"As You Were"

The Cancer that is Killing Christians and the Church

by Jeff Smith

Email:  MetersTickUp@gmail.com

Copyright © 2012 by Jeff Smith.  All Rights Reserved.

ITS Publishing, LLC

Soft cover available at www.ITSpublishing.com

Edited by Carla Cross and Rachelle Bryson

Cover design by the amazing Amy Chisman www.chisman-design.com

All rights reserved.  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Un-attributed quotations are by the author.

International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN#):

eBook:    978-0-9847830-6-9

(Soft cover:    978-0-9847830-5-2)

All Scripture quotations of the Holy Bible, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version®.  Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.  Any underlining or italics of Scriptural references was added by the author for emphasis.

Other books by Jeff Smith:

Are Most “Christians” Headed to Hell?

A Wake-up Call for Every Christian

(and pastor and church leader)

Also available at www.ITSPublishing.com

When the Fire Spreads

What Happens When Spiritual Warfare and

the Holy Spirit Show Up at Church

Also available at www.ITSPublishing.com

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements and Dedication

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 - Do you really believe?

Chapter 2 - The title of this book . . .

Chapter 3 - What’s in a name?

Chapter 4 - Oxygen—we have to have it . . .

Chapter 5 - Let’s look more closely at this spiritual cancer . . .

Chapter 6 - Just a touch, Lord—just a touch!

Chapter 7 - The cancer of complacency is blind.

Chapter 8 - The antibodies that protect the cancer of complacency and even protect themselves . . .

Chapter 9 - These biases are dealt with in Scripture.

Chapter 10 - Why many churches of today are struggling . . .

Chapter 11 - What is the Biblical expectation?

Chapter 12 - What is the cancer's primary goal?

Chapter 13 - What was His motivation?

Chapter 14 - The "real" question . . .

Chapter 15 - Two more little nasty items Satan needs to keep at bay . . .

Chapter 16 - We are to live "in fear?" . . . I have a suggestion.

Chapter 17 - What's at stake?

Chapter 18 - The cancer's first death-blow . . .

Chapter 19 - The cancer's final death-blow . . .

Chapter 20 - What now?

Chapter 21 - Conclusion

Chapter 22 - FAQ

Acknowledgements and Dedication

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all of those called into full time ministry who, with full integrity, fight the battle against the cancer that is defined and described in this book. It was a big problem for Jesus, Who encountered it often. It was also a big problem for Paul, who also encountered it in the New Testament church.

The problem is, today, the biggest problem the church faces. May the Almighty God, by the power of His Holy Spirit, help pastors, churches, and believers to rid themselves of this deadly disease and to protect them from it.

Acknowledgements

Thank You Holy Spirit of the Most High God for helping me fight this cancer and for protecting me from it. May You help me to never forget that it is by Your power and Your love that I am able to be in a relationship with You in the first place.

Thank you to my family for your desire and willingness to walk to the road of truth with me. Often it isn’t an easy road to travel. Thank you for sticking with me through the highs and lows of life while we walk the road with Jesus—Who has always been there for us.

Thank you to my editors, Rachelle Bryson and Carla Cross. Editing is one thing, your support of me is quite another. Your editorial help was priceless and your communication with me regarding content was just as helpful. It has been fun to watch God work as we have worked together.

Thank you to our prayer partner, Bonnie Weisberg. Your insight and counsel is not only special to us, but it is inspiring as well. Please continue to defend and communicate the truth.

Preface

“We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum.”   ~A.W. Tozer

“We have learned to live with un-holiness and have come to look upon it as the natural and expected thing.”  ~A.W. Tozer

Cancer. It can strike anyone at any time. In far too many cases, by the time someone knows they have it, it is too late. Death awaits a long, drawn out battle—the stress of which can almost kill those closest to the victim as well. Unfortunately, the battle is usually weakly fought because the cancer will win unless it is removed. But too late is too late. If the cancer has spread too far or too deeply, removing it would kill the victim anyway. In many cases, the only thing left to do is try to delay the inevitable.

Many Christians of today are no different. Spiritual cancer has struck and has spread too far and too deep. Too many churches are dying a slow but steady death. The Christians who attend these dying churches, however, don’t even realize they have this cancer. It is an insidious disease, and, unlike physical cancer, it is highly contagious, and eternal spiritual death is inevitable.

We act like water will cure the disease because we use it often in our quest to look healthy. We water down what the Bible says. We water down the truth. We even water down what the very word “Christian” means. The incessant watering has drowned the truth, as well as the reality of the present, living Jesus, and has allowed the cancer to spread. The only hope that remains is the removal of this cancer. It will be costly, as some will die, because it has already spread too deep. But, it will save the lives of many if it can be extracted.

The purpose of this book is an all-points bulletin to what this cancer looks like, how it works, and the deadly effects it has had—and is having—on Christians and churches whom believe they are healthy.

This book is for you :

If you think your relationship with Jesus is OK, then you just might have this cancer already. This book is for you.

If you have a sneaky suspicion something just isn’t quite right between you and Jesus, you probably do have this cancer. This book is for you.

If you don’t have a relationship with Jesus, but you have thought about it, you need to be aware of this cancer and what to do in order to keep from getting it. This book is also for you.

This cancer has struck church leadership, pastors and congregation members alike. It is sneaky in the most awful of ways. It is contagious in the most awful of ways. It is deadly in the most awful of ways.

In 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul urges us to

“5Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified.”

Unlike many who have died from physical cancer because it was too late, you now have an opportunity to examine yourself to see if you have any of the forms of this deadly, spiritual cancer. If you discover you are infected, it could prove to be very painful to get rid of it. This much I promise you: If you are infected and you don’t get rid of it, eternal spiritual death is guaranteed by the words of the Great Physician, Jesus Himself.

As with any book, as its author, I have spent countless hours on this manuscript. If it helps just one person get rid of this deadly spiritual disease, then it will have served its purpose.

So, let’s start down the road together to learn about, and expose, this sneaky killer.

If we don’t, the “sting of death” awaits . . .

Introduction

“For our gospel-believing Christian circles in general, I fear there is an alarming lack of spiritual discernment. Because we have shut out the Holy Spirit in so many ways, we are stumbling along as though we are spiritually blindfolded.”    ~A.W. Tozer

Depending on where you are in your relationship with Jesus, the truth contained in these pages will be either good news or bad news for you. If we are to get to the bottom of this very serious problem and then find the remedy, we will need to approach this with a mind and heart that is open to the truth as presented by Scripture (and, as you will see as you read this, it will be much, much easier said than done). Some simple facts most people don’t want to consider, but which are critical to understand and accept, are these (which the cancer strongly fights against):

- Some things are true whether you have considered them, or not.

- Some things are true whether your pastor has addressed them, or not.

- Some things are true whether you believe them, or not.

- Some things are true whether you are willing to accept them, or not.

Just because a person (or group of persons – no matter how large) chooses to believe something that isn’t true, does NOT make it true. This one is very alive and well in the cancer-stricken church and the cancer-stricken believer.

Conversely, and just as straightforward: just because a person (or group of persons – no matter how large) chooses not to believe something that is true, does NOT make it false. This one is even more alive and well in the cancer-stricken church and the cancer-stricken believer than the previous one.

Regardless of which side of this fence you currently sit, here is the truth (which will be shown Biblically in the pages that follow):

There is a deadly cancer that has infected the church and its members. More and more Christians are being infected every day. The result, just like that of physical cancer, is very predictable: death. Unfortunately, physical death would be preferred to this death: spiritual death. Spiritual death brings with it the worst sentence of all: an eternity of (in the words of Jesus), “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

While the prognosis doesn’t look very good, it is true nonetheless. For far too many churches, the cancer has already spread too deep. To go through the process to remove the cancer would kill many churches. And even though that would be best for the Kingdom of God, as well as for those attending these churches, this cancer also affects church leadership’s willingness and ability (or lack thereof) to recognize it in the first place, let alone extract it.

I, myself, had this cancer for years, and it was a painful process to get rid of it. It is in remission right now, but I know it lurks on my heels hoping and waiting for the opportunity to infect me again. Praise God, He chose to help me cut this cancer from my life because I wouldn’t have been willing or able to do it myself.

The bad news is that those that have it the worst are the very ones who vehemently deny its presence the strongest.

This killer is causing the worst spiritual plague in history, and, for the most part, nobody even knows it is there. The ones who are aware of it are in full denial of its deadly power, or they know they have it and they aren’t willing to go through the pain of getting rid of it.

It reminds me of the commercials on television I remember from years ago. The product was a Fram oil filter. Everybody knows that if you don’t change the oil in your car’s engine, eventually the engine will die. It will destroy itself without the proper lubrication that the motor oil provides. As the engine wears, the oil breaks down and gets saturated with dirt and particles of metal. That is why you need an oil filter. It cleans the oil, so the oil can continue to lubricate the engine, rather than carry debris, thereby causing further damage to the engine.

These oil filters made by Fram cost more than a regular oil filter. The commercial portrayed an automotive mechanic who had just charged his customer a large amount of money for a new engine because he didn’t have a Fram oil filter. He then looks into the camera and, with a Fram oil filter in his hand, says, “You can pay me now (as he shows you the Fram oil filter), or you can pay me later,” (as he looks over to the customer still in shock at what the new engine had cost him).

This cancer works the same way. You can pay now by going through the pain of getting rid of it, or you can pay later with the eternal death of your soul. I chose to pay now. I hope you will too.

I urge you to take a really close look at whether this cancer has already infected your life, your mind, and/or your soul. If it has, do whatever you have to do in order to get rid of it. You can pay now . . . or I promise you that you WILL pay later.

Now for the bad news: The cancer has spread far wider and far deeper than you might realize. Those who have already been infected don’t even have a clue that they are sick. Before too long, it will be too late.

And the good news: Like any disease, whether physical or spiritual, the Great Physician (Jesus Himself), by the power and presence of His Holy Spirit, can heal us. It might be painful. By the time we recognize we need most physical surgeries, we have experienced plenty of pain, and the needed surgery is usually no walk in the park. There is often a period of intense rehabilitation that follows. Spiritual surgery is no different. In most cases, it doesn’t happen over night. It takes dedication, focus, and a lot of time with Jesus to get rid of it and to heal from its effects.

I encourage you to allow the Great Physician to do whatever He must do in order to rid you of this cancer. Will it be fun? Probably not. Will it be easy? Probably not. Will it save your life? Absolutely!

So here we go. May God, by His Holy Spirit, bless you for your willingness to walk this road with me as we battle the most deadly cancer of all . . .

Chapter 1

“ Religion consists of a set of things which the average man thinks he believes and wishes he was certain. ”   ~Mark Twain

“There is scarcely anything so dull and meaningless as Bible doctrine taught for its own sake. Truth divorced from life is not truth in its Biblical sense, but something else and something less.”   ~A.W. Tozer

Do you really believe?

If you have read any of my prior books, you know I always include this question at the beginning of the book. If we can’t start here, with a concrete “belief” as well as a foundation for those beliefs, then reading the rest of the book is a waste of time.

Before we start examining ourselves, to see if we have been infected by this insidious killer, it would probably be a good idea to establish some basic groundwork. We need to explore a very basic question. Once you have qualified the answer to this very basic question, we can continue our journey.

Let’s begin (it is an easy one): Do you believe in God? Sounds simple enough, but before you toss off a quick, “Of course I believe in God,” let’s examine the ramifications of the possible answers to this question. After all, we are talking about “GOD” here—and if we are talking about God, we are also talking about eternal ramifications and eternal destinations.

If your answer to this question is, “No,” there is no reason for you to read any further. Put the book down now as you must be okay with whatever this cancer is, and you don’t believe God has, or is, the remedy for it anyway. At any rate, this book isn’t for you.

If your answer to this question is, “I’m not really sure,” then you are, at least, open to the idea of there being a God—which is certainly a step in the right direction. This book will help you to understand what to look for and what to avoid, should you choose to enter into an authentic relationship with Jesus.

If your answer to this question is, “YES,” then we need to make a quick detour and just confirm what comes with an affirmative answer. By stating that you do, in fact, believe in God, then you also believe the following:

- He created all things. After all, He “is” God.

- The Bible contains His written instructions to us (as described in 2 Tim 3:15-17).

- The Bible is true—if for no other reason than it was inspired by God Himself. If He is, in fact, capable of creating the universe, He is also capable of getting a book to contain what He wanted its authors to write.

- There is a heaven and there is a hell. (The Bible says it is so.)

- And, if heaven and hell exist, some will go to heaven and some will go to hell.

- Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave. (The Bible says it is so, and so do approximately 14,000 other non-biblical written accounts of the event.)

- All authority and judgment have been given to Jesus. (The Bible also says this is so.)

If you can’t include this list as absolutes that come with your affirmative statement of believing in God, then you might believe in a god other than the God of the Bible. If this describes you, put this book down now.

This book is for those who are willing to affirm their belief in the God of the Bible and who also believe the Bible to be true. If this describes you, please read on. If not, save yourself the brain energy.

Chapter 2

“The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping men. This she has not done deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge; and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic.”   ~A.W. Tozer

“Religion today is not transforming the people—it is being transformed by the people. It is not raising the moral level of society—it is descending to society’s own level and congratulating itself that it has scored a victory because society is smiling, accepting its surrender.”   ~A.W. Tozer

The title of this book . . .

“As You Were.” Those are three interesting words.

They can describe a command given by somebody of military rank. When someone of a higher military rank enters a room, all military personnel in the room, of a lower rank, immediately jump to attention. One of the commands that can be given after acknowledging the respect given to the higher rank as shown by standing at attention is, “As you were.” This command releases those of lower rank from standing at attention and waiting for orders, and releases them to go back to whatever they were doing before the officer of higher rank came into the room.

These three words can also describe a state of being. If you walk into a store and buy something and then you walk back outside, you are physically “as you were” (you are also “where you were”).

When you go into the doctor’s office because you are sick, you hope you will leave his office “different” instead of “as you were.” If you don’t leave his office different, then you want to, at least, have the hope of not being “as you were” because of some medication the doctor has given you, or because of some prescription medication that you plan to pick up soon at the local pharmacy.

When you go to the local gymnasium to work out, the goal is not to leave “as you were,” but to leave stronger than when you got there (or slimmer, if losing weight was the goal).

As Christians, being “as you were” is the most deadly place to be. In the New Testament, anytime somebody was in the presence of Jesus, or even just near Him, the possibility of something awesome taking place was also there—the opportunity for something supernatural to occur was always in the air. The Pharisees were afraid of it (as are many churches and pastors today), but the people, who recognized Jesus as the coming Messiah, flocked to Him with only ONE thing in mind: to be changed—to become anything but “as they were.”

The gospels present us with example after example of the sorry, sad, and pathetic situations where people left Jesus “as they were” usually because of their unwillingness to accept the truth of who He was, or the truth of what He had said to them. The gospels also present us with example after example of those who left the presence of Jesus “NOT as they were,” but changed. As each person was undeniably changed by this man named Jesus, those who were changed began to spread the word, and this resulted in others flocking to Him in anticipation of being changed as well.

So, let’s find out more about this cancer, the sole purpose of which is to keep us “as we were,” shall we?

Chapter 3

“Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”   ~Philippians 2:9-11

What’s in a name?

This cancer shows itself by acting very much like something called Hypoxemic hypoxia. The root of the cancer is, and its deadly affects are caused by, complacency. It carries with it all kinds of symptoms. Some of these symptoms are pretty easy to see—if you are willing to acknowledge them. Most of these symptoms, however, are very insidious. They are, therefore, much more powerful and capable of destroying our lives, and our churches, than we are willing to give them credit for. (Even now, as you are reading this, you very well could be thinking to yourself, “Complacency? What’s the big deal?”—which is exactly the response that complacency causes.)

Let’s look at the definition of complacency:

contentment, satisfaction, sense of security, smugness.

Let’s follow this with the definition of contentment:

comfort, ease, fulfillment, pleasure, serenity.

Let’s also look at the definition of satisfaction:

enjoying a state of comfort, bliss, contentedness, ease, gratification, indulgence, pleasure, pride.

Complacency gives us a false sense of security. It is almost like denial, but more insidious. With denial, we just ignore something by sweeping it under the rug. It is still there, mind you, but we don’t have to deal with it just yet. We know it is there, but we just ignore it. But, with complacency’s false sense of security, rather than denying there is a problem, we are lulled to sleep believing everything is all right—all the while not even realizing there is a problem. It is a deadly place to be, yet it is exactly where far too many people, who believe they are Christians, are living their lives, and they don’t even know it. Let me give you an example of hypoxemic hypoxia and how it works.

I am a pilot. I have been blessed to have flown my own jet for business and, of course, pleasure as well. The jet I flew was a similar model to the jet the famous golfer, Payne Stewart, was in when he and everyone on board died when the jet in which they were traveling crashed. What most people don’t know about this crash is that everybody on board was dead long before the plane crashed.

Their jet took off from Orlando, Florida, headed for Dallas, Texas. Unfortunately, the jet never made the turns required to make it to Dallas. The pressurization system failed before the pilot crew had gotten the auto-pilot pointed towards Dallas. When the pressurization system of a high altitude jet fails, it causes a shortage, or deprivation, of oxygen which then causes a condition called hypoxemic hypoxia. It is the worst enemy of a pilot.

Hypoxemic hypoxia is caused by a decreased concentration of oxygen in inspired air. This is low partial pressure of atmospheric oxygen such as is found at high altitudes. I know the prior couple of sentences used some words you might not be familiar with. Let me state it another way. In other words, the air gets too thin to provide enough oxygen to the lungs, which then causes other problems to occur. When the pressurization system failed that fateful day, everyone on board was exposed to low partial pressure of atmospheric oxygen. In other words, they weren’t getting enough oxygen to function properly.

Ah, but here is the problem with hypoxemic hypoxia. For a period of time a person CAN function. Here are the signs and symptoms:

Headache, fatigue, shortness of breath and nausea. If untreated, death will follow. All of these would certainly make sense if the oxygen supply has been cut off. BUT, the symptom that happens first is a feeling of euphoria—a feeling that everything is going great; that “it’s all good !”

In other words, what makes hypoxemic hypoxia so difficult to detect, and so deadly, is that the first symptom that strikes is a feeling that everything is wonderful, couldn’t be better—when death is just a few minutes around the corner.

And, here is the sad part about Payne Stewart’s crash. The NASB was unable to determine the cause of the crash because of the damage to the aircraft caused by the crash itself. Based on what the NASB report said about the crash, as a Learjet pilot, I have a pretty good idea what happened because I know how the Learjet systems work. I also know what lazy, complacent Learjet pilots do to the aircraft’s systems. Let me explain.

One of the coolest things about my jet was how fast it flew. We would typically cruise at 460 knots per hour, which is approximately 530 miles per hour. Just to put this into perspective, that is approximately nine miles per minute, and approximately three football fields per second (yes, 300 yards per second). To use a more technical term: Learjets can really “get cookin’.” This can spoil the pilot as well as those who frequently travel in them.

The Learjet that I flew was similar to the Learjet Payne Stewart was in that fateful day. These jets “red-line” at “mach82.” What this means is that at 82% of the speed of sound they hit the red-line—the speed at which you are NOT supposed to exceed. If a pilot pushes the envelope by accelerating the jet beyond its red-line, there is a warning tone that starts blaring and it is very loud and very annoying. Pilots who don’t want to listen to this loud warning tone, but who want to push the speed envelope of the jet by going a little bit faster than the red-line, simply disconnect the speaker which sounds the warning tone. (Yes, it is a very aggressive thing to do, but I must admit that I have heard the warning tone and it is absolutely, ridiculously loud. Yet, it should be loud and annoying because people’s lives are at stake if you ignore it. And yes, I have spoken with Learjet pilots who have done this very thing.)

This complacency on the part of the pilot causes a potentially deadly unintended consequence. Let me explain further.

When the jet climbs through 14,000 feet on its way up to altitudes that are in the 30,000s and even the 40,000+ feet above sea level, if the pressurization system is NOT turned on, at 14,000 feet a warning tone will start blaring, and like the over-speed warning tone, it is also very loud and very annoying. Uh oh. The same speaker that sounds the over-speed tone is also responsible for sounding the warning tone when the pressurization system is off (when it should be turned on)! When the NASB noted in their report that the pressurization switch was in the OFF position in the jet Payne Stewart was in, all the Learjet pilots who were reading the report said to themselves, “Ah ha. They disconnected the speaker so they could fly faster.”

Now, by connecting the dots, you can see how dangerous the situation caused by complacency can become. If you have disconnected the speaker and you forget to turn on the pressurization system, there will be no warning tone when you climb through 14,000 feet . The first sign that there is a problem will be a feeling that everything is going great—that “it’s all good.” Hypoxemic hypoxia is what followed that terrible day—killing everybody on board. The jet then flew on its present course for approximately four hours until it ran out of fuel and crashed in a field in South Dakota.

Complacency can kill, whether you are flying a jet, or if you have allowed hypoxemic hypoxia into your church or your spiritual life.

Let’s take a look at what hypoxemic hypoxia looks like from a spiritual perspective.

Chapter 4

“Without Me you can do nothing. ”    ~Jesus Christ

“It is scarcely possible in most places to get anyone to attend a meeting where the only attraction is God.”   ~A.W Tozer

Oxygen – we have to have it . . .

Hypoxemic hypoxia will kill us if we don’t have adequate oxygen supply. It isn’t a matter of “if” it will kill us; it is only a matter of when it will kill us. In our churches and in our spiritual lives, the absence of Jesus, His Holy Spirit, and the absence of His truth is where it begins. I am not talking about casual conversation about Jesus, His Holy Spirit, or even the truth of Scripture. I am talking about reality.

The hard truth we need to consider is whether or not the undeniably real and risen Lord Jesus is, or is not, present within our lives or within the life of the church. Jesus is one thing. The authentic presence of His precious Holy Spirit is quite another. Sadly, when Jesus and His Holy Spirit are NOT authentically present, the only thing left is Scripture, which is then usually not taken within the context that it was written, let alone any deep study of it within the individual’s life or even the church.

Acts 17:25 says,

“Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things .”

He is the Giver of breath! The symptom of hypoxemic hypoxia in the church and in the life of the Christian is a feeling that “it’s all good” when the Giver of breath—our source of spiritual oxygen—is absent.

We believe “it’s all good” because, in our pride, we believe we can keep everything going well. Sadly, we are wrong.

John 15:5 says,

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

We can do nothing apart from Him. Yet, if you look at most churches and the lives of most people professing to be Christians, it is evident that most of what is going on is driven by people (and their agendas) rather than by God. Jesus, by the power and guidance of His Holy Spirit, is the last One from Whom counsel and/or guidance is being sought.

We have our fancy church buildings to house our dazzling worship services which, when you get right down to the heart of the matter, only house the worship of man or of self. We have turned worship into something we do looking for a certain way it makes us feel.

Matthew 15: 7-9 says,

“7Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 8These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. 9And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”

Basically, our worship has become about us and not about Him. The church of today is very dialed-in to how many people choose the church they attend based on how well they like the worship time within a specific church. And, the church of today knows it is based highly on how the worship time makes a person feel about the worship time rather than how it makes the person feel about God. Big difference! BEEP, BEEP, BEEP! Blaring warning tone! It isn’t about us—EVER! It is all about Him—ALWAYS! Our complacency has caused us to get comfortable. Yet, the very Bible we so strongly defend is the very thing that tells us we have the cancer. And just to be clear, it isn’t hypoxemic hypoxia that is responsible for killing Christians. Yes, it is what ultimately kills, BUT, what is responsible for us getting spiritual hypoxemic hypoxia is complacency. Complacency that is rooted in its very definition:

Contentment, satisfaction, sense of security, smugness, comfort, ease, fulfillment, pleasure, serenity, enjoying a state of comfort, bliss, contentedness, ease, gratification, indulgence, pleasure, pride.

And what do these things bring with them? The very symptoms that should get our attention big-time! Unfortunately these are the same symptoms that are often very, very difficult to recognize because it is the cancer of complacency that has caused the symptoms, and it is the cancer itself that makes the symptoms so hard to detect.

This then causes us to slip into a state of believing things about our spiritual condition that are anything but the truth—even though these things certainly do make us feel good along the way regardless of whether they are anywhere close to being true. Jesus says, quite clearly, in Revelation 3:17,

“17Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become, wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.”

We need to take a close look at these words from Jesus Himself. What He is addressing in the church is not a condition of denial—where we “know something,” but we just sweep it under the carpet so that we don’t have to deal with it right now. We know Jesus isn’t dealing with the issue of denial in this case because of His words, ”and do not know.” What is happening within the church is that we “say” one thing and we “do not know” the other, which happens to be the truth from the perspective of Jesus. What we believe, instead of the truth, according to Jesus, looks pretty close to the definition of complacency. Yet, the truth, as described by none other than Jesus Himself, is that we are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.”

The real kicker in all this is that by believing we are rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing, we put ourselves into very, very dangerous territory. From this dangerous place, it is entirely all right to end the day “as we were” when it began. It is entirely all right to leave church “as we were” when we arrived. In fact, it is entirely all right to head off to church in the morning with absolutely NO expectation that we will leave church that day in any other condition than “as we were.” It is entirely all right to dance around the edges of the things of God, thereby, making sure we remain “as we were.” We walk out the doors headed to our cars exactly “as we were” when we arrived a couple of hours earlier—and God is saddened and Satan is exuberant.

The insidious cancer that has set in (which we don’t even realize we have) works just like hypoxemic hypoxia—it confirms for us that “we are rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.” The feeling is sooo good that we then slip into a state of protecting it—not even the slightest bit aware that spiritual death is waiting for us right around the corner.

We need to face the truth of it (even though we don’t want to admit it): “feeling rich, wealthy and like we have need of nothing” is very similar to “feeling contentment, satisfaction, sense of security, smugness, comfort, ease, fulfillment, pleasure, serenity, enjoying a state of comfort, bliss, contentedness, ease, gratification, indulgence, pleasure, pride.”

If leaving church “changed” rather than “as we were” means we have to give up the blissful state of complacency, of feeling rich, of feeling wealthy, and of feeling like we need nothing—then no thank you! We prefer “as we were.” It is really an interesting and thought-provoking question for the person willing to go there. Here is the question the cancer does NOT want anyone to sincerely ask: If there is no expectation of leaving church “different” than when a person got there, then why go in the first place? Why go to “God’s house” when there isn’t any expectation that God will be there, let alone that He will do anything to us or for us that would cause us to leave changed? Nothing could be a bigger waste of time if you take the time to consider the truth of it.

So, how about you? Feeling rich these days? Feeling wealthy? Feeling like you have need of nothing? Then you know the power of the cancer of complacency that makes this okay (or even the goal): “as you were.” It is not just simply a declaration of some state of being. It has a cult following among Christians and churches alike—and, as we will see in the pages that follow, this cult following is VERY dedicated to its mission of maintaining the feeling caused by the cancer of complacency. The cancer of complacency fights very hard and very diligently against anything that will cause a person to leave church in any other state than “as they were” when they arrived.

This cancer is very alive and well and is killing the church, and it is killing Christians one feel-good day at a time. There is no end to which people who are infected by it will not go in order to protect it! (As silly as that may sound, it is true.) The pain that would be experienced if one were to denounce it for what it is, as a spiritual cancer, and to acknowledge it as having the deadly consequences it most assuredly has, would, for most people (and most churches), be far too painful and far too costly.

Think about this for a moment: How, on a practical level, does a pastor get up in front of the congregation on a Sunday morning and say,

“Good morning. Thank you for coming today. I wanted to let you know that I, as your pastor, have come to realize that our church is infected with a deadly disease of spiritual cancer. This cancer is called complacency, and the sad truth is we have been infected. It has spread too far and too deep among us. It is causing a slow, but sure, spiritual death in most of us by affecting how we approach the things of God, how we approach and accept (or not) the truth of Scripture, and how we approach God Himself. So, starting right now, ANYTHING that looks, feels, smells, acts like, or resembles complacency in or around this church will be dealt with quickly and strongly. If you are found to be infecting others with this cancer, you will be asked to leave. If your behavior resembles this cancer, you will be asked to leave. This cancer is killing us, and we didn’t even know we had it! The only way to save the church, and more importantly, our very lives, is to cut this cancer from our midst.”

Want to kill a church? Just preach that sermon! Most of the people will NOT come back. However, they won’t come back for several different reasons:

- Some will be offended that the pastor actually had the nerve to challenge their spiritual condition (something for which the pastor is paid to do, I might add). These will be blinded by the cancer themselves as they say in their hearts, “The pastor isn’t talking to me—he can’t be talking to me—because ‘it’s all good’ with me.”

- Some will conclude the church is becoming “too radical for me.” “I liked it when everything was just rolling along. ‘It was all good.’ Why change it now?” (This is more prevalent than you might think. I have been a Sunday school teacher for over 20 years and I recently had someone tell me that the reason he doesn’t attend my Sunday school class is because, “Your class is for people who want to be ‘spiritually fed.’ I don’t want that. I just want to discuss different things.” I know, amazing, but the cancer of complacency wants NOTHING to do with anything that might result in the infected person actually being “spiritually fed.”)

- Some will be confused, not understanding or realizing they have the cancer, and, as a result of the cancer itself, they won’t even know what they need to get rid of. “What is he talking about? ‘It’s all good.’ In fact, I wasn’t even aware there was a problem. Something must be happening of which we don’t want to be a part. Time to move on.”

In John 6:41-59 Jesus explains that He is the bread of life, and that “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” In verse 60 the people declare, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” Then in verse 66, “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” When the teachings of Jesus “get hard,” the response of the “it’s all good” crowd is, often, to “walk with Him no more.” Sometimes it is the teachings of the pastor (about Jesus) that “get hard,” which causes the “it’s all good” crowd to conclude, “It’s time to move on.”

And it gets worse! The longer the cancer exists, the deeper it spreads and the more of a person’s life it infects. Doctrines that are absolutely ridiculous are adopted to protect the euphoric feeling which the cancer of complacency offers. Let me explain.

Recently I was discussing the whole idea of sin, repentance, heaven, and hell with someone who has been a Christian for a long, long time. The issue of free will came up in our conversation and he basically said, “Free will is negated by salvation.” Excuse me? Yes, that one is pretty silly for sure, as the Bible has much to say to the contrary, but it got a lot worse pretty quickly.

I addressed the free will issue by quoting quite a few verses from the Gospels where Jesus Himself was quoted, addressing this very topic. Here is what he said in response to Scripture—most of which were the very words of Jesus Himself, “The words of Jesus spoken before His death on the cross are not valid because they are part of the Old Covenant. The Gospels are basically invalid for the Christian.” Whoa! Are you kidding me? The words of Jesus Himself, the very Messiah who was chosen and sent by the Most High God, are invalid for the Christian? Um, I don’t think so. So, I asked a simple question. I said, “Why do you feel you need to mold the Scripture to fit your beliefs instead of molding your beliefs to fit Scripture?” His answer was astonishing and demonstrates EXACTLY how deadly this cancer can become. He said, “As I have thought about my salvation for many years, I realized I didn’t feel as secure as I thought I should. By separating Scripture in this way, my feelings about my spiritual security are much better.”

