Can Faith Be An Idol?

Did you know faith can be an idol? Satan can try to stop a person of faith by twisting the meaning of faith and distorting it into personal pride in your ability to do what you think God wants you to do. Listen carefully. May God give you insight. Faith is powerful. God chooses to use faith – because in essence the word faith in the Greek means to be persuaded by the Holy Spirit. By faith we obey God. By faith we are saved as we trust that only Jesus can save us from our sin. By faith- being moved by God- we can move mountains.

So, Satan has to throw us off our faith game. Instead of faith being a life lived with our eyes fixed on Jesus, it becomes something we think we need to work up in ourselves. We can be tricked into thinking faith is refusing to back down from a confession or from a position. (That’s actually called stubbornness.) The scripture says that stubbornness is idolatry. This is because we idolize our own will. Satan loves this game. He has used it to destroy lives and families.

When faith is an idol, we believe we can’t admit we are scared or unsure or that perhaps we heard God wrong. If we do- this is unbelief and then God can’t do what we want him to do. This is a lie.

True people of faith in scripture always brought their weaknesses to God. They never ever “pretend” they don’t have doubts. Did Jesus ever reject his disciples when they came to him to find out why they couldn’t heal someone? No. He corrected their unbelief and then did the work for them. The real unbelief they showed in those interactions was in the fact that they couldn’t heal the person or cast out the demon. They were putting faith in their abilities- not in the power of God. In this way, we can idolize our will and effort and call it faith.

Jesus said John the Baptist was the greatest man of God to ever walk the planet, other than the son of man. Yet, this great prophet sent messengers to ask Jesus from prison if Jesus actually was the Messiah- after John’s key ministry focus and life calling was to proclaim the good news and to prepare the way for Jesus. When he doubted in his weakness, he didn’t lose faith in Jesus. He doubted his ability. He admitted he was human and could be wrong. He asked Jesus for clarification- thus showing he had faith in him. When we are willing to be meek and humble, then the Lord can speak to us and truly use us.

There is a dangerous movement right now of people who are refusing to back down from prophecies they have spoken over the election. They say that not a word of God will fall to the ground. (Of course they won’t- as long as they are actually words from God.) These people mock all those who question their failed prophecies as faithless and immature. I’ve seen this type of “faith” literally kill people. It’s not faith. It’s delusion. True faith is humble. True faith is submissive. True faith trusts scriptural precedent. Anything else is personal will or personal pride that is unwilling to admit a failure.

True faith in God fixes eyes on Jesus in a storm. True faith is not ashamed to admit when you are wrong and it acknowledges the need to seek God to see why there is an issue. God is not so weak that elections are out of his hands. He is sovereign.

Do not make faith an idol. Worship Jesus. Seek him by faith. But don’t join on this “speak it into existence” club. When it doesn’t come into existence- you will question God. All along you should have been trusting him, not playing him. There is a big difference and it’s not too late to sort it out. He is able to help you pick up the pieces. He will heal you and teach you the truth. That is true faith.