SAFEGUARDS AGAINST DECEPTION
In the last chapter of Derek Prince's little booklet entitled "Protection from Deception" he lists four safeguards that will prevent us from deception. For the benefit of those who have never read his booklet, I will briefly give you these four safeguards. Because deception by false teachers is a real danger in these last days, Jesus, Paul, and other NT writers warned us to beware!
The first safeguard is given by Peter in (1 Peter 5:5-6), where we read "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble", or in other words "humble ourselves"! Pride is described in scripture as the first sin, and probably together with rebellion, which was the cause of Lucifer being cast out of heaven, could still be the chief sin of the 21st century. Pride is so deceptive that even followers of Jesus can become "spiritually proud", and lose their effective witness! The answer for pride is "humility", and this is something that we have to initiate, because God will never do it for us! We must humble ourselves, repent of our pride, and be led by the Holy Spirit.
The second one listed by Derek is based on (2 Thess 2:9-12), where Paul states clearly that it is only by "receiving the love of the truth" that we will be able to resist deception when the Antichrist appears on the scene with his lying "signs and wonders". The charismatic church scene is probably where he will show up first, because many charismatically inclined followers of Jesus are quick to be led into chasing after the "supernatural", believing that because it is supernatural it must be the Holy Spirit. The Lakeland Florida experience with Todd Bentley in 2008 would be a case in point!
The third safeguard listed by Derek is to "cultivate the fear of the Lord" in our heart. The scriptures are full of passages about the fear of the Lord. It might be a profitable experience to take a concordance and look up a few like (Ps 2:11, 19:9, 34:11-14), or (Pr 9:10-11, 19:23, 22:4) and see for yourself how important this is in the eyes of the Lord!
The fourth and final safeguard he mentions is to "make and keep the cross central". I believe one of our greatest needs is to focus on the cross where Jesus died to pay the price of our redemption! When we really see the cross we have nothing to boast of. (Gal 6:4). So to sum up, the safeguards against deception are 1/ Humble ourselves, 2/ Receive the love of the truth, 3/ Cultivate the fear of the Lord, 4/ Make and keep the cross central! If we diligently follow these instructions, we should be able to remain safe from the deception that is coming our way in these last days!
Sincerely submitted.
Dave Jamer
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