SPIRIT OF IDOLATRY

SPIRIT OF IDOLATRY

There are three demonic spirits that are causing havoc in the end-time church today.  I believe that God exposed these three spirits because He wants to cleanse the church from it before He entrusts us with the end-time harvest.  When we disciple people, we often duplicate what is in us in them and the Lord doesn't want us to duplicate these spirits in the people that He wants to entrust to us.

The first one we will address is the Spirit of Idolatry:

SPIRIT OF IDOLATRY

‘You shall have not other gods before Me… you shall not bow down yourself to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God is a jealous God.” Ex 20:3

"Look to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth!  For I am God and there is not other." Is 45:22

In general people worship a god to gain his favor for protection and provision.  God is our Provider and He is our Protector and we look to Him to supply in all our needs.

Once I prayed about some of my needs and the Lord said to me that my needs are so important to me, to which I obviously agreed!  He then said that when He created me, He created me with needs: the need for water, food, oxygen, love; and if He created us without needs we wouldn't have needed Him!  We often think we have a need or a lack because the enemy stole from us (which is sometimes true), while it is actually a meeting point with God our Provider.  Our needs are supposed to drive us TO Him!

The moment we look at someone or something else to provide in our needs in a way that only the Lord can, we open ourselves to a spirit of idolatry. 

We create an expectation in our hearts of how that person should provide in that need.  We would often use positive or negative manipulation tools to get the person to provide in our needs, and if it doesn't work we get angry and frustrated.  Idolatry is rooted in anger because your selfish needs were not satisfied.

We look at husbands and wives to make us happy, to provide in ways that they cannot.  We look at churches, organizations, ministries to provide in something that God wants to provide.

If you have a spirit of idolatry it is HARD TO LOVE that person with God’s love because you will use love as a positive manipulation tool to get what you want. 

The spirit of idolatry will give birth to a spirit of disappointment that will cause spiritual death.

GOD WILL NOT PROVIDE THROUGH YOUR IDOL.

The moment that you expect something from someone, you give that person the RIGHT TO MAKE YOU HAPPY OR UNHAPPY; you give him the right to determine your joy! Jesus didn't look at man to provide in His needs, He always went to His Father!

God will not provide for you through your idol because He knows it will take you even further from Him. Unless you persist in your idolatry which will result in God giving you over to your idols!

Many relationships and friendships were broken because of ungodly expectations and disappointment.

REPLACING ONE IDOL WITH ANOTHER

Ex 32:1-2 “When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, they gathered together to Aaron and said to him, Up, make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses, the MAN who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.  So Aaron replied, Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives, your sons and daughters and bring them to me.”

In this Scripture it is clear that the Israelites made an idol of Moses and didn't realize that it was God Who led them out of Egypt and not a man!  Therefore, when Moses disappeared they just replaced him with another idol, a golden calf!

We do that too!  When one idol fails us, we just replace it with another idol.  When a church fails us we just go to another one.  When a friend fails us, we just find another one.  And so we stay in idolatry!

CHARACTER OF IDOLATRY

Col 3:5 “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed which amounts to idolatry. … 8 But now put away and rid yourselves of all these things: anger, rage, bad feelings toward others, curses and slander, and foulmouthed abuse and shameful utterances from your lips!” (Fruit of idolatry)

In this Scripture we see the things that amounts to idolatry, and it is clear to see that it is all about 'me', doing things for what you can get out of it no matter whether it is a blessing to the other person involved.

And if you do not get what you want, the way you want it, the you will see the manifestation of the fruit of idolatry: 'anger, bad feelings toward others, curses and slander, and foulmouthed abuse and shameful utterances from your lips!'

RESULT OF IDOLATRY

The result of idolatry is that we are deeply disappointed with people, leaders, spouses, children, churches and friends and with life in general.  Eventually you will project this disappointment to God as well and the feeling that God failed you will find a dwelling place in your soul.  This will cause a spiritual death to creep into your soul and you will feel spiritually dry:  you don't get any revelation anymore when you read the Bible, you don't hear the voice of God anymore, you cannot worship anymore and all the teachings and preaching feel totally without anointing!

You will find that you do not testify about God's goodness anymore.

This sets you up for the anti-Christ spirit, the next spirit we will discuss!

PRAYER AGAINST A SPIRIT OF IDOLATRY

Sit before the Lord, open your heart to Him and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you of whom you made idols in your life.  Maybe your spouse?  Children?  Friends?  Church or a specific church leader? Parents?

Pray the following prayer.  Feel free to expand as the Holy Spirit leads you.  This is just an example of how you can pray.

Lord, please forgive me for looking at ________________ to provide in my needs and not going to You with my needs.  (Pray this for every person).

Lord, forgive me for placing _______________ under so much pressure and hurting _________________with my ungodly expectations.  Forgive me for rejecting, criticizing and slandering _______________ when I felt he/she failed me.

Lord, forgive me for breaking godly relationships because of idolatry.  Please bring restoration and reconciliation in every relationship that is from You.

Lord, forgive me for manipulating the people in my life to get out of them what I want.  Please remove manipulation from me and help me to deal with people in love and respect.

Lord, forgive me for making an idol of You.  Forgive me for being angry with You when You didn't answer my prayers the way I wanted it.  Thank you for not giving me what I want when I want it because You know it might destroy me and what You have for me is to prosper me and not to harm me.

Spirit of idolatry, I rebuke you and I command you to go and be loosed from me, in the Name of Jesus Christ!

Spirit of disappointment, I rebuke you and I command you to go and be loosed from me, in the Name of Jesus.

Lord Jesus, please fill me know with Your Holy Spirit and take back the territory of the spirit of idolatry and disappointment in my life.  Fill me with Your love and teach me how to serve the people that You entrusted to me with love and respect.  May my relationships be a glory unto You!

And I now declare:  He who the Son sets free, is free indeed!

(Insight about the spirit of idolatry gained from Norm Wakefield:  Equipping Men Conference)

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