Idols of the Heart
Apostle and Analogy of Music
Beethoven wrote some of the world’s best symphonies that are masterpieces of beauty and pleasing sounds. But the last work he did called the “Grosse Fugue” was something that is abrasive to the ear compared to his previous works. The “Grosse Fugue” was rejected by many listeners as being abrasive, noisy and irritating! The fact is that the “Grosse Fugue” is about as pleasant to listen to as dry fingernails grating on a slate chalkboard!
If the ministry of an Apostle can be compared to music, then the musical composition called “Grosse Fugue” by Beethoven could be compared to the ministry of an Apostle. Apostles are constantly exposing the heart motives of humans and rebuking disorder and exposing sin just as their counterparts the Prophets also do. The Apostles and Prophets are like a right and left-hand punch to knock out disorder and sin in the lives of believers and this can be abrasive to the hearers and not popular at all to those who do not want to repent of idols of the heart.
So, the process of exposing and rebuking the sin nature in believers is not something that will be popular. People are not going to line up by the thousands to gain admission to hear an Apostle and Prophet expose their sin and rebuke their evil motives and call them to repent in the same way that multiplied thousands will line up to gain admission to a Christian contemporary concert in a carnal church!
For example, I know of three entertainment-based churches located in Australia and Singapore and California. These churches all have thousands of members in attendance and offer contemporary Christian music concerts in every church service. This is very appealing to the audience who can go to attend a Christian concert every week. The Christian musicians however dress worldly and many have body-piercing and tattoos just as the unbeliever musicians who stage worldly concerts. These carnal Christian performers sing music lyrics about love and devotion to Christ but the behavior and appearance of these musicians is no different than the unbelievers in the world! This is pleasing to everyone present because they can feed and pamper their sin nature (which desires to be like the world) and at the same time justify it by singing lyrics that appear to be dedicated to the Lord. The foundation of this popular contemporary Christian movement is (entertainment and music) which is pleasing to everyone involved because they can be worldly and be a Christian as the same time!
Contrast this to the ministry of the Apostle and Prophet and there is a stark difference! The Apostle and Prophet rebuke disorder and sin and call believers to repentance but contemporary Christianity allows them to pamper and indulge the sin nature by hiding it under Christian terms and lingo as if they were devoted to Christ. But this shallow devotion is largely superficial and found only in their song lyrics. This contemporary Christianity is highly pleasing and pleasant to the sin nature within believers and does not call them to separation in action (but only in words). This however is a great contrast to the ministry of Apostle and Prophet that is just as abrasive as listening to the “Grosse Fugue” of Beethoven!
But there is a great piece of self-deception involved with those believers who only want to be entertained and have no desire to change or cleanse their hearts of evil motives or to repent and forsake idols in their hearts. It is the evidence of the sin nature within the believers that pollutes everything that they do.
Illustration of an Idol
I know of a woman who grew up in a very large family during the US depression in America. She was the youngest of many children and when they all sat down at the table to eat it seemed like a free-for-all to see who could get their share of food! Farmers who raise pigs speak of the runt of the litter sucking on the hind-tit of the sow because the big swollen tits (full of milk) are all taken by the strong aggressive pigs (leaving the deflated hind-tit with little milk for the runt of the litter). If this analogy could be used to describe humans then this woman (as the youngest of the clan) was left like the runt to nurse the hind-tit. She was always seeking to have her share (not only in food) but also in attention and crying out “What about me?” Her mean German father said that if she did not stop whining, he would really give her something to cry about! When this girl grew up to become an adult and she carried in her heart this lust for human sympathy and pity that was developed in her childhood.
As the youngest child she would inherit hand-me-down clothing that had passed two or three times from the older children before she got them. So, when she went to school, she was made fun of by other children calling her “Old-Feed Sacks” because of the poor ill-fitting and worn clothing she wore. When she became an adult, she would compulsively buy nice clothing and fill up every closet in her home and every storage space. If she was rebuked for having more clothing that she could ever wear, then she would repent and dispose of the excess clothing but within a year every closet and storage space was again filled with more clothing than she could possibly use! This was part of her compulsive behavior to collect nice clothing even if it was many times more in volume that what she could possibly ever wear!
