The Age-old Deception

As the coming of Christ draws near by the day, so is the growth of the darkness that covers the earth. 2Timothy chapter 3 calls the times difficult and hard times to be a practicing Christian. The Scripture went further to state that people will see what is good and will hate it; they will hold to a form of godliness but deny the power within. Friend, sadly these are indeed the times! It is no longer morally right to see what is wrong and call it as it should be but because of political correctness, things that are clearly wrong are hailed as right; laws and policies are then put in place to legitimize them. In fact, these are days when even the righteous questions that which is right. Jesus Christ warned about these times when He said: “Take care then, that the light in you is not darkness” (Luke 11:35). How can this be, you may ask; how can one see that which is glaringly wrong and call it good, see darkness and call it light? The answer is the age-old deception of the devil; he had used this deception throughout the generations from the beginning and no generation (I dare say) has swallowed this poison more than this present generation. He played the deception with Jesus Christ. Christ saw it, exposed it for us to recognize it and laid an example for us on how to tackle it. The deception is: “So he took Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. The devil said to Him, ‘I will give You their splendor and all this authority, because it has been given over to me, and I can give it to anyone I want. If You, then will worship me, all will be Yours’. And Jesus answered him, ‘It is written: worship the LORD your God and serve Him only’” (Luke 4:5-6). Friends, Christ saw through the deception of the enemy that he did not only want worship (instant), he wanted service (continuous) as well.

The enemy at this present time has shown the splendor of the kingdoms of the world to humans especially Christians and quite a lot have accepted to worship him for these momentary pleasures of the kingdoms! Unfortunately, unbeknown to them, they are equally serving him and his purpose on a daily basis by calling things that are bad and evil as good and righteous. When these wonderful children of God are confronted with this anomaly in their dealings, they fail to see it because the god of the world has blinded them to the truth through their acceptance of his ‘gift’. Thus, they look for reasons to justify the anomaly! This is service to the devil! Friend, the truth is one does not serve what one does not worship. Our service and worship are linked (the enemy knows this), and we give them by choice – our feelings, time and energies. These cannot be forced or induced from us; we must consciously choose to surrender them. When we bow to the enemy because of the splendor of the kingdoms of the world, we have unconsciously pledged to believe, obey and worship (BOW) the enemy and all it stands for! No wonder we see children of God agree to certain demands of darkness that are clearly against the word of God; yet these ones look for Scriptures to back up the evil! God warned us about this when He admonished us not to yield any part of our bodies (spiritual, emotional, intellect, physical) to anyone except Him. Because whoever you yield yourselves to, you have become his/her slave (Romans 6:16). In these dark times, God wants us to devote ourselves to Him wholly and daily in order to push His righteousness across the nations. Like Paul, we must be determined to please the Lord at all times, and even more as we see the DAY draw near: “Therefore whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or bad” (2Corinthians 5:9-10). May the Lord strengthen you as you recognize and  stand your ground against this age-old deception in Jesus Christ name. God bless you.