The Word of the Lord that is being preached applies to everyone; but sometimes when you hear it, you think that it is being preached only to you and that everyone will know it. However, it is much worse when you feel that the Word applies to everyone else, but not to you. It is then that you are open to deception.
Deception is very subtle. It is, of course, the great trick of the enemy. But how can he deceive you? There is no heart as fertile or open to deception as that of the person who does not see his own need, except for the person who refuses to see his need. The best action to take when a great deception or a need comes to you is to seek the Lord for a fresh revelation of Him to your heart.
Deception keeps you focused in the wrong direction. It comes to keep you focused on anything but the Lord, so that you will never see your own need. When deception comes, you see everyone else’s needs and problems, but you do not see your own. This is true of every one of us. Deception comes when you cannot see your own need, and it is then sustained by a refusal to see your own need. When a person is under deception, he does not realize that he is being deceived, since he is looking at everyone else’s needs and not his own. The only formula that will release you from deception is having a fresh revelation of the Lord; that makes everything look different. Then you recognize that the need and the problem are within you. As long as you are deceived, you will never see that.
The only time you see your need is when you reach into the Lord; and in the light of His glory you become aware of your shortcomings. An illustration of this is found in the book of Isaiah. In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah went to the Temple. He was not thinking about building a monument to the great King Uzziah. He was not thinking about what a great defender of the faith he himself had been, or about trying to carry on the good things Uzziah had been trying to do. Instead, Isaiah had a revelation of the Lord, and then all he could say was, “Woe is me” (Isaiah 6).
Deception is uncovered by a revelation of the Lord to your heart. Then you begin to see your own need. Remember—Satan can deceive you only as long as he can keep you from seeing your own need. Deception succeeds only when you do not suspect it. Deception is not deception if the deceived know they are being deceived. Judas was deceived. Right up to the last minute, Judas believed that Christ would save Himself. Finally, when he realized that he had betrayed innocent blood, he could think of nothing but suicide. Life was no longer tolerable.
Do not think that evil intent lies in the thinking of those who do evil; it does not. It is because they are deceived that they become instruments of Satan. This is a very sobering thought. We dare not be arrogant and say that we cannot be deceived. That is the most deceptive thought anyone could have. You must realize that deception is the great assault of Satan during the end time. Satan wants to deceive, but he does not want you to know you are being deceived. If it were possible, he would deceive the very elect (Matthew 24:24). The only reason it is not possible is that the elect enter into a bond with God in which they are perpetual repenters. They are the elect because they live in a constant state of repentance and openness to repentance. The elect are both worshipers and repenters, for you cannot be a true worshiper without being a true repenter, and you cannot be a true repenter without being a true worshiper. They go hand in hand. To see your need and repent is to have faith in the Lord and to love Him as the cleanser of your iniquity.
Many assaults come against the work of the Lord. To what extent is the devil to be blamed for this? If you blame him for all of it, he has succeeded in deceiving you. Satan can come forth transformed as an angel of light (II Corinthians 11:14); yet you may see him only as the one who is to blame for all of your problems. You may blame God or Satan, but chances are that something in your own nature has opened the door, and Satan does not want you to take a good look at that. That is deception again. Oh, how deceiving deception is! How the enemy works at you! You need to be aware of this, because above everything else, you do not want to be a phony in your walk with God.
We are at a time when the news media are exposing some of the corrupt activities of prominent men. Yet some of the worst corruption of men in former years was covered over at the time, and later somewhat condoned, depending upon the slanted coverage given it by the press. But righteousness is righteousness, regardless of what the press says about a situation. We must realize that Satan exaggerates the mistakes of a man who is reputed to be righteous. When the righteous fall, Satan magnifies that before all the people. However, when the wicked do wickedly, Satan does all he can to cover it over. That is deep deception. Things are not the way they appear. They are not the way they appear on television, in the newspaper, or even in the way our own eyes might see them. We long for truth in the inward parts, to really know the truth about ourselves! We cannot ever decide for another person or judge him, because we are not the judges.
Some of the principles of the Kingdom that unfold in the Sermon on the Mount are relevant to everything that you face and experience. There Jesus said, Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8. Only those who are focused on God will release the purity. Reverse this Beatitude and it is still true: If you see God, you will be pure in heart. Every one of the precious Beatitudes is capable of reversal. In Matthew 5:5 we read, Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Those who will inherit the earth have studied meekness. They understand it; it has become a part of their being. The pure in heart will see God, but the man who sees his brother and judges him unrighteously has assumed the role of God over that man’s life. If you see your brother with the eyes of a judge, trying to be his god, you do not see God. You see either one or the other. If you find that you are not seeing God, but that you are judging your brother, that is a sure sign of impurity. No man judges another man unless impurity has clouded his own vision.
