In this article you will discover if you are being influenced by the idol
What constitutes and idol?
“An idol occupies that place in our esteem and affections, in our thoughts, words and ways, in our dependence and reliance, in our worship and devotedness, which is due to God only? Whatever is to us what the Lord alone should be, that is to us an idol.”
“You may not be found out. Your idol may be so hidden, or so peculiar, that all our attempts to touch it, have left you and it unscathed. Will you therefore conclude that you have none? Search deeper, look closer; it is not too deep for the eye of God, nor too hidden for the eyes of a tender conscience anointed with divine eye-salve. Hidden love is the deepest of all love; hidden diseases the most incurable of all diseases. Search every fold of your heart until you find it. It may not be so big nor so ugly as your neighbour’s; but an idol is still an idol, and an image still an image, whether so small as to be carried in the coat pocket, or as large as a gigantic statue.” J. C. Philpot, October, 1855
An idol is a human-made object that is worshipped in some way.
A false concept or notion; fallacy, is an idol.
“Every man has his idol; but it is not every man who sees it. Few groan under it.” J. C. Philpot
“Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.” 1 John 5:21
How to overcome an idol –
A. Discern the idol.
B. Expose the idol.
C. Defeat the idol.
The first thing you need to do is ask God for discernment, the second, ask Him to show you how it is working in your life, to expose it, the third, ask Him to bring victory in defeating it in your life.
The most powerful (suicidal) prayer I have ever prayed a number of years ago was “Lord expose what is in my heart”, “even if it means losing everything even if my ministry dies, create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit in me”. – yikes, He did, and it didn’t happen as I expected.
A. DISCERN THE IDOL
The first step in defeating the idol is to discern it. I and many others within the ‘church’ system have over many years been discerning ‘something’ and over the last number of months I have been exposing that which has been discerned, the idol called the church, through the revelation and teachings the Lord has given me. (Maybe you could go over the teachings again to reemphasise it into your heart.)
Many others have been discerning ‘something’ but not having a name for it, I thank God that this teaching has bought revelation to the discernment, so now we see what we have been discerning.
You need to have an open, unbiased heart to discern. Ask the Lord to take off every veil that may be on your eyes that clouds your discernment - Let Him show you and in your spirit, not your mind (that has been taught all sorts of things) receive.
Someone recently said “we need to get rid of all the heretics – what constitutes a heretic, someone who dares to question”.
The idol doesn’t want you to question things, the system is designed to blacklist you if you dare question it but I want to assure you it is ok to question things. And don’t push aside that niggling feeling when something happens, pursue it to find out what the Lord is saying.
Many people’s discernment is labelled as being judgmental or critical to keep them in line in the system but you know the bible actually tells us to judge.
1 Corinthians 2:14-15 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
There is a vast difference between judgment and being judgemental and between discernment and criticism.
Discernment is a gift of the Spirit that needs to be cultivated. Over the years Jeannette and I have learnt to rely upon this gift so many times. Many times ignoring the ‘niggling’ because we thought we were being judgmental only to find the feeling was right and if we had acted on what the Spirit was telling us would have saved us a lot of grief.
2. EXPOSE THE IDOLS
You see the preaching of the Gospel changes people's lives. No lasting and genuine change can come apart from the Gospel! It is the truth that sets us free. Truth may not be very palatable at times but it has to be preached.
If idols aren't confronted, there's no change in the behaviour of people.
It's true that manmade idols are not real gods, however they have power, especially when they have a demonic entity fuelling it.
Paul's response to the idols he saw:- His spirit was provoked. And he then preached against the idols. He exposed them through the preaching of the truth.
I pray that my preaching will continue to expose the idol in people’s lives
Acts 19:26 “Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are no gods, that are made with hands.”
Through the Lord’s grace I have been exposing this idol, and through His word, persuaded many.
The Lord is opening our eyes to see and I pray more and more eyes and hearts will be opened.
But whenever you threaten someone's idols, people themselves feel threatened and they will fight back, e.g.-as we see in Ephesus when Paul exposed idols there.
Please be aware of that – things can get nasty in and around your life when you expose this idol and especially when you begin to share your revelation. I have had pastors actually manifest in front of me when this idol was exposed in them.
I want to expose the idol in your life (if it is there) –
Don’t take my word for it, please be open hearted and seek the Lord in this because it is He and He alone that can reveal it and set you free.
Firstly I want to ask you a question - Can something intrinsically good become an idol?
