THE VISION by Rick Joyner

A Warning
Episode 100

"There is another wisdom that is not the wisdom of God, and there is another one who calls himself "Wisdom.' He is not Wisdom; he is our enemy. He can be difficult to recognize because he tries to appear as Wisdom, and he is very good at it. He comes as an angel of light, and he usually brings truth.
He will have a form of truth, and he has wisdom, but it has taken me a long time to be able to distinguish them from THE Truth and THE Wisdom. I have learned that I can still be fooled by him if for one moment I start to think that I can't. Wisdom has told me that we can never outsmart the enemy— our defense is to learn to first recognize, and then resist him.”
Stephen's eyes were wide as that "knowing" look came over him. "I know who you are talking about!" he interjected.
"I met a lot of people in the prison who followed that one.
They were always talking about a higher wisdom, a higher knowledge. They always seemed like noble, fair people, but they felt foul. Whenever I told them about Wisdom, they said that they knew "Wisdom,' too, and that he was their 'inner guide.' However, when I listened to them, I did not feel I was being led to freedom like they said, but rather to an even stronger bondage in that prison. I just felt darkness around them, not like the light I felt when I talked with Wisdom. I knew they were not the same."
"The true Wisdom is Jesus. You know that now. True wisdom is to seek Him. Any wisdom that does not lead you to Jesus is a false wisdom. Jesus will always set you free. The false 'Wisdom' will always lead you to bondage. However, true freedom often looks like bondage at first, and bondage usually looks like freedom at first."
"It's not going to be easy is it?" Stephen lamented.
"No. It is not going to be easy, and it is not supposed to be. Suspicion is not the same as true discernment, but if you are going to suspect anything, suspect what seems easy. I have not yet found ‘easy' through any door or on any path that has been right. Taking the easy way may be the surest way to be misled. You have been called as a soldier, and you are going to have to fight. Right now the whole world is in the power of the false 'Wisdom,' and you will have to overcome the world to fulfill your destiny."
"Already I have had to do things that were harder than anything I have ever done before," Stephen reflected. "But you are right—it is hard, but it is worth it. I have never known such joy, such satisfaction, such hope. Freedom is hard. It is hard to have to choose which mountain I climb. Back there, I knew that I could have chosen to not climb that wall. I felt like the fear of making that choice was the wall inside of me.
But once I had made the choice, I knew I would make it over the top. But does it ever become easier?"
"I don't think so, but somehow 'hard' gets to be more fulfilling. There can be no victory without a battle, and the greater the battle, the greater the victory. The more victories you experience, the more you start to look forward to the battles, and you rise even higher to face the bigger ones. What makes it easy is that the Lord always leads us to victory. If you stay close to Him, you will never fail. After every battle, every test, you are much closer to Him and know Him much better."
"Will I always feel that darkness when the false "Wisdom' tries to mislead me?"
"I don't know. I do know that the darkness comes when he deceives us into self-seeking. When he deceived the first man and woman into eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the first thing they did was to look at themselves. Once the false 'Wisdom' can make us self centered, our fall into bondage is sure. The deceiver always tries to get you to seek yourself. The call to fulfill our destiny is not for our sake, but for the Lord's sake and for the sake of His people."
“Has anyone ever made it to their destiny without
being tricked?"
"I don't think so. Even the great Apostle Paul admitted to having been foiled by Satan. Peter was tricked a few times that were recorded in Scripture, and we do not know how many other times that were not recorded. But don't be overly concerned about being deceived. That is actually one of his biggest traps. He sidetracks many by having them fear more in his power to deceive than to have faith in the power of the Holy Spirit to lead them into all truth. Those who have fallen into this trap not only fall into increasing bondage to fear, but they will attack anyone who walks in the freedom that comes with faith. I am quite sure that you will not make it far up that mountain before they ambush you."
"And they know the name of Jesus?" Stephen asked, a little confused. "They must have known His name to get over that wall and to have gone that far. I mean, didn't they really know His name once?"
"I am sure they did. But stand and look throughout the valley ahead around every mountain. What do you see?"
"It looks like little prisons. It looks like there are many
just like the one I came out of!”
"That's why I was surprised when you told me that Wisdom had said this was the only prison, but after I was there for just a little while I understood what He meant. Look at the high walls. Look at the fences. They are all the same.
If you are captured along the way, they will not bring you back here. They know you would choose death over that, but they will take you to one of the other prisons. When you get close to them, it is hard to see that they are prisons from the outside, but inside they are all the same, with people divided and imprisoned by their fears."
"I'm glad you showed them to me," Stephen offered. "I did not even see the prisons when I was looking this way from the top of the wall or when I was looking for the mountain I am to climb. And you think I will be ambushed many times by those who will try to capture me and put me in one of them? And these people will be using the name of Jesus?"
"The Lord, Himself, warns in Scripture that in the last days many will come in His name, claiming that He is indeed the Christ, and yet they will deceive many. Believe me, there are many like that, and I do not believe that most of them know they are deceivers. I can tell you a characteristic I have
seen in all those whom I have met—they quit while on their journey, stopping short of their destiny. It takes faith to keep going, and they choose to follow fear rather than faith. They begin to think that fear is faith and actually see the walls of fear around their prisons as strongholds of truth. Fear will do that to your vision, and you can start to see strongholds that way. Few of these people are really dishonest. They are sincere, but they are deceived by one of the most powerful
deceptions of all, the fear of deception."
"Should I fight them?"
"I understand your question and have asked it many times myself. They destroy the faith of so many and do far more damage to the sojourners than all of the cults and sects combined. There will be a time when all such stumbling blocks will be removed, but for now they, too, are serving a purpose by making the way harder."
"Wisdom wants it to be harder? It is already so difficult just battling our own fears. Why does He want to make it harder by making us battle all of these fearful people as well?"
"The journey will be exactly as easy or hard as He wants it to be. This life is a temporary journey used to prepare those who will reign with Him over the age to come as sons and daughters of the Most High forever. Every trial is for the purpose of changing us into His image. One of the first things we must learn on this journey is not to waste a single trial,
but to seize them as the opportunities that they are. If your path is more difficult, it is because of your high calling."