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# Chapter 3: Deceiving Spirits
> He who kills a bull is as if he slays a man; He who sacrifices a lamb, as if he breaks a dog’s neck; He who offers a grain offering, as if he offers swine’s blood; He who burns incense, as if he blesses an idol. Just as they have chosen their own ways, And their soul delights in their abominations, So will I choose their delusions, And bring their fears on them; Because, when I called, no one answered, When I spoke they did not hear; But they did evil before My eyes, And chose that in which I do not delight. (Isaiah 66:3-4)
The “gods of this world” can be categorized into three groups. The first group consists of the Devil and his cohorts. Initially, they were ministering angels serving God in Heaven, but were cast down to earth after their rebellion. The second group consists of deceiving spirits. Deceiving spirits were originally angels sent to minister to the saints before they were changed. The final group consists of demons. Demons are the spirits of dead unbelievers who did not receive the forgiveness of sins before their death.
In this chapter, we will mainly look at the second category: deceiving spirits. A comprehensive discussion can be found in the second book to the Demonology series, *What are Deceiving Spirits?*
*Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation? (Heb. 1:14)*
God sends angels to help His children who will inherit salvation. Angels cannot be lords or masters over man. Our only Lord and Master is Jesus. God did not send the angels to be our masters. Angels can never be lords over the saints. Therefore, angels can never be the subjects of worship.
*Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. (Col. 2:18)*
*Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then he said to me, “See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.” (Rev. 22:8-9)*
Some people claim to have seen angels through visions and pretend to be humble before them. They say, “O angels, O angels, please help me!” The Bible says if a believer worships an angel, he would definitely lose his reward in Heaven. Veneration of angels is spiritual corruption.
Today, we are the children of God who call Him, “Father.” Angels can never call out to God as their Father. We might be inferior to the angels because of our flesh, but as God's children our authority is incomparably greater than the angels.
Why was man temporarily created a little lower than the angels? He is a little lower than the angels because of the endless weakness of his flesh. Though angels and man are both spiritual beings, man is confronted with many limitations due to his flesh. The reason God created such a spiritual being with a body was so that Jesus Christ could come through him in the flesh to experience death successfully.
*But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. (Heb. 2:9)*
Though Jesus temporarily became a little lower than the angels, they could not rule over Him but rather served Him. Likewise, saints are in the same position as Christ to be served by the angels. Some people say that angels were very active during the Old Testament times but their activities ceased in the New Testament period. This is not true.
*Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him. (Matt. 4:11)*
*Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. (Luke 22:43)*
*Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. (Matt. 18:10)*
*And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison. Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, “Arise quickly!” And his chains fell off his hands. Then the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and tie on your sandals”; and so he did. And he said to him, “Put on your garment and follow me.” (Acts 12:6–8)*
*The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John. (Rev. 1:1)*
*The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up. (Rev. 8:7)*
The Bible shows that angels are very active in the New Testament times also. It is only because the works of Jesus Christ are mainly emphasized in the New Testament, that the operations of angels are not as noticeable. For example, when the sun comes out, the moon and stars are no longer visible. Likewise, when Jesus came, the works of angels were overshadowed, not ceased.
We must know how to command the angels. I always pray, “Empower me, Lord!” Angels are God's power. God’s children have the authority to command angels. People with authority can always use power. Only a king has the authority over a nation. He has the authority to take lives or to save them. Regardless of his stature or exterior appearance, the king's word can decide the fate of his subjects. It is only reasonable for the one with authority to use power! Today, we are God's children with authority. We will later reign with Christ for a thousand years after the first resurrection.
*And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. (Rev. 20:4)*
If God’s children say, “O angels, please help me!” it will be like a king’s son begging the vassals, “Honorable vassals, please help me.” We must know that commanding the angels is our legal, God-given right, and use it actively.
Old Testament believers had no authority. As people under the Law, they were not privileged to call God, “Father.” Only those who are born again by believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ can call God, “Father.” The Old Testament believers could not call God as their Father because they were servants. Servants have no authority. Therefore, the Old Testament believers could not expel demons. They might have crossed the Red Sea, brought rain to a dry land, and stopped the sun, but they could not expel demons because demons possess the authority of the prince of this world.
Only a king can dethrone another king. If you declare war on the president of another country and say, “Come, let us fight!” no one will pay attention to you. It would be very different, however, if the president of our country declares war on another country. War would break out immediately. Thus, an authority can only be opposed by another authority.
Anyone who has received the authority of Jesus Christ, the King of kings, can cast out demons. To have authority means to have the authority to use power. Those who have authority are not only able to perform signs and wonders, but also cast out demons. Why do people not acknowledge such amazing authority? The Lord said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).
