- Why are so many people disillusioned?
- Why are more and more people being disillusioned?
- What is disillusionment anyway?
- Is disillusionment the work of the devil, the flesh or the indwelling Christ?
Maybe you have been involved in ‘church life’ for many years, served the church through many different roles, faithful in attending, but then all of a sudden you become disillusioned. Why?
You see if you are in a church system, obviously you are influenced by it, you are taught by it, ‘corrected’ by it, told it is true, even that ‘truth’ is backed by scripture – but wait, even the Catholic’s think they have the truth, even to the extent that they say they are the one true church. So how do I know the ‘truth’ I know, is real truth. How do I know what I believe, is true?
It is true we don’t have the physical statues, false doctrine such as praying to saints as the Catholic system does, but does that mean we are right and they are wrong. Does it mean that we have a better ‘system’ because we don’t do those things? How do we know we are not found serving a different idol?
The idol called the church has many faces; it takes revelation to see truth.
A pre-cursor to revelation is disillusionment.
I am very disillusioned. But – before you think how bad that is, let me say, it is only good. Let me explain.
Isa. 43:18-19 (NCV) 18 The LORD says, “Forget what happened before, and do not think about the past. 19 Look at the new thing I am going to do. It is already happening. Don’t you see it? (NIV) do you not perceive it?
Most people of the spirit are very perceptive. In fact we cannot be people led of the Spirit if we do not perceive things.
What you perceive determines what you believe. If people have no perception then they believe the wrong thing – they have false belief.
Today many people’s belief is derived from education instead of perception, information instead of revelation
A while ago a person visited us who had a hearing impairment – their comment was that NZ was basically boring because they couldn’t hear the birds singing. They wore sunglasses that were more like blinkers so they could only see basically what was in front of them & missed out on a lot of the beautiful scenery. They perceived something that was untrue – (NZ is one of the most beautiful places in the world)
We believe only what we perceive. We believe only what we see. (ask for the teaching on ‘Seeing is believing’)
- So firstly we need to have ears that hear what the Spirit is saying.
- Secondly perceive correctly what God is saying or doing.
If you have been a Christian for any length of time, you must have faced disillusionment in your life. Have you become disillusioned with life, with other Christians, with church, with yourself - with God? Do you find it harder than you thought to walk as He walked? Do you agonise over unanswered prayers, harsh or shallow people in church, a loss of joy, peace or passion?
If any of these rings true for you, then praise God! Disillusionment is a work of the Holy Spirit in the life of every believer. In fact, I will go so far as to say that, if you have never known such disillusionment as this, then you have not been growing as a Christian.
What is disillusionment anyway?
Firstly, to understand this - what is an illusion? The dictionary states an illusion is:-
- an erroneous mental representation
- something many people believe, that is false;
When we witness an illusion, we perceive something that does not correspond to what is actually out there—what exists in the real world. Illusions fool us. They convince us of things that are not true. Dictionary definitions of illusion usually state that an illusion is a sensory perception that causes a false or distorted impression, or a misrepresentation of a "real" sensory stimulus.
Biblically an "Illusion" is something that is false. A false way of seeing things or believing. An illusion can be in the form of false gods of whatever system (or mindset) we are in.
So therefore Dis-illusionment: - means the loss of false belief. Realizing that what you understood is not correct, what you believed to be so is not so.
For, what is it to be disillusioned, but to have your illusions shattered? And what are illusions, but untrue ideas and beliefs that we have acquired along our way? The Holy Spirit wants to root out your illusions, he wants you dis-illusioned – this makes way for revelation – revelation then brings forth truth. Education or knowledge, the things we have been taught, doesn’t bring truth it is revelation that brings truth.
For Jeannette and myself, one of the major reasons God bought us to Ashburton was to get us out of the church system. We had an illusion that what we were doing and had done for nearly 30 years, was God. When we became disillusioned with the ‘system’ we saw all its faults and errors in bold technicolour.
After some time we began to see that what God was doing - what we were perceiving, the revelation God was giving us could never have come while being part of the ‘system’ – Ashburton was to take us out, literally – the bible calls it ‘dying to self’.
After a while instead of seeing the faults of the church system we began to see the ‘system’ in us or the illusions we had, in us, for decades. The focus became the error in us rather than the error in them.
Disillusionment set in but - disillusionment, rightly understood, is a very beneficial force! The more illusions we can be rid of in this life - and there are many - the better! In fact, you will discover that disillusionment naturally leads to renewal. The Lord breaks down; but He also builds up.
In fact, it is sometimes so hard to have our illusions challenged, that we prefer not to grow any further, and to keep our illusions intact.
illusions are a false way of seeing things. Revelation is the true way to see things.
