SELF-IDOLATRY
“This is the Christian life. He begins to study Scripture. He begins to fellowship with the saints. He begins to listen to preaching. And he starts a journey in which little by little he sees a greater revelation of God and, therefore, a greater revelation of his own need. And
so his repentance is deepening and deepening and deepening. And then he sees a greater revelation of the grace of God in the face of Christ. And his faith deepens and strengthens.
And then his joy bursts out of that until the end of his life he is more broken in repentance than when he began 60 years prior. And yet at the same time he is more confident of his salvation and full of joy unspeakable. God has so worked in his life to, in a sense, increase his capacity.
His capacity for what? Oh, these silly prosperity preachers, capacity for blessing and all this stuff they don’t even know what they are talking about. Increase his capacity to know God. Increase his capacity to break before him and to be humble, a spirit to
experience poverty of spirit. Increases his capacity to believe because he shows him more and more of this rock solid foundation we have in the person of Christ. And increases his capacity for joy because he is no longer the source of it.
You see, here is what will happen to some of you young street preachers if you are really of God. You go out street preaching. You are radical. You are reading the Bible. You are memorizing Scripture. And you are just so full of zeal and you are full of joy over the things that you are doing.
Little by little God is going to destroy the things you are doing because the things you are doing and the things that you think you are, they are your joy.
“Man, I am walking. I am preaching. I am a disciple. I am this. I am that.”
And little by little, he is going to take it away. He is going to crush your zeal. He is going to crush your strength. He is going to crush your wisdom. He is going to tear you to shreds until you are left with nothing but him. And then he is going to rebuild you, but
there is going to be such a difference. Your joy is no longer going to be your performance. Your joy is going to be the finished work of God in Jesus Christ.
So no more idolatry. It is just him.”~Paul Washer
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