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-- © GodSpeak International 2003 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND CONTRIBUTING RESOURCES
Author: Teresa Seputis ts@godspeak.net http://www.godspeak.net
Editor: Elvi Glass

Detecting The Spirit of Deception

Lesson 8
Ways To Detect Deceit

By Teresa Seputis

Wise As Serpents, Harmless As Doves

Jesus made a very interesting statement in Matt 10:16. "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves" (NKJV).

It was not an accident that Jesus choose the words "serpents" and "doves" in His warning. In Scripture, serpents are usually a reference to Satan and his demonic realm. He first appeared to Eve in the garden of Eden to deceive her in the form of a serpent. God gives us authority over the devil when we trust in Him, as per Psalm 91:13 which says, "You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot" (NKJV). Then Jesus rephrased that as part of His great commission in Luke 10:19, "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you."

So we are to be as "wise as serpents," and serpents represent the devil and his evil schemes. I believe this is a command from Jesus that we are to be aware of the devil's strategies so that we will not be derailed by them. We are to be aware that the devil is a deceiver, as per Rev 12:9. Jesus wants us to be aware of his deception so that we are not to be taken in by it.

And the "doves" represent the Holy Spirit, who descended on Jesus in the form of a dove at His baptism. This is recorded in Luke 3:22 as, "And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, 'You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased'" (NKJV).

So, being as gentle as doves means to discern the enemy's schemes by the Holy Spirit. At the same time, it is not to react on our own against those who carry out the enemy's schemes, but to be Spirit-led in how we deal with what God shows us. God is a God of grace, and He would love to save the people who the devil is using to deceive others -- He wants to turn their lives around just like He turned around the apostle Paul's life. So when we deal with those who are actively being used by the devil to deceive others, we must be Spirit-led and harmless in our dealings with them. (I take harmless to mean that we do not do anything to interfere with God's plans for the given situation, so that His perfect will can be done in it. We can only do that by being sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.)

Strategies To Detect Deception

KNOW GOD AND HIS WORD

First, know God and His word. The better you know God, the more you know His character and what He would or would not say, and the easier it becomes to detect deception. So, spend time with Him on a regular basis. Do activities with Him like prayer, devotions, worship, listening to His voice. And along with that, spend time getting to know the Bible. Be familiar with it: read it, study it and maybe even memorize portions of it. If you hear a word that contradicts what God has already said in the bible, you know it is a false word, a deception of the enemy. And if you hear a "word" that touches on some area of scripture that you are not familiar with, then search the Bible for that topic to see what God's word says.

They teach bank tellers to recognize counterfeit money by making them very familiar with the real thing. My mom went through one of those courses years ago and told me about it. (Since she was trained in the States, I will discuss American money, but the principle is the same for any type of currency.) They give each person a twenty dollar bill (the denomination most counterfeited in the USA). They have the person look at it and study it for a long time. They point out features of the bill, such as how there are colored fibers in the lint that the bill was printed on. They look at the fine grid in one of the pictures. They look at the corners and become familiar with the size of the 20 on it. They point out feature after feature of the real thing. The students spend a whole hour studying it in fine detail. They become very intimate with what a real twenty dollar bill is.

Then the instructor has them exchange bills with their classmates. There are 2 or 3 "plants" in the class who are not really students, but who work for the teachers. When they exchange bills, these plants exchange counterfeit bills. Without fail, each and every time that the "plants" give their classmates a counterfeit, the classmates detect it immediately and complain that there is something wrong with the twenty dollar bill they were just given. These students were never trained in detecting counterfeits, they were simply made very aware of what the real thing was like. Counterfeits became easily detectable because they could not measure up to all of the features of the real thing. It was obvious that something was not right about the counterfeit bill.

Likewise, as we get to know God and get to know His word, we can more easily recognize the devil's counterfeit of God's voice. We can more easily recognize false and deceptive prophecy, because we are intimate with the real thing. We know what God would or would not say based on His character. We know scripture and therefore we can recognize when something contradicts it. Knowing the real thing -- God and His Word, the bible -- is the absolute best defense against being taken in by deception.

God will never give a prophetic word that contradicts what He has already said in His written word, the bible. However, there may be times when we have a misunderstanding of the bible that He wants to address and correct. For instance, the bible talks about God as both a righteous judge and a loving father. At one point in my Christian walk, I had a misunderstanding of God and His nature as solely the righteous judge, always measuring me against His standard of perfection and finding fault with me. And I could find all sorts of scripture to back it up.. Jesus, the righteous judge separated the sheep from the goats, and there are many passages that talk about God's righteous judgments. However, I was missing a whole portion of Scripture that talks about the gracious and loving and accepting father heart of God. There are many passages about God forgiving our sin and making us "white as snow."

