OPEN HEAVENS Devotional – Friday February 19th 2016
TOPIC: BEWARE OF DECEIVERS I
Memorize: All scripture is given by inspiration of God,
and is profitable for
Read: 2nd Timothy 3:1-8,
1 Know this also, that in the last days
perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own
selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection,
trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are
good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of
pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying
the power thereof: from such turn away.
6 For of this sort are they which creep
into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with diverse
lusts,
7 Ever learning, and never able to come
to the knowledge of the truth.
8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses,
so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning
the faith.
Bible in one year: Luke 9:21-10:42, Job 24:9-20
MESSAGE
A deceiver is someone who practices deceit as means of
seducing, misleading, or giving false impressions to people. A deceiver would
try to impose a false idea that causes bewilderment, helplessness, or confusion
in people’s mind. Every act of deception is a direct attack against the truth
for the purpose of distorting the original creative order and position of things
by the Almighty God. Deception is therefore the devil’s invention which has
been carefully designed to create doubts and questions about the credibility of
God in the hearts of men. This is the reason why deceit is condemned by God as
an attempt to deny His sovereignty and the revelation of Himself. After the
devil’s successful attack on Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:1-7, God repeatedly
warned humanity about the subtlety of Satan and his false prophets. Matthew
24:11 says;
“And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive
many.”
The whole of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is full
of similar warnings about the deliberate plot of devil to send his evil agents
of deception in form of false prophets and heretic teachers into the world, in
order to deceive and mislead many. These deadly agents of deception have
perfected the means of attacking unsuspecting individuals from two seemingly
harmless fronts. One of their tactics is to preach the gospel of the
alternative. They claim to be serving the same God through another saviour, and
therefore present their religion as a better alternative to Christianity that
only has the appearance of the Christian religion on the surface, but is full
of heresy, ungodliness, and immorality in actual practice. To this end 1st Timothy
4:1-2 says
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter
time some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and
doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared
with a hot iron;”
In the above passage, the Word of God is making it very
clear to us that the activities of these agents of darkness will become very
concentrated and effective in the latter days, such that it will cause some
believers to depart from the faith. This will happen because those affected
would commit the error of giving heed to seducing spirits. They would be
seduced through the preaching of other gospels, the gospel of relativism,
modernism and post-modernism, and through attractive motivational messages. To
counter the evil, we must turn to 2nd Timothy 3:16. God has
given us all scripture by His inspiration, to be profitable for doctrine,
reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness, dangerous heretic
teachings are in the air, but anyone that abides in the Word of God, can never
be deceived. Be warned.
Prayer Point
Father, please don’t let me ever give heed to seducing
spirits in Jesus’ name.
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