Chapter 5 - Man Flees God
I am taking the time to explain all this about other beliefs because everything is so confused today, and so many things are compared with Christian prayer that are not. At that time, when I was not living my walk with Jesus, when I would try to testify or talk about the Lord, many times I was rejected precisely because I was not living what I preached. I did not fit with these people anyway. I was not with them, but I was not with Jesus either – neither fish nor fowl. I consider this my time in the belly of the whale – like Jonah, who also fled from God.
This morning I went to the local bakery, and saw a guy I’d seen before and talked to about the Lord. He began to tell me he believed in positive thinking and visualization. I explained to him the base of positive thinking is the religion I mentioned before, Houma. He thought that what he was doing was Christian! I explained to him what he was really doing. He told me that it worked; I said, “I know!”, but it was not what he thought. I talked to him of the three psychological levels, ego, superego and id, and how you can use the three with creative prayer, and it will have effect. However, it is not what people think; it is not scientific, it is religion over a thousand years old just in Hawaii, and far longer in Egypt where it began, and it is most certainly NOT Christianity. Houma was a secret knowledge one needed to learn – only the initiates were allowed to “practice” it. This technique went from Egypt to North Africa, to India and then even to the Pacific.
Vincent Peale and the like took this and mixed it with the Gospel and introduced it that way, just as yoga is taught today as an exercise and relaxation technique. It is not; it is religious practice.
Houma has two “ways”, a red and a white, which are similar to positive and negative – like the yin and yang of Taoism. The three personality aspects, what psychology calls the id, ego and superego, represent one’s life force, which like electricity, has a positive and negative side. The priest would “charge” an object and use it like a magnet. If he were to touch someone with such an object, the person would receive energy and that energy would appear to heal him. It was similar to magnetism, but was something unknown – I believe an evil spirit; certainly science has no explanation for how a non-metallic object can be magnetized. The name of this magician is “kahuna”. He taught that if you use your mind and develop your breathing technique you can use the two together as a power called “mara”. It would work like this: you take an image of what you desire in your mind, you breathe ten breaths, and pause, keeping the image in your mind. You do this four times, and you accumulate the energy, mara, then you confess your faith in the energy to do what you ask, and you’ll have it.
The point I was trying to make to the guy is that none of this is new – it’s been being promoted and used for thousands of years. He was most surprised. The “Law of Attraction” book is the latest version of this old saw. But the Law of Attraction is from the Science of Mind people! I hope I didn’t hurt his feelings, but I did have to smile! He was also surprised that I was a real believing Christian, but I knew these things. Nothing in this is Christian, though.
The town we live in is allegedly one of the most “haunted” in the country; not something we like to consider! Many people are fascinated by this today as well – one might almost say obsessed. We see a lot of this on TV now and in movies, such as The Sixth Sense. People are thirsty for the supernatural. If I lose someone, and I don’t know Jesus, and someone tells me it is possible to communicate with my lost loved ones, I will most likely want to do that, if I believe it is possible. For many of these, their problem is the pain of grief – they want to know their lost one is “okay”. There are also real mediums, who actually can speak to spirits whom they believe are the dead. In reality, these people do not know to whom it is they speak, but this is what they believe, and they do receive messages. Then there are others who are fakirs, who simply make hay from the misfortune of their more naïve brethren. Then for some the idea of a ghost is a hobby they like to look into, a joke or purely intellectual interest in an unusual occurrence. In North Africa the village I lived in, in Boulangerie, my Mamma told me I was a special child because I was born in a caul. This is simply a superstition that people have believed for centuries. I liked the idea because it made me feel special, but it is actually meaningless! I became special when I came to know Jesus! In my village, there were people who spoke to their ancestors, and people who talked to spirits. These were two different things. Many tribes and peoples have spoken to or worshipped their ancestors; this is the spirits of men who have lived. People who desire to speak to spirits, not of their own family, are usually looking for power over others or to know the future. Ghosts are a different thing; often believed to be the spirits of persons who died under circumstances of heinous crime or mystery and are “stuck” as it were in the physical world, and not where they ought to be.
None of this is new of course, these things are mentioned in the Bible as well, and I want to talk about them. In order to understand what prayer really is, we must also understand what it is not. Later, we will also need to examine the ways in which people try to contact God, and the ways in which they believe they’ve contacted Him, just because of the result they get. But for now, I want to give you an anecdote from my life during which God showed me something important – I call it, “The Candy Dilemma”.
