Understanding precedes reality. I've had three conversations this week that have underscored this principle in powerful ways. Two of these conversations were with individuals who thought they were struggling with submission issues. Yet, after speaking with them for a relatively short period of time their hearts shifted around my words and found peace. At the close of each conversation I said, "You totally received what I just shared with you. That means you've been in submission all along. The hearts of the rebellious don't shift around the words of the wise the way your heart has shifted around my words!" The third conversation was with a young man who thought he didn't know anything about sonship and that he was still operating out of the orphan spirit. He discovered that he is actually the pattern son of the house God has put him into, and the model of one who is walking in his inheritance.

The first two individuals didn't understand submission very well, but they were in it! The third guy didn't understand sonship too well, but he was one! For all three of these individuals the realities of submission and sonship were in place long before the understanding of them came, and this is the typical pattern for most aspects of life.

After all, how much did you understand about marriage before you got married? Or about parenthood before your child was born? As a senior pastor I can say that you don't understand the pastoral task until you are one, and you don't understand the ministry until you are in it! You can seek all the understanding you want, but if you don't start with reality, there's nothing for understanding to catch up with!

Now don't get me wrong, we need understanding. Understanding is important, but reality is more important. Understanding without reality is form without substance, knowledge without nature, like clouds with no rain. Understanding can come from reading about a particular reality, but that understanding is lifeless until you begin to live it!

Proverbs 3:5 tells us that we should trust in the Lord and not lean on our own understanding. This means that we can be in submission to God and obey him even when we don't understand what he's doing in our lives or why he's doing it. Understanding is not a prerequisite for obedience.

Proverbs 24:3 tells us that while wisdom is what builds the house (and we'll have to talk more about wisdom in future posts, I hope!?!), understanding is what establishes it. In other words, understanding establishes you in a reality that was already real before you understood it. You had it before you understood it, but now that you understand it you are established in it and you can't be moved from it! The importance of understanding is that it either solidifies you or de-solidifies you in your reality; it solidifies you in those realities that you deem positive and good, and de-solidifies you in those realities that you deem harmful by exposing the deception beneath them. This is why understanding plays so prominently in the book of Proverbs - not because understanding creates any reality, but because understanding can anchor you, making you unmovable and steadfast in what God has done in your life.

Living free from sin begins with breaking free from deception. Jesus was tempted in every way we are, yet he was without sin (Hebrews 4:15). The secret was that he was never deceived; he was and is the truth! Because he was never deceived temptation had no power over him because he had no evil desires. His soul was completely satisfied in God. Deception is anything that allures the soul away from its place of complete satisfaction in God! Deception is far more powerful than temptation because apart from deception temptation has no power! This is why the truth sets us free (John 8:32) and sanctifies us (John 17:17). This is why the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth who comes to guide us into all truth (John 16:13). His task is to lead us out of every place of error and deception and into the fullness of the truth of Jesus Christ. In this post I'd like to discuss three of the primary forms that deception takes and how to avoid them.

1. The Jedi Mind Trick: In Genesis 3:13 Eve reveals why she ate from the tree that God commanded her and Adam not to eat from: "The serpent deceived me and I ate." How did he deceive her? He created a hunger where no hunger previously existed. In essence, he played a Jedi mind trick on her. He held the fruit out in front of her and said, "You want this, you really want this!" This is the primary form deception takes. The enemy will do anything to convince you that sin is something that you want, something that you need, something that you cannot avoid, something that is necessary. When you resist it he will tell you you're being legalistic, holier than thou, and self-righteous. He will tell you that to be a human being is to be a sinner, and to resist sin is to resist your humanity. All of these lies are designed to give power to temptation in the hopes that you'll be overtaken. This is the first degree of deception.