As soon as her children were old enough, this same woman began to manipulate them to feed her idol of lust for human sympathy and pity! If they would not give her what she wanted she would be abusive toward them! Even when the children grew to adults, she would continue this behavior always manipulating them to give her the sympathy and pity she wanted. Family gatherings were all about her as she wanted to have sympathy and pity from everyone about how hard she worked in preparing for the event. Her eldest daughter suggested that the family go out to eat so that this woman would be relieved of the work she was complaining about. But this angered her and she spoke cutting words to her daughter saying, “If you are just going to come home and cause strife then maybe it is better if you do not come home anymore!” The fact of the matter is that this woman was complaining about all of her work because she wanted everyone to gather around her and pet her like a cat and give her some sympathy and pity for all she was doing in preparing for the family gathering. This woman did not want to hear any solutions to relieve her of the work she was complaining about because that complaining was a solicitation for human sympathy and pity!
This is an example of an idol of the heart! This idol polluted everything that this woman said or did and ruined every relationship and caused strife and disorder in her own household. She would even fish for compliments and say something about the size of her nose hoping that the listener would say, “Oh no, you do not have a big nose!” and thus she could glean some more attention for that. Everything she said and did was a lifelong quest to glean sympathy and pity or attention from humans.
If she made a wedding dress for a bride, she would always be doing the final touches at the church (just before the ceremony) only to be seen by everyone so they all would know she was the one who made that dress! It happened on every wedding dress she ever made regardless of how many months advance notice she had been given. Her own husband remarked that she will always be following the bride down the aisle still sewing on that dress! This was because she never missed an opportunity to harvest some human sympathy and pity for what she did or how hard she worked on something! This this was an idol in her heart and it followed her into her Christian life.
When this woman got saved, she actually grew profusely in her spiritual walk for the first two-years after salvation. But after about two-years the Lord began to deal with this idol of lust for human sympathy and pity that she was constantly serving. She basically told the Lord, “I will give up anything and everything for you (except this one thing)!” This woman even tried to pay God off of this idol by becoming ten-times more zealous in other things like giving her husband’s money to preachers or churches or orphanages and by becoming a zealot in witnessing for the Lord to get others saved. But the more she tried to buy God off the more God put pressure on her to repent of this idol of lust for human sympathy and pity. But she would not repent and her entire life was centered around seeking human sympathy and pity as if it was like an addictive drug to her!
It must be noted that when a believer has been living in unrepentant sin, they will not be able to enjoy the presence of God or revelation of God’s word or any type of spiritual blessings which will all be blocked by their unrepentant sin. So, this same woman had many hundreds of Christian teaching books but they were of no value to change her. She was constantly hearing but never coming to the knowledge of the truth. She could attend a Christian conference with renown bible teachers but she would receive no revelation or blessing while those around her did. The moment a believer refuses to obey God and repent of some idol of their hearts they will be cut off from the presence of God and from revelation of God’s word and from all spiritual blessings until such time as they repent.
Genesis 6:3 (NASB)-M
3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with [humans] forever…
This scripture says that God’s Spirit will not strive with humans forever and this also has application to believers who go for decades in unrepentant sin before the Lord. The Holy Spirit will convict them of this sin and call them to repent but if they play tricks and turn off their minds and pretend not to hear God’s voice speaking then they will eventually come to the end of their grace period and the Holy Spirit will depart from them just as He also departed from King Saul. This is a dangerous place to be in because then they are sealed up for unspeakable damnation and can no longer repent. This may go on for decades before the Holy Spirit withdraws from them but the Holy Spirit will not strive with them over their unrepentant sin forever. Eventually He will forsake them to their idols and they will be sealed up for eternal damnation having loved their idols more than God.
When I exposed the sin of this woman (using Word of Knowledge and Discerning of Human Spirits) she was not happy to hear this and instead of repenting she only tried to find fault with the delivery boy. This is typical human behavior for believers who harbor idols in their hearts which they refuse to repent of. They will employ numerous tricks to protect their idols and this includes counter-accusation or fault-finding or rejection of those who expose their idols.
