Stop Using God’s Word Like A Magic Spell

It breaks my heart to see the number of Spirit-filled believers using the Word of God as a magic token to fulfill their selfish desires.

They hear that the Gospel says we’ve been made righteous, and we’ve been prospered and healed. They hear that we can have peace and joy, that God delights to bless us and give us the desires of our hearts. And while all that is true, those blessings are not why we love and serve God. We love God because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). We serve God because He is God (Ps. 100:3). These believers forget that God has already met our eternal need in Christ and that He promised to meet our physical needs when we seek first His kingdom (Matt. 6:33). They don’t understand that blessings come as a byproduct of serving God. They are not the goal.

Self-centeredness lays a trap that way too many people fall into. Society blinds them to the danger by celebrating self-centeredness as independence and self-reliance. Humility is reviled. But I’m telling you, if you’re all wrapped up in yourself, you make a very small package. It’s impossible to be truly happy and find fulfilment in life as a selfish, self-centered person. Selfishness is like a dope addiction. A person focused on satisfying their own needs and desires can never get enough. There is always something more to entice them—a new car, a bigger house, a better job, a younger mate. They spend all their efforts striving for more, but once they get it, the excitement wears off and they need another something to create that emotional high.

Most of us live in an infinitely better house than our parents and grandparents had. We drive nicer cars; we own nicer things. We have so much stuff, but we aren’t satisfied. That’s because you can never satisfy self. You have to deny it. You have to make humility the goal and learn to live for something bigger than yourself. Jesus said:

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. Mark 8:35

Similarly, Matthew 10:39 records Jesus as saying, “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” Living a life focused on self will ultimately lead to loss. In Daniel 4, King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. He dreamed of a tree that covered the whole earth. It was strong and beautiful. Its branches reached into heaven, and its fruit fed the entire world. An angel appeared in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and said, “Cut the tree down. Strip its leaves. Scatter its fruit. But put a band of iron around its stump. Let it feel the dew of heaven and live amongst the animals for seven years.” The dream disturbed Nebuchadnezzar, and he called his wise men to interpret it.

Daniel, one of the king’s wise men, said, “King Nebuchadnezzar, you are that tree. Your kingdom has encompassed the whole earth, but it will be cut down. And you will become like a wild animal for seven years, living amongst the beasts of the field, eating grass like an ox, and feeling the dew of heaven upon your back.” Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that this judgment would last until he learned “that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will” (Dan. 4:25). Daniel encouraged the king to humble himself before God; but Nebuchadnezzar didn’t listen.

One day as Nebuchadnezzar was out walking on the roof of the royal palace, he said, “Is not this [the] great Babylon, that I have built . . . by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?” (Dan. 4:30). Scripture says that while the words were still in his mouth, God judged Nebuchadnezzar’s pride, and he became like a wild animal. For seven years the king lived outside among the beasts. His hair grew like fur. His nails became like claws, and he ate grass like the oxen. At the end of the seven years, Nebuchadnezzar’s mind was restored, and he said:

And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation . . . Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase. Daniel 4:34 and 37

What an understatement! Here’s a man, arguably the most powerful man on the planet—he’s conquered the known world, amassed gold and silver, possibly built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and erected a sixty-foot statue of himself—who is summarizing his humiliation by saying, “Those that walk in pride [God] is able to abase.”

Brothers and sisters, God did not create us to live our lives focused on self. Self-centeredness is the root of all grief. It turns wants into needs and needs into personal crises. It destroys relationships and warps good intentions. And most believers don’t know how to deal with it. They try praying about and rebuking self. They try shaming self. They try starving self. But nothing they do gets rid of self.

I used to spend my morning prayer time trying to kill self, but all I ended up doing was resurrecting it. I’d confess my sins or pray for God to use me, not realizing I was wasting all my devotion time focused on self. I had to learn to shift my focus—to make myself a living sacrifice. In Romans 12:1, Paul said:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Self-sacrifice is every believer’s reasonable service. But self-sacrifice is hard. It requires humility. We have to shift our focus off self and remember what Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20:

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

As believers, we are crucified with Christ. Our lives are not our own. They’re not about us. In order to be true representatives of Christ, we have to learn to live “by the faith of the Son of God.” If God believes we can heal the brokenhearted, forgive our families, and love our enemies, we need to humble ourselves and believe it too.

