The Bible tells about a servant of the Lord who was given the dangerous assignment of delivering a message to an evil king who was bent on turning people away from God. You can be sure that before he launched out on this mission that he listened carefully to hear the voice of the Lord so he would receive his instructions straight from the Source. The Lord spoke to him very clearly and told him not to eat any bread or drink any water while he was on this mission, and not to return home to Judah by the same road on which he went.

After he was sure of his instructions, this dedicated servant of God headed toward Bethel with a message he knew the king would not want to hear. We do not know this man's name; the Bible simply calls him a "man of God." Being the faithful messenger he was, he went straight to the king and delivered the message.

Needless to say, when the king heard it, he went into a rage. He put forth his hand toward the messenger and said to his guards, "Lay hold on him!"; but as he did this his outstretched hand became withered and he could not move it. He then begged the man of God to pray that his hand would be restored. He did, and it was.

Now the king did an about face: he became friendly towards the Lord's messenger, and he invited him to his palace where he would give him some royal treatment and a reward for what he had done. But the man of God remembered the Lord's instructions and was not deceived by the king's offer of hospitality. He replied to the king, "If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place" (1Ki.13:8).

So this obedient servant simply delivered the message, refused to eat or drink while he was there, and headed back home by way of another road. He would not allow even a king, who now tried to befriend him, to divert him from the will of God.

Perhaps it was not so hard for the man of God to refuse to be deceived by the sudden friendliness of this king. He must have been on guard against his tactics, because this was King Jeroboam of Israel who did more evil than all the rulers before him (1Ki.14:9). Still, someone did deceive this faithful man of God and caused him to go down the wrong road that soon led to his destruction. He was lured into a place where he was attacked and killed by a fierce lion.

The one who led him astray did not appear to him in a time of weakness, but rather in a time of strength. It was not an enemy who led this man of God down the road of destruction; it was another man of God--a kindhearted, well-meaning brother in the Lord! He was deceived by a saint!

This saint's name is also withheld from us; the Bible just calls him an "old prophet" (1Ki.13:11). Perhaps the reason his name is not stated is that he could represent any one of us Christians who are supposed to be mature.

This old prophet lived in Bethel, which was the place where the other man of God had been sent to deliver a message to the king. When he heard from his sons what had happened to the king by a man God had sent from Judah, he inquired which way he went; then he jumped upon his donkey, raced after him, and soon found him resting under an oak tree.

This is one of the most important parts of this story. The man of God resting under the oak tree is a picture of a person who loves God, who knows how to hear the voice of God for himself, who can pray and bring about a healing for others, who is a good messenger for the Lord, and is in that all important position of resting in the Lord.

You also may be fortunate enough to be in that wonderful place; but even there, in the safest place you can be, you still must be on guard because someone, or some thing, or some circumstance will try to lure you out of your resting place, that place where you commune with God. And when you are removed from there, you become prey for the lion! Remember . . . your enemy Satan is like a roaring lion, walking around, seeking whom he may devour (1Pet.5:8).

I once had a man say to me, "I'm not worried about Satan; he can't touch me because I'm a Christian." I tried to warn him that he still must stay close to the Lord and by faith keep on the whole armor of God, but he was not one who would listen to instruction. Needless to say, a short way down the road he, too, had an attack from the "lion."

But, getting back to the story . . . the old prophet entered the man of God's resting place--an area that should be off-limits to anyone other than the Lord--and said to him, "Come back to my home; we will eat and have a time of fellowship." The man of God replied, "No way! The Lord told me not to eat any bread or drink any water in Bethel and not to return on the road on which I came." And next comes the maneuver that moved the man of God out of his resting place and onto the path of destruction. I have a name for it: I call it the bait of man made fellowship.

Let me try to describe what I mean by that: Picture yourself on a street corner sharing the gospel with some people who are lost in sin and darkness; then a couple of Christians who are passing by happen to overhear the conversation and realize you are one of them. In their excitement to meet another member of God's family, they rush over to shake your hand and introduce themselves to you. Then, not realizing the importance of what you are doing, they invite you to a time of fellowship, perhaps to have lunch with them. Of course, by now, the people you have been sharing the message of salvation with have departed, still walking on their road of darkness. (I am not just making up a story; believe me, this really does happen.)

If you want to draw a crowd to your church, don't have a worship service, hold a fellowship dinner! It would not surprise me in the least if some brother or sister in the Lord would even knock on the door of your prayer closet and say to you, "Come out of there so we can have a time of fellowship."

