Tag Holy Spirit

The Junk Food Spiritual Diet

Allen Frederick Leave a comment 
Why What You Feed Your Mind Warps Your Discernment

If you eat a steady diet of fast food, soda, candy, and processed snacks, you do not have to wonder what eventually happens to your body. Energy falls, strength declines, and health begins paying the price. We understand that almost instinctively in the physical world, yet we often behave as though the same principle does not apply to the mind and spirit.

We consume hours of commentary, outrage, gossip, political rhetoric, social-media arguments, sensational headlines, mockery, fear, controversy, and endless opinion, then wonder why our spiritual vision becomes cloudy. Scripture repeatedly describes spiritual life in the language of hunger, thirst, bread, milk, fruit, taste, roots, and nourishment because what enters us eventually begins shaping us. There is a spiritual diet, and over time we begin to resemble what we consume.

The Trap of Itching Ears

Why do people gorge themselves on spiritual and cultural junk food? Because truth can be demanding while validation usually tastes good. Truth may confront an assumption, expose a motive, or require repentance. Validation tells us that our instincts were right, our anger was justified, and the problem is always somewhere outside ourselves.

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” 2 Timothy 4:3–4

Paul’s warning is disturbing because these people do not merely encounter deceptive teachers; they gather teachers according to their own desires. The appetite precedes the menu. They reach a point where they will not endure sound doctrine, so they search for voices that already sound like them, affirm them, and tell them what they want to hear. They trade nourishment for the sugar rush of validation.

That means discernment must ask more than whether a particular teacher, commentator, or movement is serving something false. We must also ask what kind of hunger inside us made that particular meal attractive. If the appetite is never examined, we can change the menu repeatedly while continuing to crave the same poison.

When Appetite Becomes the Master

Appetite can be trained. Consume enough anger and peace can begin sounding weak. Consume enough fear and faith can begin sounding naïve. Consume enough mockery and kindness can begin sounding foolish. Consume enough partisan rhetoric and biblical truth can begin sounding political whenever Scripture challenges our preferred side. Consume enough sensationalism and prayer, obedience, faithfulness, and quiet communion with Christ can begin feeling boring. The tragedy is not merely that unhealthy things have entered the diet. The palate itself has been retrained.

“O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” Psalm 34:8

God invites us to develop an appetite for Him. Peter tells believers to desire the sincere milk of the Word so they may grow, and Jesus declares, “I am the bread of life.” Christianity therefore is not simply about replacing secular information with religious information. A person can memorize menus and still starve. We are called to know Christ, abide in Him, hear His voice, receive His Word, and allow His life to shape ours.

Sitting at the Table of Scoffers

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly… nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” Psalm 1:1

Scoffing is more than disagreement; it is a posture of contempt. When contempt becomes the regular seasoning on everything we consume, it eventually flavors our own speech. Jesus warned that the fully trained disciple becomes like his teacher. We therefore need to ask not only whether a voice occasionally says something true, but what kind of person continual exposure to that voice is training us to become.

Psalm 1 does not leave the blessed person empty. His delight is in the law of the Lord, and he becomes like a tree planted by rivers of water. That is the progression beneath this teaching: influence shapes appetite, appetite determines nourishment, nourishment develops roots, and roots eventually produce fruit. When the fruit begins changing, we should examine what has been feeding the roots.

When the World Learns Your Appetite

Modern technology can continually place before us material that captures attention, but the vulnerability it exploits is ancient. James writes that a person is tempted when drawn away by his own desire and enticed. Deception therefore does not always succeed because somebody forced a lie upon us. Sometimes it succeeds because the lie appeals to something already inside us.

“But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” James 1:14

One of the most important discernment questions is therefore not merely, “Is this true?” but “Why do I want this to be true?” When a claim confirms everything we already believe about someone we distrust, do we become less careful? When another claim challenges someone we admire, do we suddenly demand more evidence? Biblical discernment is not paranoia baptized with Scripture. It tests what we receive while remaining humble enough to let God test the receiver as well.

Consumption Is Not Nourishment

A person can consume enormous quantities of religious material while remaining spiritually malnourished. Sermons, prophecy videos, debates, podcasts, Christian influencers, and theological arguments can fill every spare hour without producing maturity. Consumption is not necessarily nourishment.