The answer is yes. Anything good that basically takes the place of God for whatever reason can become an idol. Even the bible can become an idol if it is worshipped. So can worship, Some people talk about worshipping worship, if the act of worship takes on any form other than worshipping God for who He is alone, for example how great this song sounds, the music is so professional etc can become an idol. We leave the meaning and pursue the act.
So church can become an idol when it takes the place of God.
Here is a test to see if you are influenced by the idol called the church.
• Do you your serve the house of God (church, building or organization)?
• Do you feel guilty if you do not attend meetings put on by the church organization?
• Do you feel pressured to ‘give’ your finances or time to the church?
• Have you ever been told that serving the house is serving God?
• Do you think God is well pleased with you if you attend church but displeased with you if you don’t?
• Do you feel pressured to bring people to church?
• Is there an underlying feeling that if your church can just grow to a certain number then it is successful?
• Is there a sense of either failure or lack of success if you don’t achieve requirements put on you by your pastor or leader?
• Do you go to church to grow in your relationship with God?
• Are you different on a Sunday to every other day of the week?
Do you see your value as a person attained by:-
• How you perform?
• Your Position?
• What you do?
For Pastors and leaders.
Is there pressure to perform by your church system to…… ?
a) Grow your church numerically – (you must grow to be recognized by the system.)
(Many movements / denominations will not even recognize groups under a certain number as a church ie you are not a church unless you have 100 or 150 people attending – one movement it is 300)
b) Produce leaders or pastors.
(some movements have requirements that you must train up leaders so they will go and plant churches)
c) Increase financially
(Some movements view the financial state of your church as an indicator of being healthy spiritually)
d) Increase in position within the system.
there is pressure to perform and increase in ‘rank’ – if you don’t then you are a lesser leader.
e) Does your denomination or movement own the building, property or equipment?
Is there a sense of either failure or lack of success if you don’t achieve requirements put on you by your denomination or movement?
For example do you pastor a group of 50 people but you feel you are less than successful.
Do you see your value as a person attained by:-
• How you perform?
• Your Position?
• What you do?
• How big your group is that you lead?
If you answered yes to any of these questions you are probably being influenced by the idol, If you answered yes to 2 or 3 of these questions then you are definitely being influenced and if you answered yes to 4 or more then you are certainly being controlled by the idol.
3. DEFEAT THE IDOL
Acts 19:30-31: When idols are opposed, it's dangerous. It's true that idols are empty yet they wield enormous power over us; through them the powers and principalities try to control us.
They use position, manipulation and fear to try to control us – they make you fear the of loss of ………, (insert here whatever you fear the loss of - maybe friends, position, ministry, money, welfare, even your salvation etc ) if you dare to come against it.
Paul risked his life to break/defeat the power of idols.
Jesus gave his life to defeat the power of idols. (Colossians 2:15).
Power and principalities are unleashed all their fury on Jesus and He died...yet in doing that He defeated them!!!
So, how do you defeat the idol in your life?
One option, albeit the wrong one, is to try real hard to stop making it an idol.
But the only way to successfully defeat the idol is to turn to the one who has defeated every idol – who went to the cross for you and disarmed, for all eternity, the “rulers and authorities” of this world. Colossians 2:15 speaks of this: “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”
Position yourself in His victory
"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you," 2 Cor 6:17 –
You see you cant change a system from within, I have seen many try to, but fail. You can’t put “new wine in old wineskins". You cannot defeat the idol while you continue to submit to it, again that is something the idol uses to stop you – the feeling of being disloyal – it is actually a false loyalty.
I remember many years ago when the Lord was trying to get me to do something. I unwittingly disobeyed Him because of the feeling of being disloyal if I left what I was doing. For over 12 months it was agony. When I finally dealt with the false loyalty and obeyed Him things dramatically changed – but I had to make the first move. False loyalty binds people to the idol so you need to break free and be loyal to Jesus and what He is saying to you.
Yield your mind, your entire being to Him for Him to bring change. You will most likely have to unlearn all the Greek philosophical teaching / thinking you have been influenced by over the years and re-learn, His way. This will take many years for most people but the more you yield the quicker the process.
Casting down every imagination and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God 1 Cor 10:5 – we wage war – it’s a fight – it may be difficult but don’t give in this is one reason we have set up Christian Assemblies to help you with the transition.
What constitutes and idol?
“An idol occupies that place in our esteem and affections, in our thoughts, words and ways, in our dependence and reliance, in our worship and devotedness, which is due to God only? Whatever is to us what the Lord alone should be, that is to us an idol.”
