17. On Deception and Truth
Every single man, woman, and child on this planet is completely convinced, deep in the heart, that his or her own personal perception of reality is true and correct. Many are willing to be taught, but the moment they have adopted the new ideas, suddenly, they are once again back into the firm conviction that now they see all things as they really are.
Every single man, woman, and child on this planet is completely convinced, deep in the heart, that his or her own personal perception of reality is true and correct. Many are willing to be taught, but the moment they have adopted the new ideas, suddenly, they are once again back into the firm conviction that now they see all things as they really are.
Then we have Christians. And worse than that, we have Christian ministries.
If I did not love Jesus, if I did not know He is my Savior, if His were not the breast against which I lean my head, I would flee Christianity. Arguing over “truth” makes me sick. Yet I am no different than my brethren; I cannot exalt myself.
Most Christians are followers. They are either born into or they move into a position, a group, an institution, some kind of collective, and then they sit inside that collective and listen only to the “approved” leaders of that collective. Nevertheless, they still believe with all earnestness that they themselves are the ones, alone upon the earth, who “have it right.” Anyone who sees things differently from them on any issue obviously “has it wrong.”
The most fascinating thing about teachers who “expose deception in the church” is their incredible capacity never to raise the question of whether it is they themselves who are deceived and who are the deceivers. Oh no! It is they who are the “defenders of the faith,” the knight in shining armor riding in to lay low all those “deceivers” out there.
Every single Christian ministry believes, truly and sincerely, that he or she is the defender of truth, the defender of the faith. Every single Christian ministry believes with fervent battle stance that his or her perception and understanding of truth, as they see it in the present moment, is the only truly honest and sound position anyone could take.
Yet all the contention boils down to little more than an argument over how many angels can fit on the head of a pin. Some become so adamant about such meaningless things! And really, everything outside of “Jesus is Savior by His blood; know Him in you,” is not worth “differing” on.
Paul said, “You can do nothing against the truth.”
Truth IS. There is nothing else. What is, is, and what ain’t, ain’t! There is no possible way any of us can make what ain’t turn into what is or to make what is turn into what ain’t.
One thing we can all safely say is that truth is not found in the minds or hearts of man upon this earth, especially of Christians – except it be the presence of Another.
As I said, most Christians are followers. They don’t really want to think for themselves, they prefer to be told what truth is by someone else. Once they have selected their choice of what collective that someone else is, however, they continue on, once again, in the firm conviction that their individual perception of reality is the wisest and truest and anyone “sane” would come to them only for an understanding of how all things really work.
I am not a leader. I am incapable of acquiring followers. I do not know how not to offend my closest companions nor how to ease myself into an agreeable stride together. I am really a kind-hearted person, but my inabilities seem to quickly drive wedges between me and others. I know that I am prickly to other people; but I cannot change myself nor make myself more “Christ-like.”
I look at those who place themselves as leaders in Christianity, and I am utterly astonished. I search the Christian side of the web and find every possible kind of rant. The amazing thing to me is that most of these “leaders” actually have followers. Some have many followers, hordes of people earnestly looking to them as the true source of true truth.
I look at the brother who now leads the fellowship I was a part of for many years. I heard him preach first in September of 1977. He preaches the same word today that he preached then. It was, in many significant ways, an entirely different word than was preached by the other leaders of that fellowship. He has never preached anything different. Yet many, many precious saints, people who loved and walked with him for years, have attempted to turn him from the error that he teaches, yet he remains unmoved by anyone. Over time, many mightily anointed brethren have simply left that fellowship to follow on to know the Lord, and those few who remained, convinced that their collective is the true depository of true truth in the world, seem to have veered entirely into this one leader’s take on truth, abandoning former things they used to preach.
Let me give you just one for instance. – I am not here on this planet to be a judge of anyone; therefore I refuse to speak judgment against people at a personal level, especially against Christian brethren. – However, what I can share is my own experience.
It was this leader who taught me to say, “God loves me, but - - -. (Actually, he preaches a strong word that God “hates me,” with plenty of anointed Scriptures to back it up.)
“God loves me, but . . .” “God loves me, but . . .”
It was in a mighty deliverance service after I left that fellowship that, having gone forward, the need to repent came upon my spirit, and I repented of ever having listened to this particular leader. Something lifted from me and for the first time in my life I said: “God loves me.”
