You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me

 

 

 

While no one that I know actually prostrates themselves before carved idols and national demi-gods as in ancient times, I have always been aware of how relevant the first commandment still is in today’s Western society. We would all probably agree that this commandment is applicable to anything that relegates God to a position of lower priority in our life, but I was never aware of how much of our life that God seems to wants us to dedicate to Him.

 

 

 

 

It’s one thing to go to church Sunday morning, read the Bible once a week, say a prayer before bed, all the while spending the largest portion of the day at work, the rest of the day watching TV and the weekend engaged in sport. But it’s something entirely different to sincerely focus and dedicate one's life to God as Scripture teaches.

“Blessed is the man …. his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” Psalm 1:1-2

“Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase” Proverbs 3:9

“My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.” Psalm 62:5

 

The closer that God draws me to Him, the less imperative that the rest of life becomes. Sure, I still have my hobbies and pursuits, but the focus on my Father is central and dominant in my new life. All other things are peripheral and merely complimentary. And that is how I now see that God wants our lives to be.

It’s not just that God takes a higher priority in my life, but that the portion of my life that I give to Him is equal to what I give to all other pursuits combined, 50/50. 50% to God and 50% to the world, well that’s the ideal anyway, I’m not quite there yet. But what I’ve noticed is that the more of God that I get, the less of worldly pursuits that I want. The less fulfilling these worldly pursuits actually are.

 

Is it wrong to want to spend all my time in pursuit of God alone? Is that just an unrealistic fantasy, something impossible and even irresponsible in this hectic modern world? What is the right balance between the world and God? Does God actually want us focused on a career which the modern world considers all-important? Whether that career is a mundane labouring job, or serving others in social welfare or as a pastor; it seems to me that our main goal in life should be our personal relationship with God.  This may sound like a platitude to modern Christians, but how many from within the church actually practice it? Many people even make the same mistake that the Pharisees made in worshipping and serving the church rather than God Himself.

Even marriage is discouraged because it takes our focus off of God:

“But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.” 1 Corinthians 7:33-34

 

 

 

I have always been fascinated as to why God’s chosen people, Israel, never really seemed to achieve much. History holds no special place for them. They never conquered the world like the Romans, they didn’t build magnificent structures like the Egyptians, they never produced amazing trade products like the Far Eastern lands, they never explored the furthest parts of the planet like the English or French. Surely being God’s people they should have left an awesome mark on history commensurate with the awesomeness of their God?

But I realised that these things are only great in the eyes of humans, God wants something more, something greater than merely worldly achievement. God only wants a relationship with us, and this is was what the Israelites were better at than anyone else. They were a priestly people, a people dedicated to their God alone. In fact God designated them as a nation of priests for the whole world; “ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” Exodus 19:5-6

At Israel’s zenith, when they were closest to God, at a time when the great spiritual works of the Bible were produced, Israel was seen throughout the world as a source of spiritual superiority, they were sought out for their wisdom; “And all the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.” 1 Kings 10:2

God didn’t want Israel to waste their time focused on pursuing worldly achievements, rather He wanted them to be focused on Him alone. And only when they did, then did God richly blessed them with the wealth of the world: “So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom…..And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycomore trees that are in the vale, for abundance.” 1 Kings 10:23,27

 

 

 

 

            Looking at all the things that humans have achieved in modern history, I wonder what God thinks? We understand the mechanics of the planets, the workings of the biological cell, we have put man on the moon, built magnificent structures, designed amazingly complex computer systems; but is this of any significance to God? I tend to think that God sees all our pursuits as nothing more than detrimental distractions from our real purpose as humans; to know God.

Maybe the Amish have it right in their rejection of technology?

