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June 2001

Self-serving Bubbles, Fantasies, and Dreams

Many church goers criticize the “worldly”for throwing away their money, gambling in casinos or in the lottery, fantasizing that they will “hit it big,”when reality says the odds of getting hit by lightning are hundreds of times more likely. We wonder how they can be so naive.

Strangely enough, many religious people are chasing after unrealistic spiritual results by trying to find a simple solution with incomplete information, to complex spiritual problems. They try to find a simple formula that will fill their selfish desires, and blame the Church & God when it doesn’t happen. If these same people would understand all the scriptures, they could save themselves a lot of false dreams that turn into nightmares, burst bubbles of disappointment and lustful fantasies that end in disaster. They pray and confess, and nothing happens. Could it be that they never read, James 4:1-4? “From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not:: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world (literally: world system or standards) is enmity (literally: enemy or hatred of) with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”

In this article we’ll consider some of these scripturally unfounded fantasies.

While in the pastoral ministry I met a young man who told me that he was going to marry a certain young lady in the church. This came as quite a surprise to me since I had never seen the two of them together. Upon further enquiry I found that the young man had a complete collection of pictures of this young lady, had written love notes to her (unsent) and had a list of things she was going to do for him as his wife.By this time I felt it prudent to ask the young man, “How do you know this young lady is going to be your wife?” His reply: “The Lord told me.”

I said, “Have you said anything to her yet?”
He said, “No, I don’t need to; The Lord already told me.”
Needless to say, he never married her because the Lord never told her.

We laugh at this sometimes, but it is not much different than I see in many professing believers all across our nation today, except it is in the spiritual realm. Many professing church members today are looking for a “quick fix, gimmick or easy formua”they can use to get God to magically make all their problems and needs disappear. Interestingly enough, these same people are not too much interested in seeing or hearing what God wants them to do for Him.

When I refer to bubbles, fantasies and dreams, I am not speaking of outright lies that anyone would follow. The truth is that each of these fantasies have a seed of truth in them. The thing that makes them dangerous is that men carry these truths to an extreme. What many people don’t realize is that all error, is truth taken to an extreme. If it had no truth in it, no one would listen, but if it has some truth in it and that truth is twisted to profit the listener, that spokesman promoting that error will gain a huge following, and usually much financial success.

A few years ago one of these half truths surfaced in a movement that said, “If you confess anything, you can have it.” (We called it name it and claim it, or blab it and grab it.) People were told that if they would put pictures of expensive houses or cars on their refrigerator and confess they possessed it, their words would cause these things to “be created” and become theirs.

Some evangelists also twisted Mark 10:29 &30 to say, “If you come up here to the front, confess prosperity and put at least $100.00 in my bible, for this ministry, the Lord told me he would, return it to you one hundred fold, get you out of debt and heal your family!” Who wouldn’t want that?

I met a man who was having serious marital problems and jumping from one church to another. He admitted to me that he had not touched his wife for over a year and called her “a snake.” This man came to me very excitedly and said his financial problems would be over now because he had put a large offering in the evangelist’s bible the night before. Needless to say, his financial problems were not over and he ended up divorcing his wife and remarrying. Today he isn’t even attending church. Evidently, no one had ever read to this man, Jeremiah 17:10 “To him, I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, andaccording to the fruit of his doings.” (The bible does not say, according to his confession.)

Please, don’t misunderstand what I am saying here. I believe God does work physical and financial miracles today. I have experienced them over and over in the years of my ministry. What I am saying is that many teachers who teach we can demand healing and prosperity fail to balance these provisions, with God’s requirements.

It is true that the word of God says, “Ask and you shall receive, seek and ye shall find,knock and it shall be opened.” But, It also says, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and HisRIGHTEOUSNESS, and all these things shall be added unto you.” The Bible says, (Psalm 66:18) “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my prayer; (Literally David was saying, “God would not have listened if I had not confessed my sins”); and I Peter 3:7 says: “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them (wives) according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel....that your prayers be not hindered.” (Literally, cut off.) When was the last time you heard a message on these verses?

What a tragedy it is to see religious people grabbing for Christian privileges, but ignoring biblical requirements. We need to emphasize that we cannot claim God’s blessings unless we fulfill His requirements. This is why the bible says in James 1:22-25; “It is not the hearers, but doers who are blessed.”

