For anyone following this blog, or just happening upon it as the case may be, I humbly offer these few thoughts on the essential nature and the underlying root cause of spiritual deception.
One of the greatest SELF deceptions of all is to think, and to convince ourselves, that we are operating in the SPIRIT when we are actually operating in the FLESH. And if we deceive OURSELVES into believing this, we in turn can deceive OTHERS into believing likewise.
We can so easily adopt an "alternative reality" based on what we want to perceive ourselves to be, rather than how things really are. When we are saved, our spirit is redeemed, but the earthly vessel it currently inhabits remains subject to degeneration and decay, not just physical but moral also. It's the age-old battle: FLESH v. SPIRIT. SELF v. SELFLESSNESS. Our own personal civil war being waged at the core of our very being. The ongoing process known as sanctification.
SIN and DECEPTION fit tightly together, like hand and glove. Since the original sin and the very first deception ("Ye shall not surely die... ye shall be as gods!") way back in Eden, it has always been so. Humans just love to hear the things that they WANT to hear, and to put on high pedestals men who tell them such "sweet lies!"
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears."
Consider this uncompromising warning from the Word of God:
"Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart
departeth from the LORD."
departeth from the LORD."
(Jeremiah 17:5)
Just as "the love of money is the root of all evil" so is the love of the FLESH - which is synonymous with SELF - the root of all deception!
There follows an article I wrote originally for my website, which I feel is rather relevant to re-post here to highlight the point I'm trying to make...
* * * * * * *
I-Strain
The Common Denominator
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."
(Romans 3:23)
Whatever we have done in this life, irrespective of anything and everything that might seem to make us completely different, there is something we have all done. No exceptions. Whether we acknowledge it or not makes no difference to the fact of the matter. The common denominator is that we have all sinned.
Sin manifests itself in many shapes and forms, perfectly matching itself to any given environment like some sort of grotesque chameleon. But whether it lurks in the background, or parades itself brazenly for all to see, its identity remains essentially unaltered. However we might view it, SIN is SIN is...
SIN
To spell it out, at its ugly heart is a letter which is also one of the smallest words in the dictionary:
*I*
Think about it!
Once upon a crime...
Every story, good or bad, has a beginning. And the story of sin starts way back in Eden with the temptation and fall of the very first man and woman on earth. The original sin of disobeying God and eating of the forbidden fruit involved a third party, an evil instigator of this far-reaching course of action...
THE SERPENT
a.k.a. SATAN a.k.a. LUCIFER!
Look at The Tempter's original seven-letter name.
LUCIFER
At its heart is that same loaded letter, one of the smallest - and paradoxically one of the most significant - words in the dictionary:
***I***
Lucifer's "ego-trip"
"I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven."
(Luke 10:18)
Man fell. Lucifer fell: so testified Jesus Himself. And the reason for the Bright One's fall can be summed up in one simple word. That word is "PRIDE".
And at the heart of "PRIDE" is that same little letter, that same little word with its wealth of meaning:
**I**
As the prophet Isaiah recorded:
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! ... For thou hast said in thine heart,
I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God:
I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation...
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will be like the most High."
(Isaiah 14:12-14)
Five boasts are noted, all beginning with the words
"I WILL"
Five boasts. Five letters. And at their heart, as at their start, the same...
**I**
"I" in Latin is "ego", which today carries such great connotations of self-worth. Lucifer was on a massive "ego-trip"; he indeed tripped, and fell further than anyone has ever fallen, and all because of his ego, all because of the letter "I".
Can you see how the pattern repeats itself?
"I" is in the heart of LUCIFER.
"I" is at the heart of PRIDE and of SIN itself.
"I" is the central spinal cord, the nerve centre by which man, like Satan before him, stands in opposition to God and His plan and purpose!
We can illustrate this concept with what might be called an "I-Pyramid":
It's all about me!
"I" is the ultimate expression of Self. We write it as a capital letter. In keyboard jargon, "upper case". We should really use "lower case!" A case in point (pardon the pun):
Lucifer's heart got puffed up with pride. Instead of staying as a small letter "i" it became a capital "I". Let's retrace our steps to Isaiah's revelation of Lucifer's fifth and final boast:
"I" is the ultimate expression of Self. We write it as a capital letter. In keyboard jargon, "upper case". We should really use "lower case!" A case in point (pardon the pun):
Lucifer's heart got puffed up with pride. Instead of staying as a small letter "i" it became a capital "I". Let's retrace our steps to Isaiah's revelation of Lucifer's fifth and final boast:
"I will be like the most High."
(Isaiah 14:14)
Here is the crux of the matter. The reason the capital letter "I" is so important to the Enemy is that his greatest desire is to be like the most High, God Himself, and...
God is the ultimate "I".
When God called Moses to lead the Israelites, Moses asked Him who he should say had sent him, to which the most High replied,
"I AM THAT I AM... Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you... this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations."
