There is a movement out there today that is catching on even in mainstream Christian churches. The main point of their teaching is that there are certain methods for you to follow to be more spiritual. Some of these are contemplative prayer, yoga, use of a labyrinth (maze). What is being taught is that you need to empty your mind or reach a trance-like state of mindlessness in order for God to be able to talk with you. It is all associated with the New Age Movement that has been around for a long time. They want you to use meditation techniques, or say a mantra over and over to empty your mind to a hypnotic state. Once you reach this state, then and only then are you able to hear God. This is not Biblical and goes against what the Bible teaches.
We don't have to use any special technique to talk with God. We are instructed to pray without ceasing. You don't have to empty your mind to speak with our Heavenly Father. If this were the case, Jesus would have told us this while He was here on earth. God hears His children anytime they talk with Him. Anytime you put yourself in an altered state of mind, you are leaving yourself open to demonic influence. You may be hearing something from some source, but is it God or demonic? Anytime you are being taught something that is not found in the Scriptures, run from it. It may sound good and maybe there are a lot of people using these techniques, but God tells us to stay away from the occult practices. Here are some of the terms New Agers use.
1-Contemplative Prayer: Going beyond thought by use of repeated words or phrases.
2-Higher Self: Supposed God-self within that New Agers seek to connect with through meditation. Also called the Christ-self or True-self.
3-Christ consciousness: Taught by New Agers to be the state of awareness, reached in meditation, in which one realizes that one is divine and one with God or an enlightened being.
4-Inter spirituality: The view that all the world's religions are identical at the mystical level and therefore there should be solidarity among them.
5-False Self: The false self is the ego or personality that is observed by others. One rids oneself of the false self to find the true self through mantra-meditation.
7-Mantra: Word or words repeated silently or verbally to induce an altered state of consciousness.
8-Reiki: Spiritual energy that is channeled by one attuned to the Reiki power. Literally translated God energy.
9-The Silence: Absence of normal thought.
If someone starts to teach these methods, BEWARE!
Why would we as born again Christians have to use some special method to talk with God when we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us? We don't have to empty ourselves to make room for Him because He is already living within us.
1Corinthians; 3:16
(Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?)
So if you are a child of God, you can speak with Him anytime and any place. He will hear you.
Pray that you are not deceived by any of these teaching.
God Bless You!
1 comment:
I think you do not understand or have the wrong impression of contemplative prayer. It is not a new thing at all, but actually very old. You are not meant to empty your mind at all but quieten your mind and focus on Christ.
Ps 46.10 says Be Still and know that I am God.
In this very busy world, we Christians are hardly still. We need to learn to sit at the feet of Jesus and "shut up" and Listen to God.
The best book on this, is one I have just read called Listening to God, by Joyce Huggett. I would recommend this highly.
God Bless.
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