There are many reasons for situations where believers in the Lord Jesus have unhealthy elements in their faith, which results in their faith in God and the teachings of the Bible to be distorted in a very severe way. Below, I will address an example situation where a believer in the Lord Jesus almost exclusively spends their time to learn about different kinds of deception and deeds of darkness. The text also highlights steps which believers can take to learn to live life as God wants it to be like.
 

Contents:
Background
A prisoner of the past
Sensitive, vulnerable and shy
The real grace of God
The blood, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Saved by grace
The Lord Jesus gives you peace
Forgiveness
No more accusations and fear
Do not seek deception, but the will of God
Trust on the Lord Jesus
God loves you
 

Background

A believer who only spends their time to only find and reveal deeds of the darkness, and different kinds of deception, is usually a person who lives in fear and anxiety. Very often it is the case that such a person is afraid of God's judgment, and the person sees God's judgment in everything.

Usually, such a believer has a background where they have had a strong authority figure in their childhood, such as their parents, foster parents, or a friend, relative, teacher, coach, another believer whose faith has unhealthy elements, etc.

This kind of person has been under the authority of a strict, oppressive, judgmental and demanding person who has not shown any appreciation for the person under their authority but has imposed higher and higher requirements, setting the bar at a height which is impossible to reach.

A prisoner of the past

Very often, believers also perceive things through their experiences in the past. When the person's life has involved a strict, oppressive, judgmental and a demanding authority figure, the person has a distorted idea of God, where God becomes strict, oppressive, judgmental and demanding. The faith of such a believer is one filled with fear and anxiety, and they continuously pay attention to negative things.

Since the mindset of fear and anxiety has been planted in their heart, the person becomes similar to the authority figure under which the person has grown, i.e. strict, oppressive, judgmental and demanding. Therefore, as a believer, he or she starts seeking and focusing on deeds of the darkness, and deception. The person starts to put pressure on others and demand them to do tasks that they are yet uncapable of doing because their faith has not grown and they are too immature to understand the tasks.

A believer who lives in corrupted fear lives a life of constant anxiety and pressure because nothing is good enough for him or her. Due to past demands and wounds inflicted by pressure, the person feels guilty at all times and inadequate: things are always out of reach and too far away from the person. The person is a prisoner of his or her past, and the person keeps thinking like this: that's not enough, you're not good enough, you failed again, you did something wrong again, you'll never be successful, you're lousy and lack skills, others can do things but you can't, you'll never accomplish anything, etc..

Since the person's heart of hearts has been fed with negative things since childhood, the person continuously lives in the middle of negative things, which fill the person's mind. As believers, some people with such experiences only start seeking deeds of darkness, and deception. Their faith is corrupted, and in their heart, their faith is fed with past wounds and dark spiritual powers.

The more this kind of believer investigates deeds of darkness, and deception, the more their understanding of God and biblical teachings is corrupted. Fear and anxiety take up an increasing amount of space in their heart. This also leads him or her to a path where he or she does deeds to earn God's approval. He or she does not know God's grace and love because past wounds and demands have filled his or her heart. As a believer, he or she takes the same approach as they took as a child and as a teenager, where they constantly tried to obtain approval from others, who were too demanding and strict with them. As a believer, he or she does deeds to obtain God's approval.

Very often, such a person approaches other believers in a tough, strict and demanding manner. The person does not see anything good in anyone, only flaws and weaknesses, which the person clings to. The person processes their traumatised childhood and youth by targeting their trauma to others. The person always suffers from a low self esteem, which keeps blaming him or her, whips them and forces them to keep doing deeds through which he or she tries to buy God's approval.

You cannot help a person like this by first pointing out to them their flaws, toughness and the fact that their faith is corrupted. Such a person first needs to experience God's love and grace. After that, the person is capable of seeing their sin, and stop doing it.

In some cases, believers who have undergone such an experience cannot break away from their past wounds and they give up their faith. Some of them may blaspheme against and ridicule matters of faith, saying that they do not work and that they are not true. In their case, genuine, real faith is not in their heart because they did not open up to looking face to face at their wounds, but kept blaming others for their problems all the time. Faith in the Lord Jesus always works when you allow it to have an influence in your heart as is taught by the Bible.

Sensitive, vulnerable and shy

Some people who have had the aforementioned negative experiences in their life end up to another kind of road, where they are sensitive and very vulnerable and shy. This means that their idea and understanding of God is corrupted. To them, God is strict and demanding.