One of the best ways to keep from being deceived is to take your eyes off of the other fellow to judge him, and to keep your eyes on God until He gives you a real revelation and anointing. Then you will see your own inner need, and that will open up your vision to see the truth. We may often be critical without realizing it. We think sometimes that our critical opinion of a situation is not relevant or important, but it is. You may think that it is not important when you judge your brother or stumble over a problem in his life. It is important. It is bound to affect the quality and the anointing on the work you do for the Lord and the way you walk with Him.
When difficult situations and problems are laid before a pastor, his reactions must be pure before God. If he is not walking with God, if his eye is not constantly upon Him, if he is not broken before Him, he can enter into deception and focus on the people instead. The day that he focuses upon the needs of the people is the day that he no longer knows how to meet those needs. That is the day he is open to deception. That is the day he can easily enter into judgment upon the people. He must also be able to see his own needs, or deception can enter in.
The best that any of us can do is not enough. It is when we do our best that our need is exposed to us, not when we do our worst. When we do our very best, God honors us by showing us what to take care of next, so that we can go on to do even better than the best of yesterday. We cannot just look at others; we must look at ourselves. It is a universal trait to be able to see objectively the need of another brother. Even when we love him and do not want to judge him, we can see his need. But when we look at ourselves, we cannot see anything wrong. God has to hit us hard to show us our needs; but even when He deals with us, our repentance seldom goes to the extent where it has dislodged and upset our basic confidence in the flesh.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Seeing God is the only course for purity of heart. Deception can come by focusing on other situations. You must withdraw yourself totally from a position of judging. If you start to judge anyone, deception can enter in and your perception will be dimmed. If you have to exercise authority as one of God’s servants, be sure that you move according to a Word from God and not from a conclusion of your own heart—no matter how honest you try to be. Be dedicated to that. Whenever God lays a need before you to take care of, refuse to enter into conclusions that your own heart would give. Instead, look to the Lord for revelation.
Do not feel that it is your responsibility to have all the facts as a basis for your conclusions. Facts can lie. Facts can be interpreted differently by the different eyes that see them. Only God sees a situation as it actually is. Rather than judging, lay the problem upon the Lord and believe for Him to speak to you by revelation and give you the answers. If you do not have enough revelation for that, you certainly do not have enough wisdom to sit as a judge concerning a brother.
The Word says that we will judge angels (I Corinthians 6:3). Paul wrote this almost sarcastically to the Corinthian church. He said, in effect, that since they were going to court against one another, they might as well pick out the most foolish person in the church and let him be the judge. They would be better off to follow a decision of the most foolish, unlearned one among them than to go to a court of law, because the eyes of the ungodly will never see things as the godly do.
You are not to judge one another; instead, you are to help one another and to be full of objective compassion. The opposite of objective compassion is subjective love. Suppose a father learns that his son has stolen something, and all the neighbors know about it. He beats the child, not because of the value of what he stole, but because of the way the child made him appear. The son is a subjective, personal extension of the father. For his son to steal is a terrible affront to the father. Instead of judging his son correctly and dealing objectively with the offense, he deals with him subjectively.
The best way to raise and to discipline children is to treat them as if they are not yours, but belong instead to the neighbor down the street. Then when they misbehave, you will come up with a more objective solution than if you become involved with your own personal emotions. The same principle holds true in the house of God. A pastor must treat the people he leads almost as if they belonged to some other church. Then he can seek the face of the Lord and give them the Word of the Lord objectively. Otherwise it is easy for him to feel that the people are his children and that they are not reflecting his care as he wants them to. Pastors can become like parents who subjectively do things that ruin their children.
The love of God is objectively compassionate. With that love, you will not enter into the processes of deception that are so easy for the flesh nature to fall into. Your brothers and sisters in the Lord appear just the way you want them to appear. One day you see only their needs; another day, you see how the Lord is moving on their hearts. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. The opposite is also true: Pity the impure in heart, for they judge their brother. They see only his needs and his problems.
What are you looking at? What do you see? It depends upon your circumstances and the state of your heart. If you see the Lord, you will see your own need. If you do not have your eyes on the Lord totally, you will not see your own need. If someone is chronically critical, it is almost invariably true that he is not really focused on the Lord. On the other hand, there is an objective faith and compassion in the hearts of those who are full of faith that is focused on the Lord, even when they see problems. They are persistent in believing that God will take care of the problems and they will all be solved. They believe that everything will come out fine because God’s hand is so evident in all of it. Do not be deceived; rather, let your heart be focused on the Lord.