When you choose a path to go down (and commit to it) you readily accept the implications of that path and become comfortable with them while someone who rejected that path takes issues with your choice and your justifications for that choice.
Have you ever compared life-choices with a friend (or stranger) and found out that you and they are both convinced that you made the right decision?
For instance, suppose you decided to go to college and pursue white collar work while the other person decided to work the farm.
You could explain how you made a lot of money, traveled, met a lot of people, had fine vacation and dining experiences, etc.
The farmer could explain how he was able to see how God brought forth increase, how he was able to be close to his children as they grew up, how he was able to improve the farm and have something to turn over to his children.
Because each was only experienced in the path they had traveled, usually both were satisfied they made the right decision.
The point I am trying to make is that our upbringing, our education, our experiences, the people in our lives and our idea of success skews our view of the world.
We cannot trust those things as a basis for certainty about anything.
Am I saying that most people are Deceived? Yes - to a lesser or greater degree!
"O.K.", you say, "mister know-it-all, tell us how to prevent being Deceived."
First of all, many billions of people have lived and died in Deception. So, I am not singling anyone out for a specific type of Deception.
That "someone else" may be your parents, your teachers, your best friend or even your Pastor.
I am not attributing maliciousness to any of those sources. And, you may be a rare exception who was given a completely correct World View.
I say 'rare' because most of those sources were more than likely Deceived by the same class of people from their youth up.
Add up the generations of people who have naively accepted the World View of these sources in their time and then handed them off to the next generation, and you are more than likely believing something as far off-base as the last person in the proverbial "gossip-chain".
Before you panic, let me bring this home...
The Bible is the inspired Word of God. It tells us all we need to know about Creation, it tells us all we need to know about Evil, it tells us all we need to know about Good, it tells us all we need to know about why we are here, it tells us all we need to know about where we are going and lastly, but most importantly, it tells us about God.
You see, the Bible is the users manual for Humanity.
Anyone who has ever attempted to build something having any degree of complexity from parts without referring to the manual has made mistakes.
They often destroy square pegs trying to force them into round holes. They often put pieces together in the wrong order and have to redo.
We can identify with these kinds of fruatrating experiences that could have been avoided with the patience and diligence to read the manual first.
Not only do many people not read the manual ( Bible), they determine to ignore the designer's plans altogether and build a push-cart instead of a Maserati.
The amazing thing is that many of these people Deceive themselves into thinking they did a good job and convince themselves to be satisfied with what "they did".
If you don't know why God created you (and He had a specific plan in mind), you have messed up.
Yes, you may have Deceived yourself into thinking you have done a good job with your life, but the Bible says this:
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. -
The "expected end" is a specific future that manifests the Glory of God in and through you. It is a Life of Prosperity in every sense of the word.
Someone out there is saying: "but I don't believe in God or the Bible".
Well, that is truly sad, because that makes you a Fool who is Lost because you don't know how things came to be, why you came to be, nor where you are going.
Furthermore, you have disconnected yourself from the very Source of the answers to those questions.
My instruction to you is to immediately open your mind to the notion of God. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you. Listen to these words:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. -
This is talking about the Creator God, born of a virgin, called Jesus, who gave Himself for you personally that you can be in Eternal Relationship with Him.
His only requirement for you to enter the Kingdom of God as an heir of all things is that you Repent of your arrogant thinking, that you Believe that God has raised Jesus from the dead and that you Confess Jesus as your Lord and Saviour.
This is the first step in getting out of Deception.
Now that you (the new Believer) are on the same page with millions of other Christians, let's move further away from Deception into Truth. ---> Jesus is the Truth.
You were not born to Find Jesus, live out your life the way you want to and then go to Heaven when you die.
How many Christians believe this? Probably most of them.
That belief is a Deception. But I agree it is an attractive one.
What then is the truth?
Remember, Jesus is the Truth.
If you want to Know Truth and not be Deceived you must reject everything except the Truth.
"What are you saying?"
I am saying that Jesus who is the incarnate Word of God must be your first, last and only Authority for knowing Truth.
The Words of Jesus and the Revelation of the Gospel ( Good News) of the Kingdom of God is the Truth.
If you you don't know the Truth (not just what someone said about the Truth) you are not Free. -- You are in the Bondage of Deception.
When you Know the Truth the Son will make you Free indeed - Free from Bondage, Liberated and empowered to become what you were created to be.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: -
We all believe something. A lack of Kmowledge of the Truth is itself Deception and leads to destruction.
Jesus told us to Repent (change our thinking) because the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand - the Kingdom had come to earth in Him .
Do you believe that the Kingdom of God is in the earth already or are you waiting for Jesus to Return and establish it then?
You see, Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand 2000 years ago. It has been on earth since then.
If you think the Kingdom of Heaven left when He ascended to Heaven you are wrong. Fifty days later on the Day of Pentecost, Heaven returned not in a Body but as the Holy Spirit.
You say, "that is just a matter of semantics, that the Kingdom is 'just' in our hearts."
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. -
The wind blows where it lists, and you hear the sound thereof, but can not tell where it comes, and where it goes: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. -
Jesus is telling us that the Kingdom of God is a Spiritual Kingdom that is not visible with our eyes of Flesh.
Just because you cant see it with your eyes is no reason not to believe it exists. You can't see God. You haven't seen Jesus or the Holy Spirit.
Have you been walking in the Spirit or by Sight? If by Sight, you have been Deceived.
Did you know that you are a Son of God? That you are a co-heir with Christ Jesus of all things? That you are Royalty? That you are Priestly? That the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you?
Christ did not suffer to purchase all these benefits for us to just put them on the shelf like trophies or wear them on our jackets like badges.
He did what He did so that we could be fellow-laborers in His vinyard - that we could build His Kingdom by preaching the Gospel of Grace through Faith.
I could go on and on making you uncomfortable but I trust that you have heard enough to pursue the Truth from this day forward.
Do not be discouraged. We Grow in Grace and Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We will never fathom everything about Him but we press toward the mark.
The prize is before us and it is Christ in us the Hope (expectation) of Glory.
To move further into the Light of the Truth you should make this commitment:
God forbid: yes, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That you might be justified in your sayings, and might overcome when you are judged. -
This attitude and purpose will propel you toward Success, Prosperity, Victory and Glory for which you were created in Him.