Very often it it is the case that sensitive, vulnerable and shy people do not give any input or demand anything from others, but focus on their low self esteem and cannot stop thinking about the idea of them being constant losers. They live under horrible pressure and anxiety, and they hope that God would accept them and love them, but they do not believe it because of their wounds. Sometimes, they feel that perhaps God could love them after all, but their past wounds and dark spiritual powers blame them and they again lapse into anxiety and despair. They are in a "carousel" where they sometimes try to believe that God loves them, but they always ultimately end up in despair and anxiety, and they feel that God cannot accept and love them.

The real grace of God

When the person encounters the real grace, truth and love of God, they are released from their past wounds and unhealthy faith.

John 1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

The real grace of God comprises the Lord Jesus and teaching the truth of the Word of God; the teaching anchors believers to the Lord Jesus. The truth of the Word of God sets you free when you stretch yourself out in faith in accordance with the teaching of the Word of God.

Ephesians 4: 15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

Colossians 2:
6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

Do not believe and listen to lies, do not conform to lies because then you will have to live in an atmosphere of fear, anxiety and defeat.

Abiding by the truth of the Word of God sets you free from sin, guilt, fear and anxiety. If you know what the truth of the Word of God is but you do not live accordingly, the truth will not benefit or help you.

James 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Hearing the truth is not a problem. If you just want to hear the truth, God will tell you the truth. There is a problem when you hear the truth but do not follow it, which is why you cannot be set free from accusations, fear, anxiety and sins. If you want to hear the truth and live accordingly, you will be releasead from accusations, anxiety and fear, and you will learn how to quit sins and live as God wants you to live.

Next, I will discuss the truth of the Word of God concerning the message of the cross, God's love and grace. When you learn to see and understand the truth of the Word of God as it is written, you will learn to live in practice according to it. You will also learn how to give up your old ways, which enslaved you through fear and anxiety.

The blood, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus

Colossians 1:
12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

The Bible teaches us that the Lord Jesus died for our sins by shedding His blood for the forgiveness of sins, after which He resurrected to the right-hand side of God the Father. People cannot buy God's acceptance through their deeds and cannot save themselves through their deeds. The Lord Jesus died for our sins. He is the Redeemer who delivers us from the power of sin and satan.

2 Corinthians 2:14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

Believers who focus on deeds of the flesh, accusations, demands, deception and false doctrines are not released from their wounds caused by sin because they concentrate on deeds of darkness. Deeds of darkness bring about an atmosphere of defeat, shame, fear and failure in their heart.

The atoning blood of the Lord Jesus washes away your sins and eliminates defeat, shame, fear and failure. Believers, whose salvation and centre of focus is on the atoning blood, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Messiah, walk with the Lord Jesus in a triumphal procession every day, keeping in mind and believing that because of the atonement by Jesus, my sins are forgiven and I have received the power of the Holy Spirit, and through that power, I will learn to quit sins and live my life as God intends it to be.

1 Corinthians 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

The preaching of the cross is the preaching of God's power, which (through the atoning blood, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus) gives disciples of the Lord Jesus the power to live and grow in faith according to God's will.

Isaiah 61:
1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

Chapter 61 of Isaiah teaches us about the power and impact of the message of the cross in a wonderful, merciful way. The Lord Jesus preached the good news (the Gospel) when he was on Earth. The Lord Jesus also said that the task of His disciples is to preach the Gospel in this world. Next, we will study Lord Jesus' good news (the message of the cross) through Isaiah.

The good news of the Lord Jesus (Jesus' atoning blood, death and resurrection) forgives us for our sins and releases us from the slavery of sin and satan. Those who humble themselves and confess their sins, receive salvation.  

Through the message of the cross, the Lord Jesus makes whole and heals broken hearts. The Lord Jesus makes whole and heals hearts (mind) broken by sin.

Through the message of the cross, the Lord Jesus gives freedom to those enslaved and chained by sin, who confess their sins and believe in the Lord Jesus.

Through the message of the cross, the Lord Jesus brings favourable years to the life of a believer because every year that he or she has lived declares the glory and grace of God, and the redemption from sins.

Through the message of the cross, the Lord Jesus gives comfort to those who mourn, gives them joy instead of sadness, gives them a spirit of praise and thankfulness instead of depression. The Gospel is filled with grace and love in many ways because it not only declares forgiveness for sins but also comfort to those who have many kinds of sorrow.

