“STRONG DELUSIONS OR ETERNAL LIGHT?”
BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, AUGUST 15-17, 2018
The Random House College Dictionary, by Random House Inc., published in 1975, describes “delusions” as follows: “…a false belief or opinion..or false misconception, like divisions of grandeur.” Is a strong delusion “a false impression”, or imitation of the true, real thing? Is a strong delusion actually, in some, “a false show of something”, or related to “make believe” when in reality what the core or heart of one’s life truly is turns out to be “a false profession”? For instance, there are those “who say”: “I’m a child of God” when in reality there’s never been the transformed, new-born life in Christ!
“In reality?” Strong delusions OR Eternal Light in Christ?” There is such a powerful, convicting, life-changing word from Christ Jesus when in Matthew 7:15-23 He said: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. (Known by your fruits? The fruit of flesh or the Fruit of the Spirit? The fruits of “best effort” or the fruit of Divine Presence in the Resurrected Christ living through you? The fruits of the “best of self-determination” or Sovereign Administration through “Christ in you the hope of glory”?)
“Strong delusions”? Brother John, in 1 John 4:1-6, delivers an anointed challenge when he said: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirit, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and IS now already in the world.
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
What “strong delusions” that have gripped and are grinding away at every life that ignores, dilutes, or rejects the “hallowed mercies of Holy God”! Our natural world, whether body, soul, and spirit, in the “pretenders” or “imitators”, is filled with lives that have shunned, neglected, not interested, or completely have ignored God’s grace, mercy, and love! Counterfeits, yes, abound and disgrace “Amazing Grace” and the “Abounding love of God lived out through the life, death, burial, resurrection, and Ascension of Christ Jesus”!
“Strong delusions” are real, devastating, and can be eternally life-changing without any hope or blinded to the love, grace, and mercy of Holy God! And when one is fully devoted to his/her false hope about ‘life’, one becomes gripped, clutched, and blinded, to the reality of God’s constancy of eternal love! Interesting words in Deuteronomy 16:18-20, after earlier in Deuteronomy 14:2, Moses had said, “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples of the earth,” with Deuteronomy 16:18-20 revealing,
“You shall appoint judges and officers (maybe pastors and elders today?) in all your gates, which the Lord your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment. You shall not pervert justice; you SHALL NOT SHOW PARTIALITY, or take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. You shall follow what is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which the Lord your God is giving you.” (Should I dare ask if “In Christ” there is “the covenantal Law of grace, mercy, and love” that awakens, alerts, and advises us to get back on “The True Path” of the present Christ in us as our hope of glory?
At times, some “believers”, truly knowing God Himself is the “giver of eternal life” in and through Christ alone, are, yes, often “victimized” by “the father of lies, Satan”, and they see themselves as warriors against “the roaring lion” when in reality they are motivated by the “Adam life”, in Satan, more than Christ’s “Resurrection Life, Hope, and Glory”!!
“Strong delusions” grip and suffocate many lives because they “lean to their own understanding, or to the opinions of fallen men concerning life’s purpose, or willfully committed to ‘satisfying their sin-natures’ rather than be captive to God’s “amazing grace”!” Do you ever encounter “despondent devotees to their ‘flesh natures’ who resent your “interference in their self-chosen, flesh-loving life styles”, even offended that you suggest Christ as their “Savior” as well as your life; but then you realize, “Though Christ Jesus died to free us all from the law of ‘sin and death’, there are large numbers committed to that “law” of a “death nature”!”
I traveled to India, mostly, over 30 years of mission endeavors, and often heard, yes, “death threats” – “You come back to our neighborhoods again, and we’ll kill you,” so faithfully I went! My interpreter, Pastor Anand, said to me: “Are we coming back here tomorrow?” I said, “Same time, same location”, but not just two young men but at least a dozen with their machetes. Anand said, “No more music, Pastor Farrell; PREACH THE WORD!” I did, for about fifteen minutes, then prayed, and when I looked up I saw the original two on their knees before me, asking me if they could be saved by Christ Jesus! They were “born again”, and Pastor Anand baptized them in his church, and they became faithful witnesses! (Unsure about the remaining ten who didn’t respond!). The “strong delusions of religious devotion” are rampant around the known AND unknown world, even the kingdom of darkness where Satan celebrates his deception among devotees who are, yes, totally committed to their sin natures!
