Most of us are familiar with the Great Deception; the moment when the devil deceived Adam and Eve with the belief that if they ate of the Forbidden Fruit they would be like God. The result was separation between the Almighty and Adam. Before the Fall via the Forbidden Fruit, God and Man related to each other easily. It says in Genesis, "God walked with Adam in the Garden." (Reference to God walking in the Eden: Genesis 3:8). The relationship between God and Adam was personal but Satan knew he could disrupt this with sin. When man and woman fell, it became impossible to relate to the Almighty as they had before. There was a divide; we had sin which causes us to die in the Lord's presence (Exodus 33:20). Our Heavenly Father had to relate to people indirectly after the Fall, he spoke to Abraham via a voice, to Moses via a Burning Bush, and to Priests in the Holy of Holies in the Temple. The result was a people who feared God, but did not fellowship with him. They became lazy and let the clergy relate to them what God wanted.
This broken relationship between God and man was then fixed when the Father sent his only begotten Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins (John 3:16) and thus make it possible for all men and women to relate directly to God because now they will not die if they look at Him and now He dwells within them! Satan did not fully understand the ramifications of Christ's death until it was too late and so he devised a means to consolidate his power. Now that the devil had lost the keys to death and Hades (Revelation 1:18); and now that man was reconciled with God, the devil decided the best way to regain what he lost was through another deception. This Second Deception of Satan is to give people an incorrect perception and relationship with God. The devil fills the minds of men with a Messiah who is judgmental, demanding, quick to anger, impersonal, aloof, of a different class, and etc. As a result people who embrace the devil's depiction of God find themselves not wanting to relate to God or relating to him in the fashion that the Israelites did prior to Christ's death: in a temple, at a distance, and expecting holy men to tell them what God said.
Many Christians have a warped view of God. They have allowed the devil and his deacons to change their perspective of the Prince of Peace into a Prince of Penalties. They start seeing their Savior as a shadow of Himself; which is two dimensional and only shows the outlining rather than the three dimensional body and Spirit of the Living God. God did everything to reconcile and reconnect with his people; He went unto the point of death! But the devil has gone behind our Lord and convinced Christians that God still wants to be at a distance and to relate to us through priests, temples, and old texts. No! Jesus Christ wants to speak to you as personally as your best friend or closest family member! Do not believe this lie of the devil! Do not erect temples or seek out priests to be your conduit to Christ! You have the ability to connect now! The Lord can reveal Himself to you this minute and not through the mediums of men! Do not get me wrong, The Holy Scriptures and the Wisdom of Godly People can be a method in which God speaks into you life; but it is not the way to interact and relate to our Lord and Savior! Would you want your dearest friends to just know you through a book your wrote and never talk to you? Would you want your closest family members to go to some other person to learn about you, talk to you, and relate to you? Of course not!
One of the great frustrations in life is not being yourself. Having to hide who you really are around people because you know they will not receive the complete you. As my mother realized, "God feels this way too." He wants to relate to us personally and show His whole self to us, but we would rather relate to Him in the old impersonal ways of the past. We settle for listening to a Pastor or Priest on Sundays, and reading what the Apostles did. Do not get me wrong that isn't horrible, reading the Word is important. But if that is the only way you relate to God, then you are missing out! The Holy Spirit wants us to connect to the Lord! Our God is a personal God like we are personal people wanting someone to understand us, accept us, like us, love us, and connect with us. God wants the same! He wants us to accept Him; His complete self! But many of us say as the Israelites did when God spoke from Sinai to them, "No! Do not speak to us! Speak to Moses for us!" (Exodus 20:19). Even then the Almighty was trying to repair and connect with his people; and as Churches do today, they rejected Him and settled for a system of speaking through messenger impersonally.
The devil is pleased that many Christians are not connecting with Christ. He is happy that so many are deceived with these false christs who are shadows and distorted pieces of the True Jesus Christ. A great example of the devil twisting who Jesus is was the Roman and Spanish Inquisitions. Satan effectively made Jesus look like a harsh judge who condones torture to save souls; when that was actually the wicked ideas of sadistic and demon possessed clergymen! Jesus Christ does not condone torture! He said "decide." He gives people a choice, He does not force anyone to follow him via the sword or torture chambers. Jesus said, "Come follow me." (Matthew 4:19). But there were those who did not, like the Rich Young Ruler who grieved because he could not sell his belongings to travel as a disciple. (Matthew 19:16-26). Jesus did not force this rich man to sell his stuff and follow him, Our Lord merely told the rich man what he would have to do to follow Him (Jesus) and left it to the wealthy young man to decide.
Beware of the devil's Second Deception. Stop allowing the enemy of our soul to convince you that Jesus Christ is unreachable, untouchable, and impersonal. The Lord loves you! He wants to be close to you more than anything! He died so that nothing could come between you and Him! But the devil has tried to put another separation between us and the Lord; a false perception of who God is and what He really wants from us. The devil has us so busy doing works to prove ourselves to God and merit being worthy of being in the Lord's presence, when Jesus already did all the work that was necessary! We were called to believe and be connected to the Almighty One! So stop believing the deceptions of the devil and start relating to the Real-Personal-Loving-Connecting Creator and Christ who wants to be your closest friend, father, and partner in this life.
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