The message of the cross, the atoning blood, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus is the foundation and focal point of faith and gives believers the power to live and grow in their faith to knowing God in a deeper way.

Saved by grace

Ephesians 2:
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

The evil satan has captured the people of the world to be slaves of sin, and through sin he fools them to boast of their own deeds. This is why there are strict, demanding, oppressive and judgmental people because they are slaves of sin, living life through their wounds, being harsh on others and judging them.

Through wounds caused by sin, there is a distorted idea of God in your heart. You perceive God as demanding, strict, oppressive and judgmental because human authority figures have mistreated you. However, God is unlike the people who have mistreated you.

People and spiritual powers pressure you to do deeds through which you must earn their approval. God has saved you by grace, not through your deeds. God does not require or pressure you to do deeds for you to get His approval. The Lord Jesus died for your sins, and this is why God accepts you, not because of your deeds but through those by Jesus because the Lord Jesus redeemed all your sins.

Titus 2:
11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

Phil. 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Romans 15:13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

God is forgiving and merciful and He helps you grow your faith through love, mercy and truth and He lets you take your time to grow and does not require faith from you but puts that into your heart through the Holy Spirit so that you learn the will of God and grow to believe according to it. You will also learn to reject sins through the power of the Holy Spiritt; the Holy Spirit lives in your heart.

Through distorted human authority figures, evil spiritual powers have filled your heart with corrupted fear and anxiety which has controlled your life. Through the Holy Spirit, God gives you peace and joy and sets you free from the wounds (fear and anxiety) caused by sin. Due to the wounds caused by sin, people very often distort things and fail to see and tell right from wrong. When you focus on the Lord Jesus, you will learn to distinguish good and evil, right and wrong, and sin and righteousness.

The Lord Jesus gives you peace

John 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."

Hebrews 12:
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

In the world controlled by sin, people have anxiety in their hearts. Evil spiritual powers want to keep you anxious. They would like you to keep living in past events through which your heart has been wounded deeply by anxiety. They also want to distort, in your heart, an idea of God, where He is similar to the human authority which has broken your heart.

Through the Lord Jesus, God wants you to see and understand that He is a merciful and a loving God. When the focus of your life is on the Lord Jesus and His love and grace, you will be released from the deep wounds of anxiety. Despair, and the depressing fatigue caused by it, leaves your heart and God's peace and love sets in.

1 Pet. 1:2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

However, we must remember and understand that the grace, love and peace of God increase when our faith grows. A disciple of the LoJesus continuously learns to better understand the will of God. When the person, in faith, by the grace of God and through the power of the Holy Spirit, is faithful and obedient to God, there will be more grace and peace of God in his or her life.

Forgiveness

Matt. 6:
14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Many believers are not released from their past wounds caused by sin because they have not forgiven those who have mistreated them. I understand that it may be difficult to forgive people who have hurt you severely by mistreating you for several years.

When you understand that those who have mistreated you are themselves victims of sin, it is easier for you to forgive them. These people are governed by sin and satan, and through that, they have hurt you through their own wounds. Until you stop considering these people as active evildoers, you will not be able to forgive them. When you understand that they are also victims who have done their evil deeds through their slavery to sin and satan, you will be able to forgive them.

God will give you the power to forgive them. God does not require forgiveness from you, but helps you forgive them. In some cases, forgiveness in the heart of a human being is a process which takes its time but through the power of the Holy Spirit, this process will result in total forgiveness.

If you are bitter at the evildoer, your faith will not grow because your heart is poisoned by your bitterness. Always remember that it is the will of God that a believer, whose sins are forgiven, would forgive those who have mistreated them. Also remember that your forgiveness will not redeem the sin of the evildoer, but the person will remain guilty for their sins before God for as long as they step onto the path of repentance through faith in the Lord Jesus. Forgiveness in your heart towards evildoers will protect you from the poisonous destruction unleashed into your heart by bitterness.

Do not wish for a punishment to the evildoer because God does not want a godless person to die. Therefore, you should hope and pray that the evildoer would repent and would believe in the Lord Jesus so that his or her sins are forgiven. If the evildoer does not repent and does not believe in the Lord Jesus, the person's sins will result in eternal damnation for him or her. If you love God, you do not wish eternal damnation to the person, but want to pray that the person would be saved.

