it’s bringing you. You may be on a hard road but it’s bringing you to something beautiful.”
No matter the previous situations or patterns we’ve been in, no matter what we want the outcome to be, we cannot believe the lies of the enemy or of self-deception, otherwise, we will fall.
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Abby Trivett is a marketing copywriter and coordinator for Charisma Media.
Stephen Strang