After reading in Genesis and ‘seeing’ all the deception that took place in the lives of people, and then going to the book of Exodus and reading about more and more deception, well, it’s pretty clear this is a topic God wants us to be aware of.

None of us likes being deceived. We now have an ‘almost epidemic’ with what is called ‘identity theft,’ which, when you think about it, is personal deception at its worst because not only are we deceived, but the ‘stolen we’ are then used over and over to deceive others.

A friend wrote to me about being helped this week just by having the veil pulled off, and being able to more clearly see how powerful the work of the enemy is. The goal of the enemy is to defeat us, and the strategy is often by way of confusion, and the tactic is often deceit. Do you follow this?

I found myself writing back: “As much as I hate being fooled, tricked, and had by some scammer, I have to face the fact that I am the one being deceived! And it probably is possible because of some root in me that is not ‘pruned’ to God. And this betrays another issue; that I don’t ‘like’ being pruned!!!! It just gets better and better, this walk with Jesus!!!!”

Can we choose to be pruned? Can we surrender to pruning? Or are we so stuck in the ways of this world that we simply have to depend upon God to do the pruning, whether we are aware of it at the time or not? Yes, we can depend upon God, and yes, it’s better to volunteer first.