No more accusations and fear

Revelation 12:
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

1 John 3:
20 ¶ For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

People and spiritual powers (evil spirits) blame you and demand you to do more and more deeds. The blame causes you to fear. Because you have lived under the pressure of accusations, your heart has been filled with fear which has corrupted your entire life, your relationship with God and your fellow-men.

Blame and fear in the hearts of people makes some people incapable of trusting God and other people. Consequently, they seek errors in others and cannot trust anyone. Without you noticing it, you compare others to yourself and try to find faults in them. When and if you find a fault, you use that to feed your low self esteem. You do not always want to be the one to do things wrong because that is what you have heard all your life. This is why you focus on faults made by others.

Accusations and fear in one's heart makes some people strict, demanding, hard and oppressive: they are always looking for faults in others, spiritual deception, and incorrect doctrines. They are not actually seeking the will of God: they are on the hunt for faults, incorrect doctrines and spiritual deception. That is why their faith does not progress in a healthy way. Instead, they always focus on negative things.

God does not blame you, but loves you and wants to remove blame and fear from your heart. In the congregation, God does not place believers to compete against each other. Instead, he places all of us in the Holy Spirit in the Lord Jesus through whom He helps everyone grow according to God's schedule. God takes into account our wounds and scars from life, and very carefully takes care of us and helps our faith grow. It is not about a competition against each other, but healing from our wounds caused by sin, and about a process of growth where believers continuously learn in practice to live their lives as God wants them to live.

Evil spiritual powers show your sins to you in order to destroy you through them: they blame you, cause you anxiety and oppress you because of your sins.

God shows you your sins. Not because He wants to blame you and destroy you, but because sin destroys you and He wants to release you from sin and give you something else in replacement, which God wants you to have. God loves you through the Holy Spirit which lives in your heart and rids fear from your heart.

If you focus on negative things, you cannot be released from guilt and fears. Focus on the Lord Jesus, God's love in the Holy Spirit and opportunities given by God so you will be released from guilt and fears.

Remember that the message of the cross is that death is powerless and that we live in the Lord Jesus. The message of the cross is a message of death through which we live with God. The cross is not just the message of death, but the message that the Lord Jesus died but was risen, and He lives, and, we also live by the grace of God. We, who had died in our sins; the Lord Jesus made us alive through His death and resurrection.

Evil spirits try to make you hold on to the wounds caused by past sins. Do not focus on the deeds of the flesh, but on opportunities given by God in the Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit and your faith will grow and you will learn how to deal with guilt and fears because God's love in the Holy Spirit removes fear from your heart and replaces it with God's love.

There is a major problem in that believers allow deeds of the flesh, and blame have an impact on their hearts. The Holy Spirit nullifies the deeds of the flesh and replaces it with the fruit of the Spirit, i.e. a growth process in your life, which complies with the will of God. Open up to the work of Holy Spirit, let your flesh be dead to the lust and desires of sin and flesh and let the Holy Spirit change your focus and actions to match the will of God.

Do not seek deception, but the will of God

Matthew 22:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, "Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

Matthew 16:6 Then Jesus said unto them: Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

Matthew 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

The Lord Jesus talked about and revealed the deceivers during His time on earth, and also mentioned them by name. Many believers do things in the wrong order, that is, when they are saved, they immediately start searching for false doctrines, deception, and false prophets. They start to study the deeds of darkness and not the message of the Bible which makes you whole, takes care of you and makes you rely on the Lord Jesus. That is why their faith takes on a wrong path right from the start.

At all times, believers must learn to know God and the Bible. First learn to know God and the Bible. Do not start seeking deceptions, false doctrines and false prophets. When your faith has grown and you have learned to know God and the Bible, you will be capable of seeing and understanding deception, false doctrines or false prophets.

When you focus on the Lord Jesus, you are not a deception hunter, but a Jesus-centred believer who relies on the Lord Jesus. The task of believers is not to spend all their time searching for deception, but to reveal deception when they identify it and when it threatens to deceive the congregation to a wrong path. When you focus on the Lord Jesus, your life does not focus on deception, but only on the Lord Jesus in the Holy Spirit as the Bible teaches us.

In the end times, there is more and more deception, and deceivers infiltrate the congregation to teach false doctrines there. A true congregation, which focuses and relies on the Lord Jesus, identifies and reveals this kind of deception because in the worst-case scenario, they ruin the faith of many and lead them away from salvation. That is why it is also important to identify and reveal deception, but the main task of the congregation is to rely and focus on the Lord Jesus.

