A consecrated believer can fall into passivity in a foolish and deceived way for several years and still be ignorant of the danger of his own position. He can become more and more passive as time passes, until the sphere of passivity becomes so great that it inflicts unspeakable pain to his mind, emotion, body, and environment. Hence, it is essential to preach the true meaning of consecration to him. In the previous chapters we emphasized the importance of knowledge because the knowledge of the truth is absolutely indispensable in rescuing one from passivity. Without the knowledge of the truth, it is impossible to experience deliverance. A passive believer falls into his condition because of deception, and the reasons for deception are foolishness and ignorance. Without foolishness and ignorance it would be impossible to be deceived.
We have to know the truth concerning all things. We have to know the truth concerning co-working with God; we have to know the truth concerning the work of evil spirits; we have to know the truth concerning consecrating ourselves; and we have to know the truth concerning supernatural things. This is the first step toward deliverance. A believer must know the truth concerning the source and nature of all of his experiences before he has the hope of deliverance. The believer is (1) deceived, (2) then he becomes passive, (3) then he becomes possessed, (4) then he is deceived into further passivity. Therefore, if a believer wants to be free, to avoid being possessed, and to avoid all the deception and passivity that come as a result of possession, he must remove the deception. If the first point—deception—is eliminated, then other points—passivity, possession, and further deception and passivity—will be disintegrated one after another. When a person is deceived, he opens a door for evil spirits to come in. When a person is passive, he gives ground for evil spirits to stand and remain. The result of this action is possession by demons. In order to be delivered from possession, one must remove the passivity. In order to remove the passivity, one must remove the deception. In order to remove the deception, one has to know the truth. Therefore, the knowledge of the truth is the first step toward deliverance. Indeed, only the truth can set men free!
Since the beginning of this book, we have repeatedly warned the believers about the danger of all supernatural experiences (such as signs, voices, miracles, wonders, flames, speaking in tongues, sensations, etc.). We do not mean that all supernatural experiences should be refused, rejected, and opposed. This would be unscriptural to say, because the Bible tells us that God has done many supernatural things. Our purpose is to show the believers that there is not only one source of supernatural experiences. Evil spirits can imitate what God can do. It is very important to distinguish what is and is not from God. If a believer has not died to his emotional life and earnestly seeks after experiences in his feeling, he will be deceived. We are not saying that believers should refuse all supernatural things. We are simply advising the believers to refuse all of the supernatural things from Satan. In this chapter we want to point out the fundamental differences between the work of the Holy Spirit and that of evil spirits so that believers will know how to distinguish between the two.