Delayed by Deceit: Unmasking Spiritual Warfare

By MIchael Westview

What if I told you the unseen world is more real than what you see? How can all the chaos in the world be explained?

There is an unseen war that is real, and your participation is mandatory- whether active or passive. If you choose the least resistance, you have made a choice of death. Want to know what I'm referring to? This inte

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Mar 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9798887383422

MIchael Westview

Michael Westview has written other books within the Christian genre to help in the equipping of the saints of the true church of Jesus Christ. From his unique perspective after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2016, Westview writes about his "valley experience" and the faith in Jesus Christ needed to overcome and win the challenges of each day (www.michaelwestview.com).

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Acknowledgments

To the believers who love Jesus and try to fight the darkness every day, may we all realize that in Christ, there is a victory!

To my mother—you have been such a great encourager for me and this project.

Most important, to my Savior Jesus Christ, who has given me this important assignment with this book when I am so unqualified. Thank You for sharing Your salvation and sacrifice by what You did for all of us.

Introduction

I would like to have a conversation with you—an important one.

You see, you are more valuable than you think you are. Your soul is very valuable to the One who made you; you are your Creator’s treasure. Your soul is an important victory piece in a very real, invisible war between the Creator of heaven and earth, the Lord God of the universe, the King of Israel, Jesus Christ (in Him is all authority and power), and the enemy, the devil, the rebellious angel that was kicked out of heaven to the earth, along with one-third of the God’s angels, for pride was found in him. Those fallen judged angels have now become demons. Since the enemy is not omnipresent or everywhere at the same time like Father God is, the demons are the ones that cause chaos and trouble for mankind under the devil’s direction.

Although Jesus was born, He did die for our sins on the cross and did rise again; until Jesus comes for His church as it is foretold by the Holy Scriptures, the enemy and his demons are on this earth trying with their influence for the destruction of the souls of man, who does not receive King Jesus’ finished work on the cross. Given the devil hates the Father in heaven because of his eviction to earth, the focus of his hate is the creation of whom the Father loves: people.

Humans need a God they can relate to, someone who understands their lives and their struggles while, at the same time, they are not able to comprehend Him; if humans were able to understand Him completely, it really would disqualify Him for being God. Father’s representative for His glory is in the God-man of Jesus—the lover of people’s hearts and souls.

The real aim for the enemy is to undermine the salvation of those who would believe the truth about Jesus and the price He paid. Part of the strategy of this defeated former archangel is for humans to do nothing about the free gift of God. To delay a decision is actually making a decision not to activate the blessing and, therefore, in essence, rejecting that blessing.

At first, in reading this book, it might appear as light reading, but, to the contrary, the topics of deception of the enemy are deep like a well. But as you ponder and examine the topics, remember there is good news, though. The good news through Christ trumps every lie and every slight trick of hand the enemy dishes out. Where the Spirit of God is, there is freedom.

I am well aware that each chapter of this book could be a separate book in itself. If the Lord so desires, maybe each chapter will be a future publication. For now, may this information be a warning bell.

In this book, there are misconceptions and patterns of life mentioned to be analyzed. Remember this devil is not a creative being and has attacked and tempted mankind the same way for thousands of years. These distortions have surfaced in my life like anyone else, and yet they were also learned out of my spiritual lukewarmness. Quite frankly, quite a few of them when He pointed them out to me, I was surprised at since they were not so obvious. Most were revelations while in prayer to Jesus; however, quite a few were unfortunately experienced. With that being said, this book by no means should not and will not glorify the enemy of our souls, but yet to only expose his falsehoods by glorifying the One who overcame him: Jesus Christ. My prayer is that while you read this book, Christ will show you His love by shedding some light on some areas of your life where you might have a blind eye toward the enemy and the world.

I am completely humbled, in fact, that He would choose me to write about His reality by using some very painful personal situations as a training ground in order to share His message of love and the serious warning of a real infiltrating darkness. This book is part of my testimony. To Jesus be all the glory! The Lord used my spiritual gift of distinguishing spirits (1 Corinthians 12:7–11) as recorded in the Bible to understand spiritual warfare while perceiving this unseen battle. This is not hokey or magic. There is a God, and He marks His own with His unseen Holy Spirit within His people. You want visible evidence? Look at the nightly news. You see crazy people doing murders and harm against other people? The enemy originated that behavior. In addition, look outside at the trees and grass—someone made that, and someone made you. Outside creation is just a small amount of what God has done. The true people who follow Him give more evidence of His existence because of their changed lives.

Again, I ask: Are you ready for a serious conversation?

Do you want to see how the enemy picks you apart every day in order to break you mentally down so your mind can be controlled by him?

