One of the ongoing missions of Pam Sheppard Ministries is to lead our clients out of the captivity of Satan and into the freedom of Christ. A prevalent reason for their spiritual woes is idolatry, often having manifested in them worshiping fallen angels posing as Jesus without them knowing it. They often cause this by asking Jesus to come into their heart or prior involvement in religion or the occult.
Yet there is another form of idolatry, a deeper one that is essentially a heart issue that arose out of original sin. This is inner worship of something. Let me break this down on two fronts: 1) How sin and fall from grace led to man practicing idolatry and 2) How idolatry is often practiced today with whatever one wants.
First off, look at the scriptures and you will see God’s original intent for His beloved creation, man, was to have a special relationship with God and that one of the main components of this love was worship. Adam and Eve got to enjoy an incredibly blessed and privileged existence because they were constantly near God both in a physical and spiritual sense. When one is close to God and worships Him, one feels a Godly joy and peace within. Too many times have I seen worship misunderstood as a physical act wherein the person may feel some fleshly emotion but not the Godly, spiritual sense of satisfaction and joy that God brings.
Adam and Eve’s disobeying of the Lord God opened the door to sin taking a foothold inside of man. It led to a corruption of the soul and a separation from God that was passed down to every single human being conceived after them except for Jesus Christ. In Old Testament times, the Lord God began a mission to overcome sin by leading a lineage of people who would eventually pave the way for Christ to be born. We read of the saints of old who were Godly men and women who worshiped the true God.
Yet due to man having sinned, there were many people who were led astray into deceit because ultimately man still felt a deep sense of needing to worship something to draw close to God. A byproduct of sin allowing man to become aware of evil was that man started to worship false gods. This is the first form of idolatry we read about in history and it became commonplace, resulting in events like golden calves and other gods being worshiped across different cultures.
Idolatry continued throughout the ages in various forms up until the modern day. The plight we see with regards to idolatry today is twofold: 1) outer worship of false gods, most commonly through churches claiming to be Christian and 2) inner worship and love of something that is not God, whether it be self, an activity, money, etc.
Think of the path the common man takes today. One is born with a dead spirit. Their first priority should be to want God and become alive spiritually. But due to being separated from God they are blinded to the idea of seeking Him.
Instead, their life becomes a mission to have a good career, find a mate, have a family, find something they are passionate about and dedicate their lives to it, so on and so forth. While these things and others have their place, the problem arises when they become the top priority in one’s life and seen as the meaning of it. They aren’t.
The meaning of life is to be reconciled to the Lord God and serve Him so that He may be pleased with you. The idolatry of things that are not God come because man has an innate need to worship and love. So because the person is ignorant to the idea that they should seek God, they find something else to replace Him and make that their god instead.
Perhaps the god we see most in the world today is self, with the common man motivated by self pleasure. The past few hundred years especially have seen things like philosophy and science pump man’s ego to the point where he believes he is his own master. You choose your own path in life and do whatever you want so long as it is in the context of completing the broader mission you have set out for yourself. People do this because they do not understand what it is to worship God in spirit and truth.
I’ll speak plainly: it is better to have one’s spirit reborn in Christ and live what would be considered an unremarkable or meager life than it is to accomplish all of one’s goals, dreams, attaining all of their physical desires, only for them to die with a dead spirit which never got to experience the love of God. Their spirit was dead and empty without them even realizing it because all they focused on was flesh.
What most people do not realize is that by serving the Lord God in spirit and truth, you also benefit from it. You experience joy. You experience love. You experience devotion to a perfect Being Who loves you unconditionally and fills your soul and spirit with a peace, happiness and assurance that is IMPOSSIBLE to get from ANYTHING in the world.
Love of self or fleshly desires has led to a myriad of issues that our clients have found themselves in counseling for. There are people who made a god out of things of the world and have experienced some form of psychological damage. For myself, I was mostly my own god before being born again and this led to arrogance, anger, emptiness and coldheartedness. Yet God forgave me for my wrongful ways and has graciously redeemed me, giving my life purpose in Him.
So I ask you: who do you love? What do you love? What is being put first in your life? Do you seek God? All I illustrate is that there are millions of people caught up in a wave of self-worship unaware that a second flood is coming which they will be blindsided by because all they could think about was their flesh. Seek God, for He has a life for His people full of mystery, wonder, meaning and love that transcends anything the world offers.
Do you wish to understand more about idolatry and how it has negatively affected the church today? Have you made idols out of things that have distracted you from seeking the Lord God? Learn more about the subject by purchasing Pastor Pamela Sheppard’s book, “The New Idolatry” here: https://shoptly.com/i/yiz or http://lulu.com/spotlight/pam_s911.
Alternatively, if you seek to be free of false idolatry that has manifested in your life give PSM a call at 888-818-1117 or email deliverancecounseling@yahoo.com.
Spiritual Warfare Library of PSM 
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