The god of my imagination
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A message for all who claim Jesus as Lord and Saviour, and a reminder to those who teach of the awesome responsibility upon us to deliver Spirit-filled truth.
I know all that you do, and I know that you are neither frozen in apathy nor fervent with passion. How I wish you were either one or the other! But because you are neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm, I am about to spit you from my mouth. For you claim, “I’m rich and getting richer—I don’t need a thing.” Yet you are clueless that you’re miserable, poor, blind, barren, and naked! So I counsel you to purchase gold perfected by fire, so that you can be truly rich. Purchase a white garment to cover and clothe your shameful Adam-nakedness. Purchase eye salve to be placed over your eyes so that you can truly see. All those I dearly love I unmask and train. So repent and be eager to pursue what is right. Behold, I’m standing at the door, knocking. If your heart is open to hear my voice and you open the door within, I will come in to you and feast with you, and you will feast with me.
Revelation 3:15-20 (TPT)
Faith and Doubt:
Where to place your trust is always a critical decision. Christians claim that Jesus Christ is Lord, that our trust is in him, and this is our good decision. Yet, there are still times when we are arrested with a prompting to question where our trust has really settled. Our desire for God is genuine, but our declaration of trust in Jesus can be made ‘outside of the furnace’. We can in our moment of doubt when the heat is on us, turn from our trust in the Lord and look for an alternative champion.
In the opening scripture from the Book of Revelation, Jesus speaks as a judge and gives His followers a warning. His desire is that we would be passionate in our faith and commitment to Him. He is Lord, and mightily jealous for our affections:
You must worship no other gods, for the Lord, whose very name is Jealous, is a God who is jealous about his relationship with you.
Exodus 34:14 NLT
His desire is clear and steadfast leaving no room for negotiation. We must be ‘all in’ with passion for Him who is the lover of our souls. Lukewarm is not an option. Being lukewarm is being casual or wary in our relationship with Him, shaping our relationship based upon our needs, or perhaps our doubts. His response implies that ‘lukewarm’ is the worst kind of response we can have toward Him. When we claim Him, then turn our eyes to place our trust elsewhere we may receive a rebuke for our lack of faith. Despite the lack of trust, He holds fast to us, His rebuke has a purpose - to extend grace and mercy and to guide us back on the correct path. His desire is for the tests of life to burn away the fears and doubt as we remain in Him, clinging to His faithfulness, fervent with passion.
Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
James 1:2-4 (NLT)
The encouragement to all of us is never give up. When you are tested by the fires in your life, know that as a Christian, the fire is to refine you, purify you and build you into a much-loved son or daughter that reflects him. It is not to destroy you. His fire for you is a refiner's fire not a consuming fire. His purpose is to see your victory bringing you ever closer to Him.
In Revelation chapter three, Jesus is giving us ‘straight talk’ because He is coming back soon, and He wants to find His children immersed in Him, reflecting Him, fulfilling destiny.
God was delighted to give us birth by the truth of his infallible Word so that we would fulfill his chosen destiny for us and become the favorite ones out of all his creation!
James 1:18 (TPT)
The Spirit of Discernment:
The 'lukewarm’ state is quite common. It seems to describe the Christian who hears the truth, accepts it, but then does not become fruitful. A scenario well described in the parable of the Sower. (Matthew 13: 3-23). Perhaps we assume that the ‘lukewarm’ that Jesus is talking about concerns our actions; how much we do for him, how often we go to church and so forth. It is also very much about the state of our heart response to Him. That response is influenced by what we study, who we surround ourselves with and the level of our desire for greater understanding. Ultimately, we may have to reach a conclusion that losing the heat of our fire for God is often the result of a compromise with the world around us and brought about by a personal lack of direction or deliberate misdirection.
Most Christians are brought up with a clear understanding that the written Word of God is the source of truth and authority: yet the world provides us with so many opportunities for error and distraction. We are surrounded by opportunity for both spiritual growth and for corruption. We live in an age of countless resources and that can be a wonderful source of knowledge but also a place for invalid and sometimes dangerous interpretations of God’s Word. And this is not new to the current generation. The Apostle Paul found himself having to work hard to counter false messages and misleading teachers. A major challenge in the first century church (and we believe it remains) was that most believers did not appear to question or put anything they received to a test – they readily consumed the lot, the truth and the lies.
A good case study is found in the book of Galatians:
I am shocked over how quickly you have strayed away from the One who called you in the grace of Christ. I’m astounded that you now embrace a distorted gospel! That is a fake “gospel” that is simply not true. There is only one gospel—the good news of Christ! Yet you have allowed those who mingle law with grace to confuse you. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel different than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!
Galatians 1: 6-8 (TPT)
Later in the same letter Paul writes:
What has happened to you foolish Galatians? Who has put you under an evil spell? Did God not open your eyes to see the meaning of Jesus’ crucifixion? Was he not revealed to you as the crucified one?
Galatians 3: 1 (TPT)
For those in Christ today, the enemy’s attempt at subtle misdirection remains a reality, but the volume and availability of content means that the enemy is no doubt pleased with the arrival of the digital age and the greater potential it gives for confusing God’s children.
