Your Only Protection From Deception
Why prayer and the Word must stay linked—every day.
This morning I woke up to a thought running through my mind repeatedly.
It went like this: “Your only protection from deception is to stay in prayer and in My Word.”
Usually, when I receive a word from the Lord similar to this, there seems to be some sort of backstory idea He also seeks to communicate with me, and this word did have another idea attached to it. The unspoken impression I received from the Lord was just as immediate as the thought had been—the word and prayer are linked. You cannot trade one for the other; you cannot only read the word or only pray.
These two spiritual activities will never work properly when they are done in isolation from each other. The word works in us as we pray, and as we pray, we respond to the word. In my heart, I felt the Lord’s emphasis was on prayer. The message He seemed to be conveying was, “Many read the word, but few actually spend time in prayer, actively listening for My voice and seeking to pursue My presence and know Me.”
The implication was that if we read the word but never pray, we come to a place where we think we know the Lord well, but actually, we only know about Him. Reading scripture but never spending time in prayer is like reading a biography about someone famous—we learn all about them and feel acquainted with them, but we do not fully know them on a personal level.
Reading scripture while coupling it with sincere daily prayer sets our hearts before the Lord, transforming the word from a biography into a text message. Prayer causes the word to become an active conversation between God and us.
I’ve read many blog posts and Facebook posts over the years, and I’m sure you have too. But these are only one-sided unless I leave a comment. Many times when I have commented, the author has responded to me personally. Prayer is our place to have dialogue with God. It is not a one-sided request session, although requests are accepted and encouraged. Prayer is the place where God communes with us by His Spirit and speaks the life-giving truths of His word in our hearts on a personal and applicational level.
Furthermore, without prayer, we cannot say we truly have a dialogue with God. It is no longer enough to simply know about Him; we must truly come to know Him on this personal level.
Let me also say that prayer without the word is also unbalanced.
When we never take time to read scripture, our prayers become more than just superficial and selfish; they can become dangerous to us because when we think we hear the Lord speak in our hearts, we do not have a foundational basis of truth to weigh our impressions against.
I’ll be clear: God still speaks in our hearts.
His voice always supports His written word, and what I hear in my heart must always be weighed against what He has already revealed about Himself through the written word.
Our protection from deception takes on its greatest strength when the Holy Spirit has been given a resource to draw from in our lives—when the Holy Spirit has scripture available that we have hidden in our hearts, He will use it to communicate in the present tense by using what was written in the past.
Scripture that is over two thousand years old becomes fresh and new when the Lord pulls it from the recesses of our hearts and breathes upon it to make application in our present.
There is so much swirl and contradiction happening in the earth and in the church at the present moment. Voices you have looked to for guidance seem shaky, and you can be left feeling overwhelmed by what you see, hear, and feel. Instead of retreating from the battle and giving in to your fears, start drawing close to the only voice that will never change—Jesus.
This is an hour when deception is at an all-time high, and this deception will only increase as the last days wind down to their conclusion. The only voice that we can ultimately trust is scripture, coupled with the internal voice of the Holy Spirit.
Listen to what Jesus says in scripture about the Holy Spirit.
John 16:13-15 NKJV—”However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. [14] He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. [15] All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”
Prayer is vital because through prayer, the Holy Spirit takes the words of Jesus and uses them to guide us. As we take time in the Lord’s presence—just being there, spending time, worshipping Him—the Holy Spirit softens our hearts and works in us what is well-pleasing in the sight of God.
During prayer, we submit our hearts to the Lord and come under His Lordship, and the Spirit speaks in our hearts. What He speaks always agrees with the written word. The litmus test of hearing God’s voice is: Does this word align with scripture? If not, throw it out!
Our time in prayer and in the word, when it is sincere and truly desires to seek the Lord, develops in us a protective wall against the deception of the present age.
Friend, deception is not just something that will happen after the rapture, but it is something that is already at work and will only grow stronger.
Listen to what Paul says to the church in Thessalonians.
2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 NKJV—”The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, [10] and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. [11] And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, [12] that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
Prayer and the word breed a love for the truth in our hearts. This love for truth and the desire to walk in it is used by the Holy Spirit to create a firewall against the deception of the present age.
When you can no longer discern which voices are godly, ungodly, safe, trustworthy, or true, turn to prayer and the word. Let the most influential voice in your life be the Lord’s voice.
We’ve reached a point when every voice and every message must be weighed against the truth of scripture. God’s people have always been called to inspect fruit. The message of truth is backed up by the holiness of fruit.
Friend, don’t throw away your desire for an experience with God.
No, we cannot build our foundation for faith on experiences. We build upon the word. But experiences of the Lord’s voice, His presence, His power, and His love serve to add reality to the word that speaks to our hearts in a personal way.
This moment in history demands a church that will pray and soak in the word.
Here’s what Jesus said would happen in the last days:
Mark 13:21-23 NKJV—”Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘Look, He is there!’ do not believe it. [22] For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. [23] But take heed; see, I have told you all things beforehand.”
Remnant, it’s time to put on our protection from deception.