“Strong delusions, permeating one’s opposition to the love and mercy of God, but, at least, for many, living under the assumption of “do your best”, remain blinded to the eternal, exceptional, earnest, and able ‘love of Christ” to wash them, birth them, and live victoriously through them as His Holy Temple of “abiding, resurrected Presence”, ignoring the Path of crucifixion and empty tomb for “Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope”!
It will be interesting, alarming, and alerting to “true mental believers” to awaken one day to the voice of Jesus when He has to say, as He did in Luke 5:31, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” “Sinner? How repulsive to hear Him say that He came to call ‘sinners’ from the bondage of darkness to His Kingdom of Light! We’ve never been in darkness, and it’s offensive if you say that we must come to the Light! We settle for “best effort”, “try hard”, and “be proud of your dark nature and godless life!”, knowing nothing of “saved by grace through Christ” OR the precious gift of repentance and faith in Christ’s “finished work at the Cross” AND His empty-tomb Presence, refusing His “knock on the door” of every human heart!
In Revelation 3:19-22, Christ Jesus still speaks! He said: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
“Strong delusions”? Are you familiar with “the cheated life of philosophy and empty deception”? Have you ever tried to balance “the traditions of fallen men” with “the Truth of Holy God”? Traditions of fallen men are ‘human’ in origin with the absolute necessity of exchanging “the lie” for Eternal Truth! Religions of the world ARE “strong delusions”, even agreeing with the crucifixion of Christ to elevate one’s OWN religious persuasion!
What I’m about to do is absolutely essential and necessary! Don’t give up on me as I share almost an entire chapter in Matthew 23 because the religious world today is also dominated by egotistical “scribes and Pharisees”! Jesus said: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. (Self-appointed!). Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but DO NOT DO ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS; FOR THEY SAY, AND DO NOT DO.
For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’ But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! (“Aren’t you glad that WE live in a day when scribes and Pharisees ,who are hypocrites, no longer exist?” If YOU buy that ‘leaning’, you probably are the most needy intellectual, pretending, well-trained, scriptural ‘liberal’ in biblical history!).
For YOU shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in (even if they have to crucify YOU!). Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore YOU will receive greater condemnation. (Can’t you just imagine the “self-centered celebrators” of “self-centered ‘hypocrisy’ who reveal only the Name of Christ Jesus but not His Word?).
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, (faithful attenders of every church gathering!), hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much as a son of hell as yourselves.
Woe to you, ‘blind guides’, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the the temple (the very beauty of their rich churches!), it is NOTHING; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’ Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’ [Was Christ Jesus THE “gift of God” on Calvary’s Cross, and you to choose to by His crucifixion and His Resurrection Presence in you, your only hope of glory?].
Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. And who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law; justice and mercy and faith. These ought you to have done, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. (NO CLEANING AND WASHING OF THE HEART AND MIND AND SOUL OF A “BELIEVER” IS TO ESTABLISH A “TEMPLE” VOID OF THE PRESENCE OF THE RESURRECTED CHRIST!!).
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?
Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, BUT YOU WERE NOT WILLING! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
Left desolate refers not only to the ‘temple’ of Jerusalem in Christ’s day, but the desolation of everyone and everything you hold onto that does not give Him glory in who you are and what you are about! But there are those in whom the explanation of their lives IS “JESUS ONLY”!! Let me “shift gears” or come to God’s Way, which is, Colossians 1:27, which says: (It’s called “the mystery” which has been hidden, but now “revealed to the set-apart saints” who live for the glory of God alone!), “To them God willed to make known what are the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man PERFECT IN CHRIST JESUS.” Can YOU say, “HALLELUJAH! GLORY TO THE NAME OF JESUS ONLY!”
Do you understand “the elect”, or those “chosen by God”, according to “the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification (or setting apart) of the Spirit, FOR OBEDIENCE AND SPRINKLING OF THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST?” (That’s 1 Peter 1:2!) How is it that you hear in some modern-day, even evangelical pulpits and classes, that “obedience is an option in the age of grace”, “that obedience is a calling for some, but not all,” and that if you say, “True believers obey”, that you’ve assumed ‘salvation is by works and not by faith’? HOW WARPED AND BLIND SOME HAVE COME TO ETERNAL TRUTH IN CHRIST ALONE!
It was Peter who was so inspired to write, in 1 Peter 1:3-23, the following: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a LIVING HOPE through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
(Let me shift for a moment to Revelation 1:1-6! “The Revelation of Jesus Christ (God’s unveiling of the one true Redeemer and Savior of fallen mankind!), which God gave Him to show His servants – things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy ,and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.