When I was seven or eight, I went with my mother to see various mediums, for my mother to have comfort about our future. We went to women who read palms, who read the Tarot, Muslim witches that claimed to remove the evil eye, even a lady who had a crystal ball. My mother would see only women, for she said they had the best intuition. Saturday afternoons, we went to the Catholic Church. MY mother was very religious and made me go to catechism classes so I could take my first communion. She had plans for me to go to the Jesuit seminary and become a priest. At church, she always had me dip my little hand in the holy water and make the sign of the cross, and then we’d go to wait for the priest, who had the power to forgive sin. Going to the mediums actually was not a contradiction for us – it was a part of the Catholic tradition. After confession, we’d go to do our penances – 10 for Mary and 1 for Jesus! Then we’d go through the stations of cross, and then we’d have to do more Hail Marys and recite one prayer to Jesus. All this was to be a blessing and a protection for us.
I remember going to see statues of Peter, St. Francis of Assisi, and other saints, and lighting candles and being told to pray to St. Vincent DePaul for help in school. Now I loved the saints, for they showed us movies of their lives, and we prayed to them. Not so different from what the medium was doing, no? At that time, I understood nothing I was doing, because I was too young, but everyone else was doing it and so it was the thing to do! At this time I lived in Algeria, in the city of Ouran, in the Street of the Jews. Of course, we also lived amid all the Jewish traditions, and the synagogue was no problem. Then, from school, many of my schoolmates were Muslim, so the mosque was not odd either. To us kids, knowing nothing, it appeared all were the faith of Abraham! So to us, sorcerers, mediums, priests, they were all the same – all had some special power that we needed to get through life. When I turned 12, though, I had a very special experience before Christmas. In the village where I lived, we all celebrated each other’s holidays, and Christmas was a favorite. Of course, putting up decorations and giving gifts are quite different from celebrating Christmas, but to me at that time, this distinction was in the future.
One afternoon, I went early to church for confession, and I went in front of the nativity scene to make my penance in prayer. I looked at the baby in the manger, and at the animals and the kings, and noticed the donkey with a slot in its head for donations. The church was calm and empty. That day, my maman gave me 5 cents to buy candy; I tell you the truth, candy was my favorite thing back then – still is! On my knees in front of the baby Jesus, I said this prayer: “You are my only friend, my best friend and I love you very much – you are my best friend!” There was nothing but silence between us, very companionable. I put my hand in my pocket and felt the warm coin that was my fortune! I wanted to go very fast after the prayer to buy my bon bons! I asked Jesus if He liked candy too, for I was sure He did! After all, He was my friend. I said to Him I would give Him one of my cents when I returned from buying the candy; however, I felt at that moment something wrong in me, though I did not understand what. At the same time, I looked at the donkey standing there, somehow reproaching me, and argued with it – “No, I won’t give you all my money! I want my candy!” I said to Jesus that I loved Him; I had planned to give Him one of my precious cents! There was a big silence. This was a big discussion of love! I didn’t feel guilty exactly, but the discussion was over how much I loved Him; after all, He was to get one cent after I bought my candy. I thought about the last station of the cross, where Jesus died for me – gave me ALL His Life. I was always SO impressed by this! Yet, it made me think of my deal – one part for love of Him and FOUR parts for love of my candy! That was to be the deal; but He did not give a part – He gave everything. A sweet voice came to my heart, “Give to Him everything, just as He did for you!”
Oh! This must’ve been Satan – God would not ask me to give up something I loved so much! “Jesus, you know how much I love my candy! I want to give you one part – but all? Have no candy? That’s not good for me!” I remember the feeling – fingering the piece of money in my hand – and the incredible fight between the love for Jesus and the love of my candy. I felt the pressure more about Jesus’ sacrifice and began to cry. I said, “Jesus, you can’t ask me this! It is too hard for me!” I looked again at the nativity, Mary and Joseph walking in the cold night, with no one, no place for them, they were alone in the dark. This day, I discovered more than my friend. I discovered my life. A big tear rolled down my cheek, my hand shook a bit, but I took the piece and said to Jesus, “I give you all - all my bon bon!” When I put the piece inside, the donkey’s head nodded up and down and it said “Thank you; thank you!” I received the most beautiful miracle that day – not the sweetness of candy, but the sweetness of love between God and a child. I said to Him, “You know Jesus, I know when I go with you to paradise, you’ll open a candy manufacture just for me!” That would be my recompense.
The day after was Christmas; I woke up with my sister and ran to the tree. My mother bought so much chocolate! It took us a week to eat it all! I truly got it all – the love of God and all my chocolate. Even today when I eat chocolate it reminds me of the sweet love between me and God. Many times in this life, I have tried to make the same deal – one part for someone else and four for me. The fight continued, but I knew that to renounce sin and refuse pleasure, I would receive the sweetness of forgiven sins and the love of my Lord! It is true that the heart of man is an altar of sacrifice. The battle of love – love for Him, or love of the world. So many people today taste only the sweet sadness of sin; the Bible says this turns to gravel after. The Bible says to taste and see that the Lord is Good!
