IDOLATRY

This word is ever present in my vocab these days. It pops up in many of my conversations...because I feel and see it ever present in our culture, society, and homes.

My working definition of IDOLATRY:

• ANYTHING that robs our affection and time from God.
• ANYTHING that is currently ushering in a stronghold over us.
• ANYTHING that is robbing our day and lives of real relationships and productivity.
• ANYTHING that we jokingly say we are 'obsessed with', 'fixated on', or 'have a fetish' of.
• ANYTHING that we are addicted to.
• ANYTHING we admit to 'wasting our time' doing.

 

Got idolatry?

It's everywhere. I could list numerous things...many that we all own or do. So I will refrain from identifying many of them to avoid the condemnation the enemy would love to suck you under.

I bring this topic up however, to bring attention to you that there is some, somewhere in your life, home, day and I am calling out to you to BREAK FREE from it!!!!

Note: I TAKE MYSELF THROUGH THIS TOO...DON'T THINK FOR A SECOND THAT I DON'T BATTLE THE TEMPTATION OF IDOLATRY.  It's in our fallen nature...there for we are to submit to God...not our nature/flesh.

Ask God this week: What are the idols in my life Lord?

And be ready for Him to answer. Jesus resonated the 10 commandments in the New Testament.

We often hear, "...but we're no longer under the law". True. But we are called to follow Christ's example and teachings, right? And He taught the same principles of the 10 Commandments. And the Holy Spirit convicts accordingly to the Scripture that God has laid before us.

Study Exodus 20:3-17...and then turn over to New Testament. (Matthew 4:10, 5:34,10:37, 5:22, 5:28, 5:40, 12:36, Luke 16:13, 12:15, and Mark 2:27-28.)

Salvation is a gift from God granted by His mercy and grace to those who repent and confess that Jesus is Lord. YES! But we have to relentless pursue God to remain free from bondage.

Once we are saved, bought by the blood of Christ on the Cross...The Lord knows that if we follow His teachings, then we will REMAIN free. We are truly free when we are abiding in His Word and walking it out, walking by the Spirit. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. How much freedom do you have when you are entangled with obsessiveness with fame, power, money, material things? How much freedom do you have when you are ensnared by lust? NONE. Idolatry comes in the door of sin. Sin comes by temptation not being dealt with AT THE FEET OF JESUS!

When we remain in the Word, empowered by the Holy Spirit, submissive to God's will...then we are worshipping the ONE TRUE GOD and free of idolatry.

Meditate, think, dwell on this word: idolatry.

What false idols/gods are trying to control and master you?

Find some?

If so:

• Repent of the idolatry.
• Ask God for forgiveness.
• Break the unhealthy attachment/addiction to these.
• Ask God to deliver you from idolatry.
• Then pursue God - daily - above all things!!!!

It is NOT God's will that you serve anyone, anything besides God....and...

^"This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him." - 1 John 5:14-15

So what then shall you do???? He is available and waiting to set you free TODAY!

I am asking for more - this Thanksgiving!!!!

In a week that many turn their focus on giving thanks. I stand in my study/office/prayer room and ask God for more.

"I want to see people set free God.
Set free of bondages...
Bondage of Hate
Bondage of Unforgiveness
Bondage of Alcoholism
Bondage of Addiction: Drugs, Pornography, Cutting, Etc.
Bondage of OCDs
Bondage of Perfectionism & Overachieving Drivenness
Bondage of Pride & Arrogance, Boastfulness
Bondage of Greed & Money
Bondage of Poverty
Bondage of Gluttony
Bondage of Fear
Bondage of Anxiety
Bondage of Anger
Bondage of Depression
Bondage of Doubt
Bondage of Disbelief
Bondage of Sex, Promiscuity, Vulgarity
Bondage of Shopping
Bondage of the World's Ways
Bondage of Mental Illnesses
Bondage of Hopelessness..."

The list can truly go on and on...These are just a few when I think of what God freed me from personally, and what I often pray for loved ones.

When you read the word "Bondage" above, imagine if you can, a heavy weight for each bondage.

Now, of that list above, ask God right now. Which ones are you captive to?

Each one revealed is a weight.
Put those weights in a back pack.
Put that back pack on. Heavy?

Often our bondages have been with us so long that we grow immune to the heaviness. Sometimes, we like the bondage we are in. As though they may us 'stronger'.


No, they make us weary, incapable of taking on the circumstances we have no choice or control over, leaving us burdened and unable to cope to live a life with joy and peace.

Overachievers with OCDs and Perfectionism are often promoted to the top, get the raises and the affirmations...The affirmations they longed for so long of their life that pushed them into that bondage. Overachieving not bondage? Have you ever seen how an overachiever behaves at the threat of failing?  It's a bondage.

Boasting not bondage? I find it entertaining the offense taken when I do not covet the things that many people brag about to me. There are people who are so greedy and love to shop and spend...and when I just could care less about what they are spending their money on...they are offended by me.

I do not covet people with money because often times, God has revealed the brokenness, sinfulness, and insecurity in them. He's shown me the emptiness that they are trying to fill with all that stuff. I can often see how much of 'nothing' they truly have. This is why I choose to not want to be like that or chase what they are chasing.

The ways of the world lead you to bondage.

I want to see people whole, walking in the freedom that Christ gives. I long to see people in such a close intimate relationship with God that they overcome the weight of the world, the weight of the bondages.

Do you want freedom from those things?

• Ask God to forgive you, repent, for feeding your flesh with chasing things, people, substances to fill the voids that only God can fill.
• Ask God to show you His love for you.
• Ask Him to give you a glimpse of His will, His purpose for you life.
• Ask Him to heal your wounds that have led you to these bondages.
• Ask Him to do a new & mighty work in your life!  

Don't know what you're stuck under, you just know that there is haze and heaviness in your life?

Jeremiah 33:3 says, "Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great ad mighty things, which you do not know".

The answers are available...You just need to make yourself available to the Lord to tell you. You need to ask.

I pray God prepares you for what He shows you. I pray you are honest with yourself and God about the true bondages that have you captive and leave you operating in the flesh...Apart from God!


My goal is to help you see where the enemy and the world is leading you out of God's will. My prayer is that you will desire God above all things this world has to offer...and that you desire the fullness that God offers for you and your life.

This song below is so amazing and inspired me today! Lose yourself and your bondages in it!