I’ve discussed praise and worship with some friends recently. We were looking at it from the perspective that praise and worship is not always what it seems. Sure, the praise and worship of Jesus is an excellent thing and a righteous activity when done in the Spirit of God towards Jesus. As the glory of Jesus is uncovered so we as His children are unveiled into our true identity and purpose.
But praise and worship in its’ ‘institutionalized form’ is not always the praise and worship of Jesus. When the songs are about us they produce a trance like absorption in ourselves. Following this kind of self-indulgence people can say really ditsy things and think they are in the anointing. Such a ‘daze’ dulls our comprehension of the Word, limits our attention span and sets us up for deception.
This is an important issue because the Lord is transforming us from merely being the church to being His body in spirit and in truth – all of which means forsaking the forms of living in ourselves (religion) to living in Jesus by the Spirit. Our purpose is to become the Kingdom of God’s sons and daughters.
To sing, ‘I love you more than life’ 300 times may sound commendable, but the fact is, it is about us. ‘Us in a trance’ is not the Presence of God. It is the presence of us in a religious atmosphere. Our immersion in self gives rise to utterances that are not life-giving or worse. We may hear the utterances of a religious spirit. Such a spirit may be clever enough not to voice outright heresy. But it will speak through people to bind them in mind-sets that limit the power of Jesus in those that hear them.
In order to know that we have heard clearly from God, we need to know that we heard God and not ourselves; that we heard Jesus’ word to us and not some expression of our personal sentiment or desire. We need to be assured that we are hearing from the Spirit of Christ because we have been worshiping Jesus and not extolling our own good intentions.
‘Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare’ Isa 55.2 NIV.
We need to ask ourselves, how many in Pentecostal/charismatic circles have thought they ‘heard’ a word from God following an ‘us centered’ episode, when it was really a word from their own soul?
How many of us can distinguish what is coming from the Spirit of Christ and what is merely the effervescence of our own soul? How many know God’s word well enough to distinguish truth from religion? I believe in hearing God’s voice and that we can learn to do so accurately. Yet people in large numbers from certain circles crash and burn on the basis of decisions they have made. Decisions sometimes made in reliance on shonky words of knowledge and prophecy.
Confusion, turmoil and just plain Babylon occur in the earth because people worship the thing rather than the creator. In the church we have believers attaching themselves to church, to the Bible, to works of service, to communion, to community and to praise and worship. In this season Jesus is weaning us off ‘things.’ He wants us to draw life from Him.
‘For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself’ John 5.26 NIV.
In polite circles we might call these ‘things’ distractions. But where the success or failure of the Kingdom of God is concerned they come under the heading of idols. The religious spirit; the spirit of anti-Christ is adept at using the things of Christ to diminish our completeness in Christ. Be vigilant and don’t allow yourself to be consumed by the deceptions of the roaring lion who seeks to devour the naïve and religious. For heaven’s sake choose songs about Jesus and not songs about our good intentions.
Make Christ your life. Eat Him. Live in Him and let out the roar of the Lion of the tribe of Judah who lives in you!
Keith Allen
