Of late, I have been hearing a great deal about “the Spirit of Delusion” as though there was one single great and very powerful Spirit of Delusion, but this is not true. Every spirit and imp of Satan is in fact a spirit of deceit or delusion. The word delusion means to deceive by cunning: to mislead. Since Satan is described in the Bible as a liar and the father of lies, it follows that all his faithful spirits, fallen angels or imps are likewise deceivers or capable of delusion. If it is a spirit of alcoholism, nobody wants the bad effects of alcoholism. But the spirit of alcoholism deceives or deludes the person into seeing only frivolity, hilarity, fun and the release of cares and inhibitions. The same can be said about the spirit of lust, greed, anger, cheating, etc., etc. The person who wants to do something they know is wrong may use alcohol to restrain their inhibitions so they feel OK about doing the wrong thing. 

But let us consider the overall direction of any of the spirits of delusion.
First, none of them are nearly as powerful as the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus, in the scripture that says “…they shall, if it were possible, deceive the very elect,” many people fail to see the “…if it were possible,” and see only the “…shall deceive the very elect,” as a sure and accomplished fact. But a person who is totally dedicated to the Lord, moving in the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit, so long as he or she maintains that communion with God need not fear being deceived by Satan nor his spirits of delusion.
Second, all spirits of delusion attempt to entice a person away from God. Spirits of deception bring the desire to do the things that please the flesh. “What’s wrong with going to a “PG” rated movie once in a while? But soon it is maybe an “R” or “X” rated one, followed by an at first but increasingly strong desire, and then overwhelming lust for someone not your spouse. The spirit of delusion says, “It won’t hurt if you go play in the little league game instead of going to Sunday School just this once,” knowing that it will be even easier to have a next time and a next until it is an every time occasion. The spirit of delusion says, “There is nothing wrong with going to a snorkeling class just this Sunday and next instead of Sunday School. Besides, you can really see so much of God’s beautiful creation and pray and give him thanks even while you are snorkeling,” but somehow there are so many distractions that the praise and worship never happens. The spirit of delusion will tempt you to go out in your boat on a Sunday afternoon and miscalculate on the time so that you miss church, especially if you have a leadership role in the services. If you are thinking about or being ordered to transfer to another city or base, the spirit of delusion will tell you it is more important to meet with the real estate agent at church time than to be in church on time. Besides, you might have a chance to witness to the agent or a prospective buyer, but somehow the witnessing opportunity does not come or is rendered ineffective by the other person’s observation of where you put your priorities. Or maybe it is the contractor who is going to build on that addition to your house or pool that you feel it is most important that you talk with instead of being in church on time. But which spirit is it that is saying it’s OK? Is it the Holy Spirit or one of the spirits of delusion?
One thing you can be sure of, the spirits of delusion do not make you want to pray and seek the Lord more and more. Nor do the spirits of delusion help you to keep your eyes and your life focused on Jesus. The spirits of delusion will never cause you to pray for someone else to surrender to the Lord and serve Him wholeheartedly. They will never cause you to believe God for someone, a friend, loved one or fellow church member to be filled with the Holy Spirit and the power of God. They will never show a saint of God so filled with Holy Spirit power that they will be casting out demon spirits and ministering deliverance to another person in need of that deliverance in the name of and for the glory of Jesus Christ. 
