Dangerous Christian Clichés That Steal Your Future

Your beliefs about God, yourself, and the devil can activate your faith or suffocate your potential. Sadly, religion has created a culture of wrong thinking with clichés like “what will be will be” and many more.

This fatalistic thinking reduces you to a spectator with almost no part to play in your own life. It paralyzes you! Some market this position as “faith,” but it is really anything but faith. It is resignation disguised by common clichés. Let’s look at some of the clichés that can steal your future and uproot them.

Cliché #1: “God is in Control.”

This is a typical response by many Christians to any event in the world that seems tragic or incomprehensible. It is meant to convey that while world events, tragedies, sicknesses, and death may be mysterious to us, we can take comfort because God has everything under control.

I know that some readers will be shocked at this because the idea of God not having control of all things is even considered to be heresy by some. Please bear with me for a moment as we try and understand how damaging this concept is.

I would suggest that God has everything under control in heaven, and the new heaven and the new earth, because everyone and everything will be fully and willingly submitted to Him. On this earth, however, we see corruption, death, tragedy, and darkness. Is God controlling these things? What does that mean? Is God orchestrating human suffering and tragedy?

Why do we glibly declare that God is in control, but He doesn’t even control those of us who claim to be filled with His Spirit? Does God force you to obey the law, pay your taxes, drive the speed limit, and deny the flesh? Aren’t those your personal decisions? Is God controlling you? And yet, we are to believe that God has everything else and everyone else under control? If God isn’t controlling you, then what exactly is He controlling? Is He sending hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, and other destructive events into the world for some divine purpose? Does God raise up terrorists to spread death and fear? Is God controlling terrorists? When we say that “God is in control,” what are we implying?

As has been mentioned earlier, God gave the earth to man (see Gen. 1:26-28; Ps. 115:16; 8:4-6). This truth is the foundation for understanding the nature of God, the nature of man, and the purpose of redemption. Man was created in God’s image and created to have dominion over God’s creation. Sin separated man from God’s life and purpose and left the earth under the dominion of Satan. John recognized this even after the victory of the cross. There is still an enemy in the world.

We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one (1 John 5:19).

If the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one, are we to believe that God is controlling the wicked one? If so, why did Jesus come to defeat him and his works?

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).

To suggest that God controls all things places full responsibility for sickness, death, tragedies, wars, natural disasters, child abuse, and every other evil in His lap. It makes God the perpetrator or a willing accomplice of human suffering. It leaves our future in a murky, mystical realm of uncertainty in which we become simple pawns. If God is in control and the world is out of control, why should I expect anything positive in this life? For this reason, many reject the gospel, and many believers learn to accept the works of the enemy and the darkness of fallen humanity as the sovereign will of God. And then they declare that God is love!

 As a result, many live their lives expecting loss, failure, sickness, tragedy, and perhaps an untimely death. They are allowing the fallen world to shape their futures.

The truth is far different. Once we recognize that Adam’s sin is the beginning of all evil in the earth, we can begin to shape our futures according to Jesus’s words and redemptive work. Jesus’s redemptive work on the cross restored man to a place of potential dominion and, in fact, finds us seated with Him far above all principality and power!

Which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church (Ephesians 1:20-22).

And raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6).

But aren’t we destined to suffer in this world? Don’t Jesus and Paul both speak of suffering? Yes, but the suffering does not come from God. After the cross, suffering is always referred to in the context of persecution for the sake of the gospel. Suffering is never taught as the work of God for the benefit of the believer. Once we understand that the suffering promised the Christian concerns only persecution for our faith, the picture becomes clearer. Remember an earlier verse that we have discussed.

By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:4).

The corruption that is in the world through lust is a different kind of suffering from the persecution for our faith. Escaping corruption is God’s heart for His children. His promises are given precisely to equip the believer to shape a future that is not a part of the corruption of the world.

There is a difference between suffering for our faith and suffering the corruption that is in the world through lust. Jesus spoke of the persecution that would accompany the last days before His return.

Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake (Matthew 24:9).