 

I see now that worldly achievement isn’t to be our focus, but rather God alone. It is only then that God will bless us with wealth and the things that the world desires above Him. Seek God first, and richness will follow. In fact Jesus stated this principle perfectly: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33

 

 

 

So when God asks us not to serve any gods other than Him, He is asking more than just belief in Him, more than spending Sunday morning worshipping Him, more than a prayer before bed. He seems to be asking for something that is antithetical to our modern life, something that the first Christians joyfully did; solely focus on God:

 

“And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers…. And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple” Acts 2:42-46

 

 

Maybe I’m just turning into a hippie! A Christian hippie!

 

 

Testing Prophecy

Well it seems that the timing of my study into prophecy was rather ‘prophetic’ itself! A couple of days ago my church hosted a preacher who is touted as having prophetic abilities, some were actually referring to him as a prophet.

He was a great preacher no doubt, and his message was impeccable. Afterwards he called up a number of people from the crowd to deliver messages which he felt God was telling him (he termed these messages as ‘words of knowledge/wisdom’or something to that effect), and I was one of them.

Most of what he spoke of was from my past and present, telling me things that he couldn’t have known himself, and it was all spot on. There was only once piece of information which dealt with the future, and it was that I would have my own business, which is something that I had indeed been wanting to set up. So this was great confirmation for me, and has given me extra impetus to persue this path.

So ultimately the whole experience was positive for me, I tend to believe that the things which he said really were from God, but the experience did raise many questions in my head. First of all, I wonder whether any of this should be called ‘prophecy’, which I see no biblical basis for as my previous post details. In fact he was upfront enough to admit that his ‘prophecies’ are at best only 30-40% accurate, which rang alarm bells in my ears! God made it abundantly clear that if a prophet is wrong even once then he is a false prophet. I think that the things he was saying should be best classified as ‘revelations’.

In the end almost the entirety of the church came forward to receive a ‘word of knowledge’ from him. So it wasn’t just that God gave him a revelation for only a few select people, but rather he all too easily gave a revelation to every single person that came forward. This seemed rather curious to me, I would have expected him to draw a blank for some people and say “I’m sorry, but God isn’t revealing anything to me about you”.

Another thought that was running through my mind was how strikingly similar the whole thing is to what a fortune teller does. It’s odd that as Christians we are so defiantly opposed to mediums and fortune tellers (and rightly so), yet we are so quick to openly embrace our own version of it (in fact, other than the preacher getting his revelation from God and the medium from a spirit, it is all exactly the same thing!).

I also haven’t seen any biblical basis for this kind of thing. Where in the Bible are the prophets going around telling everybody their future on demand? In fact the only people who did these things were described to as mediums and witches!! I’m not at all suggesting that this is what these modern ‘prophets’are, but when you look to God’s Word for guidance on such matters one is left furiously scratching one’s head!

It may be said that I’m being overly critical, but I would rather be a little over critical than under critical, which would be just plain dangerous! One will be sucked into all sorts of heretical teaching by failing to test the claims of teachers.

Do all these failed predictions mean that he is a false prophet? I don’t know. My compassionate side tends to think of him as slightly misguided, and simply changing his title from ‘prophet’ might be sufficient correction. But my better instinct tells me that anybody who claims to be a prophet, but their prophecy does not come to pass is a false prophet, Scripture is crystal clear about this.

It also might be said that I am getting far too caught up in what ultimately is nothing more than an issue of semantics, that it is ‘revelation’not ‘prophecy’. But there is great power in the Word, and the words that the Word uses, if you follow what I mean!

^“ For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” Hebrews 4:12 KJV

It then follows from this that this power and sharpness will certainly be diminished by careless use of the Word. Many Christians in their zeal for God go out evangelizing and preaching but have failed to gain an adequate knowledge or understanding of the Word. Not only is this frowned upon in Scripture (Prov 19:2 Rom 10:2), but also is a guaranteed way to limit the efficacy of your work. I know from person experience that my lack of firsthand knowledge of the Scriptures has severely cumbered my work, this is something that I am now furiously working to rectify. The simple fact is that we need to test the words of man by the Word of God.

