HOW CAN A CHRISTIAN DEAL WITH HYPER-SPIRITUALITY?
Good day, my beloved in Christ!
Today, I want us to ponder on the problem of hyper-spirituality among believers and offer scriptural advice to Christians afflicted with it.
While there are different schools of thought on hearing from God where some Christians believe He still speaks directly today and others feel He can only be heard through the Bible at this time, we all agree that God does lead or guide His people (Romans 8:14). How pervasive we perceive the guidance to be can, however, vary from Christian to Christian.
But a big problem arises when a Christian attaches, “The Lord told me,” to almost everything he says and constantly shares quite enthusiastically the next big step God would have him take or the latest profound truth God has revealed to him (sometimes asking for support to fund him) with no accountability for failed and contradictory prophecies he shared in the past.
Furthermore, in the midst of this abundance of revelations, the person’s life is not showing much evidence of the fruit of the Spirit or sustained spiritual growth/maturity and, sometimes, progress in general.
Raising this matter of hyper-spirituality is not meant to denigrate any brother or sister in the Lord (I’m using male pronouns generically as the Bible does) but to help us in our walk with God. It is a problem that should be dealt with for the good of the believer concerned and the perception that the world has of the Church. We certainly don’t want unbelievers to see Christians who claim to be Spirit-led as confused freaks.
So my question is:
What would you tell such a believer to enable him:
– come out of the bubble he’s living in and reconnect with reality
– attain stability and growth in his Christian experience and life in general
– gain credibility as a speaker of truth which is what a Christian should be?
I’ll start the conversation.
Every believer needs to know that although God speaks to us, our hearts speak to us too and other spirits can as well. Our desires can be what we term God’s leading if we’re not careful. It can also be suggestions from the enemy dressed in spiritual language to lure us away from what God wants us to do or where He wants us to go. For example, during the temptation of Jesus, the devil quoted the Scriptures to him to confuse him (Luke 4:1-13).
We, therefore, need to learn to identify and distinguish the various voices that speak to us. This requires honesty and discipline. If we’re not truthful to ourselves and we don’t discipline ourselves through much Bible study and prayer to know God intimately, we’ll not be able to know His voice and see the scriptures fulfilled in our lives where He describes Himself as the good shepherd whose sheep hear His voice and follow Him but flee from the voice of strangers (John 10: 27, 5).
We also need to be humble and sincere enough to acknowledge when we miss God’s leading and examine our lives to know why it happened so that it does not become a recurring decimal. If we play with sin, it will be hard for us to be in clear communion with God. If we care more about making people think we are supremely close to God than actually learning about Him through His word and faithfully living by its precepts, we’ll keep being embarrassed by saying that God told us things that don’t get to happen or that conflict with what mature believers and the Word of God will associate Him with.
In addition, before announcing any supposed revelation widely, we should pray for confirmation through other brethren who are walking closely with God.
Finally, the Lord gave us minds to help us reason. We should not believe the lie that we should live by revelations, as if they’re untouchable. Each revelation should be weighed in our minds and judged to see that it is consistent with the Scriptures before we accept them (1 John 4:1). When we allow our minds to go to waste, we become easily deceived and toy with foolish notions thinking they are prophecies from God.
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Kindly weigh in and remain blessed!
I look forward to your candid and grace-filled responses.
(You don’t have to answer the entire question. You can address any aspect you wish to for our combined edification.)
(Picture in graphic is from Luis Quintero on Pexels)
Prayer:
Dear Lord, draw us closer to You everyday that we may represent You better and better and be blessed thereby in Jesus’ name.
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For such Christian, humility matters a lot and also he should have discernment to know when God is speaking and when his own spirit is speaking
True, Chimezie! God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. God bless you richly in Jesus’ name.
I love this topic. As you rightly said, we could have other spirits speak to us. But if we are not careful, we may be misled by the wrong spirit. That’s why we need the Spirit of discernment and not just the spirit of discernment but as you also said we need to judge what we hear using the word of God. Thank you for sharing this Ma. God bless you!
