I want to share something with you the Lord began sharing with me a couple of weeks ago. While traveling to Louisiana I felt the Lord saying a big divide (bigger than it is right now) is coming to the church. The enemy has infiltrated the church and turned us against each other and the divide between the true followers of Christ and those who have been fooled into thinking they are His followers is going to get deeper and bigger. The ones who are fooled/deceived will be used to attack the true followers of Christ. He then said, not a divide, but a chasm. I didn’t really know what that word meant so I had to look it up. It has two definitions: a deep fissure in the earth, rock, or another surface and the other definition is a profound difference between people, viewpoints, feelings, etc.

This morning He laid on my heart a continuation of His message. We must decide which side we are going to be on. We must decide if we are going to follow the entire Bible or if we are going to follow messages that make us comfortable in our sin and compromised lives. We must decide if we are going to stand against the deception and lies of the enemy that is flowing in and through many churches. We must decide if we are going to continue to accept messages of compromise, twisting God’s Word to fit what we want, acceptance of sin, deception, being lukewarm, looking more like the world than looking like Jesus, and being based on emotions/feelings and not the Word of God.  

We cannot blindly accept everything we hear others teach and speak. That includes our pastors, ministers on tv, ministries online, YouTube, and that is written in books. We must know the Word of God for ourselves, or we will easily fall into deception. We cannot depend on others to spoon feed us everything. We must go deep into the Word for ourselves. Otherwise, how will we ever know if what we are accepting as truth is even based on Biblical truth or not? I am not knocking pastors or teachers. We need them, but NOTHING can replace our own personal time in the Word with God.

I firmly believe we are living in the season of the last of the last days. I have no idea how long that season will last. It could be a week, a month, a year, a hundred years, or longer. I have no idea, but I do know if we are going to stand a chance of making it through this season without falling into deception, we must build a firm foundation in His Word. That is the only thing that will protect us from the storms we are facing. We cannot leave the uncomfortable parts out of His Word. Daily we must ask God to search our hearts and actions and ask Him to remove everything that is not from Him. We must boldly proclaim His Word even when it is not the popular opinion. We must share His truth in love so that others can be set free.

If you feel like you may have fallen into deception:

Ask God to show you His truth and to remove the scales from your eyes.

Repent for any lies/deception you have believed and lies/deception you have shared with others.

Read His Word daily. Before you read, pray, and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you His Word, use it as a conviction to change your life, and to show you how it pertains to your life.

To Avoid Deception (This portion is from my book about Deliverance ministry, but it flows very well with the message the Lord has been sharing with me so I wanted to include it here.):

Antichrist Spirit: Know the tactics of the antichrist spirit because it always stands against the Word of God and authentic moves of God. Get into the Word to find out how it operates and what it looks like. Understand just because something looks like it is from God does not mean it

is; we must test everything! Be diligent with everything that you listen to and read.

2 Thessalonians 2:9–10 The coming of the [Antichrist, the lawless] one is through the activity of Satan, [attended] with great power [all kinds of counterfeit miracles] and [deceptive] signs and false wonders [all of them lies], and by unlimited seduction to evil and with all the deception of wickedness for those who are perishing, because they did not welcome the love of the truth [of the gospel] so as to be saved [they were spiritually blind, and rejected the truth that would have saved them].

Prayer: We should ask God daily to alert us to any deception and keep us on guard against it. Once you pray that prayer we must stay alert to His warnings. He is faithful and He will start opening your eyes and sending you warnings, but you must stay alert to them and follow His leading.

Falsehood: Do not let in any amount of falsehood. If it has one sentence of lies, throw it all out: music, sermons, books, ministries. If we have a glass of lemonade with one drop of poison in it, the entire glass becomes poison. It is the same with falsehoods and deception. They are dangerous and corrupt the entire message. They also tend to spread like wildfire.

Humility: We must walk in humility and purge all pride from our lives. 1 Peter 5:5–6

Fear of the Lord: We should have reverence, awe, and respect toward God. Many times, we forget this side of God and our walk with Him. We are often only taught the side of Him as a Friend and Father, but we must also walk in the full understanding of all aspects of Who He is. He is a holy righteous God who requires us to walk in uprightness before Him. Psalm 19:9; Job 28:28; Proverbs 8:13; Proverbs 9:10–11; Proverbs 14:26–27; Proverbs 19:23; 1 Peter 1:17–19.

Psalm 34:11–14 Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you to fear the Lord [with awe-inspired reverence and worship Him with obedience]. Who is the man who desires life And loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it.

