Friday, July 18, 2008

Worship God - Not the Man of God

I met Mary a while back. (Names have been changed to protect the innocent) We grew to be really good friends. I met her at a point in time in my life where I was lonely and in desperate need of companionship. I knew the Lord and had a personal relationship with Him but I still wanted a tangible friend down here. You all understand that, right? Anyway, Mary offered me a lot of encouragement and was always ready and willing to pray for me anytime night or day.

Somewhere along our relationship, I began to notice that she placed her pastor on a pedestal. At first, I just thought that she highly regarded and respected the man of God, as we all should. But the more she spoke, the more I visited the church and the closer we got - I realized that her admiration was bordering idolization. Mary is a sweet person and I would never want to do or say anything to hurt her but I don't know how much of her glorifying the man of God I can take.

I would like to say that I have met the man and he in no way condones this sort of behavior. What do I do? Do I tell her the truth and risk loosing her friendship or do I continue to avoid her so that I don't have to bite my tongue until it bleeds as she attributes all her blessings in life to being connected to this man?

Have you ever been in a situation like this? What did you do?

Shanita Waters
By His Stripes We Are Healed, Author
www.waterplantgrowth.com

8 comments:

Keith said...

I am standing and applauding.So
many people have left the church
and stopped worshiping because someone they held in high esteem has fallen short of expectations.
We should remember that we are worshiping Christ, not the Pastor,
not the church...And that Man of God and Woman of God is only human
and therefor imperfect and in need of God's Grace and mercy just as we ourselves are.

Shanita Waters said...

Amen to that! It can grow to be really irritating watching people behave this way. I have seen people walk away from God all together once the person they placed on this pedestal fell short in their eyes.

Don said...

Unfortunately I have more than a few older female relatives who speak so much about their Pastor that I honestly feel like the preacher has placed something in their food. They go so far as to not tell me what the Bible says, but what the preacher said.

Beauteous Woman said...

Hi Shanita,

As I read this, I do recall seeing many people do that, placing their trust in the Pastor but once the Pastor had done wrong, people were raged, sad, shocked and etc.

But on the other hand, I do believe that you should at least point it out to let her know and warn her then the rest is up to her to decide if she should contiinue to look up the man of God or love God. By doing this, this is to let her know that you care and that you don't want her to be hurt once the man of God fall short.

I hope this helps. By the way, I thank you for visiting my blog and I also love to make new friends that seek God too.

Have a wonderful day today.

God Bless!

GOD'S LADIE said...

I speak about my Pastor a lot, but I do understand that he is not GOD. I respect the GOD that is within HIM. I know that GOD uses HIM and has used HIM to pray for me and prophesy things that have come to pass. I will not reveal any names, but someone close to me, who is an older female relative asks sometimes why she doesn't receive a word from the prophet. I at first kept my mouth shut and tried to ignore the question though the answer was on the tip of my tongue, but recently, out of love I simply stated because you are seeking the word from man and not GOD. She doesn't seem to notice that she has put the Prophet in GOD's place and that our GOD is a jealous GOD. We are not to have any other GODS besides HIM. HE is the one and only GOD. So with that long story, I guess I will say to just speak what GOD has given you to say, but pray that the it is the HOLY SPIRIT that speaks through you and I am sure she will not be upset at all.

Shanita Waters said...

@ God's Ladie - it's nice to hear from you again. I pray that all is well with you.

Thanks for your post. It's funny that you would mention your relative seeking a word from the prophet instead of God. You see, I had a unique ,ivine experience tonight (of which I plan on blogging about real soon). I avoided the man of God because I knew that God had a Word for me. I was ready to reveive what God had to say but I prefer to receive some messages and corrections privately. (Pray for me that God will continue to humble me.)

Anyway, I have been known to quote my old pastor at times as well. My former pastor was an excellent teacher and I often use his analogies and tell people Pastor teaches on this subject like so...

I agree that there is nothing wrong with respecting and even admiring the man of God but there is an extent. When we find ourselves in a positon where we go to the man of God instead of going to God - it's time to check ourselves and our relationship with God. Jesus is the only mediator we need.

I'm glad that your relative received the Word from you in love. As of right now, God has not permitted me to tell her what I think. Perhaps He will at a later date or maybe this is just one of those thiings that He showed me for me to pray about and keep my big mouth shut. We shall see...
God bless!

@Don - I really don't know why women are more susceptible to fall for this sort of thing. On the otherhand, I have seen men grow unhealthy "infactuations" with pastors as well where they try to spend so much time around him learning how he operates that when they open their mouths they sound like clones. I know that we get some of our spiritual DNA from our spritual fathers so there will be simmilarites but no two people are exactly the same.... (sounds like another idea for another post)

as you can tell I've seen a lot and wrote a book about it too... (lol)

Don said...

We both have seen alot. That is the very and fortunate reason why we are able to speak as we do. Continue on in your efforts. I personally appreciate and welcome your thoughts.

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