A Foreign Vocabulary – A Foreign Religion Pt. 1
To listen to a person’s vocabulary is to discover where that person lives in terms of his beliefs and convictions. People define who they are by their words. Not only what they say, but surely just as importantly what they don’t say gives us insight into what their spiritual and moral constructs really are, if there are any at all. A person’s vocabulary is his address, for you will always find his true home where his words lead you. That is, if you listen close to what is being said and to what is not being said.
Let’s face it, every man and woman is a walking book which can be read in their words. Words, words, words from morning till night, and some even talk in their sleep. It is true that actions speak louder than words at the end of the day. Jesus Christ tell us in Matthew 7:16,
“You will know them by their fruits….”
But Jesus Christ also says about man in Luke 6:45,
“…for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”
If you will:
“WE CAN TELL WHAT’S IN THE HEART BY WHAT COMES
FROM THE MOUTH.”
If you will:
“WHEN A MAN’S TONGUE IS WRONG, IT IS ABSURD AND
UNSCRIPTURAL TO SAY THAT HIS HEART IS RIGHT.”
A man’s mouth as well as his life reveals his belief system. I have been increasingly hearing very strange vocabularies in Christian circles in the last several years, which vocabularies are becoming more foreign to true Biblical Christianity with every passing day. In fact, it is not only a foreign vocabulary, but in actuality a foreign religion that is being presented under the name of Christ. When the reality is, it is a vocabulary and a religion completely unknown in and totally contradictory to the Holy Bible.
The more I run into these foreign vocabularies and foreign religions in the Christian context, the more I feel like a stranger in my own country. Truly, there is no place like home, but it is becoming more and more difficult in the contemporary ecclesiastical setting to find out just where home really is. But when it comes right down to it, our home is in the Lord. As the Psalmist says Psalm 90:1,
“The Lord has been our DWELLING PLACE in all generations….”
This teaching is a great big heads up, and what follows is my exposure to this foreign vocabulary and foreign religion in the Modern Christian Church, as well as my exposing its falsehoods by strongly applying Biblical truth. Here we go, and all of the exact quotes from pastors and parishioners are very recent.
I DON’T KNOW ABOUT ALL THAT DOCTRINE STUFF
My wife and I were having lunch some time ago with two other ministers and their wives all of the Pentecostal persuasion like us. It was in this recent context that a howitzer was shot off at our lunch table.
While what I am addressing in this teaching in its entirety very sadly comes from Pentecostal ministers and parishioners, what they espouse thankfully has nothing to do with true Christianity or Biblical Pentecost.
The Apostle Peter on the Day of Pentecost explained the fulfillment of O.T. prophecy about the blessed outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and said in Acts 2:16,
“BUT THIS IS THAT which was spoken by the prophet Joel.”
However, concerning all that we are addressing here when it comes to authentic Pentecost, we must say at the outset:
“BUT THIS IS NOT THAT which was spoken by the prophet Joel.”
In fact there is so much that has corrupted modern Christianity today, that we will have to make this a series rather than a single teaching. I am as solidly Pentecost as ever before, which is why what we must now confront grieves me no end.
One of the wives asked me about my latest book entitled Modern Christianity Corrupted, and after my quick resume of my book, her minister husband responded, and here is his full quote:
“I DON’T KNOW ABOUT ALL THAT DOCTRINE STUFF. ALL I
NEED IS THE NAME OF JESUS AND THE HOLY GHOST.”
My book was summarily dismissed by his comment, and the book conversation abruptly died. I thought at first that he was kidding, but then it dawned on me that by the look on his face he was as serious as a heart attack. His dismissive comments about Bible doctrine made me realize something critical, for this is what he was saying:
“A STRONG DOCTRINAL AND THEOLOGICAL CONSTRUCT IS
NOT NEEDED IN LIFE OR MINISTRY, JUST THE NAME
OF JESUS AND THE HOLY SPIRIT.”
To the others, my wife excepted, I could tell that it didn’t alarm them and that they received the comment as innocent and benign. But if that was so, why did it sound to me like an incoming artillery mortar round that was headed directly at our way?
First of all, I had never before ever heard anything so alarming concerning an attitude toward Bible Doctrine. What he was saying was that not only did he not have a doctrinal construct in his belief system, but that he didn’t care because it really didn’t matter. He was having a doctrinal book- burning, including my book which he had not read, before my very eyes. For that matter, he was burning the Bible as well, even though he did not realize it. I can still smell the smoke!
