Delusions and delusions of grandeur

There's self-deception and being deceived by others so that our view of ourselves and hopes and dreams are magnified to a point of being unreal in their supposed splendor [grandeur].

If anyone thinks that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him. 1 Corinthians 8:2-3

Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks that he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Galatians 6:2-3

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. James 1:26

When the Lord's first disciples asked Him when the temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed and what sign would there be of His coming and the end of the age, Matthew 24:1-3

Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, claiming, 'I am the Messiah,' and will deceive many." Matthew 24:4-5

His first warning was to beware of people who would try to deceive them.

Paul also warned,

I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. Acts 20:29-31

Paul wanted believers to have unity and maturity in the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4:11-13

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Ephesians 4:14

Peter wrote that deception and greed by false teachers could involve them making "merchandise of you", that is, making you a store they can shop in, using your resources for their gain. 2 Peter 2:1-3

We may suppose that we need to think like Paul who wrote that he was less than all believers, Ephesians 3:8 and chief of sinners 1 Timothy 1:15 to keep from thinking that we're so great.

I [Paul] have become foolish; you yourselves compelled me. Actually I should have been commended by you, since I was in no respect inferior to the most eminent apostles [special messengers sent by the Lord], even though I am a nobody. 2 Corinthians 12:11

We can balance this with what the Lord Jesus Christ said to His first believers,

You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. John 15:16

Isn't this true for all followers of the Savior?

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Ephesians 1:3-4

Jesus said to His first followers,

"Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Luke 12:32

Isn't this true for all of His disciples?

Because of His love, God had already decided to make us His own children through Jesus Christ. That was what He wanted and what pleased Him, and it brings praise to God because of His wonderful grace. God gave that grace to us freely, in Christ, the One He loves. Ephesians 1:5-6

Spiritual people might have dreams, visions, and revelations, right? Joel 2:28-29; Matthew 1:20-21; Acts 2:16-18; 2 Corinthians 12:1

These might puff us up 1 Corinthians 8:1; 2 Corinthians 12:6-7 so that we boast that we're some great one. Acts 8:9-11; 3 John v.9

How can we keep ourselves from being deluded in basic ways and also from being captured by delusions of grandeur? 2 Timothy 2:23-26

Let's obey the word of the Lord that we know.

"Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine [Jesus], and acts on them, will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock." Matthew 7:24-25

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not just hearers who deceive themselves. James 1:22

Let's think soberly about ourselves.

For I [Paul] say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. Romans 12:3

We can also have the desire of John the Baptist who said that Jesus must increase and he must decrease. John 3:30

We can grow so that,

You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had, Who though He existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking on the form of a slave,

by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature. He humbled Himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross! Philippians 2:5-8

And let's speak the truth in love to build up others, seasoned with salt, as a way to control our speech and not deceive our own hearts. Ephesians 4:15, 29; Colossians 4:6; James 1:26

Big dreams COULD be from the Father IF our hearts and minds are in the right place, that is, in His place, and for His purpose and plan for us.

But big dreams could also be delusions, small and grand, UNLESS someone has faith in God Mark 11:22-24; Hebrews 6:1 and is NOT asking with wrong motives. James 4:3

If the Lord wills, we will do this or that, we should say, and not boast of tomorrow, whether literally the next day or a distant tomorrow in the future. James 4:13-16

For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. Romans 14:7-8

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, Whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body. I Corinthians 6:19-20

If we're living as Paul, we can also accept as he did that by the grace of God we are who we are. 1 Corinthians 15:10

Your thoughts?

R. Jason