Many people live powerless and miserable lives because they do not know the truth. We have the authority from above. We can command angels with that authority.
Angels are ministering spirits sent by God to help the saints. (Heb. 1:14). But there are times when these helping angels become transmuted. These transmuted angels are called deceiving spirits. If we consider how the angels serving God in Heaven became corrupt and fell, we can easily understand that the ministering angels serving man on earth can also be changed. Angels can change. Thus, angels cannot be the truth nor could the Law delivered by an angel be the truth. Only Jesus Christ, the ever-unchanging One, is the truth.
Four factors led to the fall of the angel in Heaven. First, he denied God’s uniqueness. Second, he deified creation. Third, he took God’s name in vain. Finally, he failed to remember God.
Why did God establish the Sabbath day? He created it so we would always remember Him. After God finished the work of creation, He rested from all of His work on the seventh day. The Sabbath day was designed for all creation to remember God, the Creator. Then, how about the Lord’s Day? The Lord’s Day was designed to remember Jesus Christ, our Savior. That is why we take the Lord’s Supper on the Lord’s Day.
*Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. (Acts 20:7)*
*For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. (1 Cor. 11:26)*
The Sabbath day was instituted to remember the Creator; the Lord’s Day was instituted to remember the Savior. The purpose of sermons or any Biblical education is to help the believers to remember God.
Who is the Devil? He intentionally ignored God. What is sin? Ignoring God is sin. What is the Gospel? The Gospel brings to remembrances what was forgotten about God. Faith is remembering God’s promises. Faith is not our own convictions, but trusting the word that God has revealed to us. Hence faith is always accompanied by the action of remembering God’s word.
The angels that served God in Heaven fell because they ignored God. They disregarded God’s uniqueness and that they were His creations. They failed to remember God’s name as holy and God as the Creator. The Devil and his cohorts are the ones that ignored God, rebelled against Him, and were driven out of heaven.
Deceiving spirits are different from the Devil and his cohorts. They did not fall from Heaven. They are transmuted while serving the saints on the earth. Then, who are these saints? They are believers who have received the Holy Spirit sent by Jesus Christ after He was crucified, resurrected and ascended into Heaven. The apostles that Jesus personally taught are also saints. They are specially called apostles because they were personally called and taught by the Lord (2 Cor. 11:5). However this does not mean that these apostles have some special authority compared to the saints.
Although the twelve disciples were always with the Lord on earth, they could not be one with Him until they received the Holy Spirit; they could only walk with Him. The expression “walked with God” appears in the Old Testament. Enoch and Noah walked with God, for they were very close to Him. However, God did not indwell them like the way He indwells the saints.
*And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. (John 14:16–20)*
The twelve disciples literally shared everything with Jesus for three years. They directly saw and learned from the Lord. However, the Lord said that they had to receive the Holy Spirit in order for them to be united with the Lord Himself. Receiving the Holy Spirit was of such importance that the Lord said to His disciples it was rather to their advantage that He was going away in order to send the Holy Spirit.
*Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. (John 16:7)*
If Jesus was still in the world today, it would be very difficult for us to see His face except through the media. It would make headlines if anyone went to Judea and met the Lord. Most people would probably never get a chance to meet Him throughout their lifetime. There may be some who get the opportunity to have a meal with Him. However that does not mean that the Lord dwells in them they in the Lord. That is why Jesus said, “It is to your advantage that I go away,” because the Lord has to depart in order to send the Holy Spirit to all believers and dwell in them forever.
Saints are those who abide with the Lord forever. As God's children, they have the authority to command angels as their servants. Of course, the Old Testament believers had also received the help of angels, but it was not with the authority as masters. Saints however, have the right as God’s children to command the angels sent by God.
When the angels who are sent to assist the saints become corrupted, they are called deceiving spirits. The Devil and his cohorts rebelled against God, but deceiving spirits are the angels that transmuted by showing excessive loyalty to God (1 Kings 22:21).
God commanded Saul to attack the Amalekites and completely destroy all that belonged to them, not sparing any; he was to put to death every man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. But Saul spared the best of the sheep and oxen and only destroyed the despised and worthless animals. When Saul disobeyed God’s command, God regretted that He set him up as king. When Saul was rebuked by the prophet Samuel, he was busy making excuses instead of repenting. As Saul would not repent, God sent a distressing spirit to torment him.
*But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit (evil spirit, NASB) from the Lord troubled him. (1 Sam. 16:14)*
Samuel’s stern proclamation that God had rejected Saul as king continually rang in his ears. The women of Israel sang, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands,” which constantly fanned the flames of jealousy in Saul’s heart all the more. Seized with unrest and jealousy, he was driven by an uncontrollable urge that he tried to kill David several times. Later, he was so overwhelmed by the distressing spirit from the Lord that he prophesied naked. The distressing spirit that came upon Saul and troubled him was an angel that had transmuted.
