Gal. 6:3 says, “For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.” The word deceiveth or deceive in the Greek literally means, “to deceive in one’s mind by fancies.” What is a fancy? (That’s what I thought too.)
Fancy: imagination or fantasy, esp. as exercised in a capricious, impulsive or unpredictable manner.
Paul says in 2 Cor. 10:5, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”
So, if it seems that vain imaginations are the catalysts to deceiving self with arbitrary fantasies and imaginations which is not revelation or walking by faith. In this case, I would be putting myself back under the law by enabling the old nature and rebuilding the things which were destroyed, Gal. 2:18.
Self-deceit really is deception enabled by the old self empowered by self-imposed law.
No wonder Paul says in Gal. 5:1, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” If we live in the Spirit let us walk in the Spirit by revelation of Christ according to hearing the word of life and truth. If I live and walk in presumptuous decisions this is akin to self-deceit.
Prov. 3:5, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine (your) own understanding.”
We trust and have faith in God by and through the faith of Christ in us. The just shall live by faith in everything.
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