When the Almighty created the Garden of Eden He provided its first two inhabitants with all manner of trees from which they could eat.  Each of the trees was “pleasing to the sight and good for food.”  In the midst of the garden He placed two special trees–the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  The wording indicates that these two trees were also pleasing to the eyes and good for food (Gen. 2:8,9).  Partaking of the tree of life would have provided Adam and Eve with the Holy Spirit whose power would have enabled them to resist the Serpent’s temptations to disobey God.  This would have provided them with eternal life, which was God’s intention.  Conversely, eating the fruit of the forbidden tree would show that they rejected God’s concept of good and evil and would create their own version, which would bring about their deaths.  Being able to choose which fruit they would eat gave them the power to concoct their own concept of “right.”  Proverbs 14:12 tells us: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but that is the way of death.”  The way of man is death.  Only God knows what is right.  Man does not have the capacity for determining what is right.  He is dependent on his deity to do that for him.  He has the option of which deity he will worship, obey and serve.  The first man and woman, like one-third of the angels before them and 99% of mankind after them, made the wrong choice, obeyed the wrong master and suffered the consequences. The current world-wide curse from God (covid-19) being a case in point.

Revelation 12:9 warns that “Satan has deceived the whole world.”  Such deception involves the spiritual aspect of mankind’s existence.  In the spiritual world, as in the material world, all that glitters is not gold.  For example, man has created a material called zirconium which, to the untrained eye, passes as diamond.  What is called “fool’s gold,” though it looks and feels like real gold, is a only a faked version of the precious metal.  Only those who work with precious metals can tell the difference between the real and the bogus, and then only after carefully examining the items.  Not even the experts can tell the difference between them looking at them with the naked eye.  Many a wealthy matron has proudly worn a necklace made of zirconium, “knowing” that what hung around her neck was worth what she had paid for it.  And she was not alone.  Those around her would have also been deceived

In the material world deception is merely a matter of wasted money and damaged pride.  In the spiritual world fakery is often a matter of life and death.  Miracles are no exception.  Both those who receive them and those who witness them are subject to deception because they are ignorant of Satan’s wiles.  See Bait and Switch.  This fakery involves the dark side of God’s miracle ministry to mankind.  In the spiritual realm, such deception amounts to evil being accepted as good  Jesus called such deception “darkness.”  Speaking about such chicanery in Matthew 6:23 Jesus proclaimed: “great is that darkness.”  With extremely rare exception, those claiming to be God’s people live their lives in Satan’s “great darkness” that permeates and controls their existence because they believe that it is God’s great light.  Which brings us to the subject of this series–spiritual deception in the arena of the miraculous.

The problem involves man’s tendency to pay attention to only the physically observable aspects of the “Christian life”– going to church, carrying a Bible, singing, praying, studying, etc.  To the Biblically unlearned, it’s all about “optics”–the glitter, the Biblical headlines (promises), etc.  No attention is paid to God’s “fine print”–His instructions relative to the headlines.  This opens up the headline recipient to Satan’s dark, under-the-radar involvement in everything God does.  For example, upon listening to the Serpent, Adam and Eve dismissed God’s warning that they would die if they so much as touched the forbidden tree.  Therefore, upon seeing that the tree was “pleasant to the eyes and good for food,” they dismissed God’s Words of warning (fine print).  All they saw was the “glitter.”  Surely there was no dark side to eating the luscious looking fruit hanging there within “touching” distance.  After all, God had placed the tree right in the middle of the garden.  Surely He meant for them to partake of its fruit.  There was no need to think about all that death business.  Common sense dictated that they dine upon the food He had so graciously provided.  By the time they remembered His fine print (disobey and die), it was too late.  The dazzling optics had caused them to forget His less than dazzling warning.

Unlike their spiritual ancestors, todays fruit pickers are not told about the fine print and therefore never realize that there is a Satan-designed dark side that, if not detected, nullifies what God does in light.  Like Adam and Eve, modern man is commanded to hear ALL of God’s Words, believe and obey them.  Otherwise, like one-third of the angels and the first humans, man will fail.  Unlike Adam and Eve in the garden and the rich man later, modern religionists are oblivious to Satan’s dark side.  They live their lives walking in Satan’s darkness while believing that they are walking in God’s “light.”  Any Biblical proof to the contrary is rejected without hesitation and without investigation, no matter how many times it is recorded in the Book they claim to believe.  When, as I was told, “I know all I need to know” (Jn. 3:16), all other information is irrelevant.

The Lord presents for mankind His headlines promising such miracles as healing and deliverance from evil spirits.  He also presents His fine print which contain His commands.  Without knowledge of His fine print, having a headline materialize inevitably leads to disaster for the recipient without him/her knowing it.  Satan has deceived the church world into looking only at the visible manifestation of a Biblical headline such as His promise: “I am your God Who heals you” and watching such movies as “The Exorcist.”  Church people are not taught what God said in Deuteronomy 13:1-4 about miracles.  Nor are they taught the lessons of Matthew 24:4,24,25.  Why? Because those who lead the churches are  “ministers of righteousness” who unwittingly (and in some cases wittingly) work for the “angel of light” (1 Cor. 11:13-15).  NEVER UNDERESTIMATE HIS POWER.  L.J.