Idolatry Repackaged 2

I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. (1John 2: 14 – 17)

How do we stop being beggars and become bosses? That is where we left out in the last post.

I want to start with an example of how it can and does happen.

You love worshipping in private, let us say, specifically, in the bathroom. For the Americans, let us simplify by saying as you are taking a bath or shower or something like it.

You thoroughly enjoy singing that you can spend thirty minutes or more there, and not because you are dirty. The shower seems to dig deep in your spirit to produce worship that stops all time once there.

You even get to compose great songs and experiment with all manner of voice combinations and modulations as you sing praise to the King of kings. And you are able to do all that because you are not aware that anyone but God is listening. You are satisfied with your audience of One.

Then some neighbors takes attention of your worship. So much that it deeply affects them.

One day you have some urgency that you leave in a hurry before even bathing.

In the evening, two neighbors confront you with deep concern in their eyes.

‘What happened?’ they ask you.

You ask what they mean as there is nothing that has happened to you or anyone you know.

‘You did not lead us in worship this morning. We always wait for you to do so every morning’.

Of course you are shocked. Not because people were listening but because they were never near your focus; you were singing to God, and Him alone. Even more shocking was the reality that they never even suspected that it was a bathroom pastime. They thought you are a chorister somewhere who practices in the house due to the way you played with all manner of notes.

This introduces a new dynamic. You have to consider an eavesdropper in your shower antics as now you have spectators. You cannot now just sing like you used to. You have to guard your diction and sound projection as you must not disappoint your new fans. And of course you can’t stop singing as you do not want to disappoint your new disciples. What then happens to your worship?

A friend visits your fan and is so impressed with your ‘performance’ that he decides that something must be done. As he listens to some of the songs you composed in your shower antics, he sees a potential and wonders why it is not on the limelight.

He asks you where you recorded the songs and is shocked when you tell him that you have never. He can’t believe it.

Even before asking you, he arranges with a producer friend of his to record your songs. You then have to go fast forward to write them as you only sang them in those shower theatrics.

Before you get out of a daze from all these happenings, you are in a studio recording your first album. The producer, being a big name, is able to make it a great hit that sells very well, making you a tidy sum.

But it also opens doors all over. You are now being invited to sing your shower compositions in churches and weddings and parties all over. You are also being invited for interviews by all the media outlets, from radio to TV and even newspapers. You get to travel so much that you must resign your ‘boring’ job to concentrate on your new passion.

Where is God in all this?

Many pastors will tell you that this is His breakthrough but I want to offer another side to it. Do you realize that this might be the evil one’s strategy to kill your worship relationship with God?

Why am I pouring water on your breakthrough? Has your relationship with God grown through that breakthrough? Do you worship better in the closet since the breakthrough? Do you enjoy prayer more than you did before the breakthrough?

I have once gone through something like that. A door ‘opened’ so wide that all that I needed was to walk through it. Everything was flowing excellently and all indicators were indicating that this was it.

Then at the very end the door was slammed on my face. Of course I went complaining to God. Why open all these doors then close the one at the very end?

He asked me a question I want us to look at. Who opened all those doors?

I looked back at the whole thing. It was my papers, my connections, the promises of people in the right places, etc. All of them were arranged in such a way that I had imagined that God had to be there.

And I have never forgotten that rebuke, over thirty years ago.

Anyway, back to our topic. You have become a star, a sensation, the main event. You end up having no time for yourself, leave alone with God.

But you are ministering. At least that is what everybody is saying. Surprisingly, you are more intent in working on your voice than your heart. It becomes imperative to attend a music and voice school yet there is not enough time to read the Bible. Even when you must attend a prayer meeting, it is your voice that is needed instead of your prayer. You even think it is shameful to sing in a shower room as there are better places to practice your singing. What will people think when they hear their star singing in the shower?

You will then be crowded with events and ministry invitations, so much that you will barely have time to rest. Even the holidays you are invited to will be to minister to those holidaying. You become an authority on every topic under heaven because of that gift. Elders and statesmen remove their hats and bow to you for your excellence. You become an authority on marriage yet you are not married. You sin and nobody notices, or even seems to care as it does not affect the gift.

Do you know what has happened? You have idolized the gift. In fact it is even worse. The gift has become your god.

Is there any difference between the two? You may ask. Of course there is. Your god feeds you, gives you significance, provides for you, and even defines you.

Aside from the gift your life may simply expire.

Did God expose that gift? Probably, or probably not. You see God will expose it for His glory and not simply your breakthrough. That He is the source of that gift is not in question.

The product of that exposure could indicate the source of the exposure.

The speed of the exposure and the very wide open doors even before you envision or plan for it, let alone pray about it could be an indicator that God may have been out of the equation. The fact that your worship diminished and maybe died altogether may indicate that Christ was not the one behind the exposure. But it also indicates something else; you were careless or negligent in your spirituality. That is why you were taken advantage of.

