And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Matthew 8:2-3 NKJV
Over and over in the Bible, I see people asking and pleading for help from the Lord. I see people asking, “If you are willing, you can”.
But today, I hear many talking about God as if He “has to”. It’s almost an attitude of, “Okay, God, I did X, so you have to do Y – because you did it back in the day for that other guy in the Bible.” Yes, the narcissism of this world religion everyone what they “deserve” has crept into the religious gatherings to the point that people are told to pray the same lie over and over until God makes it true and that it is their own lack of faith in the life that is making it not true. Seriously? The Father of lies and author of confusion is selling this, and people are buying it up on the best seller last hoping for their best life now.
Can’t we see the issue with this false teaching? Can’t we see that this is the way the false prophets of the false idol Baal were beside the prophet Elijah of the one true God?
And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.”
I Kings 18:27 NKJV
But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord , if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.
Deuteronomy 18:20-22 NKJV
And these same ones who make false promises aren’t even offering people treasures of any value in their empty promises – they are offering worldliness to the masses of worldly, carnal people. They are selling vomit to the dogs and slop to the pigs – but I wonder if they are lying about who it is they serve? Can’t we tell by what it is that they truly seek?
For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Matthew 16:26 NKJV
If you have fallen victim to trying to use God as your genie and as your spare tire when you want something – hoping to convince Him into submitting to your will – I encourage you to instead pray as He instructed us. He instructed us to pray that the Father’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Don’t just keep praying the same way, insisting on your will be done – instead of speaking so loudly and demanding, listen for His still quiet voice.
You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
James 4:3 NKJV
Harold J. Ballinger 