The Deceiver

Deceive: “To cause (someone) to believe something that is not true, typically in order to gain some personal advantage” (Oxford).

There is a great deceiver who has been with you your whole life. Although he has been hidden, his message has been very clear. For some, his message has been that you don’t need God, that He isn’t real. For others, it can be that you aren’t loved or valuable; money is your security, government is your provision, the list goes on. The message however, is always contradictory to the word of God and the truth. It can sound really good, and it can even seem like it’s the truth, however, I firmly believe that it is only by establishing a close relationship with the Lord and reading His word that the truth can be revealed.

I believe we are living in a time of great deception and now more than ever, we need to look for and recognize the deception that is taking place all around us.

Have you noticed that every headline in the news has a contradictory version of the same story? Each with experts that can back up their argument? Have you ever stopped watching regular television and then watch it again? Did you find it a bit shocking? There is so much blatant immorality now on every show. Lies have become a comedic way of selling products. Marriage is depicted as suffocating or full of infidelity. Music is often dehumanizing and promotes objectification. Sure, the beat and the music sounds great, but have you really listened to the words that you are singing along to? I realize I may sound puritanical, but this is how the subtlety of the deception begins, with small seemingly insignificant compromises or thoughts.

The Deceiver plays off of insecurities that have formed within our environments and he often uses other people to reinforce his messaging. Make no mistake, he is an intelligent opponent whose messages have been carefully crafted specifically for you. He knows exactly what he needs to do to keep you living a life that is distracted and far from God. How often is the christian worldview mocked on media outlets? Being a christian and having christian morals has become contentious. Even Christians are now split on whether to take the bible seriously or whether it is up for interpretation. Are you seeing it yet?

Is there some negative or divisive thought that you’ve had playing over and over again in your mind for a while? Has it become truth to you? How does it compare with God’s word? If you examine it a little more, can you see that it truly is a lie?

1 Peter 5:8
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

We are living in a time when we need to really examine our lives and ask ourselves the difficult questions. Am I going to follow along the path of the world, or do I truly want to live for Christ? Are we going to continue to listen to the world and the way the world says we should live, or are we going to read the Word and decide to live the way Christ calls us to live?

The more you choose Christ’s path, the more the deceiver will be revealed.

Final Thought
I can’t help but wonder if with all that is going on that the events outlined in Revelation could be coming to pass. If you haven’t read the book of Revelation, I highly recommend that you do. The great deceiver isn’t finished and in fact, his greatest deception is still yet to be seen.

Revelation 13:11-18

¹ Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. ¹² And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. ¹³ He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. ¹⁴ And he deceives ^[a]those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. ¹⁵ He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. ¹⁶ He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, ¹⁷ and that no one may buy or sell except one who has ^[b]the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

¹⁸ Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.