Second, the lights went on as to why readers of my book Modern Christianity Corrupted, which was written on the level of a first grade reader, were saying that my book was so deep and slow reading. Not that they disagreed with it, but that they found it hard going. Bingo! Of course! If you have no “Strong Doctrinal Construct” of Biblical truth and teaching, you will have no point of reference to be able to discern truth from error. Hence doctrinal reading becomes slow mucking along.
Third, what then happens is a theological zoo. Without a “Biblical Doctrinal Point of Reference,” religion becomes like an ocean without shores, the earth without gravity, a MAC truck without a steering wheel, and an Amtrak train without tracks – a train wreck that is going to happen. It is like a doctor saying, “I don’t know about all that medical stuff, all I need is bandaids and tongue depressors.” It is like a machanic saying, “I don’t know about all that engine stuff, all I need is gas and oil.” It is like a teacher saying, “I don’t know about all that curriculum stuff, all is need is chalk and erasers.”
Without a strong, doctrinal, Biblical orientation, minds can be programmed by false preachers and teachers with God only knows what. This lethal and slouchy mental posture of not caring about all of that doctrinal stuff is the reason for the foreign vocabularies and foreign religions that have risen up like Asian Carp jumping out of theological rivers into our ecclesiastical boats and slamming us across our faces.
Then people in religion without any doctrinal integrity become like mindless, computerized, stuffed animals that recite current trends and clichés while moving their mouths and blinking their eyes. Strange doctrines then multiply unchecked and become as big as Clydesdale horses clomping around in the church.
Fourth, to state indifference to all that “Doctrinal Stuff,” and at the same time state that all one needs is the name of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, is a complete and flagrant contradiction in itself. Why? Because JESUS is TRUTH! (John 14:6) You cannot separate Jesus from doctrinal truth anymore than you can separate wet from rain or sun from light. To discard one is to discard the other. And as for the HOLY SPIRIT, He is the one Who gave us the HOLY BIBLE and all inspired doctrinal truth in the Word of God in the first place. (II Peter 1:21) To mock or slight one is to mock and slight the other. You truly cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit without being filled with a huge hunger for doctrinal truth. Moreover, He came to lead us into all truth. (John 16:13)
Now to the heart of the issue! The pastor who made the statement about not really caring about doctrinal knowledge is not only a woefully incomplete pastor, but he is also a tragically incomplete Christian. Why? Because we read about this II Timothy 6:16-17 KJV,
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness;
“That the man of God may be perfect (complete), thoroughly
furnished unto every good work.”
Without strong and complete Bible doctrine, we retard spiritual growth, disciple deformed believers, open people up to gross error, and imperil their eternal souls. Then they will be incomplete in every area of their lives. Then they will fall short of the glory of God in life and ministry. And then like dumb sheep, they will follow wherever modern false shepherds of the day lead them.
For instance, because of little to no Biblical doctrinal construct in the modern, religious mind,
“RELIGIOUS FOLKS ARE BEING TAUGHT TODAY TO BELIEVE THAT CHRISTIANITY
IS A CALL PRIMARILY TO PLEASURE AND PROFIT.”
Again, tragically this is being taught in Pentecostal circles more than in any other place, though it has become transdenominational. Nothing is further from the truth, and in it all the Biblical doctrine of discipleship that Jesus put forth has been totally silenced. What is being taught instead is a false religion of total SELF-ABSORPTION under the name of Christianity and Pentecost. It has zero basis in either. Nothing could be more foreign to the teachings of our Lord.
The fact is:
“CHRISTIANITY IS AT IT’S HEART AND CORE, THE LORD CALLING US TO
SELF-DENIAL (Matthew 16:24) AND SELF-SACRIFICE (Romans 12:1-2).“
We must understand something hard-core central here, and it is this:
“GOD’S HONEST TRUTH ALWAYS CARRIES IN IT TOO GREAT A SEVERITY
TO CORRESPOND WITH PLEASURE AND PUFF-PASTRY PREACHING.”
Hear me:
“NO MAN BY NATURE WILL EVER CONSIDER ANYTHING OR
ANYONE TOO PLEASURABLE AND TOO PROFITABLE.”
