How To Go From Delusion To Discernment (Pt. 1)

I’d like to begin this blog post with two sobering Bible verses:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

(Jeremiah 17:9)

And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

(2 Thessalonians 2:10-12)

What do these verses mean?

And how do they apply to practically moving from being deceived to being discerning?

A Look At Jeremiah 17:9

Let’s first break down and study Jeremiah 17:9, and see what lessons of discernment we can glean from it.

Jeremiah 17:9 says:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

(Jeremiah 17:9)

The AMP Bible puts Jeremiah 17:9 this way:

“The heart is deceitful above all things And it is extremely sick; Who can understand it fully and know its secret motives?

(Jeremiah 17:9 AMP)

Jeremiah 17:9 shows that the root of all deception is really our own human hearts.

It reminds me of how Jesus put it in Mark 7:21-23:

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,

Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:

All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

(Mark 7:21-23)

So, the first key step to spiritually move from deception to discernment is to get rid of the root of deception:

Our naturally deceptive, wicked, sin-sick hearts.

How do we get rid of our hearts, though?

Two verses help give the answer to that question:

My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.

(Proverbs 23:26)

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

(Ezekiel 36:26)

Breaking It Down Further…

What do the two above verses mean?

First, in Proverbs 23:26, we need to “GIVE” our hearts to God.

The word “give” in Proverbs 23:26 in the original Hebrew means “to exchange, trade, yield, submit to.”

So, the first step to go from being deceived to being discerning is to SURRENDER and EXCHANGE our wickedly deceptive hearts for the NEW hearts of FLESH that God offers us!

A Prayer

Dear reader, would you like to surrender your deceptive heart in exchange for God’s gift of a new heart of flesh?

If so, then I wanna encourage you to just pray:

Stay tuned for next week’s blog post, where we’ll dig into how 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 applies to the second step of moving from delusion to discernment!

Amen! Maranatha!