Wowser! The craziest thing about his response is that he actually believes that he has the authority to draw whatever lines in the sand he needs to draw in order to protect how he feels about his spiritual security. Utterly amazing! So, let me get this straight. The answer then, is simply to interpret Scripture in whatever way we need in order to CREATE a condition that supports our set of beliefs, and our comfortable feelings about those beliefs, rather than the truth? This person is obviously stricken with the cancer of complacency on a fairly deep level.

In other words, it is entirely all right to twist the Scriptures into whatever shape we need them to be, in order to support our beliefs and our feelings. And just on “what” are these beliefs and feelings based? The beliefs and feelings are centered around complacency because in that state we get to “feel better” about our spiritual condition—regardless of the fact that we are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked”—which Jesus tells us and we aren’t even aware of it.

Why aren’t we aware of it? As long as the attitude is “it’s all good,” there is no reason to look around or look closely at our true condition. There is also no need to ask Jesus what He thinks—especially since the cancer would probably reject it anyway.

As crazy as all this sounds—it is worse than you might think . . .

Chapter 5

“But the sons of this world have not God; they have only each other, and they walk holding to each other and looking to one another for assurance like frightened children.”   ~A.W. Tozer

“Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech.”   ~A.W. Tozer

Let’s look more closely at this spiritual cancer . . .

Let’s take a moment to consider the physical disease of cancer. Cancer, in and of itself, is not the problem. Cancer is a disease people get like chicken pox, measles, or mumps. The problem with cancer, however, is that we can't fix it. We can't control it. In most cases there is very little, really, that we can do about it. We can throw all kinds of treatments at it, like radiation or chemo-therapy, trying to get rid of it or, at the very least, trying to slow it down.

While you can beat the rusty nail of cancer back into the board for a little while, eventually the nail is going to pop back up. So far the best treatment that medical science has been able to find for cancer is to simply cut it out of the body by removing the body parts it has infected. If you find out too late that you are infected, then often you can't even cut out the body parts that are infected because it has spread too far. At that point, cutting it out would mean cutting out the body parts that are vital to a person’s life.

Sin is no different. Jesus draws a similar picture of it for us in Scripture. In Matthew 5:29-30 Jesus says,

“29If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. 30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”

Unlike cancer, which attacks a few very unfortunate people, the serious condition of sin has attacked EVERY last one of us. Romans 3:23 says,

“23…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

This verse doesn’t leave much wiggle room because of the word “all.” “All” means “all of us” have sinned. We all have the condition—but most of us don’t want to admit it. We also don’t want to admit the simple truth of the words of Jesus as shown above in the Scriptural passage of Matthew 5:29-30, which is quite simple: Sin sends us to hell. The cancer of complacency doesn’t help much either because the idea of sin is wrapped up neatly in the same package that contains everything that “is all good.” But, like physical cancer, sin, in and of itself, isn't the problem. The problem is that we can't do anything about it on our own. This was the whole point of the law in the first place. The law was put in place in the Old Testament to point us to our sin.

Romans 3:20 says,

“20Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

Additionally, Galatians 2:16 says,

“16…knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”

But what does this mean? The law was put in place by God and was meant to point us to the fact that we can't deal with our sinful condition on our own. The Pharisees, however, in their pride, twisted the law and turned it into a checklist, incorrectly believing that by completing the checklist of their religious rituals, they were, in fact, taking care of the problem of sin. According to Jesus, this was a big mistake, and He dealt with it often whenever the Pharisees confronted Him, or whenever He confronted the Pharisees during His ministry on earth.

Obviously, there is a lot that is theologically and Scripturally incorrect with this. Yet, if most of us who call ourselves Christians, would be honest with ourselves (and with God), this is how most of us believe it works—and for those of us who do, in fact, know that it doesn’t work this way—we certainly wish that it did. By operating with a checklist, we very conveniently remove our heart condition from the equation and make it all about what we do rather than who we truly are.

The biggest problem with this belief is that we simply mold Scripture to fit our belief, thereby negating the need for Jesus. By doing this, several things can be accomplished. First, if we can twist things around by turning our spiritual condition into how well we perform on the checklist, we can then go to bed at night actually feeling pretty good about the fact that we believe “we are rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.” “After all, I do pretty darn well with regard to the checklist, if I do say so myself!”

Second, we negate the need for Jesus. Galatians 2:21 says,

“21I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

Let me paraphrase this verse: I do not set aside the grace of God; for if a right relationship with God could be achieved with a checklist, then Christ died for no reason.

By making our spiritual condition all about “what we do” for our own righteousness, we effectually remove the need for a Savior. What, exactly, is a Savior in the first place? Obviously, a Savior is Someone who “saves” us from something. What is it, exactly, that this Savior Jesus saves us from? The Bible tells us He saves us from our sins. Matthew 1:21 tells us,

“21And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

And, John 1:29 says,

“29The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’”

However, rather than accepting the Biblical truth of this, it is far easier to just think we have it figured out and can do it on our own by “doing the checklist items.” If that were possible, then we certainly don’t need a Savior—since we can handle it by ourselves (which is exactly what the Pharisees thought). Scripture tells us how God views this idea in Isaiah 64:6 which says,

“6But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.”

This verse is telling us that the things that we do while trying to be righteous are viewed by God as filthy rags, basically as useless. As long as we believe we can handle it on our own—which really just means the cancer is alive and well and is also doing its job to cause us to believe “it’s all good”—then there is no reason for us to consider the truth: that we are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked”—and that we, therefore, desperately need a Savior to save us. From what? Our SIN! There, I said the “S” word. Whose sin? Ours! There, I said that too.

Being in such a state of complacency brings about another piece of the truth we would rather not deal with. The simple fact is that we are, in fact, sinners. Christians (and churches) of today are amazingly adept at ignoring sin—let alone taking any ownership of it or any personal responsibility for it. What is interesting is that complacency gets us to believe that we “become sinners” if and when we sin—while the Biblical truth is that we “sin” because we are sinners . It is no light matter, and Scripture tells us just how bad sin really is. The issue of sin is bad enough that Scripture demonstrates in order for sin to be atoned, there MUST be the shedding of blood. This is seen clearly in Matthew 26:28,

“28‘For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.’”

And also in, Hebrews 9:22 (among others) which says,

“22And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.”

In Leviticus 17:11 we are told,

“11‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.’”

The other interesting thing is that death is in the blood as well—as in the one whose blood that is shed for life must die. The only Scriptural remedy for the remission of sin that we are given is the shedding of blood to the point of death. Since “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23)—something or someone MUST die in order to atone for the sin.

The whole point of an innocent lamb “without spot or blemish” as a suitable sacrifice is that the lamb “represents” pure and innocent blood that must be shed (which is the tactful way of saying the lamb must be killed). This is seen in many Scripture references. Here are a few of them. Exodus 12:5 says,

“5Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.”

Leviticus 1:10 says,

“10‘If his offering is of the flocks—of the sheep or of the goats—as a burnt sacrifice, he shall bring a male without blemish.’”

Leviticus 3:6 says,

“6‘If his offering as a sacrifice of a peace offering to the LORD is of the flock, whether male or female, he shall offer it without blemish.’”

There are many, many more. In referencing Christ as a lamb, 1 Peter 1:19 says,

“19…but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

The shed blood of the innocent sacrifice is the antidote for the deadly poison which sin brings. This brings us to a very significant point that almost every Christian doesn't know or understand. Yet, it is the most important part of the Christmas story. (My guess is that you weren’t expecting to end up in the Christmas story while reading this book . . .)

Jesus coming into the world as a baby, as part of God’s plan of redemption, is certainly a significant event. The Old Testament prophets prophesied specifically about this event in many places. However, physically "how" Jesus would arrive is the most important point of the entire Christmas story. How, exactly, did Jesus arrive on the scene? He was born of a virgin. Now, most people who are reading this right now are thinking to themselves "Yeah, a virgin birth is a little weird, but so what?"

Here is why it is soooo important. In order for Jesus to come to earth as an acceptable sacrifice for our sins, He would have to be as an innocent lamb—thus the familiar label of Jesus as the Lamb of God. But what, exactly, does this mean? Simply this: Jesus would have to have pure and innocent blood running through His veins. This point is not negotiable because of the need for the shedding of blood in order for there to be remission of sin (Hebrews 9:22).

The reason the law was not perfect was because the entire sacrificial system was unable to have truly pure and innocent blood shed for the remission of sin. All sacrifices, as part of the Levitical law, provided temporary atonement for sin and, as such, needed to be carried out over and over and over and over and . . . you get the idea. Scripture uses the word “continually.” In describing the Levitical law, Hebrews 10:1 says,

“1For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.”

OK. Let’s get back to the virgin birth. Medical science has discovered something very significant that will help us here. We now know (from the incredible advances in medical science) that the circulatory system (the blood and vascular system that carries the blood throughout the body) literally and physically comes from the male sperm. (Of course it does; God already knew this since He was the One who designed the whole pro-creation thing in the first place.)

What does this mean? It means that the ONLY way to have a child whose blood has NOT been tainted by sin (as happens automatically when a child is conceived by the sperm of a sinful man) is for the conception of Jesus within the womb of Mary to occur via the Holy Spirit rather than by the sperm of a sinful man. In this way, and this way alone, Jesus was born into this world as a suitable substitute sacrifice for us because He was, quite literally and physically, without spot or blemish due to the perfectly pure and innocent blood that was running through His veins. Without being born of a virgin, Jesus would NOT have been a suitable sacrificial lamb.

Because of the conception by the Holy Spirit, the blood running through His veins was, therefore, NOT tainted by sin. Rather, because of how He was conceived (of the Holy Spirit), He was born with pure blood. Step one of four is now complete. (If you did not know this before, you now know the most significant piece of the Christmas story that forever ties Christmas to Easter in the most important of ways: NO virgin birth means NO sacrifice on the cross means NO resurrection means NO eternal life.)

However, that by itself wasn't enough to make Jesus a satisfactory substitute sacrifice for us, and our sinful condition. The reason is that His blood had to "remain" pure after being tested (tempted to sin). This is why the temptation of Jesus by Satan in Matthew 4:1-11 was so significant. This is also why Hebrews 2:18 and Hebrews 4:15 are so important,

“18For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.”

“15For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

Jesus was tempted in every way and yet was without sin. Being tempted in EVERY way and yet without sin means He CAN take our place as a sacrifice for our sin because His blood remained pure when tempted with the same things that have caused us to sin. Two out of four conditions are now in place.

Before we continue, there is something here that is very important to consider. I have heard it said more than once that, “Jesus was not capable of sin.” Or, “Jesus was not capable of pride.” This is not, and cannot be, true. The only way His death on the cross is valid for us is that He was, in fact, without sin while having the free will to sin if and when He was tempted. If He was not capable of sinning simply because of who He was (as man AND Deity), then the whole “dying for our sins” thing would be a scam. Satan would have a hey-day with that one. Can you imagine the corner God would be backed into if Satan could say to Him, “I am sorry God, but your ‘so-called sacrifice’ isn’t valid because You rigged the deal. You made it so Jesus couldn’t sin, thereby negating His standing in their place as the sin offering. Nice try, by the way, but these sinners still belong to me!” Nope. Jesus, as a man capable of sin, DID NOT sin. This is the truth the Bible tells us.

Ah, but we aren't done quite yet. We have two out of four critical pieces in place. His blood was pure and it remained pure. Now the obvious third piece is that the blood must be shed (again, this is just a tactful way of saying that Jesus had to be killed). God’s wrath had to be satisfied by the forsaking of the sacrifice. The wrath of God is another non-negotiable when it comes to sin that hasn’t been atoned for—and God’s wrath is also something the cancer of complacency causes us to ignore and rationalize away. To acknowledge God’s wrath, as is presented Biblically with regard to our sinful condition, would REQUIRE that we rethink our position of “it’s all good.” Well, we can’t have that—so the easy way out is to simply ignore sin. As long as we can ignore sin, we also get to ignore the entire concept of God’s wrath with regard to our sin. Pretty neat and tidy little thing, this cancer, huh?

Well, the Bible shows us just how fierce God’s wrath is when it comes to sin. The only begotten Son of God the Father had to die a very cruel death. While on the cross Jesus said: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" The Bible doesn’t tell us what God’s reply was, but, based on Scripture, His reply had to be: "I have to forsake You because You are standing in sin’s place as the sin offering—and My wrath against sin MUST be satisfied." With His death in our place and His perfectly pure blood shed for the remission of our sin, we now have three out of four requirements in place to deal with our sin.

Step four? Since the penalty of sin is death, the only way for the Savior to pay our debt of blood for us, and to then grant us life, is that the Savior Who died in our place must be above the very penalty of death as the result of spilling all of His blood for us. In other words, even though He experienced death on our behalf, death itself cannot have dominion over Him, or He cannot then make the offer of eternal life to us. This is why 1 Corinthians 15:55 says,

“55O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”

I will tell you exactly where the “sting of death” and “Hades’ victory” are: They are nailed to the cross of Christ!

The resurrection of Christ, from the grave, demonstrates that even though the Savior went through death—He is not held by death itself and can, therefore, make the offer of eternal life to those who are willing to accept His death and shed blood in their place as blood payment for their sin. So what is the point of all this? It is simply this:

We can do nothing about our sinful condition. Nothing. Period. As Savior, He and He alone, can and does quite literally save us from our helpless condition—which is that we are, in fact, sinners.

Ah, but the cancer tells us we don’t need Him. Remember, “We say we have need of nothing.” The only way our feeble minds can coexist with the deadly cancer is to ignore what we know to be true about sin. Namely, that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). The cancer of complacency lulls us into believing we are NOT “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” As long as the cancer convinces us “it’s all good,” we get to continue to feel good—even though certain death is just around the corner.

We also shouldn’t take this too lightly when considering just how close death really is. Jesus gives us an interesting example in Scripture. Luke 12:16-21 says,

“16Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: ‘The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. 17And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ 18So he said, ‘I will do this; I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.’’ 20But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ 21So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.’”

Basically, Jesus presents this man’s heart condition as one of complacency. Like Revelation 3:17 he believed he “was rich, had become wealthy and had need of nothing.” (Actually, he did believe he needed something—bigger barns to store all the junk that had made him believe “it’s all good.”) Just such a heart condition caused God to conclude it was time to “require his soul tonight.” Ouch! This example in Scripture is really nothing more than complacency in a man’s heart producing a state of being that we know as lukewarm, as Jesus describes in Revelation 3:16. A careful read of Revelation 3 shows us in verse 19 that the only action left that can save us from this cancer is,

“19‘As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.’”

The key word to look at more closely here is the word “zealous.” The definition of zealous is: To be moved with passion to the point of action. “Passion” is a word most people understand, but very, very few Christians actually experience or possess when it comes to their relationship with God through Jesus Christ. The cancer of complacency dulls our hearts and minds and, most of the time, complacency causes the dulled Christian to just go through the motions. “It’s all good” means very little action is EVER taken, let alone any action that might be motivated by passion—and especially NOT repentance.

And just where is Jesus while all this is going on? Revelation 3:20 says He is standing at the door knocking. Ah, but the cancer strikes again! “It’s all good” can’t let us answer the door, because if we do so, it might mean we are in for some chastisement as Jesus describes in verse 19.

“19‘As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. 20Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.’”

The cancer strikes yet again. We know what Scripture says, but certainly “I” don’t need to answer the door! Certainly “I” don’t need any chastisement! Certainly “I” am not “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” Nope! Not me! Why? Because I have the cancer of complacency which has caused me to also have spiritual hypoxemic hypoxia and that has caused me to conclude that “it’s all good.”

At this point, the cancer will move into a self-protection mode seeking to more fully infect the Christian even deeper, so a new doctrine is adopted. The cancer of complacency whispers ever so quietly, and at the same time, very incessantly,

“The words of Jesus don’t really apply to you. He spoke most of them before He died on the cross so they are part of the Old Covenant. Oh, and don’t take this sin thing too seriously either. Passion and zealous repentance are for the ‘real sinners.’ And that lukewarm thing? Nah, doesn’t apply to you either—cuz ‘it’s all good.’”

And now for the crazy part. Jesus will let us have this cancer and will not force us to go into treatment until we recognize we are sick. Matthew 9:12 says,

“12When Jesus heard that, He said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.’”

Let’s look at what Scripture has to say about “the real sinners” that encountered Jesus (and remember, “sshh, this doesn’t really apply to you”. . .).

Chapter 6

“And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all.”    ~Luke 6:19

“The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people.”    ~A.W. Tozer

Just a touch, Lord—just a touch!

Another very interesting thing about cancer is this: while a person does NOT yet realize that he/she has it, it is the furthest thing from his/her mind. Often, there are signs that, when looking back, it is easy to see that it should have been checked out sooner—before it was too late.

This leads to another very interesting thing about cancer. Once a person knows he/she has cancer, and that it has spread beyond just a localized gland or organ, there is an almost instant transformation from “it’s all good” to a place of utter and complete desperation as the very real threat of death hangs in the balance. It is also interesting that zealous behavior is often what is seen from people who are desperate. Passion comes boiling up from deep, deep within as the person realizes just what is important and what isn’t—which is also often followed by the realization of what is true and what isn’t. Desperation has a very interesting way of peeling the onion through all the garbage layers that the cancer of complacency has piled on. Desperation can often see very clearly what is true and what isn’t. Desperation removes the blinders and sets the passion free.

I, personally, have never had physical cancer. I know people who have had it and it is now in remission. I also know people who have had it and had it literally cut out of their bodies. And, sadly, I have known people who have died because of it. However, I have had the cancer of complacency. I know it well and I know how dangerous it can be. I know the silent killer that it is. The cancer of complacency not only causes us to conclude we “have need of nothing,” but it also causes us to conclude that those around us who DO realize they desperately need Jesus must be beneath us because “we don’t need Him as badly as they do.” Even now, as you read this, you are probably thinking to yourself something like, “I would never think something like that!” Yet, we tolerate passionate expressions of desperation for Him from people in our church services with a quiet disdain thinking to ourselves, “I wonder what could be so bad that they are acting like ‘that’ in church?” See what I mean?

Let’s look at some Scriptural examples of this starting with Luke 18:9-14 which says,

“9Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ 13And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 14I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.’”

Let me paraphrase these two prayers.

Pharisee : “Lord, thank You that ‘it’s all good.’ And thank You that I’m NOT like ‘that’ obvious sinner over there. It’s really too bad that he needs You that badly—and I thank You that I don’t!”

Tax Collector : “Lord, I desperately need You! I know I am a sinner, and I know I need You so badly I can’t even bring myself to look up at You!”

From the perspective of Jesus, which one of these guys has the cancer that is still untreated? Of course, it is the Pharisee. Remember that one of the definitions of complacency is “satisfaction,” and one of the definitions of satisfaction is “pride.” The cancer of complacency causes a person to slip into the dangerous sin of pride. In pride he/she says, “I have need of nothing because ‘it’s all good.’” This is really just another way of saying, “I don’t need Jesus as badly as other people do because ‘ I’m all good.’”

Jesus then tells us that the Pharisee exalted himself and will, therefore, be humbled. How is he humbled? He thinks “it’s all good,” but the actual truth is that he is NOT justified before God. That means he is headed to hell—even though the cancer of complacency has him believing his checklist is complete, and he further feels good about the fact that he prays, tithes and fasts in the first place and, therefore, “it’s all good”—because his sin has not been forgiven (which results in not having obtained justification before God). This is another place the cancer of complacency does NOT want to go. “It’s all good” means “I don’t have to consider the truth of hell—regardless of what Scripture has to say about it.”

Here is another one. This is found in Mark 5:25-34 which reads,

“25Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, 26and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. 27When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. 28For she said, ‘If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.’ 29Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. 30And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched My clothes?’ 31But His disciples said to Him, ‘You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’’ 32And He looked around to see her who had done this thing.33But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34And He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.’”

Are you kidding me? Twelve years? She had spent all the money she had on physicians who could do nothing for her, yet they continued to take her money until she didn’t have any more to pay them. [Hmmm. The healthcare system was corrupt back then as well. But I digress.]

At this point in her life, the word “desperate” probably doesn’t even come close to describing her mental and emotional condition—let alone her financial condition. If there was anyone who was sick and tired of leaving the doctor’s office “as she was” when she got there, it was this woman. The same story is given in Luke 8:45-48. In Luke’s recounting of the event we see some interesting behavior.

“45And Jesus said, ‘Who touched Me?’ When all denied it, Peter and those with Him said, ‘Master, the multitudes throng and press You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’’ 46But Jesus said, ‘Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me.’ 47Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately. 48And He said to her, ‘Daughter, be of good cheer, your faith has made your well. Go in peace.’”

There was a crowd “thronging and pressing” Jesus. He was being touched from all sides by all kinds of people that day. But, when Jesus asked, “Who touched me?” in verse 45, “all denied it.” Isn’t that interesting? His fame was spreading like wild fire because of all the incredible things that happened to people when He was around. Everybody who was there that day wanted to get close to this guy Jesus who, with every single act of compassion and every single miracle, was becoming more and more famous. Ah, but when called on it by a simple question, “Who touched Me?” everybody denied it. “Wasn’t me.” “Me either.” “Touch Him? Nope, wasn’t me. Might have been that guy over there.” “Nope, not me!”

Even the disciples hadn’t put two and two together because they asked a reasonable (albeit stupid) question, “You are getting pounded from every side by all these people . . . what do You mean, ‘Who touched Me?’” (It was a stupid question because what they were really asking Jesus was, “Why would You ask such a stupid question?”—you can trust me on this one: Jesus doesn’t ask stupid questions.)

Nobody wanted to admit that they were desperate for contact with Him—which is really pretty silly because if they weren’t desperate for contact with Him, then they wouldn’t have flocked from miles around to come see Him in the first place—the One that everybody is and has been talking about lately. The disciples didn’t even connect the dots that “somebody” had touched Him out of complete and abject desperation, fully believing that He, and He alone, could do for her what all the physicians who had taken all her money could not.

What was the result? She didn’t leave the presence of Jesus that day “as she was.” She left changed. There was no cancer of complacency with this woman. “As you were” was no longer an option. It took two things that day to get the power of Jesus flowing in her direction (please excuse the pun):

1) A recognition of her desperate need for Him, and

2) Her belief that He, and He alone, would and could satisfy her desperation by bringing about change in her life. Her belief and her expectation that day was that she would leave His presence “NOT as she was.”

In her humility, she didn’t even want to talk to Him. Like the tax collector who wouldn’t even lift his head toward heaven, this woman knew that she didn’t need rhetoric—she needed contact with HIM! Not only that, but she believed so strongly in His power to help her desperate situation that she concluded she didn’t even need “Him to touch her”—all she needed to do was get close enough to “touch Him!”

Not too long after this event in Mark 5, we come across another situation that happens in Mark 6. Between these two situations Jesus:

- Healed a flow of blood by her touching His clothes. (the situation we just looked at above in Mark 5:25-34)

- Brought a child back to life. (Mark 5:35-43)

- Healed more sick people. (Mark 6:5)

- Sent His disciples to cast out demons and heal the sick. (Mark 6:7-13)

- Fed the 5,000 men (and lots more women and children). (Mark 6:37-44)

- Walked on water. (Mark 6:45-52)

His fame is spreading and now we see an interesting shift in the attitude of the people. Mark 6:53-56 says,

“53When they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret and anchored there. 54And when they came out of the boat, immediately the people recognized Him, 55ran through that whole surrounding region, and began to carry about on beds those who were sick to wherever they heard He was. 56Wherever He entered, into villages, cities, or the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged Him that they might just touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched Him were made well.”

When you read the verses shown above, it is easy to see that things are a little different now. No doubt the rumor mill has spread the story about the woman who had touched His garment, because now we see a little bit different attitude of the people. We have now gone from:

“Wasn’t me. I didn’t touch Him.” And, “Everybody is touching You. What do You mean, ‘Who touched Me?’”

to,

“…and begged Him that they might just touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched Him were made well.”

But look closer. We see a very interesting set of circumstances occurring here. Basically, it was mayhem! The people were running all over the place carrying the people who were sick on beds to where? Wherever they “heard” He was. Think about that for a minute. There were no cell phones, no Facebook, no text messages, no radio, and no cable television. You hear a rumor that He is ten miles away so you pack up your sick father on a bed and you carry him for several hours only to find out Jesus has moved on from there and is now another five miles (several more hours) away—or worse, the rumor that you heard was wrong, and Jesus was not there in the first place.

Verse 56 shows us the real scope of this frantic desperation. “Villages, cities, or the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged Him.” How many square miles do you suppose would be covered by, “villages, cities, or the country?” Regardless of where the people ultimately found Him, what followed was always the same: They begged Him to just let them touch the hem of His garment. Not His garment, mind you. The “hem” of it, which was the lowest part of His clothes—the part that was dirty from dragging on the dirt as He walked, the part that was dirty from the dust His sandals were kicking up as He walked from village to city to countryside. (Incidentally, though it hung low, the “hem” did carry and symbolize amazing things via the tassels that were tied to it and it is an interesting and amazing study in itself.)

Here is the new attitude of the people.

“Lord, I beg you! You don’t have to talk to me. You don’t even have to look my way. Just, please, walk close enough and let me just touch the hem of your garment—and I KNOW I will be changed! Pleeeaaase Lord!!!”

Isn’t it interesting that “satisfied desperation” breeds a sudden recognition of desperation in others? This is exactly why we don’t see much of God’s tangible movement among Christians or in the church these days. Where there is too much of the cancer of complacency, there is very little desperation—if any. With too much cancer of complacency, and too little desperation, you have too much “it’s all good” and too little zealous repentance driven by passion—if any. (By the way, complacency and passion are polar opposites of each other.)

Ah, but where God “IS” moving in tangible ways, within Christian circles and within the church, is usually because somebody dared to call the cancer on the carpet for what it TRULY is, and in so doing:

- they recognized their desperation for Him,

- which was then followed by zealous and passionate repentance,

- which was then answered by the movement and touch of the Almighty God,

- which further brings about authentic and IMMEDIATE change in the person’s life.

Then what happens next? “Satisfied desperation” breeds further recognition of desperate need for Him as the shackles of the cancer of complacency are traded in for desperation for Him, which then causes passionate, zealous repentance, which is further followed by more of His touch bringing about more change. “As you were” is no longer good enough as more and more people then realize “it ISN’T all good after all.” The cancer has been exposed. And so “IT” (“He”) spreads. Corporate revival in the church can ONLY happen if/when a group of people corporately denounce the cancer of complacency with zealous and passionate repentance, thereby, becoming desperate for His touch—or even just the opportunity to be close enough to touch Him!

Seldom do you see the tangible movement of God in just one or two people within a church and then it stops there. Yes, it can and does happen occasionally. But, if it does stop after just one or two people, it is clear evidence that the cancer of complacency has spread too deep and is about to kill as the desperation of others is ignored and/or treated like the Pharisee: “Lord, thank you that I don’t need You that badly!” Rather than the satisfied desperation breeding further desperation for Him, these churches just “keep on keepin’ on” with everybody leaving just “as they were” when they arrived. The cancer of complacency then spreads even deeper within the people and within the church with each passing day and week. All this while the tangible movement of God IS changing the lives of scores of people in Christian circles and churches where their cries of desperation to the Great Physician are contagious—where the cancer of complacency is being exposed and/or has been eradicated and has been replaced with desperation for Him which shows itself in zealous and passionate repentance.

My prayer: “Lord, if in Your infinite wisdom, You ever see me even headed towards the cancer of complacency—please take me home to be with You right then and there—and save me by sparing me the slow but certain death. Please, Lord God Almighty, keep me desperate for Your touch!”

Chapter 7

“The true, humble and uncompromising church of Christ is harder and harder to find. It is not because leaders and the rank and file within the church are bad. It is only because the Holy Spirit of God has been forcibly shut out and the needful gift of discernment about spiritual things is no longer present.”   ~A.W. Tozer

The cancer of complacency is blind.

You don’t have to look very far in the Bible to find example after example of “spiritual blindness.” Jesus found spiritual blindness often as He walked the road of ministry during His several years of helping people recognize the truth:

- The truth of His words.

- The truth of Who He was.

- The truth of what it costs to follow Him.

- The truth of what happens if we don’t follow Him.

Sadly, far too often Jesus came across those that would ignore the truth of His words, ignore the truth of Who He was, ignore the truth of what it costs to follow Him, and ignore the truth of what happens if we don’t. The amazing part of the cancer of complacency is that it survives BECAUSE of the blindness it creates and causes. Remember Revelation 3:17 says,

“17Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.”

Notice here that those with the cancer of complacency, those who believe “it’s all good” enough so that they will say it, are blind to the truth. We see another example of spiritual blindness in Matthew 15:10-14,

“10When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said the them, ‘Hear and understand: 11Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.’ 12Then His disciples came and said to Him, ‘Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?’ 13But He answered and said, ‘Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.’”

The Pharisees wrongfully believed that defilement came from failing to do the things that were on the checklist. In this case, what you could or could not eat, or whether you needed to wash your hands before you ate. They were blind to the truth which is that God looks at a person’s heart. What comes “out” of the mouth comes from the heart. This is further clarified by Jesus in verses 17-18,

“17‘Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? 18But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.’”

Now, it isn’t entirely fair to hold the Pharisees to the Biblical standard of the New Testament because they did not yet have the New Testament as a Biblical reference (although the very Messiah Himself was the one telling them the truth, so maybe I am being a bit too easy on them). However, they should have been very familiar with this concept from 1 Samuel 16:1-13 when Samuel was to pick the future king from the sons of Jesse. Verse 7 says,

“7But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’”

The Pharisees, as well as too many of today’s Christians and church leaders, look at the outward appearance and erroneously come to the conclusion that “it’s all good.” The blind continue, to this day, to lead the blind. The cancer spreads and spreads because not only is the cancer of complacency highly contagious, but the blindness it creates is even more so. It causes people to become blind to the spiritual perspective which God has by taking the easy road of looking at the outward appearance. This isn’t the only place we see this in Scripture. Matthew 23:27-28 says,

“27‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.’”

It is funny how our outward appearance has become so important to us. The crazy part about this is that it, too, is a symptom of the cancer of complacency. By believing “it’s all good” with a bunch of other people who we know ALSO believe “it’s all good,” it then becomes really important to us and to those around us to protect this illusion. We do this by protecting the image we portray of ourselves by projecting that “it’s all good” with me. It is so important to protect this illusion that it causes a shift from what should be important to us over to what will help us continue to believe “it’s all good”—namely, if I can convince others that “it’s all good” with me, then that furthers my feeling that “it’s all good.” (If you think about this long enough, smoke will start to come out of your ears.)

We worry more about what others think of us than we do about what God thinks of us. This, then, creates additional blindness to spiritual and Scriptural truth. Jesus demonstrates this in John 5:44. Here Jesus asks an interesting question—which is answered within the question itself.

“44How can you believe, who receive honor from one another and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?”

If honor from one another is preferred to honor that comes from the only God, then the question of “How can you believe?” is answered simply, “You can’t!”

The cancer of complacency rages on, and we are blinded to spiritual truth because what someone else thinks of us is too important to us for us to consider what God thinks. We show up “as we are” and, if we can keep the illusion intact with others, then we can leave “as we were” and another week slips by, and we are no closer to God “than we were” a week ago. But, hey, no big deal, right? Cuz, “it’s all good.”