“You may not be found out. Your idol may be so hidden, or so peculiar, that all our attempts to touch it, have left you and it unscathed. Will you therefore conclude that you have none? Search deeper, look closer; it is not too deep for the eye of God, nor too hidden for the eyes of a tender conscience anointed with divine eye-salve. Hidden love is the deepest of all love; hidden diseases the most incurable of all diseases. Search every fold of your heart until you find it. It may not be so big nor so ugly as your neighbour’s; but an idol is still an idol, and an image still an image, whether so small as to be carried in the coat pocket, or as large as a gigantic statue.” J. C. Philpot, October, 1855
An idol is a human-made object that is worshipped in some way.
A false concept or notion; fallacy, is an idol.
“Every man has his idol; but it is not every man who sees it. Few groan under it.” J. C. Philpot
“Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.” 1 John 5:21
How to overcome an idol –
A. Discern the idol.
B. Expose the idol.
C. Defeat the idol.
The first thing you need to do is ask God for discernment, the second, ask Him to show you how it is working in your life, to expose it, the third, ask Him to bring victory in defeating it in your life.
The most powerful (suicidal) prayer I have ever prayed a number of years ago was “Lord expose what is in my heart”, “even if it means losing everything even if my ministry dies, create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit in me”. – yikes, He did, and it didn’t happen as I expected.
A. DISCERN THE IDOL
The first step in defeating the idol is to discern it. I and many others within the ‘church’ system have over many years been discerning ‘something’ and over the last number of months I have been exposing that which has been discerned, the idol called the church, through the revelation and teachings the Lord has given me. (Maybe you could go over the teachings again to reemphasise it into your heart.)
Many others have been discerning ‘something’ but not having a name for it, I thank God that this teaching has bought revelation to the discernment, so now we see what we have been discerning.
You need to have an open, unbiased heart to discern. Ask the Lord to take off every veil that may be on your eyes that clouds your discernment - Let Him show you and in your spirit, not your mind (that has been taught all sorts of things) receive.
Someone recently said “we need to get rid of all the heretics – what constitutes a heretic, someone who dares to question”.
The idol doesn’t want you to question things, the system is designed to blacklist you if you dare question it but I want to assure you it is ok to question things. And don’t push aside that niggling feeling when something happens, pursue it to find out what the Lord is saying.
Many people’s discernment is labelled as being judgmental or critical to keep them in line in the system but you know the bible actually tells us to judge.
1 Corinthians 2:14-15 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
There is a vast difference between judgment and being judgemental and between discernment and criticism.
Discernment is a gift of the Spirit that needs to be cultivated. Over the years Jeannette and I have learnt to rely upon this gift so many times. Many times ignoring the ‘niggling’ because we thought we were being judgmental only to find the feeling was right and if we had acted on what the Spirit was telling us would have saved us a lot of grief.
2. EXPOSE THE IDOLS
You see the preaching of the Gospel changes people's lives. No lasting and genuine change can come apart from the Gospel! It is the truth that sets us free. Truth may not be very palatable at times but it has to be preached.
If idols aren't confronted, there's no change in the behaviour of people.
It's true that manmade idols are not real gods, however they have power, especially when they have a demonic entity fuelling it.
Paul's response to the idols he saw:- His spirit was provoked. And he then preached against the idols. He exposed them through the preaching of the truth.
I pray that my preaching will continue to expose the idol in people’s lives
Acts 19:26 “Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are no gods, that are made with hands.”
Through the Lord’s grace I have been exposing this idol, and through His word, persuaded many.
The Lord is opening our eyes to see and I pray more and more eyes and hearts will be opened.
But whenever you threaten someone's idols, people themselves feel threatened and they will fight back, e.g.-as we see in Ephesus when Paul exposed idols there.
Please be aware of that – things can get nasty in and around your life when you expose this idol and especially when you begin to share your revelation. I have had pastors actually manifest in front of me when this idol was exposed in them.
I want to expose the idol in your life (if it is there) –
Don’t take my word for it, please be open hearted and seek the Lord in this because it is He and He alone that can reveal it and set you free.
Firstly I want to ask you a question - Can something intrinsically good become an idol?
The answer is yes. Anything good that basically takes the place of God for whatever reason can become an idol. Even the bible can become an idol if it is worshipped. So can worship, Some people talk about worshipping worship, if the act of worship takes on any form other than worshipping God for who He is alone, for example how great this song sounds, the music is so professional etc can become an idol. We leave the meaning and pursue the act.
