Stephanie Okafor - Gateways to Deception

One of the key things when we talk about how does deception happen? What are the gateways of deception? What are the furtile grounds of deception? There were three things that the Lord spoke to me about, and I'm sure there are many more, but there was a need to focus this message on these key things. And one is unchecked desires. The other two I will group them together because it is pride and offense. And I say this because the two things the Lord was teaching me about as it relates to deception is relationships and worship. Relationships and worship. Now, when we think about unchecked desires, right, the Bible tells us that you know what God knows how to put desires in our heart. When God wants you to be drawn to something, he knows how to put a desire within you for it. But that does not negate the fact that your flesh also has desires. And when a desire has been unchecked, that means that desire has no restrain, that you become obsessed and the desire actually becomes an idol in your life. You see, as I'm speaking, the Holy Spirit is going to start putting a conviction in your heart because there are certain things or people that we have made an idole, we have made it an obsession, and then we slap on the name of Jesus over it. You see when it came to relationships. Oo, Lord, when I'm about to say, we've all been here about to expose myself to for you to recognize that, because this is going to be for the people that disconnects to this is a very hard thing to let go of. It is very difficult when you marry a desire that you have that is unchecked with the word of God. It is very deadly and a recipe for disaster because then to get set free from it is extremely difficult because on one hand, you want it above anything else, and then you say, the voice of God told me, the Lord was showing me marriage or dating relationships. And it's this notion that has played a lot. Of Christians when we come into this place and we say God told me person A is my wife or person B is my husband, and it becomes an obsession. Because here's the thing with deception, what is birth from deception can only be sustained through manipulation, but the end. Will always always be destruction. You don't need to think far about what is the who spoke to you? You just have to look at the fruit, because the thing is that when you give into deception, the enemy now has other things he wants to say. That is why if we go all the way back to the beginning. After Eve was deceived, then she deceived Adam. What happened? The Lord is walking and he says, Adam, where are you? And Adam talks about how he is naked and afraid, so he hid himself. The Lord says, who told you that you are naked? Then he says, have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to the sequence of his questions revealed so much, because, first of all, we never see a moment where Satan is having a dialogue with Adam that you are naked. But the Lord already recognizes this voice is not mine, Adam, who told you you were naked? And the only way that this voice had access to you you must have eaten of this tree. Deception happened, and now the enemy has access to say other things to you, Adam, who told. You that you were naked? In the same way, we come all the way back, and then now we find ourselves in this position where you're like God said to me that this person person a person B is my partner. The person is not. You both are not in a relationship. They're not, you know, taking interest to your pursuit. Listen, I don't know who this is for, but the urgency in my spirit to share this message. And so what happens many of the time what follows manipulation. Then you start using maybe your wealth or your body to lure the person in. Sometimes they may take baite, sometimes they might not, and even if they do, they're you know, they're out the door in the few. But when manipulation follows, when you start to lack integrity and you say the voice was God, it was not the Lord. Because the word of God is not just a random word. God says, He is his word. So the word of God would always produce his essence, it would reveal his nature. So for God to tell you something that puts you in a place of obsession, it is very likely, with a ninety nine point nine percent that that came from deception. I've been there telling you this as a pastor. You see, one of the biggest things when someone asks me to pray for them, if it's something extremely critical. The best thing you can do for me is not to give me all the details. I would only ask for details if I'm led by the Holy Spirit. The other thing is that if you are close to me and there is something going on in your life, I have to remove myself completely because I recognize that my heart can deceive me because of the closeness of our relationship. What I might desire is good for you might not be the thing that God wants to do, and so my hearing can be easily corrupted. That's why many times, even when I'm praying for a loved one, I don't just wait to hear from God. I say, God, show it to me in a parable show it to me in a way that is coded, in a language that would not be my norm. That the moment I begin to one pack it, then I would understand what you're saying. But don't speak to me in a way that would I would understand immediately because I am not sure if it is your voice or the voice of my desire. That's why the Bible says the heart is deceitful above all things. When my heart has an interest or an investment, it is so easy to be deceived. I remember those those some guy was talking to in the past, right, and we were not moving in a forward direction. Right. Pastor Roosevelt preached last week and he talked about listen. Where are we going? Okay, I should have had that conversation, because definitely we were. Not going in the same direction. But when your heart desires something, the voice of God was telling me, Stephanie, this is not it. Walk away. I will literally have visions where I will see him and I will see his face and it's like a demon is done on his face. I said, oh, man, but then you know what happened. Then I would hear another voice saying, he is just a tormented soul. He needs you. You understand him. You can't walk away from him now. And I said, oh God, then you have dreams that satisfy what you desire. You see him in need, injured, you say, oh, look at that. The Lord has given me a person who is injured because he knows that I have what it takes to heal him. Oh Lord, I just thank you for this revelation. I thank you for giving me the insight to endure. We start quoting scriptures, but and then the moment you see that person slipping away, you randomly have tickets to your favorite game. He said, you know, it's so crazy. Somebody just gave this to me. That is manipulation. Because you see them slipping away and now you're trying to find how to bake them back in. I'm saying this family, because God wants to set you free. For anyone that is connected in this. We're going to go into more because and this would apply to so many areas, but I want to be obedient to the very things, the key things that the Lord said. If there is someone you are holding onto, if there is someone that you're. Like God showed me. Because here is the thing. God will never help you to build an idol. If God will give you a word that will cause you to build an idol, it did not come from the Lord. God kills idols, he doesn't build them, because an idol is anything that replaces your affection for God and turns it over. To something else. When we think about the life of