Ultimately I don’t have a big problem with what this guy was doing, and I feel that it is from God, I guess I just feel a little uneasy with it because it is essentially the same things as what a medium will do! Except a medium will charge a fee for the service!

Prophecy

Having been in self-imposed excommunication from the church for seven years, my reintroduction was bound to introduce me to various new themes floating around in Christian culture. One of the most prominent themes that I hear thrown around is ‘prophecy’. I have heard a number of people being flippantly referred to as prophets, and even more people claiming to ‘speak words of prophecy’, or having had such prophetic ‘words’ spoken over them. The common use of term ‘prophecy’ in the today’s parlance seems to be conveniently pliant and hopelessly confused and vague.

But just what is prophecy, and what function did the prophet play in history? Like usual, Scripture gives quite clear answers.

The Bible describes the prophet as having a very precise purpose and function, prophets were not people who just predicted the future as is commonly thought. To use a modern analogy, they were basically God’s ‘prosecuting attorneys’, whose specific purpose was to bring God’s lawsuit against both God’s people and the nations that surrounded Israel. So just as a modern prosecuting attorney will represent the government in charging a criminal for an alleged crime, God also sent His prophets to charge His people with a particular crime.

At the start of Ezekiel’s prophetic mission, God enunciated a very clear definition of what prophecy exactly is:

“When I say to a wicked person, “You will surely die,” and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself.” Ezekiel 3:18-19.

Here we see four clear attributes of a prophecy: 1) identification of sin, 2) dissuasion from sin/call to repentance, 3) pronouncement of punishment for unrepented sin, 4) accountability of the prophet to his task.

So while a prophet would certainly pronounce a future punishment, this was only a small part of the prophet’s purpose. It is important to note that the prediction of the future was always contingent on repentance. If the offending people did repent of their sin, then God’s punishment would be revoked. We see this in Jonah’s prophecy of the destruction of Nineveh where the prediction of their destruction did not come to pass because the people did heed God’s warning and repented.

So the primary purpose of the prophet was not to warn the people of God’s impending wrath, but rather to persuade them to cease their sinful ways and turn back to God. It is God’s love that motivates the prophecy, not wrath.

1 Corinthians 14:3-4 gives another good general guide to what the effect of prophecy is; “everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort”, and “he who prophesies edifies the church”. These verses should not be misconstrued to mean that the prophecy of the New Testament should be solely positive and feel-good. One only has to look at the prophecy in the book of Revelation where the seven churches are addressed to see that quite a lot of harsh words were said of them. Also, while the Old Testament prophecy contained a lot of harsh rebuke, it also contained much encouragement and comfort too (Hos 11:14, 14, Joel 3:17-21, Amos 9:11-15, Mic 7:8-20). And what would be a more effective way to edify the church than for it’s sins to be made known? Progress can not be made unless one’s stumbling blocks are known.

So we see that prophecy also contains encouragement and comfort in tandem with warnings of God’s wrath. Both are integral parts of prophecy. 

The Bible makes it clear that there are just as many false prophets as true prophets, so we need to be discerning when listening to anybody who claims to be speaking prophecy. The two most effective methods for identifying a true prophet from a false prophet are:   1) to see if the specific prophecy comes true. “If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously” Deuteronomy 18:22.               2) “By their fruit you will recognise them.” Matt 2:15,16. The fruit of the spirit is of course a reference to Gal 5:22-23, which is in contrast to the works of the flesh Gal 5:19-21, which would be manifest in the false prophet.

Also prophets are always described as spreading their message on the streets to all the people concerned with total conviction and a desperate vehemence. Prophets do not timidly whisper their message in a church corner.