Well, I have some really bad news for you. It “ain’t” good at all. In addition to causing blindness, this cancer of complacency also has some built in antibodies that help protect itself from the truth and anything that resembles the truth. You see “truth,” in its most basic form (authentic truth from God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or Scripture), is the only antibiotic that can fight this cancer. The “truth” is the only thing that can set someone free from the shackles of this insidious cancer of complacency.

The truth is that we are, in fact, wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. The cancer tells us we are rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing (including Him). The antibodies that fight off the antibiotic of authentic truth are, in some ways, even stronger than the very cancer itself because these antibodies are what allowed, even invited, the cancer of complacency to infect the heart and mind in the first place. And what’s even worse than this is that these antibodies are the very things that are even able to protect themselves—in addition to protecting the cancer. They work very, very well together in the fight to keep us on track for eternity in hell.

Of all the things Satan has been able to come up with in his battle arsenal against the Almighty God for our very souls—the creation of these antibodies is the most ingenious and most powerful thing Satan has ever done—or probably ever will do. It is important to remember that Satan’s goal is to win the battle for your soul—there is no second place. Your soul is either his or God’s, and there is no middle ground. This battle is a serious fight and he will pull out all the stops in an attempt to keep you from entering into an authentic relationship with Jesus.

Let’s take a close look at what these viral killers are and how they function. The problem, however, is this: If you are already infected with any of these—it is going to be VERY difficult for you to be able to recognize them. They are that good, that insidious, that infectious and that blinding. They are so good, that if you have any of them, they will make you blind to the very words you read on these pages (and you can believe this: if they can make you blind to the words written in the Bible, then making you blind to the words written in this book will be a piece of cake).

Are you ready? I hope so because the battle raging for your soul doesn’t get any trickier than what is coming in the next chapter . . .

Chapter 8

“One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team.”   ~A.W. Tozer

The antibodies that protect the cancer of complacency and even protect themselves . . .

This is an interesting chapter because it will expose some things of which most people may or may not be aware, but most assuredly are not aware that they affect (and infect) them.

Have you ever heard of the word “bias?” Sounds like a fairly benign word. Four little letters. No big deal, right? We don’t think twice about it when a “biased” father brags about how good his son is at his son’s sport of choice. We know. We have been to the games and watched the performance of the bragged-about son. We know this father’s son certainly ISN’T “all that.” But, the father truly believes it because he is biased. We even cut this obviously blind dad some slack because we understand both how and why he is biased in his son’s favor—whether there is any truth to it or not.

But what happens when a bias affects us and our thinking? Or worse, what happens when a bias affects our ability to objectively process information that is, in fact, the truth (as defined by something from God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or Scripture)? Ahhh. We are immune to it because we know “we” aren’t biased—just like the Dad who can’t see the fact that he is biased towards his son. It is always “the other guy” that is affected by some bias—never us. It is nothing short of amazing as to how many people who call themselves Christians are completely tied up by one or more of these biases. Truly, it is amazing. Once you become familiar with them, you will be able to easily recognize them.

The world of psychology is all about human behavior, which is basically a study of why we do what we do, or why we believe what we believe. Believe it or not, there are things called cognitive biases at work that affect how we process information. These biases cause AND protect blindness to the truth ALL WHILE WE DON’T EVEN REALIZE IT—because the bias itself keeps us from realizing it by reinforcing the blindness the bias causes in the first place! Watch out—thinking about this one for too long can cause another headache or more smoke to come out of your ears. Understand this, however: The vicious cycle that causes headaches and smoke to come out of your ears is part of Satan’s plan for how these biases work.

Let me give you an example of how these biases can work. Let’s say you go to the eye doctor and he says to you, “After a careful look into your eyes, I see a big problem. If you don’t take care of it, soon you will lose your eyesight forever.” To which you reply, “But, Doc, my eyesight is really good, and my eyes have never felt better! In fact, I think I can see better now than I ever have in the past!” The doctor then replies, “Well, actually that doesn’t surprise me because the condition you have causes your eyes to feel good AND to even see better. But, if left untreated, you will lose your eyesight!”

The tendency will be to walk out of there believing the doctor doesn’t know what he is talking about—or, at the very least, you will want a second opinion—which you probably won’t go get because “it’s all good.” Why? Because your eyes have become biased. In their biased state—which has been caused by the infection—they can’t see or feel the truth. Even though your eyes can “see,” the infection has caused them to become blind to the truth.

The cognitive biases we are about to look at are real. You can look them up yourself. There are scads of books written about them, and there is plenty of information on the internet very readily available. Just Google “cognitive biases” and you will have plenty to read for many hours.

However, I will say it again, if you have been infected with any of these, the odds are 99% against you that you will realize it because the bias itself will keep you from the truth in two ways. First, you won’t know that you have the bias in the first place, and second, you won’t accept the truth because of the bias—even if the truth is that you have the bias! (Uh-oh, headache time again.)

Wow! You can’t get more powerful than that! It is a double whammy. Satan knows the power of these biases, and he also knows the cancer of complacency works very well with these biases. He knows that these biases protect the cancer, and he also knows that the cancer protects the biases. Satan is crafty and cunning. Many people who have a bad case of these are hopelessly headed for eternity in hell because of how difficult it is to recognize them in the first place, and once they are recognized, how many, many, many times more difficult it is to get rid of them.

There are many, many biases we could look at. There are enough of them that I could fill several books exploring them all. I have pulled out the ones that I feel are the most rampant among Christians and within the church. As you go through them, try to remember that if you catch yourself saying, “That one doesn’t apply to me”—it PROBABLY does!

Here we go:

Attentional Bias: This is the tendency of emotionally dominant stimuli, in one’s environment, to preferentially draw and hold attention and to neglect relevant data when making judgments of a correlation or association. Well, that was a mouthful. Here is how it works. If new information, whether true or not, presents a possible outcome which would go against existing emotionally dominant stimuli, then the new information is neglected. Anytime “emotionally dominant stimuli” is a part of the equation, trouble is just around the corner.

This one is seen often just after a loved one dies whose eternal destination we aren’t quite sure about. So, because of how emotionally charged this scenario is, we then start grasping at whatever things or events we can remember that will point us to a conclusion that is emotionally acceptable. It is an interesting topic really. If someone dies who TRULY had an authentic relationship with Jesus—the last thing those close to this person will wonder about is where this person is spending eternity. If those closest to the person are wondering about the deceased’s eternal destination in the first place, they probably already know the answer—but the Attentional Bias won’t let them accept it because of how emotionally charged the situation is in the first place.

Availability Cascade: A self-reinforcing process in which a collective belief gains more and more plausibility through its increasing repetition in public discourse (another way of saying, “repeat or hear something enough times and you will start to believe it”). Believe something long enough (even if it is false), and new information (no matter how true) is rejected.

If you find yourself (or hear someone else) unwilling to accept a Biblical truth by saying, “I have always been taught”—you have run into the Availability Cascade. I have seen this often in Bible studies that I have either taught or have attended over the years. A simple Biblical truth is resisted within the group study and the argument almost always begins with, “I have always . . .”

Bandwagon Effect: We all know the name. This is the tendency to do (or believe) things because many other people do (or believe) the same without regard to whether what is believed is true or even makes any logical sense. This is also related to group-think and herd behavior. While this phrase is well-known, it also relates to the feel-good environment the herd wants to enjoy (and protect) even if it requires neglecting the truth.

The following was in the Introduction of this book, but it is worth repeating here because it addresses and exposes the problem of the Bandwagon Effect:

Just because a person (or group of persons – no matter how large) chooses to believe something that isn’t true, does NOT make it true. (This one is very alive and well in the cancer-stricken church and in the cancer-stricken believer.)

Conversely, and just as straightforward: Just because a person (or group of persons – no matter how large) chooses not to believe something that is true, does NOT make it false. (This one is even more alive and well in the cancer-stricken church and in the cancer-stricken believer than the previous one.)

Base Rate Neglect or Base Rate Fallacy: This is the tendency to base judgments on specifics, ignoring more general statistical information. In other words, look at little details and ignore the big picture. This is a big one when it comes to theology. Pick a couple of specific Bible verses that agree with an already arrived at belief upon which to build a belief system and ignore the rest of Scripture which contains the “whole truth.”

The way this happens is simply by taking Scripture out of the original context, and therefore the true meaning, and using it in a context that fits the preconceived belief system. Then, ignore the rest of the “big picture” which Scripture presents—even if the rest of the Scriptural story goes against the belief system. Most major church denominations of today were created with this bias very present, alive and well.

Belief Bias: An effect where someone’s evaluation of the logical strength of an argument is biased by the believability of the conclusion. This is also a big one in theological arenas. The phrases: “I can’t believe . . .” or “I refuse to believe . . .” are signs of trouble. The Belief Bias that causes this statement, “I can’t believe a loving God would actually send people to hell.”—will, itself, cause a lot of people to end up in hell. One of the most prevalent truths regarding Scripture is that most of the people in religious leadership who Jesus encountered “refused to believe” pretty much everything about Jesus and the fact that He was, in fact, the Messiah. The “believability of the conclusion” is very dependent upon whether or not you are open to the conclusion in the first place. (Whoa, headache time again.)

Confirmation Bias: This is the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions. This is a big one when it comes to reading Scripture. If you approach Scripture with preconceived beliefs, then this bias causes you to interpret Scripture in a way that confirms what you ALREADY believe rather than approaching Scripture honestly and allowing it, and it alone, to define truth and shape our beliefs. If you approach Scripture ALREADY believing something, you can certainly find verses to support it. BUT, in most cases you also have to ignore most of the rest of Scripture that clearly says otherwise (which is also a big one with denominations whose doctrines are NOT supported by “the rest of Scripture”). This one is what causes someone to try to mold Scripture to fit their beliefs, rather than molding their beliefs to fit the truth of Scripture.

Experimenter’s or Expectation Bias: This is the tendency for experimenters to believe, certify, and publish data that agree with their expectations for the outcome of an experiment, and to disbelieve, discard, or downgrade the corresponding weightings for data that appear to conflict with those expectations. This is similar to the Confirmation Bias, but is usually in place when someone doesn’t want to accept anything about God, and then interprets Scripture as being false because of little details that are interpreted as conflicts within the text. Rather than having a preconceived belief or idea and then filtering the information, this one has a preconceived conclusion about what the information should reveal. (My head hurts on this one too, if I think about it for too long.)

Framing Effect: This is when two different sets of people end up drawing different conclusions from the same information, depending on how that information is presented. This is exactly how different denominations get their doctrines. They take Scripture and then “frame it” based on how the information fits into their belief structure. Same Bible—different interpretation. How can this happen? Simply by framing the information to fit however or whatever you need it to fit—into a pre-determined frame. Non-denominational churches understand this and their desire is to NOT frame Scripture and, therefore, they try NOT to lean towards any denominational slants. Their goal is simply to believe what the Bible says—although most non-denominational churches are, in fact, framed in their doctrinal position.

This one is a dangerous one because once the Scripture has been “framed” to “fit,” it takes on sacred strength because, after all, it “is” Scripture—even though it has been pushed, pulled, stretched, and contorted to get it to “fit the frame.” Then, this bias is used to “frame the presentation” in an attempt to gather support. This one is a very good example of the blind leading the blind. Information gets framed to fit and then the framed information is then presented to others as the truth—which is erroneously presented as true because it is “backed by Scripture.”

Hyperbolic Discounting: This is the tendency for people to have a stronger preference for more immediate payoffs relative to later payoffs. This is a BIGGY when it comes to heaven and hell. The desire to sleep good tonight is much more desired than considering eternity in heaven or hell. So, feel-good theology—which is centered on feeling good NOW while rejecting anything that threatens it—even if it is the truth, comes from this bias. This one is a big one which Satan uses to support the “it’s all good” illusion.

Illusion of Control: This is the tendency to overestimate one’s degree of influence over other external events. This one plays itself out as, “Since I am a smart individual and I am capable of figuring it out on my own, then ‘such and so’ must be the way it is—because that is how I want it.” This one gains strength as others are recruited to buy into the logic of “such and so” because it certainly makes sense. When the truth is: None of us are in control of anything having to do with God. None of us. No matter how much control we think we might have, or talk ourselves into believing we have.

Information Bias: This is the tendency to seek information even when it cannot affect action or facts. This is really prevalent in theological circles of intelligent people. No matter what man thinks, or talks himself into believing, there is NOTHING any one of us can do to manipulate or control God. Period. It is NOT possible and it is stupid to even discuss it as a possibility. BUT, the intelligent gather all kinds of information (often under the control of some or all of the biases addressed here) with the underlying belief that God can be forced to concede due to all the thick books and piles of information we gather that supports OUR position rather than God’s position. Yes, this is pretty silly, but people do this often. As I have mentioned already, I have been teaching Sunday school for over twenty years, and it is amazing to me how many people have refused to accept the Biblical truth in favor of other information they have gathered that supports their unbiblical position.

Irrational Escalation: The phenomenon where people justify increased investment in a decision, based on the cumulative prior investment, despite new evidence suggesting that the decision was probably wrong. If you have ever said (or heard someone say), “I have studied this for twenty years . . .” you are now dealing with Irrational Escalation. This is like saying, “I have believed this way for too many years to change it now.”—even though the new information is Biblical and the old beliefs are not (or might have been “framed,” etc.).

This is the one that keeps people involved with denominational cults (Mormons, etc.) when presented with Scriptural truth. Try presenting Biblical truth to a young Mormon man who comes to your door during his two-year mission. He will falsely claim “Mormons are Christians,” yet he will be unwilling to accept anything Biblically that demonstrates the actual truth because it would be too costly for him to make a change now. The prior investment in false beliefs is too great to consider anything that would cause a loss of the prior investment. Even though it is “irrational,” the investment has “escalated” to a point where there is no turning back—regardless of how theologically or Biblically incorrect the investment was in the first place.

Just-World Hypothesis: This is the tendency for people to want to believe that the world is fundamentally just, causing them to rationalize an otherwise inexplicable injustice as deserved by the victim(s). This also creates all kinds of false theologies. We then flip this around and impose other conditions. “You weren’t healed because you didn’t have enough faith” . . . (because “obviously” in a “just world,” you would have been). No. For whatever reason, God Himself chose not to provide healing. We need to remember that nothing about this world is just. God, and God ALONE, is just. We, and everything we have created, are not.

Knowledge Bias: The tendency for people to choose the option they know best rather than the best option or the factual option. When a person believes they already know something, they are far less open to “the truth.” The “intelligent Christian” is often stuck in this one. Smart people—no matter how dumb—will trust what they know best rather than being open to Scriptural truth. The funny thing about this bias is that it encourages people to believe in their intelligence. After all, they do “know” a lot.

If there is one thing that I have learned, it is that when it comes to things of God, I am clueless unless and until His Holy Spirit gives me wisdom or guidance. Every time I trust in my knowledge, it turns out to be a big mistake.

Normalcy Bias: The refusal to plan for, or react to, a disaster or major event that has never happened before. We do this all the time in church. “Let’s not plan for God to show up because He hasn’t in the past. That wouldn’t be normal. And things are too normal to shake them up anyway.” If He does show up, everybody is upset that “normalcy” was disturbed. Oh, and don’t plan for heaven or hell either—it hasn’t happened yet (of course it hasn’t happened yet while we are alive, but this bias doesn’t take that into consideration).

Ostrich Effect: We all have the mental picture of this one in mind. This is ignoring an obvious (negative) situation. When it comes to anything theologically dealing with or relating to the negative, unpleasant side of the truth, this one kicks in. Wrath of God? Head in the sand. Hell? Head in the sand. Confront the truth of my own sin? Head in the sand. (By the way: This is the one most people snicker at—not realizing they have already been infected by it.)

Recency Bias: This is a cognitive bias that results from disproportionate salience of recent stimuli or observations—in other words, the tendency to weigh recent events more than earlier events. This is the emergent church bias. Forget the Biblical model because it is too old and isn’t relevant to recent data.

“Adapt the church model to fit the people”—which is completely backwards Biblically, which says people need to/must adapt to God. God hasn’t changed—the Bible says this is so, but recent data suggests that people don’t want to change. Ya think? Why do you suppose that people don’t want to change? (This is your chance to demonstrate what you have learned thus far . . . that’s right, because they erroneously believe “it’s all good.”)

Semmelweis Reflex: This is the tendency to reject new evidence that contradicts a paradigm. Another way of saying, “There is no more room in ‘my rut’ for the truth.” Once you start thinking a certain way (paradigm), the paradigm filters and affects how/if you will accept the truth when it is presented. This one is very deadly because “it’s all good” is really a paradigm—a way of thinking and believing—that keeps people in the “it’s all good” rut. (Interestingly, Zig Ziglar defines a “rut” as, “a grave with the ends kicked out.” Thanks, Zig. That is a great mental picture that clearly and correctly depicts this bias.)

Subjective Validation Bias: The perception that something is true if a person’s belief demands it to be true, and something is, conversely, false is a person’s belief demands it to be false. The internal desire/demand for something to be true (even if it isn’t) causes us to accept it as true rather than considering or accepting the actual truth. This is one of the most dangerous biases of all, once any of the other biases have allowed the cancer of complacency to take root. This is Satan’s crown jewel right here. Once Satan has you infected with the cancer of complacency—which has you saying and believing, “it’s all good”—this is the one that keeps you there!

So, there you have it. The antibodies Satan uses to protect the cancer of complacency. I am sure there are others that Satan has used before or will use in the future that are not on this list. What is important for us is to recognize that the first challenge is getting past them far enough to even realize we are infected. Then, the difficult part of removing the cancer begins—which, by the way, will be fought tooth and nail by every single cognitive bias which Satan uses to protect the cancer. They are very powerful in their ability to cause a person to not only think something that is not true, but to actually believe something that is not true. Often what these biases will do is cause “truth” to be believed that has been twisted and contorted into something that might still resemble the truth, but due to the twisting and contorting, it is no longer true. Or, on the other side of this coin, they twist and contort something that is false into something that might resemble the truth, but which is still, at its core, false.

There is only ONE way to get out of the grip of Satan’s antibodies. One. We will learn about that next . . .

Chapter 9

“God’s presence and blessing cannot be humanly induced. Genuine blessings cannot come unless the Holy Spirit energizes, convinces and stirs the people of God.”   ~A.W. Tozer

These biases are dealt with in Scripture.

God, in His infinite wisdom, knew we would struggle with these biases. Unfortunately, there is only one way out of this mess—which is EXACTLY why this cancer is so insidious and so deadly—because the way out is completely blocked by the cancer and these antibodies (biases) themselves.

Another way to look at this, in order to understand it, is to consider that you have a disease in your legs that has crippled you to the point that you cannot put any weight or significant stress on your legs. You are sitting on the floor of a room that has caught on fire. The room is burning, and you will die soon if you don’t escape. There is only one way out. In the ceiling, directly in the center of the room, is a trap door with a handle on it. On the other side of the trap door is a rope on which you can pull yourself up and out of the burning room.

Unfortunately, in order to reach the handle of the trap door, which is in the ceiling, you will have to jump higher than you have ever jumped in your life because the ceiling is more than ten feet above the floor. The disease in your legs is keeping you from being able to take the only way out of your impending death.

This is exactly how the cancer of complacency and Satan’s antibodies (the cognitive biases) keep us from accessing the only way out of our mess caused by the cancer of complacency. Understanding this from a Scriptural perspective will take some Biblical digging, so stick with me as we unravel the only way out of this mess.

Romans 8:5-8 says,

“5For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

To be “carnally minded is death.” We are also told in these verses that if we “are in the flesh we cannot please God.”

Romans 8:5 (above) tells us that, if we are to live according to the Spirit, we need to set our minds on the things of the Spirit.

John 4:23-24 tells us,

“23But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

In these verses, Jesus is telling us that God is not only seeking people to worship Him in spirit and truth, BUT also that we MUST worship Him in spirit and truth. In other words, anything or anywhere outside of “in spirit and truth” and God is not there. (Yes, He is everywhere because of His characteristic of being Omni-present, but His on-purpose presence—where He wants us to be and to worship Him—is in a spiritual place which is not discerned or knowable in the flesh). This is further confirmed in Matthew 6:6, which tells us where God is,

“6But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father Who is in the secret place; and your Father Who sees in secret will reward you openly.”

We also see this confirmed in Matthew 6:17-18 which says,

“17But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father Who is in the secret place; and your Father Who sees in secret will reward you openly.”

God is where? In the “secret place.” No doubt this is somewhere in the spiritual realm rather than in the physical realm which means it is beyond the realm of our five physical senses. If you want to “truly” worship God, Jesus tells us it must be done in the spirit (and not in the flesh). There is only one way to reach Him and that is “in the secret place.”

Paul further depicts the separation between spirit and flesh in Philippians 3:3,

“3For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh .”

Here Paul further confirms that we are to worship God in the Spirit and “have no confidence in the flesh.” Why? Simply because while we are “in the flesh,” God is not available and furthermore, while we are in the flesh, God cannot be pleased. (Romans 8:8)

There is more to this. Jesus tells us in John 10:27 that He expects us to be able to hear His voice.

“27My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

This is obviously done via sensitivity to spiritual things which would include His voice (I wrote very extensively on the topic of spiritual sensitivity in Are Most “Christians” Headed to Hell?). We Gentiles are also included in this expectation of Jesus with regard to hearing His voice as He clarifies it in John 10:16,

“16And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.”

Now, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to connect these dots in order to come to the conclusion that if we are walking in the flesh, we will NOT be able to sense, receive, or understand God’s communication to us via the Holy Spirit.

Furthermore, 1 Corinthians 2:12-14 tells us,

“12Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

The flesh (the natural man) does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. Why? Three reasons:

1) They are foolishness to him.

2) He cannot know them.

3) They are spiritually discerned.

So, in order to understand and receive the things of God, a person must be spiritually sensitive (again, “how” to be or become spiritually sensitive is covered in much greater detail in Are Most “Christians” Headed to Hell?). The need for spiritual sensitivity is further demonstrated Biblically in Hebrews 5:13-14 which says,

“13For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

Now, pay attention here as we connect these critical dots. In the verses above from Hebrews, we see that the Biblical measuring stick of a person’s spiritual maturity (“those who are of full age”) is based on whether they have “by reason of use” (practice) trained their senses for discernment. In other words, by practicing it, the mature Christian has learned spiritual sensitivity, and as a result, has developed spiritual discernment. In this way, the mature Christian can receive the things of God. The mature Christian can also discern the voice of God through His Holy Spirit when He speaks to him/her.

Furthermore, James 1:22 tells us,

“22But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

The Greek word for “word” as used here means “something said.” So, we are to “do” what God tells us to do, rather than “in one ear and out the other.” And what does James tell us we are doing, if what God says does, in fact, go in one ear and out the other? We are deceiving ourselves—which is exactly the job of the cancer and the biases—to deceive us into believing that “not doing” is okay. Why? Because “it’s all good.” (And that is only if, by the grace of God, something that He says is actually able to slip past the cancer and the biases at all.)

Now, Paul wraps all this up for us in Philippians 3:12-19 which says,

“12Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended ; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. 16Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind. 17Brethren, join in following my example, andnote those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. 18For many walk, of whom I have told you often,and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.”

In these verses, Paul is bringing all of this full circle. There is a lot here, so let’s break it down a little bit and see just what is being communicated here—and at the same time, compare it to those infected with the cancer of complacency.

We see some important words in verses 12 and 13.

“12Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended ; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,”

First, we notice here that Paul does not consider himself to have “arrived” spiritually. He isn’t sitting back believing “it’s all good.” No, he is “pressing on”—certainly NOT what a person would be doing or even thinking about who feels “rich, wealthy, and in need of nothing.” One important thing to remember about this passage of Scripture is that Paul wrote this approximately 30 years after Jesus knocked him to the ground in order to get his attention (Acts 9). By now Paul has “been there and done that” and he is still “reaching forward.”

Second, he isn’t resting on the past (which is also a symptom of “it’s all good”), but rather he is “reaching forward.”

Next, verse 15 is VERY interesting,

“15Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.“

Here, Paul is speaking to the “mature”—those who can spiritually discern the things of God and can, in fact, discern His voice. Paul calls the biases on the carpet with these words, “and if in anything you think otherwise.” Just Who or What is the remedy for correcting the bias that causes “thinking otherwise?” Who and/or What is the ONLY way out of this? God Himself. This is confirmed for us Scripturally with these words from Paul, “God will reveal even this to you.” Ahh, but there is a major problem for those who are NOT mature (those who are NOT spiritually sensitive), or for those who are walking in the flesh. God CANNOT reveal this to them because:

1) It is foolishness to them.

2) They cannot know it.

3) It is spiritually discerned.

Paul takes this even further (and much clearer) in verses 17-19,

“17Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. 18For many walk,of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame— who set their mind on earthly things.”

First, Paul tells us to “note those who so walk.” In other words, we are to recognize those of us who are mature, those who have spiritual sensitivity and spiritual discernment—and to use Paul and his fellow apostles as our model (the word he uses is “pattern”).

Then Paul drops the bomb in verses 18 and 19. Paul says he has already addressed this problem many times (by using the words, “I have told you often”). Now, he is bringing it up again and is very sad about it (with these words, “and now tell you even weeping”). Who is it that Paul is weeping about?

“18For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:19whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame— who set their mind on earthly things.”

Yes, these are the people infected with the cancer of complacency. These are those who say, “It’s all good.” We see this in Paul’s words, “whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame.” Why are they in trouble? Simply because they have “set their minds on earthly things”—which is the Biblical definition of being in the flesh as shown in Romans 8:5. And what, exactly, do these people have to look forward to? Destruction (from verse 19 above, “whose end is destruction”).

We have one more big problem that we don’t want to hear (and pastors especially). Paul uses these words to describe this group of people who live according to the flesh and believe “it’s all good”: “For many walk that are the enemies of the cross of Christ.”

The problem is with the word “many.” In the original Greek, this word means, “plenteous, mostly.” A good English word for “many” as used here would be “most.” In other words, “most” of those attending church are not only spiritually immature, but are actually “the enemies of the cross of Christ.” That is how dangerous this cancer of complacency is—and it was lurking, infecting, and spreading among the church as far back as when the New Testament church began—when Paul himself was writing letters to the churches trying to help them stay on track!

This Greek word “many” as used here is exactly the same word “many” as used by Jesus in Matthew 7:13-14 where He said,

“13Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Paul’s experience in the New Testament church is no different than what we see in the church today, and both are no different than what Jesus declared in the verses above. There is also a very interesting thing to note that Jesus said in these verses. The way that leads to destruction is wide and broad. It is the easy way because He then goes on to tell us narrow is the gate and “difficult is the way” that leads to life. The “it’s all good” crowd will always choose easy over difficult.

Jesus then says, “and there are few who find it.” This implies that the way which leads to life is hidden. My guess is that this “way” requires spiritual discernment in order to “find it.” Jesus further accentuates the “most” who are headed for destruction by using the word “few” to describe the number of those who find the way that leads to life. The Greek word as used here means, “puny in number.” How many of us will go the easy way to destruction? Most. How many of us will find the difficult way that leads to life? Puny in number.

Now we understand why Paul was weeping. This group of people is so, so close. They have heard the truth and even believe they are walking in it—they believe they are rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing. But in this case as presented by Paul, they are enemies of the cross of Christ . And what’s worse? Since they are operating in the flesh, God cannot reveal the truth to them regarding their cancerous infection because they wouldn’t be able to discern it even if God tried to tell them. They are stuck.

They might as well be sitting in a room that is on fire, and their legs can’t jump high enough in order to reach the handle where the escape rope is located. They will burn because the cancer of complacency and the antibodies that protect it will keep them believing they are “friends of the cross of Christ,” which is another way of saying, “It’s all good,” when the sad truth is that “they are the enemies of the cross of Christ,” as presented by Paul (and Scripture). The Biblical labels for people in this spiritual condition of “lukewarm,” “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked,” or “enemies of the cross of Christ,” all get you the same result.

Ouch! This cancer has been around a long, long time, and it causes now exactly what it caused then—what Paul experienced within the early New Testament church and what Jesus clearly declared to the church in Revelation 3—it will result in destruction.

Chapter 10

“If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95% of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95% of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference.”    ~A.W. Tozer

Why many churches of today are struggling . . .

There are many facets that are a part of church attendance these days. There are many things going on in most churches, not the least of which is the operation of the church itself. However, most pastors are frustrated with one or more areas within the church where the congregation members just don’t seem to be dialed in and, worse, just don’t seem to want to be dialed in.

When you look at the problem areas within most churches and then evaluate them based on whether the cancer of complacency has caused an attitude of “it’s all good,” it becomes fairly easy to see and understand what is happening—or what isn’t happening.

Pastors of today are in a very tough spot. At some point in their pastoral career, they felt the call of God on their life to move into full time ministry, and more specifically, the ministry of becoming a leader within the church. It is a very important role within the church (as an organization), and it is an even bigger role within the Kingdom of God. The conflicts a pastor must deal with on a regular basis are tragic, real, and very difficult. Sadly, far too many pastors eventually give in to the cancer’s influence in one of three ways.

1) After a period of time, during which the pastor is unable to get people to respond to God with any passion or zealousness, let alone any degree of desperation, due to the deep level which the cancer of complacency has already spread, many pastors simply conclude they misunderstood God’s call on their life, and they leave the ministry. Or . . .

2) The cancer, within the church and its members, is stronger than the pastor realized or was even aware. As the pastor seeks God’s guidance for the direction God wants the pastor to take the church, the cancer of complacency, within the members of the congregation, begins to dig in its heels and refuses to be moved in such a “radical way.” Remember, “we” don’t need to change what we are doing. After all, “it’s all good,” and things were going along just fine. There is an authority battle within the church. The pastor fights for what he knows God wants, and the people fight for what they don’t realize is what the cancer wants—which is for everything to “remain all good.” The cancer-stricken congregation voted him in—and the cancer-stricken congregation then votes him out, and the pastor leaves. Or . . .

3) The cancer is stronger than the pastor realized or was even aware. As the authority struggle begins, the pastor realizes that “jobs are getting harder to come by these days,” and “these are a good bunch of people.” The pastor then simply conforms his leadership style to give the people who voted him in (and who have the authority to vote him back out) what they want. If they want a “feel-good pastor” who will fulfill their need to leave each week “as they were,” feeling like “it’s all good”—then that is just what the pastor will give them. The pastor keeps his job, the cancer is preserved, and it is a win-win situation resulting in “it’s all good” for everybody—including Satan.

The result of numbers 1 and 2 above is that currently each and every week approximately 370 pastors in the United States preach their last sermon before they leave the employment of the church where they are now, or they preach their last sermon before they leave the ministry all together. Currently, the average tenure of pastors in the United States (as I write this) is around four years.

Now, think about this for a minute. EVERY week some 370 pastors play musical chairs with their careers as ministers—some of whom end up leaving the ministry all together. With the average tenure of today’s pastors at around four years, is it any wonder not much is happening in most of our churches today? Four years is just enough time for the honeymoon to wear off and the pastor to either realize he is fighting a losing battle against removing the cancer, or for the cancer to win the battle by removing the pastor. Or, in the really sad cases, the cancer ends up consuming the pastor—which is almost required for the pastor to last beyond four years.

