Don’t be afraid of disillusionment

Don’t be afraid of disillusionment.

Illusionists, such as we would find on a stage or at a carnival, entertain and amaze us with their tricks. When we attend a kid’s birthday party with a magician as its featured entertainment, or we watch a big budget arena performance in Las Vegas, we know what we are signing up for. To experience something that boggles the mind and creates somewhat of a puzzle to try and figure out. These are voluntary and temporary. We don’t desire to go through our day-to-day life being intentionally deceived, tricked or misled. Well, most of us don’t.

Merriam-Webster defines Illusion this way: “a misleading image presented to the vision (optical illusion), something that deceives or misleads intellectually, perception of something objectively existing in such a way as to cause misinterpretation of its actual nature - the state or fact of being intellectually deceived or misled. Here is a look at the etymology of the word:  illusio, from Latin, action of mocking, from illudere to mock at, from in- + ludere to play, mock — (ludicrous)

To DIS-Illusion means “to free from illusion, to cause to lose naive faith and trust – (Kid’s definition. : to free from mistaken beliefs or foolish hopes)

If we hear a friend share an experience about being disillusioned, our response might be one of sympathy, “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that you are going through this difficult experience.” Being disillusioned is unpleasant, and can make us sad, so sympathy makes sense. What also ought to make us sad, however is the fact that our disillusioned friend was previously living in an illusion! When we find ourselves relieved of the “foolish hopes or mistaken beliefs” we take a step toward Truth. Admittedly this can be painful, which is why we tend to avoid learning difficult truths. Everyone does this at one time or another. Santa Claus comes to mind. I didn’t really want to learn the truth about him because having that illusion made Christmas more fun! But some illusions can prevent us from growth, or even harm us and those we love.

There are times when, like those who show up to the magic show or the fancy Vegas act, we want to be entertained or comforted by deception. In that case, this process of unwelcome disillusionment can be very uncomfortable and grief-producing. Once the illusion has been broken, remaining in the same place may produce inner conflict and disconnect with others. If this involves a community, others may not see it the same way, yet. But for those who want to live “free from mistaken beliefs” or to have their “intellectual deception” removed, DISILLUSIONMENT is necessary.

The past few years I have been experiencing my own set of disillusionments in the area of church doctrine and practice. It has been life-changing in so many positive ways, but definitely uncomfortable at times. I’ve written a lot about this elsewhere, but it has prompted me to consider these two concepts: disillusionment and revelation. The biblical term translated as “revelation” comes from the Greek word “apokalupsis” – where we get the term “apocalypse” - means to uncover, unveil, disclose, or reveal. The process of recovering the Truth about God and my relationship with Him has involved both of these steps. Maturity in Christ often comes through a process of releasing our minds from the deception of our enemy, other people, or self, while allowing the Spirit to uncover that which is very true and real, but may have been hidden, or even covered up by the very illusion that has been broken.

A personal example:  The evangelical system of doctrine and practice had provided for me a few significant illusions. One is the claim that the Bible is the source of all of our closely-held doctrine. This illusion led to another level of deception (if you don’t like this word, remember the definition of illusion) which is that those who hold tightly to the entire program of evangelical theology are more committed to biblical truth than other groups, and therefore more correct. The third level is that because we are right more than other Christ-following traditions, we are better than them – more specifically, they are wrong. I sat in more than one sermon in my own church where this was spoken using almost the same words.

When this illusion (“everything we teach is solely based on scripture”) is broken – mainly by the fact that large portions of scripture are ignored or misinterpreted, sometimes for the purpose of supporting a pre-determined doctrinal position, sometimes to control, then space is opened up for a revelation. (Recall the definition of revelation is to uncover, unveil, disclose or reveal.) In my experience with this process, a couple of big breakthroughs came for me when I realized those nagging questions weren’t because I was divisive or judgmental, but were part of the illusion falling apart. The illusion (we are the most biblical and therefore our doctrine is all correct), like a gate-keeper, was crafted to hide things like this, and the deception keeps the revelation from coming to many.

This was the one that got me asking questions. Evangelicalism downplays the gifts of the Holy Spirit because centuries ago some of the reformers did not want people to get sidetracked by sensationalism. Bible verses were taken out of context and others ignored, and now we have churches largely ill-equipped to fight anything spiritual, not to mention carry out the purpose of the Church with any power or guidance in the Spirit. Without the power from the Spirit or the belief that He would speak to us now, people must build their own structures and pass on their own knowledge, all inferior and in many cases counter-productive to the Kingdom. It has created a lot of chaos.

I started by looking at the mess and asking a few questions that had been nagging at me. I prayed, read my Bible and talked to other Christ-followers that came from different kinds of churches. The more I looked, the more clues I found. Rather than being sad about being misled, I got excited because the truth on this particular topic brought freedom and power to my walk with Jesus! It became the topic of a project called “Dynamis.”

When I allow myself to let go of these illusions, then I can read the Bible without bias. And with the guidance of the Spirit, God reveals to me more about what His intended purpose is. I become free from that deception and led by His truth. At the risk of over-simplifying things, this process has helped me examine a few core beliefs that I previously accepted without question.

I conclude that the deceiver, our accuser, and enemy of Christ has an active strategy of counterfeits and illusions that are set in place to guard those locked in a prison of religion and cheap grace. Imagine a large jail cell built around a church building in the spirit realm. At the gates are dark spirits of fear, pride or control. Within this prison are the children of God that will not venture out of the borders of their illusion because these gatekeepers have convinced them that everything they need is right inside this building. They don’t see the bars or the gates. They are comfortable inside. They believe the illusion and they do not question the validity of the counterfeit. They figure as long as it feels comfortable, why leave? But I’ve also seen some try to leave, and the gatekeeper, usually Fear in its various forms, convinces them otherwise.

If you have read this far, you may be disagreeing with some of my conclusions. It may seem like I’m overstating and generalizing something that is not happening in every place that calls itself evangelical. Of course, there is a lot of diversity in our churches, and definitely many good and sincere people. I’ve thought about this a lot. I’ve rationalized and excused and given myself a pass as well, but when the questions mounted up – questions that came from reading the Bible and comparing it to our present reality – the answers began to appear. I know this was God through His Spirit answering and pointing me to places where I could learn. I was finally open.

I will remind the reader that this is my Wilderness Journal and it’s possibly not relevant if you aren’t taking a trip like mine. That’s OK. It took me a long time to start this journey, and I am still on it! I expect many more surprises and I’m sure a few U-turns up ahead. Because I stopped listening to the gatekeeper of Fear, I’m OK with uncertainty and making mistakes. I’m not OK following illusions and counterfeits. My traveling companions are many, and I learn from their journeys as well. I’m thankful for Grace and Mercy.