Hood-Winked

Hood-winked

Let’s open tonight with some questions. And there is a right answer and all of you know it.

? Who comes to mind when I say heals the sick? (Response: Jesus)

? Who comes to mind when I say raises the dead? (Response: Jesus)

? Who comes to mind when I say causes blind eyes to see? (Response: Jesus)

? Who comes to mind when I say causes the lame to walk? (Response: Jesus)

This is exactly how I expected you to respond. But ladies and gentlemen, this is also talking about you now that you’re born again and have the same life living in you that lives in Jesus! But we don’t see ourselves this way. We see Jesus and then we see us.

Do you know what our problem is? We have been hood-winked. Satan has hood-winked us into not seeing who we truly are – Jesus’ brothers and sisters. We are not seeing ourselves where we ought to see ourselves.

Why is it that we don’t see ourselves the way God sees us and the way He intends for us to see ourselves?

The word “hood-winked” means “to take in by deceptive means, to deceive, to blindfold, to conceal. That’s what it means to be hood-winked. Notice the key words: deceive, blindfold, conceal. So right off the bat we know that if we have been hood-winked, we didn’t know it.

Let’s read a verse we all know by heart – John 14:12. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my father.”

If Jesus says we are to do the same works that He did, and greater because He goes to His Father, then it stand to reason that Jesus did not do things that were not related to His Father’s will. Did you catch that?

Turn to John 10:10, another familiar scripture. “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

Depending on who you listen to, they will tell you that this abundant life means cars, money, a big home, etc. No. Let’s just put that to rest right now. This abundant life that Jesus is talking about is something that they did not have available to them at that time – His life, His Father’s life, the new nature that is now on the inside of you. That’s the abundant life Jesus is talking about because everything else proceeds from that.

Now here’s the question: what is it that the thief wants to steal from us, to kill in us, and to destroy in us? Go back up to verse one.

(1) Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

(2) But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

(3) To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.

(4) And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.

What is it that the thief is trying to steal, kill and destroy in our lives? Our ability to hear the shepherd’s voice. Do you see this? If you can hear the shepherd’s voice then you will do what He wants you to do – you will obey Him!

Scripture is very clear. The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy and the only thing he can steal, kill and destroy in our lives is our ability to hear the voice of our shepherd. What is it then that the thief wants us to do? He wants us to hear another voice! His voice!

Look in Genesis 3. Verse one says “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And said unto he woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”

For a long time, I thought Satan was questioning what God had said. But it’s more than that.

What did the serpent not question? He didn’t question the spiritual life that lived in Eve. He didn’t question the life that God had placed within her. He knew Eve was God’s daughter. He didn’t question God’s Word, now listen to me now – the serpent questioned Eve’s understanding of God’s Word. Capture that!

Many of us can quote scripture but there is a difference between quoting scripture and knowing and understanding what God meant.