If you take a step back from this, and consider what the picture will look like if we go down this road for a long enough timeframe, you will begin to realize just how our congregations and churches have ended up in such bad shape. If the process happens over a long enough period of time (like hundreds of years), you will see a gradual degradation and you will be left with the following:

1) A few churches will have pastors who, with God’s help, were able to extract the cancer from within the church and from the lives of the members resulting in passionate and zealous repentance of the people within the congregation. This is, of course, then followed by the Biblical progression of bringing about desperation for the touch of the Almighty God among the people. This then brings about God’s responding to the people because of their heart condition as they cry out to Him.

2) However, the process over many years will have also created a situation, in which the majority of churches will be infected with the cancer of complacency as pastors come and go, due to the power of the cancer and the power of Satan’s antibodies (the biases that thrive in the flesh) that protect it. And, for the churches that do end up keeping their pastors for longer than four years, in far too many cases, the pastor is swallowed up by the cancer and the antibodies, and what you end up with is a crowd of people believing “it’s all good” when the truth is that they are really “enemies of the cross of Christ.” BUT, nobody realizes it—nor can they (1 Corinthians 2 and Romans 8). The voice of God, by His Holy Spirit, can’t be heard or discerned because of the cancer and Satan’s antibodies. Nor can the written word of God make much impact because its wisdom and truth also cannot be received. It is a vicious, vicious cycle that keeps the church and its people from experiencing anything authentic from God. But hey, everybody gets to come and go each week leaving “as they were” when they arrived, believing they “are rich, have become wealthy and have need of nothing”—including the God of the universe they haven’t seen or heard from in a long, long time.

So, the church finds itself in financial trouble because the national church statistics, with regard to financial giving, end up proving to also be true within the local church: less than half of the church members are giving (tithing) on a regular basis. In many churches, this number is less than 25%.

Obviously, the cancer of complacency is also in control of the wallets of those it has infected. Unfortunately, the incorrect response of the church leadership, within the churches experiencing this problem, is to “address” the problem from the pulpit, or to work the topic of giving into the Sunday school or small group curriculum. It is interesting to me that God loves a “cheerful giver,” but the cancer causes the “it’s all good” giver to feel discomfort (anything BUT “cheer”) at even the idea of giving—let alone actually making it a part of their lives.

This is a losing proposition from the get-go. The reality of the situation is this: You have a group of people, operating in the flesh and proving it week after week, month after month, because they haven’t surrendered their wallets to God. So the answer is to try to “talk them into” cheerful giving with a few sermons or some study guides? This approach will never work. The cancer of complacency’s grip on the importance of feeling “it’s all good” is far too strong. Sure, the church might bring in a few bucks by what I call “guilting” the money into the offering plate, but it certainly won’t last for very long without a radical change at the heart level of Who or what is in control.

Why does God love a “cheerful giver” anyway? Well, God knows that the ONLY way a person is capable of “cheerful giving” is if that person has two conditions present in their lives:

1) They have submitted and surrendered all they have (including their wallets) for the cause of Christ (they have forsaken all as shown in Luke 14:33) and,

2) They are guided by the Holy Spirit in their actions AND in how they then feel about their actions taken under His guidance (another way of saying, “They receive honor from God, not man”).

The whole “giving thing” is the final link we, as Christians, have with the world. There is ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE of God’s authentic guidance within a person’s life who has NOT surrendered his/her wallet to God. They will be unable to live in the spirit because their priorities will still be tied to the world—to the flesh. No amount of rhetoric from the pulpit, or weeks and weeks of study guides about why a person should be giving, can ever cross the very, very wide gulf that exists between living in the spirit and living in the flesh. Not giving or tithing on a regular basis is not an intellectual problem that can be solved with appeals from the pulpit or study guides which appeal to the intellect. If you want to fix a “giving problem” within the church, you had better prepare yourself for a battle with the cancer of complacency because that is where the shackles have the people bound. If “it’s all good,” you will never convince them they should be giving. The Holy Spirit can and will fix and prompt the heart to cheerful giving, but only if it is He Who is in control rather than the cancer of complacency and the underlying and overwhelming appeal of the “it’s all good” illusion.

Now, here is one for you that you probably don’t want to hear. If you aren't tithing on a regular basis, then I promise you that you already have the cancer to some degree, and I also promise you that you don't have the Holy Spirit’s presence and guidance in your life because your priorities are still tied to the world. And no matter how strongly your biases want, or try, to defend you—it is the truth. Even though, as you read these words, if you are someone who does not tithe regularly, you are probably getting more and more uncomfortable and are probably by now starting to deflect your anger, discomfort, and/or frustration towards me—the “lunatic author who doesn't know what he is talking about.”

Maybe you will shrug off the preceding paragraph as, “Not a problem. It’s all good.” In fact, if you are not a regular tither, you will know just how badly you have been infected by the cancer and its associated biases by whether or not you even finish reading this book from this point on. If you put it down now, you will be admitting you are, in fact, already infected because the first response of the cancer and the biases, to being confronted with the truth, is abject rejection and then “distancing.” “Distancing” occurs by simply walking away from whatever it is that is causing the confrontation. If “it” is a book, just put it down. If “it” is the Bible, just put it down. If “it” is the pastor, just tune him out. You get the idea. If you do not currently tithe regularly and you do, in fact, keep on reading, you just might have a chance because in doing so, you are suppressing the cancer and the biases in the interest of hearing the truth—no matter how uncomfortable it might be for you. Let’s move on.

How about the ministries within the church? Have you ever heard of, or experienced, problems with getting people involved in the various ministries of the church? The root of this problem is the same as the problem presented above with regular tithing and regular giving. “It’s all good” means “I” don’t want to give up any more time (or evenings or weekends) for the sake of ministry. “Ministry” is, at its core, all about others. “It’s all good” is, at its core, all about “me.” The cancer of complacency won’t let true ministry occur for this simple reason: “If it’s all good—why should we (or I) do any more?”

How about attendance? Every year more and more churches are cutting back on the number of services they have each week. Why? Simply because people aren’t coming to them anymore. “It’s all good” says, “Sunday morning is all I need.” It isn’t an attendance problem. Just as above, it is a Holy Spirit problem—actually the lack thereof.

What about evangelizing? Most churches of today can’t get enough accomplished with their internal ministries to even begin to consider true Biblical ministry as defined in James 1:27 which says,

“27Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”

Whoa! “Pure and undefiled?” Does this imply that what most churches are doing is impure and defiled? I believe it does—for those churches that ignore this Biblical instruction. However, the internal ministry within the church is a hard enough battle being fought against the cancer of complacency and all the reasons the biases give as excuses for not getting it done. You might as well just forget about moving the ministry outside the walls of the church. That just might involve some effort or some work—and besides, the Bible says we aren’t saved by “works” anyway . . . right? (Far, far too many actually believe this view of “works.”)

But, what about the false declaration of faith as discussed by James not too many verses after the verse with the definition of undefiled religion. James 2:14 says,

“14What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?”

A person can “say” all they want to say about having faith, but the proof is in the pudding. Do the person’s actions in daily life demonstrate his/her faith? It is a yes or no question. Unfortunately the answer is usually “no”—especially where the cancer of complacency and the biases are in control.

“It’s all good” will not allow a ministry within the church that would require us to actually go to the poorer neighborhoods on “the other side of the tracks.” You know . . . the places where there is drug use and crime. Widows and orphans, as presented in James 1:27, are representative of the people who can’t help themselves. Yes, these people are often found in the parts of town you will NEVER find a member of the “it’s all good” crowd. Unfortunately for the “it’s all good” crowd (who are really just a bunch of people completely intent on ONLY helping themselves), pure and undefiled religion before God is to get up off of their rear-ends and go meet the needs of someone who is in desperate need of help. Whoops! Did I just say we need to embrace someone who is “desperate” for help? Yikes! That would move the focus off of us and on to someone in need. Whew! Don’t have to worry about that because “it’s all good” will convince us that someone else, someone who lives closer to “those neighborhoods,” can do “that kind” of ministry.

This is another lie the cancer and biases have been very successful at selling: that the church was created to minister to its members. Scripturally, however, we see a much different definition of the church. In the New Testament we see that the New Testament church was in place to spread the gospel message to the “un-churched”—sorry, bad word, to the “un-saved,” and to minister to those in need—whether they were members of the church or not. Sadly, today, most churches aren’t doing either of these activities very well (spreading the gospel message to the un-saved and meeting the needs of people “actually” in need) because “it’s all good” means we don’t have to—and if it truly does need to happen, then somebody else will do it.

Yes, if you connect the dots here, you can see that the precise way in which we, as “Christ”ians, are “Christ-like” is when our touch, by the direction and guidance of the Holy Spirit, meets the needs of a person who is desperate for help. Additionally, this “touch” could quite possibly be the ONLY chance for the person in desperate need to feel and experience the love of Jesus in their lives. The eternal destination of his/her soul could be hanging in the balance—as well as the eternal destination of the one who gives (or does not give) their touch—let alone their time and energy.

This is no light matter, and Jesus covers this topic thoroughly in Scripture. It is a “heaven or hell” situation that is clearly presented by Jesus Himself. Ah, but the biases won’t let the “it’s all good” crowd hear or recognize the truth of His words—if they are even read at all. “As they were” is alive and well at the reading of God’s written word just as it is at the hearing of His spoken word—neither can be received, so no change can take place. Let’s see what Jesus has to say about how He feels about James 1:27 as shown in Matthew 25:31-46.

“31When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ 37Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’

41 Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ 44Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

So, what do you think? Is Jesus serious about this, or not? (Hint: Your answer will tell you a lot about whether you have any of the cancer or any of the biases.) Is the second group “friends of the cross of Christ” or are they “enemies of the cross of Christ?” Hmmm. You already know the next question is coming: To which group do you belong? (And believe me—this question is as much for me as it is for anyone who is reading these words!)

Even those, who are NOT infected by the cancer of complacency, can get lazy. Unfortunately, the cancer of complacency is the shark that smells the blood of laziness in the water. We must get out of the water and get back to walking in the spirit—and in the Spirit’s guidance . . . or we risk getting eaten and swallowed by the shark. Remember, Paul says in Philippians 3:15,

“15Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.”

We have to be on our guard by constantly listening to what God is telling us because He, and He alone, is Who will reveal to us that we are “thinking otherwise.”

Almost every problem that is found in almost every church can be traced back to one of two things (or both):

1) The presence of the cancer of complacency, or

2) The lack of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the people.

If you are infected, it is a very difficult problem because the One you don’t have is exactly Who is REQUIRED to remove what you do have.

Chapter 11

“We might be wise to follow the insight of the enraptured heart rather than the more cautious reasoning of the theological mind.”   ~A.W. Tozer

What is the Biblical expectation?

If we have any hope of ridding ourselves and our congregations of the cancer of complacency, it might be a good idea to explore what Scripture has to say about it. “It’s all good” always does its level best to make sure you leave church “as you were.” What, really, does it mean to leave the house of God “as you were?” It simply means you came and then left un-changed. The Bible has much to say about this, but the cancer and biases will do everything they can to keep the truth of Scripture as far away as possible—especially when it might threaten the deadly illusion of hypoxemic hypoxia: “It’s all good.”

The first big change that is supposed to occur in the life of a new Christian is that he/she be “born again.” This is the metaphor Jesus uses to describe one of the requirements for “seeing the kingdom of God.”

John 3:3-6 says,

“3Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ 4Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ 5Jesus answered, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Water and the Spirit? The water represents the cleansing and renewal, and the Spirit represents that this new life originates from the Spirit of the Almighty God. I would say Jesus is talking about a pretty serious change taking place in a person’s life—perhaps even a radical change. (The cancer and the biases HATE the word radical.) This change takes place before the cancer of complacency strikes. Later, after laziness breeds lukewarmness, the cancer begins to take hold. Soon we are in a bad place—and the kingdom of heaven becomes inaccessible to us.

Matthew 18:2-3 says,

“2Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, 3and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Converted? Yes, Jesus is communicating here that, in our “normal state” of adulthood, there is either something present or something missing that will cause us to be unable to enter the kingdom of heaven (“will by no means enter”). It is a Biblical mandate as evidenced by Jesus’ use of the word “unless.” It is a very important hinge point between where we are and where we must be, in order to get into the kingdom of heaven. A little child either has something we don’t have, or is missing something we do have, and because of it, the child “can enter the kingdom of heaven.” Conversion—or “change”—is absolutely required.

Acts 3:19 says,

“19Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”

What comes from repentance? “Conversion” resulting in being refreshed in the presence of the Lord. That is why one of the words or terms that is used to describe a new Christian is, “convert.” (i.e. “He is a new convert.”)

Romans 12:2 says,

“2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Satan’s goal is for you and me to be “conformed” to this world. The cancer of complacency and “it’s all good” will prevent transformation because the mind will be stuck in its biases—unable and unwilling to hear the truth—and will, therefore, remain in the flesh. This person will continue believing “it’s all good” while not realizing they are, instead, an enemy of the cross of Christ. No renewing of the mind means no transformation, which again, means no change.

So, how does positive change come about in a person’s life? The above referenced Scripture verses point to repentance (Acts 3:19). Ah, but that is a problem. In order to repent, we have to first become aware that there is a problem. “It’s all good,” by definition, believes there are no problems and, therefore, there is no need to repent. Jesus addressed this in Scripture in Mark 2:17 which says,

“17When Jesus heard it, He said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.’”

It is an interesting play on words that Jesus uses here. If there was any person in the entire universe Who absolutely knew that not one person on the planet could be righteous without Him, it was Jesus (after all, He knew that He had to come and die a sacrificial death on the cross in order to make righteousness possible!). So what could he mean in this verse? Simply that unless you realize you are sick, you won’t be calling the doctor. He came for those who realize they are NOT righteous, but instead realize that they ARE sinners. How does the Great Physician begin the healing process? It starts with the repentance of the one who recognizes he/she is a sinner. Then Jesus brings about change.

The cancer of complacency’s biggest enemy is change. The status quo must remain intact in order for “it’s all good” to be able to rest in the confidence that “all will remain good” because there won’t be any change going on. In Isaiah 43:19 God declares,

“19Behold, I will do a new thing.”

And the cancer of complacency says, “Oh no, You won’t! Not as long as I am in control, You won’t!”

Repentance can’t happen without the truth leaking through the cancer and slipping past the antibodies (biases) so that someone will recognize his/her need—desperate need—for the touch of Jesus. Then, and only then, can someone “be zealous and repent.”

It is an amazing thing that Jesus wanted to have an intimate relationship with us, enough so, that He was willing to die in order to make such a relationship possible, BUT that He is also willing to stand by and watch us fool ourselves into believing “it’s all good” and even saying with pride, “we are rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing”—including Him. Revelation 3:20 tells us He is knocking at the door, but the cancer of complacency won’t let us answer the door.

What is really interesting about Revelation 3:20 is what is also happening that is easy to miss. It says,

“20Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”

Did you catch it? He isn’t just knocking. He is calling out our names? All we have to do is “hear His voice and open the door of our hearts.” What does He want? He wants to have a personal dinner with us, one-on-one.

In Bible times, the most intimate show of friendship was to invite someone into your home for dinner. This is why the Pharisees had their noses so bent out of shape when Jesus would dare to eat dinner in the home of a tax collector and/or a sinner. Remember the little man up in a tree trying to get a look at Jesus? This is why Luke 19:5-10 is such a big deal.

“5And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.’ 6So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully. 7But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, ‘He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.’ 8Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.’ 9And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; 10for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.’”

Zacchaeus was changed that day because verse 8 tells us he repented and in verse 9 Jesus grants him salvation. Notice in verse 10 the reference to “that which was lost.” Who, exactly, is lost? Yes, everybody is lost, but Jesus came to seek and to save those who recognize they are lost.

What, exactly, does Jesus want? He wants to come in and have intimacy with you and me. Ah, but the cancer of complacency keeps people operating in the flesh—with no spiritual sensitivity so, no matter how loudly He is knocking or calling out their names—they can’t hear Him or receive Him. Again, the absence of what they need (Jesus and the power of His Holy Spirit) keeps them from getting rid of what they have (the cancer and Satan’s antibodies).

And, so, the vicious cycle continues.

Chapter 12

“‘Let God be true but every man a liar’ is the language of true faith.”   ~A.W. Tozer

“A Pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, but a spiritual man is easy on others and hard on himself.”   ~A.W. Tozer

What is the cancer’s primary goal?

Let’s take a look at what this killer’s goal really is. It is one thing to get a person to slip into the “it’s all good” mode—it is quite another thing to successfully keep that person there. The longer a person is in the “it’s all good” mode the closer they are to death. The further the cancer spreads within the heart, mind, and soul, the tougher it will be to get rid of it.

How, exactly, does the cancer keep itself safe using the antibodies of Satan? Very simply this: By keeping the focus on “what we do” and “what we have” rather than on “who we are.”

When Jesus came on the scene, He encountered incredible resistance in several areas. First, since Jesus didn’t fit the mold, or the box, that everybody already had in their minds that the Messiah would most certainly fit into, He was rejected. Second, the pride of the religious leadership popped up and challenged Jesus often as to who, exactly, was closer to God: them or Him? Could it be that an illegitimately born carpenter’s son could be from God? No way. And, as long as we’re at it, there is no way He could be closer to God than “we” are; after all, we are the descendants of Abraham! In John 8:37-41 we see Jesus in the throws of just such an encounter with the religious leadership, and Jesus isn’t too impressed with their heritage.

“37‘I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. 38I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.’ 39They answered and said to Him, ‘Abraham is our father.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. 40But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. 41You do the deeds of your father.’ Then they said to Him, ‘We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.’”

You have to read this closely or you will miss it. Jesus draws a very clear separation between being a “descendant” of Abraham versus being a “child” of Abraham. This is VERY important stuff when engaged in a discussion of just “who or Who” is closer to “Whom”—as in who (or Who) is closer to God? Jesus admits they are descendants of Abraham, but He cuts it off right there when He declares they are clearly NOT Abraham’s children because of what they were doing—which was contrary to what Abraham did. You want to prove “sonship?” Then you need to be doing what your father did (or does). Why? Because that is who you are! This is important when you consider that they were questioning the very son of God, the Messiah Himself.

Here we see the Pharisees focused on what they did rather than focusing on who they were—which then would determine what they should be doing. Jesus nails the issue point blank. Jesus then goes on, in verse 44, to complete the circle by pointing out the fact that what they were doing demonstrated that it was the devil who was actually their father. He says,

“44‘You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.’”

Jesus basically tells them that they are all liars and murderers because of the fact that they want to do what their father wants to do—and who their father (from the perspective of Jesus) turns out to actually be is revealed by what they want to do—in this case, their father is none other than the devil himself.

This is exactly one of Satan’s greatest modes of deception. He is the master of flipping things around. In the Garden of Eden, when he approached Eve, he didn’t lie to her. He just planted doubt in Eve’s mind as to the truth of God’s words to her. Here we see exactly the same thing. The cancer of complacency keeps the focus on what we do and what we have. These are the externals on which the cancer of complacency causes us to focus. By keeping us focused on the external, we will not be able to understand that “what we do” should be determined and driven by “who we are,” just as Jesus demonstrated to the Pharisees in the Biblical example shown above.

Satan is no fool. He knows that the relational issues between man and God are ALWAYS based on man’s heart condition before God. So then, it would logically follow that Satan would want to keep the focus off the heart and on the external things—“what we do” or “what we have.”

If Satan can successfully keep us focused on the external things, then we will look at the external and INCORRECTLY translate what we see into how we are doing spiritually. We saw this in Revelation 3:17 when the incorrect conclusion is reached, “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.” Jesus then clears the air with the actual truth of the spiritual condition as being, “wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.”

Jesus isn’t the only one Who demonstrates this truth Biblically. We also see the correct analysis done by Paul in Romans 7. Because Paul’s focus is correctly placed in “who he is” before God, he is then able to come to the correct conclusion when he looks at the external—namely, when he looks at what he does. Romans 7:14-20 says,

“14For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”

If Paul, the guy who had enough of the Holy Spirit’s leading in his life that he wrote approximately half of the New Testament, can’t “do” what he knows he should be doing—then there isn’t a chance that the cancer-stricken “it’s all good” crowd will do anything worthy of being able to truthfully proclaim “it’s all good.” Ah, but that is where the difference lies between the Spirit led Christian and the “it’s all good” enemy of the cross of Christ. The difference lies in the conclusion. Let’s continue on in Romans 7 to see the conclusion at which Paul arrives.

“21I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”

Based on his observance of the externals from the perspective of who he is before God, Paul then correctly comes to the conclusion, “O wretched man that I am!” when he takes an honest look at what he does. By recognizing that he can’t do anything about it on his own, the answer to his question, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” is: God, through Jesus Christ—which are the last four words Satan wants to hear as an answer to ANY question!

If we approach the topic of sin correctly, we will be able to reach the correct conclusion. When we approach it backwards, not only will we not reach the correct conclusion, but we won’t even recognize sin for what it is in the first place. The cancer of complacency and the antibodies made up of the cognitive biases that protect the cancer from the truth will cause all kinds of wonderful responses to sin in order to keep the illusion of “it’s all good” intact. Let me give you a couple of examples.

The pastor of the church my family and I attend is well respected within the church community (not just within our denomination). He had recently been contacted by a local minister who had been referred to him regarding the use of our church. The other pastor had contacted my pastor in order to ask permission to conduct a wedding ceremony in our church. The other pastor was a woman and my pastor had heard that she was living with a man to whom she was NOT married.

So, during the telephone conversation, my pastor asked her a simple question. “I understand you are living with a man—and that you are not married. Is this true?” She responded, “Yes, I am.” My pastor then asked, “And, are you having sexual relations with this man.” She responded, “Well, not at the moment.” My pastor, not too appreciative of the attempt at humor with regard to the situation, asked, “Then how do you deal with the issue of sexual immorality within your church?” She immediately got defensive and said to him, “I am not about to argue with you about my personal life.” My pastor then said, “I am not wanting to argue about anything. I just want to know how you handle the issue of sexual immorality in your church.” She said, “I am not about to let you analyze my personal life.” The cancer of complacency and its associated biases were working in high gear.

Obviously, my pastor would not allow the wedding to take place in our church if the ceremony was to be officiated by a pastor who was not only living a life of admitted sexual immorality, but also who wouldn’t even entertain a discussion about the topic—let alone how it goes against the truth of Scripture. This pastor is obviously cancer-stricken to the point she believes sex outside of marriage—for a minister of the church, no less—is no problem; “it’s all good.” Ah, but when confronted with a simple question about the truth (she wasn’t even confronted “with” the truth—just a question “about” the truth), the antibodies kicked in as they, along with the cancer, protected her AND themselves vehemently. As silly as this situation sounds, this type of spiritual blindness is running rampant in churches all over America. While this example is sickening enough, it doesn’t hold a candle to the next one.

This is another situation, that is happening in many churches, that runs along the same lines, but is, in my opinion, much worse. Pastors are being asked (and are consenting) to holding “relationship blessing” ceremonies which basically are held to ask God to “bless the relationship” of two people living together who don’t want to get married because they would lose some of their social security income or Medicare benefits if they got married. The cancer and the biases convince people and pastors that it is okay to say, “Hey, let’s just ask a pastor to ask God to bless our deceptive relationship even though we will continue to have sex outside of marriage as well as deceiving the government by stealing money and benefits we aren’t qualified to receive.” If that isn’t pushing the “it’s all good” envelope for all its worth, then I don’t know what is. It makes a mockery of the sacred institution of marriage—which the rest of society is already doing a great job of defiling. It also makes a mockery of the position of the pastor before God whenever the pastor agrees to perform such a ridiculous ceremony.

The cancer of complacency has spread deep enough that those wanting to go this route have not only concluded “it’s all good,” but they have also actually talked themselves into believing that “it’s all good with God, too.” Enough so that the people actually believe He (God) would be willing to grant His blessing on the deceptive and sexual immoral relationship at the request of a pastor who also has the cancer bad enough that he/she believes it would be “all good with God, too.” Whoa! And Satan couldn’t be happier.

Here is another one. A personal friend of mine accepted the head pastoral position of a church in Flagstaff, Arizona. What he found when he got there wasn’t a good situation at all. The man who was the leader of the worship team was living with a woman and they were not married. The prior pastor had been okay with the situation (which was a whole other frustration for my friend because he knew the prior pastor personally). So, my friend did what any normal-thinking, Bible-believing, Bible-preaching pastor would do: He confronted the situation head-on and basically said, “This isn’t Biblical and it shouldn’t be happening in this church—especially for someone in spiritual leadership responsible for leading the worship time for the congregation.”

Well, the cancer and the biases kicked into high gear as a few families in the church that were related to the worship leader and who were also friends with the District Superintendent of the region (the person in authority over all the pastors of the denomination within the geographical region) came to the worship leader’s rescue. It was a sad, sad situation as the cancer and the biases absolutely ignored Biblical truth as they came against the pastor. After a big fight over simple Biblical truth, three things happened:

1) The worship leader resigned his position (as well he should have six month’s prior when he was first confronted with Biblical truth).

2) The pastor left the church when he realized he was fighting a battle he could not win because the cancer and the biases had not only infected the church and had made them blind to the truth of Scripture, but the District leadership was infected and just as spiritually blind as well.

3) Just a couple weeks after my friend left the pastorate at that church, the District leadership came back in and reinstated the worship leader thereby appeasing the cancer, the biases, the infected members, and Satan himself. (Yes, Satan. You are either a “friend” or an “enemy” of the cross of Christ. If an “enemy” then, yes, Satan is very happy when the cancer and the biases win a battle such at this.)

But hang on just a minute. We have just arrived at the most basic point of the cancer of complacency. EVERYTHING that the cancer of complacency and Satan’s associated biases tells us “is all good” is, at its very core, wanting us to accept and to believe that “it’s all good with God, too.” This is where the biases REALLY earn their keep. By twisting the Scriptural message around to fit whatever situation the illusion of “it’s all good” needs at the moment, we get to actually go to bed at night believing our position is not only “all good,” but it is Biblical as well! When Satan gets us this far gone, there is surely a party in hell because of it!

I recently had lunch with a man claiming to be a Christian who wanted to meet with me in order to get me involved in his multi-level marketing business. We played phone tag with two or three voice mail messages back and forth where I explained to him very clearly that I was not interested in having lunch with him if the agenda was that of multi-level marketing. He then left me a message playing down the multi-level marketing business as just something he does on the side and that he just really wanted to get to know me better.

Well, I went to lunch with him anyway. It was an hour and a half of nothing more than him pressing his multi-level agenda on me. No matter what I spoke about he always brought the conversation back to his multi-level marketing agenda. And the crazy part is that he incorrectly believes the Scripture found in John 10:10 which says,

“10‘The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.’”

is talking about money! His biases have him believing that God wants him to “help” everybody live more “financially” abundant lives—and that this is what Scripture is referencing in John 10:10 as shown above. Never mind the fact that only one to five out of 10,000 people who join any of the multi-level marketing companies ever make ten cents more than they spend in the process (this, by the way, is an absolute fact). Never mind that what he is selling “isn’t the product,” but is the “opportunity” or “the dream”—when, in fact, the truth is that the actual odds for losing more money than you make is ten thousand to one (a roulette table in a casino is the casino’s best odds at beating you and is still 35 to 1 for the player—a lot better than 10,000 to 1). Never mind the biases that allowed his mind and his heart to think and even to believe that lying to me about the agenda for the meeting “is all good.” He can justify it because he wants to help me live a “Biblically more abundant life financially.”

He further went on to tell me that what I was doing in my life at the time in order to earn my income wasn’t Biblical because Jesus wants us to help each other and what I was doing to earn my income was basically just me doing it by myself. (Yes, this one gave me a headache.)

When I mentioned the need for the Holy Spirit’s direction in our lives, his biases kicked into high gear to avoid that truth and to get the conversation back on the “money track.” It was just another example of how Satan tries to keep us focused on “what we do” or “what we have” (or “hope to have”) rather than focusing on “who we are” in relationship to and with God. There is really no difference between these two sayings,

“I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.”

“I will be rich, will become wealthy, and will have need of nothing.”

Both of these statements demonstrate a heart condition that is far, far away from the truth. These statements demonstrate a heart condition to which Jesus will respond by vomiting them out of His mouth as shown in Revelation 3:16. Both of these statements focus on the external and keep all those who would say it or dream it from recognizing their desperate need for a genuinely authentic touch from Jesus.

Oh, but there is more. Stick with me, my friend.

Chapter 13

“Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it.”   ~Jesus Christ

“Now, as always, God discloses Himself to ‘babes’ and hides Himself in thick darkness from the wise and the prudent.”   ~A.W. Tozer

“Any faith that must be supported by the evidence of the senses is not real faith.”   ~A.W. Tozer

The cancer’s biggest demand . . .

The cancer of complacency and the biases that Satan uses as antibodies to protect the cancer have many ways to keep the intruder known as “truth” as far away from the one stricken with them as possible. However, there is one area in which the cancer makes its biggest demand. Here it is:

The ONLY things that the cancer of complacency and the associated biases will allow to be considered must meet one or both of the following requirements (if neither of these requirements is clearly met, then whatever “it” is—“it” will be rejected without any further thought—no matter how true, even if the truth is directly and clearly from the Bible or even the very words of Jesus Himself):

1) Whatever is presented must be measurable.

2) Whatever is presented must be visible.

In order for the cancer of complacency to remain comfortably within a human being—who was, by the way, designed by God Himself to be in right relationship with God—is to make sure, no matter how crazy or illogical some of its decisions might be, that the decisions are centered or founded in “something” tangible, something that can be defended—no matter how weakly.

As long as something is “measurable,” then the mind can logically consider it and logically defend it. Ah, but this is exactly where the trap is baited and is just waiting for its prey. That is, this is EXACTLY where the biases are waiting. Since the biases are used by Satan to reject the truth or to twist the truth in order to make it fit the mold that has already been created by the biases, the cancer and the biases can defend their conclusions through “logical thought”—no matter how illogically the thought process actually is. By requiring something to be “measurable,” the cancer forces whatever the truth may be to be routed through the very biases that the cancer KNOWS will reject it if it poses even the slightest threat to the cancer or any of the biases. The cancer won’t allow anything to get past its gates that is a threat to itself or that is a threat to those things that protect it.

The Bible tells us Satan is cunning. We have no idea just how crafty he is. Wow! Talk about the fox watching the henhouse, but this is exactly what the requirement of something measurable ensures. Just how important is this requirement that something be “measurable?” The very requirement itself forces all matters concerning the heart to be rejected with nothing more than a thought. This is obviously a big problem when it comes to where a person is in regard to his/her relationship with Jesus. As long as the truth lies within the heart condition before God, a person can escape this truth simply by the cancer and the biases rejecting the truth as something that is NOT measurable. By requiring “measurableness,” the cancer and the biases are able to remove all accountability to the things of God because accountability, as measured by God, is considered by Him to be at the heart level—the heart condition, which is something only God can know. Additionally, if the heart condition is something only God can know, then the cancer and the biases can use this fact to their advantage because it becomes the most important fact within the “it’s all good” illusion. It cannot be discerned by any other person within the “it’s all good” crowd. A big problem occurs when an uninfected person is told the truth by the Holy Spirit about another person. This is shown in Scripture as a way in which God reveals the secrets of a person’s heart to another. An example of this can be seen in 1 Corinthians 14:25.

