The Most Deceptive Thing Above All Things: The Heart
Posted : 22 Nov, 2025 05:34 PM
"The heart is above all deceitful and desperately wicked" Jeremiah 17:9 KJV (for English speaking people).
"Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." Proverbs 4:23 KJV
The world will say "follow your heart." God says "He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool" Proverbs 28:26 KJV
Satan is the deceiver and the god of this world 2 Corinthians 4:4 & Revelation 12:9
It only stands to reason that he, being the deceiver, would utilize the most deceptive thing above all things.... the heart. We are commanded to keep our heart with all diligence, for out of it comes the issues of life.
The flesh lusts toward sin. the Holy Spirit ( which is given to those that repent unto God with godly sorrow and believe in Jesus Christ, the Lord) leads God's elect in all truth. "Thy word is truth."
Whenever any information solicits our emotional response or investment, it is prudent to guard our hearts and to consider that the information might be soliciting an emotional response to lead us into deception.
It has been proven that when a person's emotions are recruited into a narrative, the information bypasses the part of the brain that's responsible for analytical filtration. Thus rendering them vulnerable to believe whatever it was, that recruited their emotions.
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Just a side note: I find it very rewarding to see that actual observations of this world only show that God's words are historically accurate, scientifically accurate, prophetically accurate and literally true.
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If a person has been deceived and their emotions are invested into the lies that they have believed in their heart, then when they are presented information that implicates their belief as being a lie, it feels like an personal attack because it cuts into their heart and the natural response to feeling attacked is to strike back against the assailant. They want to "shoot the messenger."
Read the history of the patriarchs in the Bible. Look at the saints, the prophets and even Jesus Christ, the Lord. They were persecuted for telling the truth to those that loved lies.
It's always best to bring our emotions before the Lord and lay our hearts bare before him and ask him to sort out the things in us that need sorting.
It's also a good idea to spend twice as much time listening as speaking. God gave us two ears and one mouth. Read his words and seek to hear his voice in the secret place of the Most High. "Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few."
We are given hundreds of prophecies of what is to come in the last days before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Among those is a common theme of much deception and also a turning away from the truth.
When Jesus began to expound on some of the signs which shall come to know when he shall return and when the end of the world shall be, he commanded "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many." Matthew 24 KJV
There is no lack of deception in the name of Jesus Christ and among those that claim to be believers in Jesus Christ.
"Thy word is truth"
He that has ears to hear, let him hear. He that will forbear, let him forbear.
I would love to read testimonies of others that have been deceived and was subsequently made free from the deception and how their emotions were involved.
The Most Deceptive Thing Above All Things: The Heart
Posted : 22 Nov, 2025 06:35 PM
I'll share one of my own testimonies. I was bought up in public schools. From a child the school system inundated me with pride in the USA. I was told that we were the good guys and that the USA has saved the world from evil and that our police and military are the heros of society. That they put their lives on the line to fight against evil and that they are the defenders of good and liberty. They had me recite and memorize an oath (pledge) to sware my allegiance to a silk rectangle that has 13 stripes and 50 pentagrams on it.
They even had us singing a praise and worship song about how it is the emblem of victory over evil and that it waves over the free and the brave.
From my youth, my heart was attached to that silk rectangle. When I saw it flying in so of its "glory," my heart would be lifted up in pride. When it was flying at half staff, my heart would be laden with sorrow, knowing that a hero gave the ultimate sacrifice and tar "freedom isn't free."
One day, I saw a horrific scene on the tell lie vision. It was an image of smoke, barreling out of a high rise tower in New York city. One of the twin towers had gaping holes near the top and intense, oxygen deprived fires were burning causing massive plumes of smoke. While I watched the images presented to me, behold! Another image...an image of an airplane appears to be in flight and slammed into the image of the other, twin tower, standing next to it!
With massive explosions and subsequent smoke, flames and molten metal pouring out of the apparent impact zone, my heart was immediately flooded with a great sorrow. I knew that people had been killed. Then, the news cameras zoomed into the areas of the openings to capture images of people jumping out of the openings of the buildings, to their death!
Sorrow on top of sorrow overwhelmed me. My mind went to all the parents,, grandparents, children,, grandchildren, siblings, aunts, uncles, neices, nephews, and friends of those people that were killed and those that plummeted to their own death because death was more desirable than the torments they faced in the smoke laden inferno.
I was in a state of shock and great sorrow. I was still in my youth in the faith at that time and spent more time talking, than listening, when in prayer. I started praying for all those loved ones and also to find out who was responsible. Unbeknownst to me, I was literally allowing the news media to dictate my very intimate time with God, prayer!
Within an hour of seeing those images, the news media told me who was responsible. Osama Bin Laden! AlQueda! They were MUSLIMS!!!! My emotions were again being turned to (what I thought was) a "righteous indignation" to bring those evil men to justice.
Then the towers collapsed. The images were surreal.
I became emotionally invested into the official narrative. I repeated lie after lies without ever critically examining the details of the official news story because I saw images on a tell lie vision screen and heard the well written scripts being read from the teleprompters by the news anchors and the pundants.
It wasn't until about 4 or 5 years later, I was asked to examine some of the facts thar we've been given, regarding that day. Specially, to look into The Solomon Brother's Building, World Trade Center building 7. The third building that collapsed at the end of the day on September 11, 2001. I barely had a faint memory of a third building coming down.