This woman was like the carnal Christian musicians who sing constantly about their devotion to the Lord. She would speak words of devotion (thousands of times per day) about her great love for God as if she could convince others around her that she was dedicated to the Lord by wearing them down like a broken record repeating the same verbiage about her dedication to God. But all of the while she spoke like this, she has never failed to serve her idol of lust for human sympathy and pity that continued to follow her into her Christian life.
Actions still speak louder than words so if someone is speaking constantly about their devotion to Christ while they are serving an idol of their heart, they are in fact liars. They are showing by their actions that they love that idol more than Christ because they refuse to give it up or repent of it and will not cease all of the disruptive behavior, they cause with others around them in relation to them serving that idol.
These idols can be as varied as the people who harbor them. There was another Christian woman who had an idol of pushing her children into ministry. But her sons have no evidence of a Fivefold ministry gift but they only invented their own ministry (being prompted by their mother). She even pushed her husband to sell their home and move to a remote location to be near one of her sons and his “self-invented” ministry. She was doing this type of behavior for many decades and everything that happened in their family was under her instigation to serve her idol. Her husband was also serving his wife and her idolatry and followed whatever she instigated that the family should do. But things did not end well for her when judgment met her on account of this idol.
See the link “Fivefold Not by Lineage” for details of why no mother can push her laymen sons into the ministry.
The point of all of this is that believers often carry idols with them after salvation and this is a part of the sin nature that dwells within them. Instead of forsaking and repenting of such things they will often discover more ways to serve the idols of their hearts “as Christians” than they did as unbelievers. They can get more pity and sympathy or attention for being sacrificial in serving the Lord than they would as an unbeliever. This is exactly what Ananias did when he wanted to receive the praises of humans in the church by appearing to be more sacrificial in his giving than he really was.
Acts 5:3-5 (NIV2011)
3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?
4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”
5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.
Ananias yielded to the sin nature within him as a believer and he wanted to appear more sacrificial in his giving than he really was because he wanted to have the praise of humans in the church. This sin of deception was exposed by the operation of the spiritual gift of “Word of Knowledge” and the operation of “Discerning of Human Spirits” by the Apostle Peter. Peter knew the heart motives of Ananias were not right before God and Peter knew by “Word of Knowledge” the deception employed by both Ananias and his wife to deceive the congregation. Peter exposed the sin publicly and rebuked the sinner and judgment fell upon Ananias and he died instantly! This brought a fear of the Lord upon the survivors in the church who also feared to harbor evil motives in their hearts and this event caused them all to search their hearts and repent!
It should be noted that Ananias was not judged and killed for giving money to the church but for his evil heart motives in trying to appear more sacrificial than he really was. He had an idol in his heart for the lust of human attention. This illustrates the fact that the sin nature within a believer can pollute everything (even something good like giving money to the church). The giving of money to the church by Ananias was polluted by his sin nature and evil motives of his heart and this brought judgment upon him!
It seems that the Apostles and Prophets are always talking about sin and evil heart motives and people do not typically want to hear these topics because they are not always pleasant to listen to. It is for this reason that the ministry of both Apostles and Prophets can sound abrasive like the “Grosse Fugue” of Beethoven. But the “rod-of-correction” of the ministry of the Apostle and Prophet can bring lasting change and divine order and holiness and fear of the Lord to the lives of the believers who will receive this ministry.
It is typically a badge of honor among Christians to be sacrificial in giving knowing that what they keep for themselves at home determines their blessing with God.
Luke 21:1-4 (NIV2011)
1 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury.
2 He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins.
3 “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others.
4 All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”
It was for this reason that Ananias wanted to appear more sacrificial than he really was as if he had less at home (but he secretly kept back some for himself). Christians can harvest human praise for doing good-deeds and giving by appearing sacrificial.