“That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine…” Ephesians 4:14

Paul’s image contrasts sharply with the rooted tree of Psalm 1. One is planted; the other is carried. The question is not how much information enters us, but what it produces. Are we becoming more loving, holy, humble, peaceful, patient, merciful, self-controlled, and sensitive to the Holy Spirit, or more angry, suspicious, fearful, arrogant, contemptuous, and addicted to controversy? Jesus said we know a tree by its fruit. If the fruit is rotten, we should examine what has been feeding the tree.

When Poison Begins Tasting Sweet

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20

Isaiah describes corrupted discernment through the language of taste. Bitter becomes sweet and sweet becomes bitter. Half-truth begins tasting like truth. Slander begins tasting like discernment. Anger masquerades as righteous indignation, suspicion calls itself wisdom, pride disguises itself as conviction, and fear presents itself as vigilance. When distortion becomes familiar, genuine spiritual food can begin tasting strange.

At that point we need more than another argument or another approved source. The appetite itself needs healing so that truth tastes like truth again, darkness is recognized as darkness again, and the soul once more hungers for what gives life.

Discernment Must Examine the Heart

“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Psalm 139:23–24

David does not begin by asking God to expose everyone around him. He opens himself to examination. That posture protects discernment from becoming pride. It is easy to identify another person’s bias while remaining blind to our own. It is harder to ask whether resentment, fear, tribal loyalty, or the desire to be proven right has influenced what we are willing to believe.

The purpose of that examination is not endless self-doubt. David ends with direction: “lead me.” God searches in order to lead. He exposes what is crooked so that He can correct it.

Retraining the Spiritual Appetite

A distorted appetite can be retrained, but we cannot gorge on noise for hours and expect a few hurried minutes of Scripture to recalibrate the soul. Sometimes the diet itself must change.

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true… honest… just… pure… lovely… of good report… think on these things.” Philippians 4:8

Paul is not telling believers to ignore reality. He is addressing what receives sustained residence in the mind. There is a difference between recognizing darkness and continually feeding upon it. Some voices may need less access to us, not because everything they say is false, but because we have recognized what continual exposure is producing. We may need to rediscover Scripture, prayer, worship, silence, and unhurried communion with Christ.

Rooted and Grounded in Christ

“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love…” Ephesians 3:17

A rooted believer can hear a new idea without immediately being swept away by it, encounter disagreement without losing peace, test teaching without becoming cynical, and receive correction without treating correction as an attack. Stability does not come from knowing everything. It comes from knowing where we are planted.

The Word of God remains our plumb line, but Scripture is not merely ammunition for correcting other people. Hebrews says the Word discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The same Word that helps us discern the world also discerns us. It cuts through our rationalizations, exposes our motives, challenges our appetites, and reveals where we have confused preference with the voice of God.

Come Back to the Table

The answer to spiritual junk food is not starvation. God calls us back to the table. Jesus blesses those who hunger and thirst after righteousness and promises that they will be filled. Above every other hunger stands Christ Himself. He did not merely tell us where to find bread. He said He is the Bread of Life.

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27

That is discernment at its deepest level. The sheep are not secure because they have studied every possible voice in the wilderness. They are secure because they know the Shepherd. Familiarity with His voice gives them a reference point that the surrounding noise cannot provide.

So take a spiritual pantry inventory. What gets the first attention of the morning and the last attention of the night? What repeatedly stirs your emotions and shapes your conversations? What fruit is that diet producing? If what you consume continually leaves you angry, fearful, cynical, unstable, proud, or unable to receive correction, do not keep defending the menu merely because you enjoy the taste.

The world will continue setting tables, teachers will continue speaking, and controversies will continue demanding another helping. But we do not have to eat everything placed before us. We can return to the Word, listen again for the Shepherd, and let the Holy Spirit retrain an appetite shaped by too much noise. Before taking another bite from the endless cultural buffet, ask one simple question: Is this feeding my spirit, or merely satisfying my appetite?

SHORT-SIGHTED

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

A Watchman’s Report

Seeing farther requires humility enough to admit when our present view is incomplete.

There is something dangerous about believing that what we can see is all there is to see. Scripture actually describes a condition of spiritual shortsightedness:

“But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off…”
2 Peter 1:9 KJV

Notice the language: “cannot see afar off.” That is the problem of the shortsighted. They can see something, but they cannot see far enough. The greater danger comes when those who cannot see afar off become convinced that they can.