If you are suffering and it isn’t persecution for your faith, then it shouldn’t be embraced as God’s will. When this difference isn’t understood, it is possible to suffer from living in a fallen, corrupt world and think that you are suffering for His Name’s sake. But this is simply not true. The promises of God were given so that we escape the corruption that the world suffers. Except for persecution for our faith, we should be living victorious lives and actively shaping our futures.

Even Christians who are suffering in oppressive countries and political systems can still prosper spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and relationally. They can still shape their futures. Paul shaped his future even while in prison!

When we get the revelation that God gave dominion to man, we can begin to cooperate with His purposes in the earth. We are called to reign in life! Paul declared clearly what grace and the gift of righteousness are meant to accomplish in the life of a believer.

…Much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ (Romans 5:17).

Reigning in life hardly resembles the passive resignation that so many Christians have accepted. We are called to still the storms, heal the sick, cast out demons, and extend the Kingdom. This is why Jesus said:

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father (John 14:12).

Wouldn’t greater works change the destinies of those lives touched by such works? Wouldn’t those believers doing such works be living out a different future than one of passive resignation? It all goes back to the story of the watermelon seeds. We can spit them or plant them. We can reign in life or let life reign over us. We have the “seeds” of reigning within, but will we use them?

We aren’t called to sit back and respond with clichés to the suffering around us or in our own lives. It is time to submit to the true knowledge of God; resist Satan, sin, and corruption; and reign in life! James tells us:

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you (James 4:7).

If causing the devil to flee doesn’t impact the future, then what does?

One verse destroys the argument that God is controlling all things:

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).

In one brief sentence we discover that there is a devil, he has works, his works are worthy of destruction, and Jesus came to destroy the devil’s works! If God is controlling all things, He is working against Himself!

No! There is a devil whose works (lies, oppression, sick- ness, destruction, poverty, etc.) are not of God, and Jesus came to destroy those works. Everything that happens in this world is not God’s will.

Cliché #2: “Everything Happens for a Reason.”

A typical response to bad things happening is that they “happen for a reason.” We see this phrase used over and over on TV, in interviews, and even in our churches. Once again, the believer assumes there is a divine purpose in everything that happens. The fact that there is an enemy whose purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy; and that we have been given the armor of God to withstand evil; and the fact that we can resist the devil and he will flee; and the fact that we have been commissioned to do greater works than Jesus; and the fact that we have been given His promises in order to escape the corruption of the world are either overlooked or ignored. It is much easier to sit back and declare that there is a divine reason behind all tragedy, loss, failure, sickness, premature death, and heartache. There is a default belief system in many that rests in the idea of a cosmic, divine influence over the earth that mysteriously is bringing about God’s divine will through the catastrophes that happen in the world.

But what about Romans 8:28? Let’s take a look at that verse.

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

While some use this verse to assume that all bad things are from God, what is being said falls in line with the subject of this book. When we love God according to His true nature and we walk in His purpose to reign in life and extend the Kingdom, God will honor our vision and faith and bring good from negative circumstances.

So much of this tremendous promise depends on how we see God, how we see ourselves, and how we see our role in His Kingdom. The same promises that He has given so that we escape the corruption in the world are the ones that will cause things to work together for good (see 2 Pet. 1:2-4). But a passive Christian who accepts bad things as having a divine purpose will live a fatalistic life that is similar to many of the world’s empty religions. There isn’t much difference between “if Allah wills it,” and “if it be Thy will,” when said in resignation. Fate is not faith. “If it be Thy will” should be a statement of submission to God’s purpose, not a statement of resignation to the forces of darkness.

The Bible declares that things hap- pen according to the spiritual law of sowing and reaping. As we have dis- cussed earlier, God created all living things with the “seed principle” for multiplication. If we sow to the flesh, we will reap corruption. If we sow to the Spirit, we will reap life. That concept is all about the future!

For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life (Galatians 6:8).

Once we grasp this spiritual law, it is easy to look at the world and realize the loss, suffering, sickness, and tragedy that many are experiencing have nothing to do with God’s will, but everything to do with reaping the corruption of sowing to the flesh. Living a life focused on the lust of the flesh, self-centeredness, strife, unforgiveness, anxiety, fear, ego, greed, etc. is shaping the future. Seedtime and harvest are at work. To say that everything has a purpose is to willfully choose ignorance and to throw away God’s empowering plan for abundant life.