My prayer is that when you read this book, the Holy Spirit will confirm with your soul and spirit that this book was sent to the body of Jesus Christ to make them aware, expose, and confirm the lies of our enemy, the devil. When you read the book, consult the Word of God, the Bible, and pray for what He will show you as it relates to your life.

May He place His lampstand by this publication!

The enemy is counting on your impatience and suspicion in order to disregard this book. Of course, the enemy does not want to be more exposed than he already is. Don’t let him tell you what your intentions are! The more you know how you’re attacked, the more victory you’ll experience later.

At the end of each chapter, Ephesians 5:11 will remind you to expose the enemy’s lies by bringing them to the light.

All glory to Jesus, King of the universe. All wisdom be His!

Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them (Ephesians 5:11, NIV).

Foundation

First of all, this book is to only glorify Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God of Israel. I talk a lot about the enemy, but only to expose him. The word enemy is never capitalized because I don’t even want to give him any position.

With each chapter, it is my prayer you gain insight on how Jesus has defeated the enemy on so many numerous levels; these deceits to humanity are not new at all—the reason being sin makes one stupid. Disobedience and sin have made humanity very ignorant in many spiritual things.

This book is organized into three sections: Faith, Hope, and Love. These three foundations conform to the words that Jesus said in 1 Corinthians 13:13 regarding the faith, hope, and love in God and His Word. Each attack of evil is customized to the individual with these three foundations in mind; not everyone has the same struggles, but overall, the macro goal is to undermine humanity and the free salvation gift from the cross. The subtle attacks of the enemy are categorized this way since Jesus did say these three spiritual heart conditions or attitudes sum up all of Christianity. Each section, I believe, would cause a believer in Jesus Christ to be ultimately delayed by deceit if the believer unknowingly or intentionally believes the mental attacks that are thrown at them. And yes, you do have a choice to receive or reject them in the power of the Holy Spirit.

It is my desire to expose the enemy as far as my experience—to make an open spectacle in a respectful way. We don’t have to be afraid of the devil, evil, and the darkness—just a cautionary respect—because and only because of Jesus and His blood; otherwise, we would have no power or chance of survival. We must abide in the Holy Spirit as we walk through our lives. Hopefully, your faith can be strengthened by these truths. Through my life experiences, you will see that you are not alone.

The goal of the evil one is for people to have complacency—to have you not realize that you need to be saved from your sins. If you are saved, the goal is to delay you as much as possible from making a difference for the kingdom of God and His Christ. I often wonder where I would be if I had been obedient to God my whole life. As with any type of personal growth, whether it is reading the Bible more or serving others less fortunate, it will be uncomfortable at first since your default is with your own mind and physical needs. We all are born into this world wanting not the ways of God. It will be well worth it in the end to abandon the ways of culture and the ways of self and to pick up our cross daily and follow Jesus.

According to the Word, in the last days, the Father said he would pour out His Spirit out on the earth, and I know this book might be one of those resulting from that promised blessing. I asked the Lord many times, Why me? He answered only for me to abide with Him. He does not call the qualified; He qualifies the called.

One evening I did not feel content to sleep upstairs in the master bedroom, so I went downstairs to the family room on the couch. Looking back, I was not aware the Spirit of God had been approaching me in the previous mornings with the loud clearing of my nose. Since childhood I have had a breathing problem with my nose, so the clearing of this problem without any effort got my attention. With a loud audible noise, my nose would clear, and then I could breathe without any blockage. The next event scared me to death—all of a sudden, a loud, audible suction noise rang out in front of me. There was a physical presence in that room that gave my senses a panic feeling. I was not alone, and in my mind every one of my senses was screaming at me. The floor joist around five feet away that made a noise every time someone stepped on it was making that same noise.

I wear glasses all the time except when I am ready for bed. When I went to bed on the downstairs couch, I took the glasses off like normal. Even though the thick see-through wool blanket was over my head, when the being appeared before me without my glasses on, I could not see any face. It is my personal perception the being or angel (since I felt peace as they drew closer) before me appeared to have features like a male. Regardless, I know he wanted me to see him. I was mortified and unable to move. At first I thought he was going to hurt me, but instead he was waving his hands in a crossing wave-like motion over my chest—maybe I was being healed from a current sickness or what I believe is he was maybe confirming my spiritual gift of the discerning of spirits. After that, the angel disappeared.

For the next five days alone in the house, I would be confronted with a certain spiritual thorn. The Lord did confirm in many ways this encounter with the angel was from God and that there was His peace despite the pain of the thorn; this was to get my attention away from my physical body and my own opinions. In looking back, I now know this was training to understand His communication for such a time as this.