“We See”

Jesus addressed this very problem after healing the man born blind. Some of the Pharisees asked whether they were blind also. Jesus answered:

“If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.” John 9:41 KJV

Those two words should give every believer pause: “We see.” There is no shame in acknowledging that there are things we do not understand. The danger lies in becoming so convinced of our own understanding that we are no longer willing to look again. Paul described another form of the same human conceit:

“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” Romans 1:22 KJV

We do not know what we do not know. The problem begins when we refuse to acknowledge that fact and assume that whatever lies beyond our present understanding cannot possibly be true.

Zacchaeus Knew He Couldn’t See

Here is where Zacchaeus becomes such a beautiful picture. He wanted to see Jesus, but he was short and the crowd obstructed his view. Scripture says:

“And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way.” Luke 19:4 KJV

Zacchaeus had limited vision, but he knew it. So he changed his position. He climbed higher. His limitation did not keep him from seeing Jesus because he acknowledged it. The symbolism is striking. Zacchaeus effectively said, “I cannot see,” and climbed higher. The Pharisees said, “We see,” and remained blind. The man who recognized the limitation of his sight changed his vantage point and saw Jesus, while those confident in their spiritual sight could have Jesus standing directly before them and still fail to recognize what God was doing.

There is a caution here for Churchianity. We may say that our scholars have studied it, our denominations have settled it, our traditions have defined it, and therefore we see. Study matters. Sound doctrine matters. But study should make us more humble before God, not less teachable by God.

Knowledge Is Not Understanding

“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” Proverbs 4:7 KJV

Knowledge alone is not enough. A person can know where an automobile was manufactured, how its engine was designed, and what every major component does, yet when the radiator fails he may not know how to replace it. An experienced mechanic may possess fewer academic credentials while knowing exactly what to do when the hood goes up. Knowledge knows something. Understanding comprehends it. Wisdom knows what to do with it.

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally…” James 1:5 KJV

Not pretend. Not presume. Ask. That requires humility. I have learned this repeatedly in my own walk with the Lord: every time I think I have all the answers, God changes the questions. Just when I think I understand something, He seems to ask, “Yes, but have you looked at it this way?” When I change my vantage point, sometimes the picture changes with it.

The Watchman Must Keep Looking

That brings us to the watchman. God told Ezekiel:

“O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.”
Ezekiel 33:7 KJV

The watchman was not commissioned to manufacture something frightening. He watched, he heard from God, and then he spoke. His elevation gave him perspective. He could see approaching danger before those at street level could see it. But what happens when the watchman stops looking because he thinks he has already seen everything there is to see? He may still stand upon the wall and carry the trumpet, but he has ceased to function as a watchman.

Come Up Higher

John heard an extraordinary invitation in Revelation:

“Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.”
Revelation 4:1 KJV

In its immediate context, this is John’s invitation into the heavenly vision. Yet the imagery gives us a fitting spiritual caution: there are things we cannot see from ground level. Zacchaeus climbed higher because he could not see Jesus from where he stood. The watchman stood higher because he needed to see farther than those within the city. And Jesus promised His disciples the Spirit of truth:

“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth…” John 16:13 KJV

Guidance assumes that we are still traveling. We still have somewhere to go, something to learn, and things we cannot presently see. Perhaps one of the healthiest prayers God’s people can pray is simply, “Father, what am I not seeing from where I am standing?”

A Report From the Wall

This Watchman’s Report is not a prediction about tomorrow. It is a caution about today. Do not mistake the limits of your vision for the limits of God’s reality. Do not become so confident in what you know that you become incapable of learning what you do not know. Do not assume that because everyone around you sees something the same way, everyone must therefore be seeing clearly. Remember Zacchaeus. Sometimes the crowd itself can obstruct our view.

If we cannot see clearly, let us acknowledge it. If we lack wisdom, let us ask for it. If our view is obstructed, let us change our position. If God asks, “Have you looked at it this way?” let us remain humble enough to look again. Above all, let us learn something from a short man who wanted desperately to see Jesus. He knew he could not see from where he stood, so he climbed higher, and there he saw Jesus.

The greatest danger may not be that we cannot see. It may be that we cannot see, but have convinced ourselves that we can.

Who Has Bewitched You?