See that period? It took deliverance from heaven for me to put that period there. But it was still several more years before I could speak further in my heart, “God likes me.”
Yet this leader continues right on today, preaching the exact same line he has preached for over 40 years without wavering. He preaches it under a mighty anointing with many verses from the Bible all woven together. He preaches to thousands, and hundreds of people suffer continual personal loss in order to follow his version of the truth.
He is unmoved. Never does it enter his mind or heart the question, “Am I wrong? All these people whom I have led to submit to my covering, whom I have established in their hearts what is truth and what is deception, have I led them into darkness? Do I really know what I am doing?”
No. Those questions never arise (or so I assume). Even when his equally anointed equals, men and women who had walked by his side for years, contended with him, trying to turn him, yet he remained unmoved and untouched.
I can’t do that. Not even a little bit.
But I have a problem, a big problem.
Christ lives in my heart. Somewhere inside of me Truth has taken up residence and Truth speaks. Truth always speaks.
And here is the impossible to believe, impossible to deal with, impossible to accept reality. Truth speaks always through the only voice it has. Truth speaks through the human voice.
Truth speaks through donkeys; Truth speaks through pagan kings. Truth speaks through unnamed scribes sitting in dusty rooms, writing down their versions of oral traditions repeated through the centuries. Truth speaks through fishermen and tax collectors, through murderers and thieves and prostitutes.
Truth speaks, and Truth never stops speaking. Yet no one hears Him.
No one. Except to kill the vessel through whom Truth speaks.
This is the madness we are caught in. On the one hand is the ridiculous, pompous, idiotic, lunacy held dearly in the heart of every single one of us, “I’m the one who sees all things as they truly are.” On the other hand is Truth, having taken up residence in our hearts, Truth who is always speaking and whose words and voice demand expression.
It is madness, this contradiction in which we are caught.
Why does Truth insist on speaking through apparent liars? And why do all the “truth speakers” turn to kill the one through whom Truth speaks?
Do not be deceived. You and I are just as ready to kill the one through whom Truth speaks as the next guy, even while Truth Himself speaks through us.
I say that I do not wish to speak in judgment against another who trusts in Jesus. Yet when a Christian ministry takes an open public position that is visibly leading God’s people straight to their deaths by planned murder, a position that so clearly violates the New Covenant, then I am free to speak against that public position only.
Such a one is John Hagee. In his leading of the church of Christ to openly support the Isr- Beast, as if that Beast is the “anointed of the Lord,” John Hagee serves evil in the role of the false prophet, as we were warned by the Apostle John. It is the hope and intention of the rulers of Is- to see all Christians removed from this earth and the name and memory of Jesus to be wiped out. They will do it by murder if they have to before this thing is over. Nothing has changed from the pages of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John until today. Why does anyone think it has? The evidence of this reality before us today is overwhelming, yet everyone is terrified to look at any evidence at all, just as the Apostle John also warned.
Yet here is the contradiction that cannot be answered. As pastor of his church, John Hagee also ministers Christ, and the Lord Jesus Christ takes up residence in the hearts of many who belong to Him through the words John Hagee speaks into his congregation.
To the human mind, this is madness. What kind of a God does such a thing?
The human mind demands a tribal God. The demand in the heart of so many Christians that God be a tribal God is overwhelming; it rules.
Since my view of all things is the only correct view, then God must be on “my side” in whatever position I find myself in this world. If I am an American, then God most certainly is on the side of America. The idea that God just might be “on the side of “ the Afghani people is abhorrent to me. Impossible. God is tribal!
To the religious mind, if John Hagee truly is a part of the false prophet, then it must be impossible for him or anyone in his church to be born again, to be filled with the Holy Ghost, or to be seeking God with sincerity of heart!
James couldn’t handle the idea either. “Can a spring send forth both bitter waters and sweet?”
Can Truth move through the same tongue that also speaks the Lie? Can some words bring life, while other words, coming from that same tongue bring death and destruction?
Impossible.
The demons spoke the truth. They said, “Jesus, You are the Son of God.” Jesus turned and told them to shut up.
Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And Jesus said, “The Father has truly taught you, Peter.” Five minutes later, Peter said, “Don’t go up to Jerusalem, Jesus, they will kill you.” And Jesus turned and said, “Get behind me Satan, for you prefer the things of men rather than the things of God.”
