Lessons From Superman

This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Running with Horses, a podcast devoted to inspire you, concerning a relationship with Almighty God that empowers you to accomplish things you never thought possible.

Shirley Weaver wants to take you there. And now, here's today's episode. Hello everyone, and welcome.

I am really, really glad you are here. There was a television program that was featured as children's entertainment way back in the early days of television. I remember watching this program on a black and white screen, of course.

The program was Superman. This was really for children, but adults watched it too. And it was totally fictional.

Everyone knew that. In other words, I as a child was not under any illusion that anything that I was watching was real. It was imaginary. It was entertaining. You know, children have very innocent minds before they're tampered with.

And so my generation probably enjoyed a more prolonged period of innocence than say the children being born today, you know, as I'm speaking this message. But the thing about Superman was this exchange that happened where this, and I'm just remembering, you know, he was the mild-mannered reporter for the newspaper. That was his description. He was a mild-mannered reporter. His name was Clark Kent. And he had some proteges, you might say. One was female. That was Lois Lane.

And then a younger guy, he was Jimmy Olsen. And, you know, these are the names in the storyline. But they all were on the side of good and on right. They worked together for good. And because they were on the side of what is right, you know, we can say it was righteous.

You can usually connect things that are right with the term righteous. So not to get off on that too much, but just to say this fictional story, you just always knew that. There was no chance that you thought that it was real. It was fictional.

That was clear. But the thing that was so amazing was when the plot where the evildoers and those that were corrupt and were attempting harm, when that would reach its culmination, you know, somewhere toward the end of the broadcast, Clark Kent, the mild-mannered reporter, would go into a phone booth, close the door, and he would become Superman. Superman. So he dressed like this image of Superman maybe you've seen from comics.

And if you live somewhere other than the United States, you may have no idea what I'm talking about. But most Americans know about Superman, even younger Americans. So one of the things that really stands out in the way that we are thinking right now about these end times, the thing that stands out about Superman is that when he came out of the phone booth, one of his supernatural powers was X-ray vision. So he could fly, and he had a red cape, you know, that was how he could fly, and he would descend into the very center of the crisis and really take over, take charge, and he could see things that were hidden, and so nothing escaped him. He completely mopped up all of the bad guys. And when his job was done, he became, again, Clark Kent, the mild-mannered reporter. It was something like at the end of his deal where he was doing his thing, you know, it's pretty much like, well, my job for today is done.

And so he would retire and become who he really was, or I mean, fictitionally who he really was, because it was a make-believe show. So fast forward to right now, and as I shared in an earlier podcast, I've been reading a lot, and one of the things that stands out I'd like to repeat, quote, principalities and powers are the real administrators of the kingdom of darkness, and they do it through deception. So deception is the tool used to administer the kingdom of darkness. That's the quote. And, you know, deception is deceptive because you can't see it.

You don't have x-ray vision like Clark Kent, Superman. So if you could see deception, if you knew that deception was at your door, you would know to not open that door because, you know, it's tricky. And here's the thing. When it comes to deception, once it makes its entrance, once we open the door to deception, once you're in deception, you're, well, you're in. You're in. You're no longer standing outside of that condition looking objectively, but, hey, you're in.

You're in. And the thing about deception is it breeds more deception. So once I'm inside the throes of deception, I'm really ready for more, like the next level of deception. So it is progressive. So to say it another way, once I cross the line, open my heart to something that is even slightly off, not what God is saying, maybe just a slight trajectory change, then I'm prone, positioned, and really capable of another orbit because a trajectory off very slightly initially, continuing that way ever so slightly off, the true path, soon is far away.

That angle of departure from the true path grows the more we stay on that slight era, right? So if I have moved into another orbit, we'll use that terminology, it would be very hard for me to hear you say, you know, say to me, hey, do you know you're in another orbit? Come back. Come back to reality. Come back to the truth.

It's hard to hear correction when you're really, really out there. So tricky at the very least, but profoundly dark ultimately because this is the working of the antichrist spirit, which the Bible says is already at work in the earth. Among the sons of men, this spirit of deception by the antichrist spirit is at work and you can't deny it. So we don't deny it. This is so important for the individual believer to hear. So what should our response be?

Here's the answer. You have to attest, you have to test, you have to test anything that you align with, something that's minor, something that's major, definitely a big business decision, choosing a neighborhood to live in, choosing a friend, choosing what teaching we listen to, what events we participate in. All of these things cause us to align with the spirit of God calling on us or something else. So on a basic level, and this would be really basic, sometimes we're faced with things that are actually just odd. They're just strange. They're just weird.

I mean, on their face, it's just ridiculous. But also too, anything that quirky or weird defies solid Bible wisdom. And so if that is the case on one extreme, or let's say it's so conventional that it's popular with everyone, and that is the appeal. You know, the appeal actually becomes pressure to go with the conventional wisdom. So you have that as the opposite extreme.