You do not have to be in the kingdom of God to have that kind of man made fellowship. It can be found in any civic club or organization. True fellowship does not need to be cranked up; it is just there, always there, like the grace of God. It is there because God put it there as a gift for all the members of His family. All we need to do to have it is to stay close to Jesus, for when believers do that, the real fellowship between them is automatic. When we have this pure kinship that binds believers together in the love of God, that is united with the Lamb of God--a unity that is exclusive to us who belong to Christ--why in the world should we settle for the phony type of fellowship that you could get in a barroom?

The old prophet must have had such a craving for man made fellowship that it blinded him to the will of God. He said to the man of God who was resting in that quiet place under the oak tree, "I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water." And the Bible goes on to say, "But he lied unto him" (1Ki.13:18).

The servant of the Lord who was resting under the tree must have thought, "This brother is more spiritual than I; an angel visited him. I will learn much about the Lord through him." So he quickly moved out of his resting place, went back to Bethel with the old prophet, and there at his house he ate bread and drank water. Later, he left on his donkey and headed back to Judah, but a short distance down the road, he was confronted by a lion that slew him.

I hope this horrible scene comes to your mind every time you are about to be deceived by a saint: the gruesome sight of the dead body of a man of God ravaged by a wild beast, lying in the road for all to view. Worse than that could happen to you or me if we allow anyone, anything, or any circumstance to spoil our resting place, which is our close relationship with the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

It is interesting to notice that after killing the man of God, the lion did not eat his body, attack his donkey, or chase away any of the spectators who passed by (1Ki.13:24, 25). It did not wish to destroy the vehicle that delivered him the victim or any onlookers who would view what he had done; it just wanted to flaunt its dead prey. Oh, how Satan loves to gloat before the whole world when he can attack a Christian who has allowed himself to be pulled away from the protection of God!

You may say, "Say no more, I get the message; I'll try to watch my step and not fall into sin." But please notice that the man of God mentioned in this story in the Bible was not led astray by the obvious temptations of the world; he was deceived by an old prophet who lied to him by saying that he heard, for him, something from the Lord.

By now you may be thinking, "Only a miserable wretch would do something like that!" Not so! If you read the rest of the story in the thirteenth chapter of the book of first Kings, you will find that this old prophet was a man of God who loved other believers and wanted to see the will of God carried out here on earth. He did not deliberately lie; he did not plan to put a stumbling block in his brother's way. Still, a lie is a lie; whether it was unintentional made no difference to the outcome. An attacking lion would not take that into consideration.

We all realize that we must watch out for the deceitful lies of our enemies, those who hate God and want to destroy us; but even though this is hard to say--but it must be said--we also need to be on guard with our Christian friends who love God and are trying (in their own way) to help us. King David once lamented, "For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company" (Ps.55:12-14).

Jesus said, "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many" (Mat.24:4, 5). These scripture verses do not refer to being beware of men who claim themselves to be Christ. There may be a few in the world who are insane enough to do that and, believe it or not, there are people who actually believe them; but when Jesus spoke those words He was talking to His disciples, those who had been in His glorious presence where they personally heard His voice, witnessed His wonderful miracles, and beheld His glory. Certainly they, or any followers of Jesus such as you or me, would not be deceived by some false prophet who claimed to be Christ. But we could very well be one of the "many" that Jesus mentioned who are often deceived by people who come to us in the Name of the Lord, confessing that He (Jesus) is the Christ!

Often these are people who love God and want to serve Him. Some of them have outstanding ministries that have led many people to the Savior. They include pastors, preachers, Bible teachers, prayer warriors and all kinds of gospel workers who, like the old prophet in the story, have a love for God and want to do His will. They would not deliberately deceive you. They would never intentionally lie to you and spoil your resting place, which would put you in line for an attack by Satan. But when you are being fed to the lion, it matters little to you at that time if someone knew or not that they were lying when they put you in that terrible position.

The old prophet in the Bible did not think his fellow believer could have heard from the Lord when he said that he was not to return to Bethel to have fellowship and eat bread with him. The word "Bethel" in the original Hebrew means "House of God." The word "oak" in Hebrew comes from "eh-yawl" which means "strength." You may be in a position like the man of God who was resting under the oak tree, which represents being in your resting place where you are able to hear the voice of God for yourself and receive great strength for your soul. So there you are, in the best position of your life, and in could barge some old prophet (preacher) and say to you, "Why weren't you in Bethel (church) last Sunday, and how come you skipped Bible study last Wednesday night?!" He may even try to nail you with Hebrews 10:25, which tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

If you try to explain to him that you were just spending some quiet time alone with the Lord, he won't hear you because his mind is occupied, thinking about a dwindling church attendance. And even though he may not face up to it, what bothers him most is that when attendance goes down so do the finances, and that is a threat to his security.