It was Peter who said both words! One minute Jesus says that God is speaking through him, the next minute Jesus says that Satan is speaking through him.
Do you think Peter was a bit confused? I certainly am.
Anyone who will say, “I’m not confused at all, I see all things as they really are,” is a wonderful liar. They don’t fool you or me, of course, but they have completely pulled the wool over their own eyes!
I am continually amazed at the ability of people to rebuke me without also rebuking themselves. What a wonderful conceit!
Truth is ugly.
Isaiah saw Truth more clearly than any other Old Testament saint; he said:
He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Truth looks the same today. He does not change. Isaiah went on to say:
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. Isaiah 53
Jeremiah had his own problem.
O LORD, You induced me, and I was persuaded; You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I am in derision daily; everyone mocks me. For when I spoke, I cried out . . . the word of the LORD was made to me a reproach and a derision daily. Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name.” But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not. Jeremiah 20
Some try to convince me that Jeremiah has nothing to do with Christ or with the revelation of Christ through us. Yet if I did not have Jeremiah’s testimony to hold me in hope, I would be unable to handle the extreme contradiction in which God places me and from which I cannot escape. If Jeremiah stood in the midst of madness, than I can as well.
When I write, I hear the Lord Jesus singing; and often, when I send it out, the voices of “reason” scream against me, “Now you have made yourself a fool, and everyone will know you are a complete idiot.” I get in conversations with people; then, suddenly, the conversation becomes overwhelming for me without reason, and I cannot look at it for a while, and they wonder what happened to me.
But He fills my heart, and He is always speaking, and how can I stop?
So many dear believers hold the notion that Truth is gentle and warm, a pleasant walk through a field of flowers. It is not. Yet Truth is filled with pleasant walks through fields of flowers. So many dear believers hold the notion that Truth is at arm’s length, something we must strive to find, lest we be lost. It is not. Yet Truth so often holds us at arm’s length and causes us to feel that all is lost.
I can tell you with all certainty one thing that Truth is not. Truth is not tribal.
Truth holds the heart of the Afghan man frightened for his family and desperate for his country close inside Himself equal with any other heart. But those hearts who boast, “I sit a Queen and know no lack,” Truth stays far away from, vanishing in the noise unseen and unheard.
Every Christian quotes the Bible. And most Christians quote the Bible at other Christians. And in quoting the Bible, every Christian believes that they have it right. This is universally true, and I include myself in that human dilemma.
When I left the fellowship I was a part of for many years, my eyes were opened to something I had not considered before. A big part of the reason why I left was that I had grown weary of twisting some verses in the New Testament and completely skipping over others in order to “prove” that the take on truth pushed by the collective I had joined was the true truth.
But after I left I noticed something very disturbing happening with those precious saints who were also leaving around the same time for the same reasons. If something was “from the move” they threw it out, even if God had truly spoken it, and even if the New Testament said that very thing. They simply switched from one set of verses to the other set of verses and went right on in one way or another twisting and ignoring the verses they didn’t like.
Then I looked around me at the church in the world. I saw wonderful love for Jesus, and I saw the embracing of complete nonsense in this world. But the awful, awful thing about the nonsense they embrace is that evil men are pushing this nonsense and their hope is to eliminate the church. And even worse is that the New Testament verses that so many precious brethren have decided to strike out of their Bibles at this moment of time are the very verses warning them about this very trap! And even worse is that if they would stay with the core truth of the gospel, they could not be caught in this trap, but they will not stay!
Yet they love Jesus. Yet they are walking in a stupor towards their execution.
Yet Jesus anoints their hearts with love. Yet they give power to the evil that opposes all that is Christ, evil that could not have its day except by the power given to it by dear believers who love Jesus.
Is this madness? I think it is. I know without question that many reading this would answer, “Wow, Yordy, you really are insane.” I must agree.
Yet I wonder. Could it be true that those who are sane in this world, wonder that they must be insane? And could it be true that those who are insane in this world, are convinced that they see all things clearly?
Did God turn everything inside out and upside down? Did God subject this earth and the age of human folly and everything and everyone in it to vanity? And did God birth Christ into that vanity?
Why? — Hope.
God is after something. Does He do anything without purpose? Does anything happen in this universe outside of God’s intention? Ah, here I can truly speak the truth. No, God holds all things in His hand.
Jeremiah beats his head against the wall weeping over the confusion and difficulty God has thrust him through all the days of his life and then says, “Therefore I am filled with HOPE. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies are new every morning.”
