Shallow Christianity and Demonology

I need to talk about something that bothers me about modern Christians; this whole idea of looking at Gods character and seeing only what we want to see. There are a lot of Christians who memorize scripture like they’re going to write exams about the Bible, but they never take the time to consider, ponder and try to understand the deeper things of God. The way God works is not a concern, as long as they know enough to believe in Him. 

In Exodus 33 v13, Moses expressed an interest in knowing God more intimately. He said ‘If I have found grace in your sight, show me now your way that I may know you…’

You see, the children of Israel knew what God did, but Moses knew why God did it.

 

 There are people who never study the Bible beyond miracles, blessings and good fortune. They never take the time to learn about Gods character. Unfortunately, those people also spend a lot of time listening to pastors who tell them what they want to hear. There are ways in which God operates that run deeper than blessings and His laws. 

What if I told you that God is more interested in getting you into heaven, than He is in making you happy? We read verses that tell us that God will grant us the desires of our hearts. What we’re afraid to say out loud, even admit to ourselves is that Terms and Conditions apply. There is small print, for every desire you seek, every blessing, every promotion… there is small print. And somewhere in that small print, you will find God working according to His plans. God doing things for His glory; which He will not share with another. We’ll find God doing things that will build faith and character in a person before those blessings we seek are handed to us.

Then there’s this demonology that is running wild in churches. You walk into a church service and the pastor spends the entire time rebuking the devil. Every problem a person mentions is traced to demonic activity. Don’t get me wrong, I am not denying the presence of spiritual warfare and generational curses. Those are real and very Biblical. What I am against, is tying every bad thing that happens, to the devil.

Have you noticed that people go for deliverance every church service?  They are told the devil is attacking them and so they must be delivered and bind the enemy. They pray in the name of Jesus and then a week or two later, they’re back seeking deliverance and more enemy binding. You’d think the name of Jesus wasn’t good enough to work the first time round so they’re coming back to see if it will work this time. These are also the same people who will say ‘the devil was defeated at the cross’ and then follow that with ‘the devil is attacking me’. How are you being attacked by someone who was defeated and you were delivered from in the name of Jesus just a week ago?

If there is one person in the Bible who was afflicted, it was Job. He lost his wealth, health and children. Job was not there when the devil and God had that conversation about testing Job. He had no idea why he was going through so much pain, and yet nowhere in the book of Job, will you read that he blamed the devil for his misfortunes. If anything, he said since he accepts good things from God, he should also accept the bad things. Even in the worst situation known to mankind, Job looked for Gods hand in it.

We are so quick to blame every bad thing on the devil and his little minions. I would like to see people being more open minded about their afflictions. There are several reasons for pain and suffering in life.

1.       God is breaking you and molding you for His purposes

2.       You are being punished for a sin you committed

3.       God is testing your faith, trust and commitment to Him

4.       Spiritual warfare.

Nine times out of ten, we jump straight to reason number 4. We will spend hours in prayer and fasting, rebuking the devil, binding and loosing, and all sorts of similar activities. Meanwhile God is just trying to do something in your life. Is it possible that maybe there is a sin in your life that needs to be dealt with? Maybe, you are being disciplined by God in some way. And you’re all up in arms asking God to deliver you from His own discipline.

Imagine a child doing something his parents forbade him to do. Then (if he’s African) his parents decide to smack him. And he stands there asking his father to protect and deliver him from the beating his father is giving him. Sounds a bit silly, doesn’t it? And yet that’s what we do. Rebuke, fast, pray, bind, loose, prophecy, and attempt to deliver…from Gods discipline and work in our lives.

 See, there’s a Bible verse that says ‘all good and perfect things come from Him’. That verse does not say bad things cannot come from God. All it means is that if you have anything good, it is from Him and Him alone. The enemy cannot give you good things (well, they might seem good at the time). There are also verses in the same Bible where God talks about bringing destruction and calamity. In our shallow mindedness, we deliberately skip those parts and jump straight to the feel good verses.

There are deeper things of God. The depth of Gods character is such that we will never get to a point where we know God so well, that nothing He does will surprise us. That is why we must seek Him, and after we find Him, seek Him some more. Get to know Gods character, so that maybe you too, like Moses, will begin to learn His ways. I can assure you that once God sees that you really are committed to seeking Him and truly knowing Him, He will move closer to you and maybe even reveal some parts of Himself that you did not see before. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God….and all these things; Not some of the things…ALL these things shall be added unto you.