But:
“EVERY MAN BY NATURE WILL EASILY CONSIDER SOMETHING
OR SOMEONE TOO PLEASURELESS AND TOO PROFITLESS
AND TOO SEEKER UNFRIENDLY.”
Listen now,
“JUST BECAUSE A TEACHING IS POPULAR DOES NOT
MAKE IT TRUE.”
If this deadly state of doctrinal jello continues in the modern church, things are going to grow more unchristian by the day. We are being inundated by false teaching today, and I have the feeling that Noah must have had after twenty days of rain into the flood when the forecast called for twenty more days of the same.
Allow me to quote Arnold Froese as he writes, “Most of Christianity is unaware that a great deception is taking place within the church today. It does not matter what denomination the church may be….Therefore when you hear Jesus being preached in the church, or sung about on the radio, or depicted in literature as the one who offers you a bunch of earthly benefits, that shoud be the first alarm that a false Jesus is being presented to you.” (Arnold Froese, 119 Most Frequently Asked Questions About Prophecy)
OUR FELLOWSHIP IS NOT BUILT ON DOCTRINE BUT ON EXPERIENCE
More foreign talk in a foreign land! From the same genus but a different species! My wife and I were celebrating our Golden Anniversary in Lexington, Kentucky at the first USA hosting of the World Equestrian Olympics. A great event to say the least, plus the fact that we both love horses! We were blessed by the Lord with a great experience and a truly memorable 50th.
That is, until we went to church on Sunday morning, where and when we ran into more foreign vocabulary and foreign religion in a Christian/Pentecostal setting. No, by foreign vocabulary I do not mean speaking in the gift of tongues in Divine worship, for on that particular morning there was none. (We are finding that to be the case far too often these days. Seeker-friendly smothering of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are the heart of Biblical Pentecostalism!)
Rather, during his message, the young preacher, who was preaching on prosperity by the way, with great emphasis puked out this statement:
“OUR FELLOWSHIP IS NOT BASED ON BIBLE DOCTRINE OR
KNOWLEDGE, BUT UPON SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE.”
He was espousing a “Religion of Experientialism” and challenging his congregation to do the same. When I heard the “Amens” my spirit sank even deeper. Immediately I felt like a earthquake victim struggling to find solid and unshifting ground under my feet.
First, as wonderful or awful as experiences can be, and I have had plenty of both, experiences are completely SUBJECTIVE. That is, they are mine and belong to no one else. In fact, they may mean very little to the Body of Christ as a whole. I have learned from my experiences as God has used them in my life to underscore Bible teaching with some very strong lessons both positive and negative.
Oh the glorious experience of first realizing that my sins were washed away in the blood of Jesus. Nothing like it in all of the world! British actor Peter Ustinov said he once dreamed that he had been elected Pope. In his dream he saw smoke rising from the chimney pots, and heard people saying that he must go out on the balcony at once and wave, and that he must choose a name. He cried, “NOT GUILTY THE FIRST,” is my name. The bishops were dismayed, and said, “Don’t you mean ‘INNOCENT THE FIRST?’ ” Ustinov replied, “I am not innocent, but I’m not guilty.”
I know what he was struggling with and trying to express. The fact is that in Christ, we are both. It defies understanding. It is like a dream too good to be true. But it is true! Taken all of the way, it is best stated in II Corinthians 5:21,
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that
we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
However, as glorious as that experience was and is day by day in my life, my subjective experiences cannot and may not be used as a system of OBJECTIVE TRUTH upon which either myself or other children of God may base their lives. Experiences come and go, shine and fade, but the Word of God lives and abides forever.
This is why we are told in II Timothy 4:2,
“Preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season….”
We are not told as preachers:
“Preach your experiences; be ready in season and out of season….”
We have far too many preachers who are always ready to preach experiences, but seldom ready to give sound expository preaching of the Word of God. Subjective experiences are never normative for the Body of Christ. Only the Word of God is normative for all of the people of God.
Second, spiritual experiences, as necessary and uplifting as they are, are all FALLIBLE and are capable of both leading and misleading our lives. Only the Word of God is the INFALLIBLE system of truth that can provide totally sure and inerrant guidance for every person. That is why Jesus said in John 17:17,
“Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth.”
He did not say:
“Sanctify them in experiences; our experiences are truth.”
The fact is:
“INFALLIBLE TRUTH DOES NOT COME FROM EXPERIENCE, BUT
AUTHENTIC EXPERIENCE ONLY COMES FROM
INFALLIBLE TRUTH.”
