Controlling God - manipulating God - overdefining God - God as the vending machine
There are many sides to this issue, and so I will talk about it in 2 or 3 posts here. It is one of the most despicable and detestable ways we demean and dishonor our creator.
One of the particular ways I have seen this expressed is the way in which we try to make God into the one who honors our techniques. "If we just say the prayer this way, God will be pleased and will answer." "If you just start with this question and then go on to that verse then you won't have fear in evangelism." "If you just have a quiet time every day, things will be better for you." "If you just replace that bad thought with these good ones you won't have issues." "If you just say a positive word, God will honor that and agree to it." It is a way of saying to God that we don't really need him eminently present, but we can manipulate him or the situation or the spiritual world by a technique, and all will be well. I realized at one point in the recent past that I had never really been told clearly to rely on the Holy Spirit in evangelism, but I had always looked for this or that or the other technique on how to share my faith. But Acts 1 makes it very clear that we need the Holy Spirit for the power to be God's witnesses. NOT a technique, not a Bible verse, but God's Spirit. Now relying on a technique is different from relying on a promise of God. Or should be. Promises are words God has spoken that He plans to back up, not clever ideas we have come up with that we try to hold God to. There can be a fine line, and it is one of the reasons we must be very careful when interpreting God's word.
The evangelical world is OBSESSED with writing clever ideas, with finding principles to live by, with finding the next great A, B, C program that will solve all our problems. Well, I have news for us: we are not going to find anything in this search other than dust. What we need is God Himself to invade our lives and thoughts and lead us to Himself, and to enable us to overcome in the struggles we have. This obsession is UNGODLY and wrong; it is believing in the ability of man to overcome. Basically, it is humanism. I am not saying that God's word provides no principles, but fundamentally that is NOT what scripture is- it is God's story of redeeming humanity to bring Himself glory and to bring blessing to all peoples and to Himself. Scripture is truth, but we get on shaky ground pretty quickly when we think we can easily identify IDEAS based on scriptural truth that will guide us; we need God's Spirit to guide us. We are told HE will guide us into all truth in John 16. In John 14 and 16 we see Jesus pointing to the comforter as the one who would guide us, not ideas, or techniques, but the living 3rd person of the trinity. CS Lewis said through his Chronicles of Narnia, and I agree, that God doesn't do things the same way twice. Reading the scriptures much, this seems pretty clear. Did I just derive an idea? Yes, I suppose, but it is the anti-control idea: God is in control and we CANNOT put him in a box. We need Him, and He didn't come here to lead us to someone greater or some more fantastic idea, but more on that next time.
Again, let me say, that God did give us His word, and he does say that it is "useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." 2 Tim 3:16b-17 But this is GOD'S WORD ITSELF. God's Spirit uses God's word to correct us, to rebuke us, to train us, to teach us. God's word doesn't lead to something else that is better- some technique or idea, some philosophy. God's word leads us to Jesus. In John 5:39 NIV Jesus said: "You diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about be, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." When we think that scripture is given for some reason other than leading us to God, to Jesus, to know and fellowship and walk with HIM, we are confused about what it is for.
And when we try to control God with these things or manipulate him or the spirit world by them, it is detestable. It is a form of idolotry, to make God into some manageable idea or technique we can control.
I'll end with a poem:
"I would like to buy three dollars worth of God, please.
Not enough or explode my soul or disturb my sleep,
But just enough to equal a cup of warm milk, or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don’t want enough of Him to make me love a black man, or pick beets with a migrant worker.
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth.
I want a pound of the eternal in a paper sack.
I would like to buy three pounds of God, please."–Wilbur Reese
Yes, God finds this detestable.
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