Ah, but the cancer is, again, a step ahead of the game. This can then be rejected as “being judged” because everybody knows Christians are not supposed to judge—even though the Scripture is, again, taken out of context because Scripture tells us that Christians are, in fact, expected to judge one another. James 5:19-20 says,

“19Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, 20let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”

Who is James speaking too? “Brethren.” He is addressing how to handle the situation when one follower of Jesus sees another follower of Jesus “wandering from the truth.” This is just another example of the cancer and the biases twisting Scripture to support their position in the rare case that someone within their midst does, in fact, discern the voice of God when God decides to expose something that the cancer and the biases are trying to keep hidden. “The Bible says, ‘you can’t judge me’” has been the battle cry of the cancer of complacency and the biases for a long, long time anytime the counsel of a fellow Christian contains even the slightest ring of truth with regard to “wandering” or with regard to “sinning.” “Distancing” automatically occurs when the rejection of the truth happens in the form of “The Bible says, ‘you can’t judge me.’”

Visibility is the next requirement, and it has similar effects, although these effects are far more deadly than just requiring something to be measurable. By requiring something to be visible in order for it NOT to be rejected, the cancer of complacency and all the biases eliminate almost everything having to do with God, His son Jesus, and His Holy Spirit—INCLUDING God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit Themselves. I wrote extensively in my other books about the “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” filter—and this is the filter that is used here. This requirement of visibility is another expertly used scheme of Satan. It is also very logical in its basis. Basically, this requirement keeps things from getting “weird.” “Weird” is something that can especially be defended to those in church leadership AND by those in church leadership. If we can’t see it, then there is clearly a built in question mark as to its validity. The cancer and the biases only need the slightest question mark to reject it completely as “weird.”

Well, there are many problems with this when it comes to the truth, but this can even take on Scriptural support as well. Let me show you how crafty this one can become. This one seeks its Biblical support from 1 Corinthians 14:33 which says,

“33For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.”

(Any student of the Bible will immediately see how this verse is taken out of context when used in this way because, in this verse, Paul is addressing the gift of tongues and prophecy when being exercised in the church.) As long as something can be written off as “weird,” it can then very conveniently fall into the “confusion-bucket” where, at least on the surface, it appears there is Scriptural support for rejecting whatever “was not seen.”

However, the problem comes when whatever it “is” that is being classified as “weird” and, therefore, being classified as “confusing” happens to be God Himself. There are many Biblical references of God doing something that confused some or even many of the people. However, those who were in right relationship with Him were always able to recognize that it was God Who was moving. Consider Pentecost or the virgin birth—both certainly VERY WEIRD! But both were completely driven by the very Spirit of God Himself.

Additionally, Scripture tells us that confusion is also seen in another situation. James 3:16-17 says,

“16For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. 17But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.”

What is verse 16 telling us? That “where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.” “It’s all good” is absolutely self-seeking, however the cancer of complacency will flip it around and take Scripture out of context before it will own up to the fact that the cancer itself is the very thing that is causing the confusion and inviting “every evil thing” in the first place.

How is this one for weird? God is NOT findable unless Jesus Himself decides to reveal Him. And, furthermore, once Jesus does, in fact, decide to reveal Him, you can’t see Him, and if you are stricken with the cancer and are operating in the flesh, you won’t be able to “see” Him, let alone sense Him, hear His voice, or discern His presence. These are very simple Scriptural truths that are “just weird enough” that the cancer of complacency and the biases will immediately reject. “No way! God ‘IS’ findable by me by whatever way or method I determine He can be found. Come on! It’s all good!” How about we take another look at Scripture? Luke 10:21-24 is the response of Jesus to spiritual matters concerning demons and Satan.

“21In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, ‘I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thatYou have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.22All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.’ 23Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, ‘Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; 24for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it.’”

Let’s take a close look at this one. Jesus is very clear here about “these things” being hidden. Hidden from whom? Those who consider themselves to be wise. He goes on to say that no one knows the Father UNLESS Jesus decides to reveal Him. Jesus finishes up these verses telling us that people “desire” to see these things but cannot see them and to hear these things and cannot hear them. The way the cancer of complacency and the biases deals with this portion of Scripture is simple. Rather than accept the truth of Scripture, it is just rejected by the “it must be visible” filter. And besides, the biases reason, why wouldn’t Jesus reveal God to me?—which is asked as a rhetorical question as if He already has, when the truth of the matter is that Jesus is also just as clear when He tells us a “lukewarm” heart is NOT a heart condition to which He will respond in a timely or positive manner.

Oh, there is more that causes the cancer and the biases to disqualify God due to the “visibility” requirement. John 4:23-24 says,

“23‘But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’”

Jesus is clear here as well. God is “Spirit.” He can’t be seen in the flesh. In fact, God told Moses in Exodus 33:20 that no man can see Him and live. Any attempt to “see” Him in the flesh will fail for two reasons: 1) He is Spirit, and 2) He isn’t there—in the physical realm—to be seen anyway.

So where, exactly, is He? Good question. Scripture has the answer (although good luck finding the place where God “is” without the Holy Spirit’s leading). Matthew 6:6 and 6:18 tell us where He is.

“6‘But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.’”

“18‘…so that you do not appear to men to be fasting but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.’”

Jesus tells us twice that God is in the secret place. A big thing that the cancer and the biases do NOT want to admit is that God is not available at man’s beck and call—no matter what man thinks about it or talks himself into believing because if this is, in fact true, then this very fact alone threatens the “it’s all good” illusion simply because it must NOT “be all good” if God is NOT able to be controlled. (Sorry. Quite a mouthful.)

Yet, God ONLY responds to the hearts of those individuals who possess a heart condition that is acceptable to Him—period! God is the creator of all that is, yet so many have come to treat Him like some errand boy or butler who should be available when they need Him or want Him to be available. And, if God would dare to NOT be complicit with their wishes, then they think they know where He hangs out and they will just go and get Him themselves! Oh, how silly the cancer and the biases have caused so many of us to become.

The cancer and the biases want those infected to believe that He is available to them according to their wishes and demands rather than His. This means they get to determine the conditions for which and by which He will be accepted or not. “If God does not want to be visible—that is just fine with us! We will just keep on rolling along in our ‘it’s all good’ illusion until He decides to come join ‘our’ party.”

The silliest part of all of this is that when He doesn’t show up for years and years, the cancer continues to keep everybody believing “it’s all good” and the waiting game continues year after year after year. The “it’s all good” crowd continues to wait for God to act according to their will and God continues to wait for them—knocking on the door of their hearts and calling out their names—to repent and desperately seek Him with a heart that is right before Him.

You can trust me on this: The impasse between the crowd stricken with the cancer and God Himself will NOT be broken because God suddenly decides to comply with the will of the crowd. The funny part is that even if God did go outside the Biblical model and outside of His character and said something like, “Okay man. You win. Let’s do it your way,” the cancer of complacency would probably still reject Him. The cancer and the biases already have the crowd believing that, “we can do it our way just fine on our own!” (This idea is covered in great detail in When the Fire Spreads.)

The whole spiritual discernment “thing” is just a little too weird to be accepted even though it is the absolute Biblical truth. Spiritual discernment has two problems:

1) Spiritual discernment in and of itself is NOT measurable, and,

2) Spiritual discernment in and of itself is NOT visible.

Ah, but the problem goes even deeper than this. There are two more problems with spiritual discernment:

1) What spiritual discernment “discerns” is NOT measurable, and,

2) What spiritual discernment “discerns” is NOT visible.

The spiritually mature person will read this and perhaps laugh out loud as the situation is very clear:

Of course you can’t “see” spiritual discernment because it happens in the spiritual realm, and, of course you can’t “see” spiritually discerned things because they CAN’T be seen—which is why they have to be spiritually discerned in the first place. (As another headache takes root.)

Simple right? Well, actually the cancer and the biases treat spiritual discernment and the things that are “discerned” just as simply: since they are NOT measurable or visible, they are rejected. Oh, and one more thing, if that isn’t enough for you—they are also a little bit “weird” and, as such, they can be “confusing.” As shown in 1 Corinthians 14:33, we can Biblically reject something if it is “confusing” (even though we have to take the verses out of context, but the point made is “Scriptural” none the less—and is therefore Biblical . . . well, sort of). Time for another headache.

I hope not because there is more.

By requiring things to be measurable and visible, the immediate effect is that the Holy Spirit is out, and only the Bible is allowed in. Never mind that the Bible communicates clearly and specifically that spiritual wisdom (including Biblical wisdom) comes to us via the Holy Spirit and must be spiritually discerned. Nope. Holy Spirit? Not measurable or visible so He is out! What about the wisdom that comes from Him? Nope. Not measurable or visible so it, too, is out. Sound a bit radical? Just walk through the doors of almost any church on any given Sunday and take an honest look around and see if you can see any evidence of the Holy Spirit or His guidance.

I hope you are ready for another headache because this one is crazy!

The cancer and the biases want nothing to do with the Holy Spirit, and they want nothing more than for those infected, and the church in general, to NEVER see anything attributable to the Holy Spirit or to hear anything from Him. EXCEPT when somebody like me comes along and says, “Just look around church and see if you see any evidence of the Holy Spirit.” Then the cancer and the biases have to cover their tracks by creating the illusion that the Holy Spirit is, in fact, “very involved.” If they can successfully present this illusion, then the “it’s all good” crowd will feel even better about the conclusion that “it’s all good” because evidence was seen (no matter how false) of the Holy Spirit. Once this conclusion is drawn, then the cancer and the biases can flip back the other way, keeping anything and everything having to with the Holy Spirit as far away as possible. How is that one for sneaky? (And how is your head doing?)

The Bible is measurable and it is visible so it is “in”—even though it cannot be correctly understood without the Holy Spirit’s input (which, by the way, IS Scriptural—see 2 Corinthians 2). The Bible isn’t read much, if at all, by those who belong to the “it’s all good” crowd because the cancer and the biases know that Scripture does, in fact, contain the things that could and can kill it—“if” Scripture’s hard line of truth is allowed to penetrate the heart and mind by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. It is, therefore, just safer for the cancer and the biases to convince those infected to keep the Bible safely on the shelf or neatly displayed, but seldom opened, on the coffee table in the living room for all to see and to further portray the “it’s all good” illusion.

However, the crazy part about the cancer and its biases is that they actually want the Bible to be in the mix as long as the Holy Spirit isn’t. People who read the Bible every day are just as likely to be infected as those who don’t. (That one probably got you going a bit, so we had better take a moment to nail this one down a little better.) Trust me on this one: you aren’t going to like this one little bit—and this will show you just how many steps ahead of us Satan tries to be. Everything you have ever been taught or heard about in church is going to be challenged right now, and there are very, very, very few Christians who don’t have huge biases that will be enraged at what I am about to write—pastors included. Hang on, because here we go . . .

Let’s start with a very simple question. How interested are you, REALLY, in being a true-blue, New Testament Christian? (Satan knows exactly what I am referencing and he is going to be working very hard right now, as you read these words, to keep you from understanding or accepting this truth. He also wants very much to be in full and complete control of your answer to that simple question.) Are you ready?

The New Testament Christian did NOT have a Bible. In fact, Christians did NOT even have Bibles available to them until the late 1600’s thanks to the invention of the printing press and the edict of King James that the very closely held Scriptures “would be” translated into English. It wasn’t a request of the king. It was a demand.

So, what did Christians do for approximately 1600 years with no access to a Bible? They relied upon the Holy Spirit of the Most High God by experiencing His direct revelation and experiencing His presence—and their relationship with Jesus was lived out each day with the Holy Spirit. “Time with God” for the early church Christian was actually “time with God,” rather than reading a devotional book or even reading the Bible a little bit each day. In fact, the Bible itself demonstrates this clearly in its description of the early New Testament church. One of the most elaborate frauds that has been committed against Christians is Satan’s use of the Bible against us. Let me explain.

Since the Bible is visible, it is “in,” and since the Holy Spirit is not visible, He is “out.” As a result of this, the sad truth is that the Bible has replaced the Holy Spirit in the lives of far too many Christians and pastors today, and Satan couldn’t be happier. Now, before you conclude that I am a crazy heretic, let’s just reconfirm a few points about the Bible. The Bible is Holy—period. It calls itself “Holy” in 2 Timothy 3:15. Verse 16 then tells us, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” That is all we need right there as far as how important Scripture is—it is directly from God. Enough said.

HOWEVER, there is not one shred of Scriptural evidence that God ever meant for Scripture to replace the Holy Spirit’s revelation or His presence in the life of the Christian—yet that is EXACTLY what Satan has pulled off in much of the church today. Jesus quoted Scripture (the Old Testament) often, and He rebuked the Pharisees for their over indulgence in searching the Scriptures when it was the Scriptures that were, in fact, pointing to Him (John 5:39-40).

You would be surprised how many pastors and Christians believe that you can’t have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ without the Bible. In fact, you may believe this yourself. Well, it is nothing less than a lie that Satan has been selling for several hundred years (since the Bible became available), and there have been way too many buyers of this lie. The New Testament church along with the ministry to the needy, the spreading of the gospel message, the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit, and the resulting miracles were ALL driven by the power of the Holy Spirit Himself—without any Bibles available.

Most of the churches today are driven by man’s agendas and man’s interpretation of the Bible, and the Holy Spirit isn’t consulted or listened to very often—which is why miracles are seldom, if ever, seen in the church today. While you can fake most religious things—as demonstrated by the Pharisees—you can’t fake the authentic power of the Holy Spirit when it comes to miracles—you couldn’t back then, and you can’t now.

If you have no supernatural power from God Himself, then you get, see, or experience NO supernatural events. Yet, the words of Jesus Himself tell us we should be doing many more miracles than He did by the power of His Holy Spirit (John 14:12). So, not seeing any miracles? A good guess would be, “no Holy Spirit.” Yet, the Bible is full of examples of miracles that occurred during the early New Testament church as the Holy Spirit was moving through the people with whom Jesus had a relationship by and through the Holy Spirit. Now, your biases can get you all riled up over this, but it is the sad truth nonetheless—and it is the direct result of the cancer and the biases as they have implemented their requirements of “measurable” and “visible” within the life of the current day believer and within the life and culture of most churches of today.

Missionaries prove this day-in and day-out as people in foreign lands or jungles, who may or may not have ever seen a Bible, let alone read one—if they can read at all—accept Jesus as their Savior and receive the blessing of the Holy Spirit, both in and upon their lives.

Let me give you another fairly recent example of how active the Holy Spirit wants to be and is capable of being some 2,000 years after He was given at Pentecost at a time and place when a Bible was hard to come by.

My aunt lived in Alaska and died recently of cancer. She told her sister (my other aunt) about some of the Russian Christians she knew that were living in Alaska. These Russian people had become followers of Christ when living in Russia at a time when it was against Russian law to be a Christian. Bibles were hard to come by because they, too, were illegal. These dedicated followers of Jesus were doing the best they could to have underground Bible studies, and if a Bible wasn’t available, they would, no doubt, get together for underground worship services. There was, however, a big problem. The location of these underground services seemed to continue to leak out to the authorities, which resulted in arrests and sometimes executions of the offending believers.

So, the people started having the secret services on different nights of the week and at crazy times of the night (like 2:00 a.m.), in an attempt to stay clear of the authorities. Somehow, there was always a “mole” who tipped off the police as to the place and time of the secret services. The arrests continued.

Well, the Holy Spirit got involved in response to the heart condition of the people. Rather than somebody deciding the day, time and place of the next meeting and then spreading the word as carefully as possible, these people would wait for the Most High God Himself, by His Holy Spirit, to provide the day, time and place to each of those who were the true followers (and God certainly wasn’t telling the moles—although they wouldn’t have been able to discern it even if He did). In other words, the Holy Spirit Himself would tell each of the people where the meeting was to be held and at what time to show up in order to avoid the police and the moles. Imagine a hundred people or more just converging on a specific place at a specific time because God had ordained it, and His Holy Spirit had communicated it to each of the people that were hungry and desperate for His movement and touch in their lives!

Bible, or not, God makes Himself available to those whose hearts are right before Him. The relationship is with God. Scripture is the user’s manual for the relationship, but it is NOT the relationship. The Bible provides incredible wisdom and insight WHEN the Holy Spirit is involved in the process (2 Corinthians 2). However, the Bible was never meant to be, and can never be, a replacement for Jesus and His Holy Spirit in a person’s life—yet, that is exactly what has happened in far, far too many people’s lives and it is what is being sold in far, far too many churches—and Satan is just sitting back licking his chops because he knows it is absolutely possible to read the Bible every day and NOT have an authentic relationship with God. The Pharisees were doing it some 2,000 years ago, and so are countless people today.

Am I suggesting we don’t use the Bible? Absolutely not! We are very blessed to be living at a moment in time where God’s Holy written word IS available to us. However, as is clearly shown in 2 Timothy 3:14-17, the Bible itself tells us that it is to be used as the supplement to our relationship with God. What Satan has masterfully pulled off is that the Bible has become the predominant piece of Christianity and Jesus and His Holy Spirit have now become little more than a supplement to Scripture. As long as the cancer and its biases can keep us believing we can figure things out by reading the Bible on our own, two things will happen. First, we will believe we don’t need “the Supplements” (which perfectly aligns with “it’s all good”). Second, the reading of the Bible will become simply another checklist item and we will feel good on the days we read it and we will feel like we have failed on the days we don’t—and actual, authentic time “with” God seldom, if ever, will happen.

However, nobody wants to own up to the fact that by giving the Bible the place of predominance, in place of the Holy Spirit, they have actually committed an act of grieving the Holy Spirit—and His grieving continues every time we, in our hearts, give the Bible predominance over Him, or choose to read the Bible rather than spending authentic time “in spirit and truth” with Him. Can you see how sneaky Satan is with this one? Who, in their right mind, would argue with reading Scripture as the predominant spiritual activity, right? OK, other than Jesus Himself (John 5:39-40), who would argue? His confronting of the Pharisees in these two verses is EXACTLY within the same context as I am addressing it here.

You can trust me on this one: Jesus did NOT die a gruesome death on the cross in order to pave the way for a bunch of people to have their focus on reading the Bible. No! He died so that the intimate relationship that man once had with God—but which was defiled by man’s sin—could be restored.

Now, I have probably ruffled some feathers with this one, but there is more to consider. Is God sovereign, or not? It is an important question. “If” He IS sovereign in ALL things, and “if” the Bible was intended by Him to have the place of predominance in our lives instead of His Holy Spirit, then He, as an Almighty, Sovereign God would have caused the Bible to have been available to the believers of the New Testament church (and the promise of Jesus in John 14:26 would NOT have been for the Holy Spirit, but for “spiritual owner’s manuals” instead). Pentecost would have been all about the pouring out, of a helicopter, a pile of printed copies of His written word, rather than pouring out His very Spirit upon man—the fulfillment of the promise of Jesus. Oh, but the cancer and the biases will cause all kinds of discomfort here. Far too many Christians and pastors believe the relationship with Jesus is with and through the reading of the Bible, when Jesus Himself, in the very Bible they want to defend, says otherwise.

It is a crazy thing (and cause for another headache), but Satan has succeeded in causing the Bible itself to become one of the things that “we have exalted against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Chew on that one for a while. Anything (ANYTHING—including the Bible) that keeps us from an authentic, intimate relationship with Him is not something He desires for us. [So, are you going to listen to the very words of Jesus Himself on this matter, or will you listen to the cancer and the biases that are screaming at you right now to put this book down and walk away (“distancing”) from it?]

I was a very slow learner of this myself. Around 18 years ago God spoke very clearly to me and told me to read the Bible every day. “Ok God. Let me get this straight. You want me to read the Bible EVERY day? Done.” For a little over three and a half years I read it EVERY day. I never missed one day. I finally went to Him, after well over a thousand days in a row of obedience to His request, and said, “Lord, I am reading the Bible every day like You asked, but I find that I am reading it because You told me to read it, and not because I want to read it. I would rather spend the time with You.” He quietly replied, “Me too.” It was a long, slow lesson that took me far too long to learn, but He took me down the checklist road in order to show me what He really wanted to have with me—what He paid the ultimate price to have with me—but my heart had to come to the conclusion He wanted.

Am I discounting the Bible? Not at all. In fact, I won’t allow anything to be placed on top of the Bible in my home. My family will tell you how many times I will walk into the kitchen and there on the table is somebody’s Bible with a purse or cell phone (or whatever) sitting on it as the items were placed there while getting ready to go to church. Well, not on my watch! I will remove whatever is sitting on top of the Bible. In my home, God’s Holy Scripture will be respected at all times—and one of the ways I respect it is that it is never covered by something else.

I also read the Bible often. However, I read it as a supplement for what the Holy Spirit is teaching me and telling me every day within my relationship with Him. In other words, I use the Bible exactly how it tells me it should be used (see 2 Timothy 3:14-17). Additionally, Scripture is the basis for everything I have written in each of my books. I won’t let Satan, via the cancer and the biases, talk me into believing anything other than what Scripture says.

- I don’t care what tradition says.

- I don’t care what the majority believes.

- I don’t care what most pastors preach.

It doesn’t matter what it is, if it is a position that falls into either of the following categories, I will reject it.

1) If it is NOT Biblical—or if it is taking Scripture out of context.

2) If it, in any way, “exalts itself against the knowledge of God” (including the things that I catch myself exalting or that I see others exalting).

By the way, the word “knowledge,” as used Biblically in 2 Corinthians 10:5, comes from the root word that Jesus used in Matthew 7:23 when he says, “I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” Let’s see what else Jesus has to tell us.

Jesus spent His entire ministry trying to correct the incorrect views held by the people and of those in religious leadership—views, by the way, that were arrived at by twisting the Scriptures (the Old Testament at the time), in order to meet the needs and requirements of their biases. One of the things Jesus did during His ministry, with regards to challenging the way people approached the things of God and the things of the law (God’s laws), was to let people know it was less about what the people “did” and was more about what was “in” their hearts. Probably His most famous depiction to this effect was in Matthew 5:27-28.

“27‘You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.’”

In the twenty-seven verses of Matthew 5:21-48 Jesus deals with six separate “You have heard … but I say to you …” matters of the heart. The cancer and the biases have declared the heart to be off limits because outside of the fact that the heart is a muscle that pumps the blood throughout the body, whatever else is attributed to “the heart” isn’t measurable and isn’t visible—so it is out.

The Greek word for “mystery” appears in the New Testament 27 times. In other words, twenty-seven times, a topic is suggested by a New Testament writer that requires spiritual discernment in order for the topic to be understood (spiritual discernment is also required for ALL things of God as show in 1 Corinthians 2). Without spiritual discernment these “mysteries” appear “weird” or, at the least, as “foolishness” to those that don’t “get it.” This is what is meant by 1 Corinthians 2:14,

“14But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

God is also a step ahead of man and man’s foolishness while the cancer and the biases have him convinced he is wise. 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 says,

“27But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29that no flesh should glory in His presence.”

The cancer and the biases will NEVER accept this. The mysteries are foolishness to them—but not because they CANNOT know them (which IS Scripturally true, as shown above)—but because they are weird and are, therefore, rejected as “foolish.” Now, how is that for abject blindness?

I have recently been in communication with someone who has read my books and who has been praying for her husband—and who has asked me to be praying for him with her. Her husband has read one of my books and he rejects most of the Biblical evidence for hell based on this premise (which, by the way, is founded in the Belief Bias): “I can’t believe God would actually do that.”—even though the Bible is very clear that He does and He will “do that.” It really is an interesting position to take. In order to buy into the false “God-wouldn’t-send-people-to-hell” doctrine, the first thing you have to do is reject loads and loads of Scripture which say that He most definitely can and will send people to hell.

The second thing you have to do in order to buy into this false doctrine is to shut off your brain (which the cancer and the biases are more than happy to help you do). If you spend any time at all even thinking about the Old Testament and what literally happened there—which, by the way, is largely historical fact as many, many Old Testament events are historically recounted in well over 20,000 non-Biblical texts—you have to ask yourself some interesting questions. Like:

- If God was displeased enough with the rampant disobedience with man that He was going to wipe every last one of us off the face of the earth— and then DID—except for Noah and his family, then where do you think all those people went, with whom His anger was aroused enough to wipe them all out? Do you really think they are in heaven with an eternal “go sit in the corner” punishment?

- Similarly, if God was angry enough with what was going on in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah that He was willing to literally and quite practically fry everything and everyone, do you really think these people actually won’t be held accountable and, instead, received a “get-into-heaven-free gift card” in their Christmas stockings?

- How about all the Old Testament kings and armies that came directly against God and His chosen people? The same kings and armies that often died on the spot due ONLY to the fact that the Almighty God stretched out His hand to help His chosen people in the slaughter. Where are these people? Heaven? No way. (And if you think “slaughter” is a bit tough, you need to re-read the story of Joshua and Jericho, among others presented in the Old Testament.)

The cancer and its biases CAN’T let those who are infected truthfully consider the whole “heaven and hell thing” because it would be a direct threat to “it’s all good.”

This person’s husband also rejects the Biblical premise that God speaks to us based on his lack of hearing God speak to him.

Now, here is the problem with this (and many, many people as well as many people in church leadership also believe this): This is just another version of “it’s all good.” It goes like this, “Since I know that ‘it’s all good with me,’ God must not speak to man anymore because He isn’t speaking to me.” The cancer and the biases have everything flipped around backwards once again.

Taking this position puts us as the final authority of our heart’s condition before God, rather than God Himself—the One Who makes the rules. And what logically follows then is that there must be something wrong with God (since He isn’t talking to me—and I KNOW there is nothing wrong with me). But, since we don’t want to be the one to say that something is wrong with God (if, for no other reason than, we still do believe at some very low level that He still controls the lightning bolts), so we, instead, make a blanket declaration that, “He doesn’t speak to man anymore,” even though the Bible contains loads of support and examples of the Holy Spirit’s direct communication with those who do, in fact, have an intimate relationship with Him.

Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of all this . . . stick with me.

Chapter 14

“An idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand.”   ~A.W. Tozer

“The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort.”   ~A.W. Tozer

“The man who is elated by success and is cast down by failure is still a carnal man. At best his fruit will have a worm in it.”   ~A.W. Tozer

The “real” question . . .

Okay, so the cancer of complacency, along with the expert use of the biases, has created a feeling that “it’s all good.” We now know how dangerous this “it’s all good” illusion can be to the Christian who, according to Jesus, has an incorrect view of themselves. We also know how dangerous and deadly this illusion can be corporately within the church in general. We have explored the effects of this cancer and what the antibodies do to help protect themselves. Now it is time to ask the really important question. So here it is:

In addition to protecting themselves, just what EXACTLY are the cancer and the biases trying to hide?

Why ask this question? Because wherever and whenever you run into something that isn’t about truth, and in this case, is even averse to the truth—somebody or something is always hiding something. Always. Keep in mind that the presence of this cancer and the antibodies that protect it will very quickly move Jesus and His Holy Spirit out of the picture. The Holy Scriptures get twisted and “it’s all good” is VERY good at learning and using the “churchy vernacular” so that it can always say the right thing at just the right moment in order to keep the “it’s all good” illusion rolling right along—and to also keep the perspective of others of the “it’s all good” illusion intact as well. The more energy that is exerted in order to look “righteous,” the bigger the red flag should be that something is not quite right—that something is, in fact, being hidden. So, what is it that the cancer of complacency and the associated biases are hiding?

Idols. And you thought Satan was pretty crafty with the cancer and the biases. You haven’t seen anything yet. These idols are:

- The things in our lives that have become too important to us.

- The things in our lives that are more important to us than God—and, thereby, keep us from Him.

- The things in our lives that have become more important to us than an authentic relationship with God, through Jesus Christ, by the power and revelation of His Holy Spirit—and, thereby, keep us at arm’s length from the things of God including God Himself.

- The things in our lives that have become more important to us than authentic intimacy with God—and thereby keep “God things” classified as something “we do” rather than “who we are.”

Let’s take a look at an interesting portion of Scripture that illustrates this perfectly. Jesus says some incredible things in this passage of Scripture that make no sense until you understand what Jesus was trying to do. Let’s take a closer look. Matthew 19:16-22 says,

“16Now behold, one came and said to Him, ‘Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?’ 17So He said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ 18He said to Him, ‘Which ones?’ Jesus said, ‘You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19 Honor your father and your mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 20The young man said to Him, ‘All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?’ 21Jesus said to him, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’ 22But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”

Let’s break this down into smaller pieces so we can see what is going on here.

In verse 16 this man asks Jesus, “What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” Notice that the emphasis within the question is on something “good” that he would need “to do.” The biases were already at work. This man wants to play the “checklist game” believing that if he can get Jesus to commit to a checklist then he, in his own power, can complete the checklist and, in doing so, gain eternal life.

In verse 17 Jesus begins to play with the man. He says, “But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” This is a funny thing for Jesus to say because Jesus KNOWS that it is impossible! If it was possible for a man to keep the commandments, and that it was, in fact, that simple, then He would NOT have needed to come to earth in order to die on the cross in the first place. It is as if Jesus is thinking, “Okay. If you want to the play the ‘checklist game’ with Me—fine. Let’s play.”

In verse 18 the man continues down the same road with a more specific question basically asking Jesus which specific commandments should be on his checklist. So, playing along with “the game,” in verses 18 and 19 Jesus gives him the list that he is looking for. But didn’t you notice something a bit fishy about the list Jesus gave him? Take a look at the list a bit more closely. The last “commandment” on the list that Jesus gave him is NOT one of the commandments. “Loving your neighbor as yourself” is NOT one of the Ten Commandments, but was, rather, something Jesus said during His ministry when He was asked which commandment was the most important. To which Jesus answered (this is a paraphrase), “Love God with ALL you have, and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

In verse 20 the guy takes the bait. He says, “It’s all good” because I have done that “since my youth.” Uh, I doubt it. Nobody was capable of keeping the law. Jesus knows this as well—which, as stated above, was why He came to die on the cross in the first place. But Jesus doesn’t argue the point with him—even though it wasn’t possible. It is also interesting to note that the man demonstrates his general lack of knowledge regarding the law because he doesn’t realize this list that Jesus has given him doesn’t, technically, contain commandments from “the” Ten Commandments.

Then, however, the man says something interesting. He says, “What do I still lack?” Why would he ask that question? He just confirmed that he had done everything Jesus has mentioned as to the specific commandments “since his youth.” At that point the discussion should have been over. Obviously, he “knew” in his heart that he wasn’t quite there yet. So, he continues to play the “checklist game” by asking Jesus what else needs to be on the checklist (“What do I still lack?”).

In verse 21, Jesus continues to play the game with the man by telling him to “go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” Here we go again. What Jesus tells the man to do will NOT result in eternal life! All Jesus did was to give him another “to-do” item—another item to be added to the checklist. Ahh, but Jesus knows that this particular to-do item is tied directly to the man’s heart. It exposed the condition of his heart—that his possessions were too important to him. This is one of the only verses in the Bible that I would re-write if God would allow me to do so. Verse 22 says, “But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” I think I would re-write it to say, “. . . he went away sorrowful, for his great possessions had him!”

Jesus played his checklist game until it was time to reveal to this man how he was stuck because of the idols in his life that were, in fact, keeping him from being able to attain eternal life. In this case the idol was his possessions. This is what nobody wants to hear—whether infected with the cancer or not. Nobody wants to hear that something as simple as our possessions can get in the way of eternal life. However, the truth of Scripture as presented by none other than Jesus Himself tells us the reality of this threat.