The miracle of miracles is that God heals us of this sickness of love; He healed me of the lovesickness the world brings – love of things, love of self, love of money, even love of candy! At one time in my life I had the candy of wealth, the candy of beautiful clothes, even the candy of beauty through plastic surgery – a big packet of bon bons! Wrapped with Gucci paper and Cartier ribbon! And all those around me waited eagerly to grab some of this candy. But after everyone ate the candy, the package was empty and all of it, the wrapping, the ribbon, all were thrown in the trash, and the bitterness of dissatisfaction sounded in the solitude that was my life. And I was very sad! In my sadness, I recalled that day in the church, when after giving everything to my Friend, I opened the door to go out and ran down the street in joy! A joy in which there was no sadness or bitterness of any kind – only a blissful satisfaction. Remember, prayer is not one part for Him and four for me – it is “Take everything you want God, I am your servant!”
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
THE "SECRET PLACE" OF PRAYER
Chapter Four
Temptation by Relation
Matthew 4: 1: Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Before you have a relationship with God, you have other relationships, other distractions – your tendency to interpret the Word of God – to decide what it says by your own mind.
Jesus’ temptation exemplifies this test in us. He faced the same temptations we do: the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. Every one of us, before we receive the answer we seek, must meet that same challenge – go to that same desert, be so tempted, just as Jesus was. It is the battle of the spirits - the Spirit of God took Jesus to the desert, and Satan showed up. Every time you receive something from God, you will be tested. Look what happened: Jesus was just baptized by John in the Jordan – but did he get to rest and relax? No, he was sent to be tested! So are we all.
Jesus did not fall of course, but each of us does. Each temptation I will fail. This is because I must know that I cannot master temptation on my own – Jesus must do it for me, must do it in me. Each temptation is a challenge to your mind – just as when I prayed for my friends who had died. It appeared to be no big deal at first, but became a bigger and bigger deal. Satan said to me: “It’s not fair these people died. They worked for God, dedicated their lives, and He did not protect them. What’s more – He says you’ll have whatever you ask in prayer and then He didn’t answer you. Isn’t that strange?” He used this tactic to try to turn me somewhere else – he suggested to me there might be other ways – other solutions beside prayer. The temptation is not weakness of the flesh, but often is pride disguised – a desire for instance to have a result or find an answer that no one else has found. The night after Joshua and Miriam’s funeral; I asked God to give me an answer and felt He counseled me to be patient. Patience, though, was not my thing! I came to the point that the simple Good News of salvation through the blood of Jesus was no longer enough – I wanted to go “deeper” and find more. Satan used this occasion to suggest that maybe my conversion was just psychological; that my happening to go to that church that had prayed for me for a year without knowing me was just a coincidence. It caused a shift in me to the idea that the control of the mind was all – positive thinking instead of faith. If I had controlled my mind and let no unbelief creep in – I would have had my answer! I had a vision of my professor when I was a child prophesying in school that in the year 2000 science would have cured all ills and there would be no need for religion – there would be no more sickness, we’d discover other planets, other creatures so advanced that they would solve all Man’s problems – even time-travel! I was told that education would have created a new world with no crime, no problems, no suffering and eternal youth!
Well it’s 2008, and recently my wife and I spoke at length with an agnostic of my acquaintance who’s never happy, but believes that education will solve all one’s problems! Education never changed anyone! It may help, it may ameliorate a condition or give one the opportunity to change a circumstance or adapt to a problem, but it cannot and does not change our natures and that is why there is no new world, though generations have preached and expected it!
