Have you ever come across Christians who always seem to be striving, laboring and craving for the ever-so elusive “something more” that God has for them? For some, this merry-go-round never seems to stop. Aside from the spiritual narcissism behind the incessant motivation, Christians who fail to embrace who they are and what they’ve already been given in Christ become easy prey for the razzle-dazzle, celebrity preachers of our day who love to promise the “something more” to the spiritually naive through their books, conferences and teachings.
This highly popular yet phony teaching is typically presented in either one of two forms:
- You must “do” to receive your “something more” experience. Indicative of an Old Covenant performance/reward mindset, the answer to the believer’s supposed dilemma is to simply do something more to receive something more. Just fill in the blank; pray more, give more, fast more, read your Bible more, evangelize more, worship more, etc… and at some undetermined point in time, you’ll receive your “breakthrough experience” with God. Rather than pointing people to the all sufficient Person and finished work of Christ and encouraging people to enter the rest of faith, notice how this teaching clearly puts the onus on the believer to “work” for God’s blessing. It’s the epitome of performance-based, oppressive religion… unfortunately with Christ’s name attached to it. If you’re on this road, take some advice from a fellow sojourner whose been there before; you’re on a dead-end street. Best to get off now and learn to live in the realm of grace than to pass out from exhaustion on the side of the road… becoming yet another casualty of religion.
- Your “something more” will come through new revelation/deeper knowledge. I gladly stand in and espouse New Covenant grace. Yet I’m seeing a disturbing trend among grace-folks these days: an inordinate focus on obtaining “new revelation” and deeper knowledge…. on grace! Much of this is being brought on by the many pop-up grace teachers who claim that their “new and better teaching on grace” is what believers need to “go to the next level” with God. Unfortunately, the religious arrogance that emanates from those who travel this road for too long is no different than the religious arrogance typical of many evangelical fundamentalists; both erroneously think that adding “knowledge upon knowledge” will somehow elevate them to a greater spiritual maturity and “God-experience.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. I mean, how much knowledge on grace does one really need to just get on with life and start living? How much more “deeper revelation” do we need to simply begin embracing God’s love for us, and extending this same love to others? Evidence of spiritual maturity isn’t based on the knowledge we possess, but the relationships we cultivate and keep which bear good fruit. If your “new and better revelation on grace” isn’t translating into fruitful relationships, then your knowledge is about as valuable as a used paperback at the local Goodwill.
As believers, we’ve been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph 1:3), are complete in Him (Col 2:10), more than conquerors through Him (Rom 8:37), have been granted everything pertaining to life and godliness through Him (2 Pet 1:3), and are empowered by His love within (Rom: 5:5). Rather than frantically searching for the “something more,” we should be living right now in the “more than enough” that has been freely given to us in Christ. Indeed, the whole “God has something more for you” teaching is nothing more than a side-show distraction to walking in the fullness of Christ and living a life of love right now for the benefit of humanity.
However, encouraging believers to live in this reality won’t keep people coming to (and paying for) our “anointed” conferences, or buying our “breakthrough” 10 part teaching series. By keeping God’s people in a perpetual state of need (there’s more out there for you!), the money continues to flow, the system continues to operate, and the pews (and preacher’s pockets) remain full. As the old adage goes, “The show must go on.”
Beyond Organized Religion 