There will be many--that is MANY--well-intentioned Christians, who certainly confess that Jesus is the Christ, who will have the nerve to march right into your resting place and try to convince you that you cannot hear from the Lord yourself, that you need them to be your go-between. That is more or less what the old prophet said to the man of God who was sitting under the oak tree. These people are not willful deceivers; they are precious brothers and sisters in the Lord who believe that what they are doing is in the service of God. These are people you love and enjoy being with; but let me warn you that anyone who tries to convince you that you cannot hear from the Lord except through them, is a deceiver. Didn't Jesus say, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:27)? If you are a new Christian, they may not come right out and say it, but they will imply that since you are so young in the Lord, you need their guidance because they are older and have been well-educated in the Bible.

First, they will convince you that you must depend upon them; then, they will tell you what church to attend, what clothes to wear, what books to read, what doctrines to believe, and a whole lot more. Don't you realize they are, inadvertently, trying to take the place of Christ in your life? In their kindhearted deceitfulness, rather than building you up in the faith, they are feeding you to the lion!

Oh, how we need to hear the Lord personally and then do what He says. When we hear only and do not do, we are headed for a great fall, just like the house that a foolish man built upon the sand without a foundation. Yes, we hear Jesus warn us not to be deceived, but we do nothing about it. We don't heed His word. Somehow we assume we will never be deceived, so why even think about it?

There is no shortage of deceivers; the world is full of them, Satan being the greatest of them all. He lies all the time; it is the only language he knows how to speak. He is the father of all liars (John 8:44). His lying is most effective when he can get people to have a wrong concept of God. That worked with Eve in the Garden of Eden, and still works very well on every one of us living in this world who will listen to him. The devil will not try to speak to you through a serpent to present you with a false concept of your Heavenly Father, but he may use some well-intentioned saint, perhaps a preacher whom you admire who will try to teach you that God is a hard taskmaster who will cast you into everlasting damnation if you sin after you have been saved. I remind you that he is speaking about your Heavenly Father. Are you going to let him get away with that?

Such preachers are not willfully trying to deceive you. They just have not spent enough time in their resting place with their Heavenly Father to get to know what He is really like. The only way we can have a true concept of God is to come to know Jesus and learn of Him because He is God manifested in the flesh (1Tim.3:16). Jesus said to Philip, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9), and "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30).

The Bible calls Satan the god of this world (2Cor.4:4); that is why most of the whole world operates on deception. So you will have to deal with many deceivers in your lifetime. You may realize the danger in messing around with Ouija boards, astrology, witchcraft, fortune telling and other obvious ways that Satan uses to deceive people and bring them into bondage, but are you aware that he can also work through the minds of some of the most dedicated Christians? Do you know anyone more devoted to the Lord than Peter "The Rock"? If he could be influenced by the devil, so can you and I. It is not that we are unfaithful to our Lord but rather that we have this old human nature to contend with. What may seem so right in the natural way of thinking can be completely wrong in the sight of God. After Jesus told His disciples that He must "suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised again the third day," Peter made what seemed to be a perfectly loving and kind statement. He said to Jesus, "Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee" (Mat.16:21, 22). If that statement from Peter were the truth, there would be no salvation for mankind.

Deception comes in many different ways: sin can look so good as it leads us to destruction; wine may taste so nice as it drives us to foolishness; high cholesterol foods may taste so delicious when they are eaten but could clog your arteries and damage your heart. I could go on and on, but let me just mention one more thing you may not be aware of that can easily deceive you: it is your own heart! The Bible teaches that the heart of man is deceitful above all things (Jer.17:9).

Now, I am not trying to make you paranoid; I don't want you to go through life thinking that you cannot trust anyone. I am just reminding you that Jesus said, "Be not deceived." By now you may be saying, "If I can't believe people in the world and sometimes I can't believe what my Christian friends say, and I can't even believe my own heart, who then can I trust?" You know who . . . only Jesus!

You may have many friends who would never want to deceive you, but still they could unintentionally lie to you. There is a big difference between them and Jesus. He is your First Love who would not and could not under any circumstances lie to you. It is impossible for God to lie (Heb.6:18). That is why it is vital for you to hear directly from Jesus. God spoke and said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him" (Mat.17:5).

You may think that the Lord does not speak to you as much as he does to others, but there again your mind is deceiving you. God would not instruct you to listen if He were not speaking.

Believe me, I know how difficult it is at times to hear His voice. Many voices are ringing in our ears at the same time, and it often seems that the Lord's is the hardest one to hear. If He wanted to, He could very easily shout to us above the noise of this world. His voice can be as the sound of many waters or of great thunder (Rev.14:2) and could shake the earth (Ex.19:18). It could be loud enough to be heard above the sound of a teenage rock concert. But God does not want to shout at His children; He would rather speak to them in a still small voice (1Ki.19:12). There is a good reason why your Heavenly Father speaks so softly to you. If you cannot hear His whisper, move a little closer to Him; that is where He wants you to be!