One or two weeks after that conversation, it brought back to me this time I am speaking of now, when I faced this challenge to my mind, when it appeared I had no answer. In prayer, the Lord showed me about Micaiah the prophet’s vision of the throne of God during the time of Ahab and Jezebel. God talked with Ahab, who was king of Israel; but he followed the evil ways of his wife, who desired to rule all around her including her husband, and to cause them to worship her idols. This all came about because Solomon had first allowed his heart to be swayed from the true God by his wives, and allowed idol worship. A prophet of Solomon’s time prophesied that Solomon’s kingdom would be split and a part go to Jeroboam. Solomon actually wanted to kill Jeroboam, who went to Egypt until Solomon died. Jeroboam, afraid that he would lose his tribes, made two cattle of gold, using the same words that Aaron had used in the wilderness. He used the Word of God for idol worship! Later, Jeroboam saw the error of his ways, but initially, he caused his people to fall to idolatry. I mention Jeroboam because Jezebel did the same thing as Jeroboam had – she made two idols and caused the people to worship them. When Jehoshaphat came to visit Ahab, to fight the Syrians, Micaiah was asked by Jehoshaphat, who was a godly king, to prophesy about the battle. At first Micaiah said they would prevail, but then, prodded by Ahab, he told the truth, and explained his vision also: he’d seen the throne of God, with the Hosts of Heaven standing at His Right and Left Hand. The Lord asked who would go to persuade Ahab to to up to battle, that he might fall. This spirit spoke and that; but one came before God and said he would go and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all of Ahab’s prophets. To this the Lord agreed, saying, “You shall persuade him. Go and do so.” This Micaiah said to Ahab; he told him the truth! And still Ahab did not believe. Rather, he believed the 450 lying prophets of Baal! We so easily create our own beliefs – our own gods. We don’t see the invisible working, and are fooled by our own mental constructions. Paul gives an example of this problem and its result in 3Romans 1: 19-33:
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
The problem of these people is that they have a pain of some kind and want to ease it, but are not willing to accept the solution – follow God. They keep looking, and find something that temporarily eases that pain – and thereby think, “Ah – here’s my answer!” But it is not an answer; just as eating too much may temporarily ease the pain and cause one to feel better, but the result is morbid obesity, illness and death. Another person is different and not well-accepted by others, and persons of an alternate lifestyle appear to accept him or her (as long as the person then joins their lifestyle!) and this person, now feeling the relief of acceptance, thinks “Ah, this must be what I was looking for.” Yet in the end, he or she has no fewer problems and may have paid a very high price for simple acceptance. I have been asked if I love gay people – the answer is “yes”. What they are doing is wrong, but I love them. Same if you ask me if I love adulterers or liars! Of course! As my wife is fond of saying, there is only one kind of people! And God loves them too, but He is not here to make us feel better; He is here to save us and change our nature to HIS. If one cannot imagine this change, or is unwilling to accept it, He will not force them.
This reminded me of the time I was living in sin; there was a New Age place near the gym I went to, where one could go to learn the power of the mind. I was astonished that to these people this seemed to be new! I first heard this when I was 14; only it was under the guise of “education”! The god of the mind never goes away! I was surprised they were so easily fooled; at least I was just a kid when I heard the same crap. There were almost one hundred persons in this class! I said to a guy on my right that there was a guy who was a thinker in France – Voltaire – who said all this hundreds of years ago! His conclusion was that everything religious was bad and one could not expect salvation – only “enlightenment”. Sound familiar?
The French revolution was all based on “reason” too. They murdered the king and queen, and mouthed “Liberty, equality and fraternity”, but to actually believe in those things they pronounced “stupidity”! Near the time of the Revolution, your Thomas Jefferson was corrupted by this to the point that he wanted to remove the miracles from the Gospel! New Age is a little different – it mixes everything together: reason, religion, miracles, mind-control, and uses it to get riches, healing and happiness! But none of this is new!
I remember when I was in Mexico City in 1988, I saw a Norman Vincent Peele seminar advertised, so I went to hear him. He could not appear as he was ill, but I bought one of his books and read it. After that I went to a school of positive thinking, and bought a book on a Hawaiian religion called Houma, which was essentially the same thing, and on which these “new” positive-thinking gurus were basing their own versions. Today we have gurus everywhere mixing eastern philosophy with western religion: God is in everything and everyone, so everyone is God!
During this time, in speaking to my fellow students, I noticed that we were still full of anguish, still with problems, still essentially without a real answer. We might have begun by thinking we had found the answer, but very soon it would become obvious that we had not. We continued to play the game though, not admitting to ourselves or each other that the emperor had no clothes!
In my “playboy” period, I came into contact with many different kinds of people, as I said, and the majority of these people had been hurt in some way, had been disappointed by God in an answer or a help they expected. They had turned from Him and to Hinduism or Buddhism or positive thinking – to the spiritualism “du jour”. Most were divorced, most had some kind of statues or crystals, or meditated or studied some “master” or some special knowledge. These people who were partying with me at night, during the day were attempting to be “spiritual” and find “enlightenment”! They all had books too, books on Buddha and the Maharishi, or Gandhi or Mohammed or the Tao, and when I asked about the carpet they’d have in the corner – it was for yoga. Strangely no one seemed to have the Bible. I explained to them often my desert experiences: how I’d fasted, spent time with the monks, etc., but, as I explained to them, these people we were studying were all born like us. They had the same life we had. Reiki, tai chi, all these practices purport to manage and employ energy to change a person’s condition, but it is not our condition that needs to be changed! It is ourselves! Jesus on the other hand was born differently than we. Surely He would have what the others did not. I came to see what I should have seen long before – that we believe it is our circumstances that are the problem and it is not. It is our natures.
Many people are offended by the idea that one needs to be cleansed by blood – they want there to be a clean cross – a “green” cross, if you will! Example: my friend Alain. He ate Gomasio (a sesame product), with salt, and blue cheese and Roquefort cheese and all manner of pungent foods. I asked him if it was good and he gave me a taste – it was HORRIBLE, and I said so! No, he said, it is “yang”. He believed in macrobiotics. I had a lot of admiration for him, as I figured it must’ve required a lot of discipline to eat in this way. He was trying to balance his energy; his fiancée was against Christianity because she believed the apostles were anti-feminist! This was funny to me, because as I pointed out to her, the philosophy of yin and yang is that the yin is the soft, dark feminine and the yang is the bright, hard masculine! I asked her what was the difference? Peter said the woman was the weaker vessel, but this meant she was the more delicate and prone to attack by evil, not that she was less in some way.