Allen Frederick Leave a comment
Bewitched, Beguiled, and Seduced Away From the Simplicity of Christ

On Halloween, disguises are expected. People put on costumes and pretend for a night to be something they are not. Everyone knows there is something different underneath. That makes the evening a fitting backdrop for one of the most startling questions Paul ever asked the Church:

“O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?”
Galatians 3:1

Paul was not talking about broomsticks, potions, or the imagery we associate with Halloween. He was confronting believers whose confidence had been redirected. Christ had been plainly set before them, and they had received the Spirit through faith, yet they were being persuaded toward dependence on human effort. Paul identifies the problem immediately:

“Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?”
Galatians 3:2–3

There is the bewitchment. They began in the Spirit, but they were being persuaded to continue in the flesh.

When the Flesh Becomes Religious

The flesh is easy to recognize when it behaves wickedly. It is considerably harder to recognize when it becomes religious. The flesh can attend church, memorize Scripture, defend doctrine, observe traditions, preach sermons, sing worship songs, and perform religious duties. None of those things is wrong in itself. The danger begins when they become substitutes for dependence upon Christ.

That is what gives Paul’s question its bite. He was not asking why the Galatians had stopped being religious. He was asking why people who had received from God through faith were now attempting to accomplish through human effort what God had begun through His Spirit. Something is wrong whenever the flesh believes it can finish what only the Spirit could begin.

Beguiled From Simplicity

Paul gives us another word when writing to the Corinthians:

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”
2 Corinthians 11:3

The serpent did not begin by denying God’s existence. He began by questioning God’s word and introducing another voice into something God had already spoken. That is how deception often works. It does not always ask us to abandon Christ; sometimes it adds enough to Christ that He is eventually obscured.

Jesus says, “Follow Me,” while religion can quietly become, “Follow Christ, but make sure you also follow our system.” Traditions, institutions, personalities, doctrines, and human understanding can all become substitutes if our actual dependence shifts away from Him. Paul feared believers could be beguiled from the simplicity that is in Christ. We should fear the same thing.

Seduced by a Counterfeit

Seduction works because it attracts rather than attacks. Spiritual deception would pose little danger if it always looked obviously false. A counterfeit succeeds because it looks enough like the genuine article to escape detection. Jesus warned about wolves in sheep’s clothing, and Paul warned that Satan could appear as an angel of light. Darkness does not always arrive dressed like darkness.

Perhaps no biblical picture illustrates this better than the religious leaders Jesus confronted. The Pharisees knew how to look the part, yet Jesus looked beneath the religious exterior and delivered a devastating indictment:

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.”
Matthew 23:27

There is the counterfeit in religious clothing: beautiful outwardly, dead inwardly. The problem was not that they looked evil. The problem was that they could look righteous while inward reality told another story. Their religious appearance became its own disguise.

That is where Halloween provides its brief but useful visual parable. A Halloween costume poses little danger because everyone knows it is a costume. Spiritual deception becomes dangerous when we mistake the costume for the person underneath it. The most convincing disguise the flesh can wear may therefore be religion itself, because flesh dressed in righteousness is harder to recognize than flesh behaving badly.

Paul’s question cuts deeper than outward appearance: “Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” The issue is not whether something looks spiritual, but whether it actually proceeds from the Spirit. A whited sepulchre can be beautiful. A wolf can wear wool. Darkness can dress like light. The flesh can learn how to look remarkably religious.

Who Has Bewitched You?

This is where Paul’s question must become personal. What persuaded us that what began in the Spirit could now be perfected through the flesh? When did dependence become performance? When did knowing Christ become knowing a system? When did hearing the Shepherd become less important than mastering everything people have built around Him?

Those questions are not accusations aimed at someone else’s church. They are questions every believer should be willing to ask before God. The answer is not suspicion of everything religious, nor fascination with deception. The answer is to return to Christ, to the simplicity that is in Him, to faith, dependence upon the Holy Spirit, and the life of hearing His voice and following where He leads.

So on a night when people deliberately put on disguises, perhaps the Church should be willing to take some off. Paul’s question still stands: “Who hath bewitched you?” The most dangerous disguise may not be the costume someone wears for one night, but the religious disguise worn so long that it is no longer recognized as a disguise. And perhaps the greatest deception of all is believing we can finish in the flesh what God began in the Spirit.