Some Mistaken Ideas Among Christians
Not
only does the average Christian miss the mark by failing to understand the laws
of answered prayer, or if he knows them, to obey these laws faithfully, but the
average believer holds more or less to fallacies which hinder prayer.
Fallacy #1: God will not
permit harm to befall a person who does the best he can
There
are times the so-called best one can do is not enough to please God or to ward
off attacks from demonic forces. Man's
performance cannot always be adequate because of his lack of knowledge to
conform intelligently to the will of God.
People frequently think they are doing their best when they are putting
forth all the effort possible to live as they please and be religious as they
can while living a life of pleasure and selfishness. The best a person can do, if he really wants
to do his best, is to forsake all sin, selfishness, worldliness, and everything
displeasing to God and give himself wholly over to the total will of God
according to the scriptures. Until a
person has done this, he has not done and is not doing the best he can. He merely uses this idea of doing his best as
an excuse for his failure to please God according to the light he has
received.
Even
if a person is fully consecrated, he should not become careless and indifferent
by taking the attitude that he is eternally safe from all evil and harm. If he truly wants to be kept from such, then
he must watch and pray and live as he taught to live the 91st Psalm. He must bring his body under subjection and
crucify the lusts of the flesh (I Corinthians 9:27; Romans 6:1-23; 8:1-13;
Colossians 3:5-7; and Ephesians 4:22-24.
It is folly for anyone to talk about doing the best he can until he has
done this and unless he continues to do this.
In such a state, he can claim the full protection of the promises of
God. The minute he goes into sin and
rebellion again he cannot claim that no evil shall befall him.
Whatsoever
a man soweth, that shall he also reap applies to the saved man as well as
unsaved. There is no place in God that
one can get where he is forced to continue in unrighteousness and true HOLINESS
contrary to his will. God cannot and
will not keep one saved who continues in sin.
Today
among many "Holiness Pentecostal" groups is to move from conservative
biblical moral values to secular humanistic possession. This is done to try appeal to liberal
searchers. Some of the old line black
churches are giving over to social appeal, and entertainment rather than
adhering taking more hard lines stands on sexual and other habits and addictions. Many are also looking at quotes from the
Koran and other New Age doctrines. These
are some of the most ungodly and unscriptural theories that Satan and his hosts
have manufactured to date. God works
according to certain fixed laws, and when they are broken the penalties must be
paid, and the punishment must meet the crime.
Protection is promised only to them that fear the Lord (Psalm 34:7-10;
Psalm 91:1-6).
Fallacy #2: God will not
permit harm to befall a person who does the best he can
This
is in itself a deception based upon ignorance of the fall of man and a
misconception of the workings of both God and the devil. God does not work except by spiritual and
natural laws, and they must be understood and obeyed in order to secure His
help for us. Eve was as honest as could
possibly be; yet she was deceived (I Timothy 2:14). Other honest people have been deceived
through the ages. If God would not
permit honest people to be deceived, then we would not have so many
backsliding, divisions, and differences in doctrines as we have today. It
is so easy today for church leadership groups to give titles and political
posts n the denomination without allowing them to study the word of God outside
the church doctrine.
Demons
constantly wage war saints to instill within them false concepts about God and
make them weak, nervous, discouraged, and ruined spiritually, physically, and
materially. They do their utmost to keep
men in poverty and failure in life in order to bring reproach upon God and His
Gospel. They must be resisted and
rejected once and forever if complete victory over them is to be gained (James
4:7; Ephesians 4:10-18; I Peter 5:8-9; and II Corinthians 10:4-7).
Talk to
you soon,
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