Illuminate Me

Recently, Rick Hawkins, a pastor friend of Pastor Jerry’s, quoted 2 Corinthians 11:3 “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” He went on to say this about deception. “The purpose of deception is easily seen in this verse of scripture to Corinth, ‘your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.’ Deception is only similar to revelation when it comes to its ability to lead. It is an influence that captures and captivates. The antidote to deception is revelation. Whereas, deception closes the mind and captivates the thoughts of a person, revelation releases the mind by exposing the lie.”

The underlined sentences are what REALLY stood out to me. I wouldn’t have ever thought that ‘deception’ and ‘revelation’ could be alike in any way, but his statement was very thought-provoking. Although I’m not sure anyone would choose to be lied to, we are deceived all the time. We can be led by deception, or we can choose to be led by revelation. Eve was deceived because Satan ‘captured’ her attention and ‘captivated’ her mind, even though God had told her the opposite. Deception is a sly tool used by the devil, and he’s so good at it, you are ensnared before you even know you’ve been lied to.

People will often say, “I had a revelation!” meaning only that a great thought or idea came to mind. But to have true revelation, life-altering revealing of truth, we must stop living life with our eyes closed; as if not seeing the lies makes them less real. Pastor Rick went on to say, “Revelation is seeing something for the first time that you have been looking at for a long time. It is illumination, that moment that your eyes are open.”

That moment you wake up and see the lie for what it is, when compared with the truth…the moment you choose to be led by revelation. That’s what I call a Holy Ghost “aha” moment!