Eclipsing Christ
Jesus said, “An evil generation demands a sign.”
What a tremendous balance we need to maintain in our walk and work with God. We need to trust in God’s supernatural intervention, but not demand it. We need to believe in miracles, but be content without them. We need to walk by faith and not by sight, while interceding boldly on behalf of others.
I have been in a recent email conversation about these things. My friend had some very wise words that I’m sharing with you today:
Preoccupation with the supernatural is intoxicating to the flesh. Leaders can and do lose their bearings and become targets of the enemy. They can become deceived. When power is abused, the sheep become easy prey for the enemy. It is a slippery business. Leaders can lose their bearings and drift into modes of ministry where Jesus is largely eclipsed by inordinate preoccupation with “prophetic words”, visions, dreams, spiritual/phenomenal experiences, angelic manifestations (a phenomenon called “angel dust”) being slain in the spirit, the manifestation of animal like sounds, etc. Scripture gets interpreted through lenses based on extra-biblical revelations such as prophetic words by “recognized authoritative prophets” and graphic, and what are viewed as, symbolically significant dreams and visions. The directions, visions and guidance for whole ministries have been influenced by “prophetic words” which the, so called, prophets describe in dreams, visions and words of angels as their means of having the “guidance of God.” Leaders become self-deceived. Leaders “confirm” each other in their deceptions. They form, unwittingly, mutual support networks of mutual deceptive guidance. Christ gets eclipsed.
Colossians 2:18-19 admonishes us to, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.”
May we never eclipse Christ. Let’s call on God for miracles, but always keep our eyes and trust fixed on Jesus alone. Nothing else will do.