If you will:
“WE NEVER HAVE A TRUE EXPERIENCE UNTIL WE HAVE
EXPERIENCED THE TRUTH.”
Third, experiences are as varied as people are varied. There are not two people identical, and there are not two experiences identical. The philosopher William James wrote what some consider a great classic entitled “The Varieties of Religious Experiences.” There are as many religious experiences as there are religions in the world. Numbers vary, but we are told there are at least 4200 religions worldwide, and an innumerable number of false gods in those religions. There is a pantheon of gods, religions and religious experiences – gods and religions and religious experiences unlimited.
For a pastor to tell his people that they are to base their lives on experiences is to open them up to all of the deceptions and false religions and misleading experiences that the devil can throw at them. That pastor subjects them to the current falsehood that any religious experience that folks have must come from God the Holy Spirit, whether Bible doctrine teaches it or not. So we make up our religion from experience to experience as we go alone. This totally false teaching is now pandemic.
As a matter of fact, all of the cults of the world are based upon an experience that their founders like Joseph Smith and Charles Russell had on a mountain or in a woods somewhere, and they have been leading people astray ever since.
In 1874, Charles Taze Russel, founder of the cult that became known as Jehovah’s Witnesses, proclaimed that Jehovah revealed to him that the Second Coming had already taken place. He also stated that people had 40 years, or at that time until 1914, to enter his faith or they would all be destroyed. Later he modified the date to “very soon after 1914.”
Never are we to base our faith on experineces or on someone’s, “The Lord told me.” Dear Lord, such false guidance from a pastor should be publicly condemned. Help!!!
Help is on the way. Welcome home to the language of Christianity as we read in Ephesians 2:19-20,
“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow
citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,”
“having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone.”
There it is! There is no place like home! We are not built on experiences like the misguided and misguiding young Pentecostal pastor said. Not at all! We are founded upon the unchanging and infallible PROPHETS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, and upon the unchanging and infallible APOSTLES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, and upon the unchanging and infallible CORNERSTONE – THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. If you will:
“THERE IS ONLY ONE FOUNDATION FOR OUR FAITH IN THE
ONE AND ONLY TRUE GOD, AND THAT IS THE LORD
OF THE WORD AND THE WORD OF THE LORD.”
What was it we used to sing as children that now has been lost in this foundationless-modern church lost in relativism and mysticism and sensationalism? Oh yes, it is coming back now, and it is so good to be back home:
“THE B-I-B-L-E, YES THAT’S THE BOOK FOR ME,
I STAND ALONE ON THE WORD OF GOD,
THE B-I-B-L-E.”
“THE B-I-B-L-E, YES THAT’S THE BOOK FOR ME,
I READ AND PRAY, TRUST AND OBEY,
THE B-I-B-L-E.”
Joseph R. Sizoo was once pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington D.C. This was the church that Abraham Lincoln often attended while he was president. Sizoo told how moved he was the first time he held Lincoln’s Bible. It was the Bible Lincoln heard his mother read when he was only a boy. He learned by memory the verses that mother read to him from the Bible. It is said that this was the only book Lincoln took with him from Pigeon Creek to the Sangamon River and on to Washington when he was elected persident.
Sizoo said he wondered where the old Book would fall open when he picked it up. So he tried it. It opened to a page well thumb-marked which gave evidence of having been read many times. Here is the verse to which Lincoln must have referred on many occasions – Psalm 37:1,3,4,
“Fret not thyself because of evil doers….”
“Trust in the Lord and do good….”
“Delight Thyself also in the Lord.”
God, deliver us by your Word and Spirit from false religion which teaches people today:
“THAT GOOD FEELINGS, TITILLATING SENSATIONS, AND INSPIRING
EXPERIECNES ARE THE HALLMARKS OF CHRISTIANITY.”
What we are ending up within the church is this:
“PEOPLE WHO WANT FEEL-GOOD RELIGION OVER
BIBLE-BASED LIVES.”
As a result:
“THEY BELIEVE NOW THAT IT SHALL BE WELL WITH
THEM IN THE HEREAFTER WITHOUT HAVING TO
LIVE HOLY IN THE HERE AND NOW.”