I had a good friend at this time who was a older lady, a medium and a spiritual searcher; she used hypnotism, past life regression, and taught classes in those across the country. She “treated” people in this way. I asked her to explain what she really thought of these experiences. She said she did put people into a trance, she did not really know how, but she did not believe what they told her! She said they told her what they thought she wanted to hear – based on the conversation they had before the “session”! She called me once when she was ill – and I prayed for her and held her hand for many hours. She thought she would lose her mind! I actually got her to pray in the Name of Jesus, and the day after, she called me and told me how great it was to pray that way. In my time of rebellion, that was really something to hear!
One day I went to a Starbucks and saw a guy reading a big book on Taoist health and fitness. I thought to myself, “What is this crap again!” I asked him if he went to the gym; he said “NO!, this is different”. He believed in shaman herbalists and acupuncture too, and said he’d stopped smoking by a needle in the ear. I told him I had a friend who’d lost an ear in an accident, but continued to smoke! He looked at me very strangely, I can tell you, but I thought it was very funny. I think of that now when I see people doing tai chi for their “health”. I know it is taught at the beginning just as an exercise system. The objective is to stimulate the central nervous system and take off stress, but this is not to make your arthritis feel better! Medicine nowadays is getting bad press because it has side-effects, and people turn to such things as an alternative; however, they have side-effects too. If you read about Taoism, it is a religion, and tai chi is a practice of this religion. You have diseases because your energy, your “chi” is blocked somewhere. Tai chi is to restore your balance and energy flow, an inner massage for your organs! Feng shui is the current fad that brings the whole Taoist philosophy into home decoration! But Taoism’s goal is immortality. Initially, they searched for a certain dirt to use to cause physical immortality. Many were poisoned by the potions they made! So they transitioned to a search for the “immortal embryo”, which could be discovered in controlling the breathing and body movements so as to control the Qi or chi. This was certainly more healthy than the poisonous potions! The idea is immortality, living forever; this presupposes mortality, but the Taoists did not know the cause of it. It was certainly an admirable goal, and they were doing the best they could to answer the age-old problem; however, none has ever achieved what was sought. China today is certainly not a land of the immortals! They have the same problems as we in America, despite daily practice of tai chi. And all they want is an answer! Again, though they may obtain temporary improvement in one aspect of life or another; they do not change their natures!
The Chinese had an excuse, because they did not know about Jesus. Many eastern peoples did not. Most here in America do. To turn from Him to New Age practices makes no sense. Now these practices are accepted by many as “health care”! How can they be health care? Are the Chinese without arthritis or smoking? Hardly; yet acupuncture AND tai chi are widely practiced there. The thing that gets me the most is when someone who is not a Christian uses something Jesus said, but then denies what He said about Himself! I met a man once who told me he was a Buddhist; when I asked him if he believed in the virgin birth he said no. But he believed that Buddha’s mother had a dream of a white elephant while pregnant and that this meant Buddha was special. In fact, he had simply chosen to believe what he did and simply chosen not to believe the rest. It had nothing to do with truth - only with choice.
The newest thing is to “save” the planet: “mother” earth – Gaea. Gaea was the ancient Greeks’ name for the earth as a goddess. Not an ignoble goal, saving the earth; but it does not change people’s natures to stop using paper and save gas. I read a new book recently: The Corporate Mystique. I can tell you, it will not change your office! But if you go to bookstores you are bombarded by the promises – we’ll show you how to change your life by what you eat or don’t eat, by how you exercise, by how you think or speak, by magic or spiritism, by following your dreams – even by politics! They tout pantheism, magic or “magick”, voodoo, reincarnation, superintelligence, Hinduism, Philosophy.
It is not change the soul needs – it is rebirth! Jesus says I am the Life. My dear friend, with occultism, or spiritism or special knowledge, or christicism or humanism or personal or impersonal god, or communing with the “one” or the universal mind or the universal soul, I cannot fail to find the God in me – that I am God! Oh, that sounds familiar – “You won’t die; you’ll be like God…” But you will never find the answer that way.
Before we come to the end of this passage about prayer, I wanted to let you know I have been down this road before you in these directions and I can tell you – they can’t change your nature! If you don’t believe me, ask me about it – I can give you answers. If you have practiced any of this – anything I mentioned here – including astrology or speaking to the dead or tarot or divination, you need to go now to your room, confess all the things you tried and may have believed could be true and ask for forgiveness. If you don’t you may be hindered in accepting the next part of the message. Remember, this was my desert – this was my temptation in the wilderness. I fell; my confidence in Jesus at that time was not perfect. But I also learned that there is nowhere else to go – no one else has the words of eternal Life!