2. The Old Switcheroo: The second degree of deception is illustrated in Genesis 29:25 in which Jacob wakes up the morning after his wedding day to discover that he married the wrong lady! His father Laben had switched Rachel for Leah and Jacob didn't even know it because he was too drunk! He thought he was climbing into bed with one woman, but in actuality he had become intimate with a whole nother woman! To make matters worse, Rachel was young and beautiful, but Leah was hard to look at! He thought he was climbing into bed with something attractive, but ended up becoming intimate with something ugly! This is classic deception: once the Jedi mind trick works and Satan convinces you to climb into bed with, let's say, sexual fulfillment, you wake up next to pornography addiction; you climb into bed with casual drinking and wake up next to alcoholism. All the devil needs is a foot in the door and he'll throw the old switcheroo at you!

3. The Treaty: The third degree of deception is found in Joshua 9:22. The Gibeonites heard that Joshua and the Israelites were taking out every city in the region, so they sent out a couple messengers dressed in rags and carrying spoiled bread to meet them. The messengers claimed that their land was far, far away and that making a treaty with them would not hinder the expansion campaign of the Israelites. Once the treaty was made, the Israelites discovered that the Gibeonites lived a few blocks away! Now the Israelites are forced to honor a treaty with their enemies. Once Satan has played the Jedi mind trick on us, and executed the old switcheroo, he tries to get us to make a treaty with our sin by assuring us that its consequences are far, far away and that there is no chance of our being harmed by it. This is the worst deception of all because sin's consequences are always right around the corner! Making a treaty with sin means accepting its presence in our lives. Now we are really deceived because we have stopped contending for victory over it.

I believe that freedom from sin is a theme that God is highlighting in the body of Christ right now. Bondage to sin is rampant in the church. I believe the key to breaking free is the infusion of truth. It is the truth that sets us free. We don't have to be ignorant of Satan's devices! We can walk free and clean by the power of the Holy Spirit if we walk in him who is the truth and let him set us free from every power of deception! What are your thoughts?

If your goal is to fall into sin and be stuck there for a lifetime, I've got good news for you! The program that I prescribe below will allow you to accomplish your goal quickly and easily, and without diet or exercise! Just follow each of these three simple steps and you will be on your way to a life of bondage and shame.

1. Allow Satan to Deceive You

The first step to falling into sin is to fall for Satan's deception. In Genesis 3:13 God confronts Eve with her sin of disobedience, and she responds in these words: "The Serpent deceived me, and I ate." Notice she doesn't say she ate the fruit because she couldn't resist it, or because she desired it. She had no desire for the fruit at all. Satan played a Jedi mind trick on her, convincing her that she wanted the fruit, when she didn't want it at all, and convincing her that she needed the fruit when she didn't need it at all! Sin does not begin with desire or need, it begins with deception. The first step to falling into sin is to allow Satan to deceive you into believing that you need something that God is not providing for you, or that you want something that God is not giving to you. Once deception has set in, you are off to a good start, but you are not there yet. You still have two steps to go!

2. Give in to Temptation

Once you have given in to the deception of the enemy, temptation sets in. That is, you didn't know that you wanted what God said that you are not to have until the enemy convinced you that you wanted it. But now that you've tasted it, you realize that you absolutely want it! Now you needn't be deceived anymore. Instead you are tempted and led astray by your own desires (James 1:14). The temptation that comes from your own sinful desires is the guarantee that you will continue to return to this particular sin for the rest of your life! This is the real substance of falling into sin. Only one step remains to making it permanent!

3. Keep it a Secret

Once you have been overwhelmed by temptation, the only thing that can hinder you from reaching your goal of complete slavery to sin is confession, repentance, and submission to a godly leader. The way you avoid this is by keeping your sin a secret at all costs! Thankfully, this is just as easily done as it is said! While in most  situations secrets are hard to keep, sin secrets are easy to keep because they are powered by shame. Shame is like a good, strong girdle: just as a girdle helps you conceal, rather than lose, your gut, shame helps you conceal your sin so that you maintain the appearance of freedom and godliness!

So there you have it! If you follow these three easy steps, you are guaranteed a life of unrestrained, and incurable sin and debauchery. If at any time you feel that you've gotten off track, that you are somehow straying from your goal, simply return to these three steps and you'll find that you are back in bondage to sin in no time!

Question: With of these steps do you identify with the most?