Curiosity vs Information

Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise (Deuteronomy 12:30)

I feel constrained to share on this topic at this time as I continue to see a lot of information being shared about the ‘other world’. There are DVDs on anything from the Illuminati to witchcraft to secret societies being made and sold all over, and that by ‘brethren’.

I remember in the 80s when a book was produced by a person who had defected from the other side sharing his experiences. At that time there was so much fear and suspicion in churches due to the leakage he gave about the tactics they used even to distract attention in the worship service.

 A crying toddler raised the antenna of every member as there had to be an agent who caused it. A visitor to church had to be screened secretly to ensure that he was not an agent.

I remember one day around that time leading a students’ Bible Study in church. As usual those BSs have visitors from the campuses. I don’t remember the topic but it was a hot one as it called on very passionate discussions. But as you know the Bible is very central there. Well, among the visitors was this young man who knew his Bible a little better than even some members of the study. As we discussed we would insist that any position one advocates must be supported by scripture. And this particular young man was good in that aspect.

After the study a member of the BS called me aside and ‘informed’ me that the young man was an agent. When I asked her to substantiate she used his knowledge of the Bible as the reason she was convinced so. But he did not use scripture wrongly and was even in tune with the study itself. Her problem was that he was supporting the side she was not in. I had to take her through the scriptures to show her that the Bible has the guidelines as to who represents the devil.

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success (Joshua 1:8)

It is interesting that God never asks us to understand the other side. He never gave His people any allowance to even interact with people who even leaned to the other side. We are supposed to know God so much that we have no allowance to even be tempted to know anything on the other side. And that is why a witch was killed immediately. The same happened with the homosexual, the prostitute, the adulterer, the idol worshipper etc. He was not threatened to order such. He realized that we do not need to know anything about the other side to recognize them.

Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. (2Corinthians 2:11)

Bankers do not study fake currency to recognize it. They are so exposed to the real that any slight touch of anything not real stands out so fast, almost by instinct.

God knows that our curiosity many times will cause us to lean so close to the edge that sometimes we could tip over. Curiosity killed the cat, so we say. But instead of another cat being dissuaded by that statement from being over inquisitive, she asked, ‘what did the cat want to know?’ Many times we are like that.

There are people who have gone to prostitutes to minister but finally became their customers. There are people who have gone to witness in bars and became drunkards. Understanding a prostitute or drunkard is not what will help you bring them to Christ. Christ changed prostitutes and extortionists simply by knowing and doing God’s will. It is His love that draws people to Him, not understanding them. And we will be wise to remember that.

We are supposed to soak ourselves with the scriptures that any slight diversion will be evident without even peering. Jesus said that we will know them by their fruit, not by having an inquisition. Our search to know so much can make us to want to venture a little further than is useful and get sucked into the system itself. We are supposed to know God intimately to refute the wiles of the enemy, not know the wiles enough to able to reason with them.

We know the devil is happy when we fall into two errors; ignoring him altogether and being obsessed with him. Both of them will have the same effect on us. Ignoring him will give him a lot of leeway into our lives as we will deny the evidence of evil that we see. Being obsessed with him might be even more disastrous as we will stop everything to ‘deal’ with him, something he gets excited about as he will then lead us to a wild goose chase as he has many personalities and ‘agents’. 

I always remember a wildlife documentary I saw when I worked at the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation long ago. Lions were hunting and we were being shown several tactics they use. The one I remember as if I have just watched it is when a big male went and stood on a hill overlooking a herd of gazelles with the wind behind him. The gazelles smelt the lion then saw him at a distance. Of course they were terrified. But he was not very near. So they all cocked their ears and stopped everything to see his next move. The other lions just came and picked their game easily as they were all stuck to the one they could see and smell.

I believe this is what these materials may end up producing.

Do we know that there are rich men involved in devil worship? The Bible is plain. Otherwise why did Jesus say it is very hard for the rich to inherit eternal life? Why did James appear to speak so roughly about the rich?

We know there are pastors who use witchcraft to perform miracles, who use beer and drugs to ‘perform’ on the pulpit. Must we know them? I don’t think so. We are supposed to know Christ above all. We are supposed to investigate the scriptures like the Bereans of Acts 17.

I brought DVDs about the connection between hip hop and demons (The Truth behind Hip Hop DVDs). Many people credit me with that. But I want to stress that I more or less stumbled on them on a mission to Uganda and felt that the church needs to know that some of the things they are doing and some of the dances and songs they are allowing have demonic links. But if that drove someone from reading and studying the Bible, I would be the first one to repent. That was and still is information. The pastor making them and the materials clearly point to Christ.

The inquisitions were the result of being so fixated on the devil (heresy) that we stopped living the Christian life as we hounded him from one corner to another, a thing he doesn’t mind. In fact he encourages as it leads us to fight him using carnal weapons, eventually turning it around to fight those who are living right as they will not follow us into our exclusive witch hunts. 

I get a lot of information. As a minister I need to know quite a bit. But I know that if the information I am looking for is taking me away from the word of God it is not useful information as it is diverting my attention from knowing and worshipping God. My primary purpose as a minister is knowing God and making Him known. 

Let us not be ensnared by the devil by looking to know what he or his servants are doing.

May we be fixated only by Christ and His word.

For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified (1Corinthians 2:2)

What is your primary pursuit? Are you determined to trash all information that does not lead you to know God?