If Christ does not conform Himself to me as I am, an Asperger’s man – autistic, tired and weak and filled with oddities and contradictions, then I cannot know Him. How could I turn from all the confusion and difficulty God has led me through all the days of my life and say, “All of His ways concerning me are perfect. Therefore, I am filled with HOPE. Great is Your faithfulness, Lord unto me” if Christ is not all that I am?
Christ shares with me that portion of Himself He has made me to be. Otherwise, how could I look at the insanity that holds this world and my brethren in this world in its terrible grip and know that it is all in His hand?
How could I turn from the raging accusation and say, “Lord Jesus, everything I am is You; You carry every part of me entirely inside Yourself”? How could I lean my head against His breast?
And so, in the years after I left the move, I made the decision that I am not smart enough to invent my own God.
It’s an interesting thing. When people get a revelation that the Word is Christ, they then speak against “all the verses of the Bible.” They say, “Truth is Christ, not the Bible.” Only there is a slight problem with their argument. They use verses from the Bible to prove their point. If there weren’t verses from the Bible to back them up, they would have nothing to say.
God enters creation, heaven and earth, as the spoken Word. That Word enters the physical realms of earth and is written down on paper. We read the words on the page by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who births Christ in us from those words.
Jesus said, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds forth from the Mouth of God.” Every word.
The words on the page, according to the words on the page, will do one of two things to every man, woman, and child who reads them. They will either kill you, or they will birth Life (Christ) in you. Every word.
Here is a Word proceeding forth from the Mouth of God: “And it was given to the Beast to make war with the saints and to defeat them.” God alone can give such authority.
You and I read those words. The moment we do, they will have one or the other effect in us. Either they will kill us, or they will birth Christ inside of us. Paul said, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” What makes the difference? Simple. It’s whether we believe what God speaks. And that, dear friend, takes a miracle of the Holy Spirit. I cannot believe what God speaks except by a miracle of the Spirit of Life.
I believe every word God speaks in the New Covenant because the Holy Spirit fills me with His power.
Everything else I may study and seek to understand, but I do not believe.
Here are some more very disturbing things God says in the New Testament.
He said to them, “An enemy has done this (sowed darkness and deception and lies and false brethren right all through the church of Christ).” The servants said to him, “Do you want us then to go and gather them up?” but he said, “No!”
No? Leave the lies and deception and false brethren mixed all through the Truth, looking exactly like the Truth? NO??
And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” He answered and said to them, “. . . I speak to them in parables because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”
What? You spoke in parables, not so that we would understand truth, but so that we would not?
Here is one passage that some avoid with all skill and others use as a club of war to beat against other brethren.
Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory . . .” Romans 9:14-23
Do I believe this word? Absolutely and with all my heart. I live always in the Holy Spirit.
God has created many people walking now upon the earth, and we know from Jesus’ words that this includes many who sit next to us in worshipping God, simply as vessels of wrath that God Himself has prepared by His will for destruction.
(I do not take those words to mean “eternal” destruction, for the New Testament teaches no such thing. Rather, the destruction refers to an age of time – all things come back into submission to Jesus before this thing is over.)
Why? Why on earth does God do such a thing? Let’s continue.
And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12
God is responsible for the delusion gripping my brethren in this world?
Of course, this is one of the favorite verses of those knights in shining armor who have appointed themselves to attack “deception in the church.” But at the same time, those who love God’s grace and Christ living as us in this world have a hard time with a God who would say something like this, and so they have learned to ignore it and sometimes to chide one who would attempt to speak such a Word as proceeding forth from the Mouth of God.
But the truth of the gospel says this. There are no Jews in Christ. None. There are no Gentiles in Christ. None. The cross has put to death every man, woman, and child born of Adam upon this earth. Gentiles have no problem losing their claim to being a Gentile. Judaics have a big problem discovering that their Judaic-ness means absolutely nothing.
God is NOT a tribal God. He is not “saving the J-s” because there are no J-s to save. Every Judaic and every Gentile perished upon the cross of Christ and the only thing God will ever receive is a new man, a new creation, coming up in the resurrection of Christ, where no Judaic exists and no Gentile exists, just Christ living as us in this world.