The works of the flesh described in Galatians 5 are the rea- sons that many bad things happen:

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, out- bursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21).

Adultery, fornication murders, drunkenness, hatred, etc. are inherently evil and almost always are the beginning of heartache, suffering, sickness, and loss. One of the reasons so many bad things happen in the earth is due to the lust of the flesh. God is not controlling your flesh. That is your job and He has given you His Spirit to do it!

For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live (Romans 8:13).

Two futures are possible in the verse above—life and death. The Spirit has been given to believers to shape the future toward life.

 Another reason that bad things happen is that God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6).

Ignorance of God’s ways is a major reason why bad things happen. If we believe we have no part to play in shaping our lives and our futures, we have basically given in to fatalism. We must then choose to believe that the work of the enemy (steal, kill, and destroy) is actually the work of God.

The outcome is to always consciously or subconsciously blame God for everything while ignoring our own role in the chain of events that brought forth disaster.

Cliché #3: “God Allows Evil.”

One of the most horrible answers to evil and suffering in the world is that “God allows it.” Inherent in this approach, God becomes the perpetrator or an accessory to crimes against humanity. Such a belief system effectively challenges the justice system of any civilized society. If God allows evil, what right do we have to punish evildoers? Paul’s explanation of God’s purpose for civil government in Romans 13 puts civil government at odds with God Himself, if He allows evil.

For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil (Romans 13:3-4).

It is God who ordained civil government as an avenger to execute wrath upon those who do evil. How is it that some teach that God Himself is allowing or causing evil? He would be violating His own nature and decree for civil government. If God is a perpetrator or accessory to evil, then under His own decree He would be a candidate for punishment!

If evil is from God for His own divine purposes, it should be celebrated, not criminalized. For some reason, nonsense makes sense to religious minds.

The truth is that God did not allow sin and evil into the earth. Man allowed it. God created man in His own image and gave man the power to make choices. Everything God created was good. There was no sin, no death, no sickness, no war, no natural disasters, and no suffering in God’s creation. God specifically told Adam and Eve to not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He did not allow evil, but He did allow them to choose.

We must understand that the nature of God is good. Good has one Source—God. Evil is the absence of good just as darkness is the absence of light. Evil is the consequence of independence from God. It was never God’s will that His creation live independently from Him. Even Jesus in His mission as the Son of Man was fully dependent on the Father. Jesus declared that He could do nothing except what He received from His Father.

 Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner” (John 5:19).

Jesus was entirely dependent on the Father for everything He said and He did. This was also God’s will in the beginning with Adam and Eve. God did not cause or choose their independence, nor the tragic consequences. Adam and Eve were created to live in dependence on God but chose independence. It is interesting that in Jesus’s life of dependence on God, He never allowed evil, never caused evil, and spent His earthly ministry undoing evil and teaching men to live in harmony with the Father. Jesus didn’t “allow” evil. He over- came it!

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him (Acts 10:38).

Note that God’s presence with Jesus brought an end to evil and established that which is good. The cliché that “God allowed it” is a direct contradiction to that which is revealed in the ministry of Jesus.

Sin entered the world through man, not through God.

Paul referred to this.

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin (Romans 5:12).

 What God allows is for man to choose dependence upon Him and live. If man chooses darkness and death, God will respect that decision, but He is not responsible for the heartache and suffering that will come from such decisions.

God does not allow evil. He allows man to choose dependence or independence, and He will respect those decisions. Evil is man’s fault, not God’s. Your future is in your hands. Blaming God for evil is to give up your right to shape your future.

Cliché #4: “The Lord Gives, and the Lord Takes Away.”

The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21).

Most Christians should know that God did not make this statement. This was Job’s understanding of Satan’s attack against him. But what about the declaration that follows?

In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong (Job 1:22).

It could be said that Job had not charged God yet, but he was about to accuse God dozens of times in the following chapters. His integrity transformed into bitterness. At the end of the book of Job, Job repented for his ignorance, and this statement was certainly in need of repentance.

Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand (Job 42:3).

 I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:5-6).