Weird and outlandishly and blatantly observant to be that way on the one end of the spectrum. And on the other end is, hey, this is what everybody is doing. This is the direction the crowd is going.

Either, either can be equally deceptive. Because to embrace something that is off from what the Word of God says is not an innocent or stand-alone decision. What you take in is exactly that. You've taken it in into who you are, certainly into the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is what each believer is. So we can envision that. You take it into your sphere of who you are, including your sphere of influence.

So you can impact and affect others with what you're hearing, with what you are participating in. And that is taking you and whoever you're influencing somewhere. Like, there's a path. So you're being taken. You're being moved along on this path.

That's how the exchange works. That's how the proverbial phone booth would operate here, where you exchange who you are in God for something less, even something very wicked. It's the opposite of what Superman did.

He went from the mild-mannered reporter to the amazingly powerful agent for good. This would be the reverse, except see, it's not fictional. It's not make-believe. It is more real than the things that we can actually see with our human eyes.

But we do see in the Spirit, because we have the Spirit of God on the inside of us. So I see something, and I begin to give place to it. The next step is to believe what I am seeing and giving place to. And the next step is to, having believed it, the message, now I believe in it. And in return, or in turn, the next thing is that I give my full attention to it. And in return for giving my attention to it, now that I'm completely into what it is I'm following, the mentality of it comes into me, and I begin to think like the thing, or the philosophy, or the teaching, or the person that I'm following. That comes into me. I become it, and it becomes me.

The mentality, the emotion, all of that. It's really the opposite of the way we follow God. So it's a distortion. It's a departure from what is righteous and true. So the goal here is to avoid that.

If that has already happened, we've got to undo it, which is really just to reverse course and go back out of it the same way that we came into it. But number one, just to recognize, to honestly say to myself, I've been duped. I've been deceived. I am spending my time and giving my attention to something that is totally apart from what God is saying right now. And my goal must become to be filled and filled again and refilled with the Holy Spirit so that I'm consistent with God's Word. I test everything according to God's Word. I test all things, hold fast to that which is good.

And in this process, let me just give you two important pointers. You need the affirmation of mature believers on a regular basis. That can be leaders or non-believers.

Just a mature believer. Check out things with them. Ask what God is saying to them about those things or about that situation. Because sometimes just some basic common sense helps.

We have a podcast on that whole idea of common sense, just some good common sense. And hey, secondly to that would be honesty. Just being honest. Where am I investing my attention and my commitment, my resources? Because sometimes we do invest our resources in a way that is not what God is saying. You need believers walking with you besides mature believers around you. You always need two believers. One on your right and one on your left that you trust and that you know, follow the Word and that they can't be pried away from it, right?

They're usually mature, but see their heart is right and they are honest. They have common sense and they are willing to walk through life with you. As we say in our devotional Running with Horses, they are willing to ride shotgun.

So you've got someone protecting you on the left and on the right like Aaron and her holding up Moses' hands regarding the battle that day. And they're there to help you because you've asked them to. You've invited them to.

They're not intruders. They're not pushing their way in to try to tell you because as we've said, once you're in a place of deception, it's very hard for someone to get your attention and persuade you that you're off on the wrong track. It takes a lot of prayer and a lot of consistent appealing to expose that deception at that point.

So here's what I want to leave you with. I want you to ask yourself, are you testing what you are aligning with? Are you being really honest, first of all, with yourself and honest with those that are around you who can be trusted to speak into your situation? Because you know, if you are in, if you are in a difficult place or even if you're not, things might be great. But if you just know something's not right, it's just not right.

It's up to you to ask for input from those that can be trusted. And you're probably going to have to admit some things. So you might even need to make a list. I have a list of things that I am guarding against. And I've gone before off on a track that was not the Lord. And I can personally attest to how we just do not want to do that.

That is not a pleasant experience. So this is important. Discern what you're hearing, especially discern the prophetic words that you're hearing and listen, you need to test them.

Really test them. Hold on to what's good. And you know, maybe you could just, maybe this would be your qualifier. What if the whole world believed and agreed with the message that you've given priority to the whole church and the whole world? What would everything look like? And follow it to its natural conclusion.

What will that look like? Be honest, you know, is that the standard you want? Make your list, be excruciatingly honest with yourself and seek wise counsel. We're living in a dark day that is deceptive at the very least and darkly deceptive for sure because of the antichrist spirit. This is no time to go it alone. Amen and amen. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support this podcast, please share it with others. Post about it on social media or leave a rating and review. Don't forget to check out the show notes or visit acleartrumpet.org where you can subscribe to Shirley's email list. Download the ministry app and purchase your very own copy of Shirley's 365-day devotional, Running with Horses. Thanks again and we'll see you next time.