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, (Ephesians 3:20)

We will hide our idolatry under this verse. But do you realize that the excess here comes from our prayers and not outside them? Do you realize that that excess you think is your breakthrough may be an abortion of God’s purpose for you? Do you realize that what you are calling a breakthrough may have removed you from the narrow path to the highway to hell?

Solomon is an example. God gave him wisdom and wealth and influence. Probably without knowing, he sought to increase it and probably became too cozy to offend his fans. He then started making alliances that are alright businesswise but that needed to be contracted in ways that God had forbidden. He forgot God for the biz and lost both.

He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it. Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto. He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire: And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god. (Isaiah 44: 14 – 17)

The gift becomes your god when it starts defining you. It becomes your god when it results in your becoming less spiritual. It is your god when it makes you depend less on God. And it is your god when you can reason and explain around the Bible verses that do not agree with you.

Another thing that happens is that as you get more into the idolatry, God speaks less and less and logic and sense seem to prevail. Godly company becomes abhorrent, especially those who are not wowed by your gift and will confront your neglect of spirituality.

Of course you will elevate your class. Move to a classy neighborhood, drive a classy car, buy classy furniture, eat in classy restaurants … Many times this is a way to shunt those with a capacity to confront your backslidden state. Yet it will be invisible to you as your ‘ministry’ boundaries are enlarging by the day.

Let me give some indicators that the gift has become your god.

Your closeness to God is affected. God’s will on a day to day basis starts being vague on almost all areas. It becomes easier to explain away your conduct and negligent of the spiritual using songs and singers instead of scripture. You find yourself using verses to explain the fact that you are unable to hear from God. To say the truth you are scared to hear from God as deep within there is a dread that you are way off His standard.

The Bible also starts losing its taste. You will find yourself reading the Bible to reduce guilt as opposed of doing it for the enjoyment and joy of hearing from God as you read His word. Singing itself becomes an end as opposed to being a pathway to a richer experience with God and worship.

And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her. (Ecclesiastes 7:26)

The second indicator is in relationships. Can God lead you to do something He hates? Why then would He lead you to a relationship so abusive that it will end in divorce even as you serve Him?

And it does not mean having your heart in the right place makes you super wise or discerning. God is the one who will shield you from such folly, however foolish you may be. If God’s people will be honest, they will tell you that the reason they have overcome and overran some things is not because they are the best. They will confess that God protected them from their folly. And I am an example.

I can confess that there are relationships I bled from when God without my slightest permission wrenched them from my hands leaving me heartbroken. Yet looking at them now I realize that had they continued they could have emasculated my ministry and response to God’s leadership. And I am talking of godly girls. They have no capacity even now to handle the path God has ordained for me.  I remember once God telling me that the girl I was in a relationship with was not the one but I loved her so much. In fact we tried to break up a number of times without success. But I really wanted to do God’s will.

Then God stepped in. He parted us in a way only He understood. I have never seen her since.

It is not wisdom that shields us from folly. It is God who protects us in the midst of our folly because we are submitted to His Lordship. He will protect us from our raging hormones because we seek to lift His standard. Joseph did not overcome because his body was made of steel. His blood was as hot, if not hotter than any young man his age. But he had a standard that he lived by, God’s.

Let me give a scriptural example. In 1 Samuel 27, David flees from Israel as a political refugee. He is then able to package himself thus, showing his host that he had no chance of being ever accepted by his people. His host, who was one of the five principals that made the Philistines was so convinced that he decided to keep him in charge of his body guard.

But David’s political gamble backfires when the Philistines go to war against Israel. Achish must have David in his army as he battles the Israelites. What will David now do? What would you have done had you been in David’s shoes?

That is where God steps in to rescue His servant from a difficult fix. And that is what He does to anyone sold out to Him.

When we find ourselves being left to our devices and God does not come to our protection, it is very possible that we are not worshipping Him but the gift He gave us.

The other is business. How does an unbeliever produce a spiritual song? How can God guide a worshipper to a studio being run by an unbeliever? How does He provide instrumentalists who have no capacity to worship as you do? Can their accessorizing offer any spiritual addition to the worship you are offering?

2 Corinthians 6: 14 is used for marriage, though at this point of breakthrough it is explained away. Yet do you know that it probably talks more about business than marriage? Do you realize that a lot of worship is killed in those studios?

I am a writer and know that the spiritual state of a designer can alter the book is ways the spiritual can easily see. I have seen it enough times as I write and publish upcoming authors. Again there are writers who come to me for assistance in their writing who will literally run away when we start interacting as they sense the spirit I am moving in. And that is the primary reason I do not charge for my services (editing, layout, publishing) as it will interfere with God’s standard in me. I once did a book of an author who had some issues and the battles I fought were intense though I knew about his issues after the book was done.

God will protect you from such folly even in your folly if you are submitted to Him. But it is impossible for an unspiritual man to produce a spiritual song, however good they are in their profession. And this is where most musicians fall as they must submit under the spirit the producer operates under. Jesus talked about springs and the kind of water they produce. Or do you think music is exempt from that reality?

Next time we will talk about the sin element and how it is a pointer of the god we are worshipping.