I began to examine as many facts as I could about the official story. It didn't take long before all of the evidences were clearly showing that those buildings were controlled demolitions. They had to have been planned for months (if not, years) ahead of time to be able to coordinate those demolitions in the manner in which they unfolded. And to top it off, those were coordinated with foreign and domestic military intelligence agencies that were working jointly with private military contracting companies.
That was when I began to realize just how massive the deceptions in this world really are.
I didn't have a knee-jerk reaction to the truth about that day, because ever since I became born again, I have known that Jesus is the truth and his words are true and that my emotional loyalty belongs to him and not to anything else I have believed in this world.
I say that in all sincerity and it is my hope that others will do so likewise and not become emotionally adverse to any information that is ever presented to challenge your beliefs, because it is imperative that we keep our hearts with all diligence and not resist or reject information because we have a bias or an emotional investment into whatever we've been believing. Especially in matters of the faith of Jesus Christ, the Lord.
As an added note, when we understand how emotions can be instrumental in us being deceived, and seeing that women are much more led by emotions than men are, it is easier to understand why the serpent went after Eve and not Adam and why God commands the women to be silent in the churches and that of they will learn anything, they should ask their husbands at home. It is also the reason why women should never be in positions of authority over men, both in the churches and in this world.
The Most Deceptive Thing Above All Things: The Heart
Posted : 24 Nov, 2025 07:40 AM
Yep! We may become preoccupied with wanting to remove specks from some other's eye while we have a plank in our own. Good to remove our plank so we can see clearly to remove a speck. But surely none of us our righteous. Our only shot at righteousness is faith in God's promise. Abraham BELIEVED GOD and it was credited to him as righteousness. How well do we believe God? How well do we trust him?
The Most Deceptive Thing Above All Things: The Heart
Posted : 24 Nov, 2025 08:34 AM
@ WNT The only thing that is good in me is Christ. There is no good in the flesh. And the only standing anyone can have before God is through Jesus Christ, the Lord. Faith in him and not in ourselves nor in what we think or believe about him, but who he actually is.
I certainly consider that scripture in Corinthians with gravity, often because that is extremely important to continually humble ourselves, lest we be humbled *because* of ourselves. lol
The Holy Spirit is given to us through faith to be a Conforter. He is the Spirit of truth. He leads us in all truth. He seals us unto the day of redemption. He searches the hidden things of God and reveals them unto us and he testifies of Jesus Christ, the Lord. He is God with us. There are many (including myself) which have been deceived in a variety of things, both from outside and inside. Our hearts will most certainly deceive us, therefore it is imperative that we test all things and prove all things with the words of God being the utmost authority.
The Spirit of Christ does not lead us with "feelings," as many subscribe to. Many have followed their "feelings" thinking they're being led of God, only to later discover that they were led astray by their own hearts. (I have been in that category).
That's the theme of this post, with the hope that the reader will not only recognize the ways in which we are deceived, but also consider it with all sobriety and set up standards against being moved emotionality, to believe things that our emotions are leading us to believe.
It's likely one of the deepest topics that I've ever addressed. Recognizing how great the deceptions in this world really are and being able to see that I have been deceived has enabled me to escape deception and has radically changed my entire worldview and has been a very instrumental part of my own journey with Christ.
I would be a fool to think that everything I think to be true, is true. So I recognize that there may be things that I'm deceived about. I guard my heart and critically examine information to know what is true and put it to the test of what the scriptures say.
I would venture a guess that you also have learned the truth of many things that you had believed which were wrong. With many of the things that you've written, it shows that you have searched several things out in scripture and have conceded to unpopular truths 😂
One of my intentions of posting this was to provoke deeper thought and discussions of things that divide people with the hope that others will grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and escape some of the many deceptions that are associated with the name of Jesus.
People become comfortable with their worldviews not being disturbed and they find a semblance of peace in believing things that are in conflict with their own conscience and other things that they believe.
"And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." 2 Timothy 24-26 KJV
"Those that oppose themselves" are those that have internal conflict resulting from believing lies, hence the statement "if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth."
Some people will never repent, no matter how gentle and patient they're corrected, but strife and impatience will usually turn those away, which might otherwise have been reached.
The Most Deceptive Thing Above All Things: The Heart
Posted : 24 Nov, 2025 03:26 PM
Jesus often asked, "WHAT IS WRITTEN?" "WHAT DO THE SCRIPTURES SAY?"
He frequently answered, "IT IS WRITTEN...."
Paul told us not to go beyond what is written. (1 Corinthians 4:6)
King James says not to regard men above that which is written.
I do think that Christians should be mindful of what is written. But in frankness, I think few churches get deep in scripture.
I think the Bible is a relational guidebook to all relationships and that one can find a Bible answer to everything. But people do not well enough know the Bible to know what the Bible teaches and they don't get enough of it in church either, so one must read it on one's own, but while we are young readers, we can get misled on a number of passages because we do not know the depths of scripture.
Now we know in part. Then we will know in full. (1 Corinthians 13:12)
The Most Deceptive Thing Above All Things: The Heart
Posted : 29 Nov, 2025 07:05 AM
The Twin Towers went down in the manner that they were designed to go down.
There is the said and the unsaid. But it is true that there was a lot of money being moved and changing hands both before and after 911. Some people like to cash-in on knowledge. Some people get foresight and inside tips. Some plan events. Some reap a fortune from disaster. We all reap death. For some, they go from death to death. Those in Jesus go life to life.
King James says "To the one we are the savor of death unto death, and to the other the savor of life unto life." (2 Corinthians 2:16)
For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. (1 Timothy 6:7)