The Bible describes the process of an angel’s transmutation in detail.
*Then Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by, on His right hand and on His left. And the Lord said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’ The Lord said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the Lord said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.’ Therefore look! The Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has declared disaster against you.” (1 Kings 22:19–23)*
King Ahab did not obey the words from God’s prophets, but rather chose to listen to the false prophets. This was detestable to God and so He asked the angels,
“Who will entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?”\
A spirit came forward and said, “I will entice him.”\
“How will you entice him?"\
“I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.”\
“Go and do it.”
This was how the angel was transmuted. When God asked how King Ahab might go to his death, this angel imprudently came forward and said that he would be a lying spirit to entice King Ahab so that he might be killed in battle. Eventually, the angel became transmuted into a deceiving spirit that deceives man.
God said that if a prophet was deceived, it was because God had induced that prophet to be deceived.
*For anyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who separates himself from Me and sets up his idols in his heart and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, then comes to a prophet to inquire of him concerning Me, I the Lord will answer him by Myself. I will set My face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of My people. Then you shall know that I am the Lord. “And if the prophet is induced to speak anything, I the Lord have induced that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel. And they shall bear their iniquity; the punishment of the prophet shall be the same as the punishment of the one who inquired, that the house of Israel may no longer stray from Me, nor be profaned anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be My people and I may be their God,” says the Lord God. (Ezek. 14:7–11)*
Some people think of by receiving a prophecy when they feel troubled. They want to appease their worries by receiving prophecies. Then, they would not be any different from people who consult psychics. When the heart is troubled, people should repent, not seek answers from prophets.
These so-called prophets try to please the inquirer by giving false prophecies like, “My daughter, my daughter, you are blessed!” The Bible says that in these situations, both the inquirer and the prophet who had been induced to speak would perish and become a byword. God even said that He would cut them off from His people Israel. It is worth noting here that if a prophet was induced to speak, it was God who allowed him to be deceived.
From a spiritual perspective, these inducements are deceiving spirits. Deceiving spirits are originally ministering angels sent out to help the saints but that later transmuted. Thus, to the saints, inducements are the operations of these transmuted angels. God allowed the angel of King Saul to change in order to induce him, and the angel of King Ahab to change into a lying spirit. Saints are no exception. If God allows a ministering angel sent a saint to change, it becomes a deceiving spirit.
The Bible says that because people delight in abominable things, God would choose those delusions over them. These delusions are the transmuted angels, namely deceiving spirits.
*“He who kills a bull is as if he slays a man; He who sacrifices a lamb, as if he breaks a dog’s neck; He who offers a grain offering, as if he offers swine’s blood; He who burns incense, as if he blesses an idol. Just as they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations, So will I choose their delusions, and bring their fears on them. Because, when I called, no one answered. When I spoke they did not hear; but they did evil before My eyes, and chose that in which I do not delight.” (Isa. 66:3–4)*
Some people act as if they are reasonable people and say that they cannot believe God’s words because they are irrational. To other this might seem clever, but it is very abominable to God. The Bible warns against this.
*And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thess. 2:11-12)*
God will send delusions to those who refuse to believe so that they continue in their unbelief and eventually be judged in the end. In other words, if unbelief becomes a habit, God would allow the ministering angels to change so that they can induce them not to believe the truth.
*And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting. (Rom. 1:28)*
God not only uses good angels to help the saints, but at certain He can also use deceiving spirits to induce them. Deceiving spirits are not the ones that rebelled against God; they are the spirits that God uses. They are not the fallen angels from Heaven, but ministering angels that have transmuted while helping the saints on earth.
Deceiving spirits stay with the person throughout his lifetime and continually trouble him. Being induced by the deceiving spirit, King Ahab trusted the words of the false prophets more than that of the good prophets. And King Saul was in intolerable distress because of the deceiving spirit around him.
God does not only help people to believe in His words but also sends delusions to those who refuse to believe so that they continue in their unbelief. God induces people that enjoy lying to tell more lies. He induces those who enjoy being jealous to be more jealous. When deceiving spirits are at work, the abominable acts of a believer become habits. These deceiving spirits are not the spirits that rebelled against God. They were transmuted while being excessively loyal to God.
*Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? (1 Cor. 6:3)*
Saints will judge their own angels in the future. At that time, the saints will strictly judge the angels that changed into deceiving spirits. God has already judged the angels that became corrupt while serving Him in Heaven. But the saints will later judge the ministering angels that became transmuted while serving them.