So church can become an idol when it takes the place of God.
Here is a test to see if you are influenced by the idol called the church.
• Do you your serve the house of God (church, building or organization)?
• Do you feel guilty if you do not attend meetings put on by the church organization?
• Do you feel pressured to ‘give’ your finances or time to the church?
• Have you ever been told that serving the house is serving God?
• Do you think God is well pleased with you if you attend church but displeased with you if you don’t?
• Do you feel pressured to bring people to church?
• Is there an underlying feeling that if your church can just grow to a certain number then it is successful?
• Is there a sense of either failure or lack of success if you don’t achieve requirements put on you by your pastor or leader?
• Do you go to church to grow in your relationship with God?
• Are you different on a Sunday to every other day of the week?
Do you see your value as a person attained by:-
• How you perform?
• Your Position?
• What you do?
For Pastors and leaders.
Is there pressure to perform by your church system to…… ?
a) Grow your church numerically – (you must grow to be recognized by the system.)
(Many movements / denominations will not even recognize groups under a certain number as a church ie you are not a church unless you have 100 or 150 people attending – one movement it is 300)
b) Produce leaders or pastors.
(some movements have requirements that you must train up leaders so they will go and plant churches)
c) Increase financially
(Some movements view the financial state of your church as an indicator of being healthy spiritually)
d) Increase in position within the system.
there is pressure to perform and increase in ‘rank’ – if you don’t then you are a lesser leader.
e) Does your denomination or movement own the building, property or equipment?
Is there a sense of either failure or lack of success if you don’t achieve requirements put on you by your denomination or movement?
For example do you pastor a group of 50 people but you feel you are less than successful.
Do you see your value as a person attained by:-
• How you perform?
• Your Position?
• What you do?
• How big your group is that you lead?
If you answered yes to any of these questions you are probably being influenced by the idol, If you answered yes to 2 or 3 of these questions then you are definitely being influenced and if you answered yes to 4 or more then you are certainly being controlled by the idol.
3. DEFEAT THE IDOL
Acts 19:30-31: When idols are opposed, it's dangerous. It's true that idols are empty yet they wield enormous power over us; through them the powers and principalities try to control us.
They use position, manipulation and fear to try to control us – they make you fear the of loss of ………, (insert here whatever you fear the loss of - maybe friends, position, ministry, money, welfare, even your salvation etc ) if you dare to come against it.
Paul risked his life to break/defeat the power of idols.
Jesus gave his life to defeat the power of idols. (Colossians 2:15).
Power and principalities are unleashed all their fury on Jesus and He died...yet in doing that He defeated them!!!
So, how do you defeat the idol in your life?
One option, albeit the wrong one, is to try real hard to stop making it an idol.
But the only way to successfully defeat the idol is to turn to the one who has defeated every idol – who went to the cross for you and disarmed, for all eternity, the “rulers and authorities” of this world. Colossians 2:15 speaks of this: “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”
Position yourself in His victory
"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you," 2 Cor 6:17 –
You see you cant change a system from within, I have seen many try to, but fail. You can’t put “new wine in old wineskins". You cannot defeat the idol while you continue to submit to it, again that is something the idol uses to stop you – the feeling of being disloyal – it is actually a false loyalty.
I remember many years ago when the Lord was trying to get me to do something. I unwittingly disobeyed Him because of the feeling of being disloyal if I left what I was doing. For over 12 months it was agony. When I finally dealt with the false loyalty and obeyed Him things dramatically changed – but I had to make the first move. False loyalty binds people to the idol so you need to break free and be loyal to Jesus and what He is saying to you.
Yield your mind, your entire being to Him for Him to bring change. You will most likely have to unlearn all the Greek philosophical teaching / thinking you have been influenced by over the years and re-learn, His way. This will take many years for most people but the more you yield the quicker the process.
Casting down every imagination and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God 1 Cor 10:5 – we wage war – it’s a fight – it may be difficult but don’t give in this is one reason we have set up Christian Assemblies to help you with the transition.
Newsletter
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest teaching articles "An idol called the church" & news
Latest Comments
- This is good stuff brother and the heart of the good news. Christ in you is what this is about. Peter said you are the Christ the son of the living Go... More...
- I really liked your article Ian. But it seems your statment about comments being appercated is subject to approvel. Oh well some things never change n... More...
- This thing about what church is and is not could be carried through about all that we learned while in those places. Much of what we call the gospel o... More...
- Thank you for sharing your opinion here. I really value it. More...
- I was blessed. More...