Overcoming Idolatry
to Man
Nothing God gives you in revelation/words/
visions and dreams is yours. It’s about Him,
not you. So when we give to men adoration
that belongs to God alone we are in idolatry.
We should appreciate them, respect them,
thank God for them. But our minds and hearts
are very prone to venerating and granting
more than what belongs to them. Like this
church I went to early on after saved where
the pastor and “first lady” get up there and
there was such idolatry within the church to
think themselves better than all others.
It’s the I am of Paul, I am of Cephas thing.
All churches have strengths and weaknesses.
If God puts a gift in a child for example of music, and learning music, we should nurture it and protect that, but the gift itself came from God so glory belongs to Him. We cheer them on, we love them because they are our child, but we thank God too, because HE gave them that gift. We don’t make them an idol.
We’ve all seen athletes who are venerated above God in some circumstances, they they fail, and boom, they are brought to nothing like Lance Armstrong in the eyes of men. People then are aghast, but should we be aghast that they act like human beings, and make mistakes ? Pride comes before a fall. God is able to humble and abase all who are proud and arrogant in heart. But if we would humble ourselves as scriptures tell us to do, He wouldn’t have to. If we would thank HIM for all HE’s given us and others, we will go a long way to avoid idolatrous ways.
We need to recognize that apart from the grace of God, any of us could be deceived, deluded, and fail. We are human and not “gods” like new agers ascribe to. We need to recognize our propensity for wanting approval and admiration of others; fame - in order to avoid that in the first place. When God uses you, Jack Deere once said, the first thing Satan tries to do is to get you to be enamored with how He used you, so that he can stop/steal away what has been given to you. Most of us share things out of our excitement for what God is doing. Others boast in arrogance, thinking what happened makes them more special, like sibling rivalry that the apostles also fell to [ who gets to sit next to you in heaven…].
Inner healing is needed and Holy Spirit is the best soul healer I know, to remove all our insecurities that drive us to this kind of thinking we are something when we are nothing, but clay vessels. We should be eager to encourage one another and love one another, because God does that, and it’s another way He heals us, when we are recognized for our value to the church, but we often take it too far into competition, and putting others down to make ourselves look good. The weaker vessels are also important to the body. We need not pour out on others, laudation that belongs to God alone for what HE gave them in the first place. I know apart from HIM, I can do nothing. All the wisdom He’s given me, is just that, given by him. I’m just taking dictation.
Priscilla Van Sutphin