So in summery we find a number of principles in the Bible for discerning between true and false prophets. These are the characteristics that the Bible describes of a true prophet:

1)      The prophet must be prophesying directly to the people concerned

2)      Specific sins will be identified

3)      The prophet will call the offending people to repent

4)      Specific punishment will be identified for unrepentant sin

5)      Specific blessings with be identified for repentance

6)      The prophecy must identify a path to edification

7)      The prophecy must come true

8)      The fruit of the prophet must be of spirit, not of the flesh

          It is obvious from all this that prophecy isn’t the mere prediction of calamity or blessing- this would be better defined as ‘revelation’- but instead true prophecy will include the above biblical principles. Also it is a quite poignant note that an extremely high responsibility is upon the shoulders of the prophet to do his job properly. This should serve as a dire warning to anybody who wishes to call their words prophecy; it is not a risk-free and glamorous job, and it is also your life that is on the line. So people should be extremely cautious that their compulsion to call their words prophecy is not in anyway a whimsical or self-aggrandizing compulsion. God takes prophecy extremely seriously:

“Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing!”, “My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations” Ezekiel 13:3, 9.

“But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’” Deut 18:20

           The whole modern understanding of ‘prophecy’ seems to be based on a confusion between ‘prophecy’ and ‘revelation’. If someone is only stating what will happen in the future, then this is revelation, NOT prophecy. The two are categorically different things.

Recognising Providence

In coming to grips with the realisation that God controls the bad stuff in my life as well as the good, a friend made the comment that far too many people fall into the trap of placing God’s love one category and then placing the suffering and discontent in their lives into a separate category. This idea is disabused by the simple example of God willing the suffering and crucifixion of His beloved Son.

It is so often assumed that God is responsible for the good things, and that Satan is responsible for all the bad things. But this type of thinking seems to me to be deeply flawed because it relies on the persons own definition of what is good and what is bad. In this logic, it is assumed that humans are capable of correctly determining whether something is or isn't God’s will.

But this surely has to be a false assumption. How can we puny humans fully know what is good and what is bad, and surely it is a little arrogant to suggest that we have the ability to read God’s mind like that.

I can think of numerous examples from within my own life where what I thought was the right course of action ended up being wrong, and the ostensibly wrong direction that God took me was actually the right course.

For example, I might think that it is a good thing for me to get all the green traffic lights on the way to my destination, but actually getting all red lights may save me from being in the truck accident that occurred further down the road.

Getting sick might seem like a bad thing, until you hear the news that on the day that you had off work, the Fukushima nuclear power plant where you work has blown up in a nuclear meltdown.

How many stories like these have we either heard of, or have personally experienced?

While the good outcomes in these examples may seem obvious, it is only in hindsight that you notice that the outcomes are in fact good and not bad as it first seemed. But just think about the amount of bad things that occur in your life in which you simply fail to notice the good that actually comes in the end.

 God is looking out for us and He “works out everything for his own ends.” Prov 16:4

Spiritual Living

Ever since my ‘Spiritual rebirth’, God has been showing me small snippets of another way of living, a relationship with God that transcends the material world. This is a type of spirituality which seems to remarkably accord with the type of spirituality that the Bible describes the first Christians living in.

My first ‘spiritual' experience of the Holy Spirit’s immediate presence occurred back in March. That first experience of the intimate love of God opened my eyes to what it is like to be totally detached from the material world, and I was introduced to a spiritual realm where the only focus is one’s relationship with God, very similar to my perception of Heaven really.

Unfortunately the whole experience occurred at work, which forced me to restrict the emotional extent of the experience, but it was still extremely intense. It’s so hard to put into words, but I distinctly remember thinking that the whole world could disintegrate around me and I wouldn’t care. In fact, in the emotion of the experience I really didn’t have a care for anything else, everything faded into total insignificance; all the troubles at work, depression in my personal life, financial stress etc; the only thing that seemed to be of any importance was holding onto that raw, deep and unfettered love from God. During the experience I turned wholly apathetic towards the work colleagues who were causing me grief, and I felt that neither my possessions nor any of my life goals held any value, in fact these things seemed to be a distinct hindrance to being able to hold onto this spiritual high.

