Text: Matthew 24:4, 11, 5; 2 Timothy 3:13
These are masters of deceit and they serve their food camouflaged with heavy sounding religious language. If you want to make a counterfeit N1,000 note, you will do it in the very same way the original money is.
And deception normally comes in convincing fashions, wearing the robe as if they are authentic, supported by sometimes credentials of intelligence, sometimes powered by evil popularity, supported by lying wonders, and spiritually gullible people are duped into following it. Plenty of old errors in new dresses are everywhere. This is where we are going to this morning. It is not everyone that can be deceived. That is the point I am trying to make. There are some “un-deceivable” people.
But there are certain characteristics of candidates of deception. For them to easily deceive you like that, there are some certain things that are in your own life that are making you susceptible to deception. That is why this message says *”positioned for deception”*. Listen to me very carefully:
- If you as a person are a naturally crooked person, you are not straightforward, you are insincere, then you are a candidate for deception. If your nature is like that, then you will be deceived. The majority of people you find in fake churches as ministers or members are themselves not sincere. They are crooked. So it is necessary they are paid back in their own coin. So if you are naturally crooked, definitely you are not a straight forward person and you are susceptible to deception. Anyone who is a sincere child of God, seeking God truthfully, and you get to a place and it is not the living God they are serving there, something within you will push you out to stop going there.
But when you are not pushed out like that, and you remain, you should examine yourself. So the first group of people that are candidates in the school of deception are those who are naturally crooked and insincere; those who are naturally not straight forward.
- The second group of people are those who are Biblically illiterate. They do not study or read their Bibles. They do not know what the Bible says. They do not know what the Bible says about anything. When you say ‘the Bible says “the trumpet shall sound, and we that are alive shall be caught up to meet Christ in the air, then shall it come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory”, and you ask them to explain the meaning of that scripture, they do not know. They only know the saying:
“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost: as it was in the beginning, so it is now, and for ever more”.But ask them what is in the beginning, they do not know. Ask them what is now, they do not know. Ask them what will be for ever more, they do not know.
When you neglect to study your Bible, men will just move you here and there. Any prophecy or vision anyone is giving or having, that has no basis in scripture is a lie.
- The third group of people are candidates of spiritual ignorance, not knowing anything about the things of the spirit. They are spiritually ignorant and one terrible thing that can happen is that for somebody to be ignorant, and is unaware of his ignorance, then he is in double danger. There is so much spiritual ignorance in the body of Christ today.
- The fourth candidates of deception are those who are too emotional and sentimental. They rely on their emotions and sentiments for everything. “I cannot leave that church because I was born there. My father bought the chairs and pulpit there.” Or “I cannot leave that church because the prophet is from our town” or “I cannot leave that church because I am the chair lady of the ladies’ group”. Reliance on emotions and sentiments
- The fifth are those who only look to human leaders outside God. They are not looking unto God at all. Some people do not care about the characters and behaviours of their leader. They have not read their Bible that says “by their fruits, you shall know them”.
- Those who accept miracles as the only guarantee of truth. They forget that the devil also works miracles, but that the devil has no free gift. He operates a primitive trade by barter. He may remove tuberculosis from a person and put in HIV. He removes poverty from a person and gives the person untimely death. Satan is capable of signs and wonders too. All these kinds of people are candidates for deception.
- Those seeking for Jesus the Baker. When some people heard that Jesus multiplied bread, they came to look for Him because of that and not because of what He was saying.
- I feel extremely sorry for this group. This group is those that the evil powers of their father’s house have decided to destroy them. So those who are under that canopy, you need to pray. Those powers will push you to a place where you cannot fight them. They will push you to evil prophets who are all operating under the same anointing. There are some young people now, the evil powers of their father’s house push them out of any fellowship where there is prayer. Something pushes them out of fire into the smoke.
- Those that are under effects of curses. If somebody has been cursed to be misled, he will always go to misleading places.
- Those who are proud. God hates anyone who is proud. And once somebody is proud, he is subject to deception. And those false prophets will deal with you.
- Those who hate the truth. They are those who do not like being told the truth. They do not like those who lash them, they want those who pamper them. And that is why there are some churches where for ten years, nobody has mentioned that if you mess up, you go to hell fire.
- Those who do not heed the warnings of Jesus. Jesus said _”Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.”_ So anyone who does not want to be deceived must get out of these 12 classes.
This is why we run foundational class, membership class so that you can be grounded in the Word of God. This is why we run spiritual clinic (Monday Bible study). This is why we have so many booklets that you can study and know the Word of God. This is part of why we have the devotional so you can grow in the things of God. One good thing you can do for yourself this year is to make up your mind that you must grow and be revived, you must become a danger to the enemy where you are, that darkness must see you and run. Make up your mind!
PRAYER POINTS
Anything in my life that will make me a candidate of deception, Lord, take it out of my life.
Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Arise, and make me fire! in the name of Jesus.
God bless you in Jesus name.
