When We Think We are not Deceived We are Already Deceived—R Fritz
This is actually a statement somebody got from the Holy Spirit. It shows how our thinking is flawed. It is because we are using our own thinking and not letting the Holy Spirit tell us whether we were deceived or not even asking. Somehow, we need to have that relationship with the Holy Spirit with our will surrendered where the Holy Spirit knows the answers and reveals them to us. We are deceived then we ask amiss. James 4:3 says “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss (wrongly), that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” We ask in prayer the wrong thing because we do not know what we actually need. The Spirit will guide us in our prayer.
We will be deceived because we are taking our eyes off the prize, Jesus Christ. We are looking at all the out-of-place signs and wonders that take us away from where they belong. We miss out when we do not study who Jesus is and his character. This is why we are deceived we do not know what God calls righteous and holy. His standards are not our standards. Matthew 24:24 says and this is Jesus speaking “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” The very “elect” are the people who are following Jesus, studying and hearing the Holy Spirit, and obeying his commands. Jesus is saying that if the elect can be deceived everybody should be watching and checking to see if we are seeing spiritual instead of in the flesh. When we refuse to check ourselves, pride wants to sneak in or surface.
Satan is the deceiver and our enemy. He knows how to be subtle when he pushes our feelings farther than we want but we think it is us or it is somebody else that is doing us wrong or not doing what we think they should be doing. Satan knows how far to push. I know this because of what happened this last week where it was what somebody did not do that irritated me. It was something I believed they should have done. Praying about that I felt I needed to forgive them and after I did that, I saw how I was deceived by Satan and him using my feelings to make the situation worse and how I saw it. That is what Satan does and we do not know he is the one who is causing the trouble between people and followers of Jesus. He adds words or sometimes we miss things that were said.
Most things I see or that happen the Holy Spirit goes over with me the next day.
That situation happened because it was a teaching moment for the Holy Spirit. It is us trusting the Holy Spirit and going through and learning who God is as well as the tricks and schemes of Satan. I now know how Satan uses our feelings as well as what has happened in our life to get us to react how he wants us to. We need to see how Satan is using us with the help of the Holy Spirit. If we think we are smart enough to see what is going on, we are already deceived and do not know it. Ephesians 6:11-12 says “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” This was one of the first things taught to me by the Holy Spirit over 20 yrs. ago. It was probably one of the first verses that changed my life. The Holy Spirit was showing me that we are not fighting people, we are fighting the spirits that are manipulating them or us.
We have to understand Satan uses people to say or do things he wants to be done. Most people do not know he is using them through their words and actions. They are deceived thinking they are doing the right thing. These can be Christians and people thinking they know God and are following God. They are following men. What I am saying is they are not necessarily saying or doing things on purpose, they do not understand they are sometimes hearing Satan believing it is God or following their thoughts. This happens especially at high-stress times when we do not control our words or actions because of our feelings. That is when Satan pounces on our feelings adding more fuel to our emotional fire. Everything I say is from experience then what the Holy Spirit showed me during or after going through these things.
It goes back to the thinking the Holy Spirit is automatically speaking or controlling what we say. 1 John 4:1 says “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” We should test the spirits who we are listening to. We have to surrender our will to the Holy Spirit and then the Holy Spirit will speak the words to be spoken, this is when we are given more understanding. We have to be under the Holy Spirit’s control or we are under our control. Being under the Holy Spirit gives us freedom because the Holy Spirit is our conscience and the Holy Spirit is the force to show us what is righteous, holy, just and keeps us where we need to be down that narrow path. Satan is always trying to knock you off that narrow path and going down the broad path. Satan does it slowly so you do not know your off the narrow path, so subtle and we are deceived. We need to constantly ask the Holy Spirit if we are still going down that narrow path.
The spirit of pride will not let us ask that question if we are focused on ourselves and our problems instead of Jesus Christ. Discernment is God’s tool to see what is going on spiritually. That is a gift given to some people. If we are not using God’s tools with the Holy Spirit, we are using ourselves and being in the flesh and the result seen by myself over the years, is we lose the battle.
Most people do not know Satan or have not been taught by the Holy Spirit to know what Satan does. Know and study your enemy and how he uses people without them knowing it. This is a spiritual battle and you need to fight spiritually. Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you. God Bless.
