Forty Days Full - An Invitation To Real Life

Deception loves to masquerade as truth. It is remarkably insidious. It's how thousands of Christians during the dark ages could go on crusades to kill in the name of Christ. It's how believers in Christ could burn other Christians at the stake over a doctrinal disagreement. We look at these atrocities from a distance and condemn their actions believing we could never be so grossly deceived. This is the nature of deception. If I am deceived, I don't know it. If you were to ask the average person if they were deceived, they would reply, "of course not!" Because if you or I discover we were misinformed about something we generally would seek to correct our misunderstanding. Like a light bulb going off in our head we realize we were wrong. Saul, on the road to Damascus, had an encounter with Jesus. He was a Pharisee who believed his cause was just and right until truth shined the light into his life. When an unbeliever like Saul experiences the power of salvation and the gift of faith to believe in Jesus as the redeemer of their soul, a whole world of understanding is suddenly opened to them. That which he had written off as religious fanaticism, now had personal meaning and value. He had lived in the darkness of deception his whole life without knowing it. Since we don't know when we are deceived it requires revelation from the Holy Spirit. This can happen in many ways like when you're alone in prayer or while reading the Scriptures or during a time of worship. But my experience is that most often the Lord will use another believer to help guide me to that revelation. Since none of us like to admit that we have been duped, it requires a great deal of humility and trust.

The posture of submission before another person is essential if I want to see something I've been unable to see. Everyone is