I suppose most of us have been to a “fun house” and encountered the challenge of walking on an uneven floor with mirrors that distort the perception.
A few moments or a day battling vertigo is both horribly disorienting and nauseating.
How terribly frightening it must be when it seems there is no cure for the disorientation and all will remain in an unstable condition.
How do we maintain our equilibrium in a world that seems to always be spinning and out of balance, when up appears down and down appears up?
Lucifer loves to play “fun house.”
He finds great delight in distorting truth and altering reality. He thinks it is loads of fun watching people lose their balance and stumble along.
He finds great delight in young men and women confusing love with sex. It is gleeful for him when he sees grown men and women out of control on alcohol, pot or meth.
Lucifer builds his “fun house” by sowing seeds of deception in the minds of educators, politicians and spiritual leaders. He sends small distortions at first, not wanting to scare them away.
Adding small deception upon a slight distortion, he builds his dream house of “fun.” It is, after all, fun visiting his house.
However, as one goes deeper into Lucifer’s “fun house” the distortions become greater until all perception is lost and the uneven hallways lead into a house of horrors.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Thessalonica warning them of Lucifer’s “fun house.”
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 Thess. 2:9-12, NKJV).
Lucifer finds great pleasure in making humans stumble by turning down up and up down. He loves creating vertigo by spinning truth and error and right and wrong.
The prophets tried to warn us:
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who exchange darkness for light, and light for darkness; who exchange bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight! Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink, who justify the wicked for a reward, and take away the justice of the righteous from him! (Isa. 5:20-23, MEV).
The spinning and nausea become even greater when Lucifer builds his “fun house” inside the church and the pulpits and the Bible classes begin teaching his distortions as truth:
“You have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet you say, ‘How have we wearied Him?’ When you say, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in them,’ or, ‘Where is the God of justice?'” (Mal. 2:17).
The prophets warn of the time when a man, possessed by Lucifer, himself, will come to power as a world leader (Dan. 8:24, Rev. 13:2).
This leader will be a master at deception leading the world by lies but making them sound like truth. He will cast truth to the ground, causing the people to believe what they once knew was truth is a lie (Dan. 7:8, 25; 8:12, 23, 25; 2 Thess. 2:1-10; Rev.13:1-10).
This spirit of darkness is preparing the world even now for this man to rise to power.
The level of distortion and disinformation in the media combined with the rewrite of history and moral truth are alarming.
The degree of disinformation and syncretism with humanism and eastern mysticism in the pulpits, literature and Bible studies should be of even great alarm.
How do we maintain our spiritual equilibrium in a world that is becoming Lucifer’s “fun house?”
Allow me to share with you five powerful tools that will help you maintain spiritual equilibrium.
1. Develop in your heart a love for the truth.
The Apostle Paul explained vulnerability to distortion and deception is magnified when a believer does not have a heart of love for truth.
This weakness will open a gateway to delusion.
- Distortion leads to deception.
- Deception will lead to finding pleasure in unrighteousness.
- Pleasure in unrighteousness leads to delusion.
- Delusion will bring destruction.
This great danger can be avoided when a child of God chooses to love truth! It begins with a choice of the will and is nurtured by developing a spiritual appetite for Word of God combined with developing the spiritual discipline of hating evil in all of its forms (Prov. 8:13).
2. Set your will and your mind to get wisdom and understanding.
“Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget it, nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is principal; therefore get wisdom. And with all your getting, get understanding” (Prov. 4:5-7).
Wisdom is the ability to see life and circumstances from God’s perspective.
Understanding is knowledge of the ways of God and correct application of the principles and precepts of His Word.
Wisdom and understanding do not come just because you read a little portion of Scripture each day or because you listen to Christian radio.
You must be very intentional and purposeful in seeking wisdom and understanding by diligently studying the Scriptures and obeying them.
3. Faithfully hide the Word in your heart by memorization.
“How shall a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word. With my whole heart I seek You; do not allow me to wander from Your commandments. Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” (Ps. 119:9-11).
Memorize large blocks of Scripture.
4. Consistently speak truth in your heart.
King David asked an important question of God and received a very clear answer.
“Lord, who will abide in Your tabernacle? Who will dwell in Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, and does righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart” (Ps. 15:1-2).
Self-talk and the secret opinions and reasoning we cherish will either propel us to a close and intimate walk with the Lord with consistent victorious living or they will pull us away from Him and lead us into secret sins.
Alexander Pope wrote correctly,
“Vice is a monster of so frightful mien
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.”
The church in the second millennia has lived this out.
We have entertained ourselves through television and other media with violence, vulgarity, various levels of undress and sexual orientation until we have lost our ability to blush and to be ashamed.
Now many in the church are embracing such behavior as acceptable for a born-again child of God.
Renouncing such deception and turning from such delusion will only come when the Word of the Living God is firmly ensconced in the heart of the believer through regular and consistent meditation (Josh. 1:8; Ps.1:1-3).
5. Carefully and diligently sharpen your spiritual senses.
The New Testament writer firmly corrected the Hebrew believers because they were not maturing spiritually. They should have been training disciples but instead were eating spiritual baby food and needed to be taught the basics of the Christian faith (Heb. 5:12-13).
“But solid food belongs to those who are mature, for those who through practice have powers of discernment that are trained to distinguish good from evil” (Heb. 5:14).
This level of spiritual maturity is critical in avoiding spiritual vertigo.
Sharpening your spiritual hearing and sight, recognizing God’s touch and His presence, developing your spiritual taste for truth and righteousness, awareness of the presence of evil over the presence of goodness—this kind of spiritual discernment is critical in a culture of disinformation and delusion.
Lucifer’s “fun house” may be growing, but the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is greater.
The power of the Holy Spirit and the authority of God’s Word will destroy his mirrors of distortion and hallways of lies.
Loving the truth and rightly applying the truth is a certain cure for spiritual vertigo and maintaining right equilibrium.
Dr. F. Dean Hackett has served in full-time Christian ministry since October 1971. He has ministered throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, serving as pastor, conference speaker and mentor. He has planted four churches, assisted in planting 15 others and currently serves as lead pastor of Living Faith Church in Hermiston, Oregon. Dr. Hackett founded Spirit Life Ministries International in 2001 to facilitate ministries in Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina and to open a training center for workers in those nations. You can find him at F. Dean Hackett – Foundational, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
This article originally appeared at fdeanhackett.com.
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