We don't just drift into our resting place where we can hear the voice of God. It does take an effort on our part. The Bible says, "Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest" (Heb.4:10). Every aspect of this society that we live in is geared to make us function in the fast lane. We rush through life like the devil is chasing us--and in a way he is--when in reality he should be fleeing from us; and he will if we submit ourselves to God and resist him (Jas.4:7). Take a look at your speedometer; it may be time for you to start applying the brakes to your life. In other words: slow down and live! It is hard to develop a quiet spirit, which is of great value in the sight of God (1Pet.3:4), if you are racing down the highway of life at ninety miles per hour.

Do you expect God to race along beside you in the satanic pace of this restless world and shout above all the noise in order to communicate with you? Well, He won't. You must first slow down, then get off that road into a rest area and wait upon Him. Your spiritual strength will not come by rushing and working, but rather by waiting. The Bible says, "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint" (Isa.40:31).

To enter your resting place, you may have to cut back on some of your activities regardless of how good they may seem to be. The Lord may even tell you to cut down on His work, to come aside to a quiet place and rest awhile, alone with Him where he can reveal His great love to you and strengthen you by His Word and fill you with His Holy Spirit.

Everyone is seeking a relief from the pressures of life. Many will submerge themselves in alcohol, cocaine and other forms of drugs. Others will absorb their minds with television and video movies. Multitudes will sink into different forms of religion or bury their heads in some other kind of sand to escape from the harsh realities of life. There is nothing wrong with wanting to escape from a burning fire or out of the reach of a roaring lion who is trying to devour you, but you must not be deceived into running into more danger. There is only one safe haven for you and that is being close to God. Only there will you find joy and inner strength. When the Bride of Christ found herself in that position, she said, "I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste" (Song. of S. 2:3).

I have a friend who is the owner of a thriving business that provides him with a good livelihood, but it also puts a strain on his life. Like most businessmen, he has a hectic schedule that often forces him to operate in the fast lane. About once a month he squeezes in an appointment for me to have lunch with him. The last time we had lunch together, I hardly began to eat when he had already gulped down his food and said he had to rush to meet someone. Normally, now that I have pulled out of the fast lane, I try to slow people down; but when I realized the importance of the person he was going to meet, I said to him, "You'd better hurry!" I did not want to interfere in any way with that appointment!

It was to take place at a bus stop where he would meet his young son who was coming home from elementary school and would spend the rest of the day with his dad. My friend's wife had to be away for the day and she was planning to have the boy's grandmother meet him at the bus stop and take care of him, but her husband said, "No, I'll meet him and we'll have some time together." All week long the boy's father had been looking forward to this time that he would have alone with his son. He told me that every time he plans to spend some quality time with him, there comes along all kinds of hindrances to spoil it.

If you only knew how your Heavenly Father loves you and longs to spend quality time with you! Even though He governs the whole universe, He still has plenty of time for you; He is not limited to time and space. He does not operate in the fast lane and always has time for His children. But regardless of how much He wants this precious time together with you, He will not force you into it. He did not create you like a machine so that He could push a few buttons and have you respond to His will. No . . . that is not the way it works; you have the freedom to choose how much time you spend with your Heavenly Father. He is always there, waiting for you to come close to Him!

Don't be deceived into thinking that you are not important to God. Look at the cross of Calvary and know the extent of His boundless love for you. He wants to be involved with every aspect of your life. Nothing that concerns you is too small to have His undivided attention. Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered (Mat.10:30).

Consider, for a moment, how the boy's father would feel if when he met his son at the bus stop, he was greeted with the words, "Dad, I don't want to be with you; I have something else I'd rather be doing," or, "Dad, I don't want to be with you; I would rather be with my friends."

Let me give you just one more illustration to ponder: How do you think a bridegroom would feel if his bride invited all kinds of people into their bridal suite? How would he feel if he found anyone occupying the place reserved for him and his bride?

Your relationship with the Lord is the most important part of your life. If anyone tries to interfere with that, whether it be a friend or a foe, whether it be a good or a bad experience, whoever or whatever tries to intrude into that holy place where you commune with Jesus, just tell them or it to "butt out!" And don't be wimpish about it because the Lord wants to be number one in your life. If anyone tries to steal His position and you tell them to "take a hike," He will back you up.

Even if precious saints, well-meaning brothers and sisters in Christ, unintentionally try to deceive you into believing that you need to go through them to hear from God, this is no time to worry about hurting their feelings. Speak firmly to them in the Name of the Lord and tell them: "Hey, SPOIL NOT MY RESTING PLACE" (Prov.24:15).