I have seen many fall into a type of deception over my years.

One of the first signs is that human hearts become quickly futile to you-meaning…pointless.

Doctrines begin to trump compassion and empathy wavers.

The voice becomes a loud noise instead of a gentle tongue and the studying of even “truth” becomes more of a focus than the application of it to hearts in need.

From one extreme to another there is deception stirring.

Whether you hang your hat on lofty theological debates with never-ending head knowledge or perhaps in a place where one might weigh all things by what they believe is the Spirit of God. Both Spirit and truth are required. There is a healthy balance of the two that keeps us in the heart and mind of Christ Jesus.

Both are found in a living relationship with a living Christ. A God who speaks to His sheep….plainly.

To the man, or woman, who mocks the gifts of the Spirit as “not of the Lord” is a warning to dig into the scriptures as the Pharisees proclaimed Christ “of the devil.” His response was a heavy one. Yet, daily I see similar proclamations with no apparent fear of the Lord.

On the opposite side of things, are the preaching efforts of still immature hearts more concerned with “regurgitating” what they’ve always heard rather than studying for themselves to ensure what the Holy Spirit really means. In this can come a sidetracking of the enemy. It often becomes more important to debate things than to go do the actual Kingdom work. Distractions abound in this arena.

In this place it becomes more important that women don’t preach than a soul being reached with the gospel. Kind of like when Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath….sigh

In other arenas, we have an extreme environment where witchcraft is entering into our lives and churches and we find counterfeit spirits leading many because everyone is looking for a high. Be sure the Holy Spirit is Holy. Discern the spirits. The walk with Christ will be a passionate walk and you will be blessed with the manifestation of His power at times. Yet other times His silence will be evident and faith must remain for that which is unseen.

Regardless of which arena you might fall into, both come from the same source. A little twisting here and a little twisting there. There is much deception that is wrapped in seeming truth these days.

So stay shut in with Jesus and let Him teach you His true ways. Reject man’s attempt to rationalize that which we may not yet know and understand. Humble yourself before the Lord and seek His heart. He is a faithful teacher.

Learn that wisdom is often quiet until training has done its work and there is always something we, each, still need to learn.

One thing I’ve learned over my years is the fullness of Love Never Fails. All my heart, all my teaching, and all my efforts must begin there.

It would do us good to ask the Lord what He might have written in the sand that day when the woman was brought to Him…caught in adultery.

Perhaps it was something like this…”I see your pain.”

One day we will all find out…