Spiritual Warfare Library of PSM

Becoming Deception Proof: Doubt and Question!

Just because a person is born again does not make them “deception proof.”

Pam Sheppard, Author and Pastor

The Lord would not have warned His disciples to “take heed and be not deceived” if there was no danger that they could be deceived. It does not matter how many things you are or were deceived about. For 25 years, I was deceived about a few things in comparison to what other churchgoers were deceived about. Yet the Holy Spirit did not release me from the deception until He was ready to. He simply stepped in when He chose the time to be right and started unravelling things.  Why?  Because I began to both doubt and question religious teachings and practices.

What I continue to  remain cautious about is this. Just because I am undeceived NOW, does not mean that it is impossible for me to be deceived again. For me to think otherwise would be both pride and arrogance and I do not want God to resist me.

So what is deception?

Deception has to do with thoughts in the mind. Simply put, we believe a lie or a half truth. The worst of it is the assumptions. or if you start off with even one little wrong assumption, everything else falls like dominos.
Recently , I watched how a person can start out with truth and how the enemy can use the very truth they have received and lead them into a lie. What happens is that the enemy takes advantage of our misconception of truth. He also uses the weaknesses of our personalities to lead us into believing what suits us best.

This realization has humbled  me quite a bit. I believe that once we are given truth, we have to seek God in prayer to help us not to misunderstand truth, for our conception of truth may cause us to be deceived.

So my question is “how do we make ourselves fool-proofed to deception?”

I think we can all answer this from experience. just examined how we got deceived, what was it about us that caused us to be open to the deception, and how did we come out of it?

I was deceived because of my lack of knowledge of how the enemy works and how God works. I also had no knowledge of church history. My assumptions were off. For, example, I thought everything supernatural was from God. I also looked to mega preachers for answers, ignorant of the fact that those who I sought for answers were deceived themselves.

I did not become undeceived until I began to doubt and question religious beliefs and practices. People think that doubting is like wavering.  Wavering is being tossed to and fro, filled with confusion. Doubting on the other hand is what is necessary to reach the truth. In other words,   it’s our capacity to doubt and question that makes us free.

When I was in the institutional church, I did not doubt.  I was very sure of key  things that were wrong.  For example, I never doubted slain in the spirit.   Without doubt, then you will make assumptions. So I assumed that slain in the spirit was a good thing and I lusted after it.  Once I got it, then doubt set in.

Doubt caused me to ask questions. For example, I asked myself while a pastor, ‘Why is it that the people who are constantly slain in the spirit around me cannot stand solid in Christ?” was my first bit of doubting.  In short, I ASKED MYSELF AN IMPORTANT QUESTION. My doubt began because they were constantly falling in their spiritual walk.  So this situation caused me to begin to doubt the slain in the spirit practice.  Also “War on the Saints” Caused me to start doubting.  IT WAS A GOOD THING.

Once I began to doubt and question, the Holy Spirit began to pour rivers of  revelation upon me about many things.  As He undeceived me, I began to write..

The result is 7 published books.

To share in my progressive unveiling from deception to truth,  click here

Tags: deception, demonic deception, seducing spirits, try the spirits, work of the Holy Spirit