Another half truth being grabbed and run with today throughout the Church, is found in a new book. Let me say that it is not the author’s fault, because he gave a well balanced study of the text and even added a second volume that emphasizes how to expect God to perform miracles in your life. The problem is that picked what they wanted from the first book and most of them haven’t even read the second book, because they found what they perceived was a “formula for success” in the first book, and that is all they wanted.

I am speaking of a very fine best selling book that I can highly recommend; “The Prayer of Jabez,” by Bruce Wilkinson. In it the author shows how Jabez; in I Chron. 4:9 & 10, prayed a four part prayer that ended by saying, “God granted him his request.”

Many people consequently, who read that last phrase, people whose lives I am well acquainted with as people who lie, cheat, won’t pay their bills, rob God of His tithes, shack up without the convenience of marriage, or are living in 2 nd, 3 rd or 4 th relationships, thus violating the marriage covenant; are now gleefully saying, “I am praying the prayer of Jabez and I know that God has to prosper me.” They will ignore other scriptures such as; Proverbs 22:4, “For byhumility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honor, and life.” They just “feel” that their new mantra will move God to act in their behalf.

These people are deceived and deceiving others. They are double minded, loving the world and trying to “work” God. James 1:6 &7 says of these double minded individuals, “Let not that man think that he shall receive ANYTHING of the Lord.”

It is a natural thing for a person to want God to hear and answer them when they pray. The real issue, however, is how do we listen and respond to His voice and words. Does He have our attention? Many new electronic devices coming on the market today are built to respond to our voices: “voice activated.” The greatest concern of every christian should be to make sure we are “voice activated,” by God’s words? Can we say, “Thy word have I hid in my heart, that Imight not sin against thee.” Or like Samuel, in I Samuel 3:10, who said: “Speak Lord, for thyservant heareth.”

Bruce Wilkinson’s second book, “Secrets of The Vine,” does a marvelous job showing us that if we are to be blessed of God, we must: “Abide in the Vine, and be willing to be pruned of our fleshly desires, possessions, ambitions, goals and relationships,” before we can be “fruitful”and blessed. I Chronicles 7:14 Gives us the pattern for God’s blessings. It is not “confess and get it.” It is not “quote a formula” and get God’s blessings. It says: “If my people, (believers) which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways: then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land.”

Many who read Mr. Wilkinson’s book, “The Prayer of Jabez,” came away with a four point formula for success, but missed the most important statement in the whole portion of Scripture. I Chron. 4 is a very difficult portion to read because it contains many unfamiliar and hard to pronounce words. It lists the names of men who lived and died in Israel’s history. But God suddenly had the scribe stop when he came to Jabez and declared something outstanding about him.

First, let me say that the meaning of the name Jabez, is pain. Evidently something was happening in his mother’s life that caused her to hang that title on him. Can’t you imagine how he felt every time his mother looked up, saw him coming and said, “Oh here comes my little Pain.”

Some people would use that situation in itself as an excuse to give up or be bitter and angry. Jabez however decided that he wanted more out of life and determined to do right and to seek the God of Israel.

The most important phrase in I Chronicles 4:9 & 10, is inVerse 9 which says: “And Jabez was more honorable than his brethren.” Jabez, like Joshua and Caleb, had a “different spirit” in him. He was “honorable.” That means he was a man of his word; a man who made no distinction between his “secular” and his religious life. Like Job of old, he was: “upright in all his ways.” He wasn’t concerned about his reputation, (What men thought about him.) but about his character. (What God knew he was when no one else was around.) He didn’t violate covenants, cheat or steal, leave legitimate bills unpaid, or live a lust filled existence, while twisting scripture to accommodate his ungodly conduct. He was “honorable.” Consequently, “The Lord granted him that which he requested.” Not because of his prayer! Not because of some formula! Because his ways pleased the Lord.

I need to ask you a question. If your genealogy were to be written along with hundreds of others, would the scribe have to pause at your name? Would he have reason to dwell there? Is your conduct such that God could, “grant your request?”

I earnestly declare that it is time for God’s people to quit seeking after bubbles, fantasies and dreams, and seek Him. The Word of God says that in Christ is wisdom, riches, honor, success, influence and above all, peace. We must know that if we walk in obedience and fellowship with Christ like the branch abides in the vine, then “God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every goodwork.” II Corinthians 9:8. It is time for true Christians to GET REAL WITH GOD!