There was a time, when I first began understanding these things, that I prayed, “God, make me humble.” But as I searched Scripture, I realized humility is a voluntary thing. God won’t make you humble. You have to humble yourself. He can humiliate you (as He did with Nebuchadnezzar), but you have to humble yourself.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. James 4:10

Jesus understood humility. When He asked His disciples “Who do people say I am?” Peter responded, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). Jesus blessed him, but when Peter opened his mouth again, Jesus had to rebuke his pride. While Jesus was preparing His disciples for the next phase of His ministry, He began telling them how He would be rejected and mistreated by the elders. He told them that He would die but then rise again. Peter didn’t like what Jesus had to say: “Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee” (Matt. 16:22). Peter said, “No, Lord; this won’t happen. You’ll not be rejected and killed. We won’t let it happen. We’ll defend you.”

Most people think Peter’s words were those of a true friend. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men” (Matt. 16:23). In other words, Peter was ignorant of God’s will. He was selfishly exalting his own desire over God’s plan. Peter didn’t understand that Jesus had to die. He didn’t understand God’s will for Jesus to suffer to keep us from suffering. Jesus bore our judgment and separation to bring us to the Father.

I’m sure it hurt Peter’s feelings when Jesus called him Satan, but Jesus had to deal with that pride quickly before it could become a root in His own heart. You may think I’m being sacrilegious when I say Jesus had to deny self, but Hebrews says He was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). Jesus didn’t want to be rejected. He didn’t want to suffer pain (Matt. 26:39). But He knew that He had come to die (Rev. 13:8). Jesus couldn’t allow His mind to dwell on any other path than the one His Father had set before Him. That would have been pride. Jesus had to humble Himself and rebuke His natural tendency of self-preservation so He could fulfill God’s plan for His life (Phil. 2:8).

If we want to fulfill the plans and purposes of God in our own lives, we have to choose to humble ourselves too. Self-centeredness is a trap. Proverbs 29:23 says, “A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.” Walking in pride—living life focused on self—will bring us low and hinder what God can do in and through our lives.

Many years ago, Jamie and I traveled to Ohio to minister. It was my second trip to this church, and I was looking forward to another meeting with them. But when the pastor picked us up in an expensive rental car, I could tell something was wrong. It felt strange; the pastor was distant. He took us to a suite of rooms at a different hotel than I’d stayed in the last time I visited. He bought gifts for our boys (who were young and traveling with us) and had stocked the hotel room with an ice chest full of sodas and water bottles. He took us to expensive restaurants and waited on us hand and foot. It was way over the top! At one point he asked where we’d like to eat, and my boys shouted, “McDonald’s!” He said, “Oh, no. I could never take you there.” It was so strange, so different from the last time we’d been together.

Toward the end of the week, this pastor finally came clean. “I’m sorry for the way I’ve been treating you,” he said. “We had another minister in not long ago who criticized me over the way I treated him. He was upset that I picked him up in my family car instead of renting a limo. He checked out of the hotel I put him in and got a suite of rooms at another hotel. He demanded I provide him with fruit and drinks each day, and he refused to eat anywhere that cost less than twenty-five dollars per plate. Having him was so burdensome, I decided not to invite any more guest speakers to our church, but you were already on the calendar.”

He continued apologizing to me about going overboard until I interrupted, “Look, I appreciate what you do to make my visits enjoyable, but I don’t mind riding in your car or eating at McDonald’s. I don’t mind staying in a regular hotel room. I don’t want to be a burden to you. I came here to bless you.”

Sadly, many ministers project a wrong image of Jesus to the world. It is true that the laborer is worthy of his hire (Luke 10:7) but we should represent the Father the way Jesus did. He was meek and lowly of heart (Matt. 11:29). He didn’t come to serve Himself but to serve us ( John 13:13-17). We need to humble ourselves and receive the blessings the Lord sends our way, but we need to be humble enough not to promote ourselves ( James 4:10; 1 Pet. 5:6).

Brothers and sisters, life is not all about us. We are blessed to be a blessing (Deut. 8:18). We’re not to live selfishly and heap all the benefits of grace upon ourselves until they stink of abuse. We must humble ourselves and shift our focus to others. Only then will we find true life