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.
So, he was questioning her understanding of what God had said and like most Christians, she added her twist to it. In chapter two God told Adam that if you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will die. But Eve says “He meant that if we eat of the tree we may die and that we probably shouldn’t even touch it.”
What Eve did was bring an understanding to the Word that was not in the Word. Do you see this? Eve did exactly what Satan wanted her to do. She filtered the Word through her mind and come up with something that made sense to her.
So the serpent comes to Eve and asks the question because he wants to see if she truly understood what God had said. Listen to me, the serpent knew what God had said. Now he wanted to find out if Eve knew what he knew. Did you hear me?
Now pay attention to what I’m about to say. Eve responded to the serpent based on what she saw. What she could see produced in her a stronger response than obeying what God had said. I am going to repeat that. What Eve saw produced in her a stronger response than obeying what God had said.
This is how the enemy of the soul whips our butts every single day. God says one thing and then we bring in our thoughts – we bring in our filter – and we say this is what we beleive the Word is saying.
We have just described the majority of the Body of Christ today. They don’t believe what the Bible says without adding “their” twist to it. After all, if it doesn’t make sense to me, how can it be true?
God says “I didn’t ask you to make sense of it. Because, if it has to make sense to you, then where is the FAITH? Do I not say in My Word that the just shall live by faith?”
How many of you had a Mom and Dad? And they said they wanted you to clean your room and make your bed. Why did you do it? Because they told you to. They didn’t ask you if you wanted to or if you wanted to do something different. They told you what they wanted and you did it.
Why don’t we give God this same level of respect and obedience? God tells us what He wants, why can’t we just do it? In our minds, our filters say, when God said that He said that 2000 years ago. What does that mean now? The same thing it did 2000 years ago! God doesn’t change.
Satan’s #1 attack is to challenge our understanding of God’s Word – to find out if we’re hearing the voice of our Shepherd. Not only does he want to know if we know it and understand it, but, and this is the most important, do we believe it the way God intended it to be believed. That’s the key.
For those of you who have young children, or who will have children at some point, the biggest gift you can give to your child will be to teach them to hear your voice and to act immediately when they do. For example, if your child is running and you say stop and he stops, that’s the biggest gift you can give him.
Ladies and gentlemen, if your child will listen to you, then when you talk about listening to God and doing what God tells her to do, there’s a good chance she is going to listen and obey. Why? Because she already understands that when Mom and Dad tells her to do something, Mom and Dad are looking out for her.
So, parents and future parents, if you can get your child to understand obedience, then you will have given them the greatest gift you could have ever given to them.
So we see here in Genesis that Satan attacks Eve’s understanding of God’s Word and he will attack our understanding of God’s Word.
Turn to Matthew 4.
(1) Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
Jesus was led. Do you see this? You cannot be led unless you are willing to follow. And you have to be obedient to be willing to follow.
(2) And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered.
(3) And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
Look at verse 5.
(5) Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple.
(6) And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
What did the devil not question? He didn’t question God’s life in Jesus, just like he didn’t question God’s life in Eve. What he questioned was Jesus’ sonship. Do you know who you really are Jesus? The question hints at an underlying thought: “I know who you are but do you know who you are?”
If you know who you are, if you know your rights as the Son of God, then turn these stones into bread, then jump off the pinnacle of the temple. What did the devil question? Jesus, do you really understand what it means to be God’s Son?
This is where he kicks our butts. We really don’t know what it means to be God’s sons and daughters.
If someone had come up to me and asked if John is really your father and Dorothy is really your mother – I would looked at them like they had three head! There was absolutely no doubt in my mind I know who’s son I am.
But you have Christians who act like they don’t know their Father. You look at their lives and you know they don’t know who their Father is.
So Satan comes to us with this question: Do you really know whose family you’re in? Do you really know the rights and privileges you have as God’s sons and daughters? And this is the same question he was asking Jesus! Listen, Satan’s tactics do not change.
So Satan asks Jesus to do something to prove that He was God’s Son. Go back to my example. If someone had asked me to prove I was John and Dorothy’s son, I would have looked at them like they were nuts. I go to sleep in their house every night. They feed me. They cloth me. They give me an allowance. And you think I don’t know who they are? Seriously?