These people are false apostles. They are deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no wonder that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve.
2 Corinthians 11:13-15 (NLT)
If we are not grounded in our relationship with the Lord, we are in danger. What we all desperately need in abundance is the spirit of discernment – it is a gift that grows in the life of those in continuous pursuit of Christ. It enables us to recognise truth from falsehood:
Someone living on an entirely human level rejects the revelations of God’s Spirit, for they make no sense to him. He can’t understand the revelations of the Spirit because they are only discovered by the illumination of the Spirit. Those who live in the Spirit are able to carefully evaluate all things, and they are subject to the scrutiny of no one but God.
1 Corinthians 2:14-15 (TPT)
Exposition and interpretation of scripture is helpful to understanding. It has always been the case that teachers would draw parallels, illuminate prophesy and its fulfilment. Teachers and preachers imply meaning or intent from events and declarations in scripture. Are we not doing so right now in writing this to you? Our interpretations need to be verified, and this is something that can be done by all those who have given their lives to the King of glory. Some would struggle to apply a worldly academic rigour, to put messages to the test, but what we do have is the greatest teacher and helper living within. The Holy Spirit – who reveals truth to us.
The apostles and teachers of the early church expanded God’s Word, revealing spiritual truths. The key is that they did so under the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit living in you confirms their message and verifies it. This is what we need to do with the messages we take hold of amid the vast store of viewpoints and declarations abounding on the internet and in published works. We can confirm messages with God’s Word and by His Spirit. The Holy Spirit is of course always true, the question is whether we are sufficiently intimate with Him, to hear what the spirit is saying so we can distinguish between a voice of truth and a voice of corruption.
Here is Jesus talking to others about putting His own words to the test:
Jesus answered them by saying, “My teaching is not My own, but His who sent Me. If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know whether the teaching is of God or whether I speak on My own accord and by My own authority. He who speaks on his own accord seeks glory and honor for himself. But He who seeks the glory and the honor of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness or deception in Him.
John 7:16-18 (AMP)
What lessons should we learn? Perhaps it is simple despite the digital overload and the mixed messages. We must be passionate in seeking God and His will (His heart), and then we will be able to discern truth. That seeking, that discovery comes from personal intimacy in your relationship with the Lord through the Holy Spirit within you. Invest yourself in that personal relationship, because this is your point of reference, your true compass. There is nothing wrong with learning from the many servants of God you will find who will preach or teach or write expositions but ensure that foremost and up front is the development of your personal relationship with the Lord, so that you can discern the servants of God from those used by the enemy. If you want to avoid a descent into ‘lukewarm’, by staying on the true path, make discernment a gift you constantly cry out for and desire to expand. Grasp it, train in it, and develop it so that you will not be led into compromise. If you seek wisdom from people without investing sufficiently in intimacy with the Holy Spirit and God’s Word, you will be filled with much misdirection, incomplete purpose and a heart filled with many errors that you may pass to others as you share in new interpretations that remodel God’s values. Often, these false interpretations were birthed to bypass a truth that many see as inconvenient in a changing world. When you have true discernment, you walk always illuminated by the light of God – your purpose and destiny assured, your part played out fully. Building intimacy is the only way to be hot and on fire for Jesus. It is the only antidote to a compromise that leads to ‘lukewarm’. Our desire to be ‘comfortable’ sometimes leads us to debate the most obvious of God’s instructions that need no interpretation. The most eternal of moral commands may come under scrutiny to be comfortably re-shaped to fit the modern traditions of men. Why do we allow ourselves to be so persuaded?
But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ In this way, you say they don’t need to honor their parents. And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,
‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship is a farce,
for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’
Matthew 15:5-9 (NLT)
How can we conclude? We will give you an opinion, an interpretation and you are free to test it. The reason why Jesus is so passionate about his children being on fire for Him is because He has redeemed us, and we now carry His likeness. He wants us to pursue Him until we discover how to surrender in honour. Fervent passion for Him is in the longing of your heart.
In the following well known passage, spies were sent by the Jewish religious leaders to try and trap Jesus, asking Him whether it was right to pay taxes to a corrupt government. Here is how He responded:
Jesus saw right through their cunning ploy and said, “Why are you testing me? Show me one of the Roman coins. Whose head is on the coin? Whose title is stamped on it?”
They answered, “Why, it’s Caesar’s.”
Jesus said, “Precisely. The coin bears the image of the Emperor Caesar, and you should give back to Caesar all that belongs to him. But you bear the image of God. So give back to God all that belongs to him.”
Luke 20:23-25 (TPT)
We bear His image, and we are heirs of salvation. God wants His children to reflect all of Him, not part of Him. He wants more of our time and more of our worship. We cannot ‘cherry pick’ His instructions so that we pander to our flesh putting aside those we find uncomfortable, because we cannot worship the living God on our terms and conditions. It's all our heart with uncontained passion that the saviour desires. Such a heart can be transformed and is responsive – sensitive to truth. If we stop short of giving back all that is due to Him, we may find that we are no longer worshipping Yahweh - the God who creates, but instead worshipping the god we have created, the god of our imagination.
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Steve and Khanya