If deception, false doctrines and false prophets is the main focus of your life, you have lost your way because you study and focus on the deeds of the darkness. Stop doing that, change your direction and focus on the Lord Jesus and Bible teaching, which make you trust on the Lord Jesus.

Trust on the Lord Jesus

1 Tim 4:
1 ¶ Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

Based on the original source text, that passage in the Bible could also be translated that the Spirit clearly says that in the end times, many people give up their faith and follow seducing spirits and the doctrines of devils.

The above passage of the Bible reveals the problem of many believers in the end times. They look for doctrines, are interested in doctrines and not in the Lord Jesus and the real power of God in the Holy Spirit.

When a person is only interested in doctrine and not in the Lord Jesus, it means that he or she is only interested in what he or she can do or what the theoretical truth of the doctrine-based teaching is. A believer, whose idea of God is distorted, is usually interested in what people do, not in what God has done and can do. That is why he or she is interested, at the theoretical level, to compile a large amount of doctrine-related information and he or she does not want to be dead to his or her flesh because he or she wants swell through doctrine-related knowledge.

2 Thess 2:
7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

A person, who does not accept God and truth in the Lord Jesus, will get lost. If the life of the person is lacking the love and truth of God, he or she lives through the power of his or her flesh or may even think that the forces of darkness are the power of God because the spiritual powers of the darkness do talk about love, but without the truth written in the Bible.

God's love without truth is a fleshly and spiritual deception by satan. God's truth without love is a doctrine-based deception by satan. The Lord Jesus creates actual, real faith in the heart of believers, and the faith in real life is based on God's love and truth.

God's love and truth always glorifies the Lord Jesus and His atoning blood, death and resurrection. God's love and truth always glorifies the deeds of God and provides people with the power to change, to be dead to the lust and desire of the flesh, and gives the power to trust on the grace of God and dedicate their life more and more to God.

Where gospel without the blood of Jesus Christ is preached and where human deeds and performance are glorified, people do not have the power to follow the will of God and they remain prisoners of their sins and wounds. That is why people try to change themselves: they lack the power of God.

The power of God has an impact people's hearts which glorify the deeds of God through the Lord Jesus and allow the power of the Holy Spirit change the thoughts and acts in their hearts as God wants them to. God has given the power of the Holy Spirit so that the deeds of God would manifest themselves in the lives of believers.

2 Cor 4:
6 For God, who commanded  the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

The purpose of doctrinal teaching of the Bible is to understand the will of God and to let the Holy Spirit inspire our hearts when we focus on things and do things so that in our lives, we follow the word of God's love and truth.

God's light and brightness in the Holy Spirit through the Lord Jesus teaches us to know God. This treasure of God is in us as in jars of clay so that this immensely large power would be God's and of God and would not appear to originate from us.

The deeds of God appear through a vessel which is nothing in itself but gives all honour to God and wants to glorify God. The power of God does not have an impact on the hearts of people who want to glorify themselves with doctrine-related knowledge or their religious deeds which originate from the flesh of people.

Believers who seek deception and false doctrines, but not the Lord Jesus and the real love and truth of God, very often underline their own significance through their own deeds and doctrine-related knowledge. This means that being a deception-centred deception hunter, the person themselves is lost. The person does not notice this themselves because only the Holy Spirit can reveal to them that they are lost.

The person is often so self-confident that he or she does not want to listen to the Holy Spirit's word of truth, but the person desensitises his or her heart because they are stony-hearted. Without the power of the Holy Spirit, people get tired. Very often, they only stop when they have fully exhausted themselves by performing deeds of the flesh. They either are humble, stop performing the deeds, and find real faith and grace, or they no longer has the energy to try and they become bitter and give up their faith.

If you noticed yourself in the above description and you rely on your own power, God sees your wounds and can help you. Let your heart of stone break and be humble before the Lord Jesus, and he will set you free and guide your way to real faith.

God loves you

Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save,  he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing."

The Bible teaches us that God loves you and rejoices over you. You are valuable and important to God because He has created you. In faith, put Zephaniah 3:17 in your heart so you will start to see God in the correct light, and see the opportunities He gives you. Stop listening to the voices of evil spiritual powers and past anxiety: focus on the presence of the loving God in your heart through the Holy Spirit.

Petri Paavola

Sources:
33/38 Raamattu
Biblia 1776
King James Version 1769
Pastoral counselling discussions