This woman who pushed her sons into the ministry also gleaned praises as a mother for her sons serving God. But this was an idol to her because she was not interested in the ministry or in winning human souls but was only interested in the praises, she was gleaning over making an idol of pushing her sons into the ministry. Everyone spoke of what a good mother she was for having her children serve God! But in fact, this was an idol in her heart for human attention and she carefully engineered everything she did and said to glean this human attention for herself.
Also, this woman was a “Levite-Woman” who was created to be the helpmeet of a Fivefold ministry Levite but instead she married a layman and had no ministry outlet to assist a Levite husband. Therefore, she was seeking an alternative ministry outlet through her sons (like a surrogate Levite husband) in order to create an avenue of outlet for herself and her spiritual resources that were unused for being a helpmeet to a laymen husband.
For more information see the lesson “Levite Women” for more details.
Again, giving to the church is not a sin and having a son in the ministry is not a sin but the sin nature within believers can pollute even good things like this and defile them by evil motives. It is the Apostle and Prophet that expose evil motives and so they are not going to be popular in the way that carnal Christian musicians are popular who allow people to live in the world and be like the world while feigning devotion to God by singing lyrics that sound like devotion to the Lord.
1 John 2:15 (NKJV)
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
The believer is not to love the world or the things of the world yet there is no difference in the contemporary Christian musicians and the unbeliever musicians whom they so admire and imitate.
John 15:18-19 (NIV2011)
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
Also, the world does not hate and persecute the carnal church or the contemporary Christian musicians because carnal Christians are in fact a part of the world and the world loves its own. But Jesus has called the believers out of the world and calls them to separation. It is evident that carnal Christians are not living in separation when everything about the carnal Christian imitates the world which they love!
This is evidence of the sin nature that is alive and well within the carnal Christians. They make no effort to deny the sin nature but simply adopt Christian lingo and continue the same as they had done before salvation.
The sin nature cannot be eradicated completely but as believers mature in the Lord, they can learn to deny the sin nature from expressing itself. They can also become skillful in recognizing the sin nature how it can pollute any type of Christian activity. If they examine their heart motives, they can recognize the sin nature at work and deny it the right to express itself. The sin nature grows weaker when it is denied the right of expression. But believers must be on constant guard because the sin nature resides in them for life. It cannot be fully eradicated but it can only be managed using God’s grace to overcome it.
In the old days when Britain still had a sizable population of people serving God, they had a tradition of building a choir loft above the back entrance of the inside of the church building. In this manner, when the musicians worshiped God the people could hear them singing but because they were behind and above them, they were not able to see them without turning completely around. This was done in the wisdom of those church designers who understood the human sin nature and the lust for human attention. They did not have carnal musicians parading themselves before the congregation to harvest human attention because the musicians were heard but not seen in those days.
This displays godly wisdom because there are carnal Christian women entertainers who promote more lust in church than do their unbeliever female musician counterparts in the world. This is because an unbeliever female musician is typically so raunchy in behavior and costume that this shocking behavior provides some sort of hindrance to her seductive effect. But a carnal Christian musician woman singing words of devotion and love to the Lord can justify what she is doing as if it is a good thing for the Lord so people have their guards down more than if they were watching a raunchy performance of an ungodly unbeliever dressed in shocking manner! If the audience thinks it is something good then they are more open to the lust which is much more subtle in a Christian concert than in a godless heathen concert where there are no stops on anything at all!
Carnal Christians with their worldly clothing and tattoos and body piercing who sing lyrics of devotion to God are receiving much attention for the “front-of-devotion” they display before the people. They would never be happy if they were placed in a choir loft behind the congregation where they could only be heard but not seen. They love the attention they get for singing “devotion-lyrics” before the congregation just like other Christians who long for human attention and do all sorts of things to harvest it.
Ananias and his wife died for trying to harvest human attention in the church and carnal Christian musicians do much more “attention-harvesting” than Ananias and his wife were guilty of. These musicians put on a façade with “devotion-lyrics” that only draws attention to themselves as if they supposedly were fully devoted to the Lord. But if they were fully devoted, they would not be doing so much to harvest human attention instead of giving the praises to God and glorying God rather than themselves. They glorify themselves by engineering an appearance which causes people to praise them (as being devoted to the Lord). It is a means of feeding an idol of lust for human attention which so many believers are guilty of pursuing.