Jesus knew He didn’t have got prove anything. And sadly, many Christians are constantly trying to show the world that they are God’s children by living lifestyles their Father does not endorse.
Tonight is a wake up call for all of us to understand two things:
(1) Satan questions our understanding of what our Father has said.
(2) He gets us to question who we are in our Father’s house. If we understood who we are in our Father’s house the way Jesus understood who He was in the Father’s house, we would do the same things Jesus did.
Now remember: it’s not what you did that makes you God’s child. It’s what Jesus did on the cross that makes you God’s child. You don’t have to do anything to prove who you are!
Think about the freedom that gives you. You pray for someone’s healing but it doesn’t manifest. You are still God’s child. You pray for someone who is battling mental issues and they don’t seem to get better. You are still God’s child. Don’t stop praying. Keep praying. Keep maturing. There’s a reason that scripture says we start out as children! Eventually, when you pray, the lame is going to walk, the blind is going to see!
How have we been hood-winked in these areas?
Look at 2 Corinthians 10.
(3) For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.
(4) (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
(5) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
We are taught that our battles are against people. What does this verse say? It says our battle is not “after the flesh” and they are “not carnal.” What does this tell us? Our battles are spiritual but Satan wants us focused on what we see. Is that not what he did with Eve back in Genesis 3? And how do we battle? With words! How did Jesus “battle” the tempter? With words. “It is written.” This is why we are hood-winked. We are not fighting our battles the way God tells us to battle..
In 2 Corinthians 2:11 we read “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.” The word “devices” means mental tricks. That is how he attacks us ladies and gentlemen – with thoughts, with words – which are going to be against the knowledge of God.
I’m going to say one more thing about this verse. The biggest way Satan is able to gain an advantage over us, when you leave this verse in context, is when we refuse to forgive. All we have to do is go back up to verse 10 to see this. “To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; (Why) Lest (or Because if we don’t forgive) Satan should get an advantage of us…”
In First Peter 5, we’re going to read verses eight and nine and then six and seven.
(8) Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.
(9) Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
The key to understanding what we just read is submission and we see this as we begin reading in verse one. That’s the focus of this chapter. Now look at verse six.
(6) Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.
How can you humble yourself if you’re exalting your imaginations against the knowledge of God? Remember 2 Corinthians 10? You can’t. Put away your imaginations. Put away your pride. Do what I ask you to do.
(7) Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
Do you know why we worry? We are carrying a load we are not designed to carry. God says He will carry the cares for us – if we allow Him. We hold on to our cares like we’re fishing. We cast our cares to God but if He doesn’t deal with them when we want Him to, we start reeling the cares back in thinking this is not a care God wants to carry because He’s not carrying it. We need to do is cut the string! God can’t help us as long as we continue to cast our cares and reel them back in.
Why do we carry cares? We want to be independent. We don’t want to depend on God. We want to be like Adam and Eve. Jesus was not like Adam and Eve.
In looking at the word “adversary,” it means “an opponent in a court of justice.” Satan is going to try to find holes in what you say and what you do. Isn’t that what an attorney does? He’s going to try to find holes in your story. When your life is not in line with God’s Word, there will be holes in your life. And it is in these holes that Satan can legally steal, kill and destroy you.
That’s why it’s so very important to guard what you say. But the problem is this: too many Christians don’t guard what they say and they don’t guard what they allow into their spirits through their souls. They are trying to defend themselves with inadequate counsel. When you have more input from the world than you do from God’s Word, you have inadequate counsel.
We determine how much of the Holy Spirit we want access to in order to determine how much of His counsel we want to use.
So many of us have inadequate counsel and don’t know it.
How do we undo what has been done?
Look at Mark 4:14 – “The sower soweth the word.”
John 17:8 – For I have given unto them they words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didn’t send me.”
Look at verse 17 – “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”
In John 6:63, Jesus says “It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.
If Jesus’ words are spirit and life that means Satan’s words are spirit and death. So, each time you speak something other than what the Bible says, you are speaking death into your life.
So we see that to undo what has been done we must put on the Word.
Now some closing thoughts.
? The devil knows who you are, whose you are, and what you are capable of doing.
? If we’re going to undo the hood-winking that he has accomplished in our lives, then
? We must know who we are.
? We must know whose we are.
? We must know what we are capable of doing.
