Deception Prevention and Spiritual Growth

Is knowing scripture the key to preventing deception? I think not. The pharisees and Sadducee's knew the scripture better than anyone of their time yet they were Jesus' fiercest opponents spiritually and doctrinally. They also may have prayed more than most as well. It seems, according to scripture, the "just read your Bible and pray every day" method to spiritual growth is insufficient.

I honestly don't think either of these should even be the focal point of life. In fact, I think that if spiritual growth is the primary goal of our faith, we've missed the point. Jesus is the focal point of everything. When spiritual growth becomes the focal point, we end up looking at ourselves instead of Christ. When we're looking at ourselves we end up making Jesus look like us. No matter how hard we try to fix ourselves, this causes us to misrepresent Jesus to the world. When we look at Him, we become transformed into His likeness by His righteousness. Looking at Him causes us to see ourselves in His image, the way we were created.

All Kingdom issues are heart issues. Love the Lord with all your heart, mind, body, and soul. This is a heart issue. You can't make yourself love Him. He can't make you love Him. You can, however, let Him woo you to His heart. Let His kindness lead you to repentance. Let Him love you. Let Him manifest Himself to you. Let Him court you. He's your Father. He's you're Lover. Life is not about spiritual growth. It's about God loving us then us loving Him. This is a heart issue. It's not about getting it right. It's about Jesus. He already got it right. I didn't have to think about growing. It just happened because I was born. We don't have to think about growth, it just happens because we were born into the Kingdom. When we look into His face, we become transformed from glory to glory. There's no 5 step program to spiritual freedom or 12 keys to spiritual success. It's just Jesus. When we look at Him We become like Him. When we look like Him, the world can see who He is because they can see us, and He's in us shining forth.

What happens when we notice carnal or demonic stuff within us? Nothing! Well...sort of. Keep looking at Him. Don't try to fix yourself. That's His job. He's the only one who can do it. You can't. Thank Him that he bore it on the cross and you are not a slave to sin. It's His kindness that leads to repentance. When we look at Him, we realize that what we were seeing died and Jesus took over.

If we're looking at the Father and allowing Him to be our obsession, our Lover, our perfect Father, the object of our affection, deception is not a concern. Not because it's impossible but because this intimacy causes us to know His heart and conform to it. Not only does this keep us from deception, but it also keeps us from being swayed by the fear of man and what others say about us. It's not even an issue because we're not looking at us.