John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
Back to 1 Peter 1:6-23! “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation (or unveiling of Christ Himself IN YOU!) of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith – the salvation of your souls!
Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, (the righteous remnant!), searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand (Isaiah 53!) the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which NOW have been reported to you through those WHO HAVE PREACHED THE GOSPEL TO YOU by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven – things which angels desire to look into. THEREFORE
Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober (serious-minded before Holy God!), and “rest” your hope fully upon the grace that is brought to you at the revelation (or unveiling) of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to your former lusts, as in your ignorance; BUT as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” (Is that by “trying” or by trusting in His finished work at the Cross and His Resurrection after three days from the tomb?).
Verses 17-23! And if you CALL ON THE FATHER, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that YOU WERE NOT REDEEMED WITH CORRUPTIBLE THINGS, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, BUT WITH THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who through Him believe in (trust in, rely upon, adhere to!) God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God (alone!). Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, HAVING BEEN BORN AGAIN, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever!”
Dare I tell you that there is nothing more shameful and sorrowful and eternally deadening than ignoring God and His Holy Word filled with “divine privileges” rather than a “best effort religious mentality”? I HAVE, AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO AS LONG AS I LIVE!
In closing these words, I remind you once again of 1 Peter 1:13-15! “Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober (or “serious minded”), and REST YOUR HOPY FULLY upon the grace that is brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to your former lusts, AS IN YOUR IGNORANCE; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “BE HOLY, FOR I (GOD) am holy.”
Marcus M. Wells, in the old “Broadman Hymnal”, published in 1940 by Roadman Press, wrote a hymn entitled “Holy Spirit, Faithful Guide.” It says: “Holy Spirit, faithful guide, Ever near the disciple’s side; gently lead us by the hand, Pilgrims in a desert land;
Ever present, truest Friend, Ever near Your aid to lend, Leave us not to doubt and fear, Groping on in darkness drear;
When our days of toil shall cease, Waiting still for sweet release, Looking up to heaven in prayer, Joyful that our names are there:
Weary souls forever rejoice, While they hear that sweetest voice, Whispering softly,”Wanderer, come! Follow Me, I’ll guide you home.”
When the storms are raging sore, Hearts grow faint, and hopes give o’er, Whisper softly, “Wanderer, come! Follow Me, I’ll guide you home.”
Fearing not the dismal flood, Pleading nothing but Jesus’ blood, Whisper softly, “Wanderer, come! Follow Me, I’ll guide you home.” When the “storm clouds come”, Who is it or what is it YOU follow? Robert Lowry and W.O.Cushing, in the same hymnal wrote: “Follow On.” It says: “Down in the valley with my Savior I would go, Where the flowers are blooming and the sweet waters flow; Everywhere He leads me I would follow, follow on, Walking in His footsteps till the crown be won.
Down in the valley with my Savior I would go, Where the storms are sweeping and the dark waters flow; With His hand to lead me I will never, never fear, Danger cannot frighten me if my Lord is near.
Down in the valley, or upon the mountain steep, Close beside my Savior would my soul ever keep; He will lead me safely in the path He has trod, Up to where they gather on the hills of God.
Follow! Follow! I would follow Jesus! Anywhere, everywhere, I would follow on! Follow! Follow! I will follow Jesus! Everywhere He leads me I will follow on!”
Is that your testimony? Is it your “Song of Rejoicing”? Are YOU discerning the eternal differences between “Strong Delusions” and the “Eternal Light” that is in Christ Jesus? Are you casually influenced by the world’s “strong delusions” OR are you converted, kept, and overflowing with the “Eternal Light”? Receive the Spirit’s conviction, His conversion power, and His eternal consecration! Take “hands off” of your spiritual journey – be “guided by the Holy Spirit and the eternal Word” on His terms alone!
Dr. James Dobson, in his book, “When God Doesn’t Make Sense”, wrote, (p.65), “If human intelligence and perception are undependable in assessing every-day reality, which can be seen, touched, heard, tasted, and smelled, how much less capable is it of evaluating the unfathomable God of the universe?”
But merciful, loving, caring, able God moves in, comes on, and releases the awesome power of the Holy Spirit in “conviction, convincing, conversion, and consecration”, yes, setting you, man of repentance and faith, as an unveiled son of God through the shed blood and eternal ableness of His Holy Spirit! Dare I tell you? Don’t resist the Holy Spirit, but allow Him to release “Christ in you the hope of glory”!