WE MUST PRAY THE ANSWERS, NOT THE PROBLEMS
The vocabulary of the cults is always a foreign vocabulary. It doesn’t come from the Bible, it cannot be found in the Bible, and therefore it is a foreign sound that does not resonate with the Bible. It sounds weird and discordant, and yet it is being spoken as if it comes from the Bible by those who say they believe the Bible. The Mormons will tell you that they believe the Holy Bible too, but they have another bible – The Book of Mormon – which permeates their talk.
We have been blessed by the Lord to be able to minister in many foreign countries, and it is so awesome to find that God has His precious blood-bought children all over the earth. It was such a God-graced privilege to minister with the help of born-again translators who spoke my messages in their native tongue to the people. Thank God for those brothers and sisters who are bilingual and understand English and translate it into the languages of the earth.
However, for some time now, we are hearing foreign sounds in the modern churches that are speaking a strange religious vocabulary. I was reading on Facebook recently, and in the name of Jesus this person was commanding us with the following:
“WHEN WE PRAY, WE MUST PRAY THE ANSWERS TO GOD. WE
MUST NOT PRAY THE PROBLEMS TO GOD.”
It stunned me! This was a new one on me! I had never heard any vocabulary like it in my life. It seemed that I needed an interpreter at first. But why would that be? I am no dunce, and I know the English language just as good as most English-speaking people. The trouble was not in me, but in her. I didn’t want her to mean what she was saying, but I knew that she did mean what she was saying, every word of it.
Well then, believe it or not, this is what she was saying in plain English:
“WHEN WE PRAY, WE ARE NOT TO BRING OUR PROBLEMS OR
NEEDS BEFORE THE LORD. RATHER, WE ARE TO TELL THE
LORD THE ANSWERS THAT HE MUST GIVE TO OUR
PROBLEMS AND NEEDS.”
In other words:
“OUR PRAYERS MUST NOT BE PETITIONARY, BUT RATHER
THEY MUST BE PRESCRIPTIVE.”
If you will:
“WE ARE NOT TO SUPPLICATE GOD FOR HIS ANSWERS, BUT
WE ARE TO ARTICULATE TO HIM THE ANSWERS.”
And again:
“WE ARE NOT TO ASK OF GOD, BUT WE ARE TO
ANNOUNCE TO GOD.”
Or:
“WE ARE NOT TO MAKE OUR REQUESTS OF GOD, BUT RATHER
TO DECLARE OUR REQUIREMENTS TO GOD.”
Of course, that narrows the field of answers from God, for it takes away from God His sovereign and all-wise choice of answers such as “Yes” or “No or “Later.” Perish the thought of leaving the door open to a “Divine No.” God forbid! For then like spoiled children we all would run down the hall and with a loud, resonant bam, slam our bedroom doors shut in His face.
First of all, this makes God a cosmic bellhop and Heaven’s Throne of Grace nothing more or less than room service. It is a totally different vocabulary of a totally different religion. It sounds like prayer requests, but it is not. It is much closer to the TV show Jeopardy where the ANSWER IS GIVEN IN QUESTION FORM. It isn’t really a question at all, but in fact is a declarative in an interrogative form. You know, “I’ll take “Healing” for $1000.00 – What is polio?” Even though the Lord says in James 4:2,
“You do not have because you do not ask.”
This new religion states it differently,
“You do not have because you do not prescribe.”
Second, I have noticed that it comes in different jargon also, such as “Laying Claim” to the prescribed answer. No longer are the pray–ers to ask the LORD TO HAVE MERCY on such and such or on so and so, but rather, they “TAKE OWNERSHIP OF – LAY CLAIM TO” the blessings that they prescribe to God. This mercy thing has gone by the wayside, for now:
“MERCY FROM GOD HAS BEEN REPLACED BY
MANDATES TO GOD.”
The Bible has not changed its vocabulary, even though this new religion and these new religionists would have us to believe that it has. Before going any further, let’s set the record straight about GOD’S GRACE and GOD’S MERCY which praise God, fill the Bible from beginning to end, and fill our lives from beginning to end. What is God’s Grace? Simply put:
“GOD’S GRACE IS RECEIVING BLESSINGS FROM GOD THAT
WE DON’T DESERVE, WHICH IS EVERY
BLESSING WE CAN NAME.”
