The Word of God or Psychological Motivations?

That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God (1 Corinthians 2:5, KJV)

God has spoken to His people over the years through other men and women. He used ordinary people He anointed to communicate His words to us as the Bible. After the scriptures were written, the Lord continues to use other men and women to help His people understand what He has written down for them. This is where preachers and teachers, and in fact, all ministers come in. But there is a problem that arises. It is the faithfulness of these ministers to stay with what God has spoken and not add or remove anything.

The Apostle Paul encountered a unique problem in Corinth. The Church in Corinth had men that could talk. Remember, they were heavily under the influence of great Greek thinkers and philosophy. No matter how brilliant a human idea or system might be, human words remain human words. They cannot produce divine results. We have a growing tendency in many circles of the Church today where messages are being preached out of the wisdom of men. That is, they are messages that you might hear motivational speakers in the world use to stir and help their followers. The problem is that any believer who puts his or her faith on such teachings or encouragements is building their lives on a foundation made of sand.

The preacher’s’ job is not to look for HUMAN ways to “motivate,” “inspire” or “stir up” the believers. His or her job is simply to communicate the pure words of God to the people. The Word of God is able to do the rest. Similarly, the preacher’s job is not to change the people. The Word, if preached as given, will change them. If you, as a Christian, listen to “good teachings” which are nothin other than well crafted human ideas, you will get the results that human wisdom brings. The power of the Word is in the revelation of the Son of God, Jesus our Lord. Empty human words might stir you, but there will be no power to change you from within. We do not have to copy the world. The world has its methods, and they are getting the kind of results their methods bring. Trying to produce a spiritually mature, Christ-like believers by preaching empty human wisdom is doomed to fail.

Get back to the pure and unadulterated Word of God. No spices are needed on it. It does not need to be “modernized”. It does not need any special ultramodern tactics. His word is living and powerful and will produce the desired results in your life. It will motivate, inspire, transform, encourage, etc!

MEDITATE

What happens to your faith when you believe the wrong thing? Do you think it will produce the results God has spoken simply because you were sincere?

APPLY THE WORD

Crave the pure and unadulterated Word of God. The Lord says the time will come when believers will have itchy ears to listen to emptiness and things that will appeal to them ( 2 Tim. 4:3). This should not be you. Be careful with what you are feeding on.

PRAY

Pray sincerely that the Lord will give us hearts that are hungry for His pure words and not for empty human words.