While "The Secret" has become a pop culture phenomenon, it also has drawn critics who are not quiet about labeling the movement a fad, embarrassingly materialistic or the latest example of an American propensity of wanting something for nothing.
Some medical professionals suggest it could even lead to a blame-the-victim mentality and actually be dangerous to those suffering from serious illness or mental disorders.
"It's a triumph of marketing and magic," said John Norcross, a psychologist and professor at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania who conducts research on self-help books. He believes some are very useful when backed by science and focused on specific problems, such as depression.
From: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070623/ap_en_ot/books_the_secret
I touched on "The Secret" phenomenon in an earlier blog and felt compelled to mention this again. It's the old "mind over matter" thing regurgitated: and it always brings the regurgitators fame and fortune. The reason is that people want to control their own worlds, which are usually out-of-control. It is the ultimate magical power: just think it and it will exist. There is no small hint of Hinduism being employed here, either.
I'm not opposed to positive-thinking. Paul said:
Phillipians 4:
8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
But in Christian circles, too, doctrines have been popularized that are based on a kind of faith-magic. People are taught that words have power: and indeed they do. Words can build up and they can tear down, and a word from God can change things. But our own words, hatched out of our own inner being and linked up with the name Jesus, do not have that power.
If I am lousy sick and go around saying, "I'm not sick", ad-infinitum, that will not make me well. I can ask God for healing and He can say "Yea" or "Nay", and that's that. No point in begging until I'm blue in the face. Or just repeating a mantra won't heal me either. (While I have heard testimonies to the contrary, I have not seen this to work in my experience.)
And it isn't how great my faith is that makes the difference. Faith is faith. Faith says God can. He can do anything. But that doesn't mean He will, or that He can be coerced by nagging, or has given us the power to heal or do miracles.
We can try it. It is an option to ask for it. After all, Jesus said, "You have not because you ask not." The prayer of faith can heal the sick and even save the person who asks. But beyond that it is not a method for getting whatever you want out of life.
John 14:14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Sounds like magic. But what Jesus was really talking about was not some cart-blanche heavenly credit card, which would be nice, to be sure. He and the apostles taught about the potential that there is in faith in Jesus. But God is not our heavenly butler.
How many people in Christian history have moved a physical mountain by prayer, or cast a sycamine tree into the ocean? And what would be the point? At God's command, Moses stretched the rod over the Red Sea and voila.... But Moses couldn't go down there any time he got the notion and do that.
Teaching faith-magic is potentially devastating and an abuse of sheep. But it sure attracts money into the faith-teacher's coffers. And that is because people have not learned to recognize their own greedy motives. Be sure, God is not the servant of human greed.
John 14:14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Sounds like magic. But what Jesus was really talking about was not some cart-blanche heavenly credit card, which would be nice, to be sure. He and the apostles taught about the potential that there is in faith in Jesus. But God is not our heavenly butler.
How many people in Christian history have moved a physical mountain by prayer, or cast a sycamine tree into the ocean? And what would be the point? At God's command, Moses stretched the rod over the Red Sea and voila.... But Moses couldn't go down there any time he got the notion and do that.
Teaching faith-magic is potentially devastating and an abuse of sheep. But it sure attracts money into the faith-teacher's coffers. And that is because people have not learned to recognize their own greedy motives. Be sure, God is not the servant of human greed.
It is true that faith in God has unlimited potential. But faith is not a means to our selfish ends.
We have a tendency to "ask amiss," sort of like blessings-consumers going through the heavenly grocery store.
Rather, prayer is more effective when it is linked to the will of God which is learned through "praying in the Spirit", or through the Spirit.
Romans 8:
26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.
Who searches our hearts when we pray? The Spirit. It is when He is praying through us that we are praying in alignment with His desires. Then we will not be asking as consumers.
6 comments:
Hey Brother I try and walk on water all the time in my backyard. I do pretty well till I get off the water on the patio and on to the water in the pool. I drop like a lead pipe. I use to do and probably still at times pray in hope of a miracle instead of faith for a miracle. I think we must ask ourselves" who is getting the glory out of this? Me or God? If its God's miracle its God's Glory. Thine is the Glory. I like to move in that 4th dimension but it happens rarely because most of the time it is Man initiated and not God ordained. God is supernaturally natural. He does wonders all the time. Hey the Sun came up today and the earth is still supernaturally revolving around it just far enough away so we don't freeze to death of burn up. Have you ever seen gravity. By faith the worlds were framed. Scientist make up something they call gravity.
Jesus knew the secret of anti-gravity. We've discovered it when we discover Him. It won't be long til lift-off.
So you're thinking, maybe, that miracles will come if we have the right attitude. There is the old idea "You have to get out of the way and let God." But I'm thinking that's just another idea.
Why did Jesus say a "wicked generation seeks for a sign?" Are they wicked for seeking miracles?
I think this shows that faith is not a show and God isn't in show-business. Faith just knows. God could do nothing, spend the rest of His days in Bermuda, and He'd still be God.
That verse I quoted on praying "in the Spirit" (which I think is what you mean by "4th dimension")is so vital, I think, to understanding how prayer works at that higher level. God prays to God through us.
God isn't going to pray against His own will.
For me, prayer is me-initiated until the switch goes on. I can actually enter that prayer now pretty easily, because I did it so much. And because, I guess, I had that worship gift, I went up into places that were nothing but amazing. It's like a door that's always open. I learned a whole lot in that harp & bowl season. It was like going out into an ocean.
Yes, I think miracles will come when we are out of the way and we do the things we see Him do. What "I see the Father do, do I" Jesus said. "I of my own self can do nothing." How's that for knowing your limits? "All Jesus ever did he never did" Arthur Burt says. Lets say Jesus is the pattern, the prototype, and the mold for us to be a facsimile of. Did he go about doing Good healing all that were oppressed of the devil? Paul said” the Kingdom of heaven is not in word only but power. Show me your faith without works and I will show you it by works to paraphrase James. As you know that I believe that God is going to send a Jesus Christ end time move that will bring the Catching up of the saints and the return of the King. He will be revealed in His saints doing his thing. Healing the sick, raising dead folk, preaching good news and so on. This will happen when Zion travails or before Zion travails but she will give birth to a revival of global proportions. Isn’t that exciting? I am stoked!
I like your use of the word "prototype." I don't remember hearing it used that way before. It may be possible to become, to some degree, a facsimile of Jesus Christ. But I think it impossible to become "sinless." God concluded ALL under sin except Jesus. That includes Mother Teresa and Smith Wigglesworth. How would He be the Savior if that weren't true? And why would I need Him if I could do it myself?
It dawns on me, as you mention it, that "Zion travailed" in the 200 years of Roman persecution. That one really frustrated Satan. The worse the travail produced by bloodshed and martyrdom, the more the believers multiplied.
Perhaps a similar figure would work literally when the Zionists, the Jews in Israel, come under a future seige. That travail of Zion could produce the awakening that Jesus was their awaited Messiah after all.
may be both Jew and Gentile coming to Jesus together. Did you see the National Geographic show on TV about John and Revelation? It was neat.Made him look like a crazy man but had some cool perspective on the end Time.
The piece on John sounds familiar. I've seen many of those shows on both National Geo and History. I love 'em.
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