Protection God Provided Against False Spirits

Again, when Ananias and Sapphira tried to cheat the Lord with their offering, they both died because they claimed to be giving God more than they actually were. Not everybody who does that dies. I think if that happened, there would be fewer people in the church. But God’s estimate of it never changes.

Here we have this demonstration of the danger of approaching God with what is called ‘profane fire.’ Any spirit that is not the Holy Spirit. This has become so very real to me.

Now, let’s turn to Hebrews and see the New Testament application. You know, one of our problems is that we often read the epistles as if they were written to unbelievers. They were not. They were written to Christians.

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.”

In that passage, the NIV uses the word ‘awe,’ A-W-E. I ask myself, and I ask you, how much awe do you find in the church today? How many meetings do you go to where there is the sense of the awesome presence of God? When we were in Britain last summer, I encountered a minister friend who delivered this comment. “I meet people who talk about God as if he was someone they met in the pub. We’ve got this buddy-buddy relationship with Jesus.” He does invite us to fellowship, for communion, but we must never, never lose our sense of awe. I think that is the root of the problems we’ve been talking about.

To go back for a moment to the contemporary spiritual movements I’ve been describing, I could easily believe that somewhere in the beginning there was a genuinely spontaneous move of the Holy Spirit. Part of what comes out is the Holy Spirit, but it has become mixed. Some things are from God, but others are not. Why? What is the problem?

My answer is: ‘slothfulness.’ An undiscerned downward slide from a focus on God to a focus on self. From objective scriptural truth to subjective personal experience. All too often, the sense of awe and reverence for the holiness of God has been replaced by unscriptural frivolity and flippancy.

In fact, I would say that flippancy has become an epidemic disease in the contemporary charismatic movement. If we have been guilty of it, we need to repent. God has convicted me more than once of being flippant. I have confessed it as a sin and repented. We have to set a watch on our tongues.

Charles Finney once commented, “God never uses a jester to search consciences.” One characteristic ministry of the Holy Spirit is to convict of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.

“And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”

Where people remain unconvicted of sin, we must question if whether the Holy Spirit is at work.

Has God provided any protection against this kind of error? Yes. But first, we must understand that error primarily attacks the area of the soul, though the spirit may also be affected later. It is the soul, therefore, that must be protected. The protection which God has provided for the soul has one unique and all-sufficient basis: the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life” (literally, his soul) “will lose it. And whoever loses his life” (literally, his soul) “for My sake will find it.”

Here is the divine paradox. To save, protect our soul, we must lose it.

Before we can follow Jesus, there are two preliminary steps. First, we must deny ourselves. We must say a resolute and final ‘no’ to our demanding, self-seeking ego. Second, we must take up our cross. We must accept the sentence of death which the cross imposes on us. Taking up our cross is a voluntary decision that each of us must make. God does not forcibly impose the cross upon us.

If we do not apply the cross firstly in our own lives, we leave a door open to demonic influence. There is always the danger that our uncrucified ego will respond to the seductive flatteries of deceiving demons. Pride is the main area in our character which Satan targets, and flattery is the main lever he uses to gain entrance. We must each apply the cross personally to our souls.

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live.”

We each need to ask, “Is that true of me? Have I really been crucified with Christ? Or am I still motivated by my selfish ego?”

Many Christians today would feel that this solution is too radical. They would question whether this is really the only way to be secure from deception. They tend to regard Paul as some kind of super saint whom they can never hope to imitate. Paul, however, does not see himself this way. His ministry as an apostle was unique, but his personal relationship with Christ was a pattern for all to follow.