And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut(castrate) themselves off! Galatians 5
Paul is speaking here by the Holy Spirit, speaking of Judaic Christians following him around everywhere, who spoke with all hatred against the gospel according to Paul – that the Judaic died upon the cross and there are no Judaics in Christ.
I find myself in the uncomfortable place of believing in the grace of God and in believing fully all that God speaks applied in fullness in our lives and in this world in which we live and in the church among whom we fellowship. I have simply lost the art of explaining why God does not mean what He says. I used to be pretty good at it, but it has somehow left me.
“The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” They (the natural Judaic) stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. 1 Peter 2:7-8
God appointed the natural Judaic to stumble over the offence of Christ? They don’t have any choice in the matter? God created them to hate the elimination of their place of “privilege” before God and thus cut themselves off from salvation? God made them the enemies of the gospel for our sakes? That is exactly correct.
For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! Romans 11
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope . . . Romans 8
God committed all to disobedience? God subjected the entire creation, heaven and earth, to futility? God did this? That’s exactly correct. Everyone on this planet is deceived, staggering in darkness, subject to nonsense and lies, death and destruction because God committed us all to it? That’s exactly correct.
Why did God do that? In HOPE.
…because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Now, did God also pick, before He created anything, those individuals through whom He would bring glorious liberty and mercy to all? Yes.
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should bear much fruit and that your fruit should remain. John 15
As Paul said, “…vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory.”
It’s just the way it is. We can fuss and cry and complain all we want. But what is, is, and what ain’t, ain’t. And what God says is, is, and what God says ain’t, ain’t.
So I received a political flyer from a dear cousin who loves Jesus. The writer of the flyer is an expert at political lying and has a long history of saying one thing and doing the opposite in positions of power. Many have accused him of betraying in very dark ways everything he claims he stands for, and they have much evidence for their accusation.
The flyer makes this claim. America is exceptional in this world, not because of any self-exaltation, but simply because America (along with Is-) is unique among all countries in that America has a covenant with God that no other nation has. (Not Russia, which is as Christian as America is, not China, which has more believers in Jesus than America, and not South Korea or Uganda, which are among the most evangelical Christian countries on earth.)
In other words, God is a tribal God. He’s on OUR side. No matter how much we lie, steal, murder, and prostitute ourselves, no matter how much all that is holy is blasphemed throughout this nation. No matter how deluded and dishonest Americans are, no matter that we stagger under curse after curse, of unhealthiness, of obesity, of half of all elderly losing their minds, of 3000 babies murdered every single day, of 1 out of 3 Americans stoned on drugs, legal or illegal, with country after country being ripped apart because of our lust for drugs, of a continual flood of chemicals poisoning our bodies, of a continual flood of pornography pouring out of this country as our largest single export, of a government that tortures and insults people and lies in every direction – no matter. We have a special covenant with God, and God is always on OUR side.
I read this political flyer with two reactions. First, I know that God says no such thing in the New Testament. There is no nation of this world found in Christ. I can show you word after word in the New Testament of God saying the very opposite of this false claim, warning against it over and over, and those who push it can show none in support; they don’t even try. They just say “The Bible says,” and everyone falls into line. And so I weep over the departure from the gospel.
Second, I see the filthy spirit of darkness sitting behind that claim, the evil blasphemy that scratches its rear and flips a birdie at Jesus and laughs at the destruction just ahead to which it pretends to lead dear Christian believers. And I feel like vomiting.
Then I turn; I look to Jesus. And I understand.
“Father, You have appointed my dear cousin and so many of my close friends to confusion. You have appointed the saints of God to defeat at the hands of the Beast. You have subjected all creation to vanity. You have created vessels of wrath for the day of destruction. You have appointed all things.
“Why? “Because, Father, You want something. You have a hope for something so incredibly wonderful that we cannot even imagine it. You have appointed all creation to emptiness, and in that emptiness you have planted Christ inside of those whom You chose from before the foundation of the world that through them all creation could enter into something so high, so wonderful, so beyond our ability even to comprehend. A Glory that could not be any other way.
“Even the angels who stand before Your face cannot see it, though they want to. With all their hearts, they want to know and enter into the wondrous and holy Glory You are birthing through us.”
Their time will come. Our time is now.
Deceived? You bet you are. Get over it.
Something more glorious than you and I can comprehend is welling up inside our bellies — caught up to God and to His throne.
“I have chosen you.”
I belong to You, Lord Jesus. Let it be to me according to Your word.