You’re right about the usefulness of discerning of spirits, which is a spiritual gift, in this regard (1 Corinthians 12:10). However, whether or not we have the gift to pinpoint different kinds of spirits, being close to God through His word and prayer will help us to know when He is speaking to us and when someone else is doing so, even if we don’t know the exact identity of the impostor. Thanks for dropping by and have a beautiful second half of the year.
This topic is awesome. God bless you ma.
I think the answer is in your post, this: studying God’s word, getting that intimacy with God, putting more effort in being spiritual than in proving that you are spiritual, being mindful of what or who is speaking to us at every point in time by weighing what was said with rhe Scriptures.
Glory to God and a bouquet of blessings to you in Jesus’ name.
“Our desires can be what we term God’s leading if we’re not careful”, this is true, I know someone who got married to a woman twice his age, when his parents asked he said, “God told me to marry her”. No one wanted to disregard the wishes of God and all kept mute. The marriage failed two years later, he admitted that God didn’t say anything, he hoped the lady’s family would help him leave Nigeria.
That is terrible! It doesn’t pay to lie against God. May the Lord cover you and your family with His feathers at this dangerous time and supply all your needs in Jesus’ name.
Amen
Interesting read ma.
God speaks to His people; but not as some people have represented it. His word is there as a guide to believers. He doesn’t even have to speak unless on some specific aspects of our lives that are not clearly spelt out in His manual for living—the Bible.
It is not for us to go looking out for His voice because when we do, we end up hearing all types of voices, many of which contradict the written Word of God.
True. God bless you and your family richly, Chidinma, in Jesus’ name!
I believe God speaks to us in different ways. It might not necessarily be a voice in our heads. Therefore, it is important to think through with the guidance of the Holy Spirit what we tag God’s words. What does the Bible say about the action you want to embark on? What is God’s stand on it? Is it in agreement with what God told you?
This topic is a crucial one. Some Christians have made it a habit to use the phrase “God told me” in every sentence they make. Sometimes, these utterances they make are not true and it is very bad that as a Christian, you do this maybe to make people feel you are very spiritual.
Be very sure it is God who spoke to you and not just your thoughts before you make such utterance so that you won’t be found lying.
This topic is awesome, I believe God still speaks to us like He spoke to our forefathers in the Old Testament. We should read the Bible, meditate on His words, listen to His teachings and surely, He will speak to us. Also, if you did not hear from God, please don’t pretend that you heard just to prove that you are highly spiritual. It is a sin.
Carrying out God’s message or word without adding or subtracting would be a nice start for Christians. Apart from the spiritual filling of Christ in us, as Christians and children of God, we should try to be humble, attentive and disciplined in all we do. Know that God’s Word is sufficient and most especially speaks to us through scriptural passages and books. Let’s not be deceived!
Remain blessed, Ma’am.
I remember a story similar to this that I read in Kenneth Hagin’s book where a woman so desperately wanted to hear from God that the devil started speaking to her instead. Every Christian needs to have a discerning spirit to know when it is God speaking to them or the devil. The devil also knows the scriptures and he used it to tempt Jesus, so knowing the scriptures doesn’t stop you from being deceived by the devil. But knowing the scriptures and having the Holy Spirit residing in you, he will help you discern that which is from God and that which is from the devil.
Very true. Thank you!
This is a very insightful post and I must say, it’s so inspiring.
It’s one thing to hear voices and it’s another thing to understand and know a particular voice.
Some voices are not from God and that’s why we must be deeply connected to God in order to understand his voice.
This is a very important post that all believers need to see.
A lot of us have been deceived by wrong voices that are not God’s voice.
We should all learn to differentiate the voice of our God from the voice of the enemy.
Well said Ma. Not every voice we hear is the voice of God and if we do find our self in situations like this it, we can always make sure the message of the voice correspond with the word of God.