It was a stunningly liberating experience, and also the most amazing high! Completely dream-like to be honest. The only way to actually live out this type of spirituality would be to sequester myself away from the world in some kind of remote monastery, in a manner similar to the ancient desert ascetic monks like Saint Antony.

And yesterday I experienced something similar again. Although it was far less intense, it’s application to my life was much broader. Also, after having spent a few months cogitating the revelations that God was imparting on me, I felt that the experience yesterday made far more sense to me, it seemed to be a far more practical ‘spirituality’ to adapt to my normal life.

There were two prominent revelations that were in my mind. Firstly all material things totally lost it’s allure, and mammon held no more temptation. I felt a neutral response to material stuff, whereas before material things took on a more negative attribute.

Secondly, a deep and humble love for those around me manifested, even for those who held animosity towards me. Whereas before I felt apathy, this time I felt positive ‘love’. This love was so powerful and real that I even desired for people to show me hostility or acrimony just so that I could show them the Christ-like love that was welling inside me. The cessation of feeling animosity towards those who hurt me was utterly liberating.

These spiritual experiences presented a type of living that was categorically different to the way that I once lived. It feels like a different ‘level’ of living, where you can only be in one, either the spiritual or the material. The two seem mutually exclusive. But having said that, I feel that my current grasp on this spiritual level is only partial, and I find myself slipping back to the material level from time to time. But whenever I do slip, God always rescues me and hits me with another wave of His love which immediately elevates me back to the spiritual.

The second experience that I described above is a practical type of spirituality that I could implement into my life, and in hindsight He has been preparing me for it in the last few months. In fact it seems remarkably similar to the spirituality that David and Solomon sung about, and that which Christ taught and which the first Christians embraced.

It seemed so foreign to me before, but makes so much sense now. It’s like what they say about love songs, that love songs only really hit you and make total sense once you yourself are in love. It’s seems to be the same with spirituality, the following verses now make so much more sense to me, they really speak to my soul.

“O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is” Psalm 63:1

“there is none upon the earth that I desire beside thee” Psalm 73:25

“Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her.” Proverbs 3:13-15

“My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver” Proverbs 8:19

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” Matthew 4:4

Those verses describe a yearning for God in which all other material pursuits dim into the background. Nothing else matters. That is what I have been experiencing, material stuff seems to be little more than an annoyance and even hindrance. It’s not a hatred of material stuff, but more so an apathy toward it. Below are just a few verses which teach a detachment from the material world.

“go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” Matthew 19:21

“Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.”  1 Timothy 6:9

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” Matthew 6:24

“All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.” Acts 2:44-46

“For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.”  1 John 2:16 NIV

While I certainly had always seen the truth of the verses above and paid lip service to them, the fact is that I was not living in the manner that they describe. My attachment and desire for material possessions and pursuing financial stability were the focus of my life. This was evidenced by frustration at things braking, and stress over financial matters. I was simply not trusting that God was in control.

I found that it was one thing to say that I served God and not money, but it was another thing to actually live that way. The simple fact was that I was blindly pursuing mammon, and I was only letting God fill the gaps.

I can be sure that I have now mostly detached from the material level because I rarely stress and fret about things, no matter what happens. It feels so good now that all my actions are dictated by my faith that God has things in control, the following verses perfectly echoes how I now trust God:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:25-34

I have heard many Christians describe the stage that I am now going through as an ‘intimacy stage’ of Christianity, and that mature Christians grow out of this intense passion, love and zeal. To be brutally honest, this sounds to me like nothing more than a copout from ‘mature’ Christians who have simply chosen to let go of the intimacy. This may or may not be true, but as far as I am concerned, I will not let go of this intimacy with God, and forever I will praise Him, lifting up my hands to Him in prayer! He truly satisfies me more than the richest feast! I will always praise Him with songs of joy! It is a little emasculating to admit this; but I couldn’t help but read Psalm 63 with without tears rolling down my eyes. My own heart’s desires are so perfectly echoed by the Psalms. It's such an amazing change from my old self.