And these things have to do with how we see God, the Christian life, our brothers and sisters in Christ, ‘church’ and ourselves.
The reason that disillusionment is so widespread is because people consistently put their hopes in the wrong things. Even in Christian circles, they almost universally put their faith in organisations more than in God himself. When the organisations let them down (and they always do), there is nothing left for most people to do except hide their disappointment and carry on the best they can.
Disillusion is the child of illusion… i.e., we feel betrayed and let down because from the beginning we’ve had the wrong ideas, the wrong expectations.
You see, our problem is that we tend to try to box God into acting one way… our way… the way we want Him to act, the way we want things to turn out… and then if that doesn’t happen… we get discouraged, we throw in the towel and in despair, turn back to the old life.
Many people were disillusioned by the crucifixion of Jesus – wasn’t He supposed to bring freedom to the Jews, wasn’t He the King of a new Kingdom?
THE PROBLEM HAD NOT BEEN THEIR EXPERIENCE WITH JESUS, BUT RATHER THEIR PROBLEM HAD BEEN WITH THEIR EXPECTATIONS.
Disillusionment means having no more misconceptions, false impressions, and false judgments in life; it means being free from these deceptions.
However, though no longer deceived, our experience of disillusionment may actually leave us cynical and overly critical in our judgment of others.
The problem is a disillusioned person is often cynical.
But the disillusionment that comes from God brings us to the point where we see people as they really are, yet without any cynicism or any stinging and bitter criticism.
The disillusionment with our own abilities is, perhaps, one of the most important things that can ever happen to us.
So with this in mind – are you disillusioned with church? Maybe it is the Holy Spirit wanting to bring you to a place of freedom from the illusions you had about the church system.
You have two choices
1/ Keep pressing in, trying to deal with the disillusionment, brush aside those feelings, thoughts and yes the promptings of the Holy Ghost so that you can stay in the ‘system’, stay in the familiar.
2/ Ask the Lord to show you why you are disillusioned, what is it that you had false belief in?
Are you actually practicing churchianity instead of Christianity.
It may cost you everything – are you willing to die to self.
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Comments
During the process of what I call "spiritual detox", I discovered others that are being called out too. Your articles have confirmed so much of what I have "seen". It has been so encouraging so I want to say "Thank You."
What came to me about the hairspray does concern appearance, since the purpose for hairspray is to keep the hair in place or to keep the wind from blowing the hair out of place.
Holy Spirit represents the wind. Hair could represent covering or glory.
Many people in the Body of Christ want to keep the current order of things "in place" instead of allowing Holy Spirit to have His way.
Ian you have had a wonderful ministry in Churches bringing the healing grace of God to many people.(We met you in Sydney) Are you now discounting all those years and encouraging people no longer to belong to a church body?
I want to press on growing in God and worshiping God with others and being part of a "family" in doing that is helping me grow.
In Christ, P U”
Thanks for your email and comments.
I can understand why people would think I was negative in many of the previous articles but to be honest I cant see why anyone would think this last one was negative. To me it is giving people hope, understanding and a reason why so many feel the way they do. I have had emails today saying just that, one pastor just emailed me saying most of the people in their assembly have gone or going through this whole thing of being disillusioned, and that this message was very timely. I had another message lined up to be sent but the Lord specifically told me to change to the disillusionment one.
The problem is when someone speaks out about error in the body they are labeled negative, many assumptions and even misquotations are made. I have endured all these, but not once have I encouraged anyone at any time to stop fellowshipping with others in the body of Christ, wherever they meet together.
What the Lord has set me against is the idol called the church. Others may call it the church system, the church organization, etc. It is the system, not the people I am against. Its like seeing the error in the Catholic Church – there are wonderful Christian brothers and sisters that are involved in that system, but that doesn’t make the system right.
So it is with the protestant ‘system’ – there are wonderful Christian brothers and sisters that are involved in that system, but that doesn’t make the system right either.
Assembling together is NOT the issue. The Idol, system, organization is. Yes I am calling people out of the system, but not out of fellowship. Do you realize there are more people outside of the organized church, than inside. Who is looking after them, who is cheering them on. Unfortunately all they get from ‘the church’ is condemnation with things being said like “you are out of God’s will because you don’t ‘attend’ a church”. “who is your covering – hmm you must be in sin”
Many people are still locked up in the church system and will never be fulfilled until they are out from under the control of the idol. Pastors are leaving the ‘system’ in droves, but they aren’t leaving the body. One pastor came to see me and said since he left the system he is so fulfilled, seen more people baptised then he ever did in ‘church’, a freedom in the people that he never experienced while he was bashing his head up against the wall keeping him locked in.