Acts 9:31 So the church throughout Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace [without persecution], being built up [in wisdom, virtue, and faith]; and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort and encouragement of the Holy Spirit, it continued to grow [in numbers].

Surrender: We must surrender completely to the Lord and understand everything good in us comes from Him, all we are flows from Him. Our ability and understanding are from Him. He is made strong in our weakness. When we become less, He becomes more. When we decrease He increases. We must come to a place where we are willing to be less, decrease, and weak so that He can increase and become stronger in and through us. That is the point where we are really changed and become more like Him and where we are used for His kingdom. However, if we refuse to decrease we stop Him from increasing.

2 Corinthians 12:9 but He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you [My lovingkindness and My mercy are more than enough—always available—regardless of the situation]; for [My] power is being perfected [and is completed and shows itself most effectively] in [your] weakness.” Therefore, I will all the more gladly boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ [may completely enfold me and] may dwell in me.

1 Corinthians 2:4–5 And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom [using clever rhetoric], but [they were delivered] in demonstration of the [Holy] Spirit [operating through me] and of [His] power [stirring the minds of the listeners and persuading them], so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom and rhetoric of men, but on the power of God.

The World: Avoid conforming to the world and the world’s ideologies, we must hate the world (not people) because we are at odds with it. If we fit in with the world and look just like it something is wrong. We should stand out and be different. The world should immediately recognize us as followers of Jesus. We should not look the same, sound the same, go to the same places, tell the same kind of jokes, or fit in with the world and if we do it means there is more of the world in us than there is Jesus.

John 15:18–19If the world hates you [and it does], know that it has hated Me before it hated you.If you belonged to the world, the world would love [you as] its own and would treat you with affection. But you are not of the world [you no longer belong to it], but I have chosen you out of the world. And because of this the world hates you. John 15:18–19

Eternal: We must focus on the eternal, not the temporal, and remember we are just passing through. This is not our home. We must always keep our eyes on Him in all situations.

Shine Your Light: Be the light to the world and point everyone to Jesus. We are living in dark times, and we are surrounded by so many people who are in bondage. They need the light that is in us, and they need us to shine the light into their darkness and show them the way out.

Philippians 2:15–16 so that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and guileless, innocent and uncontaminated, children of God without blemish in the midst of a [morally] crooked and [spiritually] perverted generation, among whom you are seen as bright lights [beacons shining out clearly] in the world [of darkness], holding out and offering to everyone the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to rejoice greatly because I did not run [my race] in vain nor labor without result.

Truth: Speak God’s truth and do not let fear stop you. There is so much deception surrounding us. We must be carriers of His truth and share it openly with others.

Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to follow Me [as My disciple], he must deny himself [set aside selfish interests] and take up his cross [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me].”

1 Thessalonians 5:21 But test all things carefully [so you can recognize what is good]. Hold firmly to that which is good.

Holy Spirt: We must understand what a real, true move of the Holy Spirt looks like. A true move of the Holy Spirit will call people to repentance and will always point back to Jesus. Repentance is a change of heart, mind, and direction. For it to be true repentance, it must have all three aspects. It will have zero room for pride and the main focus will be to reach the lost and set the captives free.

Matthew 3:2 Repent [change your inner self—your old way of thinking, regret past sins, live your life in a way that proves repentance; seek God’s purpose for your life], for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

John 16:13–14 But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth [full and complete truth]. For He will not speak on His own initiative, but He will speak whatever He hears [from the Father—the message regarding the Son], and He will disclose to you what is to come [in the future]. He will glorify and honor Me, because He (the Holy Spirit) will take from what is Mine and will disclose it to you.

Respect for the Word of God: The messages and ministries we listen to must not change the Word of God or put their own spin on the meaning. The entire Bible should be taught, and sin issues should never be glorified, glossed over, excused, or ignored.

John 12:48 Whoever rejects Me and refuses to accept My teachings, has one who judges him; the very word that I spoke will judge and condemn him on the last day.

John 14:23 Jesus answered, “If anyone [really] loves Me, he will keep My word (teaching); and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling place with him.”

Word of God: We must measure and test everything (ministries, prophetic words, preachers, teachers, music) with the Word of God. There is only one truth and that is His Word. Our thoughts, feelings, and emotions will lie to us, but His Word will never lie, that is why we must always look to His Word for truth. We must spend time in His Word so when we are faced with a lie, we recognize it as a lie. We must always stay in the Word. We cannot depend on others to teach us about God. There is nothing wrong with being taught by others, but that cannot be the only time we learn about Him and hear His Word. We must be digging into His truth for ourselves. We will never recognize deception if we do not know His Word for ourselves. It is what we measure everything with. His Word will never change, contradict itself, or lie.