(Exodus 3:14-15)
"I" is therefore an integral part of the Name of the Almighty Himself! No wonder The Great Pretender covets it so much! "I am" is the ultimate affirmation of absolute existence, without beginning or end. It is a statement that is super-charged with all the Power that brought the universe into being.
When the arresting officers came to Gethsemane, Jesus asked them who they sought. They answered "Jesus of Nazareth", to which he replied "I am he." Then something quite remarkable happened:
"As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground."
(John 18:6)
Why? Because they simply could not stand before the words "I am" coming from the lips of the One who was - or rather is! - "I am".
Some time previously a scorned Jesus had stated,
"Before Abraham was, I am."
(John 8:58)
The maddened crowd knew exactly what that meant, and wanted to stone Him for perceived blasphemy!
Me first!
Just what do we see as being "sin"? Murder, maybe? Adultery? Theft? Lying? It is all too easy to see sin's symptoms and completely fail to identify their cause!
Have you ever thought that the letter "I" and the number "I" are really pretty much the same thing?
In this context, it might prove fruitful to carefully contemplate the words Jesus uses here of Himself:
God the Creator is the capital "I". We who are created in His image are a small "i". Upper case and lower case. It is a vitally important distinction!
Turning the tables on sin!
Grammatically, "I" is the first person. The essence of sin is instilled in this simple truth, that we put ourselves first. It is what we want that matters! The remedy for sin is to put ourselves not first, but last! As Jesus Himself emphasized:
First with the Father are those who place their own interests last! Humility, not arrogance is the key. It is the meek, not the proud, who inherit the earth!
When Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment in the law, He replied,
Consider carefully the order of concern:
With most of us the ordering is reversed:
Me first!
Just what do we see as being "sin"? Murder, maybe? Adultery? Theft? Lying? It is all too easy to see sin's symptoms and completely fail to identify their cause!
An ailment may be made visible by a rash on the skin, but the virus is hidden in the bloodstream. Once you diagnose the condition, you treat the virus, not scratch the itchy rash! Scratching the rash just makes it more inflamed; if you address its root cause, the rash will duly disappear! We have to deal with what is at the heart of sin, and that's the letter "I".
"I" = Me first!
"I" = Looking after Number One!
God, who is "I" is the Holy One?
"I am one that bear witness of myself."
(John 8:18)
Turning the tables on sin!
Grammatically, "I" is the first person. The essence of sin is instilled in this simple truth, that we put ourselves first. It is what we want that matters! The remedy for sin is to put ourselves not first, but last! As Jesus Himself emphasized:
"So the last shall be first, and the first last."
(Matthew 20:16)
When Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment in the law, He replied,
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
(Matthew 22:37-39)
First: God. Second: Others. Last: Self.
First: Self. Second: Others. Last: God.
The Golden Rule
Having established that the focus of our lives should be God, Jesus gave us the Golden Rule, the means by which we should be living our lives in relation to others:
Do we like being cheated, lied to, deceived, robbed, betrayed, hurt? If we always thought how our words and deeds affect others, and conduct ourselves in the manner our Lord prescibed, wouldn't all our lives be so much better than they are? Wouldn't we then be the people we are called to be, known by our love for one another?
In the Third Chapter of the Second Epistle to Timothy, Paul writes of the "perilous times" that would come in "the last days." He gives a long list of negatives that men would become: the very first of these negatives is that they would be "lovers of their own selves." Men putting themselves first is the pre-eminent sign of the end-time great apostasy.
To the sides of the pit!
Immediately after quoting Lucifer's five "I wills", Isaiah baldly states the outcome of his proud plans:
Here in Wales, it's fair to say we know a thing or two about pits! To literally illustrate a point, first let's look at the cross-section of a pit:
Letters and words are wonderful things! Think of the letters "p" and "t" as forming the sides of the pit that Lucifer is consigned to, with his assumed upper case "I" rendered eternally as a lower case "i".
As for us, saved by God's grace alone, we should be prepared to willingly lower ourselves by changing the capital "I" of Self into a small "i"... and then despatch even that to join the Enemy in the pit! Such is the living sacrifice that the Cross of Jesus Christ demands! Let us not only echo, but really mean, the heartfelt and humble words of John the Baptist:
Having established that the focus of our lives should be God, Jesus gave us the Golden Rule, the means by which we should be living our lives in relation to others:
"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."
(Matthew 7:12)
To the sides of the pit!
Immediately after quoting Lucifer's five "I wills", Isaiah baldly states the outcome of his proud plans:
"Thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit."
(Isaiah 14:15)
Then, adding a touch of colour to the winding wheel, the surface, the shaft and the seam, something rather interesting emerges from the bare outlines:
"He must increase, but I must decrease."
(John 3:30)
Postscript
The title of this article was originally that of a little poem I (sorry, i) wrote many years ago. It won't put me in the running for the next Poet Laureate, but it seemed appropriate to reproduce it here as an end-piece:
"I"
Denotes my Self, not Christ in
Me;
"I"
Prevents His Spirit flowing
Free;
"I"
Is pride, and always will sin
Be;
"I"
Is clouded sight, an unbowed
Knee!