Idols are the things that are exalted in our lives that keep us from God. 2 Corinthians 10:4-6 says,

“4For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”

You want to see the cancer of complacency and the biases at work with regard to idols? Just ask an excessively overweight pastor about gluttony and watch his reaction. Here is another one: Just ask a Christian about driving an overly expensive, status symbol car, or ask a Christian about wearing an overly expensive, status symbol watch. Just ask a Christian woman about wearing overly expensive designer clothes and carrying designer purses. The list goes on and on and includes anything that takes the place of God in our lives. What is even worse, is that the “thing or item” doesn’t even have to be a problem for the person that owns it, drives it, wears it, etc. If it is something that “is exalted among men”—then it exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Stick with me, there is more.

Now, I know I have probably struck a nerve with one or more of the status symbols listed above. Care to hear Scripture’s position on expensive status symbol cars, status symbol watches, designer purses and clothes? Here you go (but, if you own any of these things you aren’t going to like it). Luke 16:14-15 says,

“14Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him. 15And He said to them, ‘You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.”

Now, before you start flipping out, let me remind you of a couple of things in case one or more of these has you frustrated right now. First, if you are the slightest bit uncomfortable as you read this, you need to take a deep breath and understand that it is the cancer and the biases that are causing you to feel the discomfort. They are defending you against the truth of Scripture. I know it isn’t what many professing Christians want to hear, but when it comes to material possessions, Scripture—and Jesus Himself—are clearly telling us that even if you or I are ok with having it (whatever “it” is)—the fact that something is highly esteemed among others is what makes it an abomination in the sight of God. Why? Because if you are wearing something or driving something that is highly esteemed among others, then you (or it) will be the focus, rather than God. From the perspective of Jesus, it is clearly an issue regarding things that receive, or attract, honor from men.

It must always be about Him and it can NEVER be about us . (Just do a simple word study in the Bible on the word “jealous” and take note of how jealous God is—and idols arouse His jealousy!) However, something that is highly esteemed among man automatically shifts the focus from Him to us (or to the thing that is esteemed). God demands and requires all the glory. Period. It is non-negotiable. Anything that is capable of pulling the focus away from Him—He basically hates—it is an abomination to Him. He has even killed the son’s of His high priest who tried to take some of His glory (Leviticus 10:1-3).

Now, here is the interesting part about how the cancer and the biases “use” these idols. What I have found, regarding most idols in the lives of most Christians, is that it is the presence of the idols themselves that is used by the cancer and the biases to project or portray to others the “it’s all good” illusion. The cancer and the biases get those infected to twist the Scripture causing them to believe that if they are okay with the item in their hearts, then it becomes perfectly fine to parade around with the item in front of others. “Hey, it must be all good—have you seen the car I am driving?” “They must be doing good—she always has a new designer purse . . . and have you seen the watch he is wearing?” The illusion with others remains intact furthering the need for the others to now reciprocate their illusion of “it’s all good” and the cycle becomes self-perpetuating among the people—and the result is that God receives less and less of the glory and the focus. God gets mad and Satan rejoices.

Let me give you an example. I mentioned in chapter 3 that I once flew my own Learjet. Now, if there was ever anything that you could look at and immediately throw it into the “highly esteemed bucket,” it would be a private jet. I had flown the jet on a business trip where a good friend of mine happened to live. When I had a break in my business meetings, I met this friend of mine for lunch. As we got caught up during our conversation, we traded the typical shallow questions like, “So, how’s it going?” “How is business treating you?” “How’s the family?” You know the drill when you get with someone you haven’t seen for a while.

After we had been talking for around half an hour or so over our lunch, he said, “Hey, last time I spoke to you I think you were looking into getting your own airplane so you could spend more time at home with the family instead of being stuck in the airports. What did you end up doing?” I said, “Oh yeah. I had forgotten that we talked about that. Well, I am now flying a Learjet and, yes, it does get me home for more time with my family.” He then uttered under his breath, but loud enough that I could just hear it, “Man, you must be doing good.”

Let’s look a little deeper into his response. From his perspective “it’s all good” was measured by the “fact” that I was flying my own jet rather than “why” I was flying it—even though his initial question demonstrated he knew “why” I was looking into airplane ownership. Over the years that I flew the jet, I ran into this perspective often. Yes, the jet was very expensive, but in the first year that I flew it I was, in fact, home with my family 170 or so more evenings and nights than I would have been if I had flown commercial. This was at a time when my kids were between 5 and 12 years of age—the age when Dad needs to be home as much as possible. I would rather have had the money, but you can’t replace time lost with your kids and your family.

The outward appearance of owning the jet communicated “it’s all good,” whether that was the intention of my heart or not. Looking back on it, I can completely understand why it was an abomination to God. People would ask me about the jet ten times more often than they would ask me about what God was doing in my life, in my family, or in my church—and He was doing a lot, much of what He was doing I have described in my other books. Even though my heart was okay with it—the jet caused the unintended consequence of drawing attention away from God. The truth of Scripture isn’t what I really want to consider here because I truly did enjoy flying it. However, I also must admit that no matter what the heart condition was of my wife and me with regard to the jet, the jet DID draw attention to itself (and to us) rather than to God. That fact, and that fact alone, according to Scriptural truth, makes it an abomination in His sight.

Here is more Scripture about how these “abominations” incite the wrath of God. Ephesians 5:5-7 says,

“5For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7Therefore do not be partakers with them.”

It is clear that God isn’t messing around with these idols. The interesting thing that is communicated in these verses is that it is a simple choice to get involved with these abominations because the simple instruction is, “do not be partakers with them.”

Ah, but the cancer and the biases help with “the choice” by clouding and twisting the truth so that it becomes: “what matters is whether it is ok with my heart.” “Since my heart is okay with it—then God must be okay with it as well”—even though Scripture is clearly presenting something far different. What follows is that since “it’s no big deal,” the value of the abomination to the heart is masked, thereby even further clouding the issue.

The cancer and the biases keep the idols—and their value to the heart of the one stricken—hidden so they can be used to support the “it’s all good” illusion. The idols also keep the focus off of and away from God—even though experiencing His wrath will be the price that is ultimately paid. Satan is ingenious here. The cancer of complacency and the antibodies are what he uses in order to keep the idol’s value to the heart hidden which, not only, protects the illusion, but it also keeps the focus away from God. Amazing! And with the focus away from God there are two other little “nasties” that are protected in the process as well.

Let’s take a look at those next . . .

Chapter 15

“The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions.”   ~A.W. Tozer

“Salvation apart from obedience in unknown in the Sacred Scriptures.”   ~A.W. Tozer

“The neglected heart will soon be a heart overrun with worldly thoughts; the neglected life will soon become a moral chaos.”   ~A.W. Tozer

Two more little nasty items Satan needs to keep at bay . . .

By now, it is pretty easy to see just how complex and crafty Satan is, at using the cancer of complacency and the biases to his benefit, by keeping those infected all tied up and occupied with everything but the things of God or the truth of His written or spoken word to us. Now we get to the “biggies.” These are the ones most critical to Satan’s plan in his battle for our souls because these play a direct role in just how far the gospel is spread among other people and how great or small the amount of ministry that gets done among those who truly need it.

Satan is playing for keeps and these are the oldest tricks in his book.

Nasty #1: Accountability.

The “it’s all good” illusion creates an environment of zero accountability. Why? Simply because if “it’s all good,” then there is nothing (and nobody) to be accountable to. This isn’t a new ploy or plan recently developed by Satan. Satan destroyed the “sense of accountability” in the Garden of Eden with Eve by casting doubt on the truth and validity of God’s words to Adam and Eve with regard to what they could and could not eat and what would happen if they disobeyed.

By casting doubt in Eve’s mind about whether or not she would, in fact, die, Satan opened up some interesting possibilities. First, if “death”—the penalty for disobedience as declared by God—is in question, then just maybe “it’s all good.” “Ooohhhh, it must be all good, because I can see now that the tree ‘is good for food,’ and ‘it is pleasant to my eyes’, and it ‘is desirable to make one wise.’” (Genesis 3:6) Bang! Accountability goes out the window and the human race is changed forever!

“It’s all good” has been responsible for so much sin, in the lives of those who call themselves Christians, it is really a sickening topic. If Satan can get “accountability” to lose its strength or importance within individual lives and within the life of the church, then why would or should anybody even waste the time to even consider the consequences of his/her actions. A lack of accountability creates incredible blindness to sin, both individually and corporately.

This is really the problem within the person, who believes himself to be a friend of the cross of Christ, but who is actually, an enemy of the cross of Christ. Lack of accountability means there are no consequences to sin or to the things Scripture speaks against. (Now, brace yourself because you aren’t going to like this one.) Lack of accountability says, “I know, I know. I drive a vehicle that is a status symbol. But, come on. God knows my heart. It’s all good. Besides, how ‘bad’ can an ‘abomination’ really be?”

Lack of accountability means it is okay to twist this Scripture by making it about whether “I am ok” with it, when the truth, as presented by Jesus Himself, is that the item itself is what is the abomination before God—and Scripture doesn’t place any qualifier on whether or not “we” are ok with it. Nobody, in their right mind, who is truly serious about their relationship with God, would look Jesus in the face and say, “Actually Jesus, I don’t see any problem with a few ‘abominations’ in my life.” Ahh, but the cancer strikes again. By removing the “threat” of accountability, all of a sudden “abominations” are okay—and the need to even address them with Jesus in the first place goes right out the window.

What is the “threat” of accountability? Simply that the reason for accountability in the first place is that there are consequences for sin. Namely, death—since the Bible clearly tells us, in more than one place, that the wages of sin is death. “Wages?” Yes, the payment that someone should expect in exchange for committing sin is nothing other than death. I didn’t make up these rules—God did, and He isn’t messing around with them either. The cancer and the biases keep us protected from the “threat”—so much so that those stricken don’t even recognize the sin, let alone the consequence—because by removing accountability from the equation, sin and even the Holy Spirit’s conviction in our lives regarding the sin, is glossed over by “it’s all good.”

So, just how big is “accountability” within the big picture from God’s perspective? There is nothing that is greater or carries more importance within God’s plan, in general, or for God’s plan within each and every individual who would darken the doorway of any church! Accountability is exactly why Jesus came to die on the cross in our place. Why? Because SOMEBODY has to pay the price for sin! It isn’t negotiable. SOMEBODY has to pay. God, in His infinite love for us, chose to pay the debt of sin for each of us through the death and shed blood of His son, Jesus, on the cross. The concept of accountability is central to God’s most basic rules. You or I (or anyone for that matter) CANNOT ever be in His presence—period—without first having atonement for our sin. In other words, everything we do is ultimately, completely, and absolutely accountable to the Most High God.

Do you truly and honestly want to be “a friend of the cross of Christ?” Then NEVER, EVER, EVER lose sight of the issue and importance of accountability to God in your life. There is some very serious Scripture addressing this (but the cancer of complacency and the biases don’t want that to be known and, in most cases, won’t allow it to be acknowledged at all). If you want to be “an enemy of the cross of Christ,” just disregard Hebrews 10:26-29,

“26For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. 28Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose , will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?”

“Do you suppose?” Scripture is telling us to “think about this a bit.” What is it that causes the Son of God to be trampled underfoot, the counting of the blood of Jesus as a common thing, and the insulting of the Holy Spirit? Something as simple as “willful sin.” If you, as Satan, can get rid of accountability, then you are left with “willful sin” not really being very much of a big deal. Yet, if there is one thing Satan would like to do beyond winning the battle for your soul—it would be to get as many people as possible to count the shed blood, of his archrival Jesus, as a common thing.

Accountability. NEVER, EVER, EVER lose sight of its role in God’s eyes, or of its importance in your life or in the life of the church among the people.

Nasty #2: Obedience.

The next thing the “it’s all good” illusion is able to get rid of is obedience. Once accountability has been removed, then obedience will be very soon to follow. If there is no accountability, then there is no reason to be obedient. This is simply the other side of the “sin coin.” Since we now know that willful sin comes from not believing or accepting the idea of accountability for the things we do in our lives before God, obedience then simply takes a back seat, when it comes to what we decide is important with regard to our actions. Without accountability, sin will reign and obedience is turned into a nice thought we may or may not hear about in church (based on how deeply the cancer has spread within the life of the pastor who is doing the preaching of the sermons or who is doing the teaching within the church).

How important is obedience? Well, according to Scripture (and Jesus Himself), the lack of obedience is what keeps people OUT of heaven. Uh-oh. More Scripture the cancer and the biases don’t want to be read too loudly—if at all. Matthew 7:21-23 is very clear,

“21‘Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

Uh-oh. More bad news for the cancer and the biases. Who gets in? “He who does the will of My Father in heaven.” In other words, “He who is obedient in what they ‘do’ in regard to the will of the Father—Who is God Himself.” In my other book, Are Most “Christians” Headed to Hell?, I explore at length exactly “how” it is that we can be obedient to the Father. It is a book that takes a very radical look at the truth of what Scripture says about this. It is interesting that the only negative comments I have received about the book are that the title of the book is a little bit “too much in your face.” Fair enough, and so is most of Scripture, but the cancer and the biases don’t want to go there—and the last thing the cancer and the biases want anybody considering is that hell just might be their eternal destination. Hell is also taken off the table as the Scriptural consequence for a life lived outside of intimacy with Jesus as soon as accountability and obedience are no longer on the table either.

Look closely at the above referenced verses. Look at the resume given by the “it’s all good” crowd who are arguing with Jesus about why they aren’t getting into heaven. Let’s paraphrase these verses and words from Jesus Himself.

Verse 21 : “Not everyone who thinks I am their Lord will get into heaven. Only those truly obedient to God (the Father) will get in.”

Verse 22 : “Many will argue with me on the day they realize I wasn’t kidding around when I addressed heaven and hell. They will argue like this: ‘Lord, it’s all good because we prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and did many wonderful works in Your name.’”

Verse 23 : “And I will say to them, ‘You never had a relationship with me. Get away from Me. You were not obedient in the things you did, because the things you did—even though you think they were spiritual—I consider them to be sin (lawlessness).’”

Whoa! Jesus considered the things they did to be sin. If that isn’t a huge wake-up call, then I don’t know what is. The “it’s all good” illusion gets people to sit around a committee meeting on the second Tuesday evening of every month and decide what ministry they should be doing. Forget about what God wants. “It’s all good” means we can figure it out—AND, for good measure, we also get a rubber stamp of approval from the committee that happens to be “in-charge” of whatever ministries are going on in the church.

Committee member : “Hey, I have an idea for what we could be doing. How about prophesying in His name, casting out demons in His name, and doing many wonderful works in His name?”

Committee chairperson : “Hey, not bad. Do we have a motion?”

Another member : “So moved.”

Committee chairperson : “All in favor say, ‘I.’”

All together : “I.”

Committee chairperson : “Opposed, same sign.”

Everybody : Silence.

Committee chairperson : “The motion has passed. It is settled then. We will prophesy in His name, cast out demons in His name, and do many wonderful works in His name. I will need status reports from each of you at the next meeting as to whether or not this ministry activity was successful or not.”

Person on the committee NOT yet infected with the cancer : “Um. Excuse me. But the more I sit here and consider this, the more I think we have a problem. Didn’t some people in the Bible end up in hell for doing stuff like this without getting direction from God as to what ‘He wants’ us to be doing? You know, being obedient to Him and His will, rather than to our will or our agenda? I think it was in Matthew 7.”

Committee chairperson : “Naw, don’t worry about it. Besides what could be more ‘spiritual’ than doing a bunch of stuff in His name? Meeting adjourned. See you all next month.”

And off they go to “practice lawlessness,” all in the name of “it’s all good” because it certainly sounds good to be involved in doing “churchy stuff in His name,” regardless of whether or not God Himself is the One Who directed the ministry in the first place and regardless of whether or not His Holy Spirit will empower it or not. Here is another one you aren’t going to like (but the cancer and the biases are counting on you believing). If God is not the One Who directed the ministry, then there shouldn’t be any expectation that His Holy Spirit will be the power driving the ministry—regardless of what the committee thinks about it. If they are lucky and experience some success, the Holy Spirit may or may not get the credit. However, if it fails, nobody will want to take ownership of NOT seeking God’s will but, instead, seeking and doing man’s will.

Once obedience and accountability are out of the way, then Satan can really make things interesting. With obedience off the table, true Biblically based ministry directed by God within the life of the “it’s all good” crowd stops. If the church is made up of mostly “it’s all good” members, the only ministry that will occur is the selfish, inward ministry rather than ministry to those who need help—let alone ministry that God might desire or might direct Himself. With accountability and obedience out of the way within the life of an individual, Satan has virtually guaranteed another “enemy of the cross of Christ.”

So, how about it? How does the whole idea of “accountability” to God make you feel? How about “obedience” to Him first and foremost? How much time do you actually spend each day truly seeking authentic direction from God’s Holy Spirit for how you can be obedient to what He wants rather than seeking to do things that “look spiritual”? In my prior two books I spent a lot of time talking about hearing from God via His Holy Spirit—which is the only way we can be obedient to what He wants. When laziness strikes the Christian, one of the first things to go is the communication link between the lazy one and God. In this state it isn’t easy to remain spiritually sensitive (in the Spirit). It takes time to spend time with God. When laziness sets in, the last thing that happens is on-purpose time with God. This means there is no seeking to hear His voice, via the direct communication and revelation of His Holy Spirit, and to feel His presence. Satan wants us to waste our time. God wants us to use it wisely. Ephesians 5:15-17 says,

“15See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

Why does Satan want us to waste time? So the evil days can consume us and slip past us and, thereby, become the norm in our lives. If we “walk circumspectly,” we are not fools. Now all we have to do is just connect the dots. The last thing the “it’s all good” crowd is doing is “walking circumspectly.” They, therefore, are fools. What does this passage of Scripture tell us is wise? “Redeeming the time.” The word evil in the Greek literally means, “Evil, in effect or influence.” Whose influence? Exactly—Satan’s. If, however, we are wise, we will make the most of our time. How? By “understanding what the will of the Lord is.” Ahh, but that will be difficult because the last thing “it’s all good” and the biases wants is for somebody to answer the door He is knocking on, or to answer Him as He calls out our names with any level of spiritual sensitivity because that might mean that we would actually “hear” Him. Another thing Satan just can’t have is people who actually “hear God’s voice.”

There is more. 1 Peter 5:8 says,

“8Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”

It takes a clear head, free from Satan’s influences, to avoid his schemes. Don’t be deceived even for a second. Satan has already devoured those with the cancer and the biases. That is one of the reasons it is so, so difficult to get rid of the cancer and the biases so that the truth can be seen for what it is—the truth (imagine that!), rather than some watered down, vaguely familiar version of the truth that the cancer and the biases have, not only twisted, but now defend as the gospel truth.

1 Peter 1:13-19 is an amazing portion of Scripture for the person who can see the truth clearly. These verses are the enemy of Satan, the cancer, and the biases.

“13Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance;15but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’17And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; 18knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

Wow! Here we see the gateway to the heart is the mind. This passage of Scripture is telling us to protect our minds and to be sober. This is why Romans 8:5 tells us to set our minds on the things of the Spirit. Uh-oh. The biases seek to infect (and “affect”) our minds and thereby block the truth—or at the very least to twist it. This Scripture is calling us to be as “obedient children,” while the cancer wants us to ignore obedience in the name of “it’s all good.” Satan is depending on the cancer and the biases to make sure those who are infected remain “conformed to the former lusts.” Just how are we to “conduct ourselves throughout the time of our stay here?” “In fear.” This doesn’t sound to me like Scripture is recommending “it’s all good” as to how we should conduct ourselves. Scripture says “in fear,” while the cancer says, “rich, wealthy, and have need of nothing.” The gulf between the two is very great.

This is further seen in Isaiah 66:2 which says,

“2‘For all those things My hand has made, And all those things exist,’ Says the Lord. ‘But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word.’”

The above verse is referencing the “poor in spirit” that Jesus mentions in Matthew 5:3. The person who, in spirit, considers themselves poor rather than rich, and who trembles at His spoken word, is the person who gets His attention. The Hebrew word for “trembles” means fearful and is from the root word which means to “shudder with terror.” Obviously NOT the response of the “it’s all good” crowd, and light years away from “rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.”

One last thing. How does this passage of Scripture refer to the blood of Jesus? It says that it is precious! Please take a moment and think about that one for a little bit and try to be as honest as you can. How much time have you spent in the past week (or month, or year) truly considering just how precious the shed blood of Christ is? Satan is banking on the fact that the cancer of complacency will never bother to ask the question in the first place—let alone come to any conclusions—and the biases will make sure that whatever conclusions are reached will be anything but radical or based on the truth. Guess what? The minute someone considers the question of the true value of the shed blood of Jesus and then honestly, in their heart and mind, comes to the conclusion that His blood IS precious—accountability begins to move right back in where it belongs. What will follow? That’s right. Obedience.

Now we can clearly see just how far apart the “friend of the cross of Christ” is from the “enemy of the cross of Christ.” The cross, which has largely become a meaningless symbol in our society, was actually the instrument upon which the blood of Jesus was shed. If you are an enemy of the cross, then you are also “an enemy of His blood.” Period. When the trumpet sounds on that glorious day, Jesus is going to have some pretty serious questions for those who were an enemy of the cross and who counted His blood as anything but precious—as a common thing.

When the day finally arrives when “every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ”, it will be a glorious day for some and a terrible, terrible day for the “it’s all good” crowd.

Chapter 16

“In the majority of our meetings there is scarcely a trace of reverent thought, no recognition of the unity of the body, little sense of the divine Presence, no moment of stillness, no solemnity, no wonder, no holy fear.”   ~A.W. Tozer

We are to live “in fear?” . . . I have a suggestion.

Let’s look at that verse one more time, shall we?

1 Peter 1:17 says,

“17 And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear.”

The word “fear” as used here is the same Greek word as is used in 2 Corinthians 7:1,

“1Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

The Greek word “fear,” as used in these two verses of Scripture, literally means, “alarm or fright, be afraid, terror.” I don’t know about you, but I don’t see, or sense, anything like “it’s all good” in that definition. In fact, I am pretty sure this definition is absolutely the opposite of “it’s all good.” What, exactly, does this mean? It simply means we have forgotten just “Who” the Almighty God is! We have allowed the cancer to kill our reverence for Him. The cancer has killed the church’s reverence for Him as well.

“It’s all good” gives zero regard to, or for, His Majesty. How does Scripture tell us we can “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit?” By fearing God. By having a sense of reverence for Him that is rooted in terror. Period. The cancer of complacency and the biases CANNOT stick around when we regard God with the reverence and awe that He desires and requires. “Filthiness” of the flesh and spirit most certainly includes the cancer, the biases, the abominations, and the conclusion “it’s all good.” This, too, is just like the blood of Christ. Conclude it is precious and accountability and obedience come back into the picture. “Fear” God with the reverence and awe that is rooted in terror, and accountability and obedience won’t just come back into the picture—they will move back into, and become an integral part of, our daily lives.

This is why the cancer and the biases are so strong. From Eve until now, Satan’s goal has been to get people to NOT fear God. The result of NOT fearing Him is a complacent view of sin and how deadly it truly is, and the conclusion “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.” Satan has twisted the truth of Scripture, and he has the biases rejecting anything even resembling the idea of accountability, obedience, precious blood, and reverence.

Let’s look again to Scripture as to how we are to live “in fear” of God. There are two people in Scripture who can show us a lot about how and where we need to be living our lives: Peter and David. Let’s take a look at each of them for what we can learn.

Luke 5:4-11 is an amazing passage of Scripture.

“4When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, ‘Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.’ 5But Simon answered and said to Him, ‘Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.’ 6And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. 7So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!’ 9For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken; 10and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.’ 11 So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him.”

Here we see a different kind of “It’s all good” from Simon Peter. Jesus, who happens to be sitting in Simon Peter’s boat, tells him to move the boat out into deeper water and throw out the nets to catch some fish. Now, Simon Peter was a professional fisherman. We know this because this passage of Scripture also tells us who his business partners were. If there is one thing he knows, it is fishing. He also knows he busted his fanny all night long and caught nothing. So, he argues with Jesus and ultimately says, “Since it is You, Jesus, if you tell me to do it—I will go do it.” Simon Peter’s version of “its’ all good” was “it ain’t gettin’ any better.” Either position says, at its core, “God can’t make a difference.”

Well, one of the things that Jesus was (and still is) REALLY, REALLY good at is exceeding expectations—and in this case, even when Simon Peter didn’t have any expectations at all. Once the reality of the situation hits Peter square in the face, the ONLY response he was capable of was, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” We also know “fear” was a part of his response even though he doesn’t say the words because Jesus responds to him, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” It is an interesting response from Jesus that begs some questions. Did Jesus know where the fish were located at that moment and, therefore, told Simon Peter where to put the boat? Or, did fish just swim there because Jesus said to put the boat there? Either one is a piece of cake for the Creator of the universe. Simon Peter’s world (as well as everybody else who was there) was shaken to the core that day. But the response of Jesus also demonstrates His deity because He prophesies that, “From now on you will catch men.” Oh really? How? They are professional fisherman of “fish.” That may be so, but not for long . . . and Jesus knew it.

Okay. Imagine for a minute that you are Peter. Everything you thought you knew about fishing just got thrown out the window by this Guy, Jesus. He is obviously in control of things like no man ever was before (or since). You and your partners just saw what can happen if you hang out with this guy. You finally get your sinking boats full of fish to shore and what do you do? Do you start cleaning them and getting ready for the financial windfall that is about to come in from your best catch ever? Nope. You drop everything and leave it behind in order to be with Jesus—like He just said that you would. This is exactly what they did.

“11So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him.”

It went from “it’s all bad” to “it’s better than good” in a few moments. The difference, however, is Peter KNEW he was wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. He KNEW what had happened was the direct result of the supernatural power of Jesus. His practical fear turned, almost immediately, into fervent commitment.

We see a different Peter after some time has passed and he has, no doubt by now, had plenty of additional opportunities to see just Who this Jesus is—and what can happen if you hang out with Him. After all, by now Peter has walked on the water AND been saved by Jesus when he began to sink among many other amazing situations. (Matthew 14:25-33)

Now, in John 21 things are different. Jesus has died on the cross, rose again, and has revealed Himself to the disciples in the upper room—and He has also accepted and conquered Thomas’ challenge of seeing the print of the nails in His hands, putting his finger into the print of the nails, and his hand into His side as shown in John 20:24-26. The response of Thomas to Jesus isn’t much different from the response Peter had in the boat. In John 20:28 Thomas declares, “My Lord and my God!”

But, now it has been a few days, maybe even a week or more since anyone has seen or heard from Jesus. Simon Peter doesn’t know what to do. I get the feeling from the following Scripture that he is bored. So he decides to do what he knows: He decides he is going to go fishing. John 21:2-13 says,

“2Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together. 3Simon Peter said to them, ‘I am going fishing.’ They said to him, ‘We are going with you also.’ They went out and immediately got into the boat and that night they caught nothing. 4But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that is was Jesus. 5Then Jesus said to them, ‘Children, have you any food?’ They answered Him, ‘No.’ 6And He said to them, ‘Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.’ So they cast,and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish. 7Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!’ Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment (for he had removed it), and plunged into the sea. 8But the other disciples came in the little boat (for they were not far from land, but about two hundred cubits), dragging the net with fish. 9Then, as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it, and bread. 10Jesus said to them, ‘Bring some of the fish which you have just caught.’ 11Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to land, full of large fish, one hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not broken. 12Jesus said to them, ‘Come and eat breakfast.’ Yet none of the disciples dared ask Him, ‘Who are You?’—knowing that it was the Lord. 13Jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to them, and likewise the fish.”

Wow! There is a lot here, so let’s break it down a little bit.

We see some familiar instruction from Jesus that left one of only two possible conclusions. After another night of toil and no fish to show for it, a stranger who is standing on the beach says, “Try the other side of the boat—there are fish there waiting to be caught.” This can mean only one of two things: The guy on the beach is delusional, OR, the guy on the beach knows about more things than just fishing! Most people, who are completely worn out after a fruitless night of fishing, would go with “delusional.” For some reason, however, they decided to give it a try and the fish jumped into the net because they were so eager to be caught on “this” side of the boat rather than on the side where they had seen the nets hanging for the entire night. Hmmm. Seems fishy to me.

Well, after a hard night’s work with nothing to show for it, John was the only one thinking clearly enough to connect the dots. “Hey, wait just a doggone minute here. The last time something this crazy happened after a totally wasted night of fishing was when Jesus told us what to do . . . Hmmm. That must be Him!” So, John turns to Peter and says, “It is the Lord!” Peter’s response this time is a little different than the last time Jesus was responsible for such a large catch of fish. This time he “plunges” into the sea trying to get to Jesus as fast as he possibly can! Peter has gone from zealous repentance at the feet of Jesus to the passionate pursuit of Jesus—no matter what it looks like and no matter what it costs.

Let’s take a look at David now, and then we can do some “dot connecting” of our own. David is certainly an interesting study. He was chosen to be king by God Himself through Samuel when David was a boy shepherding the sheep. Also, as a boy, David got mad at his “fraidy-cat” brothers when he brought them something to eat at the battle-front and, with God’s help, ended up slaying the giant himself—because everybody else was too afraid.

As king, David gets himself into a bit of a pickle. He lusts for a woman from his balcony (roof top). Sends for her. Has sex with her resulting in her pregnancy. Brings her husband back from war so the baby will look like it belongs to her husband. Her husband, however, is too honorable to sleep with Mama while his comrades are fighting the battle, so he sleeps on the front porch of the king’s house. So, in a panic, David has him transferred to the front lines of the war in order to have him killed. Once the husband is dead, David takes her to be his wife (2 Samuel 11:1-27). Let’s see now: Lust, adultery, failed cover-up, conspiracy to commit murder, murder. All in a day’s work in the job as king as appointed by none other than the God of the universe Himself! Wow!

But, while God was “displeased” with David (verse 27), He does love a repentant heart—and ultimately refers to David as “a man after My own heart” (Acts 13:22). One of the greatest prayers of repentance that is found in Scripture was uttered by David as he repented for his foray into Bathsheba’s world. Psalm 51:1-19 says (at the hand of David),

“1Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions.2Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. 3For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. 4Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight—That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge. 5Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. 6Behold,You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. 7Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. 9Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities. 10Create in me a clean heart, O God,And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. 13Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You. 14Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. 15O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your praise. 16For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. 17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart —These, O God, You will not despise. 18Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem. 19Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, With burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.”

David took full ownership of his sinful condition. Certainly not something the “it’s all good” crowd would be willing to do. The cancer and the biases will try to talk their way out of this one, too. David is also acknowledging himself as wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked when he says, “My sin is always before me.” He also acknowledges that God desires truth on the inside—in his heart. (“Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts.”)

Then he says “the killer”: “Purge me with hyssop.” Hyssop was a poison that would kill a person and it was typically in drink form. Jesus was referencing death by hyssop poisoning when he said in the Garden of Gethsemane in Matthew 26:42, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.” While the cancer and the biases do everything they can to protect living in the flesh, David is basically saying to God, “Kill my flesh!” Then David’s most famous Biblical words, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”

David’s most important realization was that his sin had removed him from God’s presence. He was pleading with God NOT to let that happen.

So, let’s connect these dots to see “where” we should be living. My proposal, which I believe is backed up Scripturally, would be always to be able to find ourselves somewhere in between or within the following:

- “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Zealous repentance at the feet of Jesus.)