Again, everything depends on the human heart motives which are largely defiled by the sin nature evident within the believers. It was for this reason a choir-loft was created to stop the opportunity of Christian musicians from harvesting human praises rather than glorifying God with the music instead of themselves.
If they speak words of devotion (while displaying themselves before the congregation as a model of devotion) then they are getting human attention and praise for that. I know believers who did everything possible to put on a front of self-sacrificial behavior in front of the people. This was in fact a means of serving the idol in their hearts for human attention!
Only God knows the hearts but God reveals the secrets of human hearts to the Apostles and Prophets by the operation of Word of Knowledge and Discerning of Human Spirits. It is for the purpose of bringing holiness to the church that these evil motives are exposed by Apostles and Prophets. But this is not going to be popular with those who love to serve the idols of their hearts for lust for human attention.
If they would humble themselves and repent, they could be restored to God but if they want to resist and defend their idols, they will play tricks like fault-finding with the delivery boy and many other tricks that are common to humans who harbor idols.
The ministry of Apostles and Prophets may not be popular but their ministry can sanctify people and call them to repent by exposing evil heart motives and this can get these people to heaven and that is really all that is important!
An Apostle will typically uncover the sin of false motives and feigned devotion by his systematic teaching which exposes those believers who are harboring idols in their hearts. Then he would turn the “big-guns” upon the unrepentant congregation and say, “And you are the guilty ones!” No doubt this would have “explosive-effect” to either enrage them or possibly even cause some to acknowledge their secret sin and come to repentance and save themselves from hell!
See the link “About Us” which gives more details about the operation of an Apostolic Ministry gift.
Lust for Human Praise
I also know of a man who invented his own ministry of carrying a large wooden cross on his shoulder. Whenever he speaks, he is always engineering his words so as to leave an impression with the people about how much he “himself” loves Jesus. Most people do not see the subtle error involved here but the fact of the matter is that the people are not left thinking about “Jesus” when he leaves but instead, they are thinking about this “man” who has focused all the human attention upon himself and how much “he” loves Jesus!
It is the ministry of Apostles and Prophets which can expose even the most subtle sin of lust for human attention and expose the twisted manner of harvesting human attention using the Name of Jesus to get attention for themselves. This man was so addicted to the drug of “human attention” that he was neglecting his wife and children and was on the road continually seeking the praises of humans. This resulted in the destruction of his marriage and his subsequent divorce. But after he divorced then he just remarried again and until today he does not cease in his passion of harvesting human praises for himself by what he is doing. As an Apostle I saw what was wrong with this and tried to address this issue before his marriage was ruined. But this man had no ears to hear and later lost his marriage because of his unrepentant behavior of lusting for human praises!
Again, this is operation of the gift of an Apostle who can see disorder where other people cannot see it. When everyone is praising this cross-carrying man as being the closest thing to Jesus on earth, the Apostle will expose him as having an idol for the lust of human attention! Typically this is not a popular message for those who have based their lives upon serving an idol of some kind (even if that is a “Christian” idol) and they are using this idol to witness to others or do other human good deeds. Numerous Christians have invented their own “so-called” ministries only to chase after the idol of lust for human praises (which they crave like a drug). This idol drives them in everything that they do even to the point of destroying their marriages and family life at home!
An Apostle will give an message such as showing how Ananias was harvesting human attention and praise in church and was judged for it. Then he will show how Christians in present times also carry idols in their hearts of a “lust for human attention” that controls everything that they do.
I have numerous examples of Christian people who were serving idols of the heart and claiming it was a “so-called” ministry given to them by the Lord. This is an example of using the Lord’s Name in vain to justify themselves and to stop anyone from resisting them in what they are doing. But Apostles have a habit of exposing such things as a “farce” in systematic manner and then they turn the guns upon them and declare, “You are the guilty ones!”
The Apostle was created to see and perceive disorder in all of his forms (including subtle Christian deceptions) feigning a self-righteous ministry only to use it to harvest human attention just as Ananias had done in the church at Jerusalem.