This thorn is through the right side of my head. Although extremely painful at times, it helps me feel my disobedience or sin in my interpretation. There are several ways the Holy Spirit gets my attention physically; I will share what only I am allowed to over time.

While reading this book, you might want to read out loud. It will encourage your own spirit when you affirm yourself in Christ since normally when a person talks to themselves audibly when no one is around, the demons also hear you. Remember the enemy is not omniscient like Holy Father God, so you’re dealing with demons. They do study and take notes about you. There is no mistaking, my friend—the devil and his demons can’t understand how to kill you if they do not know you.

Overall, be encouraged since this enemy, this darkness, has been overcome by Jesus and His cross of love, but you must decide on whether to engage in the spiritual battle you have been born into or do nothing and die. Each person who claims Jesus has been drafted into this battle, whether you like it or not.

Learn from this publication and pray about the things it mentions.

Don’t be Delayed by Deceit, my friend; decide now!

Faith

Chapter 1: Stolen Time and Authority?

It is written in Luke 10:19 (NIV) that Jesus has given authority to every believer, To trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy and nothing will harm you. The snakes and scorpions represent the demons of darkness. This special authority that Jesus was referring to was formerly held by the devil, the former archangel, as the worship leader. Humans ourselves do not have any spiritual authority at all. Be extremely careful not to let that go into pride. The enemy is still upset today that he lost his privileges at the cross long ago and has since marked every believer in Jesus Christ by trying to convince that person their authority, through his lies, is not relevant or even real. Fortunately, there is only so much the enemy can do since the cross by means of overrunning the believer, so he tries to cause great delay with their effectiveness against the kingdom of darkness.

In the name of Jesus, the Christian can defend themselves. How can you tell you’re being attacked by the enemy? Not only do you have thoughts in your head that are not of your character or of your origination, but your spirit is suddenly without calm. No matter how hard you would try to muster up positive thoughts to regain your mood, the heavy burden of the unknown future convinces you that you are stuck in your situation—this is the attack of the enemy since he is trying to take your faith that He has plans for you. It is quite possible there might be a physical issue with the body; however, if the thought track you were on is suddenly shifted to a darker place, you are under siege and there is an attempt on the robbing of your peace. It is one of the various ways the enemy likes to gain a position in our minds to allow the peril of sickness and disease to take center stage instead of our identity in Jesus—it is all about our focus and intention. You see, focus and acknowledgment are worship to the supernatural. The individual who does not know Jesus yet is not spiritually discerning of the shift at all; that person is subject to every demon that possesses them since demons can only possess individuals who are not occupied by the Holy Spirit.

The truth that each believer needs to receive is that Jesus has the authority to give us authority to deal with the battles of our lives—the battle of heart loyalty. Once authority is received by accepting Jesus as Savior, that person has been deputized, if you will, like a police officer, in the law enforcement of the kingdom of heaven. This authority does not fluctuate from day to day—it is constant to the end of eternity. It is not a feeling. It does not go away if you are not thinking about that authority. It cannot be removed. It is because He is.

Time Is Limited

Since time is of the essence with life, why does it seem that quite a number of people have the gift of procrastination? I know there are many things to do, but why do some choose to put certain required activities off? That individual who delayed in starting a certain project had probably gone over all the steps they needed to produce the finished product in their mind, and they determined it would take too much energy to start all that today. The same holds true for the believer in Jesus. The enemy would like to delay any spiritual progress or procrastination of it. The devil and his demons are running out of time before their judgment, and they would like for people to feel that same feeling of terror since there is no peace. So if there is a chance that an individual’s spiritual progress could be delayed, that would be the goal of the enemy. How could the believer get out of this non-productive mindset? By praying in the authority they were given. All it takes is a prayer for the Holy Spirit to reach into His power to give the power and proper attitude that is needed. If you stop in the middle of a river and do nothing, you are going to be downstream. So doing nothing is doing something—it is making a choice to be delayed and nullified within your faith.

One of the major reasons the evil one longs to delay us in our daily lives is to convince us we have eternity to do as the Lord wills, so to speak. That there’s plenty of time to get right with God, plenty of time to go to church, and plenty of time to get saved. Not true. While billions of people have rejected the only one that can save them, by their own choice, not without a fight, Jesus longs to reach everyone since time is short. This lack of time is a great misunderstanding; life on earth will suddenly change when millions of people disappear without a trace—this is called the rapture of the church. While many in the church debating if it will happen before, during, or after certain events is really small potatoes, the fact is that it will happen since the evidence of the Holy Spirit as the deposit has come, and the true church will be taken away.