- “He put on his outer garment (for he had removed it), and plunged into the sea.” (In passionate pursuit of Jesus.)

- “For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me.” (I see the truth of who I am—and it “isn’t all good.”)

- “Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.” (I open my heart to You and to Your truth.)

- “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.” (Kill my flesh, Lord.)

- “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” (To be “with” You, in Your presence, means everything to me.)

- “For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it.” (I would do anything to get or to be right with You!)

If we can stay somewhere within the confines of this short list before the Almighty God, we will have a really good chance of ridding ourselves of the cancer and the biases or of NOT being infected by them in the first place.

Chapter 17

“The God of the modern evangelical rarely astonishes anybody. He manages to stay pretty much with the constitution. Never break our by-laws. He’s a very well-behaved God and very denominational and very much like one of us. We ask Him to help us when we’re in trouble and look to Him to watch over us when we’re asleep. The God of the modern evangelical isn’t a God I could have much respect for.”   ~A.W. Tozer

What’s at stake?

Let’s take a step back for a minute and look at what the cancer and the biases do in the bigger picture. It is one thing for them to tie up and affect the individual who believes they are a friend of the cross of Christ when they are not. It is also one thing for them to tie up a congregation and/or the pastor of a certain church. However, ultimately this cancer of complacency and the biases that protect it are also, in the bigger picture, affecting the cause of Christ in general.

When you have the “it’s all good” crowd as widespread and as prevalent as we have them in our churches today, the bigger picture is that the cause of Christ is damaged because those who are not in the church can see how truly uncommitted the “it’s all good” crowd actually is. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how so called Christians push the envelope of religion and twist and contort it to make it anything but what God wants it to be. It doesn’t take Einstein to see that true ministry to the truly needy, for the most part, is NOT happening. What is the result? Jesus Christ and everything He is or was takes a credibility hit because far too many that carry His name as “Christ”ians don’t truly live up to the label. Personally, I don’t care much for the term “Christian” because of how watered down it has become. Satan is thrilled and Jesus is embarrassed at what is going on “in His name.”

Let me give you an example that clearly illustrates this. In 1978 a man named Michael A. Hart wrote a book called,The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History. Then, in 1992, he came out with, The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, Revised and Updated for the Nineties. (It was published by Carol Publishing Group/Citadel Press.)

In his book (the original and the revision), Mr. Hart ranks Jesus #3 on the list behind #1-Muhammad and #2-Isaac Newton. When asked about why Jesus was ranked third instead of first, Mr. Hart said that he himself “would have ranked Jesus first, if all the people who today identify themselves as Christians actually followed Jesus’ teachings more substantially.” He further stated that he considers contemporary Muslims more influenced by Muhammad than contemporary Christians are by Jesus.

So, there you have it. The very Son of the Most High God, the One credited in John 1:3 as the Creator of all that is or ever was, is ranked number 3 behind a rebel (whose teachings, by the way, say that Christians and Jews should all be killed) and a scientist. And why? Because of the power of the cancer of complacency and the biases that Satan has used to successfully keep the majority of “Christians” from actually being “Christians!”

The current credibility problem that Jesus has is not something that is new. Scripture shows us many examples where Jesus had no credibility—even though the things He was doing and the things He was teaching could come from none other than God Himself. Let’s look at a few examples.

In Matthew 28:1-8 we see,

“1Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. 2And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. 3His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. 4And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. 5But the angel answered and said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 7And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.’ 8So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.”

Did you catch it? Three little words that tell the “lack of credibility” story. These three little words are “as He said” as seen in verse 6. The message is clear. While the resurrection of Jesus is a big, big deal—the fact that we can trust “what” He says is also very important. With everything that had been going on and the craziness of it all, God knew that these women, and the disciples as well, were struggling with what the future would hold. Here the angel of the Lord is telling the women, “Things are going to go just as He said they would—starting with the fact that He is, in fact, risen from the dead— just like He said He would. Now go tell everybody else what I have just told you.”

In Mark’s account of the event in Mark 16:6-7 the angel says,

“6But he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. 7But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.’”

But what happened when the disciples were told? More credibility problems. Mark 16:11 says,

“11And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.”

The disciples would not believe an eye-witness account of His resurrection. These are the guys who had walked with Jesus for over three years, and the words of Jesus to them were not credible enough to believe. Actually, His words were too “in”credible to believe—let alone to understand. When we don’t “get it,” we just don’t believe it. Then, in verses 12-13, we see it again,

“12After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. 13And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either.”

Then, in verse 14 Jesus expresses His frustration about this to them.

“14Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.

Luke’s account is similar. Luke 24:6-9 says,

“6‘He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, 7saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’’ 8And they remembered His words. 9 They returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.”

Same result follows in verse 11,

“11And their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them.”

More credibility problems popped up in the upper room. In the book of John, the lack of credibility is shown with Thomas. John 20:25 says,

“25The other disciples therefore said to him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ So he said to them, ‘Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.’”

Okay. So, what is the problem here? If you think Satan has been good at everything I have described up to now—just wait until you see this one. If you look at all these examples, the lack of credibility had to do with “words,” the things that Jesus “said” would happen. These things were too “in”credible to be believed. Ah, but what happened when Jesus actually showed up? BELIEF! Lack of credibility is always dispelled when it is confronted with true and authentic action. I had a roommate in college who had a profound effect on my life. His name was Eric Ely. One of his favorite sayings whenever somebody started “talking” was to simply reply, “Don’t tell me, show me.” It is really a great statement and lines up perfectly with Jesus. Jesus certainly did His share of “telling,” which was often backed up by plenty of “showing.”

What was Jesus REALLY good at (and still is)? “Showing” Who He was/is by the things He did/does. Nobody then or since could do the incredible things He did without the power of the Holy Spirit driving them. Jesus was the real deal, and He demonstrated the fact of His deity all the time. It is one of the reasons the Pharisees had to plan His death very carefully. The Pharisees were afraid of the people because of the way they responded to the things Jesus was doing among them. The people weren’t stupid—they could tell this guy Jesus was something special—therefore, they correctly concluded, He must be from God. (Matthew 21:46 among others)

Oh, but Satan is a step ahead of all this. The cancer of complacency and the biases keep Jesus far enough away that the lack of credibility cannot be confronted by the reality of Who He is. “Don’t tell me, show me” can never be satisfied because the position “it’s all good” won’t let Jesus show up to “show anybody anything.” Satan can keep the lack of credibility intact as long as he can keep any tangible movement of Jesus or His Holy Spirit out on the fringes. And, just in case Jesus or His Holy Spirit have the audacity to stir things up a bit by actually showing up in the life or lives of one or more people, the cancer and the biases will ridicule the people, ignore them, shun them, or attempt to get rid of them BEFORE they will let His lack of credibility take a hit.

At the church my wife and I were attending years ago, there were some demonic issues going on within some of the people’s lives. The pastor didn’t want to deal with it, and instead, recommended counseling. When the Holy Spirit decided to take control of the situation, He showed up and began to set people free. The people on whom the Holy Spirit had NOT moved then got mad. One of them even said, “We know this can not be of God because if it was, it would have come through us.” (Two of my other books describe this situation in much greater detail.) It is a vicious, vicious cycle that Satan does everything in his power to keep in a downward spiral. Spiritual pride that finds its root in the “it’s all good” illusion just adds one more layer to the mess.

As long as the lack of credibility is high enough, then the expectation level of the people for anything authentic from Him will be low enough, that Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit are handcuffed (Mark 6:5-6). And if He doesn’t show up, that drives further lack of credibility and the cycle continues. “It’s all good” says, “That couldn’t have been God because He would have chosen the ‘it’s all good crowd’—even though Jesus, through His very words in Scripture, is very clear that the heart condition of the “it’s all good” crowd will cause them to get vomited out of His mouth before they will be responded to, by Him, in any positive fashion.

Oh, but when Jesus, by the power of His Holy Spirit, DOES show up—His credibility skyrockets in the lives fortunate enough to have experienced His movement. Faith rises and the cancer and the biases—at Satan’s demise—take a serious hit. If the credibility is strong enough, then His movement will be followed by zealous repentance and passionate pursuit. [Our “expectations” of Him (or lack thereof) are discussed in great depth in Are Most “Christians” Headed to Hell?]

- Authentic action drives credibility.

- Credibility drives authentic belief.

- Authentic belief drives zealous repentance.

- Zealous repentance drives passionate pursuit.

- Passionate pursuit is rewarded by His touch, His movement, and His presence.

Now, here is the rub. Jesus wants “Christians” to spread the gospel—the good news of what a relationship with Him is all about. The problem occurs because nobody will respond to His knocking on the door of his/her heart or to the calling of his/her name, by Him, if those doing the spreading don’t live a life of credibility regarding their relationship with this Jesus. What we do and how we live out our lives, in front of others, determines whether Jesus is number 3 or number 1 on the list.

Not many will respond to Him if His credibility within our lives does not demonstrate that He is, at the very least, number one on OUR list.

Chapter 18

“Looking at what John wrote, I wonder how so many present-day Christians can consider an hour of worship Sunday morning as adequate adoration of the holy God who created them and then redeemed them back to Himself.”   ~A.W. Tozer

“Christians don’t tell lies; they just go to church and sing them.”   ~A.W. Tozer

The cancer’s first death-blow . . .

Well, by now you are beginning to understand, not only the insidious nature of the cancer of complacency and the associated biases that work so hard to protect it, but you are also probably beginning to realize just how “deadly” this cancer can be. In this chapter, we are going to take a hard look at the “deadly” part of the equation. Physical cancer often finishes its job with the ultimate death of the unfortunate one to whom and in whom it attacked. The cancer of complacency is no different. Satan is not and will not be satisfied until he is able to issue the final blow of spiritual death. So, let’s take a look at what spiritual death is made of and how it happens to the spiritually cancer-stricken.

One of the terrible things the cancer and the biases has been successful in creating in the church today is the idea that “religion” is for us, that God is there to take care of us, that Jesus died for us on the cross thereby paving the way for God to please us. You may be smiling as you read this, but if you would be willing to take an honest look at how God is treated by most Christians and most churches, you will see this is exactly what is happening. In far too many instances, the sermons and teachings are focused primarily on what “we get” out of the “Jesus deal.” This is perfectly in line with the expectations of the “it’s all good” crowd. It is also another way that Satan has used part of the gospel’s good news against us. Let me explain.

It is an insidious plan of Satan’s to turn the “Jesus deal” into something that would be about us. Yet, sooo much of the “Jesus deal” IS, in fact, about us that very, very, very few Christians and pastors have even caught the very Satanic (yes, “SATANIC”) shift in the prevailing thoughts and perspectives of the whole concept of Jesus: Who He is, why He came, and what the result should be.

Yes, the benefits we experience and receive as a child of God are not only numerous, but they are incredible! In my prior two books, I wrote extensively on what intimacy with God looks like, how it functions, and how our expectations of Him grow and should function. Alas, we need a “Theology 101” lesson to get us back to the truth about the “Jesus deal” before we allow the cancer to take us down with it.

Let’s get back to the beginning, as in “in the beginning.” We all know most of the Genesis creation story by heart. However, we haven’t considered the scope of it. If we have, then the cancer and the biases have conveniently caused us to forget. Let’s look at Scripture. Genesis 1:26-28 says,

“26Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ 27So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”

If you read these verses closely (and the rest of the creation story, for that matter), you will notice something interesting. As long as obedience was observed, there is no talk of “man serving God.” Why? Simply because man was in right relationship with God—and was living his life with God, and that life was being lived according to the will of God. Serving God happened naturally as part of the relationship as it was originally designed and created. Here we have two simple premises regarding man’s creation.

1) God created us to be in relationship with Him.

2) God absolutely had the non-negotiable expectation that His will would be observed and obeyed within that relationship.

So, this prompts some questions. First, some will read this and say, “Aha. God made man for man because God gave man dominion over the rest of the planet and ‘all that moves on the earth.’” So is God, therefore, not to be worshiped? No, we cannot take that position of “man is the one to be worshiped” or the position that “creation is to be worshiped” because neither is the case according to Romans chapter 1. There we see that “the Creator” is to be worshiped. (Romans 1:18-25)

Second, did God make man because God longed to have someone He could serve and worship? Of course not. How stupid is that? Well, it must not be too far out of the question because enough people were believing it and acting that way, that the Holy Spirit needed to set the record straight at the hand of Paul by writing Romans 1:25 which says very clearly that it is the Creator Who is to be “worshiped and served.” Yet, by making the “Jesus deal” about us, the cancer gets those who are infected to believe that God is available to do what we want, how we want, when we want, regardless of what He thinks about it. Don’t believe me? Just listen to the predominant words of most prayers you speak yourself or that you hear uttered in church. My guess is that 80% or more of all the words spoken during what we would call “prayer” are self-serving and self-seeking—complete with the unspoken and underlying expectation that God is just sitting around waiting for the butler’s bell to ring as our prayers ascend into heaven. (And, yes, I am guilty of this, too.)

Let’s take a quick lesson from none other than Jesus Himself. You might have heard this before. Matthew 6:9-13 says,

“9In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10Your kingdom come. Your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven. 11Give us this day our daily bread. 12And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 13And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

Now, since I started the numbers game with my claim of 80% of our prayers being about us, I guess we need to check “the numbers” of the prayer Jesus gives us as our model for how we should pray. You are welcome to check my math by counting them yourself, but by my count the above prayer has 34 words that are about Him and 31 words that are about us (more than half are about Him). Additionally, the “model prayer” as given to us by Jesus Himself, not only starts with words glorifying God, but it also ends with words glorifying God.

Well, the cancer wants very much for the world to revolve around us rather than around Him. So, “it’s all good” turns prayer into “Thank You that it’s all good, but could You also do such and such for me, because then it would be really good!” The last thing the “it’s all good” crowd will find themselves praying is, “Your will be done. On earth (ouch) as it is in heaven (go ahead, God, with heaven—it has nothing to do with me.) . . . For Yours is the kingdom (shoot, I was hoping “mine” was) and the power and the glory (but I want some of His power to get some of the glory for myself) forever.”

Now, the cancer and the biases will immediately pop up crying, “Hold it right there! That’s just a little bit too radical!” (Remember, the cancer and the biases HATE the word radical because it threatens, “as you were” and “it’s all good.”) So, let’s dig a little deeper.

In my book Are Most Christians Headed to Hell? I explore at great length being in the flesh versus being in the spirit. In this book, as well, this has been addressed at length. However, it is really easy to lose sight of something important, or to gloss over it entirely. Let’s look again at Romans 8:8 which says,

“8So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

So, what then, is the point of being in the spirit rather than being in the flesh? Simply that it is impossible to please God if we are in the flesh—and this simple verse clearly shows us that pleasing Him is what should be important to us. Now, the cancer and biases will say, “So what?” Well, that is the whole point to the relationship with Him in the first place—to be “with” Him, which pleases Him. It is the reason He died for us—so He could, once again, have us in His presence. Where is He? And where does He want us to be? Scripture has the answer. John 4:23-24 says,

“23But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Why be in the spirit rather than the flesh? Because “the Father is seeking such” to worship Him. In other words, it is what He wants! Verse 24 then says that basically anyone who wants to participate MUST worship Him in spirit and truth. Why? Because it is always ALL about Him and it is NEVER about us.

- Walk in the spirit, why? To please Him.

- Don’t walk in the flesh, why? Because then you can’t please Him.

- Want to worship Him? Then you MUST do so as He prescribes and NOT how you prescribe.

We were created by Him and for Him. The things “we get” out of the “Jesus deal” are the things He gives to us because He loves us. How does He present Himself to us in a way we will understand? He is our Heavenly Father. The Bible is full of parallels and metaphors that compare His love for us, and the things He does for us, as to how a father loves his children and does things for them. However, we must never forget that He is Almighty God and the very universe itself revolves around HIM.

This now leads into the whole “worship thing.” If there is anything in our Christian culture today that has been compromised, prostituted, contorted, twisted, pulled, manipulated, and turned into anything but what it is supposed to be—it is what we currently call “worship.” Now, you are REALLY going to need to pay close attention to this one. You will not believe how Satan has pulled the wool over almost every church’s eyes—and most of the believers as well. Take a moment to think about something that Satan certainly doesn’t want you to spend any time considering.

If you were Satan, and you had all the emotional and psychological baggage that came with your fall from heaven, which was caused by you actually believing you could become equal with God, only to receive His response issued from His High and Lofty Throne, “I don’t think so. You’re outta here,” what would be the one thing—if you could stop nothing else—what would be the one thing you would stop? Go ahead. Think about it. If you actually believed you could be equal with God yourself and His declaration was, “Nope. You are done. Don’t let the door smack you from behind on your way out,”—if you could—what would be the most important thing for you to stop? Exactly, you would do everything you could to bring a complete stop to the worship of the Most High God because your grand scheme ultimately desired that worship for yourself!

Now, here is the GINORMOUS problem (and the cancer and the biases REALLY don’t want me exposing this). So, here goes. What we “do” in church services during “worship time” is NOT “worship.” But, Satan has most of us believing that what we do for a few minutes each Sunday morning “is,” in fact, worship. Now, here comes another headache, so bear with me. Satan has been so successful at getting us to believe that what we are doing in our “worship services” is actually “worship”—even though it is NOT—that now there are very, very, very few Christians who actually spend any amount of time each week truly “worshiping” God! Why? Simply because Satan’s cancer and the biases have us leaving Sunday believing that our “worship quota” “is all good.” Why spend any amount of time during the week worshiping God when I have that covered on Sunday mornings—even though what I am doing during “worship time” on Sunday morning isn’t actually worship.

Now, if I could do something here that would scare the living daylights out of you to get your attention—like a full-blown fireworks display in your living room or kitchen—I would do it! This is absolutely critical to grasp and to understand. Let me explain.

What is actually going on during our Sunday morning services is “praise” given to God. This is far different than worship—and Satan knows it.

The Biblical definition of “praise” is:

A celebration of thanksgiving, to rave, to celebrate, laudation, commendable thing.

In other words, when we “praise” God, we are celebrating or raving about something that He has done or accomplished for us—some “commendable” thing. It is an acknowledgement of what He has done. There are many, many examples of this in Scripture. Here are a few of them. In Luke 2:20 we see,

“20Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.”

This example clearly ties the act of praise to something God had done—in this case they were praising God because things turned out exactly as they were told that they would. Here is another one from Acts 3:4-9 which says,

“4And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, ‘Look at us.’ 5So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. 6Then Peter said, ‘Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.’ 7And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God. 9And all the people saw him walking and praising God.

Obviously, this lame man who can now walk is praising God for what God, through Peter, had done for him.

Now, the Old Testament (Hebrew) Biblical definition of “worship” is:

To prostrate oneself in homage.

To do reverence to. To bow down, crouch.

To fall down flat.

The New Testament (Greek) Biblical definition of “worship” is:

To kiss, like a dog licking his master’s hand.

To prostrate oneself in homage.

To do reverence to, to revere, to adore.

Notice that the Biblical definition of worship is to prostrate yourself before the Almighty God, paying Him homage and showing Him great reverence and adoration. Kneeling before Him is another way we lower our physical countenance before Him in homage to Who He IS—as the Almighty God, rather than what He has done for us.

Obviously, these definitions of “praise” and “worship” are very different. However, the most important difference is the posture from which each of these is offered. From a Biblical perspective, praise is usually offered when standing up, and in many Biblical examples, it is often offered with music. Worship, however, is almost always portrayed Biblically as “falling down before” the one (or One) to be worshiped. Actually, as I think about it, I am not sure how we could worship Him without “falling down before Him,” since the definition of worship calls for us to be prostrate (lying flat on our faces). This is demonstrated in Matthew 4:8-9 when Satan was tempting Jesus.

“8Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9And he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.’”

We see this again in Genesis 24:52,

“52And it came to pass, when Abraham’s servant heard their words, that he worshiped the LORD, bowing himself to the earth.”

Again, in Joshua 5:14,

“14So He said, ‘No, but as Commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.’ And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, ‘What does my Lord say to His servant?’ 15Then the Commander of the LORD’S army said to Joshua, ‘Take your sandal off your foot, for the place you stand is holy.’ And Joshua did so.”

Okay, now that we know the difference between praise and worship, let’s take a look at what IS going on in our church services (praise), and then we will look at what is NOT going on in our church services (worship)—or in our lives for that matter.

What we call our “worship service,” but what is actually our “praise service,” has become ALL about us. Now, this can happen in two ways, one of which is a little more obvious than the other.

One way, in which our praise time in church has been contorted to be about us, is in the manner in which it is conducted in the church of today. It is a neat little program designed to fit into the schedule or liturgy of the church service. There are often several pieces to the incorrectly labeled “worship service”: the time allotted for “praise songs,” words to the pre-selected songs displayed up on a screen, musicians playing instruments up on the stage, the “worship team” on the stage leading the singing of the songs, etc.—along with any of the hundreds of other possible variations you may have seen.

This “praise time” still carries with it the Biblical message that, if we are in the flesh, we cannot please God. Therefore, the goal of the “worship time,” as led by the “worship team,” should be to help people move out of the flesh and into the spirit. However, what usually happens is that the intellectual sensory overload is too great to move from flesh to spirit because, during the praise songs, what is actually being catered to is the flesh. Let me explain.

By making the praise time in our church services so appealing to the flesh, it becomes very, very difficult to move out of the flesh and into the spirit—which is where we can please the Most High God (and we cannot please Him if we are in the flesh). During the praise time (remember this is what Satan wants us to believe is “worship”), there are too many “pattern interrupts” that keep things in the flesh. That may be a new term for you, so let’s take a moment to understand it.

Human beings operate in the flesh via things called pattern interrupts. Have you ever wondered why, when you are happily watching your favorite television show, all of a sudden the volume is cranked way up? Then you notice it is a commercial? Advertisers know that in order to get your attention they need to “interrupt” whatever “pattern” you were just in, so they interrupt your current pattern (in our example, it is a steady volume level) with a glitch that falls outside the current pattern (in our example, it is a volume change). Pretty clever, huh?

Most of the things you deal with in your life on a daily basis are based on pattern interrupts. Ever wonder why most billboards and advertising signs are yellow or red? Because the colors of yellow and red cause a pattern interrupt in your brain, which spends most of its time viewing and processing soft, blue, natural light. This is also why stop signs are RED. As a writer, I use pattern interrupts ALL the time. By changing the pattern of the flowing lower case letters to words with underlines or all CAPS, bold, or italics, I can cause the reader to “snap out of his/her current pattern” and re-focus their attention on something I consider to be important. How about the ring tones on your cell phone? These are nothing more than pattern interrupts to get you to answer the phone. (The old traditional ringer was so annoying that the goal now is to have a pattern interrupt that is not so annoying, like a song we like or the tweeting of a bird or something.)

Now, pattern interrupts are also what Satan and the cancer of complacency use against us to keep us in the flesh when we are trying—even needing—to move into the spirit. A worship team leader, for example, who is playing the guitar, and is moving around a bit more than the other members of the worship team, creates a pattern interrupt that the congregation will “notice.” Every time there is a word to the song up on the screen that is misspelled, virtually every person who is following along with the words on the screen will get a pattern interrupt that re-engages the flesh.

Here is another one that can only be credited to Satan. How many times have you been singing along with the words of the song up on the screen and then the words up on the screen don’t change as a new verse or stanza to the song begins? Pattern interrupt, and everybody is jerked right back into the flesh. Are the guys in the sound-booth idiots? No. They control a hundred things back in the sound booth that are a thousand times more complex than clicking “next” on the Power Point screen. But Satan keeps them busy at just the right times to cause the pattern interrupts, thereby keeping people in the flesh.

Whenever or wherever the praise service, songs, or words are designed to be appealing to the people, then we have made it about us. Whenever the cancer of complacency won’t take the time to fix misspelled words or pay attention to other pattern interrupts that keep people in the flesh, Satan wins another battle by successfully keeping us away from where God wants us and, in fact, where He requires us to be.

The other way that the “worship service” has been twisted to be all about us is that the worship team will spend time each week making sure the songs are what the people want to hear rather than singing the songs that God wants the people to hear. This is based on another lie that Satan has successfully sold to the cancer-stricken regarding the “worship service.” Far too many of us have come to the erroneous conclusion that the “song time” is to be evaluated based on how it made “me” feel. Comments like, “I really like that song because it makes me feel closer to God,” doesn’t address whether or not they were (or are) actually any closer to God or not, but it does address how the song made the person feel about the “activity” of praise (while believing it was worship) on that particular day.

The cancer and the biases have been responsible for a gazillion arguments, in a gazillion churches, over:

- which songs are sung during which service,

- to which age group of people,

- to which tempo is employed,

- to new songs versus old hymns,

- to guitars and drums versus piano only,

and a hundred or more other silly points to argue about. Why is it that these arguments are being fought? Because the “it’s all good” crowd actually believes that what happens during the “song time” at church should meet their needs—after all, how “my needs” are met has a direct effect on my illusion of “it’s all good.”

How many churches have gone to a “contemporary worship” theme in an attempt to appeal to a younger audience? (Please re-read that, “in an attempt to appeal to the flesh of a younger audience?”) The very moment this strategy is adopted, ALL hope of satisfying God’s requirement of being in the spirit versus being in the flesh is squashed because the “song team’s” goal is, too often, to appeal to the flesh of those they are leading. This is a double-edged sword because as soon as someone becomes frustrated with the music, they are simply expressing that it is his/her expectation that the songs should appeal to “me,” thereby satisfying my need to have a “song time” that meets my needs—regardless of what God thinks or wants. God forbid that the “song time” would actually be about offering Him the praise that He wants, in a manner that is not only acceptable to Him, but is also Biblically prescribed by Jesus Himself.

Matthew 15:7-8 says,

“7Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 8‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.’”

Notice here the words, “honor Me with their lips.” This is giving Him praise—although in this case, it is false praise because their hearts are not “in it.”

How can our hearts be far from Him? Two ways.

First, if we are in the flesh, and are kept there by the pattern interrupts, then our hearts can never get to where we need to be—which is where God wants us to be—where we can please Him.

Second, we aren’t really committed to Him in the first place. This simply means we aren’t too concerned about singing lies to Him about how much we love Him or how beautiful we think He is—which isn’t even Biblical, by the way—and which is just another one of Satan’s tricks to keep us in the flesh.

This one, too, is pretty sneaky. How is this for Satan using the cancer and biases to keep the “it’s all good” illusion running full force? By getting us to sings songs about how beautiful Jesus is, Satan gets us slipping into a fleshly worship of Jesus based on His physical beauty rather than His Majesty. This is very subtle, but who wouldn’t want to worship a tall, dark, and handsome Savior? This fleshly portrayal of Jesus simply creates an idol out of His fleshly appearance—which, Biblically, is incorrect. Isaiah 53:2-3 gives us the real picture of the physical appearance of Jesus, which we certainly don’t want to hear.

“2For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him,There is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”

No form or comeliness? No beauty that we should desire Him? Certainly not what we want to hear and certainly not the picture our praise songs are selling. But, think about it for a minute. God, incarnate in the flesh, as Jesus, could NOT have had any fleshly attraction or His appeal as The Messiah would be defiled by fleshly desire. Here is another situation where Satan would have a hey-day with God. “Uh, excuse me, God, but I have counted a little over ten million people who came to Jesus because of how good He looked and NOT because of His ‘Messiahship’ and His Majesty. Therefore, the names of those people are automatically out of the Book of Life.” God would not be able to argue with him. A person must come to Jesus desperate for the touch and forgiveness from the supernatural, God Almighty based on His character and Majesty as God, and NOT based on how good he/she believes His physical attributes to be.

What we don’t understand about “praise time” (sorry, “song time”), is that it has absolutely nothing to do with us. Nothing. Try to imagine for a minute just how insanely beyond anything we can even begin to understand or define His true Majesty must be! He created the entire universe! Are you kidding me? We don’t have even the slightest clue about what kind of praise to offer Him, let alone how to offer it to Him. Seventeen minutes or so, if that, in a Sunday morning service, during three or four songs that are wrought full of pattern interrupts and music that we may or may not care for, does NOT even begin to ponder the idea of barely scratching the surface of what He is worthy of, let alone what we are even capable of offering Him. Ask yourself this simple question:

“How much time have I spent in the last week or two actually praying words that offer Him true praise and give Him glory?”

If you are like most people, and you are willing to be honest with yourself, your answer is probably, “Not very much—if any at all.”

He IS the Great I AM! He IS God Almighty, Everlasting Father, the Ancient of Days! He is, and will be, praised. Period. Jesus said some very interesting words from the back of a donkey during His triumphal entry when the people were making a very big deal about praising Him publicly with these words, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” In response to this praise, the Pharisees and Jesus had a little conversation in Luke 19:37-40.

“37Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, 38saying: ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!’ 39And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, ‘Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.’ 40But He answered and said to them, ‘I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.’”

Again, here we see praise given to God for the mighty works He had done. The ONLY response to The Christ, and to what He has done, is praise—AND it WILL happen—whether people or rocks, He will be praised! (It is one of the perks you get to enjoy when you create universes in your spare time—you get to invoke praise at the molecular level of the rocks.)

Sorry to have to bring you back now to the reality of the cancer and the biases which have people actually believing they are doing God a favor, by giving Him their hypocritical praise for a few minutes once a week, while never even approaching the wide gulf between being in the flesh and being in the spirit. So what, exactly, is actually happening during most “song time” services on Sunday mornings? Nothing. People don’t get out of the flesh and into the spirit, which the Bible says we must do if we want to please God, and the praise time that is offered in the flesh is full of pattern interrupts that keep people stuck in the flesh, while Satan keeps them singing their lies about a false image of Jesus, while the hearts of the people are everywhere and anywhere but close to Him.

If Satan, by the insidious strength of the cancer of complacency and the biases, can make prayer about the people rather than about God, and if he can get us to believe that what we are doing is worshiping Him—when what we are actually doing is praising Him, then he will have dealt one of the final blows of death to Christians that will cause them to continue to walk out of the service “as they were” fully believing “it’s all good” with absolutely no intention of actually worshiping the Most High God anytime soon, if at all.

The blind continue to lead the blind and everybody—including Satan—is happy, while Jesus is standing at the door knocking and calling out to people by name. He is hoping for some zealous repentance, passionate pursuit, and an intimate dinner—while a tear for every person that won’t answer the door slowly makes its way from His compassion-filled eyes, across His cheek, and down to His chin where it drips to the floor only to make a puddle at His feet.

(I don’t know if the tears are caused by prayers that don’t acknowledge or glorify Him, hearts that are far from Him, or by the praise for Him that is only coming from the rocks. I just pray, with everything that is in me, that no tear is shed over me.)

Next, we will address “worship” and how the cancer and the biases have all but totally eliminated true worship from the life of the church and the life of the believer.

Chapter 19

“I wonder if there was ever a time when true spiritual worship was at a lower ebb. To great sections of the church, the art of worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the "program." This word has been borrowed from the stage and applied with sad wisdom to the public service which now passes for worship among us.”   ~A.W. Tozer

“With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine Presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence.”   ~A.W. Tozer

The cancer’s final death-blow . . .

Before we get started in this chapter, it is important to understand that the cancer and the biases are going to be very excited and operating at a very high level right now, as you read this, because this chapter is a huge threat to the very culture the cancer has created. It is also very important to remember that Satan’s goals will always include anything and everything which results in keeping us from where we need to be before God—in fact, Satan’s most primary goal is to keep us anywhere BUT before God.