What is God’s Mercy? Simply put:
“GOD’S MERCY IS BEING SPARED GOD’S PUNISHMENTS
WHICH WE DO DESERVE, WHICH IS EVERY JUDGMENT
AND PUNISHMENT WE CAN NAME AND SOME
WHICH WE CAN’T NAME.”
Frankly when it comes to a Holy God and Unholy us in comparison, if it were not for the GRACE and MERCY of God, this is what it would be forever:
“HEADS GOD WINS, TAILS WE LOSE.”
But because of the GRACE AND MERCY OF GOD, we RECEIVE HEAVEN which we do not deserve, and we AVOID HELL which we do deserve. If you will, because of the GRACE AND MERCY OF GOD, this is how it is:
“HEADS WE WIN –TAILS WE WIN – A GRACE AND
MERCY WIN-WIN SITUATION FOR US ALL
BECAUSE OF THE GRACE AND MERCY
OF GOD IN JESUS CHRIST.”
Truly:
“AMAZING GRACE AND TENDER MERCY.”
If it wasn’t for God’s AMAZING GRACE:
“WE WOULD BE BARRED FROM HEAVEN.”
And it wasn’t for God’s TENDER MERCY:
“WE WOULD ALL BE HOT-FOOTING IT FOR HELL.”
Now then, if we think that we can PRESCRIBE or LAY CLAIM to anything, let alone Heaven, we speak a totally foreign language of a totally foreign religion. Here follows the language of the Bible and the Christian faith. We read in Luke 18:13,
“God, be merciful to me, the sinner.”
And in Matthew 9:27,
“And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed
Him, crying out, and saying, “Have mercy on us,
Son of David.”
Likewise, Matthew 15:22,
“And behold, a Canaanite woman came out from the region, and
began to cry out saying, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son
of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.”
Over and over again, there is no prescribing, claiming, mandating, but only a cry for mercy. That language is not heard whatsoever in the foreign language of this foreign religion that is passing itself off as Biblical Christianity. The truth remains that not one of us deserve any good thing and everyone of us deserves every bad thing. The fact is:
“WE CAN PRESCRIBE AND LAY CLAIM TO SQUAT – NOT EVEN A
PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY SANDWICH.”
Every God-given day and every God-given blessing is totally dependent upon Divine grace and mercy. Only because we belong to a most gracious and merciful God can we live now and forever with peace. That is why we read in I Timothy 1:2,
“…to Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and
peace from God the Father and Christ
Jesus our Lord.”
And again in II John 3,
“Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father
and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in
truth and love.”
Third, to pray the answers to God rather than asking God for His perfect answers to us is the height of presumption, arrogance, and irreverence. It is just plain close to blasphemy. We are not the final court of appeal, God is! God is God and we are not God! That distinction has been totally erased in this foreign vocabulary of this foreign religion. Herein is the great chasm between Biblical Christianity and this false religion, namely, that the DIVINE-HUMAN INFINITE DISTINCTION HAS BEEN REMOVED. The God of this false religion is not THE SOVEREIGN GOD OF THE BIBLE.
The fact is that only God knows what is best for us, we do not. The Bible says in Matthew 6:8,
“…for your Father knows what you need, before you ask Him.”
Which is why we are instructed by our Lord in Matthew 6:8 to pray to our Father Who is in Heaven,
“Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”
The fact is we are not to pray,
“…Father, your children know what they need before they ask You.”
Nor are we to pray,
“Our will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”
I can scarce see my wife’s Godly farmer-father sitting on his Farmall Tractor and prescribing to God the answers rather than praying to God his humble requests. Prayer is not Christians filling in the blanks for God but rather falling on their knees in humble dependence upon God. I’ll take a prayer ride with Harry on his Farmall any day. But then again, who would want to take a boring ride with a petitioning farmer on his tractor when you can fly in a far more exciting spaceship called PRESUMPTION.
CONCLUSION
This stuff is so far out and so far off that it may in no way be stamped with the label “Biblical Christianity.” True prayer has been lost by people in that foreign land who do not prayer anymore, they pronounce. ENTREATY HAS BEEN REPLACED BY ENTITLEMENT. POMPOUS SPEECHES HAVE REPLACED HUMBLE PRAYERS. It is a land of delusion and deception, and that is the problem. People who are deceived do not know that they are deceived, which is why it is so hard to lead them out of deception. If it would help, I would use fire hoses to disperse them and dislodge them from this illusion. Our trust is in the Lord!
