Our Hearts Can Deceive Us

In the 2022 TV series Under the Banner of Heaven (created by Dustin Lance Black), based on the book by Jon Krakauer, we see many extreme examples of what Morris describes: people giving in to the temptation to say, “God says this,” when they are only following their own desires and trying to stamp divine sanction on them. The Lafferty brothers embrace polygamy and even murder because they claim God has told them to do it. Most people won’t be drawn to such extreme acts, but we should be aware that our hearts can deceive us and draw us into seeking our own sinful desires while we try to claim it’s what God wants. For this reason, we should be cautious about saying God has told us something.