There was integrity in his heart, but a serious lack of knowledge in his first declaration (see Job 1:21). Nevertheless, many of God’s children quote “the Lord gives and the Lord takes away” more frequently than any other verse in the Bible. The book of Job has become more important than the four gospels for many. Identifying with Job’s sufferings seems to bring comfort for some reason.

The truth of the matter is that God gives, and the devil takes away. Jesus declared that the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus came so that we might have abundant life!

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly (John 10:10).

Once again, those who witness or experience loss and tragedy usually want to feel justified and affirmed in their experience. What better way than to blame God? Most may not realize they are blaming God, but when they justify their losses as a divine “whim,” they are effectively putting the blame on God.

In order to move from darkness to light, we must have a revelation of the new creation and the better covenant established on better promises. The writer of Hebrews declared, concerning Jesus:

 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises (Hebrews 8:6).

Our covenant is not based upon our behavior, but rather on Jesus’s redemptive work on the cross. God gave Jesus to the world in order that sin and death might not steal, kill, and ultimately destroy us. Until we understand redemption, we will struggle with the idea of shaping our futures.

God has always been the giver. Let’s consider some verses that reveal God’s will, His nature, and His heart for His children.

He cannot be tempted with evil, nor does He tempt any with evil. James reminded us:

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone (James 1:13).

Every good gift comes from God: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning (James 1:17).

And all of His promises are yes and amen: For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us (2 Corinthians 1:20).

 It is His divine promises that allow us to escape the corruption of the world.

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:2-4).

He gave us His Son and has determined to freely give us all things.

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

The Spirit of God abides in us that we might know the things that He has freely given us.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God (1 Corinthians 2:12).

If you are walking and living in the Spirit, you should be growing in the knowledge of every good thing that has been given to us. Only carnal Christians will look at God as the “taker,” not the giver. Let’s look at one more example.

 Jesus declared if we seek first His Kingdom and righteousness, everything we need in this life will be added to us.

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you (Matthew 6:33).

The list could go on and on. The point is, God is not the thief! Yet in spite of the overwhelming evidence of God’s heart and God’s goodness, when something bad happens many Christians will immediately quote, “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.” It is virtual schizophrenia! God is for us and His promises are alive and active. One of the major things standing between us and abundant life is our gospel of clichés that promotes fatalism and passivity. Rather than learning to reign in life, many are content to say, “Whatever will be, will be.” This can promote passivity rather than over- coming faith. The future that was possible becomes impossible when you believe that God is working with the devil or orchestrating the tragedies of life for some mysterious purpose.

Cliché #5: “God Moves in Mysterious Ways.”

The mother of all religious clichés might be this one. The idea is that God is mysterious, and we are simple pawns in His celestial game. What right do we have to understand any- thing? He has it all under control. Everything happens for a reason. He allows evil. He gives and takes away, and just to make sure that we wash our hands of all responsibility we declare, “He moves in mysterious ways.”

Nevertheless, Jesus made it clear that if you have seen Him, you have seen the Father:

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14:9)

Jesus is God in the flesh. His words and actions perfectly reveal the Father. There is no more mystery! If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. He went about doing good and healing all because God was with Him (see Acts 10:38). Where God is, goodness and healing exist.

Actually, the mystery resides in the hearts of those who have chosen ignorance and fatalism. They have refused to be transformed by the renewing of their minds (see Rom. 12:2). They have not sought out wisdom and spiritual understanding (see Eph. 1:17-18). The thought of accepting the responsibility for reigning in life overwhelms them. Living by clichés is much easier.

Your expectations in life will follow your core beliefs. If you believe that God is schizophrenic and mysterious, you should expect a life of questions and loss. Clichés will be your only solution. When you understand that God has given you His Name, His blood, His Spirit, His Word, His better Covenant, His promises, His armor, His faith, and the keys to His Kingdom, you will begin to cooperate with Him and enforce His will in your life. You can shape your future! You don’t have to be a perpetual victim.

 It is time to expect God’s blessings in your life. It is time to expect to do God’s works. It is time to resist the enemy. It is time to walk in your divine authority over the enemy, sickness, and loss. Drop the clichés and get to know God. He has given you dominion. Don’t give it back to the devil!