In the next Chapter, I will tell you what the Lord has revealed to me about prayer, and why I believe Jesus is the only way – the only One who came with LIFE, died, rose, and gives not a forever version of this poor life, but Eternal Life.
Temptation by Relation
Matthew 4: 1: Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Before you have a relationship with God, you have other relationships, other distractions – your tendency to interpret the Word of God – to decide what it says by your own mind.
Jesus’ temptation exemplifies this test in us. He faced the same temptations we do: the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. Every one of us, before we receive the answer we seek, must meet that same challenge – go to that same desert, be so tempted, just as Jesus was. It is the battle of the spirits - the Spirit of God took Jesus to the desert, and Satan showed up. Every time you receive something from God, you will be tested. Look what happened: Jesus was just baptized by John in the Jordan – but did he get to rest and relax? No, he was sent to be tested! So are we all.
Jesus did not fall of course, but each of us does. Each temptation I will fail. This is because I must know that I cannot master temptation on my own – Jesus must do it for me, must do it in me. Each temptation is a challenge to your mind – just as when I prayed for my friends who had died. It appeared to be no big deal at first, but became a bigger and bigger deal. Satan said to me: “It’s not fair these people died. They worked for God, dedicated their lives, and He did not protect them. What’s more – He says you’ll have whatever you ask in prayer and then He didn’t answer you. Isn’t that strange?” He used this tactic to try to turn me somewhere else – he suggested to me there might be other ways – other solutions beside prayer. The temptation is not weakness of the flesh, but often is pride disguised – a desire for instance to have a result or find an answer that no one else has found. The night after Joshua and Miriam’s funeral; I asked God to give me an answer and felt He counseled me to be patient. Patience, though, was not my thing! I came to the point that the simple Good News of salvation through the blood of Jesus was no longer enough – I wanted to go “deeper” and find more. Satan used this occasion to suggest that maybe my conversion was just psychological; that my happening to go to that church that had prayed for me for a year without knowing me was just a coincidence. It caused a shift in me to the idea that the control of the mind was all – positive thinking instead of faith. If I had controlled my mind and let no unbelief creep in – I would have had my answer! I had a vision of my professor when I was a child prophesying in school that in the year 2000 science would have cured all ills and there would be no need for religion – there would be no more sickness, we’d discover other planets, other creatures so advanced that they would solve all Man’s problems – even time-travel! I was told that education would have created a new world with no crime, no problems, no suffering and eternal youth!
Well it’s 2008, and recently my wife and I spoke at length with an agnostic of my acquaintance who’s never happy, but believes that education will solve all one’s problems! Education never changed anyone! It may help, it may ameliorate a condition or give one the opportunity to change a circumstance or adapt to a problem, but it cannot and does not change our natures and that is why there is no new world, though generations have preached and expected it!
One or two weeks after that conversation, it brought back to me this time I am speaking of now, when I faced this challenge to my mind, when it appeared I had no answer. In prayer, the Lord showed me about Micaiah the prophet’s vision of the throne of God during the time of Ahab and Jezebel. God talked with Ahab, who was king of Israel; but he followed the evil ways of his wife, who desired to rule all around her including her husband, and to cause them to worship her idols. This all came about because Solomon had first allowed his heart to be swayed from the true God by his wives, and allowed idol worship. A prophet of Solomon’s time prophesied that Solomon’s kingdom would be split and a part go to Jeroboam. Solomon actually wanted to kill Jeroboam, who went to Egypt until Solomon died. Jeroboam, afraid that he would lose his tribes, made two cattle of gold, using the same words that Aaron had used in the wilderness. He used the Word of God for idol worship! Later, Jeroboam saw the error of his ways, but initially, he caused his people to fall to idolatry. I mention Jeroboam because Jezebel did the same thing as Jeroboam had – she made two idols and caused the people to worship them. When Jehoshaphat came to visit Ahab, to fight the Syrians, Micaiah was asked by Jehoshaphat, who was a godly king, to prophesy about the battle. At first Micaiah said they would prevail, but then, prodded by Ahab, he told the truth, and explained his vision also: he’d seen the throne of God, with the Hosts of Heaven standing at His Right and Left Hand. The Lord asked who would go to persuade Ahab to to up to battle, that he might fall. This spirit spoke and that; but one came before God and said he would go and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all of Ahab’s prophets. To this the Lord agreed, saying, “You shall persuade him. Go and do so.” This Micaiah said to Ahab; he told him the truth! And still Ahab did not believe. Rather, he believed the 450 lying prophets of Baal! We so easily create our own beliefs – our own gods. We don’t see the invisible working, and are fooled by our own mental constructions. Paul gives an example of this problem and its result in 3Romans 1: 19-33:
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
The problem of these people is that they have a pain of some kind and want to ease it, but are not willing to accept the solution – follow God. They keep looking, and find something that temporarily eases that pain – and thereby think, “Ah – here’s my answer!” But it is not an answer; just as eating too much may temporarily ease the pain and cause one to feel better, but the result is morbid obesity, illness and death. Another person is different and not well-accepted by others, and persons of an alternate lifestyle appear to accept him or her (as long as the person then joins their lifestyle!) and this person, now feeling the relief of acceptance, thinks “Ah, this must be what I was looking for.” Yet in the end, he or she has no fewer problems and may have paid a very high price for simple acceptance. I have been asked if I love gay people – the answer is “yes”. What they are doing is wrong, but I love them. Same if you ask me if I love adulterers or liars! Of course! As my wife is fond of saying, there is only one kind of people! And God loves them too, but He is not here to make us feel better; He is here to save us and change our nature to HIS. If one cannot imagine this change, or is unwilling to accept it, He will not force them.