Abraham, Abraham always desired a son. It was his mean like, he just wanted a son so bad. When the Lord gave him a son, when he gave him the promised son, not the one who came from you know, the manipulation. Look at that, because he was deceived. Right before the real thing, the counterfeit showed up, the enemy says, I'm seeing the movement of the Lord here before the real thing shows up. Let me just let me plant a counterfeit. That counterfeit is still affecting. It is still the war between Christians and Islam till today. He presents a counter offeit and then Abraham settles in the counterfeit. Aren't we so grateful for the mercies of God that even when He recognized that you have settled in the thing that is beneath you, he shows up again. This message is God showing up again. Don't settle in your counterfeit. When the real thing shows up and Isaac is born, Abra, the Lord tells Abraham sacrifice Isaac on the mountain. And even though we believe that Isaac did not die that day, because you know, in the natural he did not, but in Abraham's heart he did. When God said kill him on the mountain, it was never about kill Isaac, physically kill the idol in your heart on the mountain, because on that mountain later on, in I believe in Hebrews, we get a full picture of what was going on in Abraham's mind. Abraham began to say that he knew that even if Isaac died, the Lord would resurrect him. See, this is the language of the one whose worship and affection is solely on God. Abraham was not looking at Isaac. He was not thinking about the corpse. He was not thinking about how do I explain this to my wife. Because even when he's saying, I know that even if this happens, he didn't know the timeline. He had no understanding. But Abraham said, Isaac is not an idol in my heart. I am focused on God. God, your will be done. You gave me this promised child, and you have the ability to resurrect him. What happened on that mountain was that the idol of Isaac was killed. It was never about killing him in the natural. God was doing something deeper or heart work. I'm sharing this family because God will never help you to build an idol. God will not give you a word that would activate an obsession in you. It is not to say that it is not within the power of God to tell you who your spouse is. But if he does. The fruit is that you will be. So unbothered you would allow things to go in such a natural way, and there would be evidence that this came from the Lord. There will be some form of connection, because you see family, God honors free will. If we go back to the story of Adam, before God even created Eve, that moment when Adam was naming all the animals, not only was the Lord saying that, okay, he moves like me, but the Lord was also watching if Adam would find a spouse in the animals, or if he would recognize then none of them is suitable for him. The Lord is watching because when you read it in your Bible, you would recognize that right after Adam finished naming the animals, the Bible said, and there was no helper found suitable for him. There was no helper found that every time Adam named the animal. Because if Adam named. A giraffe Eve, the Lord is said, well, Eve, you gotta wait, because right now Adam is entertained with this giraffe here. So the Lord is watching. Anything that the Lord has his eyes on, you pay attention to the Lord is watching what is Adam calling every animal? And it was after that that the Lord created Eve. Now one of the things the Lord was teaching me, and this encounter was the story of Rebecca. And I never saw it this way that after that I had to study it because Abraham, when Abraham was looking for a wife for his son Isaac, he tells his servants, look, we can't you can't find a wife for her in this line. I need you to go back to my hometown and find a wife for my son. The servant goes back, and the servant prays a prayer. He's like, Lord, show that you have favored your servant, and that the person who is supposed to be the wife that give me this as a sign that not only because he was by a well. He said not only would she offer him water, but that she would offer his camels water. This was a sacrifice. And by the way, this is a real sign. Is see, sometimes when we are in deception, we're like, God, if you want me to continue in this, let me see four white cars today. And God, if this is not of you, then let Oprah just knock on my front door. It is like, clearly, you know what side you're standing on. Okay, But this man asks for a real sign, because to water someone's camels. They are extremely thirsty. And then Rebecca shows up. Rebecca is like, hey, you know you want to drink and do your camels want to drink? And she's over there, just you know, giving everybody water. And he is like, surely God has favored me. He follows Rebecca to her house. He tells them everything. They're like, beautiful, you know what, she will marry that man. But right there, the servant says, you know. They were like, let her just stay with us for ten days, you know, let her just stay here. The servant says, please do not delay me. We need to go now. And then the parents said, she will go. Let us. Let's first ask. Her if she is willing, then she will go. Rebecca shows up and they asked her, are you willing to go? And she said I will. God honors free. Will you see in the midst of everything there was a sign from heaven. The Lord showed up and said, yes, early that is your wife. But what's their willingness? The person that God has spoken to you about, is there any willingness? And could it be that an actual sign that is a God thing, is that there is willingness? There is connection you see for anyone who is praying about their spouse and how they identify them. I encourage you to watch our pastor's message on five keys to identify in your soul. Man. It is very powerful because there has to be a connection. God does not want to torture you. You have to understand this. God does not want to put you in a place of mental torture. Watching going on fake pages and stalking the person on instagram, sending cryptic messages. This is torture. And then we slap the name of God on it, and He is looking at He says, my child, be set free. Don't give into this ideology any longer, because you would recognize that the moment you walk away from this delusion, that all of a sudden you will begin to see where there is willingness. You will begin to see the people that have been around you. You will begin to encounter people. Maybe I trade the jokes. You say hi, they said hi. You know that is willingness, all right? But family, I'm saying this, and that's why I'm sharing my own story too, because it's not a thing of judgment. The heart is deceitful above all things, and many times we hear the voice of the enemy and call it the voice of the Lord. But you have to look at what did this produce. What was the fruit? What did it produce in me? And what did it produce outside of me? Because in me it showed me that I could be manipulated. It produced a version of me that was lack of integrity. It produced a version of me that will do whatever it takes to just acquire this. And then what did it produce out of me? Pain, relationships, being caught off, all kinds of weird things. The fruit never lies. The fruit never lies. That is why even when the Lord wants to talk to you about you know, prophets and evangelists and all these people, he said, test the spirit. And what does testing the spirit mean? Look at the fruit. God does not validate his own just because a miracle happened. He said, what is the fruit of their lives?