Vol.7 No.6

You Can Be Protected from Deception
by Betsy Mayer

When I was 21, I became innocently entangled in a serious deception. When someone kindly showed me from the Bible where I was wrong, I believe God saved me from a very tragic end.

However, not really knowing my Bible for myself, I fell into an opposite, yet equally destructive, deception. Some of the “teachers” of these beliefs claimed a supernatural endorsement of their new doctrine. I secretly envied their experience and wondered why God didn’t show lights and send messages to me. But their experience was still exhilirating, even though I hadn’t personally experienced it.

One day, I went alone into some wooded hills and pled for some supernatural sign. But no sign came. Shortly after this, I was led to inspired statements that totally contradicted the new teaching. Again, I was forced to choose between God’s Word and my opinions. But this time it was much harder. My ego was involved. I had told many people that this indeed was the truth. To turn my back on all the emotional exhiliration was to deny the most real experience I had ever had with God. But there was God’s Word plainly in front of me. What was I going to do: accept my opinions or God’s? Deception can have a powerful grip on a human mind. The ability to re-evaluate your beliefs in such an experience is utterly impossible, I believe, without the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

As I knelt over the Word that morning, a battle raged. Did I really want to follow people, or even my own reasoning, instead of the Word of God? Suddenly, I saw where I was headed. Before me was a downward spiral of blackness. How could I walk away from divine counsel with any safety? The prospect filled me with terror.

And so I chose to yield my error, to admit that I was wrong, and walk the narrow way of truth.

But I did one more thing. I prayed, “Please, Lord, don’t let me fall into more error. It’s too painful to back up.” And then the closest thing to a “supernatual experience” came to me. God spoke clearly to my heart, “If you will choose My Word over your opinion, or anyone else’s opinion, you will be safe.”

Now when I am brought to new truths, I follow the Bereans method who “searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11). God has been faithful and I have grown steadily in truth and haven’t had to give up any more painful deceptions.

You, too, can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is leading you. Jesus promised, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). This is especially important in these last days, for the Bible predicts that Satan will decieve the majority of Earth’s inhabitants (Revelation 13:13, 14).

Let’s allow God’s truth to protect us and prepare us for Christ’s soon coming. How wonderful it will then be to share our stories of God’s intervention in our lives as we meet in heaven.