This reminded me of the time I was living in sin; there was a New Age place near the gym I went to, where one could go to learn the power of the mind. I was astonished that to these people this seemed to be new! I first heard this when I was 14; only it was under the guise of “education”! The god of the mind never goes away! I was surprised they were so easily fooled; at least I was just a kid when I heard the same crap. There were almost one hundred persons in this class! I said to a guy on my right that there was a guy who was a thinker in France – Voltaire – who said all this hundreds of years ago! His conclusion was that everything religious was bad and one could not expect salvation – only “enlightenment”. Sound familiar?
The French revolution was all based on “reason” too. They murdered the king and queen, and mouthed “Liberty, equality and fraternity”, but to actually believe in those things they pronounced “stupidity”! Near the time of the Revolution, your Thomas Jefferson was corrupted by this to the point that he wanted to remove the miracles from the Gospel! New Age is a little different – it mixes everything together: reason, religion, miracles, mind-control, and uses it to get riches, healing and happiness! But none of this is new!
I remember when I was in Mexico City in 1988, I saw a Norman Vincent Peele seminar advertised, so I went to hear him. He could not appear as he was ill, but I bought one of his books and read it. After that I went to a school of positive thinking, and bought a book on a Hawaiian religion called Houma, which was essentially the same thing, and on which these “new” positive-thinking gurus were basing their own versions. Today we have gurus everywhere mixing eastern philosophy with western religion: God is in everything and everyone, so everyone is God!
During this time, in speaking to my fellow students, I noticed that we were still full of anguish, still with problems, still essentially without a real answer. We might have begun by thinking we had found the answer, but very soon it would become obvious that we had not. We continued to play the game though, not admitting to ourselves or each other that the emperor had no clothes!
In my “playboy” period, I came into contact with many different kinds of people, as I said, and the majority of these people had been hurt in some way, had been disappointed by God in an answer or a help they expected. They had turned from Him and to Hinduism or Buddhism or positive thinking – to the spiritualism “du jour”. Most were divorced, most had some kind of statues or crystals, or meditated or studied some “master” or some special knowledge. These people who were partying with me at night, during the day were attempting to be “spiritual” and find “enlightenment”! They all had books too, books on Buddha and the Maharishi, or Gandhi or Mohammed or the Tao, and when I asked about the carpet they’d have in the corner – it was for yoga. Strangely no one seemed to have the Bible. I explained to them often my desert experiences: how I’d fasted, spent time with the monks, etc., but, as I explained to them, these people we were studying were all born like us. They had the same life we had. Reiki, tai chi, all these practices purport to manage and employ energy to change a person’s condition, but it is not our condition that needs to be changed! It is ourselves! Jesus on the other hand was born differently than we. Surely He would have what the others did not. I came to see what I should have seen long before – that we believe it is our circumstances that are the problem and it is not. It is our natures.
Many people are offended by the idea that one needs to be cleansed by blood – they want there to be a clean cross – a “green” cross, if you will! Example: my friend Alain. He ate Gomasio (a sesame product), with salt, and blue cheese and Roquefort cheese and all manner of pungent foods. I asked him if it was good and he gave me a taste – it was HORRIBLE, and I said so! No, he said, it is “yang”. He believed in macrobiotics. I had a lot of admiration for him, as I figured it must’ve required a lot of discipline to eat in this way. He was trying to balance his energy; his fiancée was against Christianity because she believed the apostles were anti-feminist! This was funny to me, because as I pointed out to her, the philosophy of yin and yang is that the yin is the soft, dark feminine and the yang is the bright, hard masculine! I asked her what was the difference? Peter said the woman was the weaker vessel, but this meant she was the more delicate and prone to attack by evil, not that she was less in some way.
