I Admire People Who Seek to Live Beyond Deception

Daily writing promptList the people you admire and look to for advice…View all responses

It’s easy to think that something is true with it isn’t. Often the truth is obscure or hidden and all we are left with is the fallibility of our feelings, desires, and opinions. No one is immune to deception. There is no vaccine that can prevent us humans from catching ahold of various lies. None of us knows (or says) the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Our human nature works in opposition to Christ. (Galatians 5:17) who is “the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6) That’s why we need to deny our self-focused desires and allow the risen Jesus to directly lead us by His Spirit moment by moment. (Luke 9:23) It’s much easier to follow self away from Christ than it is to follow Christ away from self. To remain close to Christ and continually abide intimately in His presence requires being poor in Spirit. (Matthew 5:3)

Pride pries us away from Jesus, humility draws us to Him. (James 4:6) How fortunate are people who have no confidence in their human nature (Philippians 3:3) for they are being trained to trust in and rely on King Jesus living and working within them through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 5:3)

Preaching that causes people to look toward and rely on a preacher more than on the actual presence and the direct inner leadership of the Holy Spirit, does great harm to Christianity. It makes people think that they have been spiritually fed when all they did was hear some words spoken to their head. That type of preaching is like hearing a talk about food (or watching Food Network) but not eating anything.

Preaching that describes or informs people about God but doesn’t cause people to hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5:6) and for the kingdom of God, which is His inner government, is deceptive. (Matthew 6:33) Without life-changing Spirit-given inspiration, preaching is merely religious information. The preaching that is needed isn’t a studiously prepared message, but a message that so passionately burns in a preacher’s heart that it vividly demonstrates the power, presence, and reality of the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)

O how we need for the members of the body of Christ to step up and allow the Spirit of God to empower them to be sent ones (apostles), speakers of the truth in love (prophets), Christ spreaders (evangelists), spiritual shepherds (pastors), and disciple-making trainers (teachers). (Ephesians 4:11) Then the body of Christ can be built up, come to true unity in the faith, and experience the presence and reality of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians: 4:12)

[image error]Pexels.com" data-medium-file="https://hopethoughts.com/wp-content/u..." data-large-file="https://hopethoughts.com/wp-content/u..." src="https://hopethoughts.com/wp-content/u..." alt="" class="wp-image-43317" />Photo by Tobias Aeppli on Pexels.com