2 Timothy 3:1–5 But understand this, that in the last days dangerous times [of great stress and trouble] will come [difficult days that will be hard to bear]. For people will be lovers of self [narcissistic, self-focused], lovers of money [impelled by greed], boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane, [and they will be] unloving [devoid of natural human affection, calloused and inhumane], irreconcilable, malicious gossips, devoid of self-control [intemperate, immoral], brutal, haters of good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of [sensual] pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of [outward] godliness (religion), although they have denied its power [for their conduct nullifies their claim of faith]. Avoid such people and keep far away from them. We must not have an outward form of godliness but refuse to live His Word. We must also know His Word and live it.

False Prophesy: God still uses prophets to speak to His people, but we must be careful that we do not get out of balance seeking them more than Him. Sometimes we can find ourselves following prophets more than we follow God. We hang on their every word but fail to go to the one unfailing source of truth which is the Word of God. We seek ministries and run after them to give us a Word from God when we really should be going to God ourselves and asking Him what He wants to say to us. They are human and can get it wrong, sometimes on purpose and sometimes out of error. That is why we must test their words to make sure they are really coming from God. I have personally experienced several times a “prophetic” word was used to manipulate others into doing something the speaker wanted. That is why we must always make sure the message is actually from God. Their messages can come from the following (or a mixture of the following): God, the enemy, and/or themselves. Their words can contain a mixture of truth and deception without them even knowing it.

Acts 16:16–17 It happened that as we were on our way to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination [that is, a demonic spirit claiming to foretell the future and discover hidden knowledge], and she brought her owners a good profit by fortune-telling. She followed after Paul and us and kept screaming and shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God! They are proclaiming to you the way of salvation!”

We must not come into agreement with any messages of prophetic words spoken to us until we test it. We must make sure they really are messages from God for our lives and not from the enemy or from the thoughts of the person giving the message. It can be really easy to want to jump right into agreement with the message if it sounds really good, but we must always proceed with prayer and make sure it lines up with the Word of God.

1 Thessalonians 5:19–21 Do not quench [subdue, or be unresponsive to the working and guidance of] the [Holy] Spirit. Do not scorn or reject gifts of prophecy or prophecies [spoken revelations—words of instruction or exhortation or warning]. But test all things carefully [so you can recognize what is good]. Hold firmly to that which is good.

1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit [speaking through a self-proclaimed prophet]; instead test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets and teachers have gone out into the world.

Scriptures Warning about Deception

1 Timothy 4:1 But the [Holy] Spirit explicitly and unmistakably declares that in later times some will turn away from the faith, paying attention instead to deceitful and seductive spirits and doctrines of demons.

Matthew 24:24 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and they will provide great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect (God’s chosen ones).

2 Corinthians 11:13–15 For such men are counterfeit apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.And no wonder, since Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. So it is no great surprise if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, but their end will correspond with their deeds.

Jude 1:4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed [just as if they were sneaking in by a side door]. They are ungodly persons whose condemnation was predicted long ago, for they distort the grace of our God into decadence and immoral freedom [viewing it as an opportunity to do whatever they want], and deny and disown our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Jeremiah 14:14–15 Then the Lord said to me, “The [counterfeit] prophets are prophesying lies in My Name. I have neither sent them nor authorized them nor spoken to them. They are prophesying to you made-up visions [pretending to call forth responses from handmade gods], a worthless divination and the deceit of their own mind. Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the [false] prophets who are prophesying in My Name, although I did not send them—yet they keep saying, ‘Sword and famine shall not be in this land’: by sword and famine those prophets shall meet their end and be consumed.”

Matthew 24:11 Many false prophets will appear and mislead many.

Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception [pseudo-intellectual babble], according to the tradition [and musings] of mere men, following the elementary principles of this world, rather than following [the truth—the teachings of] Christ.

2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

2 Timothy 3:1–5 But understand this, that in the last days dangerous times [of great stress and trouble] will come [difficult days that will be hard to bear]. For people will be lovers of self [narcissistic, self-focused], lovers of money [impelled by greed], boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane, [and they will be] unloving [devoid of natural human affection, calloused and inhumane], irreconcilable, malicious gossips, devoid of self-control [intemperate, immoral], brutal, haters of good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of [sensual] pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of [outward] godliness (religion), although they have denied its power [for their conduct nullifies their claim of faith]. Avoid such people and keep far away from them. We must not have an outward form of godliness but refuse to live His Word. We must also know His Word and live it.

Blessings,

Nichole Henson, Fullness of Joy Ministry