The first step in experiencing life as God intends it to be begins with examining your relationship with God. It is the foundational step upon which all the others depend. If your relationship with God is not right, then few, if any, of the blessings God desires for your life will be realized.
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This blog post is part 2 of the series Eight Steps to Experiencing His Victory
The world is filled with so many views or who or what God is and how to approach him, her or it. There are some who promote Greek/Roman gods and goddesses, Hinduism with its 300 million gods, some concepts like the force in Star Wars where there is good and evil power in the universe and we must seek the good.
All of these ideas do not describe the God of the Bible. Just so you know up front, I believe that there is only one true God as described in the Bible and that all other gods are the creation of man’s imagination and demonic deception.
I know that some may get upset with what I just said and consider me to be narrow-minded, bigoted, arrogant, and a slew of other derogatory names, but that is what the Bible says. It is important that we get our understanding of God from the word of God. Here are a few of passages that speak to the issue.
The first two commandments that God gave Moses on Mount Sinai are very clear:
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery 3 “You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. (Exodus 20:2-4)
God is proclaiming His place as the one true God. He is the only one to be worshipped. There are no other gods beside Him. To worship any other god is to reject Him and come under His wrath.
The Apostle Paul provides further insight in the book of Romans. He says:
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
Paul clearly states that God made it evident to men that He is God, but they rejected Him and began to worship other things. They did not honor God and they exchanged the glory of God for other “gods” they created in the image of man and other creatures God created.
There is more than meets the eye with idol worship. The person who worships an idol or another god is actually worshiping demonic spirits.
The Bible connects idolatry with the worship of demons. Deuteronomy 32:16-17 states:
16 “They made Him jealous with strange gods; With abominations they provoked Him to anger. 17 “They sacrificed to demons who were not God, To gods whom they have not known, New gods who came lately, Whom your fathers did not dread.
Unless we think that this is just an Old Testament idea, let’s look at the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:20-21:
20 No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
Paul even warns Timothy that there would be people he would come in contact with that were listening to and following doctrines that originated with demons. He said:
But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. (1 Timothy 4:1)
These demonic doctrines would deceive people and cause them to fall away from the faith. When a person chooses to listen to concepts of God outside the Bible there is a danger of being deceived and falling away from faith the one true God. Needless to say, our understanding of God is vital.
It shouldn’t surprise you that demons seek to deceive people to worship them for that is the very thing that the devil tried to do when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness. Here is what took place:
8 Again, the devil *took Him to a very high mountain and *showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; 9 and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus *said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’”11 Then the devil *left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.
Jesus rejected the offer of the devil and rebuked him. He proclaimed that the only one to be worshiped was the Lord your God and that He was the only one to serve. This is the only true response for one who desires to experience life as God intends it to be.
The devil may offer tempting shortcuts to obtain the promises of God, but they only come as we worship and serve God. The devil can never provide the blessings of God. Only God can and that is why we must reject any other beside Him.
We have seen that when a person worships an idol, he or she is really worshiping a demon. It makes great sense to stay away from demons, but what about angels?
There are many today that advocate praying to angels, getting guidance from angels, and the worship of angels. I was recently on a site where a woman claimed to be an angel channel. She claims to channel messages from her guides and wisdom from the Archangels and the Council of Light.
There is nothing in the Bible that tells us to pray to angels. Angels are seen as messengers of God that from time to time communicate to people on behalf of God, but there is nothing that says we should seek them out for wisdom or direction.
Paul warns the Corinthians that “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). What better plan could Satan have than to pretend to be good and lead people astray from following God. Satan doesn’t mind if you are good, if you reject God in the process.
If there is any other message of salvation apart from Jesus Christ reconciling us to the Father, then it is false and should be rejected. Even if this message seems to come from angels.
Paul warned the Galatians that if anyone came with a different message other than salvation through Jesus Christ, they are to be accursed. He said:
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! (Galatians 1:8-9)
These are very strong words. Even if an angel from heaven were to appear and change the message of the Bible, the message was to be rejected and the angel accursed. To be accursed means something set aside and dedicated to destruction. This is very serious. As followers of God, we should not be seeking out direction from angelic sources. God alone is to be sought.
The message is clear. We are to worship God alone. So let’s do a quick review of what we have learned:
It is important to know the God of the Bible. The word of God reveals who God is and the plans He has for a relationship with Him. If we alter what the Bible says about God we do it to our own harm.
It is only as we serve the God as He reveals Himself that we can receive His blessings. Over the next weeks, we will begin to examine who God is and how we might have a right relationship with Him.
Read the post Come to God
Read the post Are You Trying to Get Yourself to Heaven?
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