Some of the greatest areas of strength of the devil include deception, unbelief, and fear. He makes people believe they cannot be well, or they can’t succeed. One cannot be destroyed or manipulated until you are deceived.
Read Revelation 12:9 from your Bible
He tried to deceive Jesus, even quoting from the scriptures. But Jesus resisted him by the scriptures. The devil can quote the scripture but he will misrepresent or misquote it with omissions. Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden, through deception.
The devil deceived Eve. Is it true that God said you should not eat” Eve answered “God said we should eat all things but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we should not eat.” The devil deceived Eve to disregard what God told them, saying, God knows that the moment she eats of it they will be like Him (God).
With that he deceived her and then, Adam. That was what made man to lose his position. Many have lost their position in life, marriage, destiny etc. because they were deceived by one false prophet or by their own heart. The bible says he that trusts in his heart is a fool because your heart can deceive you.
Read Jeremiah 17:9 from your Bible
God created man to depend on Him; and not to walk independently.
Read Jeremiah 10:23 from your Bible
So the devil uses deception to destroy many. When we are deceived, affliction will set in, we go astray, etc. Deception makes one to go astray or go into error. And once you are in error, there will be affliction.
Read Psalm 119:67 from your Bible
Many of us have gone astray. But God is calling us to return; if we can make our way right.
Read Proverb 28:13 from your Bible
So many people know that they have made mistakes but they fail to correct them because of pride. Pride goes before destruction.
May we receive the spirit of humility in Jesus’ name. Let this truth be settled in your heart, the spirit of deception is all over the world.
Visions, dreams, prophesies, and other forms of divine messages must be cross-checked again and again with the word of God and where it contradicts, we must reject it.
Even when you sleep and you see something that comes to pass. Be careful. The devil knowing that you hold your dreams or vision or what ever prophesies, in high regard, may make the spirit of error to come in to prophesy lies or give you a false dream or false revelation and if care is not taken that will mislead
you.
The bible says -vision can fail, dreams can fail, prophesies can fail but the word of God can never fail. So don’t be tied so much to vision or dreams but believe much on the word of God.
Read 1 Corinthians 13:8, Luke 21:33 and 1 Thessalonians 5:21 from your Bible
So we have to prove all things.
If someone says you can’t be delivered, what you have is so strong, or the problem is too much; tell the person, he is a liar because he is working by the spirit of the devil. Jesus says in Mark 9:23, “He that believeth all things are possible.
If God brought water from the rock, what is so hard for him? He that raised the dead, even Lazarus after four days, what is impossible with him? If God can birth a child through a virgin, what else can He not do?
EXAMPLE OF DECEPTION
Read 1 Kings 13:1-10,18 from your Bible
This account was about a man of God that was profoundly anointed but was destroyed because he was deceived. He allowed himself to be deceived.
The man of God was given specific instructions, “Don’t follow the same way and don’t enter into somebody’s house, don’t even eat there.” But the old prophet came with deception and said “I am a prophet like you, an angel told me to take you to my house and entertain you in my house. “
He disobeyed the instructions of God and believed the old prophet. He respected personality and despised the Word of God, a lion met him and devoured him.
This was a man who so demonstrated the power of God, that when the king stretched forth his hand to declare his arrest, the king’s hand paralyzed and could not be pulled back.
But this same man was destroyed cheaply. Why? Because he was deceived. Deception can make a mighty man to fall.
Samson was heavily anointed. The Spirit of might was upon him but he was destroyed because of deception. Delilah cried, and asked; why not tell me the source of your power. But God had told him not to reveal his secret, let alone abuse it.
How are the mighty fallen today because of deception.
May we not be deceived in Jesus name.
Shalom!
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