May I comment on your email, please don’t take offense, I am not trying to offend you by any means, but I need to say these things – you say “what we call the church family” – respectfully, what does God call it, I cant find that in scripture. Please show me where you get that from.
Since I started writing these articles I have had many people email me, attack me, say I am wrong etc but you know not one scripture has been given to me to show that I am wrong or that what they say is right, not one. Please show me in scripture where the Lord talks about a church family, where he calls people to ‘do ………… in church’ or where He talks about a ‘church body’ While I understand the concepts you talk about, because I believed that also, the Lord has shown me that this is not correct.
We don’t belong to a church family, we belong to the family of God, we don’t do …(whatever) in church, we ‘do’ in Christ (we cant go to church and be the church at the same time, we either are the church or we go to church – if we are the church then how can we go to it, understanding that Christ and His Kingdom is within us. We cant do in church, if we are the church. How can we say, the church body, - isn’t it Christ’s body we should be talking about.
Can you see the confusion that we cause when we call the building, organization or our gatherings ‘the church’ yet when questioned we say “well I mean the body” .
Most Christians that go to church justify their false doctrine (about church) by saying things like “well I mean……………………” they discount their error by justifying what they do or what they believe. One lady said “ I agree with what you say, BUT, I am still going to my church and will continue what I have been doing in my church. – She doesn’t really agree with what I am saying, she is discounting it while continuing in error – you either agree with what I am saying or you don’t.
What I am, have been, saying for 12 months is
1/ lets stop elevating the church (it’s a building – a place to meet, nothing more), lets stop preaching about the church – I have heard many preachers preach about the church without one mention of Christ. One well known, highly influential Australia TV preacher has a whole series on the power and influence of the church. Another pastor preached to ‘his’ congregation about getting onto the streets and bringing the people to church, - what about bringing them to Christ?
Lets preach Christ and Him crucified, its not how big or how influential out church is, it is all about Christ.
2/ lets stop calling it church – church is neither a translation of Greek or Hebrew, it is not in the scriptures apart from translations that use the word in error. Lets stop calling the place we meet ‘church’ – the scriptures never use ekklesia to describe a building or an organization – ekklesia is about people.
3/ lets stop building our own little kingdom’s we call our church and build His kingdom and His body.
And finally (sorry it is such a long reply) yes I look back at that time of itinerate ministry and am still amazed at the grace and power of the Lord, but even back then I can see what the Lord was saying as many of the messages were basically – get out into the market place and do the works of Christ. It was all about training and releasing the body – I made such statements, way back then, like, revival is not coming through a man, ministry or church, revival is going to be in and through the body. Statements like, the church is not healthy - its not about 3 fast songs, 3 slow songs, announcements, preach for 20 minutes, offering and then a cup of tea afterwards.
Today I can see the journey the Lord had me on. When He spoke directly to me about dealing with socio humanistic philosophy in the church – I didn’t know what He was talking about, nor how He could use me to combat it.
Again apologies about the length of this reply.
I welcome any dialog with you.
Many blessings
Ian
You will not find the western ‘church’ in the Bible, nowhere.
Jesus never said I will build my church system or organization – Jesus never even used the word ‘church’. The word didn’t exist in Greek or Hebrew and didn’t exist at all until about the 12th century (please read part 3 on the website)
The ‘system’ we run our churches on in the west today is not scriptural – this goes back to the Catholic system. Even Tyndale (1526) refused to translate the word ekklesia into the word church and together with other things he stood against the corrupt system. (I believe he was actually killed because of his stand) Later when the Anglican church broke away from the Catholic system, King James ordered the bible translators to translate the word ekklesia into ‘church’ thus keeping people under control with a system.
The Lord showed me that this system became an idol, taking the place of Christ in many aspects.
I believe He is transitioning people from the idol to an assembly of Christians that are not influenced by the idol. I have had many, many people say how this has made sense to them and are looking to serve Christ and live out Christianity instead of the churchianity, they were involved with. Pam you wouldn’t believe the number of leaders, pastors and people with a real heart for God that are leaving churchianity and finding true Christianity.
Even Bill Hybels, because of the vast number of mature Christian people leaving their churches openly admits they have made a mistake in how they ‘do church’ but then continues the mistake by studying 500 churches and setting up more programs to supposedly correct the mistake.
There are whole movements in Africa that are openly rejecting what they term ‘American Christianity’ and are trying to ban it in their countries because it is causing too many problems for the Christian people.
Pastors from Russia came to Australia where the Aussie pastors said we are praying for you and the church in Russia to come out of the persecution. The Russian pastors said thank you but, we have been praying for you and the Australian ‘church’ to come out of the bondage you are in – we see that what you are in is so much worse than being persecuted, because you cant see the problem.
Many, many things can be said but I will stop.
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