One of the problems that was outlined in the last chapter regarding what we call “worship,” but which is actually “praise,” is that Satan has successfully duped the church and its members into believing that God is being worshiped during the “worship time” during the Sunday morning service (or whenever the service is being held). The result of this is that the cancer and biases have caused the church’s leadership and its members to come to the erroneous conclusion that worship of the Most High God has its rightful place during the few minutes set aside for it during the Sunday morning service when we sing a few songs. This is not at all consistent with the Biblical model for worship—nor does it devote anywhere near enough time to offer anywhere near the amount of praise during the Sunday morning song time which He is due.

Don’t get me wrong here—“praise” given to God is certainly important, but it is also only half of the equation that is presented to us Biblically. Recall that we learned in the last chapter that “praise” is almost always given from a posture of standing. “Worship,” on the other hand, is always given from a posture that is very low (lying prostrate on the ground or kneeling). The only way to begin this chapter is by asking you to ask yourself an important question. Here it is,

“How much time do I spend each week (outside of church) in a posture before God that has me on my knees, or laying face down, before Him?”

Your answer to that question might make this next question even more appropriate,

“How much time (outside of church) have I ever spent on my knees, or laying face down, before Him?”

Now, you may not want to hear this, but the cancer and the biases are hoping you won’t answer these questions truthfully. If your answer to either or both of the preceding questions is, “Not very much, if any at all,” then Satan is winning this battle in your life by getting you to virtually eliminate worship of the Most High God from within your life’s routine. The cancer and the biases will argue, “You worship at church. Don’t worry about it. It’s all good”—while the cancer and biases absolutely know that you actually don’t “worship” at church—if at all.

Let’s see what we can learn about worship from Scripture. The Bible shows us many, many examples of the correct posture for worship. Let’s look at several.

Mark 15:19 – the mock worship of Jesus

“19Then they struck Him on the head with a reed and spat on Him; bowing the knee, they worshiped Him. 20And when they had mocked Him, they took the purple off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him.”

Romans 14:11 – EVERY person will worship Him

“11For it is written: ‘As I live, says the LORD, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God.’”

Philippians 2:9-11 – His name invokes worship

“9Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Daniel 2:46-47 – Kings worship God face down

“46Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face, prostrate before Daniel, and commanded that they should present an offering and incense to him. 47The king answered Daniel, and said, ‘Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret.’”

Daniel 6:9-10 – Three times a day

“9Therefore King Darius signed the written decree. 10Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.”

Now, it is important to remember that from a Scriptural perspective—and the words of Jesus—worship MUST occur “in the spirit” and not “in the flesh.” Let’s review a few of these verses just so there are no questions about this.

John 4:23-24

“23But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’”

John 6:63

“63It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”

Philippians 3:3

“3For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.”

Romans 8:8

“8So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Galatians 5:16-17

“16I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

If we dare to take the words of Jesus seriously (against which the cancer and biases will fight vehemently), the goal MUST be to create an environment where “true worship” can occur “in spirit and truth.” By Biblical definition being “in the flesh” is NOT a state where true worship can occur NOR can anything done in the flesh result in the pleasing of God.

This is also true of the demonic realm. (How much of a scam is that? Satan fights tooth and nail over our very souls, trying to keep us from worshiping Jesus, yet when one of his minions encounters Jesus, the response is to worship Him.) Mark 5:2-7 says,

“2And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 3who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, 4because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him. 5And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones. 6When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. 7And he cried out with a loud voice and said, ‘What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.’”

This demon recognized Jesus as the “Son of the Most High God” without any introduction in the flesh. What was his response? “He ran and worshiped Him.” Then he begged Jesus not to torment him. Translation? Jesus absolutely DOES have ALL authority in heaven and on earth. He just does, as demonstrated here when Jesus encounters a spiritual being here on earth. It is a Scriptural and practical fact. The “beings” in the spiritual realm recognize Him immediately, and they fall down and worship Him. As such, He is absolutely worthy of much more praise and worship than we could ever give Him—which makes the amount of praise and worship that most people, who claim to be Christians, actually offer Him, as really rather pathetic.

How about heaven? It might be easy to conclude that, once we are in heaven, there are other things going on. After all, the battle will have been won, right? Nope. Revelation 4:8-11 gives us an amazing picture of the importance to God of praise and worship that is directed at Him.

“8The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!’ 9Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: 11‘You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.’”

Look closely because this is one of those cool places in Scripture where we get a glimpse that in heaven our concept of time will no longer work like we are used to having it work. Here is what will be going on. First, you have four creatures who NEVER STOP saying, “ Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come.” (Yes, the bold pattern interrupt was VERY much on purpose!) Okay, keep that plate spinning in your head. They never stop declaring this (because "they do not rest day or night").

Next, “whenever these creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him”—which is describing an event of praise—this then triggers something else (another event), except that the event of praise NEVER STOPS. Anyway, this event of praise (that never stops) triggers the event of twenty-four elders falling down before Him (which is an event of worship), and casting their crowns before the throne and saying, “ You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power.”

So, regarding praise and worship, what will we see going on in heaven? An event of praise—which never stops—which triggers an event of worship—which can never stop if the first event never stops. Get it? Scripture tells us this continual praise and worship of the Most High God will go on like this for ETERNITY! Can you see how silly we have become? The Bible shows us clearly that praise and worship are important enough to Him that both will occur non-stop in heaven—forever, yet we are only willing to set aside a few minutes in church to offer Him just a few songs worth of praise and we rarely, if ever, truly worship Him in church—or anywhere else for that matter!

Let’s notice one more thing regarding what Revelation 4:8-11 (as shown above) is really telling us. “It’s all good” says we can take all kinds of things for granted, thereby paying very little attention to the details. However, the act of offering praise to the Almighty God and the act of offering true worship to the Most High God are very specific, very on-purpose physical activities. If there is one place you could certainly take some things for granted with regard to God, and with regard to those who are there with God, it would be in heaven. “Do we really need to offer Him continual ongoing praise? After all, we are in heaven now, and everybody knows that He most definitely IS all that!” “Do we really need to fall down and worship Him AND cast our crowns before Him as well? He knows how we feel about Him—after all, that is how we ended up here in the first place, and surely the angels are getting tired of constantly retrieving the crowns only to have us cast them before Him again and again and again. . .”

Get the picture? If the details of the act of offering Him praise and the act of offering true worship are important enough for God to desire it AND require it in heaven—which is the one place you would think there would be a little slack given—and on an eternally on-going basis no less, then we had better get a clue as to where we are falling so, so dismally short down here. We barely offer one (praise) and we rarely, if ever, offer the other (worship). But hey, “it’s all good,” right?

If we don’t offer praise and honor to Him, not only will the rocks get involved, but Satan, by the power of the cancer of complacency and the biases, will have dealt the final death-blow to the cancer-stricken church and believer by taking us not only to a place where God cannot be pleased—but also to a place where very, very, very few will even attempt to please Him by worshiping Him at all.

We must fall down on our faces before Him—or at the very least—we must get on our knees before Him! We must do this in a place and in a setting where we CAN move out of the flesh and into the spirit. That means no pattern interrupts (or any interrupts for that matter). This means in a quiet place where it is just one-on-one time with God. Scripture gives us clear instruction here (via the words of Jesus) in Matthew 6:6 which says,

“6‘But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.’”

If we don't present ourselves prostrate before Him, or at the very least kneeling before Him, often (YES, often!), then the cancer and the biases can proudly proclaim “it’s all good.” If the truth is that we are not, in fact, doing this on a regular basis, then it is absolute proof that we must certainly believe that “it’s good enough” because we are comfortable going to bed each and every night after completely and totally ignoring His utterly amazing and unfathomable Majesty for yet another day, week, month, or year. The craziest part of all this is that the cancer and biases have us actually believing that this fact (our lack of true worship of Him) will escape His notice. Silly, just plain silly.

As this is being exposed to you right now, as you read these words, the cancer and the biases are screaming, “This is way too radical! This is way over the top! There is no-way God expects that from you!” Try telling that to Aaron after God killed his two sons for failing to worship Him appropriately (Leviticus 9:22-10:3).

The cancer of complacency and the biases will do ANYTHING they can in order to get you to succumb to this final death-blow. If they can get you to live your life, ignoring His Majesty, by eliminating the very on-purpose act of worship, which is directed at and to Him, from the routine of your life, then they (and, of course, Satan) will win the battle for your soul. Yes, it IS that simple, and yes, it IS that serious! “It’s all good” has, at its very core, the belief that “and have need of nothing” really means, “Not only am I rich and have become wealthy, but I have no need to humble myself before anyone—including God.”

So, what are you waiting for? It is time to get on your knees or on your face before Him. You don’t even have to worry about what others will think about you because Scripture tells us to “go into your room, and when you have shut your door. . .” Ahh, but the cancer and the biases are telling you it is silly to actually get on your knees or on your face, while your heart knows—your heart KNOWS—it is where you need to be on a daily basis, at the very least (for Daniel it was three times a day).

Go ahead. I dare you to acknowledge Him for Who He IS from an appropriate posture. I promise that you won’t be able to get yourself low enough before Him.

I have one last dare for you. Let’s make this one a double-dare. Do you really, truly, absolutely, pinky-promise, cross-your-heart, want a closer relationship with the One who died in your place on the cross? Do you REALLY? If you truly do, then I double-dare you to get on your knees or on your face before Him*, behind closed doors, three times a day for the next month. I am dead serious. If you will commit yourself to the daily HABIT of true worship of the Most High God from a prostrate or kneeling posture* before Him several times each day, I promise you He will rock your world, and He will amaze you with how your relationship with Him will improve!

It’s time to stop reading about “radical,” and it’s time to start getting “radical.” Dump the cancer of complacency and the biases. They want to kill you—and they will, if they are not eliminated.

*If you are physically unable to get down on your face or to kneel before Him, simply put yourself in a position that you are able to lower yourself before Him. This is the intent of the physical act of worship—the lowering of your self, as low as you are capable of getting, before the Most High God in acknowledgment of His Majesty. If the best you can do is to sit in a chair and bow your head down to the table (or whatever), then I am confident He will honor that from you. Just like anything regarding Him, He knows what you are capable of and He knows your heart condition before Him. If you try to take a shortcut here, not only will He know it, but “your worship will be in vain.” Just do what you can to acknowledge His Majesty.

Chapter 20

“We must simplify our approach to Him. We must strip down to essentials (and they will be found to be blessedly few). We must put away all effort to impress, and come with the guileless candor of childhood. If we do this, without doubt God will quickly respond.”   ~A.W. Tozer

What now?

This might be the shortest chapter ever written about such a complex and very difficult subject. Quite obviously Satan has successfully woven a very complex web that has far, far too many people and churches very much wrapped up and trapped. Right now, as you are almost finished with this book, Satan wants you to feel hopeless. He wants you to feel defeated. He wants you to feel like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. This is not the case. Let’s look again to Scripture for help. In Acts 2, Peter, by the Holy Spirit, gave an incredible sermon which verse 37 tells us caused the people to be “cut to the heart.” Their response that followed is, quite possibly, the simplest, most profound response that could ever be given.

“37Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’”

There is no simpler response. “What shall we do?” There was no trying to justify anything. There was no trying to explain or make excuses. The truth was laid bare before them and there was no denying it. The ONLY response they could give was, “What shall we do?” Peter’s answer to this simple question in verse 38 is the same as what Jesus calls for in Revelation 3:19,

“38Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”

Let’s break this down:

1) Repent. Simple enough.

2) Receive forgiveness. [Some Bible scholars believe “actual baptism” is being presented here, while others believe the reference to “baptism” here is the renewing (like being born again) that is received in His Name. Either way, the result is the remission of sins—forgiveness.]

3) Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Remember, the most difficult part of the cancer and biases is that to get rid of what you have (the cancer and biases), you need what you don’t have (the Holy Spirit). Yet, the cancer and the biases will do EVERYTHING they can to keep the Holy Spirit as far away as possible. Where does it start? The furthest thing from the mind of the “it’s all good” crowd is repentance. If it is truly “all good,” then there is nothing for which to repent.

Well, I can’t get any clearer or make it any easier. Scripture clearly shows us here that the Holy Spirit IS available once repentance brings about forgiveness. Zealous repentance requires desperation. Desperation for His touch is guaranteed to create the correct heart condition before Him. Desperation is guaranteed when this is viewed as a life or death proposition—and just like physical cancer—it most certainly is.

Repent, receive forgiveness, and receive the Holy Spirit—a VERY simple answer to a very difficult and complex life or death situation.

Chapter 21

“An honest man with an open Bible and a pad and pencil is sure to find out what is wrong with him very quickly.”   ~A.W. Tozer

Conclusion

Here is a list of conclusions to which I hope you have arrived:

1) Like hypoxemic hypoxia—without the “oxygen” of Jesus in our lives, we will most certainly die. “As you were” keeps us from the radical change only His touch can bring.

2) The cancer of complacency causes us to conclude “it’s all good” and to believe we are rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing—including Him. When the truth, from the perspective of Jesus, is that we are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

3) The cancer of complacency is protected by cognitive biases, the antibodies of Satan that he uses to reject anything that threatens “it’s all good.”

4) We can’t do anything about sin on our own as long as the cancer of complacency and the biases will not allow us to recognize sin for what it is.

5) Satisfied desperation is contagious. A heart desperate for His touch has recognized that “it ‘ain’t’ all good.”

6) The cancer of complacency is blind to the truth. It remains blind because it causes us to value and seek the honor from other people rather than seeking and valuing honor from God.

7) “Measurable” and “visible” are NOT compatible with spiritual discernment. He expects us to be spiritually sensitive and our spiritual maturity is measured Biblically by our spiritual sensitivity. Spiritual sensitivity (in the Spirit) should be our goal. Revelation 1:10, 4:2, 17:3, 21:10. Spiritual sensitivity is also the Biblical measuring stick of spiritual maturity as is clearly shown in Hebrews 5:13-14.

8) Problems with tithing and giving, attendance, and ministry involvement (or lack thereof) are all problems associated with the presence of the cancer and the biases AND the lack of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

9) The Biblical expectation is that we experience radical change at the hand of Jesus. Radical change is possible and probable anytime Jesus is near.

10) The cancer of complacency and the biases hide the idols in our lives and even cause us to conclude that “abominations in the sight of God” are really okay because “it’s all good.” Yet, nobody would dare look Jesus in the eye and say, “What’s the big deal with a few abominations in my life?”

11) Accountability and obedience are ultimately the main targets of Satan within the life of the Christian and within the life of the church.

12) The blood that was shed by Jesus for you and for me IS precious! Period.

13) Too many people who believe they are a “friend of the cross of Christ” are actually an “enemy of the cross of Christ” and also an “enemy of the blood of Christ.” Scripture confirms this to be true, and the cancer of complacency and the biases ensure it will continue to be the case within the church.

14) We need to live our lives somewhere in between Peter’s attitude of “transparent repentance” and “passionate pursuit,” and David’s attitude of “my sin is always before me” and “don’t take Your Holy Spirit from me.”

15) Our lives are what determine whether or not Jesus has credibility with those who don’t know Him.

16) Prayer becomes about us rather than about God. Our “worship” isn’t worship at all. It is praise and it is insufficient. True worship isn’t offered to Him much—if at all, and people continue to come and go “as they were,” fully believing “it’s all good.” Prostrate or kneeling before Him is the posture of true worship.

17) Repent, receive forgiveness, and receive the Holy Spirit—a VERY simple answer to a very difficult and complex problem.

Now for the real conclusion—yours:

Well, this one isn’t going to be very easy. Conclusions regarding this topic are suspect simply because of what biases might be “helping” the conclusions. Alas, you must come to some conclusions on your own regarding your TRUE position before God. NOT based on some churchy vernacular that looks good and sounds good. The truth, and nothing but the truth—so help you God!

There is no room for candy-coating this any more than the cancer of complacency and the biases already have.

So here you go:

- Do you wake up in the morning or go to bed at night thinking or even believing “it’s all good?”

- Where are you, honestly, when it comes to topics like accountability and obedience?

- How about ‘abominations’ and idols in your life? Are you even willing to look around and consider them—and then remove them? Or, do your possessions “have you?”

- How about ministry? Do you practice the undefiled type of ministry as set forth in Scripture? Do you prefer or are you already involved in “defiled religion?”

- If you are a pastor or a church leader, where are you in your career cycle? Are you as passionate about the Scriptural truth as you once were? Or, are you slowly giving in to the strength and influence of the cancer and the biases? Or, worse, have they consumed you already?

- Is an intimate relationship with God important enough to you that you will do whatever you have to do in order to get right with Him—no matter what it looks like and no matter what it costs? Or, are you content to continue to go through the motions and simply be an enemy of the cross (and of the shed blood) of Christ?

You MUST answer these questions on your own—for yourself. The cancer, the biases, and Satan himself are begging you to let them answer for you. . . .

So, what will it be? Will you let them answer for you?

- Are you content to continue to leave church each week “as you were” when you arrived?

- Are you content to end another day, yet again, “as you were,” untouched and unchanged by the power and reality of the living Jesus and His Holy Spirit?

- Are you content with counting the blood of the covenant a common thing by living your life as an enemy of the cross of Christ?

- Are you content to continue ignoring His Majesty by failing to offer Him a regular, on-purpose act of true worship?

- Are you content to continue allowing the cancer and the biases to convince you that you are rich, have become wealthy and have need of nothing—that “it’s all good?”

Are you ready to repent, receive forgiveness, and receive His Holy Spirit?

Scripture tells us—in the words of Jesus—that He is knocking on your door and He is calling out to you by name. He would love to have some dinner (intimate time) with you so you and He can get to know each other better—for real.

My friend, you can’t get to the door fast enough!

Chapter 22

“The devil is a better theologian than any of us, and is a devil still.”   ~A.W. Tozer

“The Bible is a supernatural book and can be understood only by supernatural aid.”   ~A.W. Tozer

Here Are Some Questions That Are Usually Asked Of Me. (in no particular order)

Q: How can I tell if I already have the cancer of complacency or any of the biases?

A: It is a tough question for sure. If you are sincerely asking this question, then the good news is that your heart is open to the truth. If you are reading this and you are thinking to yourself, “This is a dumb question”—then you are already in deep trouble.

If you can honestly look Jesus in the eye and say to Him what David said to God, “I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.”—there is a good chance that you haven’t been infected by them, or at least it isn’t bad enough that a good session on your knees before the Almighty God can’t solve. Here is another one. When you are by yourself and you take a close, hard look at yourself, what is your conclusion? Do you “feel rich, that you have become wealthy, and have need of nothing?” If so, that is a big wake up call and trouble is just around the corner.

Q: You seem to be down on the church. Why?

A: Please understand that I am not down on “individual churches.” I am aware of some whose leadership is NOT infected with the cancer or the biases and who take a stand against the “it’s all good” illusion. But, the sad truth of the matter is that there are many more churches and pastors who have either bought into the lie of “it’s all good,” or who have succumbed to the strength and power of the cancer of complacency than those who have not.

Am I “down” on the church itself? No. It is the body God chose as the vehicle to carry His message to the world. Unfortunately, the job isn’t getting done very well, and too many of the churches today are certainly doing lots of things, but are NOT delivering the message of truth. I am very, very concerned about how the church, in general, is functioning and how the cancer of complacency and the associated biases have taken the church away from the authentic things of God, let alone anything authentic from God Himself. My assessment of what is going on in the church isn’t much different than what Paul encountered as he tried to help the churches stay on the right path.

Over the many years, since the early New Testament church, I am afraid the truth has been greatly watered down by the cancer of complacency. I further believe that the biases have become so strong that very, very few of those that are, in fact, infected will ever see the light of authentic truth over or through the fog that has clouded the truth for so long.

With the incredible influence the cancer of complacency and the biases have had within the church of today, I think the real question is: “Is the church operating today according to the Biblical model of the New Testament church?” Yes or no? It is my position that the church, in general, is not. It is, in fact, I believe, operating very, very far away from where God desires it to be—with very little regard given to what God wants or how He wants it.

Another good question is: “Are those professing to be Christians living out their relationship with Jesus according to the truth as presented by Scripture and Jesus Himself?” Yes or no? I believe the majority of them are not. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to take an honest look at what, if any, authentic ministry is occurring at the hand of most professing Christians. Remember, what we “do” or “desire to do” is determined by who our Father is. These are the words of Jesus. God knows who His true children are. Portraying the “it’s all good” illusion will never fool God—instead it probably makes Him cry tears of disappointment, love, frustration and wrath. His Holy Spirit is active in the lives of His children. If God were “truly” the Father of most professing Christians, then the ministry landscape, through the power and leading of His Spirit, would look far different than it does right now. (And so would the “tithing landscape.”)

Q: I see the cancer and the biases all around me. What should I do?

A: According to James 5:19-20, each of us has a responsibility to our Christian brothers and sisters to attempt to “turn back” those who “wander from the truth.” It isn’t easy. There is good news, however. You will only get one of two responses. 1) The brother or sister who has wandered will listen to you AND he/she will “hear” you. If he/she takes your message of truth to heart, he/she will zealously repent and pursue Jesus authentically. (And he/she will probably thank you later for your unwillingness to give in to the cancer of complacency.) 2) The cancer and the biases won’t allow you to be “heard,” and he/she will continue to wander. They may react with the age-old, “Don’t judge me” routine, which just means you continue to pray for him/her. Trust me on this: Confronting someone who is infected with the cancer and the biases will give you a front row seat right now as to how the cancer and the biases operate, how strong they are, and how blind they are to the truth. If your relationship with someone suffers due to the confrontation, then you might not have had an authentic relationship with them in the first place—at least a relationship that was built on trust and the truth.

Q: Doesn’t this all seem a bit too radical?

A: If you honestly ask this question, then you are definitely infected. The answer is, “YES, it is absolutely radical.” The only people who believe following Jesus is anything but radical are those who are controlled by the cancer of complacency and the biases. “It’s all good” is, quite possibly, the worst thing that has happened within the church because it has certainly given Satan his most damaging and most far-reaching victory yet.

It takes a radical commitment to follow Jesus. There is no way to candy-coat it. It just does. A thoughtful reading of Scripture WITHOUT the filters of the cancer and the biases will ONLY demonstrate that to be a follower of Jesus actually does require “forsaking all.” The heart condition before Him is known by Him without even taking the time to consider it. A person’s heart condition before Him CANNOT be faked—which, ironically, is exactly what the cancer and the biases are all about. Satan wants nothing more than for you (and as many others as possible) to reject all this Scriptural truth, and Jesus as well, as “radical nonsense.” What is the polar opposite of radical accountability and radical obedience? Yep, “It’s all good.”

Q: Doesn’t this all seem a bit weird? Since when do “cognitive biases” have anything to do with religion?

A: Again, Yes. The whole thing, from the outside looking in, is very weird—which is exactly what the cancer and the biases want you to conclude. As demonstrated by the Scriptural passages noted previously in the book, this cancer and these cognitive biases have been around, working very hard to keep the “it’s all good” illusion intact since the Pharisees encountered Jesus. Then well into the New Testament church Paul encountered the cancer and the biases and then addressed them in his letters, which would later become Scripture.

In addition to the cancer and the biases being around for a very long time, idols and their negative impact on the eternal destination of a person’s soul have also been around for a very long time. However, that fact certainly doesn’t and hasn’t meant they are any less of an abomination before Him—NOR can they be explained away or rationalized in a way that God will accept. An “abomination” is an abomination before Him, just as “sin” is sin before Him.

Q: I don’t know if my friends or family will accept me if I go “all spiritual” or “Jesus freakish” on them. How do I handle that?

A: You don’t “handle” that. Luke 12:51-53 says Jesus came to divide families over Him. Matthew 10:32-34 says if we deny Him on earth, then He will deny us in heaven. Jesus promises a reward for those who leave family to follow Him (Matthew 19:29).

I know of no greater compliment than for someone to call me a “Jesus freak.” I don’t care if they mean it as a compliment or as ridicule. If my life oozes Jesus enough that others see it, or are offended by it—then I am exactly where I want to be.

Family and friends are one of the very real “costs” of truly having an authentic relationship with Jesus. BUT, you never know. If the Holy Spirit lights a fire in your heart, your family and friends just might let His fire catch in their hearts, too.

Q: I don’t know whom I could talk to about this. Can I communicate with you about it?

A: Yes. Feel free to email me. I can’t guarantee my response time. I will do the best I can. If I allowed it, emails could bury me. This is what your pastor or spiritual mentor is for. If you have no one to talk to then, yes, email me.

Q: I am a church leader and I truly want to either rid myself of the cancer and the biases and/or help my congregation rid themselves of these deadly killers. Are you available to come speak at my church? And, if so, what does it cost?

A: It all depends on the timing of the visit and the Holy Spirit’s input. I am happy to discuss it with you and then trust the Holy Spirit with it. If He says to do it, I will trust the rest to Him.

As far as cost goes: Travel expenses plus whatever God puts on your heart. I cannot, and will not, put a price on Him. I have some seminar formats we can discuss. If I come and God doesn’t bless our time together, then $1 is too much. Let’s leave that part to Him. This isn’t about money. It is about helping people get right with, and closer to, the Spirit of the Almighty God. You can reach me through the publisher shown in the front of the book or you can email me directly.

Q: As a pastor, I would like members of our church to read this book. Are quantity discounts available?

A: Yes. Just visit the website shown on the copyright page in the front of the book. There are also “discount packs” which include my other books at a discount. Very generous discounts are available for Bible study groups. Just email me for the group discount code.

Q: To be honest with you, I have never really learned much about the Holy Spirit. I know that blasphemy is a sin against the Holy Spirit and that it won’t be forgiven. That scares me and frankly I am a little scared of this whole “Holy Spirit” thing. What advice can you give me?

A: First of all, it is important to remember that while we refer to the Holy Spirit with His own unique name (“the Holy Spirit”), He is an equal part of the triune Godhead. I think it is common to somehow believe the Holy Spirit is less than, or smaller than, God the Father or God the Son simply because we name Him last when we rattle off the parts of the Godhead. The Holy Spirit is one with the Father. The Holy Spirit is one with Jesus. And, you can interchange the three in any order. I know it is hard to understand and I confess to you I do not understand it; I only know it to be so.

Second, the Holy Spirit has the heart of the Father and the heart of the Son. He desires communion with you as much as Jesus does (enough to die in order to get it).

I promise you this: Of anything or anyone to be afraid of in this life, the Holy Spirit should be last on your list. There is no greater friend, no greater companion, no greater counselor, no greater anything than the wonderful, precious Holy Spirit of the Most High God. If you listen to just one thing I have written in these pages, please listen to—and act upon—this: Whatever you do, always run TO Him and NEVER run away from Him. (That pattern interrupt was very much on purpose.) I don’t care if it is the best day of your life, or if you were just confronted about stealing your neighbor’s wife and then killing her husband to cover it up (see 2 Samuel 11 and 2 Samuel 12:1-14 about King David), RUN to the Holy Spirit.

The indescribable presence of the Holy Spirit is ALWAYS where you want to be and ALWAYS where you want to end up. You will need to be spiritually sensitive to understand this and to sense His presence and receive His communication. But, once you taste Him, even if it is just a little—your life will be changed forever and NOTHING ELSE will ever satisfy your heart like He does.

He, and He alone, is the remedy for the cancer and biases. Stay close to Him and these deadly killers will stay away from you.

Q: OK. You got me. I have the cancer and I can see the biases at work in my life. What do I do now and how do I get started?

A: Drop everything and get on your knees as fast and as earnestly as you can. Nothing is more important! Remember, the ONLY way to get rid of these killers is by the grace of God through the power of His Holy Spirit.

Start at the very foundation of Satan’s hold on your life and change how you feel about the shed blood of Jesus. Take the time to consider the value of His blood that He shed on the cross for you. Then, as the fog begins to clear, EMBRACE accountability to Him and obedience to what He wants rather than what Satan wants.

Then, ask the Holy Spirit for guidance as you study Scripture and for help with your spiritual sensitivity. Remember, He wants intimacy with you more than you want it with Him. He desires and requires ALL of you—so give yourself to Him (He gave Himself for you).

Q: I don’t have a relationship with Jesus right now, but I want to have one. What should I do?

A: First, confess to Him that you recognize the fact you are a sinner, and that you realize you need Him to forgive you of your sins, so you can have a relationship with Him. And it is ok to say out loud right now (you can even read it if you want to):

“Jesus, I recognize the fact that I am a sinner, and I realize I need You to forgive me of my sins, so I can have a relationship with You. Please forgive me and send to me Your Holy Spirit as You have promised in Scripture. From now on, You are welcome in my life, and I will do my best to live my life for You and with You.”

[Then take a minute and realize there is a party going on in heaven over YOU! (Luke 15:4-7)]

Second, you have to start somewhere and John 14:26 says, “He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” (Not what “I” said—what Jesus said.) So, as a new believer in Jesus, you need to read the Bible. Start in the New Testament and start by reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts. Then read Paul’s writings (leave Romans for last). Each time you read the Bible, ask the Holy Spirit to open its hidden truth to you. Don’t get caught in the trap that the Pharisees got caught in. Reading the Bible is important, but not if it is at the expense of your relationship with Him. That is the highest priority—time spent with Him.

Third, this is a “relationship,” and you need to spend on-purpose time with Him. You need quiet time talking to Him and listening for His communication to you. He will help you with your spiritual sensitivity. Don’t be afraid to ask Him to help you with it. Remember, you and He are in this together. If He was willing to die in order to have a relationship with you, He is certainly willing to help the relationship by helping you develop spiritual sensitivity. It just take focus and practice with Him (Hebrews 5:13-14).

Fourth, you need to find a local church with a pastor who will mentor you (or a Sunday school teacher, etc.). Do not be offended if the pastor hands you off to someone else. Pastors have a ton of stuff to deal with, so they often delegate the mentoring of new believers to someone else. As long as your spiritual mentor hears from God and lives a life consistent with Biblical principles, you will be fine. (Don’t be afraid to ask the pastor point blank if he hears God’s voice. It is a “yes” or “no” question. Any explaining away God’s spoken word in favor of His written word is a “NO” answer.) You are relying on his/her spiritual wisdom to mentor you, which the Bible says can only come by spiritually hearing His voice. If the pastor does not, or cannot, spiritually discern communication from the Holy Spirit, then he/she has no more spiritual wisdom than you have.

Q: Are there any books you recommend I read?

A: Yes. Here they are:

The Bible . My preferred translations are the New King James Version or the New American Standard Bible. I believe these are the closest to the original text. (Get a Strong’s Concordance, too.)

Are Most “Christians” Headed to Hell?

A Wake-up Call for Every Christian

(and pastor and church leader)

by Jeff Smith

Available at www.ITSPublishing.com

When the Fire Spreads

What Happens When Spiritual Warfare and

the Holy Spirit Show Up at Church

by Jeff Smith

Available at www.ITSPublishing.com

Surprised by the Voice of God by Jack Deere.

Anything written by A.W. Tozer (but prepare yourself—if you think I can be a bit blunt, look out for Mr. Tozer. Every sentence he wrote can knock you off your chair.)

Anything written by Max Lucado.

Anything written by Brennan Manning.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements and Dedication

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22