I had a good friend at this time who was a older lady, a medium and a spiritual searcher; she used hypnotism, past life regression, and taught classes in those across the country. She “treated” people in this way. I asked her to explain what she really thought of these experiences. She said she did put people into a trance, she did not really know how, but she did not believe what they told her! She said they told her what they thought she wanted to hear – based on the conversation they had before the “session”! She called me once when she was ill – and I prayed for her and held her hand for many hours. She thought she would lose her mind! I actually got her to pray in the Name of Jesus, and the day after, she called me and told me how great it was to pray that way. In my time of rebellion, that was really something to hear!
One day I went to a Starbucks and saw a guy reading a big book on Taoist health and fitness. I thought to myself, “What is this crap again!” I asked him if he went to the gym; he said “NO!, this is different”. He believed in shaman herbalists and acupuncture too, and said he’d stopped smoking by a needle in the ear. I told him I had a friend who’d lost an ear in an accident, but continued to smoke! He looked at me very strangely, I can tell you, but I thought it was very funny. I think of that now when I see people doing tai chi for their “health”. I know it is taught at the beginning just as an exercise system. The objective is to stimulate the central nervous system and take off stress, but this is not to make your arthritis feel better! Medicine nowadays is getting bad press because it has side-effects, and people turn to such things as an alternative; however, they have side-effects too. If you read about Taoism, it is a religion, and tai chi is a practice of this religion. You have diseases because your energy, your “chi” is blocked somewhere. Tai chi is to restore your balance and energy flow, an inner massage for your organs! Feng shui is the current fad that brings the whole Taoist philosophy into home decoration! But Taoism’s goal is immortality. Initially, they searched for a certain dirt to use to cause physical immortality. Many were poisoned by the potions they made! So they transitioned to a search for the “immortal embryo”, which could be discovered in controlling the breathing and body movements so as to control the Qi or chi. This was certainly more healthy than the poisonous potions! The idea is immortality, living forever; this presupposes mortality, but the Taoists did not know the cause of it. It was certainly an admirable goal, and they were doing the best they could to answer the age-old problem; however, none has ever achieved what was sought. China today is certainly not a land of the immortals! They have the same problems as we in America, despite daily practice of tai chi. And all they want is an answer! Again, though they may obtain temporary improvement in one aspect of life or another; they do not change their natures!
The Chinese had an excuse, because they did not know about Jesus. Many eastern peoples did not. Most here in America do. To turn from Him to New Age practices makes no sense. Now these practices are accepted by many as “health care”! How can they be health care? Are the Chinese without arthritis or smoking? Hardly; yet acupuncture AND tai chi are widely practiced there. The thing that gets me the most is when someone who is not a Christian uses something Jesus said, but then denies what He said about Himself! I met a man once who told me he was a Buddhist; when I asked him if he believed in the virgin birth he said no. But he believed that Buddha’s mother had a dream of a white elephant while pregnant and that this meant Buddha was special. In fact, he had simply chosen to believe what he did and simply chosen not to believe the rest. It had nothing to do with truth - only with choice.
The newest thing is to “save” the planet: “mother” earth – Gaea. Gaea was the ancient Greeks’ name for the earth as a goddess. Not an ignoble goal, saving the earth; but it does not change people’s natures to stop using paper and save gas. I read a new book recently: The Corporate Mystique. I can tell you, it will not change your office! But if you go to bookstores you are bombarded by the promises – we’ll show you how to change your life by what you eat or don’t eat, by how you exercise, by how you think or speak, by magic or spiritism, by following your dreams – even by politics! They tout pantheism, magic or “magick”, voodoo, reincarnation, superintelligence, Hinduism, Philosophy.
It is not change the soul needs – it is rebirth! Jesus says I am the Life. My dear friend, with occultism, or spiritism or special knowledge, or christicism or humanism or personal or impersonal god, or communing with the “one” or the universal mind or the universal soul, I cannot fail to find the God in me – that I am God! Oh, that sounds familiar – “You won’t die; you’ll be like God…” But you will never find the answer that way.
Before we come to the end of this passage about prayer, I wanted to let you know I have been down this road before you in these directions and I can tell you – they can’t change your nature! If you don’t believe me, ask me about it – I can give you answers. If you have practiced any of this – anything I mentioned here – including astrology or speaking to the dead or tarot or divination, you need to go now to your room, confess all the things you tried and may have believed could be true and ask for forgiveness. If you don’t you may be hindered in accepting the next part of the message. Remember, this was my desert – this was my temptation in the wilderness. I fell; my confidence in Jesus at that time was not perfect. But I also learned that there is nowhere else to go – no one else has the words of eternal Life!
In the next Chapter, I will tell you what the Lord has revealed to me about prayer, and why I believe Jesus is the only way – the only One who came with LIFE, died, rose, and gives not a forever version of this poor life, but Eternal Life.
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