So My picture of God was skewed, I had a misunderstanding of scripture and a wrong image of God as critical and impossible to please. And He began to address that with me, both in my personal hearing and in words given to me by others. God allowed me to see that He is pleasable and loving, and that He wants me to succeed instead of waiting for me to make a mistake so He can punish me for it. I discovered that God was not standing there with a big stick waiting to whack me as soon as I made a mistake. That removed the fear and made it much easier for me to stretch and grow in Him.

God will correct our misunderstanding of Scripture and our misunderstanding of His nature. At times that may "feel" like what He says contradicts scripture. But if you search your bible you will find a strong biblical basis for what God is saying as He corrects. On the other hand, when deception comes in to mislead, you won't find any strong scriptural basis for it - and that is how you tell the two apart.

CHECKS IN YOUR SPIRIT

Pay attention to checks in your spirit. A check in your spirit is where something rises up within you and feels "not right" about the word you are hearing. It is like an "inner alarm" that goes off, or maybe you feel cautious and on guard. When this happens, go slow. A check in the spirit does not mean that it is a "no go" -- we can resist true words that hit on blind spots. And that blind spot resistance can feel a lot like a check in your spirit. So when you get a check, don't reject immediately, but go slow and check it out carefully.

Many times God will use a check in your spirit to alert you that something is not right. And He will also use the witness of the Holy Spirit to confirm when something is of Him. (The witness of the Holy Spirit is when it feels right down deep in your innermost being, or when you get that internal "yes!")

If you have a check in your spirit, then be on the alert for deception and false words. Scrutinize that word before accepting it, bounce it up against scripture and what you know of God's character/nature. Talk to God about it, ask Him to give you a confirmation or correction about that particular word since your inner alarm went off. Do the same thing if you are used to having an inner witness and that inner witness is missing.

ASK FOR DISCERNMENT

Pray for wisdom and guidance. Invite God to correct you any time you fall into error. Make it a practice to run things by God on a regular basis. Discuss prophecies with Him, and invite Him to say more to you on that topic. Also invite Him to correct any misunderstandings or assumptions you inadvertently made about the word. Also invite Him to reveal any error or falsehood that may be hidden in any words. When you ask Him to shine His light into the situation and expose darkness, He is very faithful to do so.

In addition, try asking God for the spiritual gift of discernment -- He will probably give it to you if you ask Him for it. Jesus encourages us to ask the Father for good gifts in Matt 7:7. And in 1 Cor 12:31, Paul encourages us to "earnestly desire the best gifts." Then James 4:2 tells us, "You do not have, because you do not ask God." So ask Him for it and expect Him to give it to you.

BUILD YOUR PERSONAL FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD

The more you spend time with Him in prayer, worship, intimacy time, etc, the easier it becomes to discern His voice and His leading. You get to recognize God's voice just like you get to recognize a friend's voice. You get a feel for what He would or would not be likely to say.

BOUNCE THINGS OFF OF OTHERS

If you hear something that is either a new concept to you, or something that sounds questionable to you, run it by someone who's judgment you trust. Run it by your pastor or an elder in the church or someone spiritually mature who's hearing and judgment you trust. Get feedback from others who you know to be solid and well established in their walk with God.

IS THE SOURCE CREDIBLE?

See if the word comes from a credible source. There will always be a true prophet out there who you don't know. You want to be careful not to reject a word just because you don't know the prophet personally or by reputation. But on the other hand, if questionable data is known about a given "prophet", then words from that person should be considered questionable. If the source is into some form of spiritualism or new age theology or false doctrine, then you must be highly suspicious regarding any words from that source. In other words, be suspicious of words that come from known bad sources and be more cautious in receiving words that come from questionable sources. A bad tree can't bear good fruit.

ALERTERS

Be aware of Satan's strategy to move into the prophetic with twisted words, new age philosophy and unbiblical theology. Certain types of words and phraseology should raise red flags because they are known keywords for New Age, Hinduism, spiritualism, etc. Some of those words include: "realm of light", "spirit guides", "ascended beings", "divine force", "divine energy", "universal love", "karma." If you see those type of words in a "prophecy" then go slow and judge it carefully.

Wrap-up

Remember that the Holy Spirit resides in you to lead you into all truth (John 14:26) and "greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4). We need to be aware of Satan's strategy to deceive, but we should not be terrified of it. And we must not allow fear of deception to cripple us or hinder us from moving forward with God. Keep your eyes fixed on God and trust Him to lead you into all truth and to alert you to the enemy's deception. God is faithful and we can put our trust in Him.


-- © GodSpeak International 2003 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

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