Self-Worship

The earth population in 2007 was 6.2 billion. Knowingly or not to most men, they relied on human power (theirs and others) in organizing and managing their affairs, not on God’s power. They set aside God’s instructions and insisted mainly on doing their own will.

They took care of their flesh but not their soul. Their god was their stomach (Philippians 3:19). They preferred to play than pray, go malling than loving, attend to money-making than soul-winning…

If ever they prayed, more often than not, their prayers were a case of telling God what He could do to please them and not the other way around. Submission and humility were gone. Can you imagine of an instance more ridiculous than this: False gods imposing their will upon the real God?

They did good deeds then appropriated unto themselves the honor and glory it earned, that which rightfully belonged to God. 

They were self-centered, not other-centered. To them love was not the order of the day. They used their gifts of reasoning and strength to impose their will upon their neighbors.

They professed belief in God yet lived without God. Atheists were more honest.

He who makes God No. 2 and himself No. 1 is guilty of self-worship. He who organizes and manages his affairs by relying on his power, not on God’s power, is guilty of self-worship. He whose basic drive in life is to satisfy his selfish desires is guilty of self-worship. He who pleases himself before he pleases God is guilty of self-worship.

Self-worship is another form of idolatry. Another word for it is self-centeredness, which is the father of faithlessness and irresponsibility. Two other words for it are self-condemnation and self-destruction.

⁵ This is what the Lord says: Cursed is the one who relies on man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. JEREMIAH 17

A Prophecy Being Fulfilled

The 2007 situation is no different to our current situation. Self-worship is prevalent, bleeding everyone to death, as prophesied 2,000 years ago.

¹ There will be terrible times in the last days. ² People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of good, ⁴ treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure than lovers of God— ⁵ having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. 2 TIMOTHY 3

¹⁰ Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand. DANIEL 12

The Root of Self-Worship

Self-worship can be traced in the human desire to act like God. It started in the Garden of Eden when Lucifer said to our first parents:   

⁵ …when you eat of [the forbidden fruit] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. GENESIS 3  

The suggestion You will be like God had stimulated a desire so strong in them that God’s instruction was disobeyed and the forbidden fruit eaten. The same desire haunts the modern man. Little does he know that yielding to it is echoing the mind of Lucifer.

¹³ I will ascend to heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the Mount of Assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. ¹⁴ I will ascend above the tops of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High. ISAIAH 14

Five times Lucifer said in his heart, “I will!” He was not contented to be with God. He wanted to supplant God and be worshiped as God. So he led a rebellion to dethrone God and usurp His sovereignty.

³ …Another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. ⁴ His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky [enjoined a third of God’s angels, cherubims, seraphims, etc. to his cause]… ⁷ And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels [later called demons] fought back. ⁸ But as he was not strong enough, they lost their place in heaven. ⁹ The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Lucifer—who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. REVELATION 12

¹² How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! ISAIAH 14

Lucifer failed to superimpose his will over that of God, but he is succeeding in making the humankind do it to God. Man might think that in so doing he is servicing his selfish interests, but the truth is, he is serving Lucifer. The creation imposing its will over its Creator? Lucifer loves it!

Be Christ-Like

“The world teaches us to be independent-minded, to be independent even of God. But the reality is, we are not designed to function independent of God. We miss the mark when we choose to act independently of God. When we focus on ourselves or prefer material and temporal values than spiritual or eternal values, idolatry has succeeded,” wrote Neil T. Anderson.[1]

For us to attain restoration (the reason why we exist on earth), we must learn to be God-dependent.

There is a God who made you for a reason, and your life has profound meaning! We discover that meaning and purpose only when we make God the reference point of our lives. The Message paraphrase of Romans 12:3 says, “The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what He does for us.” (Purpose-Driven Life, p. 25)

Without God life makes no sense. Without a purpose, life is motion without meaning, activity without direction, and events without reason. Without a purpose, life is trivial, petty, and pointless. (p. 30) Without a clear purpose you have no foundation on which you base decisions, allocate your time, and use your resources. You will tend to make choices based on circumstances, pressures, and your mood at that moment. People who do not know their purpose try to do too much—and that causes stress, fatigue, and conflict. (p. 31) Without clear purpose you will keep changing directions, jobs, relationships, churches, or other externals—hoping each change will settle the confusion or fill the emptiness in your heart. (p. 32)

⁴ Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. ⁵ I am the Vine and you are the branches. If a man remains in Me, and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned… ⁹ Now remain in My love. ¹⁰ If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commands and remain in His love. JOHN 15

To attain restoration, we must be reconfigured, re-created. God must be allowed to do it for us since we cannot do it on our own. We have to humble ourselves, stop acting as if we were God and submit instead like clay to the Potter.

Being God-dependent and allowing God to reconfigure us is what the Ten-C is all about, what the Old Testament is all about, what Christianity (Messianic discipleship) is all about…

Allow God and He would say anew, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). God would waste no time in reconfiguring us. At the end of the day, we would be able to testify, “I am being transformed into the likeness of my Master with ever increasing glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

¹⁴ Clothe yourselves with the Lord Y’shua. ROMANS 13

²⁵ The [disciple] should be satisfied to become like his Teacher, and a slave like his Master. MATTHEW 10 tev

²⁶ Whoever serves Me must follow Me; and where I am, My [disciple] also will be. JOHN 12 

²² You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³ to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. EPHESIANS 4

To be Christ-like is the goal of our Law-keeping. Y’shua is the visible image of “true righteousness and holiness,” the essence of God’s image and likeness.  

⁴ Christ is the end of the Law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. ROMANS 10

Being a Christian is like the caterpillar that sheds the likeness of an earthbound worm and puts on the likeness of a heaven-bound butterfly. Salvation is shedding the old nature of the first Adam and putting on the new nature of (Y’shua) the second Adam.[2]  

We should want to handle situations the way Y’shua would handle them and treat people the way Y’shua would treat them. We should want to do things the way He would do them. That should be our goal.[3]

Only when we are dependent on God and intent on following Christ are we complete and free to prove that the will of God is good, acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2).[4]

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[1] Neil T. Anderson, The Bondage Breaker (Metro Manila: OMF Literature Inc., 2000), p. 39.

[2] John Avanzini, It’s Not Working Brother John!  (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Harrison House, 1992), p. 33. 

[3] Joyce Meyer, A Leader in the Making (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Harrison House, 2001), p. 224.

[4] The Bondage Breaker, p. 41.