{"id":550,"date":"2014-03-25T00:41:39","date_gmt":"2014-03-25T00:41:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/?p=550"},"modified":"2014-03-25T00:41:39","modified_gmt":"2014-03-25T00:41:39","slug":"quick-and-easy-spirituality-fast-track-to-deception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/?p=550","title":{"rendered":"Quick and Easy Spirituality – Fast Track to Deception"},"content":{"rendered":"

A significant number of professing Christians and non-Christians are in the hunt for spirituality.\u00a0 <\/span>They appear to want it the quick and easy way and they apparently are not concerned about the source or what type it may be.\u00a0 <\/span>This has made them susceptible to charlatans that have invaded Christianity.\u00a0 <\/span>They are selling Christianity-lite with instant spirituality.\u00a0 <\/span>I declare their product to be fraudulent.\u00a0 <\/span>There are no quick and easy methods for acquiring the type of spirituality that comes from God.\u00a0 <\/span>The quick and easy route to spirituality will lead to a dark pit of activity with demonic spirits.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The path to spiritual maturity is tedious and slow.\u00a0 <\/span>The pace increases only by our sincerity and willingness to surrender to God.\u00a0 <\/span>There will always be a battle with the flesh, Satan, and the world system.\u00a0 <\/span>However, when you begin praying in earnest, the battle becomes much more intense.\u00a0 <\/span>Beginning to read and study the Word of God immediately incurs a struggle.\u00a0 <\/span>Cutting back on TV and other interests, attempting to divert your thoughts from worldly interests to godliness, and every other attempt to focus on God will be met with opposition.\u00a0 <\/span>The strength and intensity of the opposition becomes even clearer when one attempts to fast.<\/p>\n

The truth is that when one endeavors to become spiritual he or she is already on the wrong path.\u00a0 <\/span>Instead, we ought to focus on drawing nearer to God and the issue of spirituality will take care of itself.\u00a0 <\/span>Roman Catholic monk, Thomas Merton, barren of the Holy Spirit went searching for spirituality and discovered the contemplative version practiced by the Sufi Muslims.\u00a0 <\/span>Seeking spirituality instead of seeking God is attempting to satisfy a carnal need to feel righteous and worthy.\u00a0 <\/span>That need usually stems from a lack of faith in God.\u00a0 <\/span>The faithless one seeks validation from the feeling of spirituality rather than from the knowledge that he or she is fully surrendered to God.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To be fully surrendered epitomizes drawing nearer to God.\u00a0 <\/span>However, most professing Christians do not want to draw near to Him.\u00a0 <\/span>They do not want to spend the time and effort.\u00a0 <\/span>Additionally, when one attempts to draw near to God he or she may not be immediately rewarded with the feeling of spirituality.\u00a0 <\/span>In fact, drawing near to God can initially make us feel unworthy.\u00a0 <\/span>Consider that Isaiah was the high priest of Israel.\u00a0 <\/span>He saw the Lord high and lifted up in the temple.\u00a0 <\/span>Isaiah must have known what God told Moses, that no man can see Him and live.\u00a0 <\/span>The presence of the Lord was so great that His glory filled the temple.\u00a0 <\/span>Instead of feeling like a super saint, Isaiah felt unclean and in danger of being destroyed by the holiness of God.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Drawing near to God brings us in closer proximity to His holiness.\u00a0 <\/span>No matter how godly we may be, coming into the presence of His awesome and pure holiness will make us feel unclean.\u00a0 <\/span>Additionally, His brilliant light will expose all of our flaws and proclivities to sin.\u00a0 <\/span>Considering how uncomfortable we become when we are convicted by anointed preaching, how much more uncomfortable we would be in the presence of the pure and holy God? \u00a0<\/span>Additionally, Christ Jesus teaches in John 15 that if when we bear fruit, God purges us so that we will bear more fruit.\u00a0 <\/span>Therefore, instead of feeling wonderful and getting a reward for our efforts to draw nearer to Him, we may instead enter a purging process.\u00a0 <\/span>This is so unpleasant to many professing Christians that they have settled into a comfort zone void of any intent to acquire faith tried by fire.\u00a0 <\/span>Consequently, they have accepted a picture of God splattered with opinions and false concepts of humanity.<\/p>\n

Therefore, the majority of professing Christians do not understand the process of drawing nearer to God.\u00a0 <\/span>The emphasis of most preaching and teaching is seldom on that topic.\u00a0 <\/span>Abstaining from fleshly lusts that war against one\u2019s soul has all but disappeared from Christian endeavor.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The focus is mostly on the temporal realm and God is merely an addition to a compromised belief system.\u00a0 <\/span>Additionally, we live in a period of technology, when people would rather text than talk.\u00a0 <\/span>Rather than spend the time and effort to become intimate with God, their preference is to \u201cdo church\u201d and get all the benefits at once.\u00a0 <\/span>Heretics and hirelings have taken advantage of this tendency in professing Christians to sell them on quick and easy spirituality.\u00a0 <\/span>The result of this failure is Christianity is awash with New Age heretics and diabolical spirituality.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Many professing Christians are rushing to accept Contemplative Spirituality.\u00a0 <\/span>It is the epitome of quick and easy spiritual vibes.\u00a0 <\/span>The dark spirituality that they imbibe arrives with no feelings of unworthiness and no purging process.\u00a0 <\/span>The truth is that it makes peace with the flesh.\u00a0 <\/span>Further, it comes with a false Christ and a false Holy Spirit that guides them to embrace the god of this world.\u00a0 <\/span>As Israel did after Moses went up the mountain to converse with God, they have rejected God\u2019s path to spirituality and entered the pagan way.\u00a0 <\/span>It is the ultimate deception, one so clever that it could deceive the very elect.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An illustration of that deception is Stone Mountain in Georgia.\u00a0 <\/span>It is the largest boulder in the world.\u00a0 <\/span>One side of the mountain is protected from access by a four-foot fence, and for good reason.\u00a0 <\/span>The gradual curve of the boulder is imperceptible and therefore deceptive.\u00a0 <\/span>Over the years a number of people, including several dogs, have tragically fallen off the face of the mountain. \u00a0<\/span>They would begin walking toward the edge and were unable to stop.\u00a0 <\/span>In 2010, a young man, a banker and avid hiker, ignored the warnings and climbed over the fence.\u00a0 <\/span>Tragically, he fell 600 feet to his death.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Likewise, professing Christians engaging the satanic realm ignore all the warnings.\u00a0 <\/span>They are convinced that there is no danger. \u00a0<\/span>When the realization comes that they made a mistake, the great apostasy will have already drawn them into its death grip.\u00a0 <\/span>At that point, it is too late to do anything about it.\u00a0 <\/span>Like the five foolish virgins in Matthew 25, they will wake up without oil\u2026and without Christ.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A significant number of professing Christians and non-Christians are in the hunt for spirituality.\u00a0 They appear to want it the quick and easy way and they apparently are not concerned about the source or what type it may be.\u00a0 This has made them susceptible to charlatans that have invaded Christianity.\u00a0 They are selling Christianity-lite with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paIm2N-8S","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":551,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550\/revisions\/551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}