The spirits of delusion will tell you you don’t have to pray and live with pure and holy thoughts, but that you can go about your daily life as you please. You only have to be holy when you are going to church or around where you might bump into other Christians or people who know your claims of salvation. It may not be spelled out clearly in the Bible, but attendance at movie theaters is certainly not going to bring you closer to Jesus and His love, is not going to lift you up into heavenly places in Christ Jesus, is not going to edify you, and on the oppositte side, may entice you to lust for spomeone of the opposite sex, lusst for money or power or stimulate your erotic feelings other than toward your own wife. Less cleaarly seen, but perhaps even more deadly to your Spiritual life, it may lead you to believe that the nmormal and accepted conduct is immoral living, greed, deceit and envy, deviousness, underhandedness, sneakiness or any of a number of other attitudes totally unbecoming to a real child of God. Thespirits of delusionwill do all it can to raise the question in your mind, “Yea, hath God said?” If you have been praying for God’s direction and felt the calm and strong assurance of knowing His will while in earnest effectual, fervent prayer, then rest assured that when something suddenly makes you feel “what’s the use?” or “It just couldn’t happen,” or otherwise to doubt or fear that somehow you have not really heard God, rest assured that it is not the same Holy Spirit that first gave you the vision of God’s plan, but the spirit of doubt which is active.
The spirits of delusion will stand in the pulpit without ever having prayed and sought God’s face to assure the message that jesus or the origina;l apostles would preach if they were here today. The spirits of delusion will take scriptures out of context and try to prove another brother wrong. Thespirits of delusionis also the accuser of the brethren, implying or outright declaring what the other person thinks and often accusing another brother or sister of having his or her own feelings when that is not at all the case. 
Remember the prophet Elijah and King Ahab? Upon encountering Elijah, Ahab said, “Art thou he that troubleth Israel? and Elijah replied that no, it was really Ahab and Jezebel. The spirits of delusion, living in the pleasures of the world accuse the one earnestlly seeking the perfect will of God. It is very true that if you hear someone always accusing everyone else of lust, you can bank on the fact that they have the problem and are trying to justify themselves by comparing what they perceive in others to themselves.
There is no sin in going to the beach nor in bowling, golfing going to a skating rink or a ballgame of any sort so long as you can go with the full thought that you are to honor and glorify God every moment you are there and inevery thing you do, but if you cannot see what you are doing as being to the glory of God and that is not your honest to goodness real motive, and you know tht honoring God is not your real motive, then it is obvious where the desire has come from to do that thing - the spirits of delusion
The spirits of delusion say it is more important to earn your living than pray; more important to keep busy doing the Lord’s work than pray; more important to jog or skate or swim than to read your Bible.
The spirits of delusion would have you to believe you really don’t need to be in church or that being on time is not important. The spirits of delusion would have you to believe that going out to do visitation without prayer is going to succeed. The spirits of delusion will even tell you you can study and get up to preach without having prayed until you got the anointing. The spirits of delusion will say, “Oh, you can just read scriptures and make a comment or two here and there instead of waiting and praying for the anointing of the holy Spirit. The spirits of delusion will say it is OK to misread scriptures and flavor your comments according to the misread scriptures. The spirits of delusion will encourage a minister to use scriptures out of context to try to discredit another minister or a saint in his church who opposes him on some point. The spirits of delusion will divert your attention from earnest effectual and fervent prayer with other things you need to do which may be perfectly alright in and of themselves, but the fact that they break your communion with the Lord in your prayer should show the source of the distraction. The spirits of delusion point out how this or that is pleasant to do. to feel, to see,  but it will make you miss Sunday school “for just this once” or will keep you from your prayer time or will keep your mind so occupied with the pleasure of the moment that you cannot take the time to think about honoring your Lord Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit will encourage you to pray and worship Jesus and to truly put Him at the forefront of every thought word and deed. The Holy Spirit will give you a love and caring attitude toward all other Christians so that you put them each ahead of yourself. The Holy Spirit will give you clear insights into the things of the Spirit while the spirits of delusion will bring confusion. The spirits of delusion see the imposibility of a thing and brings doubt. The Holy Spirit brings faith that says, “With God, all things are possible to him that believeth.” The Holy Spirit gives the attitude, “If Jesus said it, I believe it and that settles it.” whether it is something contained in the Word of God or is something which you are sure God has spoken to you personally (always completely in line with scripture).The spirits of delusion makes one minister or saint suspicious of the motives of the other (beyond simple observation of fruits). 
a victorious new life in Jesus Christ!